@Landsteiner posted:I'm pretty certain Lionel didn't roll their own for LionChief, LionChief+, etc. They likely used off the shelf technology from the radio control car/airplane/drone industry. Drones aren't enormously different from trains and that's a robust pipeline of OEM remote control technology from what I can see. What is interesting and revealing is that MTH developed essentially one system over the last quarter century and tweaked that system. Lionel has developed TMCC, Legacy, LC, LC+ and LC +2.0. And they make remotes that cost $40, not $150, as well as the high priced spread. If Lionel can do it and enclose a remote in every set, why couldn't MTH have done something similar? The answer is they chose not to, for whatever reasons, and perhaps now they do not have the resources/motivation to do so.
I never said they made their own processor or radio control parts. Your proving my point though, that companies at the Lionel and MTH level that get into tech will be forced to go where the tech industry goes.
But predicting that what happened to MTH is going to happen to Lionel is taking ouija board reliance to an unwarranted level
. That's not the way things have turned out previously, and there's no reason the future of Lionel has to recapitulate that of MTH. One of the things some folks thought was a strength of MTH, the reliance on one passionate and committed leader has turned out to be a long term weakness. One of the things some folks thought was a weakness of Lionel, the corporate entity, turns out to be a long term strength. They don't rely on a sole proprietor to keep the show going.
It’s not just Lionel that I’m predicting for, but rather anyone who doesn’t have the market heft of the tech giants. I’m not saying I like the way it’s going, or that I like the phone/tablet app more than the remote. I’m saying that non-tech companies have no choice but to use commodity hardware—and the industry is moving on.
