"Any speculation about it being part of the "settlement" is just that, speculation."
Indeed. The MTH-Lionel licensing agreement was announced some time after the settlement of the lawsuit (which was concluded via negotiation in the chambers of the bankruptcy court judge). In other words, no one actually "won" anything except the right to move on without further legal action on either side. As far as is publicly known, and as seems highly likely, the agreement for MTH to produce Lionel branded tinplate was a mutually agreeable and beneficial partnership that did not involve any court or legal mandate. The notion that somehow MTH won this right through their lawsuit is unsupported by anything factual, as far as is publicly known, and is strictly in the imaginations of the hobbyist community.
