SDIV Tim posted:It is a nice looking loco, but to me it looks more toyish than model. Whistle could of been a little better, sounds more like the VL Big Boy.
Thomas, that's a very good point. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it looks "toyish", it certainly falls miles short of a well-detailed model.
If you really want detail from Lionel, hang tight for the Allegheny due out in a few months. The former JLC (TMCC) version of the Allegheny had even more detail than some of today's VisionLine steamers! 
So it should definitely have much more detail than this latest FEF-3. Count on it.
So all of this just begs the question even further... Why the premium pricing on Lionel's latest FEF-3 if it admittedly falls short in the detail department (by today's standards)? My hunch is it's priced this way, because Lionel CAN price it this way. The last Legacy version was very popular. And when folks (like myself) get distracted from the hobby for a time, it's easy to miss out on an offering. Lionel very likely sensed the pent-up demand for an FEF re-issue, and they priced it accordingly AND leveraged former tooling. So they're smiling all the way to the bank right now.
David
