Richie C. posted:Loose-Caboose posted:What makes this a "Universal Remote"? It only seems to control Locomotives. And only Three to boot.
So I go out and spend $1900 for this Niagara Locomotive and I also am buying "Bluetooth" communication that I will never use. Does not Lionel need to purchase a Bluetooth License for each Locomotive? Why is Lionel adding a function that is useless to us that have heavily invested in their Legacy Control System? $300 for the command base and remote and on average $100 per Legacy Box? Man, I don't understand this marketing logic.
The term "universal" may be a marketing stretch, but it's designed to operate up to three LC/LC+ engines at the same time. LC/LC+ engines each come with their own separate remote on a different frequency so if you wanted to run all three at the same time, you'd have to juggle three remotes. With the orange "universal" remote you can operate all three from the same remote. Very convenient.
I have Legacy on my layout, but also believe Bluetooth is an added bonus to Legacy engines, not a detriment, and the Lionel BT app is free download to your device. If you had a young child or grandchild, think how neat it would be to have them be able to operate that Niagra on a cell phone app they'd pick up in about 5 seconds and have a boatload of fun with.
So activating the sounds, moving switches, etc. are a detriment? They aren't part of the fun? And also I used the term "license" in a prior post. It may be a minimal cost but the on going engineering to maintain the function must be a cost to product and I think you need to maintain certification which is a cost. All this could be applied to the Legacy engineering to further that product. If Lionel had gone down the Bluetooth route to begin with I would have a different take on this issue. But to support two different command functions is splitting engineering costs. BTW , to dispel me from being a curmudgeon old geezer, I am a smartphone fanatic and love technology (lol).
