I don't want to encourage any arguments but I feel like some of these models are reasonably priced seeing what they can do. It's impressive as heck. I also found out that this stuff was never cheap when you run the numbers for inflation from 1940 to today. $100 then is roughly $1800 now.
Also, I don't understand the hate for the fantasy stuff. Didn't MTH have all sorts of goofy out of the ordinary paint schemes? I don't care if the Youngstown & Southeastern never had a decapod. It would be cool to have a decapod with the Y&S scheme if I was modelling the Youngstown and Southeastern. I can understand not being into the Halloween or holiday stuff but that's fine. I don't buy it. I hope parents buy it for their kids and get their kids into the hobby though.
@Charlie makes a good point. I never called Lionel up and told 'em what I want haha I would prefer not to spend more than $2000 on a model. That 2-10-10-2 is a monster with all the features it has and I was fortunate to remain employed through the pandemic but I couldn't spend any money at the bar and such like I normally would so I'll probably splurge. I also would love access to blank locomotives and rolling stock so I could put my own logos on them without needing to repaint. I know Atlas has made blank hoppers and now I hunt them. The fancy Cricuts and laser engravers available to consumers today mean you can do some really awesome stuff with logos but I think that some repainting is involved to accomplish that if there is already a logo on there and painting is not one of my stronger skills even though I could probably handle a simply black recoat. Anyway, I assume (and expect) Lionel has a presence here. Maybe they'll see this, maybe not. Either way, I want the catalog so I can scope out that 2-10-10-2.
