I agree with Captaincog, and glad you see that Michael: "Misguided" is totally the wrong word. Just because Lionel (or anyone else) makes something some folks do not want to buy, doesn't mean the product was a misguided effort.
I personally don't do halloween cars, but I don't do military ones either. Though I do have the chase gondolas in other roads. I don't fault Lionel for doing the newer scale types of cars and locomotives, even though I don't buy those either. Given the low production levels of the scale items, you could call that end a misguided effort but the truth is, Lionel needs all the customers they can get. And that means scale customers as well as the more traditional ones that have gotten Lionel to where they are today.
And just to put a different spin on this: Nearly every program I've seen and book I've read pertaining to the history of Lionel, has called the period (late 1950's to the early 1960's) when Lionel turned the focus to military trains, "a misguided effort."
Lionel has since re-issued some of the military types of trains, so I would guess Lionel knows just exactly how well they really sell. Halloween has become a big holiday as far as the economy is concerned. Lionel has previously done a slew of military trains, but the halloween thing is new. And Lionel has been trying new things to increase sales... can't fault them for that.
I sympathize with Lionel, in that they seems to have a hard time making people happy... at least on this forum. Pertaining to this style of gondola, how should it have been done as a military style car? If they made it "US Marines," then probably folks would complain that it should have been "US Navy." And then the figures: Should you have zombies chasing each other in a US Army gondola? Or maybe a Navy sailor chasing a Marine?
A Sergeant chasing a Private? How would you know... those figures are a tad small to try and paint insignia on their arms.
Michael, I don't know if this is in your skill range, but since the car is black on the inside and military green on the outside, this would not be an impossible repaint. If you could closely match the color, you could do a patch paint job. Then put on whatever military decals you wish.
