When I first read about the depleting coal load, it was exciting. Then I saw it on the video and rapidly lost interest. It's an attention grabbing advertisement in a market that has re-issues and clones every few years, and the promo has succeeded - it's grabbed our attention. New product features in any hobby make a small but important percentage commit to buying; thus the constant "new and improved" labels on just about every consumer product.
Moving cab figures, even a head turn or an engineer raising an arm would offer infinitely more play value than the moving coal load IMO. At least Lionel is trying to innovate new features, although great sounds, slow-speed control, and whistle smoke features in ALL Lionel engines would be the best marketing strategy they could employ.
