Dan Padova posted:david1 posted:Dan Padova posted:
I've never heard of the Mini-Max boxcar. Anyone have more info on it ?
I had one and it was very small car with two trucks that only two wheels. It was blue and white.
In Europe, four wheeled freight cars are common. There must have been some sort of prototype for Lionel to have made the Mini-Max. I suspect they were in the lower price range.
CW mentions there was a prototype.
Modern Railroads October 1969
Pick up a C8 post war, imagine you grew to expect that quality and ruggedness.
Pick up a similar C8 MPC. Note the weight, detail difference, metal content and overall feel of ruggedness. Note the change in sheen because in the 70s you are suspect of the high sheen; previously that was a dead giveaway for cheap, brittle, plastic, even on name brand items.( Time answered the question on the plastic's quality 
)
Can motors were considered cheap and unreliable. They were only seen in toys. Lionels were not "just toys" they were Lionels. The open frame could be rebuilt like a quality power tool; the can motor was perceved as a throwaway toy.
Add to that the fiasco that occurred as thousands of kids planted that new Lionel starter set loco on the old family Christmas loop and had them quickly toast.... DC trains did little to continue the confidence Lionel had earned with the Christmas crowd. I recall stacks of returns 4' high at Kmart. These starter set's likely ended a few hobbyists future fun permanently and ended some family traditions.
Gramps ordered sight unseen from Lionel from the mid 30s till the mid 70s. Finally, the overall quality made him send an engine back. He cried because "his Lionel" was dead. He continued to buy, but never ordered another thing.
Gramps was an operator, but also a serious collector. The kind with "white glove cabinets". I feel guilt cutting into anything pre70 not already broke. I see MPC as something cheap and acceptible that I can enjoy; or hate... bashing on it till I do enjoy it, without " guilt".
