@Rider Sandman posted:Yet, you expect a 100-year-old low volume toy manufacturer in a decaying (no offense) market to magically be immune from all the market realities you just listed….all the while they should just give away what little remaining technology they have “for the benefit of the hobby.” Gulp. They’re not “doing a fine job of ruining their own reputation”, they’re trying to survive.
As an aside, your analysis of the US appliance market is also way off base. There is still lots of US made stuff under the traditional brands - Whirlpool, Maytag, Kitchenaid, Jennair, GE, etc. - admittedly under brand consolidation, but still US designed and built.
Jennair and GE are owned by Haier, a chinese company, and they are doing cross brand labelling big time. The whirlpool brands are made here, but they are basically the same appliance rebranded in a lot of cases, especially at the low and mid price points. Don't believe me? Look on an appliance part website.
"all the while they should just give away what little remaining technology they have “for the benefit of the hobby"
You are missing the point, the technology we are talking about is stuff made like 10 years ago or more, tmcc and early legacy,that apparently Lionel is no longer supporting (IE you can't get the boards). If they 'gave that away' they would not be losing revenue, since they aren't supporting it any more it seems like. If you are not getting revenue from something,you aren't supporting it, why not open it up? No one is expecting Lionel to 'give away' visionline technology, or anything they still support. Car makers basically support car parts for 7 years, then to make sure people can get parts allow third party makers to sell parts they no longer have (and they do it I believe license free).
