I collected American Flyer for 38 years before working for Lionel.
Before visiting corporate headquarters in Michigan, I called all the big time collectors and Flyer dealers that I knew and asked them what S gauge items they wanted Lionel to produce. There was not one shred of consistency in what they wanted. Everyone wanted something different and many of them contradicted or poo-pooed what the others wanted.
Some Flyer collectors might think that Lionel is not trying to please them, but the collectors themselves do not present a consistent, unified front.
