Lionel went bankrupt by 1969. General Mills/Quaker bought it and put it under the MPC divisions control. The 70s until the next corporate shake up of the 80s is the "MPC era" for Lionel. There was both inovation, and a cheapening of products, leaving mixed reviews on the era; but other than nostalgic "day glow colors" and a few premium trains, they tend to have a reputation for mediocre to cheap quality in comparison to Post War. The marketing changed drastically, nice models no longer stocked at Sears, Kmart,etc. And at the same time Atari video games were introduced and they ate the remaining train displays up.
There were also DC only starter sets introduced and lots of folks burned them up on their old tracks transformers. Some were so cheap, even the car wheels were made of plastic. (And we complain about plastic trucks, lol)
So very suddenly, and public opinion in full swing by 74, they developed a cheap toy reputation, topped with unreliability and incompatibilty to back it. All because all the general consumer saw after that was the starter sets. By 75 I thought Lionel would never again make anything worthwhile for the start up market. Williams, Walters, TMCC, MTH, & K-line nearly killed them too, but also woke them from slumber time and again, each in their own ways.
