Money's tight now, but Flyonel squandered much of two decades with a "don't compete with O strategy". Lionel mysteriously failed to capitalize on the great "G" boom, too.
Tell me about it. I got hit by several "surprise" bills this spring. Blew a pretty good hole in the old budget.
I agree there were several squandered opportunities over the past years. Part of it was also due to the revolving management door over the years. Believe me, I had little love for Lionel O and especially Flyer S around the turn of the century.
There was a glimmer of hope in 2003 with the Mikado announcement, Lionel reps talked of "scale friendly" S Scale versions of the better O scale cars. Then BAM! another management change.
Frankly, when the current team took over, I thought "Well, here we go again." I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised at how well things are going in general.
Perfect? No. But, darn better than some of the predecessors have done...
The fact that Lionel is actively trying to break into the S Scale (and I mean us small flange, Kadee coupler guys) market indicates a change of thinking. Sure, they've taken their lumps on the Yahoo S Scale board, but even there the thinking began moderating somewhat once the U33C hit the streets.
We'll have to sit tight and see how this whole S thing shakes out, I'm going to try to keep a positive outlook with the Flyer line. A little competition from MTH won't hurt, either...
Rusty
