Landsteiner posted:"I think that Lionel will end up as the bigger loser in this deal - their licensing income for tinplate will be zero."
Perhaps, but I'm guessing the income was modest. Perhaps they simply decided that having your prime competitor making products with your name on it didn't seem like a good idea of brand identity? Remember that the licensing deal was made by a prior Lionel leadership, and the current leadership may not see it in the same light. As in "not our idea." Just some random thoughts. Perhaps an idea and plan that has run its course, from Lionel's standpoint.
Good point about "not our idea". It's a poor excuse, but who can say what management might be thinking?
I would expect that the agreement included details regarding what can be produced, quality requirements, and how it can be presented, so I don't see a huge concern about stuff being made by a competitor. Given Mike Wolf's love of tinplate, the concern about producing something detrimental to the brand should be minimal.
Agree that Lionel's income from the agreement is probably small, but it's about as close to "free money" as one can get - Lionel gets a stream of income, and except for some contract writing and monitoring, they do practically nothing. Not sure why they would choose to walk away from that.
We've all had our chance to buy Lionel-badged tinplate. Now, perhaps MTH can create some new stuff.
