Once again, I'm in full agreement with you, Troy.
What amazes me on the O Gauge side is how many folks there seem to be more enamored with all the "bells and whistles" than the locomotives. Even with things like the Lincoln Funeral train, the first question usually is, "Does it have command control?" The next one is usually about smoke or sound, not about how well it runs.
Lionel and MTH are cramming more cra... er.., stuff into their locomotives and yet it seems it's not enough for some folks. Then, afterwards the complaints come rolling in about failures and defects.
Now, I would have to say, the(my) Flyer Challenger is a far better locomotive than the Sunset Models(pre 3rd Rail) brass one I owned years ago. It doesn't excuse the problems others have had, however.
What really hurts with the U33C is that Lionel was attempting to reach out to the scale side of S. There's a natural prejudice by certain small but vocal band of S-Scalers over on YaHoo about anything American Flyer ever did, does or will do and the U33C just helps perpetuate the prejudice.
Quality problems aside, there was a lot of grief spun over there about the U33C drive mechanism, the short hood shape and especially the ever-lovin' swinging pilots, let alone the fact the scale wheels weren't included as advertised and a scaler would have to remove and sell off the electronics. Unless Lionel does some super-duper freight cars in S, they can pretty much kiss the crossover scale market goodbye...
So, all we have left is hope that things will get better. The problem is, that hope has at least a three-figure price tag. Product quality on items in the next Lionel catalog will be the breakpoint for me, if it's not there, neither will I.'
Rusty
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