Since I didn't order any of these cars, I don't have a dog in this fight. However, I think that Lionel should offer separate packages of passengers suitable for their cars. They would get to control the quality of these passenger figures, and they could price them so they didn't lose money in the production, what's wrong with that?
John, I hope it's not a fight; in any case I can give you two reasons why Lionel wouldn't do this-
1. It would encourage do-it-yourself disassembly of the cars, which would likely lead to breakage and returns for non-warranty repairs that Lionel probably needs like a hole in the head and certainly does not want - to say nothing of the grumbling from people who wouldn't understand why figures had not been installed at the factory to start with!
2. What I think is the more substantial problem: finding good passenger figures that fit inside O gauge interiors is practically impossible at any price. Lionel must have had a source for these in years gone by (look at the Acela figures for the prime example) but now I at least can't find any of a similar standard.
