Last I heard..we have to wait for the first catalog in April. Grr..was hoping one would come out in February.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
The Ready to Run catalog will probably be out within the next month or so. The one most look forward to, the Signature catalog, almost always is released closer to the York Meet in April.
How times have changed... at least for those who've been away from the hobby for awhile!!!
There was a time not too long ago that "Toy Fair" was a big deal for Lionel, and dealers would attend in NYC to see the company's latest and greatest. The first catalog of the year coincided with Toy Fair. That's also when Lionel would establish pricing levels with "national mail-order dealers" and toy distributors... shortly after which dealers and smaller train shops would publish their pre-order pricing lists to consumers.
Life is much different now... everything happens in one fell swoop on a seemingly much-compressed timeline... and the first Lionel catalog is now closely linked to April York. Been that way for several years now, although I can't quite recall when all the changes "officially" occurred.
One thing is for sure though... Toy Fair has been less and less a "big deal" for Lionel -- most likely due to both the changing times as well as the changing demographics of our corner of the world.
David