Do you get this excited about new catalogs?

No way!

My wife thinks the video reminds her of me.

not anymore there hasn't been anything good.

Not about Lionel stuff anymore.  Disappointed with their quality control.  

Really enjoyed the video. The catalog, not so much. Prices, quality issues and the fact I have more trains than I can use already prevents me from getting too excited about Lionel. Besides, anything I really want I can buy in a year or two at greatly reduced prices. I do miss K-Line.

Regards,

Steve

My son just snuck downstairs, 2 hours past his bed time, to look through the catalog again!

Cute video but, no.  In fact I don’t even look at the catalogs anymore.

Curt

Enjoyed the video but I haven't as much even touched a catalog since Williams used to send out their fliers.

I do.  I'm new the the hobby though so maybe I'll start hating the Lionel catalog next year.  If you have a catalog, does that mean they're widely available in print form now?  My LHS isn't much help.  They told me "probably in March sometime".

To me the ACME cat is more exciting.  At least those products are supposed to blow up!

You know, sometimes, we need to bring out the Kid in Us, and let the issues of the day disappear, long enough to simply remember those great times we had as Kids, having fun with Our Toy Trains.  Remembering when we received our first train, set up around the Christmas Tree, was a moment like the little boy in the video above, excited, worry free, simply having the time of his life.  Yes, I’m 73, a Senior Kid, and I Get So Excited to receive the Famous Lionel Dream Catalog.  The new items offered are amazing, do not quit being a kid, Jesus says, it’s a major key, to getting into Heaven. Thank you for this thread, I get excited to.

I used too, then somewhere along the way they either didn't make what was advertised or it came out 2 years or more later.  Goes for all brands.  It might work better if they adopt a new car attitude.  Say here's a proto type, etc.  Is there enough interest to make this?  Then IF they decide to fund the new project, they could publish an "arriving soon" announcements to get people motivated to part with their hard earned cash.  These days, I treat the catalogs like the old sears wish books;  stuff I'll never get, LOL

I used to enjoy looking through the catalogs. At one time, I'd even order a few pieces.
I don't even look at them any longer unless somebody points out a specific item of interest.

I still get excited with every catalog.  There are few to choose from in any field. I'd rather have a catalog to browse through than a image on a screen.  Think about the future when they no longer print catalogs.   I commend manufacturers who still appreciate the art of producing a dream book for the kids in all of us.  Those who don't care about the catalog that's online have one less place to visit on the web.

My train layout is always changing and so do my wants & needs , so I am always looking for something.  The catalog makes that light bulb that floats above me light up.

leapinlarry posted:

You know, sometimes, we need to bring out the Kid in Us, and let the issues of the day disappear, long enough to simply remember those great times we had as Kids, having fun with Our Toy Trains.  Remembering when we received our first train, set up around the Christmas Tree, was a moment like the little boy in the video above, excited, worry free, simply having the time of his life.  Yes, I’m 73, a Senior Kid, and I Get So Excited to receive the Famous Lionel Dream Catalog.  The new items offered are amazing, do not quit being a kid, Jesus says, it’s a major key, to getting into Heaven. Thank you for this thread, I get excited to.

You are SOOOOOO Right LARRY!!!!!!!  I get excited too!!!  It is always neat to see whats new.

Yes I do. Nice video.

Train Dealer posted:

Brought home the newest Lionel catalog. Do you get this excited?

Not since I was about eleven.

Not for a while.  I can't really justify the costs of new items even at prices discounted below MSRP.  I usually don't even pick up a catalog until the items are actually in the hobby shop.

Only if it is Victoria Secret.

Content, satisfied, and happy with what I have.  And I'd like something new too.

Not since the 1958 editions of the American Flyer and Lionel catalogs.

Pete

I love new catalogs! I love seeing that this hobby is popular enough to have catalogs even made! I am younger and growing up with no one my age even thinking about trains, I am thrilled every year that toy train companies still exist. It is nice knowing there are guys like me out there that love trains and share a passion for it. I cannot afford a lot of what comes out, but I really hope there are a ton of rich train fans out there to buy them in order to keep these companies going and to open the door for new models and features that have never been made before. Keep this hobby going and "Train Dealer" keep it up with your son! My wife and I are trying to have kids and if I am blessed enough to have one, I will be sitting down with them every catalog and I will share my knowledge and excitement with them! Keep the trains, catalogs, and dreams coming! 

-Eric

I really enjoy looking at the new catalogs online.  It is always interesting to see what comes out each year in terms of both new product and reissued product. However, I rarely order out of them.  I'm unfairly biased towards 3rd Rail / Sunset / GGD for obvious reasons for those who know me.  

Patrick1544 posted:

Not about Lionel stuff anymore.  Disappointed with their quality control.  

I hear just as many complaints about MTH also. So I buy the postwar and prewar items when I can afford it. 

I don't even look at the catalogues any more, as I know everything is beyond my willingness price point.

Nothing there in the catalog I could possibly need, and if i did it would be DOA out of the box or within a couple of years.  

Show me a video of that child 25 years from now after he opens the box he spent his hard earned money on and its DOA.  Now that's what I'd like to see.  

Similar to the XBOX red ring of death when their boxes failed in huge numbers.  A lot of unhappy kids, parents, and adolescents on that one

I still get excited, and now I love looking through them with my kids.  How did you get a print version of the Lionel catalog?

Tom Tee posted:

No. 

Any catalogue is only an attempt to make you dissatisfied with what you have and to feel  incomplete with what you do not have.  I figure we all were pretty much content with  what we had years ago.  

The issue is are we "contentable".  A wise sage once said "If you are not content with what you have you will never be content with what you want."   Think about it,  cars, spouse, job, kids, savings, furniture, electronics.  The whole premise of advertising is to make you dissatisfied with your station in life.  Belief in a  short shelf life is good for the nation's economy but bad for mine.

 

Right on Tom Tee!       "But having/getting  stuff makes me happy"....how long does that last before you want something new again. Nothing wrong with owning stuff just wake up from the consumer madness. Just my opinion.

I honestly have never held a Lionel catalog in my hands - that I can remember at any rate. I could say this though ... I bet my son would react the same way as @Train Dealer's son in the video; they seem to be about the same age.

It's an eye opening experience to look at the catalog through a child's eyes, and then read the responses of adults. They couldn't be more diametrically opposed if you planned it. I hope my son never becomes the curmudgeon I've managed to become.

My dad thinks it's great. It reminds him of when I was small. 

Isn't that what it's all about?        KIDS.     Tom Sr.

jhz563 posted:

I still get excited, and now I love looking through them with my kids.  How did you get a print version of the Lionel catalog?

Contact a LHS.  I just received our case of 50 from Lionel's printers.

beachhead2 posted:

I do.  I'm new the the hobby though so maybe I'll start hating the Lionel catalog next year.  If you have a catalog, does that mean they're widely available in print form now?  My LHS isn't much help.  They told me "probably in March sometime".

Try contacting the LHS again.  We just received our case of 50 from Lionel's printers.

These catalogs seem to have come much later than usual this year.

Train Dealer, thank you very much.  You were right.  I called me LHS and they had them.  So I already went up there and got one.

NO!!!!

I'm excited or is that quietly pleased to see a young boy getting excited by a train catalog. It brings with it pleasant memories of Lionel ads in the back of comic books, Sears and Roebuck Christmas catalogs, tagging along behind mom on a day she drove into the city so we could see the train displays in the stores, actually I think she went to shop.

Bogie

Sure, why not? I buy little from them these days, true, but that's more about me having more than I want to own, than about the catalogues.

So far, at 69, I believe that I have generally avoided becoming a grumpy old man. I hope so, because grumpy old men annoy me almost as much as do Millennials (or is that a grumpy old man opinion...uh-oh!), and grumpy old men don't look at new RR catalogues.

Cute.  Yes, I still enjoy perusing the catalogs, but definitely not with such unrestrained, youthful vigor.  When do you plan to tell the little guy the difference between steam and diesel-electric?  Does he ever ask why the locomotives don't have faces like Thomas and Friends?

What, me worry?

You can tell when the kid in us is gone, the worry about the cost becomes first, thus, then becoming Grumpy old men. Now that I am retiring, 60 days away, and knowing the budget will be somewhat compromised, I will still Love to look at all the new catalogs and see what’s new, what’s changing, and simply thinking about those good old days of years gone by. I enjoy visiting others with trains, no matter what Guage.  Trains are fun.  The little boy, strumming through the pages of the Lionel Catalog seems very happy, and guess what, he is the Future of this Wonderful Hobby....I get my Catalog next week, I am Excited.  

Train Dealer posted:

beachhead2 posted:

I do.  I'm new the the hobby though so maybe I'll start hating the Lionel catalog next year.  If you have a catalog, does that mean they're widely available in print form now?  My LHS isn't much help.  They told me "probably in March sometime".

Try contacting the LHS again.  We just received our case of 50 from Lionel's printers.

These catalogs seem to have come much later than usual this year.

They always arrive by about Feb. 1, roughly a week after the online release.