Has Lionel missed an opportunity for their new Hogwarts rtr Lionchief set?

When it comes to brands Lionel doesn't need to add extra things like exclusive sounds. They can sell sets of the polar express or Harry Potter just fine and not need special sounds or gimmicks. They can save those for additional add on cars/sets that they know people will buy. 

The thing that would make me buy the newer Hogwarts locomotive would be a better drive motor instead of the puny small set motor in the existing model.

The Bellcaptain posted:

When it comes to brands Lionel doesn't need to add extra things like exclusive sounds. They can sell sets of the polar express or Harry Potter just fine and not need special sounds or gimmicks. They can save those for additional add on cars/sets that they know people will buy. 

Your take on this is interesting but Lionel has chosen to add such announcements to their various ogauge versions of the PE which followed the initial conventional PE set (except their streamlined diesel and freight sets)  instead of including additional announcements for their previously produced PE announcement conductor car and I'm questioning the value of doing similarly for the HP Hogwarts line.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

The thing that would make me buy the newer Hogwarts locomotive would be a better drive motor instead of the puny small set motor in the existing model.

I wholeheartedly agree with you on that point John. It would have been great if they added a larger motor as they've done for the engine in their PE Lionchief rtr set or produced a Lionchief Plus Hogwarts engine where all LC Plus steam locos have a larger motor!

I always thought the Thomas stuff should talk.  The bachmann ho thomas stuff makes no noises at all but there's a ready secondary market for installing DCC sound decoders on them.  Then again, that still doesn't make them talk.   What can I say -- I like gimmicks! 

Years ago Lionel cataloged characters for the Hogwarts set but the figures were cancelled.  Even adding figures to the set would make it better.

I was hoping for new sounds, doesn't sound like it happened. 

Thinking about it, besides as been mentioned the fee to license the sounds, "likenesses" and so forth of the characters.   And short of Lionel adding a usb or micro-sd slot for custom sound playback...  then there's nothing like the cheap home brew solution!

I tried this and it worked... perhaps its not ideal but I pass it on for your own experimentation.

You'll need a bluetooth device like a smart phone or tablet -- and small wireless battery powered bluetooth speakers.   I bought "mini portable blue tooth speakers".  (I've some very cheap ones that are no more 1" on a side.)  Place the speaker in the engine, tender or car in some manner (I hid mine in Claribel or Annie) ...  

Preload sounds of interest on your bluetooth device... in a way that you can easily play them back.  (I used thomas show clips from you tube)

Pair the phone with the cube ... then run the train.   

As it goes around the layout, play the sound of interest on the phone -- it will play on the remote speakers!

It works.  I've done it.  But... it's a little fiddly I admit.

About 10-15 years ago, there was a Hogwarts School I found on sale at WalMart.  It came with O'ish sized figures.  At the time there was no HWX.  So I placed Harry and Miss Granger on my 9500 PRR pass obs  Glued Ron inside of the blue Ford, and placed both in a wire Willow near the school.  Professor Snape is waiting on the platform, with a mountain troll waiting to hit him with a cricket bat!

The steamers will not do 31 curves.  However, the cars can!  So I power the train with a Williams SP Train Master in Black Widow.  My Halloween Train!

What would help the set is a better tender than the one witch came with my set.

Severn posted:

Thinking about it, besides as been mentioned the fee to license the sounds, "likenesses" and so forth of the characters.   And short of Lionel adding a usb or micro-sd slot for custom sound playback...  then there's nothing like the cheap home brew solution!

You mean like this? This is my little radio controlled sound module, allows you to play up to five clips of any length. You use a micro-FLASH card and just write MP3 file for the sounds.

Remember too that licensing may be an issue. Licensors may not want sounds used in the products.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Severn posted:

Thinking about it, besides as been mentioned the fee to license the sounds, "likenesses" and so forth of the characters.   And short of Lionel adding a usb or micro-sd slot for custom sound playback...  then there's nothing like the cheap home brew solution!

You mean like this? This is my little radio controlled sound module, allows you to play up to five clips of any length. You use a micro-FLASH card and just write MP3 file for the sounds.

John, is this an item you make and sell or one you purchased from another manufacturer?

Please give specifics on how it works, how it's powered, and where to purchase it?

Thanks.

I don't see the need for Lionel to add sound to their passenger cars, although authentic "Hall" class steam locomotive noises would be a splendid addition.

My disappointment with the Hogwarts set is that I think that the passenger cars are a little too toy-like. I wish Lionel had been able to get their hands either on the old Lima British Rail Mark One or Triang's "Big Train" O scale dies and tooling and produced something closer to a scale length passenger car.

Yes, I wish Lionel (Or SOMEBODY!) would produce O gauge Harry Potter figures (Ideally 1/48 but I could live with 1/43rd). I'd not only go for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Draco Malfoy, but also young Lucius Malfoy and young Lily Evans (The young Harry figure could be used to represent Harry and his dad) as well as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

John, perfect!   Except wish list:

1) Line in/line out

2) blue tooth connectivity

3) 2 speaker out

4) track power ac or dc

5) optional battery inputs

6) accelerometer chip... (if it's in smart phones, it must be good?)

7) Android and iOS "sound commander" app...

ogaugeguy posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Severn posted:

Thinking about it, besides as been mentioned the fee to license the sounds, "likenesses" and so forth of the characters.   And short of Lionel adding a usb or micro-sd slot for custom sound playback...  then there's nothing like the cheap home brew solution!

You mean like this? This is my little radio controlled sound module, allows you to play up to five clips of any length. You use a micro-FLASH card and just write MP3 file for the sounds.

John, is this an item you make and sell or one you purchased from another manufacturer?

Please give specifics on how it works, how it's powered, and where to purchase it?

Thanks.

I've made some for myself, but I don't want to commit to volume manufacture, it costs a lot to tool up for that. 

Severn posted:

John, perfect!   Except wish list:

• 1) Line in/line out
• 2) blue tooth connectivity
• 3) 2 speaker out
• 4) track power ac or dc
• 5) optional battery inputs
• 6) accelerometer chip... (if it's in smart phones, it must be good?)
• 7) Android and iOS "sound commander" app...

 

Good luck with your list, it's not going to happen with anything I do.  I have the AC/DC aspect covered, and the optional battery.

It's a good design and my list was more of a joke.  But to me, why not something like this for all my old conventional engines.  I'm not sure I really care about synchronized chuffing for example.  Once the thing is going on along at least can one even tell?    Just playing decent sounds that I can initiate by hand (that is some kind of remote invocation) seems ... maybe just good enough.

I must painfully admit I have never seen an entire Harry Potter movie or read a book, and it has been on TV a bunch of times.  Of the bits and clips I did see in passing thru the channels, nothing prompted me continue to watch.  Bits and pieces of the Polar Express I had seen on TV prompted me to buy the movie and watch it from start to finish.  The PE movie was about Christmas and Lionel is forever linked to Christmas in the minds of those who were children in the 30s, 40s, 50s and maybe even later.   I personally see much more of a connection and marketing opportunity for Lionel with the Polar Express movie than Harry Potter movies.  There are several reasons why:

- The Hogwarts train is a British based train, whereas PE appears to be more American. 

- The movie dialogue has an American feel instead of British.

- Harry Potter is based on wizardry, witchcraft, and magic.  The Polar Express is based on a child's dream at Christmas time.  If I had to choose, it would be an easy choice of which one to reinforce in my child's fantasy world (I don't need a Tall Man scenario).

- The train was a very major part of the entire Polar Express movie, and it was a large part of the children's connection to Christmas in that movie.  The train was not as significant in the Harry Potter series.

I find little or no attraction to the European style trains and the Hogwarts train stuff is no exception.  The Polar Express stuff looks acceptable and maybe something I purchase as my grandson gets older.   Some of the marketing forays Lionel makes are indeed curious so a new or expanded line of Hogwarts would not surprise me at all.

Hopefully we can still get that new forum area added in OGR for everyone to give input to Lionel, MTH, Atlas etc about what they want and how many they will buy in new products from the manufacturer.  It would make it so much easier on the manufacturers to find out what the public wants and will buy here on OGR, rather than having to do all that marketing research and that pesky cost/price point analysis.

aussteve posted:

 

Hopefully we can still get that new forum area added in OGR for everyone to give input to Lionel, MTH, Atlas etc about what they want and how many they will buy in new products from the manufacturer.  It would make it so much easier on the manufacturers to find out what the public wants and will buy here on OGR, rather than having to do all that marketing research and that pesky cost/price point analysis.

The trouble is, one can't guarantee that the public that "want" will also "buy."  It's easy to want, we see it all the time here on the various forums.

Rusty

I was just thinking it would help those who want a direct say in the decisions of toy train mfrs if they had a central place to gather their comments and demonstrate their market strength.

I believe they missed the boat by not offering a full scale set with Legacy.

Lionel's renditions of all licensed product lines are on the weak side - Thomas and Friends, Harry Potter and the non-scale PoleX.

They all reek of cutting corners. Cheap, lightweight cars, limited detail, etc.

When asked by my non-train friends, I try to steer them to something more substantial as a first train.

ogaugeguy posted:

Noting the success of their Polar Express franchise and the inclusion of sound clips from that film in the Lionchief and Flyerchief sets I'm wondering whether Lionel erred by not similarly including a few sound clips from the Harry Potter films in their Lionchief remake of the Hogwarts set.

The upcoming Harry Potter LionChief set does indeed include sound clips from the film. Listen here:

http://www.lionel.com/products...tm-train-set-6-83620

Best,
Rudy

Railsounds posted:

ogaugeguy posted:

Noting the success of their Polar Express franchise and the inclusion of sound clips from that film in the Lionchief and Flyerchief sets I'm wondering whether Lionel erred by not similarly including a few sound clips from the Harry Potter films in their Lionchief remake of the Hogwarts set.

The upcoming Harry Potter LionChief set does indeed include sound clips from the film. Listen here:

http://www.lionel.com/products...tm-train-set-6-83620

Best,
Rudy

Thank you, Rudy, for calling that to my attention, That's certainly a plus for the Lionchief set but as GRJ mentioned, if Lionel had gone with a larger motor as they did with their PE  Lionchief set, and as others have said would make available even a  basic HP figure set, those additions would be the proverbial icing on the cake for HP fans.

I disagree GRAZ, my scale PE set is pretty frickin phenomenal

I like it (the HP sound clips).   Just curious though if there's ever been any consideration of giving the user the ability to add their own clips..  Like: "Expecto Patronum!"

Matt Makens posted:

I disagree GRAZ, my scale PE set is pretty frickin phenomenal

Matt,

That's why you'll see that my original post specifically referred to the non-scale polex.

Graz

Dominic Mazoch posted:

About 10-15 years ago, there was a Hogwarts School I found on sale at WalMart.  It came with O'ish sized figures.  At the time there was no HWX.  So I placed Harry and Miss Granger on my 9500 PRR pass obs  Glued Ron inside of the blue Ford, and placed both in a wire Willow near the school.  Professor Snape is waiting on the platform, with a mountain troll waiting to hit him with a cricket bat!

The steamers will not do 31 curves.  However, the cars can!  So I power the train with a Williams SP Train Master in Black Widow.  My Halloween Train!

What would help the set is a better tender than the one witch came with my set.

Is the use of the term witch as spelled in this statement a pun or a typo...either way it made me smile given the topic at hand.   

I agree and disagree with Graz concerning the Harry Potter set. I think that the passenger cars are cheap and crummy. The locomotive, however, isn't that bad; admittedly it needs more interior cab detail, but the rest of it looks plausible.

I do think the Hogwarts Express could be improved, and I think my suggestion that Lionel use the old Triang Big Train or Lima's British Railways Mark One coaches is a  good one. They're closer to scale length, could probably handle O-42 curves with truck-mounted couplers, and wouldn't look nearly so cheesy.

My last, and off-topic observation, is that I think the folks at Lionel haven't realized the current status of the European three-rail O market. Most of the competition they faced fifty years ago have gone belly-up and Lionel could probably grab a large share of the market across the pond if they went to the small trouble of making something that wasn't c**p. They had a fair start with the Hall class 4-6-0; then they paired it with cheesy, toy-like passenger cars.

Now, the new short freight cars are "close" to one truck UK ones.

The "witch" in the other post was a typo!

Mister_Lee posted: 

Yes, I wish Lionel (Or SOMEBODY!) would produce O gauge Harry Potter figures (Ideally 1/48 but I could live with 1/43rd). I'd not only go for Harry, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Draco Malfoy, but also young Lucius Malfoy and young Lily Evans (The young Harry figure could be used to represent Harry and his dad) as well as Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.

 

These O-sized figures (based on the book characters, not the screen actors) came in a play set in the early years of licensing for the Harry Potter movies. I can't remember which play set, unfortunately. Harry, Hermione and Ron still keep watch from a Lemax haunted house overlooking my Halloween layout.

which sound effects would you (HP fans) want to hear from the passenger train?  My family is a big fan of the movies.  It's been about 2 years since we watched them all, one per week.  Great special effects and fun storylines.  I really can't recall any significant quotes from any of the movies.  I am curious as to which quotes you like to hear emanate from the train

Railsounds posted:

ogaugeguy posted:

Noting the success of their Polar Express franchise and the inclusion of sound clips from that film in the Lionchief and Flyerchief sets I'm wondering whether Lionel erred by not similarly including a few sound clips from the Harry Potter films in their Lionchief remake of the Hogwarts set.

The upcoming Harry Potter LionChief set does indeed include sound clips from the film. Listen here:

http://www.lionel.com/products...tm-train-set-6-83620

Best,
Rudy

great sound choices....some are very familiar to what I did for my own upgrade (see video below around 1:09 mark)!   I do wish i had the trolley one....maybe in the future.  Also like the character intros.

Here is a link to my hogwarts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrwrPOmKh3k

I have one of the conventional Hogwarts Express sets (7011020000).  It was purchased from a local hobby store when Lionel announced that they were discontinuing them.  However, not long after that announcement had been made Lionel changed their minds and continued manufacturing the set.   I have run the set a couple of times and the quality is typical, in my opinion, of Lionel's RTR sets of the period.    Seeing the Lionchief version on the Lionel website it appears to be mostly the same tooling for engine and passenger cars with the addition of their Railsounds RC for remotely controlling the engine.    One of our twin daughters has always loved Harry Potter so the Hogwarts set is hers if she wants it.  One of our twin daughters has always loved Harry Potter so the set is hers if she wants it.