Lionel Crayola Crayon Hopper car problem

It looks like they made the holes based on a noncovered paper crayon. 

If you have an old crayon, peel the paper off and see if that fits.

Still, it is an obvious mistake that should not happen.

You had ONE job, Crayola car designer!

I was at my local train store yesterday and the owner was lamenting of the 4 hoppers he sold 3 needed to be returned to his distributor for this issue.  

John2184 posted:

Any ideas on how to correct the issue? I'd rather not take a file to the insert, but that's the only thing I can think of to do.

Thanks for any suggestions.

How about a drill bit the same diameter as the crayon? The holes are close, so it should go pretty easy, much faster and more accurate than a file at least.

John, I would return it to whever you bought it for a refund or return it to Lionel for a fix. I woud not try drilling just in case something goes wrong of if the plate is painted the paint may start coming off from the drilling.........Paul

John2184 posted:

I recently purchased the Lionel Crayola Crayon Hopper car. The problem is that the holes in the metal insert that are supposed to hold crayons are too small. The crayons won't fit in them. It's close, but trying to force it will damage the crayon. With every hole it's the same. I've tried to contact Lionel about this but have been unsuccessful in getting a response. Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any ideas on how to correct the issue? I'd rather not take a file to the insert, but that's the only thing I can think of to do.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Not sure when you tried to contact them, called this morning for a RA today and the recording says they are closed for the holidays. ??? This clearly has to go back.

Opening those holes with a drill might allow the crayons to fit, will it also allow the paint to begin to flake at the edge? 

What a face palm that is. 

Ben

This would be funny if it weren't so sad.     No excuses for this one!

Jim

Once again...

one job, Lionel... 

The major and might I say simple feature of the car - and it doesn't work.  Unable to drill a hole the right size!

Comedy at it's best.  My 9 yr old thought it was cool, and wanted one.  Glad I said 'NO'.

Jim

Amazing.  I have one too but didn't attempt to load the crayons. Talk about an easily avoidable problem.

if you cant get response from Lionel, I would make a new wooden insert

with custom cut holes.

For the price that you paid for that car, you think they would be better built.

I agree with everyone who said send it back.  In my case I have to buy online to get all my stuff, not many train stores near Owen County, Kentucky.  I'm surprised Lionel hasn't done some sort of recall.  If one is wrong, then you can bet all of them are.  Not throwing rocks at anyone but you have to be honest.  They make 95% of their stuff in China.  Minus the Lion Scale cars made by a 3D printer in North Carolina, you can bet everyone of those came from a factory in China and from the 'get go' as dad used to say, they were cut wrong.  DMASSO is probably right, they used non-paper crayons to size the holes.  My question to that, and I apologize if this has been answered, did the box of crayons come with the car?  They show it on line full of crayons.  Perhaps China's version of a Crayola crayon is thinner?  Not likely but plausible.

Good point Popi. This looks like an insert so a new one can be easily made (by Lionel).

Yardmaster96 posted:

I agree with everyone who said send it back.  In my case I have to buy online to get all my stuff, not many train stores near Owen County, Kentucky.  I'm surprised Lionel hasn't done some sort of recall.  If one is wrong, then you can bet all of them are.  Not throwing rocks at anyone but you have to be honest.  They make 95% of their stuff in China.  Minus the Lion Scale cars made by a 3D printer in North Carolina, you can bet everyone of those came from a factory in China and from the 'get go' as dad used to say, they were cut wrong.  DMASSO is probably right, they used non-paper crayons to size the holes.  My question to that, and I apologize if this has been answered, did the box of crayons come with the car?  They show it on line full of crayons.  Perhaps China's version of a Crayola crayon is thinner?  Not likely but plausible.

Yes. The box of crayons did come with the car. I tried several of the crayons. No luck.

They can't even get this right??????? Boy, we are in trouble.

Just drill out the d**n holes a bit; have 'Muricans completely forgotten the use if their hands? Oh - wait - they can still text. Whew!

If you drill the holes you will screw up the paint. Then you have to fix the paint.

The O27 Lionel Crayola Activity Train Set produced back in 1994 used a rectangular piece of foam sized to fit in the gondola.  It only had 16 holes, but it didn't suffer from the same problem.  All the crayons fit.  Perhaps Lionel lost the technology for matching the size of the holes with the diameter of the crayons over the years or simply just forgot to tell the Chinese how it's done.  It's possible Lionel didn't realize the Chinese were 20 years behind in hole technology.

Redrilling will shatter each hole. They are close together and with that small of tolerance it would be a disaster. 

Yardmaster96 posted:

I agree with everyone who said send it back.  In my case I have to buy online to get all my stuff, not many train stores near Owen County, Kentucky.  I'm surprised Lionel hasn't done some sort of recall.  If one is wrong, then you can bet all of them are.  Not throwing rocks at anyone but you have to be honest.  They make 95% of their stuff in China.  Minus the Lion Scale cars made by a 3D printer in North Carolina, you can bet everyone of those came from a factory in China and from the 'get go' as dad used to say, they were cut wrong.  DMASSO is probably right, they used non-paper crayons to size the holes.  My question to that, and I apologize if this has been answered, did the box of crayons come with the car?  They show it on line full of crayons.  Perhaps China's version of a Crayola crayon is thinner?  Not likely but plausible.

Sorry, but according to the box, these were made in the USA.

TRW

I thought I was the only one with issues.

If anything, I am surprised the holes are so small.  You would think they would be big, gapping, way-too-large holes, easily accessible for small hands to get the crayons in and out of the car, as the car rolls off their table and smashes on the floor.

This is NOT a bright idea giving kids crayons so close to Daddy's Big Boy.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

These were made in the USA by the Lionel "Brain-Trust", part of Lionel's "Quality Control Team"?  Were they trying the crayons in the car they made, or busy eating them?

"Made-in-America" where Lionel could inspect the outcome. Sad, so sad.  Scary, so scary.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Comic opera! Laugh so you don't cry.

This kinda reminds me of the operating reindeer car and loading platform I bought years ago ( not the more recent release).  When it arrived I realized all the antlers had been clipped off at the bases. This was Lionel's solution after it was discovered that their brain trust missed thee fact that the weight of the antlers would cause the deer to tip over as soon as the vibration mechanism came on. Their solution  made the car work, but a herd of deer suddenly having a sex change (I know, female reindeer have antlers too) made the whole thing look ridiculous, especially since these were supposed to be Santa's reindeer. Way to go Lionel!

Pretty much sums up the quality issues coming out of Lionel. Doesn't get any easier than this to drill a correct size hole.

My train store believes all metal parts were made in China. That would include trucks and metal insert.  If you have every seen Chinese coloring books and crayons in a Drug Store, the crayons are almost like thin, small Golf Pencils.  Remember metric and USA measurements differ.

No matter what happened, these car bodies were made in North Carolina, were assembled, and were in Lionel's hands.  They made the choice to release them to the train stores.

Color me sad.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

German posted:

This kinda reminds me of the operating reindeer car and loading platform I bought years ago ( not the more recent release).  When it arrived I realized all the antlers had been clipped off at the bases. This was Lionel's solution after it was discovered that their brain trust missed thee fact that the weight of the antlers would cause the deer to tip over as soon as the vibration mechanism came on. Their solution  made the car work, but a herd of deer suddenly having a sex change (I know, female reindeer have antlers too) made the whole thing look ridiculous, especially since these were supposed to be Santa's reindeer. Way to go Lionel!

That wasn't great, but it was better (IMO) than when some of the North Pole Central stock cars that were supposed to come with 4 reindeer, instead came with the normal load of 4 cows!  I recall a forum member making jokes about modifying one of the cows to have a red nose and naming him "moo-dolph".

-Dave

John Rowlen posted:

My train store believes all metal parts were made in China. That would include trucks and metal insert.  ......

Probably true since all the USA items state they are assembled in the USA, but may have parts made elsewhere.  It was probably just assembly and decoration here.

I wonder what they used to color the inserts?  Was it regular paint, or was it the printing machine they've been using to decorate the USA boxcars?  I half wonder if the holes were the right size before painting, and thickness of paint broke the tolerance.

Still not acceptable.  Whomever did the engineering drawings should have had a tolerance built in for the thickness of the paint (if that may be part of the problem).

-Dave

Are you all trying to put American made crayons in a Chinese made gondola car?????  You need to order some Chinese knock off crayons.  They are made to look like the original American made but are cheaper and smaller diameter. 

A friend of mine suggested I go to Home Depot and buy a box of pre-drilled holes.  Hopefully they will have the correct size.  I may buy a size larger just in case.

Sincerely, John Rowlen

Send it back, that's beyond absurd!

I'm not sure, but that may be a new low!  Is there absolutely no QC at Lionel anymore?

Lay the crayons on the side and make it a "Crayondola".

Sincerely, John Rowlen

 + + = larger hole.

Mark

Steims posted:

Are you all trying to put American made crayons in a Chinese made gondola car?????  You need to order some Chinese knock off crayons.  They are made to look like the original American made but are cheaper and smaller diameter. 

The car is Lionscale. Made in the USA.  You would think one person would check to see if it work before shipping them out.

I hope whoever had the final approval for producing this item has an up to date resume and a lot of savinngs.

Also, I'd like to know whether LIONEL knew they had this problem BEFORE the product was shipped; or, said another way, when exactly did someone at LIONEL know they had a problem?

I bet you bought this based on the catalogue picture.  Lionel sometimes makes slight variances to the catalogue images. 

They had to have tried to put the Crayons in the car to look at the final product.  -  Logical

They saw they had a problem and should not ship.  -  Ethical

They needed to get them into the market.  -  Financial

Haven't tried my in either yet.

And we're supposed to be trusting these people to design and  build/ have someone build complex Electronics??