If Lionel, would rerun all the pop, tobacco, alcohol, candy, cereal and any other billboard reefers they made in the seventies and eighties would they sell, Please give me your answer and why. Also, what names would you add.
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Good thought, I think they would if they were quality cars, with good detail. These are iconic brands and have broad appeal.
Hokie 71, I agree with you 100 percent.
Candy bar cars that could be made
Big Time
Hollywood
Payday
Nestles
Ol Sol
Skybars
Zagnuts
5TH Avenue
Powerhouse
Oh Henry
Sugar Daddy
Black Cows
Sugar Babies
Mallo cup
Reese's Peanut Butter Cup
Almond Joys
Bonomo Taffy Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry and Banana
Pop cars that could be made
Fresca
Lotta Cola
Coca Cola
Grape Crush
Cherry Crush
Squirt
Wink
Mello Yellow
Mountain Dew
Hires Root Beer
Dad's Old Fashion Root Beer
Cream Soda
7 UP
No, I have all of the original MPC and LTI ones.
They are still readily available at shows, online auctions etc and are pretty affordable.
Plus they were made in the USA :-)
Let Menards do this. Their pricing for this sort of thing is...just right.
Besides, at our local Menards the trains stuff (STILL occupying a whole side of an aisle in the seasonal section this long after the holidays!!!) is one aisle away from the candy aisle. You could display the candy cars next to their namesakes and gain some marketing leverage...a rather unique opportunity for a store like Menards. Ditto for the pop and cereal...many brands thereof sold at Menards.
Forget the tobacco, alcohol cars.
Again, "the price is right".
IMHO, of course...
I wonder how much each car would cost now... once all the royalty and licensing payments have been factored in.
let's not forget CHEER WINE...for our south of the Mason-Dixon line friends....
@BenLMaggi posted:I wonder how much each car would cost now... once all the royalty and licensing payments have been factored in.
Bingo. I know nothing about what those payments were 40+ years ago, but you can be sure they have increased exponentially.
IMHO, exact copies of the originals would not sell, as the originals can be had at train shows for usually a lot less than half the cost of a new one. Candy, pop, and cereal cars that have not been done before might have appeal to those who collected the originals and to newcomers familiar with the brands. I know I like having cars linked to my favorite brands. If someone did a Boyer Smoothie car, I'd buy it.
I don't think tobacco cars would be a good fit for this product anymore, but certain national and international brands of beer and whisky would have some appeal.
Andy
@jim sutter posted:If Lionel, would rerun all the pop, tobacco, alcohol, candy, cereal and any other billboard reefers they made in the seventies and eighties would they sell, Please give me your answer and why. Also, what names would you add.
You have to ask, given a choice in this day and age which would fans rather have? An easily obtainable 40-50 year old original or a better made imported copy? I think all MPC rolling stock, those with plastic trucks belongs on a display shelf, unfit for modern layouts. But, I would rather have the American made original.
No thank you. The price point would be to high.
I agree with zwpower and others above. They are not scarce at all. I see people asking a lot for tobacco cars but I don't see them selling.
Maybe some newer candy, beer, cereal that's not been on a car before. But lionel made a car for everything plus things I'd never heard of.
I do run most of them since I don't have to worry about counting rivets on them.
@joe krasko posted:let's not forget CHEER WINE...for our south of the Mason-Dixon line friends....
Actually, it is Cheerwine; one word. I tried it ONCE; never again.
@JC642 posted:You have to ask, given a choice in this day and age which would fans rather have? An easily obtainable 40-50 year old original or a better made imported copy? I think all MPC rolling stock, those with plastic trucks belongs on a display shelf, unfit for modern layouts. But, I would rather have the American made original.
Better made imported copy? The MPC stuff has very good graphics and generally speaking, the bodies and frames are comparable to current production. If the objection is the plastic trucks on MPC equipment, replace the plastic trucks with sprung metal trucks. A pair of these can be had for around $25.
Most MPC boxcars can be purchased in good condition for anywhere from $15-$30. Adding a $25 pair of sprung metal trucks gives you a nice looking car that rolls well at less than half the cost of new production “traditional size” boxcars.
Curt
@joe krasko, in case you didn’t know, the train loft is doing a custom run of MTH reefers in Cheerwine livery. They look sweet! (Pun intended)
@jim sutter, I’d be in for remakes. I’d really like it if some of the older Pepsi ones came back. I bought some Pepsi K-line cars a while back at a show and enjoy seeing them in the mix. The Menard’s cars, especially the latest batch of tank cars, have really cheap couplers, so I’d prefer the cars from a major brand.
Outside of the beer cars and a few others, I doubt anybody under 45 even remembers most of those brands.
@PRRMP54 posted:Actually, it is Cheerwine; one word. I tried it ONCE; never again.
to each his own....I don't like Dr.Pepper
@jim sutter posted:If Lionel, would rerun all the pop, tobacco, alcohol, candy, cereal and any other billboard reefers they made in the seventies and eighties would they sell, Please give me your answer and why. Also, what names would you add.
My compliments Jim for bringing the current MPC thread over into the “what if” world. I love it! Like many of the others here, I really appreciate the Made in the USA aspect and colors of the original models if not necessarily the trucks and wheels of some of them. Nonetheless, this is an obvious lost opportunity for Lionel. I’m surprised by all of this interest in these sets and cars. Prices are increasing on Trainz and eBay. (I might be helping with this demand side) Clearly I’m not the only one hunting for this cool retro stuff. I sense a parallel to 1970s autos. Not quite 1960s build but still cool. Thanks for lighting this thread up. Best!
WRW, Thank you, for your kind words. We sold a lot of those reefers back in the day. Some of my favorites were #9813 Ruffles, #9817 Bazooka Bubble Gum, #9818 Western Maryland #9831 Pepsi, #9832 Cherrios, 9833 Vlasic Pickles and #9883 Oreo. I don't think there was one that I didn't like.
Candy cars…I’d love Twix, Milky Way, Salted Nut Roll.
I would really like a Moxie soda car, and maybe Jolly Good!
The Maine 3 Railers club produced a really attractive Moxie car a couple of years ago. Their cars are in pretty small runs. You might check the web site to see if any are available.
I liked the woodside reefers, I have 8 of them.
HiramO, thank you, but those Moxie cars are long sold out. Occasionally they pop up on the bay, but they are rather spendy.
The billboard reefers and wood side reefers are my favorites from the MPC era, colorful, plentiful and inexpensive, there are a few that command a premium. I look for separate sale die-cast sprung trucks and MPC era cars to swap out cars with plastic trucks.
I would be interested in other food, beer and alcohol cars but no remakes, currently Lionel only makes Budweiser, Coors, Miller and Hamm’s cars, definitely need others like Yuengling, Stella Artois and others.
I think every pop and candy car that I listed have never been made.
