just driving home from work and heard on the news that Lionel is coming out with a new brand of track called Megatrack aimed at the eight year olds . Anyone hear of this?
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Looks like Megatracks will be brought out this month at Toy Fair in NY.
Jack
Looks like a whole new thing to me - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm0j5vJANJQ
They have been hinting at this since I met with them last summer at the LCCA convention. I have an email into them this morning to see what we can find out. I expect an announcement from them this week at Toy Fair in New York. Howard was quoted in the Wall Street Journal this morning, "
At the New York Toy Fair, opening Feb. 13, Lionel plans to introduce a train product called Mega Tracks, aimed at children eight years old and up. The tracks will be more like those of a roller-coaster, and the trains will be remote-controlled.
“It really won’t resemble a train,” said Howard Hitchcock, chief executive of Lionel. “They’re almost more like spacecraft, to be quite honest with you.” Plain old trains wouldn’t do: “We have to come up with things that jazz up the kids of today,” Mr. Hitchcock said.
Bottom line is this not your traditional Lionel product, so plan on buying this for your kids or grandkids to play with.
Ok checked out that link, what a cheesy 70ish video. lol. Hope it works for them. Looks Nothing like a train, Track was all flimsy but from the design you could see the rocket wont fall off.
I think it's cool. It looks to be sort of a cross between K'Nex, RoknBok, and old style Hot Wheels.
Please don't try to associate this with trains. It's not for us, and not supposed to be compared to trains.
In other words it's not another train track system.
Nascar inspired, no doubt. Looks flimsy and cheap.
Pete
Looks pretty cool. If they'd had that when I was a kid, I'd have wanted one! Oh, I would still have wanted my trains, too. Actually, we did have something sort of similar: A Hot Wheels set where the cars ran in flexible plastic channels that could be bent and reconfigured. There was even a loop-de-loop. There was some kind of launcher to get them up to speed. Expansions to that system were vetoed by Mom. Something about cars hitting the walls bothered her 
. This one looks more Mom-friendly and much nicer.
E-UNIT, I was thinking the same thing 
An Aurora/AFX themed commercial from the late 70's, early 80s.
Start them with this, and get them into trains later...
Sorry,but this looks like it will be a flop as far as reaching kids. It looks so flimsy even on the commercial and does look boring even if it stays running.My 12 year old nephew told me two years ago that kids "are too smart now to watch something go round and round". My nephew is now 14 and friends from all over his neighborhood play " Black Ops" warfare video games,all from their own bedrooms at home. They play different wars in different parts of the world. If they don't play games they watch violent streaming TV shows like Walking Dead. Unfortunately the key to reaching today's kids is give them something where they can shoot people. These kids are playing with each other from their own homes I forgot to mention,they are connected online at all times talking to each other.
It's not a commercial, it's a concept video for buyers.
Jon 
Lionel should use their electronic technology to come up with something. Perhaps let kids drive the trains themselves with a camera on the engine and a view screen on the remote as an engineer would have. Finally have the kids live actual time voices coming from the cab of the engine. Maybe have the train doing something like clearing the rail line of zombies or enemy soldiers. Maybe something like the Cival War General chase,with one train trying to capture or derail the one ahead. Just a quick idea,I hate to see the Lionel name to be thought of as cheap plastic junk.
Johnny Winkler posted:Lionel should use their electronic technology to come up with something. Perhaps let kids drive the trains themselves with a camera on the engine and a view screen on the remote as an engineer would have. Finally have the kids live actual time voices coming from the cab of the engine. Maybe have the train doing something like clearing the rail line of zombies or enemy soldiers. Maybe something like the Cival War General chase,with one train trying to capture or derail the one ahead. Just a quick idea,I hate to see the Lionel name to be thought of as cheap plastic junk.
And how many of us would by this set? I'll bet a lol. Lol. If not just for being able to drive the train from a video screen. I like it!!! Hey Lionel, you listening....
That sounds like dayshotjunk. I had something similar as a kid 15 years ago, called GeoTrax. It's not going to end well.....
E-UNIT-79 posted:Johnny Winkler posted:Lionel should use their electronic technology to come up with something. Perhaps let kids drive the trains themselves with a camera on the engine and a view screen on the remote as an engineer would have. Finally have the kids live actual time voices coming from the cab of the engine. Maybe have the train doing something like clearing the rail line of zombies or enemy soldiers. Maybe something like the Cival War General chase,with one train trying to capture or derail the one ahead. Just a quick idea,I hate to see the Lionel name to be thought of as cheap plastic junk.
And how many of us would by this set? I'll bet a lol. Lol. If not just for being able to drive the train from a video screen. I like it!!! Hey Lionel, you listening....
Perhaps an app using wi-fi to run a train on someone else's layout in another town. (Or an adult run on his home layout while at work or waiting somewhere) Like these kids that play side by side on the PlayStation games yet they are from all over the world.
I am having a flash back to learning (the TV documentary) about the late post war era where Lionel started making all kinds of things, easy bake ovens, boats, slot cars... it did not turn out well.
It's a nice concept, but I think a little primitive for 8 year-olds. My 7-year old son son received REV cars and a Sphere robotic ball this past Christmas and just loves the interactivity. He can control both from the iPad, are not bound to a track or tether and is able have these items do a multitude of built-in features and play games. The days of 'bound' toys are limited as I see more toys with VR integrated and tether less.
My suggestion would be to provide some type of integration with the smart device, aside from controlling the speed, maybe show the toy on a race track or going through space, or some type of scenario following the contour of the track designed by the child. or create a cockpit interface that show up on the smart device controlling the toy.
IMHO, this Megatrack product has absolutely nothing to do with trains. I wish Lionel well with their effort, but the Brand really doesn't have a good history of expanding its name beyond trains. Their die cast NASCAR stuff may be doing well, but I don't think the success has anything to do with their Lionel branding.
Another brand to add to the list of similar products: Darta
Pretty sure Lionel never made the Easy Bake Oven... But probably wished they did!
They DID make a working stove/oven toy for girls in the 1930's.
Jon
Guess this explains Lionel's location at the Toy Fair this year. Floorplan shows them on the main level by the TECH Toys.
The more money Lionel makes by selling things, the more money they'll have for innovations and tooling. It's a win-win if the product line is successful.
Jon
The more money Lionel makes by selling things, the more money they'll have for innovations and tooling. It's a win-win if the product line is successful.
Yes, but where would Lionel spend their money? If Lionel is successful in diversifying, that money is going to be spent in their growth areas.
I get the impression that some of you think that Lionel could not manage multiple product lines. They already have two between the trains and the NASCAR. Please someone give me one practical example that the NASCAR side of the brand has negatively impacted the O gauge train side. There is no way Lionel is going to just up and abandon the millions of dollars they have in tooling and R&D on the O gauge side of the product line. Companies expand product lines every year, sometimes they find a foothold and sometimes they don't. I'd rather see Lionel try and expand rather than continue to try and please a shrinking market base.
The fear mongering is outrageous here sometimes. "Oh the hobby is dying! oh they're cheapening the product! Oh, it's too expensive!" Scout sets were cheap toys and no one sits around and whines about that bright spot in Lionel history. Seriously, I love this hobby and this forum but some of you are ridiculous. I get that no one wants to see Lionel make a mistake, but that's how business works. You take risks, you make investments, and sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Personally I have enough faith in the group that runs the day to day business that they have done their research and must have a solid reason to believe that this product could be a winner.
I get the impression that some of you think that Lionel could not manage multiple product lines.
I don't get that impression from any of the posts.
The impression I get is that many folks don't see where the product has anything to do with trains, despite Lionel calling a train product, and that they don't see it as being of interest to most kids.
I am not at a point in my life where I am interacting with kids these days. Mine are adults now, and we don't have any grandchildren yet. So I cannot go by personal experience.
I wish Lionel the best.
Notch 6 posted:I get the impression that some of you think that Lionel could not manage multiple product lines.
Not at all.
If I was 7 yo and this was 1969, I would be moderately interested in Megatracks until I realized that there is no racing in the set, no trains to speak of, no skill involved(like slot car racing), and all my friends with Johnny Lightning sets and Hot Wheels SuperCharger sets have much better toys.
Set it up in 2 hours, run it for 4 minutes, and there it sits.
JLC's kind of toy.
Oops... again, NOT.
If I was 7 yo and this was 1969, I would be moderately interested in Megatracks until I realized that there is no racing in the set, no trains to speak of, no skill involved(like slot car racing), and all my friends with Johnny Lightning sets and Hot Wheels SuperCharger sets have much better toys.
Good thing it's not 1969. If you have that all figured out from a basic product video then you are much more perceptive than most. No skill? Have you or anyone else here actually tried the product? No racing? Hmmm maybe not head to head, but I sure saw a smart device attached to that controller, who says you're not racing the clock or some other metric?
Also, go back and re-read the WSJ quote. It was WSJ who called it a train related product, not Lionel.
No racing.
Just put it to the floor & let her rip.
This was published yesterday, February 12, 2016. On the Lionel Corp. YT Channel. Looks like it may be edited into a TV commercial.
Attachments
Also, go back and re-read the WSJ quote. It was WSJ who called it a train related product, not Lionel.
The WSJ quote directly follows the statement: "Howard was quoted in the Wall Street Journal this morning, "
That makes the statement look like a quote from Howard to me.
