MTH Christmas ES44AC and Caboose

Vince, when I tried to order the Halloween unit from my MTH dealer, he mentioned that this set is sold out on pre-order.  At least it was cataloged well in advance.  (And hopefully they made more than the 75 Halloween units purportedly produced.)     ....but if you got an e-mail from a dealer, perhaps it is only sold out at MTH... with dealers still having them. 

I'm holding out for the Happy New Year set.

RadioRon,

I moved quickly enough and ordered the Halloween set yesterday from Trainworld and got confirmation for my order.

The Christmas set was in one of the sale emails that I receive regularly from Trainworld.  I bought last year's MTH Christmas ES44AC so I have no interest in this year's Christmas set.

I would never make yellow the primary color on a Christmas locomotive.

I agree and will add that I was NOT impressed with any of MTH's color graphics on all their special run (Christmas, Halloween, etc) SC70Ace's.  IMO, MTH went cheap on the paint/graphic design with their simplistic bare bones color masking and pic art that did a disservice on their SD70Ace Imperial model that has great visual and physical lines.  MTH's bare bones two color and cartoon pic art seems to be a trend of theirs over the past 10 years which is in contrast to some of MTH's more attractive early holiday offerings from the late '90's to early 2000's era.

Lionel's basic RTR holiday and other starter sets have far superior paint colors and artwork.

First ! the new Christmas Engine & caboose are the tan on previous christmas cars by Mth .  I have last last years Christmas Es44ac as well !

I cant wait to get the set ! 

Mth did a great job on the Holloween Ess44ac set ! 

I agree....  I would have had much greater interest in the Christmas set were it not yellow. I think the Halloween set looked great, though (for the 75 people who were able to obtain one).  Keystone.... what colors would you have used for the Halloween diesel?  Plus, to me, the graphics looked first-rate.

On one hand I like that MTH tried to do something different than the typical red/green.  I call this color egg nog.  But that color, combined with that font, just reminds me of a cheap 80s toy for some reason.  I just can't get excited about it and I know I would get tired of it quickly and would not want to run it.

But I hope MTH continues to put these special holiday locomotives out.  I was lucky enough to get the Halloween one.

Keystone.... what colors would you have used for the Halloween diesel?  Plus, to me, the graphics looked first-rate.

I will add that I own 2 Imperial SD70Ace/ES44AC's (UP & GE Evo) plus 1 Premier and 1 Williams model.  Obviously orange and black are Halloween colors as are black, green, yellow, silver/gray and now purple.  MTH's very simplistic and lowest cost approach to their two color paint mask (one color roof/one color body) on this Halloween version as well the earlier Christmas version were MTH's attempt to extend their Imperial sd70Ace model and provide a seasonal product.  I think it is good that MTH is offering the special/small run offerings (Christmas, Halloween, MTH club DCS/PS2) versions of this particular model.  The practice appears to be successful for them, otherwise MTH would not continue to make these offerings.

My opinion that MTH is not putting much effort into the paint and graphics or "mailing in" the design is just my opinion based on my preferences and what this engine could potentially look like if a little more time was given to the final design.  Yes, time often leads to more cost.  But consider that MTH could have applied existing 2 color paint masks from this model's UP or NS Heritage roadnames but used any palette and shade of Halloween colors to produce a stunning eye-catching model.  The paint color does not have to be the offered faded orange/black or egg nog/green combos.  Imagine if MTH used more vibrant holiday color combos and sheens w/ their existing paint masks from any of these Imperials:

Imagine if using the DRG mask, MTH also pad printed Dracula's castle or the MoPac with the eagle replaced by a ghost, ghoul, or bat with a combo of flat/satin/semi-gloss/gloss.

Compare the paint and artwork of the MTH holiday offerings from the last 5 years to that of Lionel's.  The Lionel Silver Bells, Frosty, Jack Frost, Snoopy, Hallows Eve and almost all Lionel holiday rolling stock, IMO look superior.

Again, it's a matter of opinion and if you and others are happy that is good for both you and MTH, but I think MTH could have offered much more to the eye for the same money.

Keystone,

Very well said.

Sunrise

I agree with you, Keystone that the holiday rolling stock from Lionel is better than from MTH.

Normally, I prefer my engines from Lionel and rolling stock from MTH.  I have been waiting for a good, command-controlled Halloween engine for quite some time.  So, I did order the MTH Halloween engine.  But, it will be pulling primarily Lionel Halloween-themed rolling stock.

I`d like to see the ES44AC W/Chase-lights for Christmas and Halloween have an M&M Theme with the character voices in the sound-set, which would be good to pull the M&M Decorated box-cars.

Blurry picture of MTH X-mas engine. Red and white with chasing lights.