Re: Why has the Lionel 3619 Reconnaissance Helicopter Car never been reissued?

Great question!

Jon  

What's wrong with a nice original?

Don't think so.  My understanding is that the set was never produced becouse they could not make the Reconnaissance car.  Lost or damaged mold maybe ??  Don't know but something along those lines.  

bmoran4 posted:

What's wrong with a nice original?

Aside from the price a mint one that still would probably work with an un-broken helicopter  - nothing. 

I'm all in for a re-issue as well.  I offered my dealer to buy that and any other car of his choosing from that set as a break up and he had agreed, but it never came to be.

-Dave

Big space and military fan so would love to see it but weren't these (any of the opening roof box cars that shot rockets, etc.) notoriously fickle for smooth operation?

May or may not have factored into the production decision.

I had a helicopter car with the4 blade helicopter, brand new. It broke within a few weeks an Lionel provided a new 2 blade helicopter. The 2 blade model never flew well like the old 4 blade one.

mowingman posted:

I had a helicopter car with the4 blade helicopter, brand new. It broke within a few weeks an Lionel provided a new 2 blade helicopter. The 2 blade model never flew well like the old 4 blade one.

Pretty sure with the 2 blade vs. 4 blade you mean the regular flat car with operating helicopter (same mechanism as satellite launching car, I think).

The reconnaissance car being discussed is the boxcar that opens up like the missile launching boxcar, but has a small (smaller than the one that launches from a flat) helicopter.  I don't think there are 2 blade and 4 blade versions of that.

-Dave

Right, I forgot to mention I had the flatcar. But I just wanted to mention that the 2 blade helicopter never flew as good as the 4 blade model. The one mentioned above was no better at flying, or so it seemed to me.

Jeff 

My guess is the clockwork mechanism would be too expensive to make today. This is a pretty complex car.

Keep in mind, it took until 2011 for Lionel to reissue the operating merchandise car - 65 years after the original was made - since they redesigned the whole mechanism. I imagine Lionel might redo the entire mechanism in this day and age to make it more trouble free for the operator.

Then again, I've heard the 3619 is less troublesome than the 3419 by comparison. Plus, Lionel's focus nowadays has seemed to stray away from the lower-end, traditional line and postwar reissues...

For anyone curious here is a link to a video of the 3619 in operation.  Thanks to Zach K for posting it and placing his little chopper at risk.  Looks like a fun layout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rljcZG79zvc  

Yep, same lousy 2 blade helicopter that does not fly worth a darn. Nice to see it actually went up a few of the times he tried.

LOL! I love it!

Hal

I doubt it will ever be reissued. Along with my above post, The launching mechanism along with some other old Lionel HO cars like the 0366 operating giraffe car and others, the tooling was sold to Hornby, probably at the factory 1968 auction.  

I have an original 3619 and helo.  The mold is same as the generator car, the Safety Instruction car...…   The mechanism can be finicky, but most PW operating cars are at some point.  Have operated mine, but keep it limited, and a reissue of this would be great!   And the helicopter inside is an HO gauge piece.  

Jesse   TCA

Thanks to everyone who responded.  After talking to fellow club members of the Paradise and Pacific RR, I believe that the launching mechanism could be improved upon using what is available today in other operating cars.  Even if that could not be done, so what if the operation is not ideal, it is still a neat car and I think that it would be well received.  With the uncertainty that one would be reissued and going against my hard and fast rule, I went ahead and bought a postwar 3619 in excellent condition on eBay.

Janet Mattern (TCA and LCCA member)

Well, they thought they were going to reissue the car, but for reasons unknown to us specifically, Lionel gave it a thumbs down. Since they have reissued the Minuteman and cannon cars, The problem is likely clockwork mechanism to raise the launcher, or the actual launcher mechanism, which I have already said went to Hornby.