Walthers & Lionel - what's up?

[jackn2mpu]

Has Walther's done what they did to LL/P2K and taken Lionel over as well? The last 2 monthly flyers I've gotten from the big W says they'll be selling Lionel product soon.

[jbaakko]

They just signed an agreement with Lionel to be a distributor...

[CSX_road_slug]

I vaguely remember reading somewhere, that MTH got control of Lionel as part of their booty from their lawsuit against them...or was that BLI:confused:

[UP2CSX]

Lionel ended up licensing production of their tinplate and standard O scale lines as well as the American Flyer Lines to MTH as part of the bankruptcy settlement. Lionel emerged from bankruptcy in May 2008 and is now a closely held company with financing from several investment funds in addition to a few well off Lionel fans. They settled the MTH lawsuit for $12 million according "unnamed sources", since the record is sealed.

Lionel is now concentrating on their "Vision" line of semiscale three rail O and S scale models. They signed an agreement with Walthers to increase their visibility in the scale model community. Walters has merely become an authorized distributor and has no financial intersts in Lionel.