The year 1982 brought General Mills' ill-fated move of train production from the United States to Mexico. To this day, Lionel markets American Flyer S gauge in limited quantities as collectibles. With so many years of absence from the market, Gilbert American Flyer S gauge trains were no longer considered a direct competitor to Lionel's 1:48 proportion O gauge trains. American Flyer products by Gilbert made after World War II are scaled roughly to a 1:64 proportion and are known as S gauge their most distinctive feature, however, is that they operate on two-rail track as opposed to Lionel's three-rail trackage system. Gilbert Company of New Haven, Connecticut) several months prior to its own bankruptcy in 1967. In 1979, General Mills resurrected the American Flyer brand and product line, which Lionel Corporation had purchased from its bankrupt competitor (The A. Although Lionel's tenure with MPC was relatively short, 'MPC' is the most commonly used term for the 1970-1985 era. The experiment's failure is generally blamed on MPC's lack of a 1:48 locomotive and caboose to go with the cars when it was repeated again in the 1980s with locomotives of appropriate size, it proved more successful.Īn internal reorganization after 1973 caused Lionel to become part of General Mills' Fundimensions group. Also starting in 1973, MPC experimented with a line of cars it called 'Standard O,' which were scaled to 1:48 (most postwar Lionel and MPC production was undersize for O scale). A number of MPC's changes to the product line endure to the present day, the most noticeable being the use of needlepoint axles and trucks made of Delrin, two changes made to reduce friction and allow longer trains. Detail was often sacrificed, and most of the remaining metal parts were replaced with molded plastic.

The Lionel Corporation became a holding company and invested in a number of ventures, including what would eventually become an East Coast chain of toy stores known as 'Lionel Leisure World'.ĭue to General Mills' cost-cutting measures, production of Lionel-branded toy and model trains returned to profitability, but sometimes at the expense of quality.

General Mills did not buy the company, however. The bankrupt Lionel Corporation sold the tooling for its then-current product line and licensed the Lionel name to General Mills in 1969, who then operated Lionel as a division of its subsidiary Model Products Corporation.

Lionel of fundimensions