CTT Video Interview
February 5th, 2009 in Classic Toy Trains, Erol B Gurcan Updates, MTH by Dave
5 Comments
This is old news but I just recently got a chance to check out Episode 7 of a video series entitled "Bob’s Train Box" on the Classic Toy Trains magazine website. In Episode 7 Bob interviews MTH’s Taylor, the star of MTH’s product demo videos and MTH’s Art Director. When I read about the video on the PreWar Times blog I thought to myself "good for MTH for allowing Taylor to do a video interview, sounds like it could be interesting". Well, I finally did check it out and it was very interesting to say the least. You be the judge. Check it out here and let me know what you think by posting a comment.
5 Responses to “CTT Video Interview”
Very interesting to watch first hand the transitioning of how our favorite toys are being made and marketed.
They (Lionel) don’t have the tooling anymore? Is this just the Lionel pre-war or does this include the post war stuff?
Calabrese seems to be taking the easy way by just licensing the magic name of Lionel to someone who really wants it; Mike Wolf. Why work at making a product when you can just license the name, sit back and make money?
Heck, the original Lionel Corporation did that when they licensed the name and tooling to General Mills in 1970. They no longer wanted to be bothered with actually doing the work of making and marketing the trains anymore. This is telling since that Lionel Corporation no longer exists.
And of course, since America has lost the ability to manufacture its own toys, the next transition could throw Lionel, name and all, to Chinese manufacturers. This has happened to Bachmann and what will likely happen to bankrupt Marklin.
Sad, even when the messenger is as lovely as Taylor.
Posted by: choochoodennis | Feb 5, 2009 at 9:18 PM
I think the two Lionel and MTH should stay apart, I saw what Lionel did to the reasonably priced K-line trains, They cost too much now! Taylor is very attractive and a good spokes person for MTH.
Posted by: Trainman | Feb 6, 2009 at 5:11 AM
I thought she read her comments very well.It sounded like those recorded interviews that supply the live host with questions to make it all seem live.
There were some interesting items.
Didn’t MTH [Mike Wolf] have a similar agreement with Lionel in the past that caused some problems?I hope this one works.
Posted by: roger roush | Feb 6, 2009 at 7:11 AM
Dave, that video was painful.
Roger beat me to the punch - if that wasn’t spliced in with pre-recorded video from MTH, I would be amazed.
Shouldn’t a spokesperson be able to comment without reading a script?
And, if in fact, that was spliced together, shame on Classic Toy Trains for publishing it.
Posted by: Mark | Feb 6, 2009 at 2:34 PM
@choochoodennis - I agree that Lionel will someday be reduced to just managing their brand.
@trainman- I could never understand the inflated price points of Lionel by K-Line prducts. It’s almost like they had to inflate the prices so K-Line products wouldn’t cost less then their overly priced (IMO) entry level Lionel trains.
@roger - I wish Taylor didn’t have to ‘read’ her comments. It took a lot away from the interview.
@mark - I was waiting for someone to say it was painful and I couldn’t agree more. Either Taylor was very nervous and felt more comfortable with a script or she was but in a situation that she wasn’t suited for.
Posted by: Dave | Feb 6, 2009 at 7:17 PM