Lionel acquires Model Power

[Point353]

More details of the acquisition will be forthcoming:
http://www.lionel.com/articles/Lionel-Trains-Model-Power-Announcement

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Wow, MRC didn't keep that long. Does Lionel have ANY interest in N scale at all? It would be a shame to loose their steam models.

[u18b]

Maybe Atlas will make an offer on the N scale tooling.

Maybe they can get something Lionel wants to unload.
 

[eric220]

Lionel is pleased to announce that it has agreed to a deal with ATI Model Products Inc., doing business as Model Power, to acquire a broad range of model train tooling used to produce the Model Power/Mantua product lines. Final details of the agreement are being worked through and tooling is expected to transfer to Lionel in September of 2018. No previously produced product is contemplated in the transaction. This strategic acquisition will accelerate Lionel’s expansion in the HO category, while adding complementary products and accessories to other portions of its business. More details will be shared as they become available.

It doesn't sound like they are buying Model Power itself, just some of the tooling currently used to make Model Power/Mantua branded products.  Given that the announcement specifically mentions HO, perhaps the N scale tooling will stay with MRC.  We can hope.

[pmpexpress]

If you are familiar with the history of the Mantua product line, which dates back to 1926, there is nothing vague about Lionel's announcement.

The Model Power/Mantua product line was comprised of HO-Scale diesel and steam locomotives and various pieces of rolling stock (i.e., generic corrugated aluminum and 19th century passenger cars and some generic 19th and 20th century freight cars).

The only N-Scale product ever released under the Mantua moniker was an NFL promotional freight train set that was produced by Life-Like.

Given that the various incarnations of Lionel have marketed HO-Scale products in the past (e.g., FA diesels, GS-4 steam locomotives, and Veranda Turbines), acquiring the old Mantua tooling is somewhat logical.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Isn't Lionel part of MTH now? Or they have some sort of licensing agreement?

MP without Mantua doesn't give them much of a presence in the hobby. The FP7 and steam would make some sense to be labeled as Mantua due to their die cast shells. Or maybe MRC it's offloading legacy tooling to focus on a new product line. One could always dream.

[pmpexpress]

Isn't Lionel part of MTH now? Or they have some sort of licensing agreement?

MP without Mantua doesn't give them much of a presence in the hobby. The FP7 and steam would make some sense to be labeled as Mantua due to their die cast shells. Or maybe MRC it's offloading legacy tooling to focus on a new product line. One could always dream.

Although Lionel reportedly settled with MTH for $12 million in cash, according to Wikapedia, Lionel is owned by "an investment group that included Neil Young and the holding company Wellspring Capital Management".

"In July 2016, Lionel re-entered into the HO scale market for the first time since 1990 by introducing the Polar Express in HO."

As the products are not HO-Scale, like the previously released NFL set, marketing the ex Model Power N-Scale locomotives as Mantua products would not resonate with buyers of HO.

[Rich_S]

The link to the Lionel site reads in part:

Lionel is pleased to announce that it has agreed to a deal with ATI Model Products Inc., doing business as Model Power, to acquire a broad range of model train tooling used to produce the Model Power/Mantua product lines.

Who the heck is ATI Model Products Inc? I thought MRC had purchased Model Power / Mantua?

John Tyler the original owner of Mantua Metal Products also created TYCO, I'm wondering when IHC when belly up what happened to the TYCO stuff? Did ATI Model Products Inc purchase TYCO from IHC?

[pmpexpress]

The link to the Lionel site reads in part:

Who the heck is ATI Model Products Inc? I thought MRC had purchased Model Power / Mantua?

John Tyler the original owner of Mantua Metal Products also created TYCO, I'm wondering when IHC when belly up what happened to the TYCO stuff? Did ATI Model Products Inc purchase TYCO from IHC?

According to Manta, incorporated in NY and established in 1972, ATI Model Products Inc. is a privately held company that is based in Farmingdale, NY.

Not sure if ATI is the same company that formerly went by the name American Tortoise International, which imported Minitrix trains after Aurora Plastics Corp. shuttered its operations.

Farmingdale NY is where Model Power was/is located.

As I recall, ATI and Model Power are one in the same.

A family owned business from its establishment, a shift from the kits that Mantua Toy & Metal Products produced towards ready-to-run products led to the creation of the Tyler Manufacturing Company (more commonly known as TYCO) in 1952.

Once TYCO exited the HO-Scale train market in 1993, International Hobby Corporation (IHC) closed out the remaining TYCO manufactured inventory in 1995 and continued to offer some re-released products until IHC was shuttered in 2009.

After Mantua exited the model railroad product manufacturing business in 2001 and sold its tooling to Model Power, some of the Mantua/TYCO products returned to the marketplace under the Mantua Classics brand name.

Following the Model Power acquisition in 2014, Model Rectifier Corp (MRC) has continued to produce the "Mantua Classics" products line.

Along with the "Mantua Classics" product line, the Lionel purchase could also include the ex Cox and Marx HO-Scale model train tooling.

[peteski]

Since we are sort of on a tangent here, whatever happened with the IHC molds?  I would love to see those models reissued.  Brownstones, Gingerbread houses, Carousel and Ferris Wheel are some of the models I would like to see back on the market.  Not sure about the carnival  rides, but the houses looked like they were molded by Heljan.

[pmpexpress]

... looked like they were molded by Heljan.

Or POLA (which currently only produces large scale kits), whose N and HO Scale items were merged into the Faller product line.

[spookshow]

I always thought Model Power was formed by the merger of ATI and PMI in the 1970s, but perhaps it's a bit more complicated than that.

-Mark

[pmpexpress]

As Manta has ATI Model Products Inc. listed as a headquarters business, American Tortoise International, Model Power, and/or Precision Models Inc. (PMI) could have been either brands or subsidiaries that were managed by ATI.

[Rich_S]

Once TYCO exited the HO-Scale train market in 1993, International Hobby Corporation (IHC) closed out the remaining TYCO manufactured inventory in 1995 and continued to offer some re-released products until IHC was shuttered in 2009.

After Mantua exited the model railroad product manufacturing business in 2001 and sold its tooling to Model Power, some of the Mantua/TYCO products returned to the marketplace under the Mantua Classics brand name.

Following the Model Power acquisition in 2014, Model Rectifier Corp (MRC) has continued to produce the "Mantua Classics" products line.

Hi Neville, Here is the part where I'm getting lost, if MRC purchased Model Power / Mantua models in 2014. How can Lionel Purchase Model Power / Mantua products from ATI Model Products Inc.?

Stated another way, If Mantua / TYCO was sold to Model Power in 2001 and MRC purchased Model Power in 2014, then what molds and / or products does ATI Model Products own?

Is someone at MRC now scratching their head saying "I thought we owned those molds"?

[Angus Shops]

I don't have the mental capacity to figure out who is going to/cound if inclined/can't/will not/might in the future produce which loco/car with DCC/DCC with sound (and which brand of sound)/DC in Spectrum/trainman/classic/budget/prototypical level of detail with all the buy-outs/mergers/takeovers/divestitures/closures that result in molds being lost/damaged/updated/transferred intact/being held hostage....
Geoff