One reputed version of Lionel's coat of arms

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.

Importantly, the trains featured fully automatic coupling and uncoupling that were functionally comparable to Lionel's.

Although Ives could rightly claim that its lithographed offerings were more realistic than Lionel's simple enameled two-color cars, Lionel, taking a cue from Ives, targeted advertising straight at children, claiming its cars were the most realistic and that its paint jobs were more durable.

Additionally, Lionel's trains generally were priced lower, or, in instances where their price was comparable to Ives, they were larger, making them appear to be a better value for the money.

From 2006 through 2010, Lionel continued a limited run of K-Line trains called K-Line by Lionel, and issued separate K-Line by Lionel catalogs until 2010, when those products were folded into a section in Lionel's own catalog.

During the first few years of this K-line by Lionel period, the extravagant passenger trains which competed directly with Lionel's premium products were conspicuously absent, with the initial offerings focusing more on K-Line's value line.

Increasing amounts of scale products, including some of the well known 21-inch alumumum passenger cars, were added late in Lionel's license period.

The characters of Lionel's biracial fiancée, Jenny, and her family, all of whom first appeared in the 1974 All in the Family episode " Lionel's Engagement ," were also written into the new series.

Lionel's earliest trains were larger than the sizes commonly available today, running on two-rail track with the rails 2 inches apart.

When competitors criticized the realism of Lionel's trains — Cowen had been unwilling to invest in the equipment necessary for lithography, so its early offerings were simply painted with solid colors of enamel paint with brass detail parts — Lionel targeted advertising at children, telling children its products were the most realistic toy trains.

The trains were considered a luxury item, and at the height of the Depression one of Lionel's more extravagant locomotives cost as much as a used Ford Model T. In an effort to compete with companies that were willing to undercut Lionel's prices without diluting its premium Lionel and Ives brands, Lionel introduced a line of inexpensive electric toy trains under the Winner Toys or Winner Toy Corp. brand name, which it sold from 1930 to 1932.

Had that been the case, it was a short-lived greatness: Lionel's 1955 sales were some $ 23 million, while rival Marx toys ( more than just trains ) sales were $ 50 million.

Efforts to increase train set profitability and / or sales by cheaper manufacture ( largely by replacing castings and folded sheet metal with unpainted injected — molded colored plastic ) were largely unsuccessful ; 1957 was Lionel's last profitable post-war year.

Lionel's development from a main antagonist to ally was one that was difficult for the writers, who felt the character's arc failed to achieve the status they were looking for.

It also states that Hunter was cleared of all charges after the bullets from Lionel's gun were examined.

did research into Lionel Richie's genealogy and specifically looked at information relating to one of Lionel's great-grandfathers, the father of Lionel's maternal grandmother.

The poet Geoffrey Chaucer was at one time a page in Lionel's household.

While it was at Eton that Byng first received the nickname " Bungo " to distinguish him from his elder brothers " Byngo " and " Bango " his time at the college was undistinguished, and he received poor reports ; indicative of his attitude towards academics, he once traded his Latin grammar book and his brother Lionel's best trousers to a hawker for a pair of ferrets and a pineapple.

The secret of Veritas and the Traveler subsequently cause Lionel's death at the hands of Lex, who realizes that his father has been covering up the truth about the Traveler.

K-Line has also produced commemorative cars celebrating some of Lionel's significant anniversaries, which has sometimes caused confusion among collectors.

When the market evaporated for its 1 gauge trains, it re-gauged some models to O gauge, where they looked oversized, and other models to Lionel's Standard gauge, where they looked undersized.

To his mother's dismay, Lionel falls in love with a local shopkeeper's daughter, Paquita ( Diana Peñalver ), and while snooping on the two during a visit to the zoo, Lionel's mother is bitten by the Sumatran Rat-Monkey ; she subsequently crushes its head.

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.

Also debuting in 1994 was the brainchild of Neil Young, Lionel's Trainmaster Command Control, a technology similar to Digital Command Control which permits, among other things, the operation of Lionel trains by remote control.

Lionel's investment in new tooling is being interpreted among many S-scalers as a sign of commitment by the manufacturer to their market segment, as well as the brand, the gauge, and the hobby in itself.

This was not enough for Ives to re-take its former place as market leader — by 1926, Lionel's revenue was twice that of Ives '-- and, worse yet for the company, Ives was losing money by the mid-1920s.

LexCorp appears on the series early in the second season when Lex Luthor ( Lionel's son ) stages a coup with a handful of LuthorCorp managers and splits off from the parent company to form Lex's own enterprise that are based entirely in Smallville, which Lionel retaliated by blackmailing Lex's shareholders individually in order to financially eliminate LexCorp and afterwards Lex has since returned to his father's corporation.

* Lionel's Lament ( 2003 – 2004 ) by Dean Haspiel and Josh Neufeld

By 1998, MTH was the largest manufacturer of O gauge trains, eclipsing Lionel's market share by approximately $ 60 million to $ 50 million.

MTH uses a system called Digital Command System ( DCS ), which is capable of operating MTH engines as well as engines using Lionel's Trainmaster Command Control ( TMCC ), used by many other O gauge manufacturers, and Digital Command Control ( DCC ), which is an open industry standard used by most two-rail scales.

Many of Lionel's models had a new feature: smoke — produced by dropping a small tablet or a special oil into the locomotive's smokestack.

The Lionel brand name continues today, owned by Lionel, LLC, yet most Lionel train enthusiasts consider 1969 the end of the " true Lionel trains ", because the design and manufacture changed, sometimes for the worse, under Lionel's new owners.

Here, his hair is used to symbolize his power — by growing it out and refusing to style it, Lionel's attempt to show that he is so powerful that he can do whatever he wants without any form of backlash.

Lionel's only son, William, a controversial figure, amassed great debts guaranteed by the expectation of inheriting the family fortune, however, he, too, predeceased his father who subsequently bequeathed the estates to his grandson, William John Manners Tollemache, with his brothers, Frederick and Algernon with Charles Hanbury-Tracy acting as trustees for 21 years to 1899.

Edge fell into the water after being shot by Lionel's security, where he was presumed dead.

As started, he attacked the lands of Lionel's widow Lady Juliana to take hold of her land wagons, and forced her to tag along with his plan by threatening to kill her daughter Kayley ( the protagonist of the film ).

In 1993, he was hired away by WABC 770 AM, a major talk radio station in New York City when a former ABC network president, Jim Arcara, heard Lionel's show while vacationing in Florida and lured him to the Big Apple.

Most of Lionel's motivations in season five are shrouded in mystery.

However, Lionel's uncle Les ( Ian Watkin ), arrives to try to wrangle with Lionel over his mother's estate.

Although Lionel's tenure with MPC was relatively short, " MPC " is the most commonly used term for the 1970-1985 era.

On March 27, 2008, a bankruptcy judge approved Lionel's reorganization plan, including a settlement with MTH.

Shortly after the adoption was formalized, Lionel's affair with another woman became public knowledge.

Complete with TMCC ( Lionel's proprietary wireless remote control technology ) and a superb sound chip / system ( TrainSounds ), the Mikados proved to be a hot seller and their success has led to future similar issues.

Other ads criticizing Ives ' quality appeared, but they always compared Ives ' cheapest products with Lionel's priciest offerings.

Prior to the 2005 legal action, the relationship between Lionel and K-Line had generally been more amicable than Lionel's relationship with MTH.

Upon Lionel's incarceration in the fourth season, Lex became LuthorCorp's new CEO and had gradually morphed from an agri-business / biotech company to a corporation with many subsidiaries and divisions, very much similar to LexCorp in the comics.

In season three's " Forsaken ", Chloe decides to assist Lex Luthor ( Michael Rosenbaum ), Lionel's son, with getting Lionel arrested for the murder of Lex ' grandparents ; Chloe's hope is to get out from under Lionel ’ s control.

In 2006, Lionel's electric train, along with the Easy Bake Oven, became the first two electric toys to be inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

Lionel's relationship with his son has been likened to that of Harry Osborn and Norman Osborn from Spider-Man comics.

In season three, it is revealed that Lionel conspired with Morgan Edge ( Rutger Hauer ) to murder Lionel's parents, and use their insurance money to fund the start of LuthorCorp.

John Glover looked to a friend's personal battle with cancer when trying to portray Lionel's struggle with terminal liver disease.