In 1979, General Mills resurrected the American Flyer brand, which Lionel Corporation had purchased from its bankrupt competitor several months prior to its own bankruptcy in 1967. 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.

Lionel Corporation went on to reorganize as a chain of toy stores.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.

Fundimensions line of lionel trains