WASHINGTON — Lionel LLC emerged from bankruptcy Thursday, ending more than three years of restructuring and a bitter fight with a rival model-train company.
The 108-year-old toymaker is poised to move out of the hobby shop and into the broader pop-culture marketplace.
Chief executive Gerald Calabrese, a former Marvel Comics executive who shepherded Lionel through bankruptcy, said he sees the new Lionel as an entertainment company, not just a toymaker.
“The way people buy and sell things has changed dramatically since 1900,” Calabrese said. “We’re not the distribution and sales mechanism anymore; we’re the intellectual property.” Breaking into the broader toy market is key to Lionel’s growth, Calabrese said.
During the company’s bankruptcy stint, sales of Lionel starter sets — kid-friendly systems ranging from $129 to $300 — more than doubled. The company sold about 200,000 sets last year, with much of that growth at department stores and big-box retailers. “We had virtually no sales at outlets like Target and Macy’s and FAO Schwarz when the bankruptcy started,” Calabrese said.
Developing new products that appeal to kids and getting them on the shelves at big retail outlets is only part of what Calabrese, who worked on Marvel’s TV programming in the 1990s, calls the pop-cultural segment of the toy market. He says that in today’s marketplace, movies and television are the key drivers to sales.
Lionel found itself in bankruptcy in November 2004 when a jury awarded rival MTH Electric Trains $38.6 million in a trade-secrets dispute with Lionel. Faced with a judgment it couldn’t pay, Lionel filed for Chapter 11. An appeals court later overturned the verdict. Lionel and MTH settled their fight late last year, paving the way for Lionel’s exit from bankruptcy.
