Lionel Corporation
Beginning in the 1960s Lionel attempted to further diversify into other product lines, such as phonographs, science, weather station and plastics engineering kits while toy train sales continued to decline and with the company enduring a series of management turnovers. In 1967 Lionel purchased American Flyer trains from bankrupt A. C. Gilbert Company, but did not have a new catalog for that year. In December 1968 Ronald Saypol, Joshua Cowen's former grandson-in-law, became President and CEO of the Lionel Corporation, and in the following year, in an attempt to divest the company of what was by then determined to be a cash drain by the board and shareholders, began negotiations to sell their toy train line and lease the Lionel name to Model Products Corporation (MPC), a subsidiary of General Mills, Inc. 1969 would be the final year the Lionel Corporation published a toy train catalog and manufactured O gauge trains.