Menards - Thumbs up or thumbs down?

I have to tread carefully here.  Bob Keller gives Menard's high marks, and in my opinion (with a bit of a play on words) there's the ticket, think "Marx."

Vintage Marx versus vintage Lionel.  It's been said Joshua Lionel Cowan made toy trains wildly popular, but it was Louis Marx who made them affordable to all.  Menards strikes me as the "Marx for the 21st Century."  As such, they do fill a gap, not everyone wants to spend 50, 60, or 70+ dollars on a freight car or can afford to.

I've got some Menards rolling stock.  Paint, graphics, construction are all pretty darn good.  They do seem to be more lightly constructed than Lionel or MTH cars.  I have had some problems with couplers opening on Menards cars if they were on the head end of a long, heavy consist of Lionel or MTH cars but no biggie, I just moved them to the rear.

I run trains on closed loops, so can't speak to how they perform on switches.

I also have the advantage of a local hobby shop that carries the Menards line.  I like to see what I'm buying before I take the plunge and I liked what I saw.

In all, I'm satisfied with the quality of the Menards cars I've purchased, and actually I'm looking forward to them coming out with some locomotives.  I know it's not in the works officially, but considering how heavily they've gotten into this I'd be amazed if it doesn't happen.  I think there's still a demand for plain, simple, easy-to-use conventional locomotives (which was filled so well by the now out-of-business RMT)  that are much more affordable than what's out there now.

Hope that answers your questions.  For what they provide and at the prices they provide the same I'd give Menards a "thumbs-up."