Holiday Releases Week: Christmas Cars in Z – Marklin

Another tradition at the holidays is Marklin Christmas releases in Z. Going on 22 years the Christmas releases comprise many more cars than other categories of holiday special imprints. And the designs are mostly secular with a couple of religious themed cars.

Due to their limited release status Christmas cars tend to sell out fast with a few tending toward rarer status which I will point out in captions. Great series that I have grown to appreciate more and more with time; each car is delivered in a small gift box with clear acrylic themed Christmas ornament. In addition to the ornament releases for Christmas are American and European prototype starter sets not included in this post.

In order to tackle 22 years of Christmas releases I will simply caption each photo with catalog number, year, and note if car is particularly rare, but first a rather unusual car given to Marklin employees: 8661-000? year?

“Weihnachtszeit ist Marklinzeit” (Christmas Time is Marklin TIme)
Marklin 80607 (1997)
Marklin 80610 (2000)
Marklin 80611 (2001)
Marklin 80612 (2002)
Marklin 80613 (2003)
Marklin 80614 (2004)
Marklin 80615 (2005)
Marklin 80616 (2006)
Marklin 80617 (2007)
Marklin 80618 (2008)
Marklin 80619 (2009)
Marklin 80620 (2010)
Marklin 80621 (2011)
Marklin 80622 (2012)
Marklin 80623 (2013) RARE Note: car features a ‘black’ Santa, it is a particularly difficult car to locate
Marklin 80623 (2013)
Marklin 80623 (2013)
Marklin 80624 (2014)
Marklin 80625 (2015)
Marklin 80625 (2015) Note: small decorated Christmas tree is included with car
Marklin 80625 (2015) “FROHE WEIHNACHTEN” (Merry Christmas) imprinted on roof
Marklin 80626 (2016) note: newly tooled type Eaos hopper
Marklin 80627 (2017) note: “XMAS” is laser cut from cardstock
Marklin 80628 (2018)

Siding: one Christmas release not reported here is 80609 featuring type O 10 freight car for K.W.St.E with brakeman’s cab and load of paper wrapped chocolate. Also included with the release was a small decorated Christmas tree. Released 1999.