You seemed genuinely excited earlier and your follow up is sort of anti climatic
To be honest it feels like a bit of a let down. Like I said, it's nice to see a bunch of new stuff to drool over. That's why we all come to the forums, right? Out of all of their lines I like the Queen line the most. Other than switching out the wood for blue bone they didn't really do anything there. I like the look of the blue bone, but given the choice between that and the buffalo horn I'd go with the buffalo almost every time. I felt like I missed out on some buffalo knives from the 2015 catalog, so it's nice to know I'll have another shot at them.
I think that they missed the boat on not offering different steel choices in their S&M line. Last year we saw some D-2 and then in the last couple months they did some runs in CPM-154. I had my hopes up that this meant that we'd be seeing more branching out. Instead everything is in 420HC or ATS-34. I'm sure that these are both fine steels, but I tend to stay away from stainless so the entire S&M section is pretty much a no-go for me.
The Ruple collaboration is just the single blade version of last years, and it was up on dealer's sites several months ago so nothing too exciting there. The Pardue collaboration is one of those knives that looks really neat, but I don't see it being very practical for actual use. I felt the same about last year's version. So, it's not too disappointing, but again another missed opportunity.
The Queen City lineup actually looks really nice. The bone and shield choices are fantastic. They definitely have the classic look that I think they're going for with that line. I'm leery of ordering a stockman online because it's a tough pattern to pull off in my opinion. I might pick one up at the knife show this spring where I'll see Courtney Daniels. I will definitely be picking up one of the tear drops. I'm not a fan of the congress pattern, but that one would be on my short list if I were.
The fixed blades look mostly unchanged, or they changed so little that I don't notice it immediately.
You might be right in that announcing the knives as they're coming up for production would probably increase the buzz. I like the idea of them keeping a steady line. It feels like they're marketing their knives to users unlike GEC who I think mostly attracts collectors. I guess that this year's catalog just doesn't jive as much with my tastes as I was hoping it would. There are still four or five knives that I'm hoping to pick up this year, and one definite. That's about where I was last year when the catalog came out, so I guess I can't complain. I probably just had my hopes up a bit too high.
I'm puzzled by your objections to the liner-lock on the Teardrop? It isn't in any way obtrusive or detreacting from the handling, just adds an interesting feature and safety. One of the best Queens you can get, prize all mine and admire the lock.
This is just a personal preference. I don't feel like a slipjoint needs a lock. Adding one makes it less convenient to use as it adds a step to the process. So, to my mind it adds a negative while adding nothing. It's not a huge deal, but there are enough knives that I want at any one time that the linerlocks never make it to the top of the list.
You still need 2 hands to open it anyway 
and I think you could close it 1 handed if you concentrate....
