rahziel

Lego 75955 Hogwarts Express

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2018 is becoming a good year to lego train fans, we wanted more of course, but give us material to moc at least, hehehe...

Sources like brickfinder talk about 801 pieces at USD$79.99

All aboard the LEGO® Harry Potter 75955 Hogwarts Express! Vanish through the brick wall on Platform 9 3⁄4 at King’s Cross station and join Harry, Ron and Hermione on their journey to Hogwarts. Find your seats in the carriage and get a chocolate frog from the Trolley Witch, but watch out for the Dementor! Luckily, Remus Lupin is at hand to cast a powerful spell and shield Harry from the terrifying creature, so you can get back on track for more magical Harry Potter adventures.

  • Includes 5 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin and the Trolley Witch, plus Dementor and Scabbers figures.
  • Features the iconic King’s Cross Platform 93⁄4 and Hogwarts Express train.
  • Platform features a railway bridge with a clock, steps that lead to a moving brick wall entrance, newspaper stand with 2 Daily Prophet newspapers, and a ‘Wanted’ poster.
  • Hogwarts Express train includes a carriage with 4 seats, removable side panel and roof, plus the Trolley Witch with sweets trolley.

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What do you think?!

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Hooray! Very happy to see this, and at a very reasonable price for a train set!! Consider it at the top of my to-by list.

The only thing that befuddles me is why they did away with the magnetic couplings, but I wouldn't call it a problem.

Edited by Bricksmith

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Magnetic couplings, least of our worries, looks like they have done away with the train track as well!  Should keep the costs down.

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Was hoping for the old train windows, a more darker red, and thanks for the wake up call, wow no magnetic couplings... that's no worries indeed, the 80$ is a great price, got to wait to see how much in €, I'll take two at least if the price stays good!

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I'm glad they are releasing a hogwarts express with the proper wheels, though it looks way too short to be a hogwarts express. This can be fixed though. I'm guessing there will be instructions to add a PF 2.0 battery box and a motor into the tender. 

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5 minutes ago, Goldenmasamune said:

I'm glad they are releasing a hogwarts express with the proper wheels, though it looks way too short to be a hogwarts express. This can be fixed though. I'm guessing there will be instructions to add a PF 2.0 battery box and a motor into the tender. 

I would be surprised if it's power functions compatible. The tender doesn't look big enough to house the battery box and I don't see any driving mechanism in the engine. 

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2 minutes ago, Eaglefan344 said:

I would be surprised if it's power functions compatible. The tender doesn't look big enough to house the battery box and I don't see any driving mechanism in the engine. 

The tender is the exact minimum size needed to house the battery box, which will also contain the receiver (powerfunctions 2.0). 

It would use a standard PF train motor, also in the tender. 

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Seeing this set is a nice surprise, as I'd forgotten about it. Overall, I reckon it's pretty good, and certainly a massive improvement over the previous iteration. However, as a British train nut, I'm going to be making comparisons to the prototype loco, GWR 5972 Olton Hall (https://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart166axe/14598905311/in/photostream/).

The colours are excellent; looking at a shiny red steam locomotive is pleasing (although unrealistic for the GWR Hall class, but never mind). It's good that it's got the right number and size of wheels, especially since TLG have the parts in their inventory now. On the other hand, I'm slightly worried about the front carrying-wheels bogie; it looks as it if only has one pivot point, meaning it will be impossible for the loco to negotiate track curves. I hope I'm wrong. The connecting rods are pretty over-simplified, but will still provide nice motion and should be fairly easy to upgrade to a more realistic setup. Unfortunately, the whole model looks a little too short and tall, as if it's been ran up against a wall. Ah well, it's not awful.

The tender and carriage are both rather small and have too few axles. However, 3-axle tenders are difficult to do, and bogies on a coach intended not to run on track would be annoying. I also theorise that the technic-beam couplers are also to keep the train together when it's being pushed along a floor rather than rails; magnets may tend to come apart too often when there are higher resistances from carpets or other obstacles.

Overall, it's pretty much exactly what I had hoped and expected TLG to make. A good-looking set, with some room for AFOLs to make improvements. The no-track thing might annoy some, but I suspect it makes the set cheaper and more accessible, and easier to get several as parts packs without ending up with too much curved track. We won't know if it's designed as PF compatible until we know the details about PF 2.0 I guess, as the battery box and motors may be different shapes to the current ones.

P.S. I've just noticed that the locomotive has no driver, fireman or guard!

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I'm just glad we now have another, newer set that supplies us with some large train wheels, as it would've been ridiculous if they just pulled off the exact same thing they did with the last incarnation of the Hogwarts Express. Now yes, I too think a Dark Red makeover would've been nice this time around, but hey, I can't complain much now that they've incorporated the large wheels.

Edited by Digger of Bricks

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I welcome the addition of another train set, the use of the big driver wheels is a great use of a part that is not in many sets.

The new stickers are welcome, especially the curved "Hogwarts Castle" part. What looks like Tile, Round Corner 4 x 4 Macaroni Wide in black which is a new colour.

The missed opportunity to use the windows with curved corners and train window glass is a shame.

It's like a version of a carton engine for an animated show, a version of a version. Ripe for MODding, buy two and build it better.

Is that a new element, brick with pins for the swinging wall? a 1x2 brick with pins on the single stud side.

Having no tracks is good, I don't need more curves, and the use of beams and pins for couplings, makes more sense.

A different sign for  "Platform 9 3/4 " is welcomed as an alternative to the old round one.

The prevalent thing with this set, is its a set for kids to have a lot of play value. AFOL's need to buy two and make it a train worth running in their displays

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First off, I hardly think this makes 2018 a good year for train fans - the city trains are nothing special, and instead of an advanced creator set, we get this.

Now, don't get me wrong - which leads me to the second thing, THIS is the Hogwarts Express we've been waiting for.  Yes, I know it's still greatly flawed - it's not big enough, the passenger car is far too small (and there's only one? That's terrible), but they've finally built it a proper steam engine with the right wheels, drivers, and even a tender (which is missing from some earlier versions of the Hogwarts Express).

This is a kids set, we need to remember, and is supposed to be appealing at a price point for HP fans, not train fans, so I think we got a good cross between a Ruby Night (the red colorization of the Emerald Night) the older "play" sets.  With a little work, this could become an awesome Hogwarts Express, and unless they were to make a huge (like Diagon Alley size) set (which is obviously not coming, otherwise they probably wouldn't have made this), I think this is the best compromise we could have expected from TLG.

I'm actually pretty excited to see this coming, and I'm hoping it's at the $80 price point people have been guessing.

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This reminds me of the Monster Fighter's Ghost Train a few years back. It had no tracks and couplers (if I recall).  It wasn't hard to MOD Ghost Train to PF and magnetic couplers.  Large driver wheels would be welcomed for MOCing good old box cab electrics.

 

 

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1 hour ago, technic70s said:

The new stickers are welcome, especially the curved "Hogwarts Castle" part. What looks like Tile, Round Corner 4 x 4 Macaroni Wide in black which is a new colour.

Hey, I completely looked that over initially! That's some pretty clever NPU of a newer part! :thumbup: :smug:

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Are you sure those are stickers?  The dish has traditionally been printed.  Applying a sticker to a large macaroni might not be too difficult for you are me, but I wouldn't be surprised if TLG thought it would be for the target audience.

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I'm pretty excited about this.  Instead of griping about what's wrong, let's focus on what we DO get.  Large flanged and flangeless drivers, check.  A serviceable locomotive, tender, and coach, check.  A significantly sized platform with secret entrance, check.   Decent minifigures (not that I really care about them), check.   If the price is indeed the rumored $80, it's a great value!   When I have some extra cash, I'll be buying two.   I can use the extra parts to lengthen the loco, and put in a 2nd coach.   Should be relatively easy to mod the tender with PF1 or PF2 componentry for a working train.

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16 hours ago, rahziel said:

42155514321_de8b72c950_o.png

 

14 hours ago, ColletArrow said:

The colours are excellent; looking at a shiny red steam locomotive is pleasing (although unrealistic for the GWR Hall class, but never mind). It's good that it's got the right number and size of wheels, especially since TLG have the parts in their inventory now. On the other hand, I'm slightly worried about the front carrying-wheels bogie; it looks as it if only has one pivot point, meaning it will be impossible for the loco to negotiate track curves. I hope I'm wrong. The connecting rods are pretty over-simplified, but will still provide nice motion and should be fairly easy to upgrade to a more realistic setup. Unfortunately, the whole model looks a little too short and tall, as if it's been ran up against a wall. Ah well, it's not awful.

The tender and carriage are both rather small and have too few axles. However, 3-axle tenders are difficult to do, and bogies on a coach intended not to run on track would be annoying. I also theorise that the technic-beam couplers are also to keep the train together when it's being pushed along a floor rather than rails; magnets may tend to come apart too often when there are higher resistances from carpets or other obstacles.

...

P.S. I've just noticed that the locomotive has no driver, fireman or guard!

 

Looks to be a great set for the money. I would say the design style is similar to the Lone Ranger locomotive, at least in terms of the running gear (with the addition of the connecting rod). Shrewd move excluding the side rods, keeps the locomotive 2 bricks narrower while also eliminating the need to explain quartering. I bet the pilot truck is similar to the LR locomotive and if so, my mod for that will likely work on this build too.

Definitely enough bits for an AFOL to modify it to a satisfactory train. The set does seem stubby, the use of drawbars instead of magnets (probably saving $6 or more off the price), two axle car (another couple of $$$), etc. seem like reasonable compromises to keep a licensed set at a low price. It has a lot of play value. Even if PF fits in the tender, it will look poor... but I suppose not much worse than the EN with a big battery box in the tender. I bet they go the way of the Lone Ranger though and not provide instructions to motorize.

The lack of train windows is unfortunate, though it does not necessarily mean they are gone forever, just that the standard windows are cheaper to produce.

It is a magical train, so who needs a driver?

 

 

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So that people don't miss these pictures, here is the actual brick built 75955 set, as seen at a Lego Event in the US.

4 minutes ago, JEB314 (James) said:

Here we go!

Info:

PSX_20180517_220556.png

Overview:

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Locomotive and Tender:

PSX_20180517_220636.png

Carriage and Station:

PSX_20180517_220734.png

 

 

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It seems there are no train doors on the passenger car either.   I guess they can use their magic to get in and out.   Hope they don't get splinched in the process.

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Just amazing!  After so many decent but kiddy Harry Potter trains, this one hits it out of the park!  All of the new Harry Potter sets really are incredible.

It's great to see Lego going back for nostalgic sets, even without a direct tie in. The original Jurassic Park, now Harry Potter.  Just take a page out of Star Wars, and release the same sets but make them better and better each time.

As for the train itself, it will look great next to the Emerald Night. So nice to have more choices for the large train wheels. And buying two to make an extended platform, get a second passenger carriage, and perhaps stretch the tender and engine itself will be lots of fun!

Can't wait. Thanks Lego! 

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On 5/16/2018 at 11:46 PM, dr_spock said:

Large driver wheels would be welcomed for MOCing good old box cab electrics.

 

So I'm not the only one with that plan :wink:

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46 minutes ago, CrispyBassist said:

So I'm not the only one with that plan :wink:

On you mentioning that, I'm intending on building one too!

I was trying to find the post I've seen where I got the idea for my version, think it was this picture in particular:

On 10/04/2015 at 3:54 AM, Commander Wolf said:

Bonus material #2: LDD of the B1 that I didn't finish. Pantographs are a pain.

b1_150301d.png

Wonderful! (Though a little off topic!) ?

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