LEGO #21344 - Orient Express

[RedBrick1]

LEGO Orient Express

• Set number: 21344
• Designation: Orient Express
• Theme: Ideas
• Number of parts:  2540
• Minifigures:  ?
• Release date:  November 1, 2023
• RRP:  €299.99
• Fan-designer: LEt'sGO/Thomas Lajon

Primary information via Promobricks details subject to change

Original Ideas submission page: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/568ee861-3b62-413a-9432-ce1d3a98c61a

Promobricks article: https://www.promobricks.de/lego-orient-express-erste-infos/162305/

LEGO.com listing: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/the-orient-express-train-21344

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With this being the biggest LEGO Train release in years, I thought this upcoming set deserved its own central thread. I'm looking forward to November December!

 

Edited December 1, 2023 by RedBrick1

[RichardGoring]

Same. It has a lot of potential. I hope they do it well.

[LordsofMedieval]

It really kind of depends on what they do with it. I don't much like the original submission. But Lego tends to make major changes to pretty much every Ideas set conceived. So no matter what, it's unlikely to be a close copy.

*Edit* And before someone asks why I don't like the original - it mostly has to do with the choice of the locomotive. Unlike a number of other famous steam trains (the 20th Century Limited, Flying Scotsman, Silver Link, etc.), a ton of different locomotives hauled the Orient Express. This was due to the train's nearly 100 year run, and the fact that it switched engines throughout its journey depending on terrain and nationality.

In this case, the engine the creator chose to model was the PLM 231 K 8: 

... which, IMO, is neither a) a particularly comely locomotive, nor b) the most iconic from the 'roster' of Orient Express engines. But, perhaps most importantly, it is c) an engine that is very difficult to convincingly reproduce in Lego** (this is true for a number of reasons, including the presence of fenders [which Lego never handles well], an extreme amount of small piping, and a highly-unusual and complex cab shape [see for yourself. And, in this case, as far as I can tell, the designer didn't even come close to capturing how bizarre that is. French locomotives, right? They're beautiful, but so unnecessarily contoured.]). 

I have a feeling that the creator chose the K 8 because it was the engine featured in a classic Bachmann train set:

... but he probably would have been better served by going with something like the SNCF 4-230.G.353 - the locomotive showcased in the Orient Express exposition:

... an engine which, IMO, is both more attractive, more Lego-friendly, and has the advantage of being smaller (which might have reduced the part count and price slightly). 

I'm not trashing this set entirely. If they do a good job, I'll almost certainly be a buyer. I'm more just saying that there is also a lot of potential for a Hogwarts Express CE-like disaster here, and I await further details.

 

 

**One potentially good piece of news, though, is that the K 8 had (I believe - it's so damned difficult to find information on French steam locomotives via Google) 79" driving wheels. Which, if Lego actually built the thing to the scale the creator intended, would mean we would finally get suitable official stand-ins for XXL wheels. But... I wouldn't count my chickies before they hatched. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by LordsofMedieval

[RedBrick1]

I'm 100% willing to hold full judgment until I see the actual set, but I see what you're saying. 

...

I was thinking the other day that this will really be the only other set directly comparable to the Emerald Night - it's been a while since that one has been on shelves!

[LordsofMedieval]

2 hours ago, RedBrick1 said:

I'm 100% willing to hold full judgment until I see the actual set, but I see what you're saying. 

...

I was thinking the other day that this will really be the only other set directly comparable to the Emerald Night - it's been a while since that one has been on shelves!

One would hope that they won't alter this into a 6w like the Emerald Night. If it is converted into 6w... well, some people will be pleased. But it will eliminate me as a buyer, that's for sure. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by LordsofMedieval

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

I'm just excited to have good looking LEGO Trains back on the shelves in store. Hoping LEGO do it justice! 

[*thomas*]

At this pricepoint, I don't think they will make it a 6 wide set. The part-count for this set tells me this would be highly inlickely, unless they add three carriages and a station.

On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice to have a nice 6-wide set again along the lines of the sante fe, bnsf, maersk, horizon express etc? It would bridge the gap between 'city trains' and 'afol mocs' for many.

One thing that bothers me with lego is their inconsistency when it comes to scale. 6-wide used to be the 'norm', altough it has it's limitations, they (TLG) designed some great sets. Now we had a 7 wide creator set for afols, some 6-wide (traditional) city sets, a 6-wde HP train, an 8 wide disney train, a 'whatever-wide' HP display set. It's just a mess. 

[RedBrick1]

11 hours ago, LEGOTrainBuilderSG said:

I'm just excited to have good looking LEGO Trains back on the shelves in store. Hoping LEGO do it justice! 

Same here. If you count the two Bricklink sets (Studgate and The Old Engine Shed) we are getting more AFOL Train sets than ever before. A pleasant surprise.

7 hours ago, *thomas* said:

At this pricepoint, I don't think they will make it a 6 wide set. The part-count for this set tells me this would be highly inlickely, unless they add three carriages and a station.

On the other hand, wouldn't it be nice to have a nice 6-wide set again along the lines of the sante fe, bnsf, maersk, horizon express etc? It would bridge the gap between 'city trains' and 'afol mocs' for many.

One thing that bothers me with lego is their inconsistency when it comes to scale. 6-wide used to be the 'norm', altough it has it's limitations, they (TLG) designed some great sets. Now we had a 7 wide creator set for afols, some 6-wide (traditional) city sets, a 6-wde HP train, an 8 wide disney train, a 'whatever-wide' HP display set. It's just a mess. 

Agreed on the piece count. My gut feeling is that we are getting something in line with the Crocodile locomotive when it comes to scale. 

[Shiva]

Am I the only one hoping it is 8 to 10 wide?

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, Shiva said:

Am I the only one hoping it is 8 to 10 wide?

If there were a decent range of 6-7 wide trains available, then I could definitely see the appeal of this being a larger model train, similar to the Hogwarts Express, as the detail you can capture is great and would be fun to make. But the lack of smaller, playscale trains means that for me I'd prefer something in the smaller widths.

[GoHabsGo]

I do prefer 6 to 7 wide trains so they can run on standard lego 9v tracks

[Shiva]

That I do understand.

But if this is more of a display model.

[Marty]

I hope it is 8W. The locomotive is very complicated and it's hard to do it justice without going 8W or 9W. It is still possible to have steam locomotives navigate R40 curves at 8W or 9W, I do it all the time with my trains. I hope that they will limit the passenger car to 8W though, even though the ideas submission had a wider car. 8W passeneger cars are the sweet spot IMO for 1:48 scale trains. Seeing that this set will be the spiritual successor of the Emerald Night, I can't wait to see what detail they pack into it.

[LordsofMedieval]

4 hours ago, Marty said:

I hope it is 8W. The locomotive is very complicated and it's hard to do it justice without going 8W or 9W. It is still possible to have steam locomotives navigate R40 curves at 8W or 9W, I do it all the time with my trains. I hope that they will limit the passenger car to 8W though, even though the ideas submission had a wider car. 8W passeneger cars are the sweet spot IMO for 1:48 scale trains. Seeing that this set will be the spiritual successor of the Emerald Night, I can't wait to see what detail they pack into it.

It's going to be very difficult to accomplish the fenders without going 8w. Not impossible (and, hey, they could always introduce a new piece [lol, who am I kidding]), but difficult.

[hsousa]

Crocodile 10277: 1271 parts, 100€ MSRP

Orient Express: 2540 parts, 300€?!?

[M_slug357]

@hsousa maybe it has +2 minifigs compared to 10277? Maybe new parts’ molds are also inflating the price?

[*thomas*]

Maybe it has track, maybe it's motorised, maybe they needed a licence... We'll see. 

[M_slug357]

I’m hoping the top half of the engine comes to us as a 1-piece mold to ensure that TLG gets the details right!

 

[LEGOTrainBuilderSG]

21 hours ago, hsousa said:

Crocodile 10277: 1271 parts, 100€ MSRP

Orient Express: 2540 parts, 300€?!?

Maybe it comes with LEGO's first smoke generator? Hence the price increase.. 

[LordsofMedieval]

8 hours ago, LEGOTrainBuilderSG said:

Maybe it comes with LEGO's first smoke generator? Hence the price increase.. 

Perhaps it comes with a motor? I mean, that would at least partially explain the price - if it included the kit to run the engine. 

[Selander]

...Inflation....increased margins....anyone ?

[LordsofMedieval]

5 minutes ago, Selander said:

...Inflation....increased margins....anyone ?

Serious gouging if there isn't some kind of really specialized part.

Look at the new El Dorado Fortress: 

Same part count, $80 less. And that's also a product without licensing concerns/aimed specifically at AFOLs. 

No, I totally agree with @hsousa - something with this price doesn't add up.

[Sunil766]

Shall we make a poll? 

For me this is a hard pass and major disappointment if it's 8w. I think it needs to work with the lego system and not be inconsistent (hogwarts express, and yes I see how this is debatable). 8w and above I assume (!) is preferred by people, afols, who want to run it on a larger layout with other 8w (= non lego) trains. For this use case you can easily take one of the many beautiful moc steamers. I as a non-moc standard lego person want to use a train together with other lego trains.

The Croc was and is beautiful. Grown up display model but also works on lego track without looking ridiculously out of place next to the other creator experts, metroliners, Santa fes and whatnot. 

Looking forward to this orient express and actually carefully optimistic since lately lego has shown that they can make amazing sets - after what felt like a long period of either weird sets (the bust) or just super expensive monstrosities. (again, yes this is a very subjective perception) 

Happy evening! 

[Murdoch17]

4 hours ago, Sunil766 said:

Shall we make a poll? 

For me this is a hard pass and major disappointment if it's 8w. I think it needs to work with the lego system and not be inconsistent (hogwarts express, and yes I see how this is debatable). 8w and above I assume (!) is preferred by people, afols, who want to run it on a larger layout with other 8w (= non lego) trains. For this use case you can easily take one of the many beautiful moc steamers. I as a non-moc standard lego person want to use a train together with other lego trains.

The Croc was and is beautiful. Grown up display model but also works on lego track without looking ridiculously out of place next to the other creator experts, metroliners, Santa fes and whatnot. 

Looking forward to this orient express and actually carefully optimistic since lately lego has shown that they can make amazing sets - after what felt like a long period of either weird sets (the bust) or just super expensive monstrosities. (again, yes this is a very subjective perception) 

Happy evening! 

I vote 7 wide, transitioning to 6 further back. It's what the EN was, for the most part. (7 wide cab, 6 wide tender, 6 wide coach)

[Legownz]

1 hour ago, Murdoch17 said:

I vote 7 wide, transitioning to 6 further back. It's what the EN was, for the most part. (7 wide cab, 6 wide tender, 6 wide coach)

To me, this makes the most sense and it's what I'm hoping for. If it is 8w, I will probably still pick it up, but I'll be grumbling the entire time I'm converting it to 6w.