legotownlinz

I consider the Winter Holiday train as a historic standard gauge train with some christmas decoration, so the scale is fine for me. If the Disney train had the same width as other trains, despite actually being a narrow gauge train, I would be fine. But wider is not acceptable.

Why, the winter holiday train is 6 studs wide?

8 studs wide It must be smaller, not wider than other trains. It will look strange whenever another train is nearby. And it will get stuck at all existing platforms. Congratulations to Lego to produce a set that is incompatible with virtually any existing Lego train layout. They mess up a set that should have been a no-brainer. It's unbelievable. It's a set for beginners who don't notice that the scale is horribly wrong. I bet all train fans will be very disappointed once they run the train the first time and notice all the flaws. Maybe it was difficult or even impossible to make the train look good at a smaller scale. But if they cannot do it right, they shouldn't do it all and release something else. And as usual: price, stickers, plastic axles, ... nothing is done right in this set.

They are called tamping machines and DGS (dynamic track stabilisation). You can get an overview of track maintenance machines at https://www.plassertheurer.com/en/home/home.html. Click on 'Machines' on the website's menu to get descriptions and images of many machines.

I'm not sure if CFOL's list are just wishes or leaks.

Wishes do not need fake set numbers. You could avoid the confusion by omitting them.

Love it!

Do you mean it looks better because of the metal on top so that it is glossy like a real rail? That's indeed a small advantage. But since most other parts that would be metal in the real world are made out of plastic in the Lego world I don't think it is a strong argument from an aesthetic perspective. I say plastic tracks look better. 9V layouts look silly because of Lego's strange track geometry and the limitation to a single type of switches.

I like the idea of a public transport subtheme. The current focus on cars in Lego's product line is outdated. The spirit of the time requires trains, busses, bicycles and other modes of environmental-friendly transport.

As far as I can see, they make instructions and decals but nothing related to tracks. Everything they do is 100% compatible with Lego's products. I appreciate all the work enthusiasts do for the Lego community, but its a hobby, not a business to make a living. Assuming an average price of USD 15 per item, they made USD 15,000 within the last two years. The only two realistic scenarios we ever get metal tracks are: There is a patron that invests several million Dollars without expecting any significant return. A large model railroad company with a good distribution network and enough money for the upfront investments enters the Lego market. In the meantime, several clubs, trusting in false promises for metal tracks, delay the inevitable migration to plastic tracks for several year and ignore all the products from companies like BrickTracks and TrixBrix that would allow much nicer Lego train layouts.

The color palette is not as different as it looks on the box art photo. When fixing the colors, this is the result: Nevertheless, the proportions have changed significantly so that the tree doesn't look as elegant as in the fan design anymore.

It can't and it will never happen. It's the result of the excitement created around Brickworld but will be dead as a doornail when creating the first realistic business plan.

No surprise it doesn't sell well with two other police themes on the shelves. I don't think it is a bad theme though.

The 2H2019 catalog contains four pages of police sets in three different subthemes (mountain police, sky police, classic police). That's out of balance. City will never be cancelled (but maybe renamed), but it needs some adjustments to cover other areas than police and firefighters more often.

For such an approach, Lego's straight 9V track used in stations and sidings would be sufficient. I had a look at this website and it seems the FxBricks are 3D-printed. I'm afraid he underestimates the costs for molds and the tooling for the metal parts. And it requires a few employees to turn the idea into products within a reasonable mount of time.

No problem, I'm fine with your opinion. In the end its neither you nor me but the market that decides if FxTracks will be succesful.

Wow, two announcements within a few hours. I'm excited. I'm now thinking about the different concepts of BrickTrack and FxTrack and the future of my layout (I'm close to building a large one). What is affordable, what is future proof, what is innovative? There is an obvious huge advantage for BrickTrack's switches. They are 100% Lego-compatible, cheaper to manufacture than metal ones and the product range can be extended step by step. Investing in FxTracks is a bet on the future of the company, there is no alternative if their plans fail. And the elements cannot be introduced gradually, the curves do not make sense without switches. From my pre-Lego era I have some experience with analog and DCC controlled H0 and N trains. One of the reasons (beside robustness) why I switched to Lego is the simplicity of the PF and PU systems. No cables, no layout restrictions, no limitations regarding tracks and train control. The freedom to 3D-print track elements, build tracks from bricks or to do handicrafts opens up so many opportunities. I see no reason or advantage in going back to an old-school metal track system for private use. Metal tracks and DCC have their strengths in large, automated layouts for exhibitions, when replacing the batteries of permanently running trains becomes a severe issue. I wonder why FxTrack sticks to the original Lego track design so closely. The necessity to produce all elements instead of extending the current Lego product range provides the opportunity to fix all the issues of the Lego tracks. Why not make the track distance smaller? Why not make 1-wide sleepers? Why not use highly conductible nickel silver or brass rail profiles and joiners? Why not improve the appearance to make ballasting the track cheaper? In summary, I don't see any advantage of FxTrack over other products for the majority of customers. Can a product range that requires investments over a million USD be successful if the customer base is limited to a few LUGs. I say no. I'd rather see a market for innovative wireless recharging systems, alternative rechargeable battery boxes, stronger motors with more weight. Or what about small battery-powered Bluetooth-controlled switch drives? There are so many opportunities to improve the Lego train ecosystem. Going back to the old metal track system is certainly not a very smart one.

The increased piece count makes me worried that they changed the scale. Hopefully its remains minifig scale. Please no second disappointment after the Jurassic Park set.

A new firefighter ship would be nice.

Everything as described in the instructions but with the motor polarity swapped in one motor.

I never had derailing issues with the dual Horizon Express setup. I have one motor in each power car and a layout with inclines/declines.

That are great news. Can't wait for the switches.

Right. The idea behind Ideas is to turn unique designs into products and avoid products that have been done before. This explains most of the (bad) decisions the ideas team did in the past. The error in reasoning is that customers want new ideas, but they don't. Let's face it, most of the submissions are buildings, vehicles and space-teamed designs and Lego does at most one product per category, rejecting all the others. What would be necessary is to split up Ideas into two product lines, one that keeps the focus on novel ideas. And another one, for outstanding but not so novel designs like modulars, cars and trains. The latter one can be crowdfunded.

I assume none of us wants to live in the pre-industrial area, thus, industry is not bad per se. If Lego takes environmental issues seriously, they must stop making car models immediately and only produce train sets. Of course only electric ones, steam trains are dirty. I fully agree that the result of the last Ideas review is among the worst in the Ideas history. If Lego wants the dinosaurs skeleton so badly, they should have simply chosen two sets. I don't want to say that the dinosaurs set is bad, but it's not what the majority of customers want. Dinosaurs work for kids, but only dinosaurs, not dinosaurs skeletons. Other themes get by far more sets per year, sometimes really crappy ones. Its hard to understand that Ideas does not play a bigger role in the Lego universe. Crowdfunding can indeed be an option to see more fan designs on shelves. However, the strange fishes are certainly not the way to go, I doubt Forma is a success story. If Lego had chosen designs that fans actually want, the crowdfunding idea would have worked out much better.

https://www.stonewars.de/geruechte/lego-71044-disney-zug/