andythenorth

+1 Blue, green, black, yellow

Buy fire engines. Trains are not a safe bet, who knows if the child has a train set, is this train compatible etc? Whereas a fire engine is always a safe bet. So buy the fire engine. This is why Lego now mostly only make fire engines for City

This will work for one vehicle. You'll need an alternate method of coupling multiple vehicles though. Technic liftarms orientated holes-down might be a good option.

nice

WELL TO ME IT SHOWS LEGO IS NOT TAKING SERIOUS COLLECTORS SERIOUSLY. SO I FEEL ALL MY INVESTMENT HAS BEEN FOR NOTHING. I FEEL CHEATED AND LET DOWN. ETC ETC. Also I updated my sig with a link that should be better known on Eurobricks http://www.lugnet.co...traumaticevents

Based on UK pick-a-brick prices, a train car set could be done for £10 (this is a conservative estimate), with: 4 complete wheel sets (axles / bearing assemblies / wheels) 2 buffers + couplings 1 train baseplate (not on PAB) Chuck in some other bits - train end handrails, some grille tiles, a few bricks with studs on the side, some steering wheels for brake wheels, some slopes for underframe. Call it £12.99, or put in two pieces of straight track for a bit more on the price. AFOLs will buy it, some kids and parents will buy it, and part strippers will buy it to split for eBay / Bricklink. Can't be a bad use of one SKU for web-only sales?

This is true. When I saw this part, the first thing I thought was 'that is totally useless'. Really, I wonder why TLG bother. My collection is now worthless, and I certainly will be buying less lego in future.

What kind of science is it then? Where are you getting your numbers from? Have you surveyed people in TRU or such? I figure there aren't that many train nerds in the world. My bet would be that instead of 10 buyers at £2, you get 15 buyers at £1. If you can figure out a way to prove it one way or the other, I'll put a £20 bet on it

And they'd have half the revenue per unit. Where's the incentive for TLG to do this?

you're on the wrong forum for that. EB is full of collect-a-nerds.

The tan boat is awesome :)

I'm disgusted that it doesn't have seat belts or brakes either. And the tyres are solid, real tyres are air filled.

My point was actually about the crossing with vehicle, which is gone from the range. Didn't sell well enough? I saw it get retail shelf space placement in the UK, it wasn't online-only. The much older crossover piece was probably dropped because (a) it sucks for play (b) it's an expensive complicated mould.

Well maybe, but then how do people who just want a fire engine just buy a fire engine?

If I was working for TLG, the eBay sales would not be evidence of a demand for boxed retail individual train items. They would be evidence of a secondary / grey market that brings TLG a simple £129.99 retail for one SKU, and leaves the secondary seller dealing with the hassle of stocking, selling, billing and shipping 5 or 6 different items. From this perspective, the eBay market is quite simply evidence for TLG in favour of continuing with large boxed retail train sets, and using other SKUs for even more fire engines. A 'create my train' pack of parts makes sense, and/or a cheaper city train. For everything else we have bricklink. My mum's used it, my cousin uses it, 114 million other visitors have used it.

Trainset, everything in the box = christmas or birthday purchase for a child. Creator expert set = for the train nerds, already have track and stuff. As a parent the first makes sense to me. And as an AFOL, the second makes sense. Want add-ons? Build them. It's a construction toy. TLG dropped the crossing set released at the same time as the first PF trains. That should tell you something about how well individual train add-on sets sell.

Yes. Link below is to a slightly-famous post for AFOLs, it should be stickied on Eurobricks IMHO Traumatic events in the life of a Lego fan http://news.lugnet.c...eneral/?n=43860 Couple other things. 1. The new fire and police sets look great. My two kids will love them (both boys). The older one really likes sets with stories in them, so adding cats, trees, burning buildings etc will go down really well. For example, the forest hideaway set has two cars, a trike, a hiding place, postbox and a bear. So he loves this. He really doesn't care that the building is small, has walls missing on two sides or isn't a hard build. Same will apply to the new sets this year. 2. But really, yet more fire and police stuff? I just bought a load this year. Across the age of both kids, there are about another 10 years when they'll be interested in City sets. How many fire engines will be in our lego cupboard? I'm talking as a parent making a buying decision about toys for children, not as a slightly retentive, slightly obsessive AFOL. 3. So for kids, where's the small, vehicle-sized mobile crane (older kid loves cranes)? Where's the post office set + post van set, and postman on bike set (he loves posting tiles into the postboxes in the forest sets)? Where's the updated version of light and sound (when I was 9, everybody wanted those sets)? 4. Mining has gone down well in our house, finding things trapped inside the rocks is very popular; next up, logging?

You're right. This a very sad development, and effectively renders my entire lego collection worthless. I don’t know what to do about this, but I’ll certainly be buying less of the product in future.

Also, this is made of plastic, and is nowhere near as long as the real train. What were TLG thinking? I feel cheated, and I definitely won't be buying 2.

Looks great. My kids will love it. I'll get two. Awesome job by TLG + the designer All the whiners, can't you grow down a bit? You're missing the joy in the toy. Buy it, build it, crash it, smash it. Then build it again.

The happy face of a kid who's just been given a big box of lego - if I worked at TLG that's what I would be striving for every single day

Traumatic events in the life of a Lego fan: http://news.lugnet.com/general/?n=43860

@Daniele - it is Trains theme that is being dropped right? That's what the internet suggests anyway...

I have leaked news (my friend works at a plastics supplier). TLG are discontinuing bley coloured parts (omg what will I do with all my bley parts, they're now worthless). BUT they're bringing back grey! Because it was the number one request from AFOLs.

That's awesome. Much better than the silly mog