AndyB100

I think there are several things to remember about the toy shop. Firstly, it is six years since it first became available. That's a new generation of children to enjoy it. Secondly, the original set was made entirely from existing easily available pieces. No new prints, except possibly the carol singers' heads, and even then I rather doubt it. No new hairdos. No stickers. I'd argue that the original toy shop was a pilot to see how the theme went, including that wonderful hand build teddy bear, and that's why they pushed the boat out more and more through the rest of the series, including what is arguably the best Lego house ever. I'd certainly suggest that the new version is an attempt to address the shortcomings of the original set, such as the very small number of lights on the tree, the small number of toys available and the absence of a sticker on the sign. The bear isn't an improvement, but hey, you can't blame them for using a premould when it exists. In the end, it's not about us, much as I am sorely tempted to order the missing pieces to convert my original toy shop into the new one. It's always about the children, who, as ever, are the main customers. If the new version doesn't sell well, they won't do anything next year; if it goes well, they will either rerelease or improve the bakery. Much as I would love to see new Winter Village sets, I think that's the end of it now, and to be fair, I've run out of space to display them and not risk divorce. ;) I will therefore be buying something else. Maybe the Mercedes Arocs truck.

An interesting one regarding packaging and catalogues for you is that the normal packaging for the UK was English/French/Flemish. I have the exception: a 1982 trains catalogue in English/French/Italian, including the notice that 7750 was not available in any of the three countries. The 12v boxes tell us a lot about markets. UK, France and Belgium we've already discussed, but French/German/Italian will have served Germany, Switzerland and Italy in one go, and the Scandinavian group will have spoken for itself. Presumably English/French/Italian was an exception to deal with the limited market for 7750.

I think the 36 months notice was a legal requirement for toys exported to France. As manufacturing moved, the 36 months notice moved from being a sticker for the French market to a printed notice on the box itself. The 12v trains weren't sold in the USA for legal reasons - I believe the highest permissible voltage for children's toys was 9v, and I think that tapping into this market was a factor over and above general refresh and review of the existing equipment after the successful pilot of the Light and Sound System since 1986. Part of the issue will have been that the 4.5volt 1981 and 1985 trains simply weren't in the same league as the 12v trains of the respective years. 7740 and 7745 had prestige; 7720 and 7722 did not, and that was even more true of 7710 and 7715, the trains without motor. Your pics of course showed the European packaging variants, which were different from the US packaging requirements, which I know required piece counts, names etc. I obtained 7824 from a US ebayer some years ago, and to my surprise it was the normal European box with a large white label over the standard multilingual text to display the US-specific requirements.

Blindingly obvious now I've seen it. Still requires you to do both, but it's a way round :)

What I don't like about 42009 is that, unlike the Mk1, additional string isn't paid out as the boom extends to keep the position of the hook the same relative to the end of the boom. Has the ultimate 42009 dealt with this?