Capparezza

That's great to hear! Keep him going that way It's not the fear of a complete disappearance of Trains as a subtheme that's frightening me. It's the lack of love for it and the total obnoxiousness on how to market this theme correctly what's worrying me. I think there is still potential hidden, even with all those mobile and PC games and other digital gadgets, if it's just done right... Just take a look at what is happening in the community: train automation software, various different curve radii either homebrewn on 3D printers or professionally made, the PFx brick, the "rebirth" of the monorail. Just a few projects that are rapidly progressing our LEGO trains hobby.

Well, thanks mate. And if it's a follow you'd like, I'm happy to give you one Just don't expect me to comment often. I'm an old fart that spends more time on washing and sorting LEGO or baking bread than being on the forums, lately. @Gomek I can see what you're up to. But unless LEGO is willing to slow down the pace and keep those sets longer on the shelves, I don't think they will follow that path.

Oh dang... I'm way too old for that speed of communications, sorry that I didn't post back until now Some wonderful points made, on both the (if you will) pro and cons side of trains, whether PF or 9V or any other system. Let me just drop a word on some of the comments. and let me excuse myself first: I am not able to sit for too long or stare on a screen for more than 30 minutes, so please apologize if I selectively answer keypoints instead of going into lenghts. Oh well, I hope that does not lead to prejudice on your side... I may be a bit biased when it comes to the 9V era, but I am also not blind to where LEGO was back in the days regarding Train sets. And that's not only 9V I'm talking about here, just roll back time a little more and have a look at the 12V and 4.5V line up. So many wonderful standalone sets and also very well crafted Train sets. But I'm not complaining. This year has been wonderful for us Train heads, having 5 sets available to us (60197, 60198, 71044, 70424 and supposedly 10254 again... I bet they don't let the opportunity slip to have the Christmas Train up for grabs once more). However, unfortunately you haven't given any clues why 9V is trash? Not even in your following comments... That makes it even worse. Add-ons could be usefull for every Train head, whether he is still stuck on 9V or 12V... or maybe already moved on to PUP. @OwenMistika Yeah, 3677 has a good colour scheme. I like that one. There is also 4564, if you're more in to yellow and like that style of locomotive. Red and White also goes well, if you take 4551 into account, which has a more unusual crocodile style. Regarding your comments on the size of sets or combination of different sets integrated into one: Some of the next comments to nail it down for me: I just take a look at our local small ads and I can see several offers for single wagons for sets 60197 or 60051. Even single wagons for Cargo Train sets are present. So there definitely IS a market for that. And the want for rail packs like we had back in the times (only straights, only curves, not a weird mixup) comes up as often as the want of LEGO City friends for separately packed road baseplates (only straights, only curves, only crossings, not a weird mixup ). Funny thing, even that was present up until the 90ies... However. As much as I do hope for a full-fletched reboot of the Trains theme, I am pretty sure this won't happen. Trains (and "real" model trains) do not hold the same appeal as they did, kids are looking for more "digital" ways to fullfill their hobby needs. And LEGO seems to cater for that with their new Hidden Side theme.

Err, what? I have got a couple of the original Metro Liners as well as some copies of 4563 here. All are working without any flaw. The motors are reliable, not a single one has given up. The train power supplies are going strong and keep on working. The only parts that I had to replace so far are those damn contact cables connecting the rails to the power supply. But, plain technically, everything is still in working order without any signs of degrading performance. Besides that, when doing train shows I can keep my trains running and do not have to take my trains out of the loop to replace batteries. So, please elaborate on that part. Ah yes. And that's why we see less and less sets coming along with those trains? Back in the outgoing 9V era we had the following sets accompanying the 4511 and 4512: 4513 Grand Central Station 4514 Cargo Crane 10027 Train Engine Shed 10128 Train Level Crossing And these are only the sets that just came out in 2003. Not to speak of the other sets that were still on sale that year, like the wonderful My Own Train wagons. Now, having the 1HY 2019 catalog in front of me, I can see the following: Yepp. That's it. No train station, no engine shed, not even any single wagon or set that could go along with your freshly bought train. Surely, that must be because trains are selling better now than they did back in the days... *cough* But anyhow, yepp, that last World City express train looks awful. I do like that cargo train, however. The colour scheme works perfectly on this one.

... if you have an AFOL parent that hides packaging and instructions and doesn't let you play with the bricks. Otherwise it's just used LEGO, unsorted, with badly handled instructions and no packaging, worth maybe 10 bucks a kilogram. I have bought my fair share of "leftovers" and most sets with playware are in this condition or even worse. If you buy LEGO for your children, then PRETTY PLEASE don't see it as an investment. Have fun with your children and be happy that THEY have fun, whatever they do with their bricks. @Lego David I don't think that normal sets are much more expensive than back in my childhood. But what did happen meanwhile was a shift in the focus of target groups. We do have an active AFOL community as well as adult collectors today. And today we even have themes like Overwatch, Harry Potter, Star Wars and the likes, which cater for a specific fan audience. This hadn't been the case back then. So it is quite understandable that there are lots of sets today which are not meant for children to play with but seen more as a piece of art, something to display or maybe even buy as investment.

Hello there :) I don't know about France, but in addition to HoMa's advice regarding Germany, you can check the corresponding forum sections on Doctor Brick -> https://www.doctor-brick.de/forums/aktuelle-veranstaltungen-und-events.21/ or on www.1000steine.de -> https://www.1000steine.de/de/gemeinschaft/forum/?show=1&cat=3 for upcoming events. Have fun on your trip and a safe journey!

oh wow. to date definitely THE best rendition of a car transport wagon. nice job, sergio! will you build it with real bricks too? or is this intended to stay digital? regards, chris

@ks6349 Sorry for the late reply. I was busy washing and sorting a huge load of LEGO, and later on holidays Indeed, if you are looking for something to complement your city layout, it might not be something to take serious at first sight. There are definitely better sets to get if you intend to build an impressive layout. However, as @DarrellBricker pointed out, it might still be feasable as playground or even as a side build for a smaller town layout. And don't forget the "mod-ability": Build a bigger tree using two sets, use the leftovers for buildings, use the parts for landscaping.... or what else comes to your mind. That's the good thing with those bricks, you can build whatever you like with it

I was absent for a while and read THIS thread here first upon returning. And I have to admit that I am stunned. Best luck to you FXBricks, I hope this one get's realized. I would desperately need some more 9V train track in the right dimensions / diameters and also the smaller sizes for the straights come in handy. Just don't forget your fellow trainheads beyond the great pond! PS: New curve radii and straight lengths are definitely my first priority. Second would be switches. And the rest comes in third place. But hey, whatever you can throw at me at any kind of order, I'll be happy anyways.

@ks6349 Hello there! (Sorry, but I don't know your name) Can you please elaborate a bit more? Why do you think that this set is bad? What do you think could've been made better? @Park7573 , @ScaleCarModels & @LEGO Train 12 Volts : Thanks for commenting and your input! If you buy 2 of it, the parts should be sufficient enough for a bigger and even better tree house. All those dark green and green plates are so nice for landscape sculpting. But I think there might be an order via Pick a brick or Bricklink necessary if you plan to build a decent ship. Cheers, Chris

Oh, nice progess, thanks for the update. Keep going!

Thank you and yes, indeed it's a nice parts selection. I have bought on discount as well. As I am more of a "classic collector", I mostly try to get new interesting sets on a discount and save up my money for hard-to-get sets from the 80ies and 90ies. Regards, Chris

31078 Treehouse Treasures Creator 3-in-1 INTRODUCTION Ooooh, a pirate boat? No, a treehouse! Wait, it's a pirate boat again... wha - it's a treasure cove now? Aaaah, it's a 3-in-1! What a lovely set, great parts, lots of play value. It immediately caught my attention when I was trodding along the aisles of my local supermarket. Who doesn't love pirates, anyway? And don't you dare to say "Nay" when I swing my rapier in your general direction... Arrrr! Having built 6289 Red Beard Runner lately, I just can't wait to get this started, so let's set sails and head over to the -> SET SPECS Number: 31078 Title: Treehouse Treasures Theme: Creator 3-in-1 Released: 2018 Part Count: 260 pieces Retail Price: DE - 29,99 € GB - 29,99 GBP US - 29,99 $ DK - 270,00 DKK With 260 pieces, the retail price of 29,99 € equates to a price of 0,12 € a piece. This is in the higher range for 2018 creator sets. In comparison, set number 31072 Extreme Engines comes down to 0,09 € per piece. And the 31074 Rocket Car is even down to 0,08 €. Well, I'm not sure the parts of latter set will be of versatile use with those strange colours... Funny enough, all 3 sets have been designed by the same person: Jeremy Luettgen. He has also been active designing some of the Mixels. Anyway, given the basic and tuned down colours of this set I think it's worth buying it for the retail price. LINKS 31078 @ brickset.com 31078 @ rebrickable.com LEGO PRODUCT SUMMARY Set out on pirating treehouse adventures! Enjoy imaginative pirate adventures with this LEGO® Creator 3in1 31078 Treehouse Treasures set, featuring a 3-level pirate ship treehouse with a ship deck, ship’s wheel, treasure chest hideaway function, bowsprit with flag and teddy bear, crow’s nest, tire swing and an upper-level den. Pirate accessories include a hat, telescope and 2 swords. This 3in1 model rebuilds into a Pirate Ship or a Skull Cave for more pirating fun, and includes 2 minifigures rigged out for pirate adventures, plus a scary spider figure. THE BOX As with all the Creator 3-in-1 sets, the front features the LEGO logo, set number and the main model in all it's glory, claiming three quarters of the available space. To the right we can have a look at the two alternative models. The age range is given as 7 to 12 years. While the lower limit seems quite fitting, the upper limit makes me wonder if I'm really too old to play with it... *makes sad face* The back shows the play features for each of the 3 sets and a link to the LEGO Creator homepage. You can also see the tabs to press in when opening the sets. I have to say that I am impressed by the simple look of the packaging. Nothing too distracting, nothing much to shift your attention away from those wonderful builds. THE PARTS After prying open the side, we have 3 bags with pieces, 1 Green plate 8x16 and 3 instruction booklets in our sweaty hands (or, hand and hook if your name is Captain Red Beard). We will get to the instructions later, so let's take a look at the pieces now. The Arch Bricks 1x5x4 in Dark Brown are nice parts for castle or ship builders. The Wedge Plate, 8x8, Cut Corner in Dark Azure is unique to this set. The Round Corner Tiles, 4x4 (called Maccaronis as I understand) in Medium Dark Flesh are also unique to this set. The wood planks are prints, overall there are NO stickers in this set. The decors are all printed. The short wood plank (1x3) together with the longer ones pictured here (1x4) can also be found in 21310 Old Fishing Store. 2x3 Tiles are quite new to me, while in fact they have first appeared in 2016. There's also a treasure chest in Medium Flesh in this set, which adds to the play possibilities. However, I do have a bit of a problem with it: You can close the lid, but as there is no resistance while closing it opens on it's own if you turn it upside down. Having some old-time sets around here and also a chest in brown (from the 80ies or 90ies?), I was wondering if they had the same problem? Well, nope. They do have a bit of a resistance while closing, maybe related to that pin on the lid, and they definitely do not open themselves without assistance. Seems LEGO employed some mold change, as the older ones are also missing those 2 ridges at the inside front. MINIFIGURES This set features 2 minifigures, a boy and a girl. Both minifigs have a single sided head, yellow arms, short legs (non-posable) and torso prints on front and back. The boy has a lime hoodie, while the girl features a white shirt with green print. It also includes one of these nice little teddybears with a torsoprint. While both minifigs are unique to this set, both torsos have seen use in other sets too - the boy's torso in 10260 Downtown Diner, the girl's one in 10261 Roller Coaster. As accessories, there is a pirate hat with a feather. 2 spare feathers are also included, which is a nice treat as those small parts have an affinity to getting lost. The plume feathers are not on a sprue, as LEGO has done in the past with Pirates or Castle sets in the 90ies, but come loose in the bag. However, there is no "normal" hair piece included for the boy, if you decide to make your place somewhat less pirat-ey. 2 pirate swords are present along with a golden telescope and a printed 2x2 tile with a treasure map pattern to complete the play experience. INSTRUCTIONS Overall, the instructions are nice and clear to follow. No printing errors or other mishaps. Instructions of the main model start with building the minifigures and continue with a somewhat ridiculous Step 1... When you are finished with building model A, the play feature is explained on the left side. On the right we have some more models available from the 3-in-1 series as house advertising (Avast ye bastards, look at that Pirate Coaster set ... ahem... Excuse me for getting a wee bit distracted here....). The parts list is in the back of model B. MAIN MODEL - TREEHOUSE Building goes along without any troubles. As stated in the last paragraph, the instructions are easy to follow. Progress goes bit by bit, sometimes only 1 or 2 bricks per page. Alas, I'm getting older and older, so I won't complain about that. There comes the day when I'll be happy about it :D What amazed me is the stability of the construction. I had the opportunity to build set 31080 Modular Winter Vacation and that thing just disassembled itself after 5 minutes of play time. In stark contrast, the Treehouse is rock solid and will surely be better suited for heavy play. Nice little details here and there, like the little rocks in the water and the spider waiting to catch those nasty little ki... err, let's just say it is waiting for prey. Here are the left-overs after building the main model: PLAY FUNCTIONS Play feature No. 1 definitely is the hidden treasure cache in the tree trunk. There is a little flap with a lock on it, which can be raised manually. The flap itselfs sits on a bar which is held in place by 2 blue technic pins. Behind that flap is space to hide the treasure chest. This chest can be ejected with the help of technic axles and axle connectors at the other side of the trunk. Other play functions are the openable top room (sides and rooftop) with crows nest atop, the tire swing and the ships bow with the steering wheel. Not to forget the slide at the side of the treehouse, which can be raised to be used as a plank. B MODEL - PIRATE SHIP A lot of parts are left unused, which could have been integrated easily. Therefore it's a pretty straightforward build experience and the B model is thus lacking a bit in play value. There is the crows nest and the lower deck with the spider in it. A posable rudder is present at the back and the steering wheel is now in the right place. I wonder why the treasure chest is placed on the deck, it may better be kept below deck. Oh well, as luck would have it our unexperienced seamen have a rather unpleasent encounter at sea. Seems someone else noticed that treasure chest too. Some useful armament wouldn't go amiss on this little bark. Maybe throw that teddybear over to soothe those angry pirates? SUMMARY & RATING PROS: + Adorable A and B models + Lots of play value + Nice, tuned down colours + 3 full grown instructions booklets + All prints, no stickers! CONS: - B model could have been better - C model does nothing to me... - Somewhat higher part price ratio Design: 8 / 10 Build: 8 / 10 Playability: 9 / 10 Minifigures: 7 / 10 Price: 7 / 10 Overall: 7,8 / 10 I couldn't be bothered assembling the C model, it's just too plain and definitely not a cave at all. But the treehouse and ship have been great fun to build and play with. While this set overall may not be outstanding to me, I would definitely put it into the "Above Average" category. It's play features and overall value due to the parts and colours and the fact that there are 3 full blown instruction booklets makes it worth. I can repeat it over and over again: All prints, no stickers! I guess that's also the reason why the price per part ratio seems a bit unfavourable. All in all a very nice set. To err is human, but to arr is pirate!!!

Aaaah, nice one... I do hope it gets through review stage. Definitely a set I would instantly buy, at least if LEGO doesn't change it too much.

Oh... I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday. And then you come up with this ... Impressive. I start to wonder what the next industrial building might be. A chemical plant? A locomotive factory? Looking forward to it.

That sounds reasonable, a very possible thing indeed, Thanks for that. Hm, I don't know about you, but I'd prefer wondering about building steps in comparison to getting damaged parts Yes, it costs money having busy customer service, of course. I just can't believe that the instructions have been so bad in the past to justify adding costs per set anyway, in the way of dumbing down the instructions and thus doubling (or maybe even tripling) the total sum of manual pages.

Well, the thing is that they did not use weird colours back in the days of those "advanced" instructions. I'm still not sure about why they have started adding ugly colours and dumbing down the instructions at the same time. I just finished constructing 6430 Night Patroller with my 5yo son and he didn't have any problems spotting which parts he had to put where. And there are a lot of same coloured bricks in some steps, mostly black and white.

Indeed. I was wondering about those crazy names, but It sank in with Caine O'bee.... Very nice and I especially like the idea of buying with 9V-Era parts only!

Excellent work. The detailing is superb and your description of the whole milling process was interesting to follow. Thanks a lot for showing! Cheers, Chris

I can confirm what @Freezingvettes99 said, the older magnets are a bit stronger. I have both here for comparison. So if you are building longer consists you would be better off using the old magnets (or using a completely different method for linkage at all). However, as has been stated, you can use both at the same time without any problems.

Well, maybe for you but not for me. How can a bogie plate be to small to be seen in the instructions? While it indeed makes sense for small parts, or in the event of Technic axles to distinguish between odd or even lenghts, this is absolutely overkill for such big parts as train bogie plates.... If one would only be able to order bogie plates in black.

Uh, that's interesting. I'm looking forward to pictures, too. Nice little pieces of history in this post all over.

I totally love Discworld! And I totally love your rendition of Mustrum Ridcully! All 4 thumbs up for this

@treczoks Had to read up on AWG first... I don't know why Americans always have to make things more complicate than they are? I would'nt worry much about using 28AWG here. 20 to 22 AWG can handle around 15 Ampere (!!!). The 9V regulator delivers around 1 Ampere at 9 Volts Maximum. I ran 2 x 9V train motors with my repaired cable without any problems. @Arrow If you have old telephone cables around at home (ISND or normal phone lines), you can use these as well. Telephone cables have around 0,12 to 0,16 mm² cross-section which should be more than enough for the load you are putting on it.

I have added info in this new thread about how I went along to fix that cable: https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/169808-electrical-wire-for-lego-contacts/&do=findComment&comment=3069092 If I had seen this thread earlier (was ill quite a long time), I would have posted it here ... Sorry