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Tube Map Central

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  1. Tube Map Central
    Yes, they are perfect as station platforms. We just need someone in TLG to realise that and find a good way to create the end ramps. https://mobile.twitter.com/LegoRailCentral/status/1517475557574946816
  2. Tube Map Central
    That's why I suggested a range of dates in my O/P, or couldn't you be bothered to read that? I do get sick of straw-man logical fallacy assertions from the Lego fan-boys and fan-girls on this web site, A common courtesy to long-standing customers shouldn't be that hard for what is probably one of the most sophisticated logistics companies in the world, and if it is then they won't be one of the most sophisticated logistics companies in the world for much longer.
  3. Tube Map Central
    No one mentioned a part by part report, so I am not sure where that came from. Just a simple statement: "expect to wait three to four months from initial set release" or "expect to wait from nine months to one year from initial set release" would be sufficient. At least I would then know whether to stop checking the new website weekly and pack all my half finished MoCs away until next winter. I know from reading New Elementary that connected people are trying to get an answer from TLG about this.
  4. Tube Map Central
    Some new parts are in sets that have been available for more than three months now, still not available on the new site (but were on the old B&P one). How hard is it for TLG to make a decision and communicate it? Seriously, I want to know whether I should crate up my unfinished MoC and wait for six months? Nine months? before I can get back to work on it again. The only people benefitting from this crazy indecision/secrecy are Bricklink resellers.
  5. Tube Map Central
    Nice. The more I think about it the more I can see road plates being great as a modular station system, better than the old platform baseplates: they come in two widths, can be built high level or low level, and can easily be integrated with standard components if non-standard configurations are desired (e.g. a foot subway entrance). All that is needed would be a specialist piece to make building end ramps easy. Then TLG could offer a platform pack with lights, seats, poster boards, ticket, food and drink machines and flower tubs. It will be interesting to see whether the rumoured station this year cottons on to this. Will the platform be standard plates or road plates?
  6. Tube Map Central
    It's a slap in the face for architecture fans. They won't give us interesting buildings because, presumably, we are not profitable enough, but they will happily burn some money for freebies for their staff. They did not have to badge this as part of the 'Architecture' range. Time to retire the theme, before it was moribund, now it is moribund and insulting.
  7. Tube Map Central
    Anyone tried this? Some of us lament the old modular platform sections but these could be a good alternative. All we need would be a good way to do ramps.
  8. Tube Map Central
    Yes indeed, it was the architecture range that brought me back into Lego, but when the emphasis of the range switched from innovative buildings that redefined the world, to tourist souvenirs, I lost interest. Now that TLG has moved away, I do my own architecture. In recent years, TLG has been really developing its range of curved bricks, slopes, tiles and plates, but getting hold of them is another thing. Who knows, if the architecture range had not faded away, I might still be buying sets ...
  9. Tube Map Central
    Agree, today TLG seems to be a design company that just so happens to make the raw materials needed for constructing its designs. It therefore has to price its sets accordingly to pay for its design. MOCers mess up its business model in all sorts of ways — I'm not very interested in sets, I just want bricks — and therefore there will never be an easy relationship with them.
  10. Tube Map Central
    What's the point of making stuff up? You don't have a clue what the licence fee might be, nor whether it would be cost effective. I'm not interested in empty guesses. The amount of Thomas the Tank Engine material available to purchase out there might suggest that the the IP holder is happy to negotiate and that the fees are far from disproportionate.
  11. Tube Map Central
    I'm completely fine with the new site, including the new charging structure, except that I can't buy stuff that I could have bought if I had placed an order a week earlier before the conversion took place. TLG is completely within their rights to push small orders away from them, and towards Bricklink, where there are plenty of sellers willing to take them.
  12. Tube Map Central
    I need 40x 68013 half cylinders in white, and 16x 68568 curved plates in light grey to move to the next phase of my MoC. Too many to get from sets, and I can't wait until July-August to get everything in, so the Bricklink sellers will indeed be cashing in because of TLG rationing.
  13. Tube Map Central
    Given that there were 2022 parts getting on to B&P that are now vanished, that would look like rationing for the sake of rationing.
  14. Tube Map Central
    Unfortunately, progress on Botanical Gardens is now delayed while TLG decides whether 2022 parts (which were available on the old B&P site) should be made available on their new, 'improved' combined site.In the meantime, here are photos of where I have got to.The original Botanical Gardens project is here:https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/182622-moc-botanical-gardens-station/The new version will have improved construction and detailing. The full station includes restaurant, offices, lift, telephone exchange, grand staircase, ticket office, Post Office counter, left luggage counter, stairs down (to toilets, platform 2 and underground station) information desk, kiosk, news stand and florist. Platforms and glass canopy will follow in 2023.It is now joined by a twin building on the opposite side of the tracks: a substation for supplying power to the electric trains, which features four rotary converters and a control room. If Lego ever release balloon parts in trans clear, then a mercury arc rectifier will replace one of the rotary convertors.Hope you enjoy the photos, and that TLG decides to release 2022 parts soon.http://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/platform_end.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/overhead1.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/overhead2.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/kitchen_telephone_ex.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/substation_front.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/substation_rear.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/substation_interior.jpghttp://www.tubemapcentral.com/legodesign/Botanical_Gardens_Extended/substation_interior2.jpg PS, if you can't see photos you might have a router problem, try rebooting your router
  15. Tube Map Central
    Well said. These sorts of threads on the trains subforum often get mixed up. AFOL versus kid requirements. AFOL demand is split between set builders and mocers, and different tastes and preferences country by country. I don't think that TLG could ever comfortably cope with that sort of fragmented market. Sure, we all bought Crocodile, but if we started getting a couple of 18+ trains every year we might start getting selective, some of us only buying steam trains, others American diesels, that's demand hell for a company that makes money from mass market. As a mocer I don't really want sets anyway, just a better selection of curved slopes, inverted curved slopes and windows, and more parts in traditional train colours. But switch to the kids market and TLG fails miserably. As a kid I would have loved a steady supply of colourful Thomas the Tank engine locomotives, coaches and trucks. They could come in all sorts of sizes to suit every budget and occasion, and with creative rebuilding strange original creations could be created. As per the books dramatic accidents could be staged. Instead, as a kid all I seem to remember was various black and blue lumps and that was it, not really much to appeal to the UK market, and I wasn't interested. I don't think that TLG has ever tried seriously to cater for incremental kids purchases of colourful exciting trains, so we really don't know what the possibilities are.
  16. Tube Map Central
    And then more trucks, then more track, then a passenger train, then more coaches, then more track, then a proper station, then an engine shed, then more track ... TLG just doesn't get that train purchases are potentially strongly incremental, but every time I say this I get told off by the TLG worshippers because TLG makes so much money that their marketing department must be all-seeing, all-knowing, all-perfect. Meanwhile the model railway manufacturers have the kids train market sewn up. Imagine that TLG sold only two types of City vehicle set. A bus company, with two buses, six road plates, five minifigures and a bus stop. A truck company with three trucks, eight road plates, three minifigures and a small warehouse. That's it, that's all you get for vehicles, except for a road plate pack that contains, amongst other things, curved ones that no one wants and some weird stuff that doesn't work. There was a bus station but it looked like rubbish and it's now been deleted. Now imagine that these vehicle sets are only replaced with new versions every four years. I think that if this is how TLG catered for City vehicles then sales would be well-and-truly moribund. The TLG worshippers would be telling us that there is no demand for vehicles so we shouldn't expect any better, after all their marketing department is perfect. The people who want more vehicles would be complicitly saying that vehicle enthusiasm is niche and in decline and so we should not expect better.
  17. Tube Map Central
    And now, in modern times, we appreciate that, in a regular job (I.e. not armed forces), dying or even getting seriously injured is absolutely not acceptable in any way, and quite rightly so!
  18. Tube Map Central
    Even more frustrating, there is really new stuff that slipped into the old B&P website (e.g. 1x2 half cylinders in white 68013) that I can't find by any route on the new merged site. A few other clunky things that need ironing out, e.g. can't see a "back to shopping" link on my shopping cart page.
  19. Tube Map Central
    Doesn't do too much for worker morale though: this job is so dangerous we have built special trains to cart out the bodies every day ...
  20. Tube Map Central
    The logical conclusion for Ideas is for people to send in a photograph depicting their favourite IP, or random object, and then people vote on whether they would like Lego designers to turn it into a set. No bricks or renders necessary.
  21. Tube Map Central
    Maybe it's because this one is better. https://ideas.lego.com/projects/8e080615-df19-4570-b69a-a4f9ead6aba2
  22. Tube Map Central
    Why should TLG look at Ideas votes, when they have actual £££ votes for train sets, special trains - such as crocodile - and track? Presumably the last station was deleted because it was not generating enough sales. Or turn it round, is there any evidence that any voting patterns on Ideas has shaped adjustments to TLG set releases?
  23. Tube Map Central
    This isn't a million miles away from that, although Queen might be fussy with their licensing https://ideas.lego.com/projects/a4f69599-1ef2-4959-b81f-17862dc9b810 Not approved!
  24. Tube Map Central
    No complaints about TLG, it's their company, they can do what they like. Perhaps they missed the potential for "The Meeting Point" or perhaps not. But maybe an element of realism from posters here? If only we can get it to 10,000 votes, we have a chance of making it happen. No, it won't happen!
  25. Tube Map Central
    Even taking account of the fact that eBay sellers often (but not always) offer 'free' delivery, and Bricklink sellers often (but not always) add a load of hidden costs at the checkout, I find it very rare to find reasonable prices on eBay. There is a PhD on the economics of buying and selling Lego parts waiting to be done.
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