KH3D

I remember seeing this as a contest entry a while back, but I still got a bit excited when I saw the box art on the homepage today. I was disappointed to learn that there would be no new mid-year sets for this theme, and thought for a minute my prayers had been answered. I would buy this as a Pharaoh's Quest theme set in an instant. Fantastic work all around.

Cannot wait for this to be released. Seven years between nice, realistic, American-style freight locomotives is too long. Unlike the Super Chief and BNSF, this time I'm going to be smart and buy multiples while they're still at retail price. Gave was too much money over to BrickLink and Amazon Marketplace on the last two.

Signed

I bought two Castle calendars last year, and I'll gladly buy two Pirates calendars this year.

Here are some pics. Sorry, a couple of them are a bit blurry. Here's everything mounted and the locomotive closed up. Notice the hole at the top back of the vertical yellow stripe. This is where the 1x6 light gray plate goes across the top of the brick-built motor, which needs to be removed. Will have to fill that in on each side with a 1x1 light gray plate. Here's the locomotive with the roof off. Here's the receiver. I suggest removing the driver's seat and control panel to make room for it behind the windshield, for best reception. Here's the battery pack/ESC. I suggest removing the brick-built engine to make room, but you will need to fill those holes on each side. Here's a bottom view of the locomotive with the motor mounted. Here's the motor off the locomotive with the old-fashioned light gray Decorative Sides installed. Remember, this won't work with the included Technic 6-stud axles. Here's the motor off the locomotive with one of the Decorative Sides removed. Using a Technic 5-stud axle, the axle only extends half-way through the wheels on each side, but this seems to be sufficient under normal running conditions.

My camera has given up the ghost. I'll see if I can borrow one this weekend and post some pics.

Finally got a chance to put the new #8866 Train Motor and PF parts from the #10194 Emerald Night into one of my older locomotives, the #10020 Santa Fe Super Chief. There are some things you should probably know if you plan to do this. The motor does not come with a PF wire, but you will need one. There's plenty of room for all the electronics inside the Chief, so #8886 is fine. The motor comes with two black #3706 Technic Axle 6 as axles. As I understand it, if you are converting one of the newer #7897 Passenger Train or #7898 Cargo Train, this isn't an issue, because their Decorative Side pieces are drilled out to accommodate Technic axles. However, the old 9v #2871 Decorative Sides were only drilled out for the smaller metal pin axles. So, they can't accommodate the extra length of the axles, and can't be installed properly because of it. You have some choices to make it work. I went with number 3, until I can get the parts and try number 2. Use the decorative sides from #7897 or #7898, which should work but aren't available in Light Gray (old). Use 5-stud Technic axles, which may not go all the way through the wheels on both sides. Shave a half-stud length off of each 6-stud axle. Drill out the metal pin holes in the old Decorative Sides to accommodate the larger diameter of the Technic axles. [*]The signal strength between TX and RX is fairly weak, so much so that it has a hard time going through one layer of bricks. At first, for no particular reason, I yanked the brick-built engine out of the locomotive and put the battery pack/ESC toward the front of the interior and the RX toward the back of the receiver. Reception was erratic at best. I pulled the driver's seat and control panel out and put the RX there, behind the windshield, and the battery pack/ESC in the back. It worked fine from that point on. [*]The motor has a bit of a hum to it. At higher speeds the train running drowns out the noise, but at very low speeds it's pretty audible. [*]The battery pack/ESC and RX are both 4-studs wide, so they won't fit in narrower locomotives like the #10133 BNSF Locomotive. You could always put them in a follow-on car and run a wire to the locomotive, like the engine and tender in the #10194 Emerald Night. I talked to a guy at LEGO Customer Service that's their train expert, and my call was the first he had heard about the problem with the axle length. There's not much chance of them making a 5.5-stud axle, but he said he will pass the issue along to the train team, so they'll know about it. Overall, I still feel it's worth it, especially since it's only $11 (+ $3 for the PF wire). Just be aware there are some things you may need to work through.

I agree. I'm in favor of any new themes that would give us more non-brick-built animals. I think the cows in the Farm and Medieval Market Village are great, but I would really have liked to have seen molded chickens, turkeys and ducks instead of the brick-built ones. I think a zoo or circus theme would be great. I'd love to see some of the animal designs introduced in the LEGO Indiana Jones and LEGO Batman games actually get produced (all the ones you listed are great examples). Of the two, I think a circus theme would probably go over a little better financially. First, it could be tied into other existing themes (trains), and it could be used to spin-off additional new themes (county fair, amusement park, parade). Second, it would give the opportunity to produce some really interesting new non-licensed minifig designs (again, all the ones you listed are great).

I just spoke to someone in Customer Service, and (at least for the US) quantities shouldn't be a problem. Although they got an absolutely amazing number of preorders, the stock they received is roughly 2.5x that number.