Front

If you spend 10 sec investigating each brick, you need 28 days of 24 hour work to go through a quarter of a million bricks. To come up with a number like 5 bricks having issues is in my opinion ridiculous. In the past LEGO produced a lot of bricks that had severe design failures, were prone to breaking etc. Where are your old discolored bricks in your calculation ? In my opinion, you as many others live in a fantasy world where everything in the old days were better. The products LEGO sell today are by far of better quality than it was ever before. Is it faultless ? Surely not. But stating everything was better in the past is in my opinion completely wrong. Erland Part Design

Internally we use the name module, or in Danish "modul", for the basic distance in the BRICKS and TECHNIC system. This is shown as a parameter "m" in e.g. our CAD parts. TECHNIC is the supperior of the two systems, at least in the sense that it is a 3D system where the module is the same in the x, y and z direction. The supplier of the CAD software we use at LEGO (NX Unigraphics, owned by SIEMENS), even though it's more than 30 years old and American, has come out of the box set up with metric units for the last ten years. In many CAD softwares it's a nightmare to mix parts of different units. Erland Part Design

@ 1974 But why do you then claim it cost a lot to make a mould ? Another note: Please consider that the information in the book mentioned in this thread might not be accurate, and in fact in some cases may be untrue. It's made by a journalist, not by TLG.

Does nobody realise that a new set will sell much better than a reissued one ? Selling old stuff is bad business, introducing novelties are good business. Does nobody realise that a mould has a limited life span ? That LEGO often need more than one mould just to produce the amount needed for a new part for the first year ? The cost of a mould is really not a big issue in the cost of parts, the amount of time it takes up at a moulding machine is a bigger factor. Erland Part Design

I would do only 40 Degrees celsius. Using a machine might make scracthes and marks in the parts, but I have no experience myself. Check the general discussion section for a "washing thread".

Remember that Creator sets have always had some of the best bricks pr. dollar values. Now they also got the cutest sets. Man I like them. Erland Part Design

Had a look at all the packaging today, very beatiful. I think these will look atractive to most kids. And the build of the sets (the contents) are very clear from the front side graphics.

It's not a photo of a radiator, it's a rendering of a CAD model scene.

I foresee that the final product will be very different from the proposed mech. It is simply so flimsy in the connections, that if the product was done as proposed, this would create a new record in consumer complains rate. Erland Part Design..

I've got two 2-in-1 sets from Poland too. One is 66445 with Toxic Reapa and Evo. The other, can't find the box right now, but it was with XT-4 and Nex. Please don't ask me what I paid for one box with two bags in. Erland Part Design

I think the biggest set is a "delivery only" set, that get offloaded by a truck at your house

Is it not just from a new mould that has been perfected a bit to accomodate more kind of trains running smooth ?

Regulators need patience, calmness and understanding. You will never ever get this from me. I am too fast, a provoker, and irritable :-)

That was a really cool video. It's nice that you showed some of the functions during the build.

Some replies to others user's amazement of my thought that this will not be a LEGO product. Please note that although I am a Part Designer at LEGO, it's another part of development that design and engineer PF and Mindstorm products. So I have no direct involement in the creation of these products. These are my personal views. Here my original post: Lights are not used very much in LEGO products at the moment. I think that the designers find the cost of the play value of light too high compared to what play valu can be achieved with other parts and functions. I think kids mostly play with their products in the daytime, and lights to me seem like less attractive to kids compared to what can be put into the product with other parts. Try and compare the cost at shop-at-home of the PF light with a PF motor. Yes, blinking lights vs. something else that in my view create for more play value. Just because lights and flashing lights have been in products in the past, does not make it something that added great value, or will add great value now. Thank you for the explanation Rune. I am sceptical about how much this add to the LEGO products, but it is still a cool design you have made, giving a very flexible platform for blinking lights. I just think it's way too expensive with lights at the moment. Look at the amount of products using the PF lights. Only two TECHNIC sets plus some LEGO EDUCATION sets ! The amount of lights used must be very low compared to e.g. M-motor, and I suspect this explains the unfavorable price of lights, extension cables etc. Volumes give lower prices. Erland Part Design

I think you are correct, although I have no idea why the thing was pulled from ebay. The LEGO Group treat their products as a whole package, including instructions. Making your own instructions and naming them LEGO building instructions, could be seen as similar to producing bricks and naming them LEGO bricks. Erland Part Design

I got all the pictures in my head I was really sceptical, back when I saw what the constraction team was up to, but now I really think these products are nice. Some good play features too. I hope you'll like the products. Right now I'm more excited about the new Mini Ball Joint parts, which were shown in Mixel products. They will hit the stores soon. Be sure to check them out, my favorite LEGO product in 2014. 2014 is the year of building with balls and cups, no matter what size your balls are Erland Part Design

To me, Stormer (or any other HF character) with minifig legs and the rest of the square shape, would look really strange. But strange things do appear from time to time.

btw. I have one set, haven't built it yet

I would recommend contacting consumer service. They should be able to help you, and they like to track quality issues. Erland Part Design

Mark, you are seeing it all from an AFOL perspective, with the high expectations that the trains can run in exhibitions, under tunnels with no need for an operator to be present. The biggest percentage of consumers want a train that can be run after they've laid down the tracks for the weekend. They probably find it all works well, and may buy another train when a new train set is released. I have not followed the LEGO product range for many years (only 6), but to me it seems like the amount of train products that has been released is high. No company releases a lot of products of some range that is not succesful. Without any knowledge about sales number, I'm pretty convinced that LEGO train business is way bigger than it ever was in the past. But again, this goes for all the product ranges LEGO produces at the moment. Sales have been roughly 20 % up for at least 5 consecutive years. Erland Part Design

Now try and explain how many PF components you need in each of these cases to get the shown effect. Assuming there is no other PF elements (motors etc.) in the model. Erland Part Design

That bone-thing was something to get you through at least 24 hours talking about something not meaningful. They are back in black

Transparent bones, you will like them. Let the colour guessing begin. Erland Part Design

How much value can this add to LEGO products ? Absolutely close to nothing. Erland Part Design