Cavannus

I agree with people who don't like it. First there is a strong scale issue: the carousel is too big compared with the minifigs who can't climb on the horses, and there are too many spaces between the horses. Then there are the problems you said: motor and battery that are not hidden at all, basic minifigs, etc. I think a good set does not necessarily requires a lot of bright colours, golden parts and stickers; a good set is not necessarily bigger than others; a good set is not necessarily animated with sound. This set is too "bling-bling" for me, too big, and over detailed.

I like this set, it is simple as the 80's sets were but with modern parts and design. Like others I especially like the bus and will buy the set because of it.

Those on the Emerald look too thick, but they give a strong Europeans look to this train engine. By the way, do you know why only a very few American engines have smoke deflectors? I guess this is because the steam speed in the chimney is slower, using multiple jets for better efficiency, while Americans engines may be less efficient. But I've never found information about that in the internet.

It looks less weird than this big motor in the engine cab, or even in the tender. Actually it doesn't look weird at all: I think your conversion is the best. Great job!

Yes, it's an almost exact copy of this engine... I looked for similar models in my train books and found some family likeness with German 1930-40's engines, but since I saw Flying Scotsman photos I've been convinced! I think Lego should have called this set "Flying Scotsman" and introduce it like a replica -- as they did with Santa Fe and BNSF trains. I think some train amateurs would like to own a Lego copy of an existing train rather than a "anonymous" toy. I guess they didn't so that they could keep flexibility (e.g. for the front colour which is black instead of red, for the lantern positioning which is something neither Britannic, nor French, nor American). I a pity because there are only a few minor differences between the real model and the Lego set.

Thanks a lot DaCheese for your feedback that corroborate my experience of this set! Fans who read your set analyze and see Captain Zuloo's and Holodoc's pictures will have a good overview of the set pros and cons. Anyway I think this is a significant step in Lego train history -- we're living a piece of History!! I agree that there should be only one dining car (and no caboose), but I don't know where it is supposed to be: near the first-class cars, in the middle of the train? Is my guess right? I'm looking forward to buying this! I like these colours because the white represents white table clothes while the blue represents chic velvet chairs. This dining car is for rich fist-class passengers! http://www.visoterra.com/images/inter/med-interieur-du-wagon-restaurant-de-l-orient-express-visoterra-10405.jpg Did you and others notice that? For example I can't make the small leading/trailing wheels turn with a finger when holding the engine, as I can do with the more standard tender's and car's wheels. They immediately stop turning because of this high friction. I'm wondering whether I did something wrong or not...

Captain, I built mine today and I tought about writing a review (my first on EB too), but you did it already which means no work for me However here are my comments about his wonderful set: About the box The ambiance is there! The box is very well design and shows a context that help children dream and imagine a Lego universe... Furthermore this is clearly for Lego train connoisseurs: instead of the standard 1:1 scale minifig on the side of the box, you can see the new big driver wheels at the real scale. Great! About building: The engine building uses a lot of Technic parts and solutions, which is a good introduction to teens as well as more building fun for "System users" like me. This is clearly designed for the PF implementation. People who don't want it have to pay for all these useless part (to pay money, time efforts) but the pro is that, as Captain Zuloo said, the PF conversion is fast and easy. Two children can build the set: the engine is really 14+ while the tender and the car are very easy to build (they both user basic parts and technics). I didn't feel disappointed but I can understand some people are. / While building, the parts are easy to find (i.e. not too many small pieces, different colours for each piece range, etc.), not like the Medieval Market (which have so many identical pieces with various colour shades). About overall design: Just look at the pictures above to be convinced! As I wrote, the set is clearly designed for PF functions, which implies fewer cab details than expected. Indeed the furnace is nice (and the way you can add/remove it is brilliant), but some manometers, wheels, etc. would have been a nice addition. The PF integration is not ugly as expected when looking at the instructions. Why are there no doors at the car's extremities? This looks "unfinished", it's a pity really. About PF use: Here is the only thing I've hated: there is a lot of friction, especially on the small leading and trailing wheels that are very hard to turn and consume a lot of power. :thumbdown: :thumbdown: A lot of energy is lost due to this bad design. Question: did you notice that or are my parts wrong?? They should have use the same wheel system as the tender and the car, this would have been less pretty but very more functional!! The mechanism is not perfectly fluid, but it work somewhat well. They use warm white leds (actually greenish-warm-white because the led should be cheap models), which is pretty compared with the standard cool white leds. The train is very pleasant to drive with the remote, and you can control the speed and the led brightness independently. Did you try the new flexible tracks? They offer much flexibility (their name is not a lie)... ... But they are so ugly and so noisy!! :thumbdown: I won't use them anymore except in addition to standard RC tracks.

Canada Post made a better job! They should take care about that, otherwise people will stop buying though the internet... I've received three parcels, and I'm still waiting for the remote control! I preferred laughing about that rather than being disappointed, and I told my girlfriend "now I know why Lego sets are expensive: they send each brick in a separate parcel"! Anyway it's a pity but I'm happy to have got the set as soon as possible, so that I'll build it soon (even if l have to wait for the remote control) instead of receiving the whole package later. But I agree with you, in terms of image it looks bad: if it was my first order at Lego S@H, I'd think this company wasn't very serious nor professional... They are good sets, you should give Lego another chance. I hope you sent them your feedback. * * * By the way, what do you think about those flexible tracks? I don't like them: they make a lot of annoying noise (tac-tac-tac-tac...) as well as they create too much friction. I like the use of warm white for the leds (despite their greenish tint).

About old sets: If the overall price is correct, I will buy the set with its original minifigs; otherwise it is a better deal to buy them separately on BL. For me the minifigs are important in the old Castle sets (i.e. 375-383-677) because they include their own; other themes use more standard minifigs so that you can find them separately. About recent sets: I don't pay attention on minifigs, I prefer considering the overall set design. If I'd love a minifig but not the set, I think I could buy it on BL for a couple of bucks, if it doesn't exist in a dedicated set or through PaB (for instance I bought the Castle Battle Pack because I liked the new soldiers, and I will buy the classic spaceman torso at PaB).

I was born in the mid 70s so I only knew the classic Space, Town and Castle themes. Actually I loved playing and building with all these themes, keeping a favourite theme during a couple a month. But as far as I remember, I dreamt to live only in the Town theme, because it was the only one with real living places, I mean at least a bed and a stove! Yes the #6970 base includes a pair of beds -- but who wants to wear a space suit 24/7?? Furthermore the very nice catalogue dioramas (i.e. hand made models, not bad Photoshop mountings as today) helped me imagine I was a Lego minifig.

Anyway I prefer your version, it is nicer than the original "classic" pure yellow!

Great review! I was hesitating to buy the set until my girlfriend gave it to me, and I like it. This is flexible enough to be used in an existing city or to be played as is (as you illustrated it perfectly ). The middle light is often represented using yellow. The real colour is supposed to be amber, which is neither orange or yellow (but something in between with a hint of brown), while it may actually look yellow or orange depending on the coloured lens or the led tint. For example, this one is closer to yellow:

Do the sets fit well together? --> Yes I lived for several years in a neighbourhood that mixed six-floor buildings (built around 1920) and individual houses (like the Model Town House). I could see both just facing my apartment! As you can see, some buildings have a "rich" architecture (with corner bricks, etc.) while some others look very basic. Furthermore there is a corner café at the beginning of this street, close to my apartment! So, I voted yes because I think both high and small Lego buildings and houses can coexist, as they do in my street. They all respect the minifig scale. Of course, as previously said, some Town/City sets don't fit together. Which type of set are you most likely to buy? --> Both I like modular buildings because they are very detailed and designed for adults, as I like City sets because the open rears reminds me the 80's sets and these sets offer a lot of funny details.

I prefer the smaller version too! My apartment is somewhat small and this is the reason why I've never considered buying the #4999 Vestas windmill -- although I love its design. Actually I like the small house in the #4999 Vestas set and I don't want a large truck as provided in the #7747. So I won't buy this set, and I would prefer to get a small windmill with the same house as the Vestas.

I've just looked for random amour pictures on the web and I think this may represent: - either the coat of mail under the iron layer - or a piece of textile between the coat of mail and the amour It might also represent an articulated piece of iron but I don't think so, otherwise the designers would have drawn horizontal lines instead of a black surface. See some pictures: http://www.educol.net/armure-t3830.jpg http://fc32.deviantart.com/fs31/f/2008/192...Ageofarmour.jpg http://www.toysngamessite.com/images/ARMOU...72IN--10083.jpg http://www.dictionaryofheraldry.com/Armour.htm http://alpha.furman.edu/%7Edmorgan/armure.jpg (Sorry they are links because the forum refuses to display them as images)

I love the cockpit, it looks very complicated and realistic (with all the controls plus the red laser screen). Good job!

I can't understand how someone at TLG accepted that a so nice set could be ruined in this way by adding a PF motorization: - on the one hand, the Emerald Night without PF is the nicest train engine set ever - on the other hand, the combo Emerald Night + PF motorization is the ugliest conversion ever! The Emerald Night has been supposed to be the spearhead of the new PF and train systems -- and look how they wrecked it! (I bought the whole pack without expecting a so bad conversion; anyway it's not a problem though, I'm sure other PF engines will be released and I assume the motorization will fit in a decent way.)

Fixed!

What's wrong? For me the prices are not too hight: buying a minifig through Pick-a-Brick remains a good deal: Seriously, I wonder if it has been a bug because many brick thumbnails are not displayed. I don't think it is a (bad) joke either, because the prices are overpriced but not so irrelevant ($300 a minifig would look like a joke). Furthermore Lego has always respected its customers so high prices such as these would be a bad strategy. Let's wait and see if it is a temporary bug or not. Is Pick-a-Brick profitable or not? I think it is: no design, no packaging, no lost space because of half-empty boxes, etc. But if it is not, I prefer your solution far ahead of doubling the prices.

The #123 plane is probably my first set; I don't remember it as a set, but I remember I've always had some specific parts such as the red helmet, the figurine, the grey propellor, ... In the minifig "Legoland" series, I got the #383 Knight Tournament which remains one of my favourite sets ever: ... and Santa Claus gave me the #379 bus station in the next or previous year: Since I lost most of the specific parts of these sets during my childhood, I bought the #383 in very good condition a couple of years ago. I love it so much, it is colourful and realistic. However I've never considered buying the bus station again, because the vehicle looks too simple even ugly (the rest remains nice).

I agree that Lego shows a certain lack in terms of social media to meet fan's expectations. There are probably several factors: the existing collaborative fan network (EB, Brickset, Brickshelf, BL, etc.) has been very well implemented for a while; this works very well and costs nothing for Lego Lego has always seemed to watch tendencies before investing money into a new line: they look web-retarded but I'm sure they aren't that much Lego is an old classic brand which counts on its reputation and the quality of its product rather than investing a lot of money in advertising, so they probably don't see the benefits of managing more collaborative features

I'm 33 and when some people see my (very small) collection that is exposed using dioramas, they enjoy it and want to look at all the details. Nobody has never laughed at me because I collect Lego. I work in a web agency where things like that are very well accepted, even encouraged! (I have the BNSF and the Brickbeard's Bounty in my office!) I had troubles with my parents when I was around 14. My mom laughed at me or even was aggressive when I was asking to buy a set or when I was MOCing. Since then I've understood that people from her generation think that such plastic toys are only for kids -- especially not for a teen! Moreover, most of people from this generation base their lifestyle on gossip ("what others will think about me if I do that") far ahead of fun. Now I am an adult, I have a good job and I manage my life in a responsible way, so my parents never say anything negative about my Lego. Furthermore I guess that the adult-like design of many recent sets helps (e.g. Sanfa Fe/BNSF/Emerald Night train engines, Café Corner, Green Grocer, etc.). If you just play or collect Lego while you act as a responsible adult (i.e. serious at work or at school) and sociable person (not a nerd), then you don't need to see a psychologist -- and your family should because it seems that they don't know the world they live in. If you play Lego to escape from the real word and if you don't socialize or work at school because of that, yes you have a problem. Your problem is deeper and Lego not a cause, just a symptom. (BTW I studied psychology and I've noticed that parents' influence generally ruins any therapy done while the patient live in his parent's or sees them often). (Hope you can understand me, my English is not that good).

The Flexible Tracks are NOT included in the $100 PF Accessory Pack!! So as long the track box separately costs $20 or less, the Emerald Night Collection remains a "good" deal.

It's been realeased on S@H this afternoon for North America. Europe should follow very soon! I sent them an email to ask whether I might upgrade my order made this morning...

The ads does for sure -- if it was a real safe antivirus, it wouln't use a fake Windows-like window to mislead people (I must admit it's very well done)... About this article, they mix bad designs, old-fashion sets, weird things and funny stuff. And I agree that they didn't look for many sets. For example, what about this jet with an open cockpit without roof? or this medieval jet? or the phosphorescent head of Harry Potter's teacher? etc. etc. Well, I consider this article as a funny "top 10" rather than an exhaustive analysis. I would be interesting to gather Afols' opinions from forums (including those in French, German, etc.). That means that the author doesn't understand why we Europeans call football a sport on which you manoeuvre a ball using your foot...