peterab

Here in Australia all the larger sets of the first wave sold out within a few months and LEGO Australia had to restock from Denmark. Sales were clearly better than expected. That's the US, UK and Australia. As long as mainland Europe sales (particularly Germany) are good I can't see any reason Friends wouldn't become an evergreen theme like town.

I'd be interested to see how well this series sells compared to the last few series. There seems to be a bit of negative feeling towards it here, I guess coming from army builders, which suggests sales may be slower. On the other hand I really like it since I'm a train fan and it has a lot of good useful figs for town layouts. Town is the biggest selling theme so that suggests faster sales. I'll be buying a box as usual, but will pick up a few multiples. I'll need at least six red cheerleaders to match my series 1 ones Bring it on was my first thought when I saw the new cheerleader. I think the football player would have been much better with a sticker sheet of numbers, even though I prefer printed parts most of the time.

We have a pair of British Blues much like patje's cat except the girl has Pilsner coloured eyes. The boy likes to help building sets, both by swatting small pieces around and by inspecting the insides of the boxes. The female likes train operations more. She will either sit inside the loop and watch the trains running or sort of jog along with them. When she's bored she will sit on the track to tell me it's time to stop. I'm pretty sure this thread has been done before so it might be worthwhile merging topics if anybody can find the old one.

Thanks Cam for bringing this to my attention, it looks like it could be a fun read. I'm pretty sure not many people in the need of self help books are going to be upset of the mimicry of the 12 step program, unless they really want to be. By which I mean haters gonna hate. I've read a stack to try and get some control over depression and anything that gets a laugh is helpful even if it's laughing at myself (sometimes especially so in the case of depression). I think you're having a semantic difference here. It's quite OK to feel it wouldn't be worth it to you, as the value of the content is subjective. Pretty much any published book for $5 is probably a fair price though given the cost and effort involved.

From what I've learnt from chatting to Mark Stafford online the limitation on variety of parts is not so much the actual design or production, but the storage and logistics. The moulding machines are pretty much at capacity production. Introducing an extra change introduces an extra few days for the machine to cool and the colour of plastic to be changed, which lowers total production of parts. It also requires an extra separate storage area for the new part. Both these things in practice require that another production part must be killed off to introduce a new part. It's probably not worth the potential profit in a polybag.

There seems to be a regular habit of having a $50 discount off the eventual RRP on the Australian Shop @ Home site for Modular Buildings. The town hall was $250 for the first few days. Many of the previous modulars also followed this pattern.

You'd be lucky to find any Myers in Melbourne with three Cargo trains in stock.

Since the IR receiver takes its power from the inputs as well as powering the motors it probably does matter which way you connect the 4.5V battery box. It should be pretty easy to follow from the top (positive) end of the batteries through the switch though, so you should be able to work it out. I'm not sure reverse polarity would be good for the IR receiver electronics. The positive end of the batteries should go to the 9V lead on the IR receiver.

I seem to be in a minority and I'm surprised that THIS GUY isn't more popular. He was available during my dark age but I've bought a few since.

Yeah, and I'm probably at a disadvantage because I'm most familiar with the Australian market, which really isn't important from TLG's perspective, and is a little unique in many ways. Much of this still applies in Australia. I don't watch much TV and I'm unaware of any LEGO advertising, but since I spend a lot of time with AFOLs and at conventions I guess I'd know about it if it existed here. Most people who approach my LTC at train shows (we've done a couple of NMRA shows and at least one Lego con for the past four years) still don't know Lego made trains. I'm pretty sure that the reason sets sell out at Christmas, is probably the same as here. Retailers are scared of being stuck with large sets that won't move quickly after December so limit their pre-orders. Lego Australia stock their warehouse based on the pre-orders so if they end up being popular there is only a limited amount of re-stocking possible. After Xmas the retailers are not interested. To make it worse many retailers won't stock the same train the next year, so then there are _no_ trains around for three out of four years. Most of our retailers wont stock the track packs at all. Many of the train heads here go beserk and buy heaps when a good deal crops up. I saw the EN on sale at retail here for one day (it was completely sold out by 10:30). We have a pretty huge ebay reseller market here for anything special, so our shelves get stripped quite quickly. It should be becoming clear why so many people can miss out on knowing about Lego trains. Unfortunately I think it's partly beyond TLGs control. Many retailers (and in fact consumers and even some AFOLs) don't get that LEGO is an expandable system, which gets better and more flexible the bigger your pile of bricks gets, they see it more as individual sets like scale model kits. Since they think this way they are more interested in the new sets, than restocking the old, or the vital expansion stuff like track over the whole year. I can't see the point of advertising trains if retailers won't have them more than a few weeks. I think the problem with TLG marketing the EN or Maersk trains to model rail fans is also about retailing. The sort of shops that sell model railways wouldn't be interested in TLG's minimum order. TLG is no longer able to deal directly with a bunch of small retailers anyway, and I'm pretty sure the buying groups who do buy LEGO don't sell anything to model railway shops. There just isn't and existing channel to get their product to the right shops to try this. I'd also imagine that an HO engine that sold 10,000 would be a huge sucess, but that's barely passable for a LEGO set from what I gather from the Cusoo thresholds. It may be that the model rail community isn't really big enough for TLG to bother with. The real problem with the separate cars stems from the stock levels I think; most kids will want an engine first. Single engines have sold well in the past. If the retailers have decided the carriages are duds and discounted them three months later, they'll all be gone in August when Jonny has his birthday, and he won't be able to expand his train. It will appear to the retailer the carriages were unpopular, and this will be reflected in TLGs sales since there was no re-ordering of the cars (or at least less than the engine). Much better for TLG to produce the full sets. Especially since Jonny's parents feel cheated that they can't expand the one engine they bought. Since this cycle has been repeated at least once per decade for forty years TLG are probably now pretty convinced selling separate rolling stock doesn't work. BTW I've known of LEGO trains since the late sixties, though I never saw one at retail here till the late 9V era. All my knowledge came via catalogues sent from relatives in Germany, and my 171 and a few add-ons sent as gifts. I know blue and grey era stuff were available but never saw it. In that time though LEGO has moved from being seen as an expensive 'educational' toy sold through specialist toy shops to a far more mainstream toy sold by the large chain retailers. The US market has probably changed a great deal too; TLG see it as important for future growth since they see their biggest markets in Europe as saturated. A friend of mine recently asked how to buy more track, or if he should just buy another set, he was in exactly the position you were when you emerged from your dark age. He's buying for his kid though and probably wouldn't have got very far without knowing to ask me (or having the persistence most AFOLs have). So in some ways the situation here hasn't changed. Since the trains only get replaced every 3-4 years it's always good to buy the current City ones if you don't think they're really horrible. They tend to be a reasonable way to get track, wheels, train bases and PF gear, even if the trains themselves don't thrill you. I'd hope we might see new trains next year, but the red Cargo train may have been produced to tide us over till 2014, so I wouldn't wait.

While I haven't bought any of the Hogwart's trains, I don't really look down on them more than any other train. Since I'm mostly into building mocs, I judge them like any other set. My normal criteria are 1) does the train appeal to my tastes as a set. 2) Does it have enough useful parts to be a good parts pack. The last Hogwart's was at least worth considering, but I'm a German train fan so it fails criteria 1). I already have a bunch of red train windows, I don't use a lot of train bases since I build longer 7 wide carriages, and there were no large drivers, so it didn't make criteria 2) either. Being a licensed theme made it a bit pricey too.

Historically though you are wrong. This exact argument was made for the Santa Fe train. TLG tried it. The passenger cars didn't sell well. I don't think you can argue they were a poor design, since on the second hand market they command huge prices. The point is complete sets are more profitable, partially because the huge retailers prefer them, since they want a single quick sale, not something that sits around on the shelves in the hope the customer comes back to expand their train. In practice most kids will get given the engine, and may never get a carriage. Since sales of the carriages are slow retailers wont restock them, then the kid has no hope of getting them six months later. I don't see mixing trains into licensed themes working very well since they normally mirror scenes from books or movies, adding in a train that wasn't in the source wont be popular with the licences fans, and adding the licence fees to an already expensive train theme probably wont be very successful either. People who actually try and build a full layout are rare, a complete train set will meet the needs of most people interested in Lego trains. I must echo the statement of others; Lego is a construction toy, you can build whatever you want, you don't need TLG to make an official set to allow you to do so. I'm happy we get a few city sets every few years, and overjoyed with the exclusive train sets, but as long as track and wheelsets and magnets are available I have all I need.

You pretty much admit in the above comments that trains are not of interest to most people. I think you're clutching at straws and blaming Lego's mismanagement because your favourite theme isn't everybody else's. It's not mismanagement to give kids what they want, and I'm pretty sure that kids would much prefer a four headed dragon as the big set in the Ninjago theme than a train. Otherwise the designers would probably have included a train; Mark Stafford seems to be pretty informed about market research and takes his role as a toy designer fairly seriously. It's not his role to promote trains, it's his role to make sets that will appeal to the most customers.

No the situation hasn't changed. TLG have a finite production capacity, and they therefore look very carefully at the sets they produce, and the range and colours of parts they produce. This reduces their warehousing costs and maximises the profit they can make with existing production. Expansion almost inevitably means overseas factories such as china, which increases the complexity of shipping and packing, so is more likely to be used for self contained lines such as collectable minifigs rather than expanding trains. They will choose to make the most profitable sets they can. To the target market for Lego, action themes are far more interesting than trains. AFOLs are a very minor market, and not even most AFOLs like trains. Yes there are probably 100,000 of us by now, but the market for LEGO among kids dwarfs that. Most of the suggestions made here have been tried by LEGO and failed in the past. AFOL train fans don't seem to like to accept fact, instead they seem to think they could run a global company better than those who actually have experience at it. As TLG has grown their products need to be far more mainstream, since with there huge production runs now, any niche such as trains gets more and more tenuous as a business decision.

I would PM you but since your new you won't be able to read it so I'll reply here. Go to the yahoo groups site, and join the two groups there; http://au.dir.groups.yahoo.com/group/mugs-list/ http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/mltc-list/

When you do get back to Melbourne, come along to Mugs (the Melbourne Lego Users Group) and you'll meet most of the M>LTC (Melbourne Lego Train Club) too :-)

This is a great idea and leads to much to think about, Thanks. This is very good advice, and since the minifig is quite a different shape than a human, the taller you consiser them to be, the more problematic thier width becomes. At 1:48 the width of doorways might become too narrow for a minifig. Many vehicle builders treat minifigs as short and fat and build to 1:38 for this reason.

It's pretty hard to give general tips on steam engine building because the solutions differ greatly depending on the wheel arrangement. Once you've worked out how your wheels will work, that will influence pretty much everything else, so get your wheels and drive train worked out first. For ideas I'd look at as many other AFOL builds as you feel necessary, and copy the techniques you like. There are hundreds of steamers in the Flickr lego train Mocs group, most builders show enough detail shots in their stream to work out what they've done. That skill improves the more you do it, so try and copy bits you like in real brick. It might also be helpful to build from others instructions. Ben's BR23 is available as a free download on Railbricks as is a wild west train from gambort, and Sava sells instructions for some of his steamers. After that it's a matter of trial and error for the most part.

How do you know this? More details please.

They tend to sell via Ebay, and as you can see are still available.

The colours are great and the doors look very clever.

I agree with Frank here, using three flanged drivers makes for all sorts of trouble. Either you need the central axle to be able to move or you need to articulate the chasis. You may also run into trouble because of the larger distance between your wheels. I've built a couple of Ben's BR23's (as recommended by Duq) and decided to use a blind driver in the middle just to make things easier. You don't really notice unless you look for it.

It is forever, EB is not really wanting to be a picture hosting site, since good free ones already exist. Most people deeplink photos from Flickr of Brickshelf. If you read the tutorials (most mods have them linked in their sigs) you'll find what you need to know.

This is a bit of a hard question to answer but I'll give it a go. Historically it has been rare that trains get released more frequently than once every three to four years. We had the current yellow cargo train and passenger train released in 2010, so they are due to be replaced in 2013-2014, if history serves as a good guide. At the moment we've seen more trains than for a very long time. In particular we had the red cargo train released in 2011, I've been told it is intended to replace the yellow cargo train when its production ends, which might mean trains are selling particularly well. Perhaps we will see more trains sooner than history predicts but I doubt it, in January the new lead City designer said he hadn't looked at trains yet since he was concentrating on the themes that were next to be refreshed. That suggests new trains were about two years away at least if the lead times for other sets hold true. If you like the current station I'd buy it, since it could be a while before you see another, and stock for the current one may become harder to find (at least in some markets like Australia). Edit: Sorry Brickster, your post happened while I was writing my own.

I really like the anti-aliasing on the logo. It's a very clever technique, used to good effect here.