peterab

I don't see that a loss leader would work for lego trains, by far the vast majority of purchasers only ever buy one train. Selling that one train at a loss doesn't help much.

The traditional way is using a very fine abrasive like Brasso, brass polish.

Yeah that is surprising. Though it does fit with a pet theory I've had about the US market for some time. The year after the start of the GFC in discussions of US pricing surrounding the release of TLGs annual report, there was a statement made that the US prices were artificially lower than the rest of the world as TLG saw it as an important market for future growth. My theory is that this means certain sets which are the least profitable will be unprofitable in the US market. The US seems to miss out on sets such as the advent calendars, and certain sets with lots of minifigs, it also had a small delivery of series 1 collectable minifigs, later series had a price hike. Minifigs are known to be expensive to produce relative to simpler non printed bricks etc. This set fits that pattern given the motorbike is probably also not cheap to produce relative to simpler bricks.

I don't have any but I'm inclined to think the big quarter saucer plates from the UFO line would be pretty useless to me, however one of my space building mates said they were drool worthy parts to him.

That motorcycle has been around in Australia for the past two series of police sets, maybe six years. I guess the reason you can't find it is it sells out, or it's so old your local retailers don't stock it. It's probably being given away here and the UK to clear stock for a replacement. I imagine you'll be able to pick it up on bricklink easily. Anything that is on the shelves for more than one wave is pretty much guaranteed to have had high sales.

I'm somewhat in agreement with Andy Glascot and Ralf, though I've bought two for parts. I do think it's an iconic step in the history of Lego trains though, and it will become a classic of the order of the Metroliner or Santa Fe Super Chief. As a parts pack it's great, with unique wheels, windows and a host of dark green parts. I think for a train head it's not the greatest model, as it has had running difficulties (they've been overcome by many mods to the drive train), and the many customizations reflect the fact that it doesn't portray any particular prototype perfectly (though it does closely resemble a couple). For the set collector, or those who like to display official sets, it is a distinctive and beautiful set, and an interesting build.

My train club uses modules which are the size of 3x3 32 base plates. The smaller your modules are the more time you spend setting up at shows. We have considered going to 2x3 32 stud base plates because that allows the modules to easily be carried through doors in our houses without tipping. Many of our modules get transported stacked on top of each other, with smaller buildings lifted of and boxed separately. Larger buildings get transported on their modules. The elevated section will probably need to be separated from the module below to allow efficient packing for transport. I'd guess you might want to have track bed modules made of three to four track pieces, and then the columns to support it. Still a lot of assembly but at least you should be able to pack them so they wont break in transit.

That Railbricks design came about after much experimentation by a few guys on the Flickr trains group. It's probably the best working of the sliding middle axle variety. There are two other design types, one with a normal two axle geared bogie, with an articulated third axle. The other has three fixed axles, the middle axle has no traction rubber bands, while the outer ones have slightly thicker traction bands (plumbing O rings) which raise the middle axle enough to avoid binding. Here are a few examples, be aware they might not be as well tested as the design in Railbrick, or have failed testing and not been updated. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34338074@N06/3726076426

They got rid of their Toy Story stock very heavily discounted. I think since their normal prices are pretty good they don't have a lot of very slow selling stock so don't have to discount a lot.

Hi SqueebsMcGee, You shouldn't have polarity issues with any motor, as reversing the polarity will simply reverse the direction. You should also not be able to damage the motor if you use the original voltage (ie 4.5V) which the original battery cars supply. I've just re-read your post and it seems you want to run your 4.5V motor with a 9V battery. That's not a good idea unless you have another load in series with it. You don't want to run it with all 9V across the motor. Use 4.5V as the input to the receiver and all should be fine. I think you'll need to use the C1 and C2 outputs since the 0 and 9V outputs are uncontrolled by the remote. Using the controlled outputs will allow you to control the speed and direction. You should be able to adapt a PF cable to the plugs that fit your motor. All the 4.5V train motors were pretty similar despite some small external differences.

Hi -R8-, Thanks for your review, I have one further question. Is the grey colour of the ME sleepers nearer to dark bluish grey or the old dark grey?

That track is used for high voltage (~20V) running of 9V motors, so are we sure the Maersk used in the video even has PF? If not it's not really relevant to the question.

At a track day I hope :-) I really like the look of your bikes rear. Though the only experience I had of Truimphs was sharing a driveway with a 650 Bonneville. It leaked more oil than my 1974 Beetle. And give me slack or give me death or kill me :-)

The green star means a single retailer will sell it in Australia. I'm not sure if this means anything for the rest of the world or not though since Australia is a unique case in some ways. It doesn't appear that it will be a Lego store exclusive though.

Was that Jim Foulds? I'm on the Brickvention organizing committee, and had a few talks with him about the future of trains. He was always really careful not to talk about unreleased sets. I can't remember anything about a charging station, though I was pretty busy most of the time and might have missed it. He did say we would love what was in the works though, and since we've seen the new red cargo train and the Maersk train, so I think he's right so far. Since the powered tracks were killed off due to cost and safety concerns, I'd doubt they'll come back unless something drastic changes. Even if sales of trains skyrocket there is still the safety rule issues which are out of TLG control.

More than just being a European company, it makes sense to cater to their most popular markets. Germany is their largest market. The US is third or fourth. The Santa Fe while being very popular with AFOLs may not have been a great financial sucess. The carriages were eventually heavily discounted, which suggests sales were not great. Also using real railroad markings requires licensing agreements which either reduce profits of add to the cost of a set, not so great for a line which needs to compete with other popular city sets like Fire or Police. I think this is the crux of the problem. AFOLs have different wants, I for instance don't care for US diesels, you probably don't want German steamers like me. Even if every AFOL (I've seen estimates of ~50,000 AFOLs) liked the same thing we are still only 5% of the market for LEGO sets. We have already seen a surge of LEGO trains. Two city train sets, EN, Maersk, Toy story, Hogwarts, plus the new City service train all in a few years. I'm pretty sure we've never had so many trains in a few year time span ever before. I hope it continues, particularly the AFOL aimed sets like the EN and Marsk trains. I think the flexibility to either include or not the PF elements is great, and shows the idea to share PF components across all lines is working.

I didn't ask them to remove the boxes, and if I remember correctly shipping was $105 US for two Fire Brigades, some train track, and a bunch of PF stuff.

When I saw it it reminded me of the many rural sandstone buildings I'd seen in South Australia. Perhaps the plainness is exactly what makes the difference between the US and Oz, since more ornamentation would look wrong for this style of building to me.

How do you know this?

I've used shipito once with OK results. It probably works best for a bunch of medium sized sets or if you are happy to have them remove the boxes and repack into standard size shipping boxes. I used it for a couple of modular buildings and a bunch of small stuff, and I saved a bit compared to Oz RRP but not a whole heap because of the cost of shipping the large boxes.

Blockbricks sells the instructions, at the link he gave.

Re-releases of classics have had disappointing sales in the past, they appeal to a much smaller market than new sets. We haven't seen any for a while and I doubt we'll ever see one that in effect would require reviving an obsolete motor and track system.

It's a bit early to be disappointed, but perhaps time for a bit more careful reading. The original poster said he was not sure they had a complete box. When I add up the figures in the distribution I get 50, and the post says 49/60. Before we go accusing TLG of unholy acts why don't we wait and see what's in a full sealed box. In the past they have mostly had 3 full sets, and I think the early lack of fishermen was probably due to production problems, had it been intentional why did they change it later?

Hi Stefanwest, Welcome to Train Tech. I'm 45 and I know very well your shell station. It was in the first Lego catalogue I ever had, and I always wanted it as a child but never got it. I still have that catalogue, and when I started to collect Lego again it was one of the sets I searched for. I eventually got it again but the tanker is in very bad condition, so someday I'll replace it. Peter

They are due in August according to the Australian dealer catalog. We got the earlier series about a month later than the US so my guess is they'll show up in the US sometime in July.