peterab

Well, their normal response is they charge what the market will bear. My response is to shop via the US, either via a remailer or from Bricklink. Getting the boxes removed can significantly lower the shipping. Even if I can only save a little, at least I'm doing my bit to push back.

The no violence policy is beyond dispute, that's why you dont see 'written evidence' of it. It is very well documented, both in quotes from the Lego founder and his son. I understand some of them are even on the walls of the imagination centre in Bilund. It's also corroborated in interviews with Lego designers. Some of them made tank models but had to hide them from their managers and the CEO, since they knew they would never be approved, so they would be viewed as a waste of company time. If you're interested you can probably find such things online pretty easily. It's only recently since TLG's finacial troubles that that policy has changed.

Any weight takes up space, the new battery pack is pretty small, I can't see the particular shape of the battery box any more annoying than the limitations the shape of the 9V motor place on you. In fact the battery is easier to hide. They do have a cheap battery box, in fact they have two. One that takes 6 AA's and if space is a real issue one that takes 6 AAA's. The smaller one is in the new train sets. Hopefully it will become seperately available. I'm sure it's already on bricklink. Feel free to use your own rechargables, but I've bought a set of AA's, and I could probably get the rechargable battery box shipped from the US for about the same price, and it would have greater charge time and would only need access to the socket rather than being totaly removed from my mocs. While 9V has some nice features, so does PF. For typical around the Xmas tree use I cant see much advantage to either, but you may see things differently, thats fine, a circle of 9V track, a motor and a speed regulator are easily obtainable on Bricklink. I just can't understand 'the sky is falling' reaction to the end of 9V. Sure the clubs who have heavilly invested in it were going to be a bit dissapointed, but they got a lot of warning, and had the chance to buy discounted motors, and more track, and most have since adapted. TLG have also taken their concerns into account and have produced a couple of motors and battery boxes in responce which are much better than the restrictive RC ones.

From your list there seems to be a lot more/better civilians in this series too. Still only 2 female figs but thats better than nothing.

I think the gem in this is the very clever conection to the track, it could be very usefull for an under track motor (either purist or not since it would be hidden anyway).

You'll find a few ideas in the Lego Train Ideas group on flickr It isn't available seperately from S@H yet (they had the RC motor still last time I looked), and there were very few on BL. The RC motor is less powerful, and the need to use a clip-on 9V connector will restrict you to custom baseplates or the RC one with battery box. The new PF motor with permanant wire corrects this dis-advantage.

Well, those drawbacks at least seem to be only in your mind, as this shows. Note that building that engine would be really akward with 9V, because trying to have dummy middle driving wheels was a nightmare. This is one of the smaller German prototypes, so if its possable (and in fact this is a highly detailed result so it doable to a very high standard) just about anything is. Other benifits of the PF system are better fine control and independant control of trains for more realistic shunting operations. Also the possability of independantly controlled lights, doors etc. Also more flexibility in bogie design. Also not having to maintain metal track which corrodes. Also its easier to add more motors independant of the number or wheel layout of bogies. Part of that benifit is because of better traction because of the weight of the battery.

I have just finished reading 'Lego A Lovs Story'. The Author quotes some figures which given he did extensive interviews in the US and Bilund probably have a pretty good basis.. There are about 20,000 AFOLs in about 100 LUGS around the world. Many/most of those don't build trains. Compared to the normal market of kids, the AFOL train market is insignificant, and probably a pain to even bother with at all.

Both the Wizard and the Farme impulses were purchased by MUGS members at Chadston Vic this weekend. Saw them with my own eyes. I think they came from TRU.

It's pretty unlikely since they see even the normal train line as a marginally profitable niche product anyway.

I don't really find it OK in any theme, but the reality is in the licenced themes, if they have guns in the source material there is a huge pressure for TLG to replicate that in the sets. Since the licenced themes are finacially important for lego I can hardly complain that they try and do them well. I think I have a right to expect their most sucessful theme (town) to continue to be gun free, since it has worked up to now, and as you say the violence is encroaching on every other theme. Just because 'violence is violence' it doesn't need to be everywhere. Can't those of us that remember and value TLG's original goals of imaginative non-violent toys have one small area not overtaken by guns? I do feel strongly about weapons in my lego sets, that's a large reason I don't collect a lot of other themes apart from train/town. Besides those that want violence can easily arm their police using the licenced weapons already.

Good luck for tommorow Cpt Zuloo, Next year I'll make sure to make it to Brick Expo. I've been watching the preperations the Sydlug guys have been making on their email list, should be a great show. Peter

The Peko point motors didn't use latching solenoids, as the points had a 'latching' spring in them. If you used a strong enough solenoid to overcome the friction of the Lego point, you wouldn't need to modify the point or use a latching solenoid. I guess both methods are worth considering.

There is also Brickvention http://www.brickventures.com/ in January in Melbourne, Australia

This is a wonderful build, and it doesn't look like you were limited by parts. You've done a great job working with what you had.

Well, free is always good

In practice that was how the Santa Fe cars were sold (since retailers didn't stock them for long, one assumes because of slow sales) and they were heavily discounted just to get rid of them. They are a great design, if they didn't sell well, I dont think anything will. Train builders are a small and fickle market, but it's easy for AFOLs to build what we want from PAB, S@H and bricklink parts, so while I too would love official train carriage sets, I can do without them.

They're not subtle, I'd hoped for something easily hidden or below the baseboard like the Peco point motors. These are not much smaller than some of the power functions solutions. I wish I could afford the 9V micromotors, as I think they're the best solution I've seen, and they are a pure lego solution. If I consider a non-lego solution, it would have to have advantages over pure lego ones, such as being easily hidden or small. Still a good effort to get a working solution.

Oh yes there is intrest, and btw on the internet it's photos or it didn't happen

I don't think this exists as an official set, so the normal channels like bricklink and eBay would be your best bet. On bricklink you will probably have to order the individual parts for the extra car, but since its a new set you should be able to find stores with all the parts in stock. This is probably better suited to the Buy Sell Trade forum than the train tech one though...

I've found you need at least two attachment points for these to be robust. Some european stake cars have small drop sides which would give you the chance to add an extra clip to each stake higher up, also if you made the sides in red it might help intergrate the red stakes into the wagon a bit better. I'm pretty sure the DB AG in Germany would have a prototype in this coulour scheme in fact. One more suggestion you might remove one or two stakes per side as they seem a little crowded at the moment. Of course that is if you want to have another attempt at this Moc. I too have a few train baseplates looking for a good use, since I've mostly converted to building 7 wide :-)

Hi Piotr, thanks for the wikipedia link, I've never read about Kof's before, and I'm now quite interested in them. I may even build one myself since it fits into the time period I'm building at the moment. Your model is great too, quite a difficult engine to get right I'd guess because of its small size.

I think most people are assuming that Timmays 9V motors are worn out, since he says they are not running to well. There was a good thread on cleaning out old motors recently which Timmay should probably check out.

That's so mean, its winter in Australia I really like the little details in this addition to your town like the birds and ice cream cart.

The promo pics may contain prototype pieces that are spray painted, which would look different in production since they are moulded in pearl gold ABS. Nobody gets a large upload allowance, the normal way people add pictures is to deep link to pics hosted elsewhere like flickr or brickshelf. Consider the alternative, for every Mb set asside for each of 10000+ members, the server needs an extra 10 gig, and a lot more bandwidth. Both cost real money, yet other services already provide it for free.