peterab

Any reason that it is Q3? Less sales clash with the city trains?

That might makes sense if Australia were the only market, but since we are quite remote, and the shipping needs to be organised well before Christmas, what would you choose to do? 1. Make sure your largest markets are stocked first. 2. Make sure you are restocking current stock as much as possible for Christmas. 3. Make sure a small remote market has stock immediately after Christmas when traditionally toy sales are low. I don't think your expectations are realistic.

If the price is the same as the blue cargo train, that would be a very expensive truck. I must admit I'm surprised at this, although it does follow the same pattern as the Red cargo train release.

I've never heard of moneybookers but if it is a money transfer service like Western Union, they are designed for transfer to trusted recipients, not payment to unknown sellers. That should have been a huge warning to you, most people use paypal which offers some buyer protection. Try to stop the payment if you are worried, but it is likely to be too late. Unfortunately apart from banning the seller there is not much that Bricklink can do, since they don't control the payment.

Particularly since you are from Australia, I'd buy it as soon as possible. As Arjen has said it appears to be out of production, since it is sold out on the LEGO shop at home website. It could still be restocked if there is another production run but most would agree that is very unlikely since the other Creator trains had two year production runs. The other Creator trains rose rapidly in price once retail stocks disappeared, and this never really had large stock levels in Australia. You might be lucky and still find it at retail price at a Toyworld or an independent retailer, and if so I wouldn't hesitate in buying it because you are unlikely to find it that cheap later.

I backed the ME models kickstarter campaign partially because I wanted the track but also because I saw it as a good resource for the rest of the community. For it to make a real difference it needs to be sustainable rather than a one off production run. Hopefully in the future we will then see more products such as different point geometries. Making a kickstarter pledge is more akin to investment than purchase in my mind, and with investment comes risk. I'm happy to see online sales if it helps make sure all the kickstarter funders receive what they want, and ME models makes enough profit to fund more products.

I don't think that is factually correct on a number of levels. There were a number of years between the end of 9V and the introduction of PF where there were very few train releases (only the Hobby train, Holiday train, and the RC trains if I recall correctly. Even recently there has been years with no train releases since the city trains are on a four year cycle and the creator trains on a two year cycle, and I'm almost sure the Maersk and last lot of city sets were released pretty close together. I'm also sure we knew about the HE before the Maersk was completely gone (it was one of the things that drove the final sales). There have been other trains but they have either been very kiddy orientated, or tied to a license which essentially means the inclusion of a train is beyond the control of LEGO. I'd still be surprised if we don't see another creator train this year because we've had them on a two yearly cycle now for six years, but it can't be argued that this year is anything like two years ago.We had already seen pictures of the HE for months, had a launch at a con, and the official video, and they were on the LEGO shop website by this time two years ago, and I was trying to find an local source to guarantee we had one on our layout at Brickvention. So far we have heard nothing of a replacement for the HE.

I must admit I'm worried, in the past we would have known by now. If we don't hear anything by March I will also give up hope. Perhaps we wont get a new Creator Expert train when there are new city trains released. I would be very sad if that is the case.

Awesome news, Eric. Part of my reason for backing this project was the hope it would lead to a permanent resource for the LEGO train community and it sounds like it will. I eagerly await my order and wish you every success in the future.

Not many companies would be able to deliver the sort of service TLG needs. They are now the biggest toy maker in the world, the sort of volume, precision and price they require would be a unique combination. Most model railway companies would be overwhelmed by the demands of such a job. They are a tiny niche compared to LEGO.

I fully expect to see a new Creator Expert train announced in the next couple of weeks for release in January. Hopefully VIP members will get a chance to pre order.

That sounds like your charger is not matched to your battery type. Newer rechargeable batteries have far higher energy energy density than older NiCd batteries for example, but they are also a lot more picky about chargers.

My train club used it like that in large layouts a couple of times but found just using straight curves was far more reliable because they cause less derailments and were easier to fix in place.

The 9V motors have thermal cut outs also, in fact some 9V motors are very sensitive to heat and cut out too quickly. Older motors which have had a hard life tend to thermal cut out more often, possibly because they are less efficient and produce more heat.

I'm not a great fan of flex track but have found it to be very useful around the edge of my turntable. It allows easy connection to the sidings with just a little flex to allow for any irregularities in their placement on my layout. Other than that I avoid using it.

There is an article in Railbricks which describes a ridge on the inside of 9V track which may cause derailment with powered bogies. The article describes how you should design your bogies so the torque turns them away from the ridge. In practice just running in the opposite direction may help.

Anything that includes train windows in green has my support. The concept of modular carriages is sort of odd to me but if it encourages multiple purchases it could be a good thing sales wise. I'm probably more interested in this as a parts pack than a model, though it could be a nice starting point for modifications.

In my mind zephyr1934 has the right mix of knowledge and involvement in train tech to make a good regulator if he's willing and has the time.

If you look across all of the themes there is a pattern. We haven't seen pictures of the next series of collectable figs, modular building .... A couple of years ago I asked a LEGO employee what they thought of Grogall posting leaked pics of unreleased sets. They said they thought he was getting the images from their public website, by scanning the image cache before the set pages were made public. Legally they couldn't do anything about it but they didn't like it and were trying to educate their people not to put the images up early so as to plug the leaks. It seems they have been successful lately. I certainly won't start to worry unless we get to January and we haven't had a Creator Expert train released.

The HE is widely believed to be based on the french TGV, ie the TGV is the prototype for the HE, and the real TGV bar car shown in Godzilla91210's second photo is the prototype for his LEGO carriage.

That's an interesting build. I too have intentions of customising my HE, I'm going to change the window strip from black to DBG, possibly lengthen the cars and make TGV lettering instead of the arrows on the control cars. After seeing this maybe I need to look at the actual carriage designs and match the prototype more closely. I was completely unaware there was a dedicated bar car.

It will work but only when you have line of sight through the door windows. It will make controlling the train harder but not impossible.

Some of Mike Pianta's engines are beautiful but very fragile and pieces would fall off and derail the train, some of Teunis Davey's trains are a bit top heavy and the straight curves can create a rhythmic rocking due to the gaps between the track segments which can lead to derailments. Ballasted track is taller than normal lego track by itself so very low cow catchers (I think they were changed after the RC trains) can get caught on it and derail. Some of my carriages have low hanging steps which will fall off if knocked. .... It doesn't happen all the time but some trains are more likely to derail than others. Running a big exhibition layout seems to be a good way to catalogue how to derail trains but kids enjoy seeing a crash from time to time.

I think the RRP of the EN here was $120, but it was only sold at retail in Melbourne for one day at a Myer sale (25% off I think) and was then sold out. Because Australia doesn't have any LEGO stores a limited number of the exclusive sets are offered to retail outlets. The RRP of the Cargo train here was $299, but it was widely available discounted.

Man up Dave, you know you want too ;-) I happen to like your dedication to six wide and short rolling stock, it has the appearance of being designed by TLG. I agree that anything near scale length looks silly unless it's on straight curves. My TEE rolling stock are 50 studs long and they are unsightly on normal curves, but look sweet on straight curves.