Subject:
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Re: Super Chief set not ready for prime-time // Super Chief no train set?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.lego.direct
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Date:
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Thu, 17 Oct 2002 15:14:52 GMT
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Viewed:
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1030 times
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On Wed, 16 Oct 2002 15:38:15 GMT, "Jake McKee"
<jacob.mckee@america.lego.com> wrote:
> I asked around this morning and discovered something interesting about the
> train wheels. The train wheels are one of the few items that are
Now that REALLY surprises me - can you give us any idea as to *why*
lego farms this out? I could understand a motor assembly, but a set of
train wheels seems to be well within the abilities of a plastics
manufacturer.... even if the axles themselves are made elsewhere.
> That being said, please keep in mind that AFOLs run their trains though many
> more strenous situations than most consumers. With custom grades, very long
> trains, etc. you really give the trains a workout!
Actually, I have to take exception to this. I received my first Lego
train (#122) in 1970 (I was 5) and that poor train took a beating, so
to speak. It hauled Tonka trucks four times it's size, rediculously
long trains made up of the (then) town wheels with the tires removed
after I'd run out of proper train wheels and strung together with the
original couplers (those brittle, white pieces with the 2x2 1/2 plates
at either end of a thin white plastic "string" that pre-dated the
magnetic and hook-type couplers Lego wisely replaced them with). I
made it climb (actually "pushed" would be the proper term) slopes of
increasing angles until it couldn't climb any more or the rubber bands
on the wheels slipped off. Etc. etc. etc.
Remember: children learn by doing. They learn limits by pushing things
(including parents ;-) ) until they break or stop fuctioning. They
have no concept of limits except by what they experience by
experimentation. As an adult (and AFOL) I have a much keener sense of
what is and is not possible, of where the limits are and of how not to
cross them. You should see my son (3 next month) play with the
metroliner. It's almost scarry at times. The concept of momentum and
curves is meaningless, as is the belief - as I once had - that
anything with a motor can carry any toy you stack on it. Sorry, but
kids are inherently far more demanding of a toy than an adult is. We
just make them look better.
This is BTW the reason I fell in love with lego way back then. It was
the one toy in my aresenal that could be pushed to it's limits and
break like all the others, but it could at least be put back
together*, usually in a more interesting way. I learned a lot through
experimenting with Lego. It's the main reason I still have all of it
and why my kids were introduced to it the moment they stopped putting
things in their mouths. I want them to learn as much by doing as
through teaching. This is why set 122/123/124/125 is on the tracks
behind me (along with a metroliner) and why my other favourite, 333 -
the blue 6-wide transport truck, has become my daughter's favorite
(lot's of room inside to hide stuff).
Matthias Jetleb
*except those old white connectors. I only have a few left and the
kids CAN'T play with them.
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