Subject:
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Re: Latest catalog information
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains
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Date:
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Mon, 19 Feb 2001 14:07:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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1330 times
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In lugnet.trains, Michael Hader writes:
> I scanned the picture and posted different sizes (for varying bandwidths) of
> it here:
>
> http://www.mhader.com/lego/lego/april23/
>
> BTW..I think it's much better than the 4561.
>
> michael
Thanks for that - I like it. I might not be the target age group, but I'll
have one... or two... Green green green. Please do a green one. And
brown, possibly tan - not just red/yellow/blue. Oh please.
Bright/pale/salmon pink, light blue, light and robo-riders slime green I can
live without, brown and tan I could get by without, but standard dark green
simply HAS to be there. Look TLC, I could be so easily pleased. P.S. I
live in the UK.
Okay okay, Larry, I'll wait and see. :)
I think it's a good step towards entry-level trains - a kid wouldn't need
track to have some fun with this. I'm dying to see if there are more than
just this one engine (wagons etc.), but something tells me it'll just start
small. The wording: "Buy your own customised train engine..." - that's a
fairly simple promise to deliver on. (sorry - "customiZed train engine").
Something like, here's an engine: pick a colour and we'll swap all the blue
bricks for that colour. Pay for it. Enjoy a new milestone in Lego
purchasing, and a neat-looking (and not too cheesy) steam engine.
(Bring your own track and motor if you have it, if not, what do you think
carpets are for?)
That way, TLC can produce bags of the standard black bricks, and a separate
bag with all the coloured bricks. Stick one of each in a box, and post it.
The key is to allow ordering of sub-assemblies over the web - one step
closer to elemental ordering.
Then, they get to test the delivery system, test the stock control system
for the skew of more popular colours, test the customising web page, and
then if it all goes wonky they could fall back on separate part numbers for
different coloured trains and still deliver.
I don't recall ever seeing an actual 0-4-0 that took a tender, but it's
better than the 3225. Funny though, having grown up collecting UK (and
occaisionally German) model steam trains, the first thing I spot are the
American influences, not the European ones - the large, decorative number
plates on inset panels, the arrangement of areas of colours for catching the
eye, rather than the UK way of painting everything in the company's colour,
except the plate and front few feet of the boiler which remain black to hide
the dirt.
Just off hand, another idea I had for TLC to cheapen entry into trains would
be a simple battery system. Go back to the old idea of a battery tender,
but fit the motor into it too. You could use two big D or whatever cells to
provide 3V, which is what most people will be running their trains at to
keep them from flying off the track anyway. Either build the battery box
onto the bottom half of a standard train motor, or provide a battery box
which clips onto a standard motor and powers it from the top.
But, the question is, would this be significantly cheaper than a
motor+controller? And would it be a potential profit for TLC? Take away
the development cost from the profit, and probably not. Ah well.
I think TLC could stand to drop the price of the controller though. I mean,
what's inside it? A big variable resistor, a capacitor, an LED and three or
four plastic mouldings are all that's required. It's precision moulded to
produce a few studs on the front - but who cares? More importantly, who
wants to pay for it?. Just add in a dirt-cheap mass-produced mains adaptor,
a track clip cable, and a whopping great profit margin...
Now a green steam engine, that would make up for it...
Jason J Railton
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Latest catalog information
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| (...) Well, the first HO locomotive kit I ever got was a Mantua 0-4-0 with tender. I guess this isn't the first tender, but of the one's pointed out (725 and 7750) it looks the best (and I don't count the battery car as a tender, it looks like a box (...) (24 years ago, 20-Feb-01, to lugnet.trains)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Latest catalog information
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| In lugnet.trains, James Powell writes: <snip> (...) the (...) I scanned the picture and posted different sizes (for varying bandwidths) of it here: (URL) think it's much better than the 4561. michael (24 years ago, 18-Feb-01, to lugnet.trains)
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