Dear LEGO Train community,
As an answer to your questions on the LAN the project team behind the change of train wheel has shared a video with some information around the design change of components.
Please find it attached here and feel free to share with your community.
If your community members have questions or comments to the content in the video, please post them here and we will forward to the team. Because of Christmas we'll compile the questions on January 22nd which should allow you to get feedback from your members.
Clipul il puteti vedea aici.
Cateva prime reactii din partea altor Ambasadori:
So in other words, LEGO say that friction:
plastic - plastic
is better than friction
plastic - metal
I understand the terms
- cheaper production (and I really look forward to seeing more cubes at the same price)
- what 20 years did not cause problems for children to suddenly have to solve? What the next ? So over time, tile 1x1 and plate 1x1 will no longer be used ?
It's wrong for me
On straight track, old ones may roll better, but I seems that on curves, switches and flex tracks, new ones do much better and in total outperform wheels with metal axle. For me, this is great, since one of the things, which bother me the most in past was difference in speed on straight and curved tracks and this seems to equalizes it a bit.
I plan to do some testing too, I just need to find a set with new wheels, which would be worth buying (hidden side train is not that).
Sorry, I'm not convinced the new wheels are better by this marketing video. I'd rather see a slew of scientifically reproduce-able tests comparing old to new. So many variables leading to errors that could potentially skew results in that video. Plus they only showed one test result, didn't compare it to the other, and just showed highlights of the actual test footage. At one point, the metal axle train was going faster than the plastic axle train (less friction? more efficient motor? battery differences?)
Let's see some extended load tests for wear and tear, friction tests, etc.
I do realize its a cheaper solution for toy trains. And, yay LEGO, for being more eco friendly too.
After watching this comparisons and running some internal test... what we think is that from a marketing point of view, you may say that this is a greener solution. It is for sure much more environmentally friendly as it uses better polymers. OK, why don't you build the old system using this new plastics then?
You can also say that this solves a problem... that we didn't know we had, as kids have been running LEGO trains for decades thinking they are were safe. Would this mean that we may have put our kids on risk with old metal axles, and it took decades for LEGO to change it?No, this is not the point.
Another comment I received is that a marketing video can't say "this reduces costs, to be able to put more bricks on your bags for the same price", because a customer would say "I can't find those extra bricks on my sets, perhaps it's just helping to make more money for the same stuff". I know if you say this, you mean is true, but you can't say it, it's something that only others can say from your products
In our community we have a bunch of fellow LEGO train lovers and the main point of view is "this wheels are solving a problem that we didn't know we had, and introducing many others". This is the main conclusion. It isn't a good change for AFOLs in our humble point of view.
I personally think that this new parts are solving the problem of having externally produced metal parts, witch solves an operational problem in production. It's also engineered to try to offer advantages to the users, like the ones mentioned on the video. But, plastic-plastic friction is what it is and it's too hard to reduce friction from metal-plastic previous solution.
We find very interesting that they can be connected in different new ways expanding the possibilities. It's good to have both systems as the old one is our favourite one for regular trains, but this new one is much better in some building scenarios. But what is important to say is that both systems are complementary (thank god we have bricklink and a good stock of old wheels).
BTW what we really would demand, if we're asked, is please bring 9V trains back! (or whatever the system you choose, but running on metal rails), but this is another chapter of the same bookWe know metal parts are 3rd party parts, and way more expensive.
A recurring comment I am seeing is "this is just marketing speak". The general feeling appears to be that LEGO has decided a change was necessary and is now trying to explain this is actually a good thing for AFOLs. There are several reasons why people say this:
distrust towards marketing because of past untrue affirmations (I don't think I need to provide any examples)
the video contains a lot of words but no actual data. "Similar wear" and "improved battery consumption" don't really mean anything if no data is provided to show the difference.
200 hours of testing is generally deemed to be a drop in the ocean
Added to that there are other concerns. The video speaks of "the heaviest train engine and the heaviest train wagons [LEGO] have had in their portfolio", but that does not really compare to the kind of setup AFOLs will generally use, with much longer trains and (probably*) also heavier rolling stock.
The trains were also only tested on flat track.
Finally I have seen concern about the centricity and straight angle of both the pins and pin holes (wheel and bogie), but that is just speculation for now.
Daca aveti ceva de adaugat si vreti sa postez pe LAN, va rog sa scrieti aici.
