GrfxGuy
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GrfxGuy's Stats
- 4Average Rating
- 34Helpfulness Votes
- 0Featured Reviews
- 1Review Count
- December 21, 2019First Review
- December 21, 2019Last Review
GrfxGuy's Reviews
Posted:December 21, 2019
GrfxGuy
Age:
45-54
years old
Customer Type:
LEGO Fan
Building Experience:
Advanced LEGO builder
Overall:
4
/
5
Good set for Disney and/or Train fans
" I'm not the biggest Disney fan, but I am a huge train fan, and aside from the cycle of passenger and cargo trains they release every few years, we don't get a lot of interesting sets for train fans.
Aesthetically, this set is really beautiful. It steps out of the usual 6-stud wide train builds, and gives a solid 8 wide build that, given the scale, works better, in my opinion. The train looks great, but it causes problems if, like me, you do something like put the train on your Winter Village track. It hits both the Winter Village Train Station and the gates on the railroad crossing. Some quick modifications fix it, though.
Unlike some of the other reviewers, I did not have a problem with instructions or misprinted stickers (although, for sets this large and costly, I would have preferred printed bricks). Unlike previous large sets I've built, there is only one numbered bag used at a time. That avoids a lot of confusion and makes it a lot simpler, as you don't have to wonder why there are three bag 1s, and only two bag 2s, but 4 bag 3s... you know you are getting the right parts for each set of steps in the instructions. If you're old-school, you can still feel free to dump them all in a giant pile from the start and have fun digging for bricks.
This is my first Powered Up (PU) train, and unlike the other PU train sets (Cargo and Passenger trains), this does not include a remote, which means you will need a mobile device - Apple or Android, to control the train. Make sure your device can handle it. You otherwise might want to buy a remote control separately, which is a lot cheaper than getting a whole new mobile device.
If you are using the app to control the train, it's got two "modes," one regular and one winter. The interface gives you a different appearance, and the optional background music (very nice touch) is different. The app lets you ring the train bell, blow the train whistle, and control the speed of the train. All in all, it's a pretty nice system. Note, you cannot do ANYTHING else with your device while playing with the train, as switching apps causes the system to disconnect automatically. There's nothing you can do about it. It's a fine default behavior, but there's no settings where you can adjust it.
That leads me to some of the bad things about this system, and it's mostly related to PU, and not the Disney Train, but since that's what it comes with, I think it's fair to include it here.
Firstly, it's supposed to automatically disconnect and shut down the hub (the controller for the train - the "brains" that attach to the motor) when you exit the app. The light on the hub does go off, but then I have no explanation for the miserable battery life of the hub. 6 brand new AAA batteries were gone before a week was up, and I only ran the train a few minutes at a time, maybe a dozen times, before the batteries wore out. 6 new batteries to play with programming the hub, and in less than 20 minutes the train was going noticeably slower. I have now ordered two sets of rechargeable batteries. For a company that seems so concerned about the environment, the miserable battery life is really quite bad.
The other thing, as I mentioned, is that PU lets you create your own controls - it lets you "program" the train. The screen that lets you build your own gives you a number of pages of different icons that you can link together to make stuff happen; it includes several computer programming concepts that should allow a novice to learn a little bit about programming logic. Great bonus, right? Except there's no documentation for ANY of the icons/constructs that are included, or how to use the interface at all. Some are easy to figure out, some not. There are other concepts, like being able to create sub-blocks of "code" that I figured out after some time, but I look at this and shake my head at the idea that someone who doesn't already know how to program could figure any of this out. I'm a professional computer programmer, and I had trouble trying to figure it out. Do you know the different between local and global variables? I do. Not so sure a 10 year old with no programming experience would.
It's also quite difficult to do all this on a little phone screen. If you have an Android or iOS tablet, that might ease the pain. Being able to do something really cool on my laptop would be great, but there's no Windows interface available. How does the LEGO Group create a programmable device like this without getting the resources out there for people to program it? And there's really no excusing it - the Boost system has been out for at least two years.
I ultimately was able to make a little program and, using the color sensor from boost, have the train run independently while occasionally stopping at the Winter Village Train Station for a few moments before proceeding around the track again. Despite the issues and lack of documentation, that's the kind of cool thing both adults and kids could get into.
"
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I would recommend this to a friend!
From:
United States
State:
Georgia
Age:
45-54
years old
Customer Type:
LEGO Fan
Building Experience:
Advanced LEGO builder
Purchased For:
Self
Build Time:
01
days
Play Experience (Optional):
3
/
5
Value for Money (Optional):
4
/
5
Level of Difficulty:
Average
Very Easy
Very Challenging
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share:
+33points
34of 35found this review helpful.