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Don’t know if folks have noticed the new Joker Manor set has some new pieces that are specifically designed for roller coasters (see the brickset article here). Two questions… Does anyone plan to buy this and would be willing to bring the new roller coaster pieces to a quarterly meeting? Is it likely that these parts will show up in lugbulk?
>> Does anyone plan to buy this and would be willing to bring the new roller coaster pieces to a quarterly meeting?
I’d like to see them also. I plan to buy this set – the rollercoaster parts were the tipping point for me – but I don’t expect to get it til Christmas.
>> Is it likely that these parts will show up in lugbulk?
That’s the real question. The truth is we don’t know. I wouldn’t be surprised either way. There’s parts that were new in 2016 that didn’t show up on the LUGBulk list for this year. Maybe the parts don’t show up til the year after.
Also, for the patient, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere down the line Lego uses those parts in a less expensive set and in a color other than purple. It’s still happening with the 4-wide train track, which dates back to 2009 and has appeared in three colors so far (in four sets all coming out different years).
There’s two different third-party sellers making rollercoaster parts right now (that I know of), I can’t help think that this influenced Lego’s decision here, I’m still convinced they’ve been looking to third-party sellers (especially BrickForge) for ideas for years.
There is a FRIENDS amusement park set that has a roller coaster in it. It was originally selling for $100, but more recently came down to about $80 and has stayed there for months. https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?id=145123#T=S&O={}
I sometimes see them in TARGET?.
I guess the appeal of this new set is that the ramp is steeper.
That would be the aforementioned 4-wide train track. It originally was made in dark bley for the Temple of Doom mine cart set, and then was used in black for the Alien Conquest mother ship and a Joker funhouse, before showing up in Friends last year.
I have a *lot* of this track in black. The big drawback to it is that it comes in just two different parts and neither one is a straight track. I don’t have the Friends set, but I am also wondering how easily the train derails as the hills get bigger. I was doing test builds using the large-diameter Mindstorms balls and all it takes is a single descent and a curve to make the ball jump the track, I had to manually slow them down on the descent. I did not get around to simulating a straight track using the old-style train rails, but the gap created in the rails by doing so would almost certainly not work for a rollercoaster. For the Joker Manor, they’ve created new train parts that clutch the sides of the rails.
I am looking at the Joker Manor pics on lego.com, and in the pics I can see five different types of parts (I’m finding no pics of the back of the build other than close-up interior shots, so I don’t know what the rollercoaster is doing back there). For the big drop, the way the pieces are designed, it looks like the length of the drop could be extended to any length desired if Lego created just one more straight descent piece to put in between the two.
Given these new pieces, the success of the Ferris wheel and carousel sets, Lego’s lack of shyness in recent years about releasing increasingly large and expensive sets, and the fact that at least one of Lego’s rollercoaster competitors was moving sets at BFVA17, I have to wonder if a big rollercoaster set is on the way from Lego in the next year or two. It could be wishful thinking on my part, but at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens.
I go out of my way to not look at pics of sets I plan to buy so I won’t get spoilers before I build them, but I’m still with Phil on this one, if somebody wants to bring it to Q4, I’ll check it out.
I would think a creator expert coaster is close to a guarantee with these new pieces. I hope there is some straightforward way to mechanize a lift for it.
I would think a creator expert coaster is close to a guarantee with these new pieces. I hope there is some straightforward way to mechanize a lift for it.
As Ben alluded to, there is another manufacture that makes a LEGO compatible roller coaster model.
… and some of their models are motorized.
I remember being interested in the BrickCoaster when I first saw them in VA, but the cost per part was enough to make me not buy anything right away. And I lost interest in it once I saw the Cyclone parts:
I haven’t actually watched this whole video yet but we talked to Burrows at length at the end of BFVA17, and there were a lot of people carrying Cyclone sets during public hours, so I didn’t have any reason to doubt him when he said they sold a lot of them that weekend.
For me, the Cyclone parts would be way more interesting even if the price ratio was about 1:1. But since the Brick Sleigher costs double what The Cyclone does (triple if you were a super early bird), I’m having a hard time seeing how BrickCoaster can compete. The main advantage of the Cyclone parts is versatility in track layout (which is less of a factor if you just buy the set and follow the instructions) and the main disadvantage is ease of use, Burrows told us a lot of testing went into getting the dinosaur coaster to work. As an AFOL I’d consider it worth it, but if I’m buying for kids, it might be different. It also might be enough to let them compete against any version Lego comes out with. If Lego comes out with a rollercoaster set, it sounds like bad bad news for BrickCoaster. I don’t see myself ever buying their parts.
Buying anything from The Cyclone people has been long delayed while I catch up on my eleventy-billion other Lego tasks first. I sort of like the idea of a Lego park with multiple rollercoasters #Benwillrideanything, I’ll add that to my long-term to-do list.
Coincidentally I was watching the BtB tour of BFAL17 (watching, I have it on mute, so I haven’t listened to what they said yet), and at the 1:05 mark they show an amusement park with a rollercoaster.
It’s well done but it also reminds me why I’ve never bothered to attempt a rollercoaster built just from regular Lego parts – it looks impressive and runs fast, but it also looks like a huge effort and expense to build what amounts to a single loop, i.e. not a rollercoaster I would actually wait in line to ride in real life.
not to thread jack more, but will had this video in his facebook wall a bit ago – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-MqCtJw5Kk
he bent official RC track with a heat gun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkOMTVVLl4IThat’s the real question. The truth is we don’t know.
Yeah, case in point: huskies. I would have #boughtallthehuskies, but they were not in LUGBulk.
They had the teal Friends coaster parts at LEGO House… meh. Not turrble, nothing amazing.
And who’s this Will of whom you speak, Josh? McDine? I like that big wooden coaster…
There is only 1 @willmcdine
This article shows the new pieces clearly and demos a very simple lift mechanism. It certainly appears that the coaster cars were designed with an intent to be able to mechanize them easily.
https://www.brothers-brick.com/2017/11/15/powering-rollercoaster-lego-70922-joker-manor-review/
There are black cars and light gray rails in a new mining set due out next year. Apparently the straight rail piece is longer than in Joker Manor.
Cross-threading with the clone brick / Kennywood Thunderbolt thread for ease of navigation back and forth:
This is Jack from CDX Blocks. We make the Cyclone roller coaster kit. It’s going to be difficult for me to discuss our set without it appearing like I’m degrading the competition, but our system is light years ahead of what is available from Lego or Brickcoaster. For starters, we have 4 precision machines stainless steel wheels on each car. This allows the train to roll equally well upright, sideways, and upside down. Plus, the metal wheels in a Delrin housing give unbelievable efficiency. If you were to see the system in person, I think it would be more obvious. Do you have monthly meeting? I would be happy to send a kit to someone to build and show to the LUG.
Also contains two pieces of light bley straight track. As far as I can tell, the pieces are shorter than those appearing in the mining set.
Or you could do it this way. There’s a lot of photos of this one, but I still am not entirely certain how the actual tracks are operating. As far as I can tell, he’s using pieces of straight RC track, but a lot of them are curved in ways that to my knowledge could only be achieved by warping the parts to the desired shape by heating them up first. It’s an impressive build, but that’s definitely not something I have any interest in trying myself.
I just realized that I was only on one of the roller coaster threads. Anyway, I see that Ben found this massive build and I accidentally found the video that shows it in action. The only thing missing is the screaming!
By the way, I plan to bring the fully built CDX Cyclone set to Josh’s tomorrow.
I finally got my Joker Manor put together. It’s pretty cool, but my set had a surprising error in it. To make a complete loop, the built requires two each of the following parts:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=26560#T=C&C=89
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=26559#T=C&C=89
My set came with three of the lower part and only one of the upper part. I have submitted a ‘missing parts’ application at lego.com.
So I haven’t tested out the whole track, but I can run the coaster around most of it. It’s a nice smooth ride and it really moves on the steep hill. It’s ten rollercoaster parts to make the Joker Manor loop, it looks like if I wanted to buy just that on BL right now it would cost me about $40, and that the parts are all about the same in price.
Here’s another one that appears to use the Cyclone system. I don’t find it as elegant as the Dinosaur park one. It’s not clear to me what event this is at:
That’s not our system. In fact, judging from the track, I don’t think it even functions. The transitions are not smooth enough for a train with no upstop wheels to negotiate the circuit.
It’s not clear to me what event this is at:
LEGO World Utrecht (Netherlands): every single build in that photo stream is incredible!
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