CoNSpiracy

Since the set is called “Hot Air Balloon Ride” I am guessing that the small building in the set is the air balloon captain’s home and/or ticket booth for the hot air balloon rides. It’s going to be interesting to see how the hot air balloon is designed. Brick-built? Or similar to that in set 41097/41423 or in set 41252/71419? Or something completely different - maybe with a big inflatable Santa as the balloon (similar thinking as in set 71472)?

Thanks for sharing. It doesn't look like there are any new/unique parts, so it should be possible to bricklink all parts, right?

But how come then that you can cut LED strip lights without adding a resistor? Also, the search result from googling “cutting fairy lights (garland)” suggests that this can be done without any problems?

Update: I have modded the tram so that the train engine brick is now centered underneath the tram and both wheel sets are now directly connected to the train engine brick. Surely this helps, although there is still a difference in the speed when the tram runs on a straight track vs. in a curve (R40 original Lego). The thing is that I want the tram to run back and forth at a fairly low speed as I think that resembles the real life tram behaviour best. I guess that with a "normal" train running on Lego tracks, I would likely generally run it with a higher speed than the low speed I am looking for here - I assume that if I tested a "normal" Lego train on a curved track at very low speeds, it would probably also struggle a bit in the curves and could get stuck at the very lowest speed settings.

Thanks for this input. Could you please elaborate on the "series resistor" part? Do you mean that I need to add a resistor myself if I cut the LED garlands string? I am thinking about buying these LEDs (I assume they are 5V since they are powered by USB).

That might help. I have just followed the official instructions for motorization that came with the set, where the train engine part itself is only mounted with one set of wheels. The tram is pretty long so I’m sure the designers of the set have thought that it looks better with more distance between the wheel sets, but I think you are right that the long distance between them is the cause of the problem - plus two sets of wheels mounted on the train engine itself should also create better transfer of power. I will test and revert.

I have motorized the tram from the winter village set 10308 by following the official instructions, and wanted to program it to run back and forth in my winter village display over a distance of approx 2 meters. To make it a bit more interesting I wanted the route to contain curved tracks. However, the tram seems to have big problems in the curves (often slows down due to the friction) and even sometimes gets stuck. You can hear the motor working overtime but the tram just doesn’t move smoothly in the curves unless the speed is set at a really high level. This makes it virtually impossible for me to program with code in the PoweredUp app based on time delays, and the only way to automate it on curved tracks seems to be by installing a colour sensor and accepting that the tram will struggle its way through the curves in what sounds and looks as a very painful manner. Since I want the train to stop when each end of the tracks is reached, pause and then start up slowly, increase speed a bit (but remain at a realistic speed for a city tram) and then slow down again and stop at the other end, it is not really an option to just set the speed so high that it doesn’t get stuck in the curves. Has anyone of you come across this, too? Found a solution? I have also tried testing it with TrixBrix R56 curved tracks instead of the official Lego R40 curved tracks, and there it runs a bit better, but still with some problems. Has anyone tested with custom R72 tracks or above? I am surprised and disappointed that TLG would release a “train” product like that, which can’t even run properly on their own official train tracks.

Personally I think the price for the WV sets is fair. It has been stable for some years now and given the size of the builds and piece count (also compared to other Lego sets), I’m ok with that price level. Sorry to hear that you are not excited about the new set. I am thrilled with it (as I always am this time a year!) and can’t wait to get my hands on it and add it to my WV 😊

Looks really good. Will fit in well with the newer WV buildings (Fire Station and later sets) which are all, with the exception of Santa’s Visit, in a different taller and slimmer style than all the first sets up to and including the train station. For those of you who complain about the newer buildings being too narrow, you could consider going a bit creative and expand the houses at the back and add more interior…

That would be great. Last year we had to wait until the 22th of September for the official release and pictures were only leaked the day before.

Beautiful! How did you do the rear lights? I assume the 1x1 trans red round tile sits on part 32828, but how did you attach the latter part to the car? Also, would you mind sharing a photo of the underneath of the car? (Or even better: instructions! 😁)

Thanks for sharing the news! What SoMe was the news posted on and what is the username of the poster?

The new set 40649 could also be modified into a large Santa minifig

For Christmas decoration I bought a simple 20 warm white LED fairy lights string. This is powered by 2 AA 1.5V batteries (= 3V power source) and the 20 LEDs are connected in parallel to the cable string. I don't see any resistors anywhere in that setup? So for the set-up described in my question #2 I would need a 1 ohm resistor?! https://ledcalculator.net/#p=9&v=3&c=1&n=3&o=w This other LED resistor calculator says 0 ohm, as per Ohm's law: https://ohmslawcalculator.com/led-resistor-calculator

Thanks Davidz90, dr_spock and pow for addressing my question #2. I still don't understand why it wouldn't work to connect the three 3V LEDs in a series to the 9V power source. Ohm's law says that the resistance (R) in this case would be 0, right? Anyone who can help answering my questions #1 and #3?