Why is the HE not as liked as the other creator expert trains

[Legoboy22]

Hi everyone,

I have always wondered why the horizon express TGV has not been as well appreciated as the emerald night or maersk. In my oponion the HE is the best one of the creator expert trains. 2nd is the emerald night ans lastly the maersk. The HE has complex building techniques, small details, rare colors and small pieces. It is a fine train and looks nice and sleek. It is a wonderful train and i am very pleased to have it.

-legoboy22

[paul_delahaye]

I like it, I thought the build was quite good.  I like the way they built the arrows in the side, 

yes Lego did try their luck to boost sales by you needing to purchae two, but I like the train.  It was well made and whilst challenging, the designers left enough room to add PF for a twin motor setup with a pole reverser and lights, which most children would not add, but they left room for us to do this.  

I'm a little disappointed that these creator expert trains have dried up at the moment, when they sold off the HE in the discount bin on Shop at Home, I think most of us thought another Adult train was on the cards.

 

Paul 

Edited May 13, 2017 by paul_delahaye

[dr_spock]

I like HE enough that I bought two sets.  I don't have the same desire to own the EN or the Maersk. 

[TCRR Constitution]

I believe it is because the horizon express is not as well perceived as the En or Maersk train. 

Personally I like them all. My favorite is the En.

[xboxtravis7992]

Out of the three my fave is the Maersk Train, but I love all three. HE had a fun build, and is solid and chunky in a fun way. The only reason I can imagine it having low popularity is because electric trains aren't as well liked by railfans as steam or diesel; but that is more of a general issue than anything with the set itself.

[Commander Wolf]

4 hours ago, Legoboy22 said:

Hi everyone,

I have always wondered why the horizon express TGV has not been as well appreciated as the emerald night or maersk. In my oponion the HE is the best one of the creator expert trains. 2nd is the emerald night ans lastly the maersk. The HE has complex building techniques, small details, rare colors and small pieces. It is a fine train and looks nice and sleek. It is a wonderful train and i am very pleased to have it.

-legoboy22

Why do you feel like the Horizon Expres is not as well appreciated as the other two?

(forgive me if this is supposed to be a widely regarded sentiment)

[Carefree_Dude]

I own three of them for a really long horizon Express train! Surprised one train motor is enough.

 

I feel it's not as popular because the brick built front looks off. Like it should be smooth but has many strange edges and gives a weird uncanny valley feeling

[Legoboy22]

I guess I'm a little biased toward the HE seeing as I am French and my favorite train is the TGV. I was so thrilled I see a Lego rendition. I have always liked steam and diesel trains but my true favorite trains are the high speed bullet trains

Edited May 13, 2017 by Legoboy22

[gotoAndLego]

Yeah, I suppose Europeans like it more than Americans because that style of train is common over there.  Additionally, It looks a little weird with only one set so without spending double the ,prey the train is incomplete.

[baard]

In Norway we have a saying that goes: "Smaken er som baken, minst delt i to" i.e. "taste is like your bottom, at least divided in two..."

So much for that :-)

I like the HE, especially when going fast through a curve at high speed. The EN is a beauty with more cars than 1 (I have 5 including a sleeping car and a goods car/post wagon), especially going slowly through a curve. 2x Maersk with many container cars is also nice to see. I really cannot decide which is best. I have to conclude that I like them all!

Edited May 15, 2017 by baard

[Cnd]

I agree that the HE wasn't as well perceived as the others, if only for the fact that Lego was selling it at half price at the end of its run (presumably trying to get rid of stock).

Here's my perspective:

- I really enjoy models that are based on real-life vehicles. I mostly collect trains, but I've also bought the mercedes arocs and volvo l350f. The Maersk train is a clear winner here. From a design perspective, there simply isn't anything that I would change with the set. My only real gripe are the stickers. Additionally, I'd prefer the locomotive and rolling stock to be sold separately (2 is much too little! I loved what lego did with the "my own train" line, the super chief and BNSF years ago), but this pertains to ALL recent train lines (including EN and HE).

- Although the EN isn't 100% flying scotsman, it is very close (including the pullman coaches). The slight differences in livery and compromises made in terms of scale and detail don't really bother me (although I do dream of one day making a whole fleet of long, properly scaled pullman coaches). In terms of design, the EN has some problems with how the wheels run, but those are relatively simple to fix. I'm also not a fan of the motor being so exposed, but I plan to incorporate a motor into one of the pullman coaches anyways, since I have 9v track.

- There are a few things that bother me about the HE (even though I enjoy it in general and bought two sets). One issue is that when you connect them back-to-back, the linkage between the two sets isn't proper (no shared bogey). The TTX rolling stock that accompanied the BNSF avoided this by including additional pieces to allow for both types of linkage. Another problem is that there's a hole in the roof below the pantograph. Thirdly, the compromises in terms of scale are much too obvious. Although I forgive such things more in rolling stock (i.e., the EN coach), it annoys me more in locomotives, or in the coaches of a high-speed train. All-in-all, the HE locomotive looks more like a caricature of the real-life train it's based off of than the Maersk train or EN due to how short the locomotive and coaches are. Of course this is lego, and it's possible to rebuild the set as you see fit :) I ended up modding my Super Chief locomotives to be longer and slightly changed the front to suit my preferences, and I'll probably end up doing something similar with the HE. It's just that the HE doesn't look as "sleek" due to these problems, which is especially important for a high-speed train.

Edited May 20, 2017 by Cnd

[paul_delahaye]

Odd bit was Lego's logic why they half priced the HE on shop at home?  obvioulsy selling off the stock would have made sense, had they had a new Creator Expert train coming along to replace it.  But to sell it off cheap, to clear the line just seems a little odd to me.

Unless something got canned at the last minute?

[Cnd]

Unfortunately, I think that selling HE at half price simply signified Lego immediately halting all operations to do with AFOL train themes. Remember, storage costs money as well. That was 5 years ago. Before that, we had a serious train offering every 1-2 years. The sad fact is that lego simply isn't committed to AFOL train fans anymore. I'm not quite sure for the reason, since supposedly sets like the Super Chief were very profitable for them. Perhaps not enough AFOLs accepted the switch from 9v to PF, which is why the new sets weren't selling so well.

[peterab]

On 21/05/2017 at 2:48 AM, Cnd said:

I'm not quite sure for the reason, since supposedly sets like the Super Chief were very profitable for them.

The Super Chief loco sold well but the cars were sold off at about a third of the RRP. They are the reason LEGO doesn't do individual train cars any more. Overall I think the Super Chief is regarded as a failure.

[SavaTheAggie]

In my opinion, and my opinion only -

The Horizon Express is a brilliantly designed model of a terribly ugly train. 

I won a copy of the HE, but never purchased one myself.  The techniques to build it are awesome, but it lives in a box in my room.

--Tony

[antp]

The Horizon Express is probably my favorite (though that the Maresk is close second) but I like the original TGV since I am kid, that helps.

 

[Q3671]

i like the HE, loved the color

[Redimus]

It's *WAY* better than Emerald Night (which I really don't like, there's too many things wrong with it for me). Maersk is better, because it looks more like the prototype (to my eyes at least) than either of the other two, and is operationally much easier to use (EN looks really ugly with it's power functions nonsense in the tender, and requires heavy modification to be 9v capable, and while HE is easy to convert to either way of powering, it has issues with the articulation and stability in general over some points (especially if, like me, you insist on articulating the entire train).

[Commander Turtle]

I don't like the orange!

I owned the Emerald Night but I've sold it now. I never got to try the Maersk one. Really I just want another Creator Expert train...