Holiday Train Set

Name of Model: Holiday Train

Created by: LEGO® (this is an official set)

Found at: http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=10173

Details: Yeah, it's too late to try to order this for Christmas if you wanted to, but it's also too late for the whole 9-volt train line anyway. For those of you who don't follow LEGO® news, the 9-volt train line is being discontinued entirely. They're planning on releasing a new train line next year. I'm not really clear on what the exact details are, but apparently the days of being able to hook up a Mindstorms kit to a train set to automate it are behind us. The reason why they're suddenly discontinuing this line that has been so popular with children and hobbyists alike is that they would need to buy completely new machine now to continue manufacturing many of the pieces, and they're worried about being able to offset that cost by selling new sets. So the holiday train, which they make both with and without the 9-volt motor, is really the last train set in what many of us will always see as the glory days of LEGO® trains. It also happens to be a nice set, with plenty of green parts, a flatbed car full of gifts, another flatbed car full of trees, a passenger car, a nice caboose, and a well-detailed engine and tender. The holiday color scheme is done really well - you'd think more red than just trim would be better, but this is just right. Normally when I plug a set, I just link to Amazon (since I do have an associate's account there), but this set is apparently available at half price in limited supply from the LEGO Shop. Amazon has it for $75 (%25 off) - but it's definitely in stock. Either way, if you want this one, get it now while you still can.

This is Saturday's model of the day