YMMV / LEGO Trains

• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • Starting in 1996 with the introduction of the 4559 Cargo Railway, most LEGO trains looked like anything, but not like trains. Not helping matters was LEGO Town going through "juniorization" hell around the same time. This period ended in 2001 with the My Own Train series and the reissue of the Metroliner.
  • The 2006 Passenger Train (set 7897) received poor reviews owing to the inflexibility of the design (with the RC battery pack integral to the chassis) and the large mouldings used for the streamlined cabs being a poor fit.
• Cult Classic: The 7740 Trans-Europ-Express and the Super Chief.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Apparently, the 7740 train set, based on the German class 103 with German Trans-Europ-Express coaches, is quite popular in the USA.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: Lego Loco, a PC game that was basically a LEGO Trains layout builder. The gameplay was fairly simple; you place track, roads, buildings, run trains, and interact with the living LEGO people that spawn in your town but it's remembered fondly by people who plaid it as kids and has a cult following among LEGO fans.
• Periphery Demographic: Subverted. LEGO knows pretty well by now that it's mostly AFOLs who buy their best train sets. See Audience Shift.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The switch from 12V to 9V was poorly received by many due to the removal of almost all remote-controlled features, which disappointed them and made conversion rather difficult. The switch from 9V to RC was also poorly received due to the further simplification and the battery pack making custom builds more difficult. The switch from RC to Power Functions was well-received, however, thanks to the new features and it being an already proven system.

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