A subassembly, upon which the minifigs can be seated, fits snugly inside, but can be removed to make room for the motor and battery box. I was just thinking that same thing earlier today. It wasn't a problem before there was a "reply" button, but now people just hit it to give a two line response to a multi-paragraph post. It's almost easier to scan up from the bottom and find the end quotes.

BrickLink Reference Catalog - Inventory of Set 10194-1

Still doesn't mean that any serious redesign would be required. Not at all. Swapping those few bits out is super easy. Especially with the updated 6x28 baseplate with it's larger holes for the Power Functions connectors. There are several things that can drive up the price of a set. Rarity will do it every time, which includes having its production run cut short and leaving a lot of people scrambling to get their hands on a copy before it's sold out. If the theme is very popular, it can drive prices up just due to completists chasing anything they're missing. If the set is a really popular design, it can go up in price on its own merits. And, because these are all boxes of LEGO parts, rare parts can have a weird and unpredictable influence on set prices. Sometimes a rare part will drive the set price up accordingly, and sometimes the part in question can actually sneak up unnoticed and end up costing more than the set it comes in (I've actually just found two examples of this recently). For some reason there is no gap under the rails and the sleepers, which are formed of dark brown 1x4 tiles between the rails and 1x1 plates on the outside, do not go underneath them. Nevertheless, it looks OK.I wouldn't do that if I were you. Since we aren't privy to Lego's plans, who is to say this train stays available for 3 to 4 years before retiring and a new train is released? Similarly, this could become the new "Technic Licensed Supercar" thing and a new train could be released every other year, meaning this one would be gone after 2 years and indeed go up in value. It's a total toss-up, not worth buying more than 2 in the hopes of scoring a big payday. Unless you know you live around a lot of Lego newbies or just plain saps who will pay whatever you say its worth, Lego investment is a fool's game unless you just happen to have tons of capital already to throw at it. Embedded in the chassis is gearing which will enable it to be motorised. I will discuss this in more detail tomorrow. Of course, AFOLs have built bigger and arguably more accurate and detailed models of this, and many other iconic locomotives, but I think this one strikes just the right balance between size and practicality.

Manual Lego set 10194 Creator Emerald night Manual Lego set 10194 Creator Emerald night

While I have zero desire to see the excellent independent parts artisans go out of business, Lego needs to design some real driving rods before any future 'premium' steam offering like the Emerald Night. The continued reliance on bulky, ill-shaped Technic rods is an embarassment. It ruins pretty much every steam loco they release. Actually the official name of the colour was "ozeanblau" (plus accents in "creme/Elfenbein" which was sort of a mixture between tan and light yellow), a colour not found in the LEGO range of colours. The next best thing would be dark blue.

Also, why do people always ignore the fact that the Emerald Night was released at a time when many felt the direct aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007/2008 and/or were afraid to lose their jobs? I was at Uni at the time and working 30 hours/week at Burger King. For a whopping 5.60€/hour after the deduction of health care fees and stuff like that. New hires would have gotten even less than that, but we didn't hire anyway. We let people go. Boy, did our revenue go down in 2008/2009! I wanted an Emerald Night badly (well, three, actually) but figured it was smarter to put the money in my savings account, instead. Personally I think after 12v and 9v they tried to get away from the "special use parts" and more toward parts that can build any type of model/design