LEGO Announces 21344 Orient Express. Murder sold separately.

Overnight LEGO has revealed a brand new LEGO Ideas set designed to appeal to train fans. Unfortunately I think a lot of hardcore train fans are going to be disappointed by it.

21344 Orient Express features 2540 pieces and 8 minifigures. Sorry Agatha Christie fans none of the included minifigures are moustachioed detectives.

While the set does include a small section of track there is no included Power Functions and reports indicate that the set was not designed to be motorised. I am sure LEGO fans will figure out a way to do it, but it won’t be simple. I have also read discussions highlighting that even if it can be motorised it might not be able to take corners, making it useless for train displays.

While I like the look of the set it does strike me as worrying that LEGO is more interested in creating a set that will sit on a shelf collecting dust than something that will appeal to genuine LEGO Train fans.

This set is for people who hold their sets looking at them weirdly, rather than people that want to have a model train.