Loz Blocks

"B'Station Official" is his YouTube display name, and "TopHatChronicles" is what his account is actually called. The Loz prototypes are not only the same gauge as LEGO trains, but they appear to be just the right size to be used with them.

What?! That is extremely disappointing. I thought these were going to be legit releases for 2017 or later. I shall report these to whoever put them on the Wikia.

Edit: MIKSOLO? Our very own Miksolo fell for this like I did? I'm sorting this out right away.

Blame Sirfowler his hype rubbed off on me

Update: The finished Thomas was recently revealed, as well as its box and instructions. The set has apparently been available for purchase since last month. Contrary to what Sun predicted, it looks exactly the same as the prototype image.



Strangely, the face looks more like an old one from the live action era than a CGI style one. I know it's more of a collectors' display model than one that's actually meant for play, but if it used a lighter shade of blue and had actual couplings, a light grey/white running board and larger wheels with coupling rods, it would've been a perfect LEGO-compatible Thomas due to its faithful design. Dare say anyone really keen on improving it or just making it fully compatible would use some LEGO elements and/or Big Ben Bricks wheels to enhance it. For some strange reason, the running board appears to be a tad higher where the bunker is compared to the rest of it. Also, the splashers are detailed with (cheap looking) stickers, while I expected them to be printed. The splashers are sadly direct rips of this LEGO part, which means they have holes that could damage the stickers no matter what side they are applied onto (like on the Plarail Star Wars Nankai Rapit).

Needless to say, the optional brown tiles for the sleepers make them look a lot like those of the track in the CGI series. A video showing it being unboxed and built was also uploaded (accompanied by the "Engine Roll Call" [with lyrics]):


This Thomas is very nice, and I sure hope HiT will not crack down on Loz to prevent the sets from being purchased in non-Asian countries. I'd be disappointed if Loz gets a lawsuit, especially since train shows could run them on LEGO layouts and they would look just as nice as the LEGO MOC ones. I hope they have plans to make Toby, Gordon, Annie and Clarabel and some other characters next.

[Ucwepn]

They are available on ebay in a set of 4 for US$50, very tempted. Thomas & Percy come in at just under 20cm in length, James & Emily come in at just under 30cm in length.

These are very tempting except for one thing, they claim to use 'nano-bricks' rather than the normal lego size bricks and if you look closely you'll see that each area is made of multiple mini-bricks. If this is the case converting/improving them with normal lego could be difficult which is a shame as it prevents easy motorisation of the models.

[Ucwepn]

I just see lots of flats being used not nano, using lots of flats in a certain way as in these sets is a way to add strength and stability.

Ucwepn is right. Even though Loz is better known for Nano style sets, these ones (officially referred to as "Mini" sets) instead use blatant rips of LEGO System elements, exactly how the Mega Bloks Thomas range is compatible with Duplo. Therefore, using LEGO elements to enhance them would possess no difficulty (in other words, 100% possible). The only difficulty I'd expect in that department would be fitting them with magnets to make them work with rolling stock. To (easily) motorise Thomas and Percy, the motor and/or battery box, receiver and wires (Power Functions) would just be placed in a powered wagon for pushing them, and James' and Emily's would be in their tenders.

If they genuinely are 'normal' lego type bricks I agree they could be motorised very easily, probably the easiest way would be to do a 'Sun' and use a 9v motor bogie as you say either in a tender or a carriage/wagon depending upon which model you're motorising. That is assuming the wheels these ones are fitted with do actually rotate, I'm not convinced they do based on the pictures/videos I've seen. In which case you'd need to replace the wheels/chassis also to support axles etc... Again doable if you can use standard lego components, but still more work than is ideal, even if you were to use a 9v bogie you'd need to have a suitable hole in the chassis for the connecting pin.

Maybe I'll take a punt and try it, although the downside is I can't find them anywhere near as cheap as Ucwepn quoted, nearest I found is nearly $50 for a set of four and even then they come without the boxes etc...

[Ucwepn]

Yeah it was just under $50 for the set of four, boxes don't matter to me I throw most of them out anyway haha, there are sellers selling them individually for $28 each lol.

BIG Disappointment!



Sure, the elements are direct rips of LEGO, but they are actually smaller (yes, smaller) than their LEGO counterparts. Also, the engines are nowhere near wide/big enough for LEGO track, and are incredibly flimsy. They're not even big enough for minifigs! And here I was expecting the faces to be useful for LEGO engines. What a letdown.