First Look at Polar Express Plasma Blue, Watcha think?

@Xavi_SF3600 posted:

I thought the color seemed cool in the catalog, now that I see it here, not so much 😬

I think you'll have to see this one in person.  Looks like a lot of reflection of color.

@MartyE posted:

I think you'll have to see this one in person.  Looks like a lot of reflection of color.

I agree. I don’t think this is my thing either way, but this color will be nearly impossible to judge by a photo.

Not my cup of tea but I agree with Marty. You would definitely have to see it in person. The reflection may add to the excitement to it depending on what lighting or such that you have where you are running it.

its really cool but i like the red version slightly better and if i had the money and did scale stuff i would've gone with the set with the red engine

I got the Dreyfuss last year in the metallic pigment. It’s tough to capture the paint effect in a photo.  It seems to shimmer and shift depending on the viewing angle and lighting.

is that plasma coat Berkshire actually out to view in the flesh or are people just commenting based on the Lionel flyer pic?

@Xavi_SF3600 posted:

I thought the color seemed cool in the catalog, now that I see it here, not so much 😬

My favorite color is Blue, but sorry this one is not for me!

I realize people do like different things and call me an old, well you know but in both the book and the movie has it modeled after the 765. So why not just leave it Black! Not a fan.

I have a hunch it'll look sharp pulling the bluish Polar Express cars, snow roofed or black roofed.

One glaring design flaw with Lionel's scale Berks is the U-shaped superstructure, and on this blue model it really stands out.  On a $1,699 locomotive I expected an updated boiler superstructure. The graphite smoke box is pretty neat-looking.

@poconotrain

I think why they have done the metallic blue is because in parts of the movie it takes on the moonlit sky blue to a point in some shots, even though it is black. There is no way that they could get that look with any sort of black on it, so they rolled the dice. This will probably(and has) sell fairly well as the Clown Train Challenger did. Ryan had told me of that train(Challenger), it was there most popular seller beating out any of the other colors in all the various road names. I would be curious to know just how many of those actually sold, but that will never happen.

One could speculate all day on those numbers and get nowhere fast. I think it was a couple of years ago someone was thinking that one number of the VL Big Boy sold almost 20,000 units. I think we helped the person take off one or two of the zeros to get a bit of a more realistic number.

It's also a lot smaller than the prototype.  Go figure .

I really like it. I hope we see more offerings with this option. Especially if they do something in the traditional line for us folks who don't do scale.

I like it and would have bought one if there was room in my budget.  One thing I would change would be to make the lettering a bright yellow, rather than the gold, to make it stand out a little more.

Andy

This is interesting, from the catalog description: "The Plasma-coated edition shifts colors between blue and maroon as your viewing angle changes..."

I've seen 3-d pictures change colors, such as what Michael's Craft Store sells during Halloween, but I've never seen this on a metal object. Anyway, aside from the standard Lionel Berk's u-shaped boiler, I like it and am glad I ordered one.

I saw a modern Volkswagen Beetle the other day that had a similar blue color - it was eye-catching and pretty neat looking.

I'm very curious to see these when they come in. The responses are right, I'm sure this is a piece one needs to see in person to appreciate it. I debated to get this one, but ultimately decided to go with the original black Berk because I don't have a traditional black polar express engine. Plus I do have the Gold Polar Express from a few years ago, which is still a beauty.