I received the new Polar Express LionChief Plus 2.0 Berkshire last week. (SKU: 1932090)
Overall I'm quite pleased to finally have a LC+ version of this locomotive with speed control to run this coming Christmas season.
The good:
* Love the Odyssey II slow speed and constant speed control! That was the main reason I wanted to upgrade to the LC+ 2.0 version of the PE locomotive.
* I love that the new LC+ 2.0 locomotives don't beep annoyingly like the older LC+ locomotives until they are paired with the Universal Remote or the Lionchief app. They just wait patiently on power up until they are paired up... nicely done Lionel.
* The locomotive sounds and the quality and quantity of the sound clips from the movie are fantastic. (Somebody posted a youtube video recently for the LC+ 2.0 PE locomotive if you want to check it out.)
* It's great to have so many options to run these LC+ 2.0 locomotives... conventional, universal remote, lionchief app, legacy, etc. Although I will primarily use the universal remote.
Just a few things to nitpick:
* The locomotive crew figures are just generic figures. It would have been super cool if Lionel could have made the crew figures representations of the characters in the movie... Steamer and Smokey.
* I would have preferred 3-axil trucks on the tender versus 2-axil trucks.
* It seems that the details on the PE locomotive are minimal as compared to the other LC+ 2.0 Berkshires like the Pere Marquette 1225. For example, the build plate is not painted, and there are no 1225 markers/decals on the front and sides of the locomotive headlamp like on some of the other Berkshires.
* The locomotive smokes well... almost too well! I know the lionchief app has a button to turn the smoke off if it gets to be too much. Wish there was a way to turn off the smoke via the universal remote.
Overall though, very happy with this purchase! Love the LC+ 2.0 functionality and versatility.
