To the WWG Crew.

I love the new TLX format.
Even the new instructions that are shown are great.

However there is one thing that got dropped in the new system that I am really missing.... The actual photos of the items that can be built.
You have those easy to understand drawings for instructions, but that does not help me when I'm going back to see what is in a set.


You used to have a "Bringing It All Together" section, and that was great, but probably a lot of work. Then you dropped that section, but gave us a picture of the actual items that could be built at the start of each set of instructions. That worked too to remind me what the heck something was supposed to look like.

And in the first couple TLX releases you had the promotional pictures shown at the end of the instructions, and that was good too.

But the last two releases: Canals and Lost Halls have both had the instructions with no promotional pics at the end of the instructions.
You have a bookmark in the PDF for the promotional pics, but there's nothing there. Also the boosters seem to be intentionally lacking any sort of picture with them.

So I keep finding myself having to go back to the web site to look and see how props appear and what different options appear in each set. Now I know that's not a major issue most of the time, but I do lots of my layout planning on a train with no internet connection. So I have to work from memory or dig through all the files to see if the prop I want is there.

That is so much easier with the older sets where I could pull up the instructions and tell at a glance if what I'm looking for is in the set.

So my request is... Please going forward, add the promotional pics back into the instructions (or give a new PDF with just the promotional Pics from the Web site if you don't want to update the instructions each time) so that I can at a glance tell what is in the set while offline.

Thanks

I will tell you that as far as I understand it, the ability to cut those pictures from production time was a huge benefit of the T-iinx system from a development standpoint. I completely understand where you're coming from though. The first thing I ever look at when I buy a set is the instructions to get a better sense of what's included and how it all works. I think it's always a balance of what is going to benefit the end consumer most; a streamlined and quick production cycle or a more extended and more thorough end product. It should be mentioned that the first option also allows for a cheaper price tag, always a concern for the digital download market.

As a stopgap you might consider downloading and saving all of the promo pictures to the set folder. It's not quite the same, but you would still have a quick reference for how everything fits together and the contents of a set.

Sacretis

I'm not sure I'm getting the request here but that may have to do with the paradigm shift for TLX modelsets in general. The benefit from a production standpoint is that we have standardized our design into a single system that works the same way no matter what modelset you buy. We did extensive instructions including a "bringing it all together" section in the generic TerrainlinX instructions on page 4 (though its now called "How to Use TLX"), showing you how to use every included element in a stock set. And I must stress that we also include prop specific instructions in each release showing you exactly how those extra elements are constructed.

That said, I suppose we could include the promotional images from the website in each product.

One of my favorite shots for each set are these ones:






The visual manifest is awesome. I know right away what is (and what isn't) in any given set. Even though the Tlinx stuff is pretty standard, there are various different props, ramps, stairs, rails, balconies, etc in each.

I agree, the shots of a set that show the range of things you can make with it are great, especially when you're looking for a particular prop. Also, as someone who often posts on other forums about the awesomeness that is WWG, it really is nice to have a promo pic somewhere that shows the array of things you can make from one set. Some sets have these, others don't. From both a marketing and instruction point of view, if it's not too much trouble, making a picture that shows that sort of thing would be a great idea for every set.

I'm hoping that we can address a lot of this with the TerrainlinX planner and upgrades we are currently working on. Having a database with everything listed and visually browsable is really the end-game here and with so many model sets on tap, users really need a way of handling all that data.