Of course, I couldn’t review just one of the two seasonal Christmas sets. The first one (40262 Christmas Train Ride) was pretty good, but this one looks even better. The parts count alone is enough for me to pull the trigger, but let’s take a look.
A lot of great stuff on the box. Some great elements at first glance: those warm gold decorative railings, dark tan brick bricks, and a whole wealth of smaller elements.
No big surprises in the box. A fairly standard instruction booklet and three bags of elements. I particularly like that 8×8 white plate.
Though there are a number of uncommon elements in this set, the rarest by far is the warm gold pneumatic tee. They’ve only appeared in one other set and I’d never seen one before, but I suspect that mecha and steampunk builders are already salivating.
There are a number of uncommon elements in the set’s minifigs. First of all, there are three of them, which is a pretty nice value. The two heads with classes are fairly uncommon, only having appeared three other times and so are the kids’ torsos. The flame yellowish orange short legs have only appeared one other time (in a LEGO Dimensions pack, at that).
Only the female torsos have back printing, but that blue sweater sure looks great. The woman’s head has an alternate face, but the large messy bun on the hairpiece is a great detail that I didn’t want to miss.
Much like the previous seasonal sets this year, the build is actually a series of smaller assemblies that can be arranged however you like. There are a lot of cute builds here, but nothing too fancy. The tree is a nice touch, with a fine bit of snot work to get studs going all around. There are definitely a few places where corners were cut, but this was still a large and satisfying build for such a small set.
I’d like to point out the large number of extra elements included. The 179 elements officially in the set alone, bring the price per piece to just under 6¢. Add in the extras and you’re looking at a measly 5¢ per piece. Can you say ‘parts pack’ as quickly as I can.
The finished model makes a nice little holiday display on its own. If you combine it with other seasonal sets, it would be easy to have a lovely Christmas display, even on a tight budget.
Keep building and enjoy!