Quick look: 40809 Festive Gingerbread House
Posted by Huw,
40809 Festive Gingerbread House is one of five retail Christmas sets being released on October 1st (including the Gingerbread AT-AT), and the latest in a long line of 'edible' houses, including the largest of them all, 10267 Gingerbread House.
This one is not as substantial as that, but it's sizeable nonetheless, and is nicely detailed.
It doesn't seem right building Christmas sets in the middle of September, when it's still warm and sunny outside, but here we are...
The tasty looking building has two fronts: one with a rounded bay window and a front door, the other a small porch over another door.
It can be displayed closed as shown above, or hinged open to look like two houses side-by-side.
The four rooms within are sparsely furnished, with just enough details to convey their function.
On the ground floor of the left-hand house (as viewed from the back), there's a table and chair, and a miniscule kitchen shoehorned into a 1x4 area. Kudos to the designer, then, for managing to fit a cooker with hob, drawers, cupboard, and a sink with a tap into the space.
The right-hand ground floor room has a fireplace, chest of drawers, and a chaise lounge. The stained-glass windows on the front and sides add a lovely splash of colour.
Upstairs, there's not a lot of room for internal details due to the sloped roof, but, nevertheless, one room has a bed and a chest of drawers; the other, a desk and chair, and a pile of presents.
The rooms are more cohesive and make more sense when the building is closed than when it's open.
A Santa minifigure accompanies the house which utilises the torso that was introduced for the character in 2021, and dual-moulded legs. I presume he's visiting the premises rather than living in it, although there's no chimney for him to gain access, only a thin flue.
The house is bigger than you might think, but it feels quite expensive, at £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99. It is nevertheless an attractive display model that will look delightful on your mantelpiece over the festive period.
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12 comments on this article
I like the duplex-setup. I'd quite like to make an entire street like that, something you could put up on a shallow shelf to spruce the place up a bit.
After over two hours only one single comment....that must be a new record, right?
Not that I have anything interesting to say about this set......next!
this could have been so much more functional if it didn't have the central door in the back...
Bigger than you'd think, 8c ppp - but it "feels quite expensive"?
Should it be smaller? Less detailed and thereby need to use fewer parts?
"It doesn't seem right building Christmas sets in the middle of September, when it's still warm and sunny outside, but here we are..."
I agree, but most of the stores in my area are already pushing aside the Halloween decorations and getting the shelves lined with Christmas decorations and other items.
Cute set, love the details. The "doll house" style is great for this.
Thanks to multiple uses of ‘chaise lounge’ on Brickset, I’ve learned that some English speakers use it instead of ‘chaise longue’. I get that one can lounge in a chaise longue, but it still seems wrong. To me it’s either a lounge chair or a chaise longue, the hybrid makes me cringe.
I've already digitally reverse engineered the set and made it better. I added another floor to it and removed the candy stuff, among other things. Sadly, since I can't get into Bricklink (still!) I can't buy the parts to make it in the real world yet. (Hopefully LEGO fixes the glitches soon and I can order once more... and yes, I've a running thread with LEGO CS about this!)
I preferred 40139, it was smaller and sweeter, on several levels...
This is actually quite a good set. A lot of the festive sets are either a hit or miss.
Cons:
- It's not edible
@dudeski said:
"Thanks to multiple uses of ‘chaise lounge’ on Brickset, I’ve learned that some English speakers use it instead of ‘chaise longue’. I get that one can lounge in a chaise longue, but it still seems wrong. To me it’s either a lounge chair or a chaise longue, the hybrid makes me cringe. "
The earliest documented uses of "chaise lounge" date back over 200 years, so it's not likely to go away at this point.