Looks great, love the balloon.

The balloon (on the first picture, but not on the box) looks like it reflects a light box. Are these not renders?

Great stuff... October's going to be expensive. I hope the pumpkin comes on the 1st... might end up with several!

Rolls of fake snow at the ready!
I guess I'd better put the Alpine Lodge and Main Street together!

I’m conflicted as I already have 10222 but I like the building itself. Maybe I’ll bricklink the things I like about it.

Will not succumb to the Winter Village collection, but I do like a little winter display and the delivery truck will be a nice addition to my collection.

Like the post office but a bit disappointed in the truck. I think something with a half track and skis on the front. Similar to the one the postman is driving in the movie "Santa Clause is Comin' to Town"

Saw the delivery truck images a while back and was sure it'd be GWP. Wonder what that will end up being this year

I brought the winter train and station, but collecting the rest of the winter village theme will put a strain on my rapidly emptying wallet.

This is tempting though.

@nkende said:
" @Brickes_ficko said:
"The balloon (on the first picture, but not on the box) looks like it reflects a light box. Are these not renders?"
Most sets nowadays have renders, but the Icons ones typically don't, and thankfully this one has a photo too! I much prefer the photos, they look a lot better.
"

Well, I wouldn't have thought that, interesting (és szia, földim! :) ).

40746 looks a bit disappointing to me. Surely it would have made more sense with its name to include Santa/Father Christmas as a minifig, and I'm not sure what the shovel is for.

So is the idea that the hot air balloon collects the letters to Santa that have been posted up the chimney and are floating around in the sky? Cos that's quite cool actually!

The main set is not worth 100€ and the truck is not worth 20€.
Both are easy passes for me.

It's fine.

Positive: Cute. I will likely pick it up eventually, as the only part of this line I've skipped was 10249 (2015) due to its similarity to 10199 (2009).

Negative: Stahp!...with everything being Icons/black box! Just stop it! If it's not a play theme, you don't need to sub-brand it. Frankly, I think the way they've treated the Icons theme as a catch-all is a symptom of...

1) moving towards more one-off releases as opposed to entire theme waves. What happened to my "evergreen" themes? City is the only one that's existed with any consistency.

2) Releasing just SOOOO MUCH product.

Anyway...I'm ranting.

It's nice, better than last year's to be sure. Will buy for sure.

As usual, I hate the black box packaging. Why do they do this? Christmas is not a dark murky time of year.

I love the letter-sorting equipment. Makes a great addition to the fantastic side of the Winter Village, something I'll be glad to add to my collection--truck and all!

Those letter slots are kinda genius.

Box looks good without the huge battery warning label on the front for the light brick that they will put on for the sets in North America.... smh

Nothing about this looks like a post office to me but it's a charming build, I think the truck should've just been included in the set since as a standalone set it's pretty underwhelming honestly.

10222 was much better. I would rather liked a re-release of it with some refinements, than this...

@DaLegoNerd1 said:
"The box makes it look really small for some reason"

Because it is small (relative to the piece count). It probably has lots and lots of 1x1 and 1x2 pieces.

I would prefer the usual village themed set than this fantasy one. I just do not feel the winter village vibe...

100€ ?!

This looks like 30€, at best! I bet you can bricklinck this one for even less...

@Gustoffr2d2 said:
" @WolfpackBricksOfficial said:
"I thought Santa flew a sleigh, not a hot air balloon?

Regardless, this looks like a fun set! And the baby seal returns!"

Santa's Sleigh is to deliver toys to the children. This Hot Air Balloon is to deliver the children's letters TO Santa. "

That makes so much more sense

Bit average looking from the front unfortunately apart from the balloon covering.
If it was a different theme i wouldn't bother, but having all the bigger christmas sets bar one and many of the smaller ones from the past 10yrs i suppose I'll have to......

I really like this set! £89.99 is not a bad price at all for 1440 pieces, regardless of size!

Also, to any brickset staff reading this, a new lego sonic set has been revealed, do you plan on covering it?

I haven't bought a winter village set since the first one. The latest ones just have not interested me enough to buy them, excluding 10308, although I never got it.

@Patrik78 said:
"Underwhelming, all the fantasy additions to winter village theme could have been skipped easily - Santas workshop, Gingerbread House etc. Will collect only the real life WV themes from now on.

To me all these sets feel out of place."

I don't feel quite as strongly as you (and I made an exception for the Gingerbread house, it's just so charming even as a stand-alone), but I agree, these Santa's Village ones don't really do it for me. It's fine though, the WV display is getting a bit cramped anyway, and it's had an excellent run. It's almost a relief to only be buying every other or every third these days.

I'm curious how you feel about 10293, which kind of rides the line. I think it's great and finally got around to building that one last Christmas. We'll build 10308 this year.

Meh. I prefer buildings like in 10308 and the truck looks bad IMO.

I like some parts of this build. I do like the price for these. When they go up, it will be more difficult to justify. I didn't get the log cabin yet, so I'm a bit behind. But it will be on my list and maybe I'll pick it up sometime.

Since I don't normally build these sets, it's just more of an "I own" situation, it is harder to continue to buy them if I don't love them. I need to rethink my whole buying habits anyway since me owning something and never building it seems quite silly.

The concept is interesting but I feel it lacks detail and somehow seems like a duplo scale set. I think the snow layer on the roof needed a bit more texture to suggest the correct scale.

Looks ugly. But we do get 40 degree Celsius Christmas days here so snow covered Lego sets never really interests me.

@Lyichir said:
"I think this is cute and will accompany Santa's Workshop and the Elf Clubhouse well. Wouldn't have ever considered a post office for the North Pole, but of course all those letters to Santa would have to be sorted and processed somewhere! The letter-sorting function is clever and I love the new junk mail printed tile. And the hot air balloon is a clever and novel use for the customary light brick."

I agree. The price and value on these are also nice, per usual for WV. These will be welcome additions to my complete VW display. The sign referencing the other fantasy WV sets is a nice touch. It's just missing a mention of the Gingerbread House.

However, I do understand the criticisms about these sets. The interiors of both are rather simplistic and empty. But, the fantastic play features predominate- as they should. The balloon is great.

I'm very happy with my decision to get an entire PaB cup of the basic letter piece when it was on my local store's part wall. It will make for literally endless fun of dumping mail down the chutes.

I'm also excited to see Lego embrace eco-friendly propulsion in the form of cutting-edge wind-up technology. That truck perfectly straddles the line between futuristic and old timey.

@StyleCounselor said:
"I'm very happy with my decision to get an entire PaB cup of the basic letter piece when it was on my local stores' wall. It will make for literally endless fun of dumping mail down the chutes."

Poor elves…

@Ridgeheart said:
"I question the wisdom of constructing a snowperson so close to a roaring hearth, especially considering how they tend to spring to life in such scenes. Someone here hates snow-golems.

Other than that - dang, this is delightful. I sometimes wish I would have gotten on the Christmas set-bandwagon earlier, but my wallet is glad I didn't.

Sorry, wallet. We're at LEAST getting that truck."

I'm more curious why fireplace is double sided (on outside post office) If not being used, that post office going get cold quick.

@Lordmoral said:
"Are we already in that time?"

Well, the kids want to give the elves time enough to craft what they’re asking for, don’t they?

I'll get Truck for sure. 1 disappointment with santa village set, The tree, Couldn't they have used the tree in alpine village 10325 but make all white.
An all white snow tree would of looked so much better.

The balloon and ice fishing might sold me on buying the set... $100 though hmm.. average price wv themes, still undecided.

@SearchlightRG said:
" @Lordmoral said:
"Are we already in that time?"

Well, the kids want to give the elves time enough to craft what they’re asking for, don’t they?"

Thought I'd seen christmas in stores since june or july I forget was way too early though

When the GWP is better than the set :)

Regardless of price, I don't understand where the 1,500 pieces went to exactly. Model looks/feels tiny.
The car from the GWP has 225 pieces.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @Lyichir said:
"I think this is cute and will accompany Santa's Workshop and the Elf Clubhouse well. Wouldn't have ever considered a post office for the North Pole, but of course all those letters to Santa would have to be sorted and processed somewhere! The letter-sorting function is clever and I love the new junk mail printed tile. And the hot air balloon is a clever and novel use for the customary light brick."

I agree. The price and value on these are also nice, per usual for WV. These will be welcome additions to my complete VW display. The sign referencing the other fantasy WV sets is a nice touch. It's just missing a mention of the Gingerbread House.

However, I do understand the criticisms about these sets. The interiors of both are rather simplistic and empty. But, the fantastic play features predominate- as they should. The balloon is great.

I'm very happy with my decision to get an entire PaB cup of the basic letter piece when it was on my local store's part wall. It will make for literally endless fun of dumping mail down the chutes.

I'm also excited to see Lego embrace eco-friendly propulsion in the form of cutting-edge wind-up technology. That truck perfectly straddles the line between futuristic and old timey."

Boo-ah-ah-ahhhhh!!!!

And, if they don't get up on time, they get thrown out of bed!

And, the only thing to eat or drink are waffles, live reindeer, and melted snow!!

* Hermione was right!
* S.P.E.W - The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare
* E.L.F. - Elf Liberation Front

@legoluver777 said:
"looks tiny for 1400 pieces"

That’s because most of the pieces are minuscule.

I believe the tag is incorrect on the set, being listed as `Winter Village` instead of `Winter Village Collection`. Today there is only one set listed under Winter Village https://brickset.com/sets/subtheme-Winter-Village

I could get a job as brickset tag manager by now xD

@JavaBrix said:
"
I’m conflicted as I already have 10222 but I like the building itself. Maybe I’ll bricklink the things I like about it."

A good excuse for getting this one could be "The original post office was in town. This one is at the North Pole."

Also, it will go nicely with the Santa's Workshop and Elf Clubhouse sets.

I am really looking forward to the post office and the mail truck, they will go great with Santa's workshop and the elf clubhouse. Really like the hot air balloon. Wondering if the Halloween Jack O Lantern set will be a GWP during October.

Now I am just waiting to see what the Christmas GWP is going to be.

@Quantum_Leap said:
"Am I the only one who prefers the older winter village sets when they were an actual village? I feel like I haven't been in love with the recent ones like I used to be, and this one feels especially small compared to some past ones. Still super cute, but it feels like it's lacking the charm the older ones had"

I'd like balloon,slide,cart.. north pole sign icefishing.
would go great wv
only oddball set firehouse, friends igloo cute for a north pole

Overpriced as Mail van should be included not sold separately

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor said:
"I'm very happy with my decision to get an entire PaB cup of the basic letter piece when it was on my local stores' wall. It will make for literally endless fun of dumping mail down the chutes."

Poor elves…"

Boo-ah-ah-ahhhhh!!!!

And, if they don't get up on time, they get thrown out of bed!

And, the only thing to eat or drink are waffles, live reindeer, and melted snow!!

* Hermione was right!
* S.P.E.W - The Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare
* E.L.F. - Elf Liberation Front

Edit: Just realized I replied to the wrong thread, last time. Oops.

@BelgianBricker said:
"100€ ?!

This looks like 30€, at best! I bet you can bricklinck this one for even less..."

Well, Bricklink will probably have the inventory listed in time for Christmas 2025!

@twentythree:
Exactly. Put this with Santa’s house, the Elf clubhouse, and the gingerbread house for one village, and everything else in the mundane village, and the two post offices allow them to keep in touch with each other.

@Brickchap:
I’d bet that kids favor the fantasy WV sets over the realistic ones, especially when these ones incorporate crazy play features. So, no, you’re not the only one who prefers the real-world stuff, but that doesn’t mean _everyone_ feels the same way.

Definitely getting the Fabuland, I mean Santa truck.

@Lyichir said:
"I think this is cute and will accompany Santa's Workshop and the Elf Clubhouse well. Wouldn't have ever considered a post office for the North Pole, but of course all those letters to Santa would have to be sorted and processed somewhere! The letter-sorting function is clever and I love the new junk mail printed tile. And the hot air balloon is a clever and novel use for the customary light brick."

Exactly. I see the “Santa Sets” (10245 Santa’s Workshop, 10275 Elf Club House, 10339 Santa’s Post Office) as more of a subset of Winter Village – a separate Santa’s Village at the North Pole display. 10267 Gingerbread House could be a neighbor.

But I’m not a fan of the balloon.

@PurpleDave said:
I’d bet that kids favor the fantasy WV sets over the realistic ones, especially when these ones incorporate crazy play features. So, no, you’re not the only one who prefers the real-world stuff, but that doesn’t mean _everyone_ feels the same way.]]

Maybe Im wrong but I was of the understanding Icons is targeted at adults? (the prices certainly leans that way). Also my point still stands about their not being many fantasy things they actually can do that make sense.
Furthermore, what is wrong with traditional winter village sets like we used to get? As I said, sets like those are the reason this theme exists and has remained popular for years.

@hockeyweasel
@blogzilly Yep, really good description. For myself I think European winter village but I know a lot of Americans think of Norman Rockwell paintings and that works too.

I dont understand why that had to change :( The picture of this set with all the other recent releases none of them look like the winter village at all. Just generic winter (barely even Christmas).

As a set itself I liked Main Street but of course its an urban American town, makes zero sense for an alpine winter village; especially with a San Fransisco tram!

Why does EVERY SINGLE LEGO THEME have to go all fantasy and/or sci fi weird stuff???

Can we please have even just one little reasonably realistic charming nostalgic theme? Just one??

You might refer to the modular buildings however looking at the past few years I'm very concerned they are going this way too :(

GOOD...LARD...: "Weird Al" got another one right...there's a line in the song "The Night Santa Went Crazy": "And the Elves all got jobs workin' for the Postal Service"...all the elves in this set have the 'postal horn' from 'Lego past'...:D

I'm sorry, but Winter Village needs to pick a direction. It's gone down three different roads in "design language" and is losing cohesion as a "the sets fit together theme" in all of them.
*European Alpine village
*1920s-ish small-town America a la Norman Rockwell
*Fantasyland "Santa's Village" theme park like North Pole in Colorado Springs

The design team really needs to pick one focus, maybe two alternating every year,, and stick with it.

@Brickchap:
Maybe that was the original intent, but the year they repeated the toy shop, I remember hearing a lot of complaints regarding families who have turned this theme into a Christmas tradition for the whole family.

Regarding potential additions, they could do a toy factory (possibly multiple times, with different toys being produced in each version), a reindeer stable, a mess hall for the elves, an elf dentist office, a snowman factory (wait, no, that’s could lead to all out war), or elf versions of some of the other real-world sets that have already been released.

But don’t get all in a twist about this. They haven’t shifted over completely, so I’m sure they’ll just keep seeding these between further real-world sets. But even those feel like they’ve covered a large portion of the potential. I know there’s plenty left they can do, but houses have been few and far between. That’s where most of the potential lies, but they have to keep finding other non-house subject matter to alternate with.

@Brickchap said:

As a set itself I liked Main Street but of course its an urban American town, makes zero sense for an alpine winter village; especially with a San Fransisco tram! ]]

BC, those streetcars actually used to be very common in many cities all over America, before WWII.

I haven't collected the Winter Village line for the past few years but this one I actually like! The coloring of Santa's Post Office is cool, I think the blue is a bit different from 10229 and 10293 . The thick snow detailing on the roof is nice and the way the hot air balloon is done fits well. The interior is quite interesting and I love the fireplace.

@hockeyweasel said:
"Juniorization of the winter village subtheme appears here to stay. The shallow facades, the lack of detail. Meh. I liked when it had this Rockwellian or European Christmas Market vibe to it. Shame that it's become more like the winter village an amusement park would have during its off-season."

"Shallow facades" is actually a great way to describe the first several WV sets, the interior here and in other recent sets is on par with (or greatly exceeds) the interior space/decor of older WV entries.

Now I know the real reason for the use of red and green during Christmas: sorting crates! Red for naughty, Green for nice!

@Diamondback_Six:
Streetcars, yes. But that was specifically a cable car, which is closely associated with the steep hills of San Francisco. And someone who knows about such things even identified the specific model of cable car that the WV version was based on, as well as (I believe) which cable car line still operates that model today.

@fakespacesquid:
Back then, my LUG had a member who wanted to enclose the toy shop. I think she made it 3-4x as large as the official model, just to give it a decent interior space. The bakery wasn’t as bad, but it still got much bigger during the same process. Santa’s Visit cheated by making the house L-shaped, so there’s interior space that’s defined by the model, but not part of the actual model itself. So things haven’t really changed, except that it’s not always so obvious these days.

@darkstonegrey:
Cinnamon and mint.

If you collect Winter Village, you have plenty of Santa minifigs already, but I do understand that there are buyers who may be starting with this set or just like it without the theme commitment.
I would think the shovel is to help dig out your truck when the snow gets really bad.

@opusbrick said:
"If you collect Winter Village, you have plenty of Santa minifigs already, but I do understand that there are buyers who may be starting with this set or just like it without the theme commitment.
I would think the shovel is to help dig out your truck when the snow gets really bad."

I do collect Winter Village (except the second toy shop, which I kinda regret not getting now, but not enough to chase down a copy). And I do have “plenty” of Santa minifigs. And I also don’t have enough Santa minifigs. And by that I mean I use a metric crapton of Santa minifigs on some of our upcoming club displays. We’ll have a massive display up at The Henry Ford Museum for two months. During that same time, we’ll have a one week display at Detroit Festival of Trees, then a weekend display at the historic Cranbrook House, and finally a nearly week long display at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. I put out bell ringer Santas with red kettles all over most of these layouts, plus Jack Skellington in a Santa suit, plus the Grinch in his own Santa suit, plus actual-Santa, plus last year I had Deadpool in a Santa suit, and a couple of Santa Bats. Between the original CMF, plus the two that showed up at BAM, I must have 30-40 Santa suits just available for displays (not counting ones that stay with sets), but there’s a fourth standard Santa suit now, so I need more. For the variety, you see. And because I keep running out.

Cranbrook House was the one exception last year. It was our first year there, they only gave us one small table to display on, and we did kind of a North Pole village scene. Went all out with elves, reindeer, gingerbreads, snowmen, etc, but I think the only Santa suits I used on that display were actual-Santa, Santa Bat, the Grinch, and Jack Skellington.

But you’re right. Every set can be someone’s first (and multiple LEGO employees have mentioned that this is a philosophy they hold to, no matter how much it upsets the get-off-my-lawn crowd). Some things will be revisited time and time again, and people aren’t being forced to buy any of them. I’ve seen at least one comment here from someone who seems to prefer the North Pole stuff to the other two realistic groupings, and I know there are some current and former members of my LUG who absolutely do.

And lastly, it’s the North Pole. Snow’s going to be everywhere, all the time (and it’s just floating on water, besides). Pretty sure the shovel gets used most to clean up after those pesky reindeer.

@gylman said:
"It's nice, better than last year's to be sure. Will buy for sure.

As usual, I hate the black box packaging. Why do they do this? Christmas is not a dark murky time of year. "

It is actually a dark murky time of year over here.

@Eightcoins8 said:
" @gylman said:
"It's nice, better than last year's to be sure. Will buy for sure.

As usual, I hate the black box packaging. Why do they do this? Christmas is not a dark murky time of year. "

It is actually a dark murky time of year over here."

Depending on the phase of the moon, and time of day, it can be a dark, murky time any day of the year in Michigan (gotta love the lake effect). Plus, there's a stretch there where it's pitch black during both my morning and evening commutes. Not sure how this is not the case in Canada at Christmas, given the latitudes involved. And seriously, Santa only delivers at night anyways!

LEGO keeps helping me save money with each release. With this I have no 'fear of missing out ' feelings at all. I think this may stop my collecting of the Winter village set line if they keep more like this. I was patient with the Santa's Workshop and the Elves clubhouse sets, as they went back to more traditional type winter scenes, but with this.. It may be the perfect time to stop collecting the line.

Thanks for saving me money, LEGO!

@madforLEGO said:
"LEGO keeps helping me save money with each release. With this I have no 'fear of missing out ' feelings at all. I think this may stop my collecting of the Winter village set line if they keep more like this. I was patient with the Santa's Workshop and the Elves clubhouse sets, as they went back to more traditional type winter scenes, but with this.. It may be the perfect time to stop collecting the line.

Thanks for saving me money, LEGO!"

K bye

@opusbrick said:
"I know my post is not going to change a thing, but it seems a lot of people just want to complain about every set, it's exhausting. Personally, I might find a different hobby that I actually...you know...enjoy."

This. x1000.
If you’re ever too happy in life, just swing by the brickset comments sections. They will suck every last drop of joy out of you. It’s like an AA group for people who thought Eeyore was just too dang positive.

@andygott said:
" @opusbrick said:
"I know my post is not going to change a thing, but it seems a lot of people just want to complain about every set, it's exhausting. Personally, I might find a different hobby that I actually...you know...enjoy."

This. x1000.
If you’re ever too happy in life, just swing by the brickset comments sections. They will suck every last drop of joy out of you. It’s like an AA group for people who thought Eeyore was just too dang positive. "

I understand a bit of what you are saying. I believe BS used to have much more positive comments before they made log in mandatory to avoid being ad avalanched.

Do you think the change is due to the increase in casual Lego fans versus those with a stake in the game (LAN, LUG, social media review site, etc.), or some other reason?

Do you think that it has anything to do with profit news, set price increases, service decline, or quality decline?

As much as I love well-developed criticism, sarcasm, satire, snark, and drama; as much as I love meta- and supermeta-criticism; do you believe that it is the best way to increase positivity (assuming that's your sincere desire/goal)?

I Think I'll wait, see if get 30% or something off,
Still got 3 months
That post office truck, doubt last long, so I'm getting that.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Brickchap :
Maybe that was the original intent, but the year they repeated the toy shop, I remember hearing a lot of complaints regarding families who have turned this theme into a Christmas tradition for the whole family.

Regarding potential additions, they could do a toy factory (possibly multiple times, with different toys being produced in each version), a reindeer stable, a mess hall for the elves, an elf dentist office, a snowman factory (wait, no, that’s could lead to all out war), or elf versions of some of the other real-world sets that have already been released.

But don’t get all in a twist about this. They haven’t shifted over completely, so I’m sure they’ll just keep seeding these between further real-world sets. But even those feel like they’ve covered a large portion of the potential. I know there’s plenty left they can do, but houses have been few and far between. That’s where most of the potential lies, but they have to keep finding other non-house subject matter to alternate with."

a reindeer stable
with new reindeer...
IS great ideal we actually need that,, like sign outside sleigh parking...
do not need a sleigh with it we got great one they selling now... (example like a train station for a train.)

Like it all except the balloon. The dimensions on it look too much "off" to me. I know it can't always be perfect. But I'd love a version without the piece count of the balloon in it.