Review: 40594 Houses of the World 3
Posted by Huw,
The third Houses of the World set is a future gift with purchase at LEGO.com.
Having visited Central America and Africa for previous entries in the series, the latest one, 40594, takes us to Europe with a delightful Alpine chalet.
From the outside it looks as if it could be in Bavaria, Switzerland, Italy, or Austria, but there are clues inside that pinpoint exactly where it is...
Summary
40594 Houses of the World 3, 278 pieces.
Another attractive addition to the novel House of the World series
- Full of detail inside and out
- Other than a high GWP threshold to acquire it, none
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
It's always good to get a feel for how much free stuff you're getting with GWPs and in this case quite a lot, probably around 300-350, pieces.
The small sticker sheet primarily provides details for the outside, which is quite understandable and necessary at this scale.
Like others in the series the building sits on a 12x10 base with tiles on the front two studs. It looks to be made from whitewashed stone on the ground floor with timber above, so the two contrasting colours add interest to it.
A small bench and storage for skis surround the front door and I particularly like the tessellating logs in storage on the right.
Colourful flowers adorn the balcony, and stickers provide detail for the window shutters. The large overhang on the roof helps keep the balcony clear of snow.
Once again there are plenty of details inside on both floors which are best appreciated by taking the three sections apart.
The ground floor looks suitably cosy, furnished with an L-shaped sofa around a log fire, a record player in the corner, and a sideboard on the right.
The cheese and chocolate bar on the sideboard suggests to me that we are in Switzerland rather than one of the other Alpine countries!
The chalet clearly belongs to a bodybuilder because the upstairs room is dominated by a vastly over-scaled weightlifting bench, something I've not seen in a set before.
So, maybe it's in Austria after all, and it's Arnold Schwarzenegger's summer retreat :-)
This is turning out to be a rather delightful series of sets that are sure to appeal to those outside of LEGO's core demographic.
The mix of architectural styles look rather strange when the three buildings are lined up next to each other but nevertheless if you have the first two you'll want to add this one to your collection.
The problem with wanting to do that, of course, is that the GWP threshold is likely to be extremely high. We have not had it confirmed yet, but it will probably be £220 / $250 / €250, like it was for the first two. It's just as well that a number of new and enticing sets will be available to coincide with its release, then...
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30 comments on this article
Thats a cute little house.
The fact that LEGO refuses to admit that this GWP is NOT worth the 250€ threshold time and again, is astonishing. It's a cute build...as a gift for a 100€-150€ purchase tops.
Yet another one to join the two previous flops. Unless their objective is to make purchasing directly from LEGO even more unappealing than it already is with the ridiculous price hikes.
The weakest so far, and think people are having to spend $1000 to get the full set.
They are very nice little sets but absolutely not worth the £660 you'd need to spend to get them all. And I think I remember reading a 4th set is on the way later in the year... so £880 in total. Madness.
The unspecified alpine location of the set reminds me of how one of the LEGOLAND house sets from 50 years ago was released as 356-1 Italian Villa in the UK, but as 540-3 Swiss Villa in the US! I suppose they weren't too worried about making those sorts of sets identifiable as a specific national setting back then, either! :P
Definitely Switzerland. It's cute, and would be nice to get, but I'm not going to spend extra to reach the threshold.
Meh, cute but won't be missed.
It looks a bit off.....I think the roof should have more of an overhang to the sides? And the way it is built makes it look rather crude.
Other than that, just like the other two I think it does look quite nice without being great. Also, when you need 8 copies of a sticker and piece combo, I'd say it should have been a print.
I wonder if the 4th one will be something Asian...Lego really needs to step up his game if they want to make something that can rival the similarly scaled Chinese and Japanese houses from Loz....
Another very cute little GWP with a perfectly reasonable threshold if it really does start tomorrow, coinciding with the Disney GWP (I thought August was rumoured for this one). Would certainly make the new Disney Castle quite tempting with 2 decent GWPs.
I like it,but it's the weakest house so far. Definitely skippable.
I get that these are not-quite-micro scale, but they would be fantastic at minifig scale. The door and bed are only three studs tall/long so minifigs would feel like Shaquile O'Neal in a camping trailer... ;) These are pretty inspiring for us to build something new when we don't want to shell out a ton of money.
In the photo of all three together it looks horrible.
They just don't look good together, which was the whole point of collecting the four sets. For such a luxurious GWP, I expected more. I don't collect these as I have no idea what to do with them, but I find it weird that no pre-planning was involved.
The missing overhang on the sides of the roof completely ruin the look for me. It's like they started well but lost interest in the details halfway through the design process.
Coupled with the obscene thresholds of these houses it's an easy pass imho.
Someone able to identify the mountains on the painting?
@AustinPowers agree these poor buggers will get snowed in.
@AustinPowers said:
"The missing overhang on the sides of the roof completely ruin the look for me. It's like they started well but lost interest in the details halfway through the design process. "
Presumably the lack of sufficient overhang is to ensure it can be joined to the other houses--although an extended roofline might fit if it's put *between* the other two rather than at an end of the line. I'm also bothered that the bottom floor looks to be tiled with a lot of flat log slices rather than having a pile of longer pieces. Compared to the other two I agree this one seems quite plain!
Aw, it’s a literal cheese slope.
I need a minifig of Arnold right now!!!!
That’s a lot of logs.
While roofs without overhanging eaves are less usual, they're still a perfectly legitimate building technique.
@FARLANDER said:
"I need a minifig of Arnold right now!!!!"
He's just stepped out for a minute... He'll be back. ;-)
About time we got something European! Really happy it's an alpine chalet. Perhaps Lego saw the episode of Lego Masters Australia where Ryan and Gabby made a great alpine chalet like this. The body building thing is just stupid though, same with the IKEA couch. I really wish they had gone with a traditional interior to get the feel of the place and the architecture. Personally I'd like to think of this as Austrian but the cheese and chocolate is very likely saying it's Swiss.
@Murdoch17 said:
" @FARLANDER said:
"I need a minifig of Arnold right now!!!!"
He's just stepped out for a minute... He'll be back. ;-)"
We should get him with a chopper...
@PhantomBricks said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @FARLANDER said:
"I need a minifig of Arnold right now!!!!"
He's just stepped out for a minute... He'll be back. ;-)"
We should get him with a chopper..."
He's still looking at real estate in Australia ("Wow, Austria has changed so much!") "Is there room to park a tank?" "Keep scrolling, it'll be there"
Still glad I passed on this series
This does not appear to be a July 1 GWP... any update on when it might be offered?
@MVives said:
"This does not appear to be a July 1 GWP... any update on when it might be offered?"
My money's on August. July looks fairly well booked with various other GWPs according to Promobricks.
I settled for the Disney GWP (plus another blue keychain!) for the moment.
I love these apart from I wish (perhaps unrealistically) that they were just about minifigure scale but still tiny.
The stickers are un-great but also unnecessary, if only they were more affordable! Perhaps it is worth simply buying them off ebay?
EDIT: they remind me of an early Dr.Seuss book 'Come Over To My House'.
@kingalbino said:
"They are very nice little sets but absolutely not worth the £660 you'd need to spend to get them all. And I think I remember reading a 4th set is on the way later in the year... so £880 in total. Madness."
Madness indeed, Hopefully they will make them available once they have finished reeping in the £900 from the rich collectors. Maybe have them on VIP, using points?
I’m going to stop frequenting Karaoke bars. Cheese and chocolate bars are the new destination.
It's a nice little set - I have family in Austria, so its nice to see that part of the world get some repsresentation in an official LEGO set!
I'm actually glad that there are "less desirable" GWP's now. GWP's should be a nice little gift that you don't absolutely *need* to have. Just a bonus.
After the Forestman's Hideout, Blacktron Crusier, and Tahu set (all of which would've arguably worked better as "regular release" sets), I'm happy we're getting something a little more "low stakes".
Yes, the $250 threshold is ridiculous (for any GWP), but you all are acting like LEGO is pointing a gun at you and forcing you to buy the set at the LEGO store. Just get a sealed one off BrickLink for $35-40, or don't get one at all. I learned a while ago that I won't have the space or money to get everything that even slightly strikes my fancy, and that's alright.