Set Review - #40337-1: Mini Gingerbread House - Creator - Limited Edition

I’m a little late on this one, but I wanted to catch this set before it was too late. #40337-1: Mini Gingerbread House was a gift with qualifying purchase from LEGO in December 2019. It contains 499 pieces and is a mini build of #10267-1: Gingerbread House from the Creator Expert line.

The front of the box shows the set in front of a winter scene. It also has a red ribbon with a “Limited Edition” marking on it. The back of the box shows set #10267-1. I guess it’s so you can compare the two. Or maybe they needed some advertising space?

The contents are six parts bags, 2 instruction booklets, and a sticker sheet with one sticker on it. The parts bags are labeled one through three with three number ones, one number two, and two number threes.

As expected with any mini build, the pieces are rather small. As you can see, most are tiles or plates and most are 1x1 or 1x2. There are very few bricks as compared to plates and tiles. The 2019 sticker goes well on the set and helps to make it a true limited edition for the year. I’m actually a fan of this one. Probably because it is larger and there is only one sticker.

The bag labeled number two completes the first floor and you can see most of the details from #10267-1 miniaturized in this set. I think the designers did a great job at capturing the main details while still making it somewhat realistic. As you can expect, they didn’t build the internals of the house since there is not a lot of room. The back is instead just closed off as a wall with no details. I’m okay with this choice versus adding in extra details as you will probably just display the front of this set anyways.

The third set of bags finishes off the set. Overall it’s a fun build. I actually built it with my 5-year old and she did a pretty good job at getting it right. I had to guide in a bunch of spots, but she managed to get the hang of the SNOT techniques used on the roof pieces.

Overall, I think LEGO did a nice job with this set. Sadly, you’ll have to look on the secondary market for this one now. Usually these sets go for $25 to $30. Do they go higher? On some occasions in the past, LEGO has done a Christmas in July promotion where they have brought back Christmas sets the following July as a gift with purchase. No telling whether that will happen in 2020, but if you missed out, pay attention to in the summertime to see if that deal returns.

What do you think of this set? Did you get it with a purchase and was it worth it?

In the meantime, happy building!

Merry Christmas! - Set Review - #40338-1: Christmas Tree

Every year before Christmas, LEGO has put out some special edition holiday themed sets that are typically free with a purchase of up to a specific amount. This year one of them was #40338-1: Christmas Tree. It contains 392 pieces and right now you have to look for them on the secondary market as they are not available anymore.

The box front shows the full set while the back shows that the model is a bit over 8.5 inches high, it spins, and you can remove some of the pieces on the bottom.

The set contains 2 parts bags and an instruction booklet.

The first bag builds the base of the tree and the bottom layer branches. You can see the Technic parts sticking up. The tree is stationary while the bottom part with the trains rotates. It also contains 3 gift boxes that can be displayed at the base of the tree.

The final build… The branches are complete. The top of the tree is attached to the base and rotates the base. The bottom 3/4 of the tree or so is stationary. You can see in the pictures that there are 2 “trains” at the base of the tree. One is blue and one is yellow.

Overall this was a good build. I built this one with my 5-year old and it went okay. I had to help some, but she managed to put it together. We had fun and maybe we’ll leave this one out as a decoration for a few weeks.

What were your thoughts on this one?

Happy building!

Christmas Promo Set Reviews - Gingerbread House (40139) and Christmas Train (40138)

If you are one who celebrates Christmas, then Merry Christmas to you!  I was at Target on 23 December and walked through the toy area.  It was mobbed (as to be expected) and the LEGO aisle looked like a war zone.  There were only a handful of sets left and many people were walking around talking about LEGO.  I hope you have purchased the LEGO you needed to ahead of time and weren't stuck somewhere like the picked through Target that I was at.  

The LEGO Company usually does a lot of promotions around Christmas time and also has some Christmas themed sets.  They traditionally have Advent calendars (City, Star Wars, and Friends), some decorations made out of LEGO, and continuations to the LEGO Winter Village theme.  LEGO Shop at Home has also had a number of promotions to include free shipping on all orders, double VIP points, and what I'm going to talk about today, the free Christmas promotional sets.  I'm not sure when it's started, but LEGO has released 2 sets a year that come free if your purchase more than a certain dollar amount (usually $99).  The first is available around October and the next one becomes available around Thanksgiving time.

This year there were 2 sets.  The first was set 40138, the Christmas Train.  It was available from 13 October to 13 November 2015.  The set has 233 pieces.  Here are some pictures of the box.

The box just has pictures of the set on the front and back.  The front of the box says that it's a 2015 Limited Edition set.

The set contains 4 LEGO parts bags and an instruction booklet.  There are no stickers (thankfully) and the bags aren't numbered.  With 233 parts, not having numbers isn't an issue as it was easy to find the parts needed to build the set.

Here is the final version of the set.  It is simple, yet rather detailed.  There is an engine, a car with various Christmas treats (cookies, packages, a candy cane, a lollipop, and a few other goodies), and then a caboose.  There is also a sign and tree that can go along the train's route.

Overall, this is a great set.  You can't beat the price... free... well you have to buy other stuff, but if you time your purchases knowing that this will be coming, then you're not upset about it.  While being small, the set contains a lot of great parts.  I enjoy building with the dark green color and the gold colored pieces are good too.  Plus as a town and train fan, I've found that I can never have enough landscaping pieces so an extra tree piece is good with me.  It also has a number of small pieces that are extra for the set that you can use elsewhere if you plan to keep this train together.

The next set is the Gingerbread House (40139).  It has 277 pieces and as mentioned it was available around Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday for purchases of $99 or more.  

The Gingerbread House box looks similar to the Train box.  Just a simple picture of the set with the 2015 Limited Edition marking on it.

The contents are similar to the train set as well.  There are for parts bags, an instruction booklet, and then a 2 x 12 white plate external to the bags.  

And here's the final design with front, side, and back pictures.  Despite being very small, the designers did a great job putting details in to make it look like a real gingerbread house.  Like the train, there are some great pieces in this set.  The brick textured pieces included are great and some of the candy colored pieces can also be useful with other builds.  Like the train set, there are a number of small pieces leftover for other uses if you want to keep this set together.

Overall, it's another great set.  With only 277 pieces, the designers did a good job cramming in detail with a small number of pieces.  Like the train, it's a great piece to add to your Winter Village or to have up around your house as a Christmas decoration.  

If you want to get one of these, you have to look on the secondary market.  I'm not sure what the prices on Amazon.com or EBay are, but Bricklink lists the average selling price for the train as $30.83 and $36.04 for the Gingerbread house.  I have one of each available, but I they are currently not for sale on my site yet as I'm focused on minifigures for now.

Let me know what you think of these sets in the comments section.