#10254 Winter Holiday Train: Review

Winter Village sets have been hugely popular through the years, but the newest addition is a train rather than a building like most of the others. How does it compare to previous Winter Village sets? Let’s find out!

It retails for $100, which is on the upper end of the price range for these sets. 734 pieces are included, making the average price per piece roughly 14 cents. This cost is substantially higher than previous Winter Village sets, but the train tracks and other specialized parts likely are the reasons for the expense. The track is made up of 16 curving sections, that combine to make a complete circle with a diameter of 27 inches.

The box shows off the bright colors of the train nicely, contrasting them against a white and blue wintry background.

On the back we get closer looks at various aspects of the set and see that it can be motorized via Power Functions.

There is a parts inventory on the top edge, as well as a 1:1 scale picture of the train conductor.

On the right side, we find a scene of the various minifigs playing with some toys, drinking some coco, and shoveling coal.

The left end highlights the removable roofs of the train.

After opening the box, we find 4 groups of train tracks, 2 instruction manuals, and quite a few bags of parts, most of which are numbered. There wasn’t any cardboard for the instructions, but they did have their own plastic packaging and were in great shape.

Here are the parts contained in the bag numbered 1, which is used to construct the bench, lamppost, and gifts. The green life preserver, black roller-skates, silver wind up ‘keys’, black 2×2 wedge plates, and printed 1×1 bley tiles are some of the cooler parts.

Both minifigs feature excellent torso printing on both the front and back. The lady also has a double sided head with a sleeping expression on the back.

Time to start building!

The platform for the bench is simple enough, but does include some drifted snow by the step.

This bench design has been used in numerous sets before, but still works quite nicely.

The lamp-post has the most interesting construction of this section: an upside down travis brick attaches to the bar, holds the wreath and gold studs, then allows the trans globe and 2×2 boat tile to be connected. Very effective design.

Next you get to assemble all the gifts. These also have some neat designs, especially the robot, sailboat, and fire truck.

Here are the extra parts from the first bag, disregard the walki-talkie and one of the trans green dots, we forgot to assemble the remote before taking the picture.

Within the number 2 bags we find a bit larger parts selection and the train engineer.  There are 2 more green life preservers, a good selection of gold elements, plus some specialized train parts and useful brackets.

 

This group of parts makes the train’s engine and coal car. Right off there are some interesting connections used to attach the black cylinders.

More SNOT building comes quickly as the locomotive’s shaping begins.

The gold bar sections are attached firmly by the clips, and black brick modified with stud. The life preservers are added as wreaths on either side.

Wheels!

Now assembly of the front section of the engine starts.

Cowcatcher in place, and the large red piece will allow this to snap on under the first section and allow the locomotive to steer.

There we are, both modules connected.

Some green, black, and white curved slopes match the established bottom curvature perfectly.

More SNOT curved slopes give a subtle difference to the back.

All decked out with headlights, bell, and chimney in place! The upper headlight is attached via a plate with clip, to a brick with click hinge.

An easily removable roof section, that is also curved, finishes the locomotive.

Next up is the coal car. The design for this is fairly straightforward, but also very effective. The back wall has some nice detailing with the SNOT panel design.

Also of note are the small white leaves, this is only the second set in which they’ve appeared and the train comes with 8 total.

Extra parts from the number 2 bags.

Given that there are 3  number 3 bags, we took several photos to show the parts in greater detail.

Dark blue tiles and gold lattices are always nice to have more of, plus the other 4 white leaves.

The dark blue curved slopes, dark tan windows, and black ladders are some of the more interesting parts in this bag.

The final bag has quite a nice selection of smaller parts. Including plenty more roller skates, and travis bricks in reddish brown.

The train conductor looks quite snazzy with his dark red cap and tan satchel.

The third car to be built will carry the Christmas tree and miniature train.

More SNOT detailing with some gold and dark blue elements this time.

Here’s a look at the undercarriage, you can see the worm gear that will power the rotating tree.

The miniature train is quite a cute little build, and even has a tiny coal car!

The Christmas tree itself is pretty similar to other trees from Winter Village sets. behind it you can see a storage rack for gifts.

As you might expect, the caboose is the last car to be assembled.

A cozy seating area is built inside, complete with lamp and mug. The stripe of dark red is a nice touch.

With the windows and doors added, it is already looking like a caboose.

More white leaves are used as decorations on the sides with lights added.

 

A dark blue roof and some gold lanterns finish the caboose beautifully.

And here’s the completed train!

The build experience was very enjoyable and never felt repetitive, instead we had fun examining the different building methods and details. The train makes quite a pretty display piece, and there are plenty of excellent parts included. Something that surprised us, being new to LEGO trains, was that the prefab connectors between trains are magnetic. Quite a fun touch! It rides smoothly on the rails, and the allowance for Power Functions is nice for those who would like to upgrade it. The rotating Christmas tree function works nicely, and is entertaining to watch.

Cost is a bit high for a Winter Village set, or for those looking to use it as a parts pack, but it is a relatively affordable train set. And it makes an excellent addition to any Winter Village layout. There are plenty of useful parts in some rarer colors like dark blue, gold, dark green, plus a good variety of more basic elements. The biggest highlight for us of course, are the small white leaves.

Our thoughts on how the set could have been improved.
Isaac:  Overall I was very impressed by how little prefab parts were used, but the cowcatcher seems a little out of place to me. Though that’s a fairly minor complaint, and if LEGO doesn’t use that part for a train, when would they use it? The set has a pretty nice balance of tiled surfaces vs studs, but us AFOLs just about always want more tiles. Mainly so they can be plundered for use in MOCs.
John: The dark blue brick rounds on the tree car seem a little unfinished without any tiles or even studs topping them. Also, the poor engineer is going to have a terrible time trying to see if the tracks are clear ahead, as the front window is not only too high for him, but also blocked off almost completely!

As you can see, there wasn’t much we found wrong with this set, so kudos to the designers!

Thanks to the LCE team for sending us this set to review and we hope you readers find the review useful. As always, just leave a comment if you have any questions.