(Written by Miro of The Brick Corner)
I have recently found a very interesting little set at the gift-shop of the LEGOLAND park in California. It is the #40115 LEGOLAND exclusive set, containing four LEGO Miniland size figures depicting a family visiting a LEGOLAND park. There is not much information you can find about this set online, so I decided to share my review with you. 🙂
The set is a LEGOLAND exclusive only available at LEGOLAND parks. It costs $19.99 before tax, and for a box of 270 pieces it comes to about 7.4 cents a piece, which is not bad. The kit comes with interchangeable tan and reddish-brown bricks to allow you to build either a light skin-toned or dark skin-toned family (there is a separate instruction manual for each). The set also contains a cardboard backdrop you can put behind the family to create a small display setting.
The pieces of the #40115 LEGOLAND set are organized in four bags; not in any particular order, and they are not numbered. The colors are mostly from the basic LEGO color-palette with some rarer tan elements.
As this is a small set with only 270 pieces, it is best to open all the bags at once and spread them out on a table. Building either version of the LEGO Miniland family takes approximately 20 minutes for an experienced LEGO builder, and a bit longer for a novice.
The building experience was quite enjoyable even for an adult LEGO fan like me, as it gave helpful insights into the techniques used for constructing LEGO Miniland-scale figures out of standard LEGO pieces. Once you are finished building the set you can use the techniques you learned to build other Miniland size people from your existing LEGO collection, or even build members of your own family!
If you are considering getting the #40115 LEGOLAND set for your BrickLink shop, I would suggest selling it as a sealed set instead of parting it out. It includes mostly common LEGO elements and the part-out value is not spectacular ($31.17 for 6 month average, not including the cardboard backing). The set does come with lots of extra elements – especially tan and reddish-brown – which is always nice to have.
My overall opinion is that this is a great little set to take a slice of the LEGOLAND park back home with you. It makes for a nice display and also works great as gift. Additionally, it is an excellent set for learning how to build Miniland size people, and can inspire you to try building Miniland figures of your own. I’m definitely planning to build my own family!
As I mentioned this set is a LEGOLAND exclusive, so look out for it if you are planning to visit a LEGOLAND park anytime soon. You should also be able to find in on the secondary market like BrickLink and eBay, however expect to pay more due to the limited availability. See eBay listings here: #40115 LEGOLAND SET AVAILABLE ON EBAY
What do you think? How do you like this unique LEGOLAND set? Do you like to build LEGO Miniland scale? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
How long is this set available
Because I am going to legoland califonia in june
This is a new set, so I’m pretty sure they will still have it in June. 🙂
Ok thanks
As many people has (or will, at least.) point out, by the strictest definitions, these aren’t Miniland figures. They miss the distinctive neck. But then again, the definition of a Miniland figure have been quite broad…
Oh yeah… they do have necks! I never noticed that…. 🙂
The ones in this set have necks, except the young boy
Actually, he does have a neck!
I thought everybody has a neck. 🙄 but when I went to LEGOLAND last time I regret not getting a exclusive set! 😡 bad mistake I will never make again!
What other sorts of exclusive sets does Legoland have? Stuff with your traditional minifigures and things? I’d love to go next year. I’m in California so I should be able to head down south and get there.
Kim, LEGOLAND exclusives are actually not that common. Here is a list of all LEGOLAND exclusives ever released: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catType=S&catString=572
However you can often find rare polybags, keychains, smaller sets, unique minifigures, etc. So yeah, it is worth checking the shop if you visit LEGOLAND. One thing to note though is that your VIP points don’t work there. In otherwords you can’t collect VIP points on your purchases, nor can you redeem VIP points.
Oh good to know! Thanks!
Although the thing about the VIP card not working there is true, they almost always are good enough to give you a discount if you have the card with you and present it to them at the purchase time.
Hm… that’s good to know! Thanks thank sharing.
My family went end of April and were surprised to discover this set by accident. I even asked the staff there if there was something exclusive, and several people said “nope.” I then bychance found this set and picked one up. There is also another one that is similar, but it has the two white castle turrets and a cardboard picture frame. My wife preferred this one. Does anyone have any info on the photo frame set?
Do you mean this one?
http://brickset.com/sets/40081-1/LEGOLAND-Picture-Frame-Florida-Edition
These were available in multiple countries, that’s about all I know. 😉
Yep, that’s it – it wasn’t labeled as a California edition or anything, just by itself. In retrospect, I wish I had purchased both; I would have done away with the cardboard background on the 40115 and put the castle turrets from the 40081-1 on either side of the family instead. Thanks for finding the set number for me.
You’re welcome! 😉
This is a nice set. The interchangeable skin colors is a cool addition as well. Sadly, I’ve never been to a Legoland, it’s too expensive. 🙁
Off-topic, but Brickset has the official image of Minecraft: the End now.
http://brickset.com/sets/21107-1/Minecraft-Micro-World-The-End
The Ender Dragon looks cool, I hope the minifig-scale one is as good. 🙂
That Minecraft set is really cool. I’m definitely getting it as I have all three previous ones. I’m really curious about the minifig-size ones as well.
When I first saw the dark skinned box cover, I thought it looked misdesigned. The skin color looked too similar to the darker hues of the son and father, so they blended together, and the overall color contrast didn’t seem to work out… =/
But then, the photo of the actual set below looked much better, so it might be a photography issue. Apparently that has been a problem with regular photography for a long time, as well. Adjusting the cameras for darker skin has been technically difficult for a long time…
(I hope you find these off-topic links interesting…)
https://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-photograph-mixed-skin-tones/
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/syreetamcfadden/teaching-the-camera-to-see-my-skin
https://jezebel.com/the-truth-about-photography-and-brown-skin-1557656792
Very interesting subject! Thanks for sharing the links!
oh…. I tought when you said a LEGOLAND set you meant a set that is excactly like the real thing , you know like almost a map…. hmmm maybe they should do a set like that
Now I wonder if Lego would consider selling building sets in Miniland scale – ie about 1:20 – 1:24 scale.
This would allow their use on G-scale garden railway layouts [scale 1:22.5]. You would think that there might be a market here, although I guess the cost per set could be high, if you look at the price of the midi sets for comparison – may be up to 4x the cost!
Nigel, yeah, I think the biggest issue with Miniland scale is the cost. Also display area needed. People are already complaining of the Modulars being too big and taking up too much space. There is only so much room most people have for displaying LEGO.