Today LEGO officially announced the upcoming #10254 LEGO Winter Holiday Train, which will be the latest in the winter holiday sets series. The LEGO Winter Holiday Train has been rumored for a long time, and LEGO fans have been eagerly waiting for specifics. Below is the set description, pictures and other details. Enjoy! 🙂
Here is the official description of the LEGO Winter Holiday Train: Climb aboard the magical Winter Holiday Train! Gather the family for some festive LEGO building fun with this charming model featuring a full circle of track, boarding platform with bench and lamppost, a Power Functions upgradable train engine with brick-built smoke bellowing from its stack, coal tender, flatbed wagon with a rotating holiday tree, toys and gifts, and a red caboose with a detailed interior and table. The train engine also features large and small red-colored locomotive wheels and the train is decorated with green wreathes, string lights and white tree elements. Includes 5 minifigures: a locomotive driver, ticket collector, grandmother, boy and a girl.
- The Winter Holiday Train includes 16 curved pieces of track, engine, coal tender, flatbed wagon with holiday tree, toys and gifts, caboose, boarding platform, bench and a lamppost.
- Decorate the tree and drive the train to see the tree rotate.
- Join the ticket collector in the cozy caboose for a delicious cup of cocoa.
- Includes dual building instructions for a perfect family build.
- Accessory elements include green wreathes, decorative lights and white tree pieces, plus wrapped gift elements and tiny brick-built toys, including a micro train, wind-up car, fire truck, remote controlled robot, sailboat and a spaceship.
- Upgrade with LEGO Power Functions (not included) for a motorized engine.
- Special elements include small and large red train wheels, dark tan windows, train buffers, cow catcher, white tree elements and roller skates.
- This set includes 734 pieces, including 16 curved tracks.
- The Holiday Train in total measures over 4” (12cm) high, 20” (52cm) long and 2” (7cm) wide.
- Curved rail track diameter measures over 27” (70cm).
- Recommended for ages 12+
And here is the designer-video with Morten Rauff introducing the set. I like how he mentions that the train can transport passengers from LEGO City to the LEGO Winter Village – sort of tying the two themes together.
The #10254 LEGO Winter Holiday Train will be available directly through LEGO beginning October 1st, with early access to LEGO VIP members on September 15th. Prices are as follows: US $99.99 – CA $129.99 – DE 89.99€ – UK £69.99 – DK 799.00 DKK (Euro pricing varies by country). It will be listed as “coming soon” shortly under the Seasonal Items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
I find it very interesting that the description specifically highlights building the set with your family, and also provides dual building instructions (which I assume means that there will be two instruction booklets so family members can work on different parts of the set). This seems to be in direct response to feedback LEGO got last year when the #10249 Winter Toy Shop was pretty much a re-release of the #10199 LEGO Winter Village Toy Shop from 2009. People were not happy that the same set was released twice, and mentioned about their holiday tradition of building the sets together as a family. Paying attention to their customers is one of the reasons LEGO is such a great company.
Besides being undeniably charming, another great feature of this set is that it comes with a full circle of train tracks. It will be perfect to have it run around the Christmas tree, or around your LEGO Winter Village setup! As mentioned in the description, the train can also accommodate Power Functions to make it run on its own. I hope that LEGO will list this set with an optional Power Functions bundle already added, to help shoppers understand what they need to make the train motorized. Holiday shoppers are often not die-hard LEGO fans, and they can have trouble figuring out all the Power Functions parts, and where to find them. They are listed at the back of the box as the #8879 LEGO Power Functions IR Speed Remote Control, the #8884 LEGO Power Functions IR Receiver, the #88000 LEGO Power Functions AAA Battery Box, and the #88002 LEGO Power Functions Train Motor – that’s a lot for a grandma to think about when shopping for their grandchildren. So please, LEGO, have a bundled option available!
It is also interesting to compare the similarities and differences with the #10173 LEGO Holiday Train that was released in 2006 (see above). The older train was much larger; basically a regular LEGO train with full-size carts, decked out in holiday colors. If I remember correctly, it didn’t sell very well and LEGO had it listed on sale for a long time. I guess it was too Christmas-y for regular LEGO train fans, and not cute enough as a Christmas decoration. The #10254 LEGO Winter Holiday Train on the other hand is not meant to represent a full-size train, but it is a cutified version with adorable details (still runs on full tracks though). Just love it! 😀
By the way, in case you don’t have the previous winter holiday sets, two of them are still available: The #10245 LEGO Santa’s Workshop from 2014 and the #10249 LEGO Winter Toy Shop from 2015. If you want to get them I would suggest you don’t wait until the holiday rush. You can find them under the Seasonal Items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Winter Holiday Train? Are you planning to get it when it becomes available? Would you add Power Functions to make it more awesome? How would you display it? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
UPDATE: The designer-video just became available, so I added that as well. I really like the tiny toy-train going around the tree while the train is moving! 😀
YAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!
First of all, completely thrilled that there’s a new Winter train. Then delighted to hear it can accommodate power functions — tho I understand that some of the parts required can be quite large and I don’t see how it would all be obscured. It would be a shame to fill up that adorable little caboose. So I guess I’ll be having to figure out how to make a holiday cattle car. 😜 But I wouldn’t mind that. It would just be more train. …if I can come up with parts in compatible colors.
The mini train is equally adorable. And I like the new style lamp for the village. The brick-built smoke looks cute and the rotating tree sounds like fun. If only they added some sound…. But I guess you can’t have everything.
Hope they adopt your suggestion and bundle the power parts that will be required. Also hope they’ll have good instructions since I won’t have a clue what I’m doing. 😱
All in all, I’m beyond excited. I really haven’t been with the Winter Village for the last 2 years. But now I’m looking forward a couple years as this, clearly, presents the opportunity for a proper holiday themed train station to come!
I suspect it will get expensive by the time I add extra track and the power options, (maybe get a second set to have parts for my cattle car and maybe a second flat bed), but I applaud them for keeping the basic price affordable and coming up with something so charming in the bargain! Even with all the extras it should still come in well below a secondary market #10173 which wouldn’t have power.
YAAAAAAYYYYYY!!!! And THANKS, Lego! You’ve made our Christmas!
Oops! Just viewed the video and see that they planned for the power functions to fit within the engine and coal tender. How FABULOUS is that! And how cute the engineer and conductor?
1000%, Lego!!!!!!! 1000%!
And now I’m equally delirious that they seem to be aware of the potential of the Winter Village and “on track” with it. Makes the future even more exciting. (But how about some white baseplates and transparent “ice” tiles? Pretty please!)
LOL! I love your enthusiasm! Yeah, cute train for sure! 😀
Very excited for this train. Love the grandma’s torso, too!
PS Not to be too greedy, but will the guys who designed the Winter Village Tram last year (https://rebrickable.com/mocs/Miro/winter-village-tram) be doing anything this year? LOVE the tram and their design style!
If they build it, I will come!
Funny, you mention that, as I was just reading Miro’s post on BrickLink where he talks about his new project for this holiday season. It’s a Winter Village Train Station, and will be available in October. You can see it here: http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=1003807
Love it! And if Lego comes up with one next year, one or the other could probably be converted into a shop. Or, of course, they could be on opposite terminals of the line eliminating the need to create a loop.
Thanks for the sneak peek and I’ll look forward to more details emerging.
Hi Rainey,
I am quite flattered to hear your excitement about a next Winter Village design by me. In anticipation of the Holiday train rumors, I have chosen to design a Winter Village train station. It will also accommodate the tram, so an added benefit for people like you.
My partner plans on having the train station in stock this October and from what I hear, the tram will be back in stock as well. Which is good news, as it sold out last year in a flash.
For those interested in building last year’s Winter Village tram using their Lego inventory and/or sourcing the parts, the tram inventory is freely available through the Rebrickable page (linked below) and a link to instructions are for sale there as well.
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/Miro/winter-village-tram
Great to hear from you! The tram was a great hit last winter and I know it will be fun to come again this Christmas.
I love the round steps and the interesting way you’ve indicated heavy snow clinging to capstones and then hanging down. Also love the brick turret. The clock is also wonderful. Very charming!
Is there interior detail other than the tree?
Will there be pre-sales? I’d love to get my order for a kit in so I don’t have to worry about missing the offer before you sell out again.
Rainey,
Thank you for your interest. If you would like me to alert you, please send me a message through Bricklink (username Miro78) so that I can contact you when it becomes available.
The interior, besides having a Christmas tree, will also contain more seating and a newsstand selling newspapers and stationary. There is also a mailbox that letters can be drop into and a mailman from the Winter Village Post Office can collect them from the outside. It can be seen from the left side on the outside.
I am also planning on creating modular platforms that can be added to expand the platform, as some trains need longer platforms, and that is completely optional.
I will try to see if Anna would be interested in a detailed blog post in the near future.
I love the train as well. I was so disappointed last year that there wasn’t a new set. My kids and I set up the Christmas Village together and I really enjoy it. We have purchased some mini light strings and add them to the set.
I’m hoping the power functions are bundled as well. I have trouble navigating the entire power functions forum too!
Thanks for the post…
This train is great! I actually modified the Toy Story Western Train last year, which I see must be the base design for this train – they are VERY similar! This one is a bit more “toy” like as a Christmas style train, which is great! I’m also glad they are giving us track and hoping they bundle the power functions as well – just makes it A LOT easier! Looking forward to adding this set to my Winter Village collection! LOVE THESE!!!!
That’s a great train! I really like the gold highlights. I wonder, however, if it would look any better if Earth Green (aka dark green) was used instead of normal green. Otherwise, nothing about this set I don’t like, excellent job, Morten! 😀 Sadly, I probably won’t get it, as my list is already too long…. 😕
All the PFs needed would be another $55 to buy separately, which is rather a lot. When you say “bundle”, admin, do you mean a set that includes the train and the PFs, for a $154.95 total price? I thought they did something like that for the Horizon Express in 2013, although I can’t find it. 😕
Also, this is not the only set being released to VIPs on Sept. 15; there is another: it’s large, grey, round, easily mistaken for a small moon…. 😉 It’s reveal should be any day now.
By bundle I meant that you can buy the set and the Power Functions parts together in one listings. They don’t necessarily have to make a separate box for it, just that people can simply check out from one listing at the Online LEGO Shop – no need to figure out what else you need and hunt for them on the website. They have done this for a number of themes and sets that go well together. They call them collections or something like that. I do remember seeing it with previous trains as well. I think the Maersk was one of them, and yeah, the Horizon too. $150 for a motorized train is actually in line with previous releases like the #60051 High Speed Passenger Train. And many people will likely already have power function parts from previous sets. Oh, the Death Star! Forgot about that coming out on the same day! Can’t wait for the reveal! 😀
You know, if they did market a power bundle it would be far less intimidating to some people like me. They might sell more of them for various train sets just because it would seem like a more do-able thing and a safer purchase for some of us.
Naturally, that shouldn’t mean that they abandon selling them as separate units for those who know what they’re doing or only need to replace or duplicate specific parts. I’m sure eliminating that option would be a terrible mistake.
Yes, in general for most people it is less intimidating to buy a fully powered train set as their first train purchase. This way they can wrap their brain around how the whole thing works and what the different parts do. Once you get the idea down it is easy to just swap the power Functions parts into non-powered trains. But yeah, first time it is a bit hard to figure it out.
My friend thought that the Power Functions in general were rather cumbersome and hard to fit into one’s constructions…
They are big – especially the battery box – so you really have to plan ahead and work around them. I very much hope that technology will give us better batteries in the near future! In trains there are okay though, because trains are already big rectangular boxes, so it’s easy to hide the Power Functions elements.
I was one of those fortunate (Well, I consider myself that way! 😉 ) ones who got the 10173 train on sale from Lego before they sold out. I do find the new train cute, no doubt. I think because I’ve had the 10173 as part of my Christmas Village for so long it just naturally feels part of it. The new one is definitely smaller and to me, at least, feels more like a toy that goes around a medium sized Christmas tree rather than part of the village.
Still, it’s nice that other people have the opportunity to get a holiday themed train for their village now. Oh, and I do have to point out that I do really like the rotating Christmas Tree and train on the one train car, which I think would be fun to have on my train!
Looks like a fun model, though!
The new train definitely looks more like a toy train, or one of those tour trains that you can see in tourist areas. I think it can fit perfectly fine with regular size LEGO trains though without clashing. And yeah, it is nice that newer LEGO fans will have a chance to get their own holiday train. I also really like the rotating tree at the back. It’s such a sweet little extra feature that was really not necessary, but makes the train even better. 😀
“One of those tour trains you see in tourists areas.” Yes! That’s what I was thinking yesterday but I couldn’t find a good way to describe it. I think that’s what I was really trying to suggest , not that the scale of the model didn’t look right with the other Lego trains, just more of a scaled down train for kids or even kids with their parents to ride on.
Looks like we are on the same page then! I see those tour trains all the time as I live not too far from St. Augustine, FL – a major tourist area. They have very cute tour trains. 🙂
I’d consider that a stroke of fortune even at the full price. 😏 Wish it had happened to me but I was several years late discovering even the buildings that were designated as Winter Village.
I paid secondary market prices for the first 2 buildings but that was far more reasonable than the price for the train even then. You’re a lucky guy!
Yes, you are right that even getting it at all was fortunate. From what I was able to find out on Bricklink they set wasn’t available for very long so I do have to agree.
I love this set and love it even more after I saw the designer video. No wonder, it is from my 2nd favorite LEGO designer. It will be my first train set!!!
This is great as a first train! Sweet, friendly, not too big, not too small, and with a full circle of tracks! 😀