(Written by William)
The LEGO Winter Village sets are the highlights of the fall/winter season and something LEGO fans look forward to each year. They are fantastic both for play and display and usually come with interesting building techniques and delightful elements. The latest in the collection, the #10339 LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Post Office, doesn’t disappoint, and I’m also pleasantly surprised that LEGO managed to keep the price under $100. Given the number of pieces (1,440) and the play features, this set is well worth it. Let’s take a look at why.
LEGO SANTA’S POST OFFICE – UNIQUE ELEMENTS
Although this set does not provide many rare and unique elements, there are still some highlights, like the baby seal and the curved panels that make up the hot air balloon. The color combination with the various blues and nougats is nice, although none of them are particularly rare. The half bar/half clip wrench elements to mount decorative parts are useful, and they are still fairly rare in red (you get 7 of them in this set).
Regarding printed elements and stickers, the only printed elements of note are the various 1×2 tiles with envelope designs. Any other graphics you see are stickers, like the signs out front, the book cover, and the postal crests on the balloon.
As far as minifigures, you get a nice Santa and a handful of elves. A couple of elves have double-sided heads, but again, nothing seemed particularly unique about their faces. The most interesting minifigure accessory would have to be the trans-red paddles one of the elves uses to guide in the balloon.
Speaking of the balloon, it is the last thing you build in the set according to the instructions. In most LEGO Winter Village sets I’ve built, there tends to be a light-brick used at some point. I was halfway thinking this might be the first I could recall that didn’t feature one. But in the last bag of parts, the light-brick is used to show how the balloon’s air is heated. It is so cleverly hidden that it has to be one of my favorite uses of the light-brick.
To be honest, the most impressive thing about this set when it comes to parts is just how good the parts-to-price ratio is. Over fourteen hundred parts for a hundred bucks is a steal. Even after building the model, I had to ask my wife multiple times to assure me that the set only cost $99.99. This model feels like it’s already on sale!
SIMPLE TO COMPLEX MACHINE CHUTE SYSTEM
Anyone looking to make something functional in LEGO should remember that some of the best tools are simple machines. These include the lever, the wheel, the screw, and so on. One such simple tool is the wedge. When not used for cutting, it can be simply placed down and used as a ramp. Ramps on the whole aren’t all that exciting. Most of the time they are merely a slight elevation change. They tend to just blend into the background. However, when you obviously chain ramps together, they go from a barely noticeable feature to something rather dynamic.
As part of Santa’s attempt to process all the letters he receives, he has an entire post office dedicated to sorting and possibly responding to all the correspondence. To this end, a chute system is employed. Inside the office on the second floor is a room that looks to respond to mail. In this room is a hole that will drop a letter down a slide, onto another slide, into a machine that can be adjusted to slide left or right, which drops the letter into a waiting cart. Likewise, any mail arriving by hot air balloon can be dumped onto its own chute to follow the same process (watch my video below to see how this works).
There are several challenges to overcome in a system like this. The biggest of these is making sure there are no gaps in the system. Gaps mean that objects could get caught and stuck. Special care was made to fit elements precisely so that no gaps were formed. The next obstacle to overcome is preventing parts from bouncing. For this, many guide rails and supportive mini slopes are added to the system. Through play, I discovered you need to gently drop letters in to prevent bouncing. Adding extra force to a letter will more often lead to letters spilling out all over the place.
What makes this system complex is the combination of multiple ramps. Any time you take a single simple machine and combine it with others, you form a complex machine. Of course, this machine does use an axle and lever to adjust where the letter will finally land. Plus, the carts use axles and wheels to roll around, but the real action is watching the whole chute system work.
LEGO SANTA’S POST OFFICE – FINAL THOUGHTS
I love all the LEGO Winter Village sets. They are full of fine detail work and bursting with small festive touches. For example, I love the French horn that makes up the symbol for the post office. I was also surprised to find just how much I like the rooftops. Each is heavily laden with snow and that small difference in building a heavier snowpack than normal adds a layer of gravitas to the building. In the video below, I will discuss the set in a bit more detail.
If there was any negative to the #10339 LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Post Office it has to be that this set once again leans into the more fantastical side of the LEGO Winter Village Collection. Many of the initial sets in the series were based on a more old-timey real-world style. However, with the #10245 LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Workshop, the #10275 LEGO Winter Village Elf Clubhouse, and the #10267 LEGO Winter Village Gingerbread House, there is a definite fantasy side that might be hit or miss for some fans. Beyond that, I highly recommend picking this one up. It’s a delightful set and the price is almost unreal. You can find it at the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like this latest addition to the LEGO Winter Village collection? Do you collect the series? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below!
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The chute system looks fun. I also liked the chimney in the elf clubhouse.
The parts-to-price ratio is undeniably fantastic, but I’m on the fence about the fantastical theme of this set. It’s a matter of taste.
Ha! The balloon has a light brick? That’s pure genius! I would have never thought of using a light brick like that! I might add one to the balloon I have hovering over my city. I also like the chute, but the rest of the set doesn’t interest me as much. I don’t know if it’s the colors or the architecture, but it doesn’t strike me as charming as the other sets.
The reliance on stickers instead of printed elements feels like a letdown, especially for such a detailed set. I would have paid a bit extra for those.
I notice that the annual “Winter Village” theme sets have really bifurcated into the “small old-timey town” and the “Santa’s north pole” categories. I haven’t been collecting either, but I do find the former more pleasing. I suppose they have a sort of cozy nostalgic feel to them, that Hallmark Christmas movie or Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” aesthetic. Whereas the Santa stuff is more fanciful, because Santa himself is fanciful, and the usual City offerings tend to be something fast-paced, like police, fire, space, amusement parks. Really only the modular building series aims for that “slice of life” feel, but those have a deep “downtown big city” feel as well, as opposed to the more relaxed suburban/rural atmosphere of the non-Santa winter village stuff.
Yeah ok, it probably tops my list of things I don’t collect but wish I did.
I don’t like the architecture as much as the other sets, but the chute, the chimney, and the hot air balloon are pretty good. I’m also surprised by how many elves they included. Decent set overall.
Nice looking set! I wish reviewers os such sets would regularly address the question of how the se can be modified or generalized. More specificly, how hard is it to get rid of the snow and other winter/xmas elements and put into a summer Lego city scene.
Thanks.
You can find such conversions at Rebrickable.com. After a new set is released, wait for a month of so, and you should be able to find several alternate instructions. The Winter Village sets are particularly popular with customizers, so you should have no problem modifications like you mentioned. 🙂