theBrickBlogger.com — Sharing the Passion of the LEGO Hobby!

LEGO Winter Village Train Station & more!

by Thita (admin) on December 9, 2016

You might remember that last year around this time we talked about a really sweet custom LEGO Winter Village Tram created by LEGO fan Miro Dudas (see: LEGO Winter Village Tram for the Holidays!) that can be added to the LEGO Winter Village collection, or to any LEGO City setting. Due to the model’s popularity, Miro teamed up with Constructibles.net to provide instructions and full kits for those who wanted to build their own. Since then, Miro has been busy with other models to expand the village. 🙂

The LEGO Winter Village Train Station (see below) also fits well with the official LEGO Winter Village layout. It features rich stone and brick detailed exterior, wood-frame windows, a clock tower, snow covered roof and awning, raised platform, seating, stairs to the street level, and Christmas wreaths. The interior is open to the read in style of the LEGO Winter Village sets, with tiled flooring, cash register, newsstand, mailbox, old style telephone, Christmas tree, seating, chandelier, and a clock. It’s a charming little building. If you would like to get step-by-step building instructions, they are available at Miro’s BrickLink Store for around $6. You will also get bonus instructions for building an expanded platform. Full building kits may be available via Constructibles.net, although they were sold out at the time of this writing.

lego-winter-village-train-station-by-miro-2

lego-winter-village-train-station-by-miro-1

Miro is also working on a LEGO Winter Village Apple Cider Mill. This is a large snow-covered building operated by a water-wheel, and full of delicious apple cider to cure the winter chill. Building instructions for this model should be available sometime in the near future. Instructions for the 1930s blue farm truck that you see with the mill are freely available via Rebrickable.com (just follow the link).

lego-winter-village-cider-mill-by-miro-1

lego-winter-village-cider-mill-by-miro-2

Additionally, Miro created instructions to motorize the LEGO Winter Village Tram using either a 9-volt motor conversion (for the old 9-volt metal tracks and LEGO train motors), or the new LEGO Power Functions. The 9-volt conversion only needs a few additional pieces and will leave the tram pretty much intact. The Power Functions version however got a complete overhaul due to having to house the battery-pack and other Power Functions elements. Instructions for all three versions (non-motorized, 9-volt motorized, and PF motorized) can be found on at Miro’s BrickLink Store.

Miro is well known for his sweet designs that fit with the LEGO Winter Village series, but he also has other excellent models. If you would like to follow what he is working on, you can check out his flickr gallery. And for the current LEGO Winter Village series sets you can visit the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Do you have any of the LEGO Winter Village sets? Have you added any other buildings or vehicles, or modified the sets in any other way? What other structures would you like to see in the Winter Village series? Feel free to share your own ideas below! And if you have any comments and questions for Miro, you can post those as well. I will make sure he sees them. 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

{ 7 comments }

2017 LEGO Disney Moana sets review

by Thita (admin) on December 8, 2016

in LEGO Disney

The latest Disney film, Moana, was released on Thanksgiving weekend to a huge success. I’m not going to spoil the story for you, in case you haven’t seen it yet, so I will only say that the film tells the story of Moana, the strong-willed daughter of the chief of a Polynesian tribe, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with a goddess. When misfortune strikes the island, and fish become scarce and vegetation begins to die, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, in hopes to save her people. It is a beautiful and inspiring film with interesting characters, surprising twists and turns in the story, and soaring views of the ocean and islands. To commemorate the movie, LEGO released two Moana related sets, which is what we will be looking at today. 🙂

➡ #41149 LEGO DISNEY MOANA’S ISLAND ADVENTURE: In this set we get Moana and her pet pig Pua, and three separate play-areas. The largest one is Moana’s house with some food storage at the bottom, and a little bedroom upstairs. The second largest area is the cave and waterfall with a secret reveal function, which is very important in the movie. The smallest play-area is the firepit, with a rotating pole for cooking fish. Here is the official description: Explore the beautiful world of Disney’s Moana with Moana’s Island Adventure. Recreate memorable scenes from the movie as Moana learns about the legends of her ancestors, finds the heart of Te Fiti and plays the drums in the cave. Then create new adventures of your own, living out island life in and around her house with Pua her pet pig. Includes a Moana mini-doll, plus Pua the pig. 205 pieces. Price: $24.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #41150 LEGO DISNEY MOANA’S OCEAN VOYAGE: Here we get both Maui and Moana (wearing a different dress), along with Moana’s pet rooster Heihei, and two pygmy pirates called Kakamora. It is worth noting that this is the first time a LEGO bigfig appears in a LEGO mini-doll set, and the combination works surprisingly well. It is really nice to see that Maui’s tattoos were so faithfully recreated. This set also has three separate play-areas; a small part of Te Fiti island, a sailboat, and a tiny catapult for the Kakamora. Here is the official description: Discover the vibrant world of Disney’s Moana and join her on her epic adventure to bring back the heart of Te Fiti and restore harmony. This beautiful sailboat with opening storage under the deck, and island with transformation function, are perfect for recreating iconic scenes from the movie or creating new stories by the sea. Features a Moana mini-doll, Maui big figure, Heihei and two Kakamora. 307 pieces. Price: $39.99 – BUY HERE

My first reaction to both of these sets is that they are awesome, but why so small? I want more! The movie takes your breath away with its beautiful imagery of the ocean, the island, the ships and the people, and all we get here is a smidgen of it all. While we can build more ships and a bigger island with extra parts, we need some islanders! Moana all by herself looks quite lonely. Saving her island and her people were a major part of the story. Otherwise, right now it just looks like a little girl and a big dude chilling on a tiny piece of land they can hardly fit on. I also would have liked the Kakamora to be more defined, perhaps using the LEGO Nexo Knights Scurrier body. An army of Kakamora would have been very fun! 🙄

It is interesting to note that in general LEGO has been quite conservative with the LEGO Disney sets aimed at girls. While LEGO Friends comes with a large selection of sets, including many substantial ones, the LEGO Disney Princess collection is minimal with small to medium size sets. Even LEGO Elves has a much larger selection, which is surprising. LEGO recently renamed the LEGO Disney Princess line to LEGO Disney, and released the very large #71040 LEGO Disney Castle, so perhaps we will start to see a bigger and better selection. It is also possible that LEGO was waiting to see how people respond to the film before adding more sets. Frozen already got four sets, and there is more on the way, due to the popularity of the movie, so perhaps more sets will be made for Moana as well, if there is enough interest. To see all the currently available sets, visit the LEGO Disney section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Have you seen Moana yet? How did you like the film? And what do you think of the LEGO sets related to the movie? Have you gotten them already? Or are you planning to? Feel free to share your thoughts and own review in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

{ 6 comments }

Next Posts Previous Posts

LEGO Winter Village Train Station & more!

2017 LEGO Disney Moana sets review

Get new posts by email: