One of the new holiday sets that will be available from the beginning of October is the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set. LEGO was kind enough to send us an early copy so that we can take a closer look.
Let’s start with the official description: Count down to Christmas with the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set! This building set features evergreen leaf elements, signifying everlasting life, and has illustrated instructions to help create two beautiful decorative designs – one with a big, buildable red bow, another with four brick-built candles representing the four weeks of Advent. A fun, seasonal gift for ages 9 and up, it will add festive cheer to any home when hung on a wall, used as a table decoration or displayed any other way. This 510-piece set is great for solo building or sharing the fun with family and friends. It can be hung on a wall, used as a table decoration, or displayed any way the builder chooses. The Advent wreath measures over 9” (25cm) in diameter. The buildable candles measure over 3” (8cm) at full height but can be adjusted to smaller sizes to replicate the burning of a real candle.
The box of the Christmas Wreath set is the sturdier kind of LEGO boxes with a flip-up lid. The size of the box is just over 11×10 inches, which means that it can be used as a storage box for the wreath once it’s built. This is super handy if you want to use and display the set each holiday season.
Inside the box there are three sets of numbered bags, as well as two instructions booklets. The first instruction booklet provides the steps to build the hanging wreath with the big red bow, and the second instruction booklet includes steps for the wreath that can be used as table decoration with four candles and two small red bows.
You can start with either of the instruction books as they both provide steps to build the base ring, which is shared between the two models. In addition to the two designs, the second instruction book displays four more alternate models, which also share the same base. These models do not have separate step-by-step building instructions, but the pictures are large enough and clear enough that you should be able to copy them easily.
Model A is basically the same as the table decoration, but with the candles and small bows in a different configuration. I like how the candles are bunched together in this design.
Model B is a hanging wreath with a medium-sized red bow and the four candles placed flush with the wreath. This is a nice alternative to the first model if you would like to include the candles.
Model C is a simpler looking hanging wreath without using any of the red bows, red berries, or larger leaf elements. It’s main fun feature is the reindeer’s face centered at the top, made from one of the white candle tops, a couple of brown 1×2 plates with rounded edges, two trans-orange round plates for the eyes (used as candle fire in the other models), and two green leaf pieces for antlers.
Model D is also a hanging wreath that omits the larger leaf pieces, but it is more colorful than Model C with the red berries and a differently designed big red bow added.
It’s hard for me to decide which of the six models I like the most, but I think I prefer the ones that are fuller with using both the smaller and larger leaves. And I like the splash of color added by the berries, bows, and candle fires. But I also appreciate the simplicity of other models. And this is the beauty of this set; you can build the wreath in at least six different ways, and of course you can also make up your own design. There are plenty of pieces to play with!
Speaking of pieces, this is probably the best set for getting tons of pieces for vegetation! You get 40 green 1×1 round plates with three leaves, 4 bright-green plant stems with three leaves, 6 brown carrot tops, 36 of the traditional 3×4 leaves in green, and 2 of the 3×8 large palm leaves. You also get enough pieces to build four full candles so you can make them all the same height, or omit some of the 2×2 round bricks to make some of them shorter. And you get plenty of red pieces to build the three styles of the big bow, the two small bows, or your own designs. And there is also a small string element with studs at both ends to hang up the hanging versions of the wreath.
As I mentioned above, all six models use the same base, which is built from the two #1 bags. The base is structured from sixteen segments that clip together with 1×4 hinge bricks. One of the segments is special as it incorporates the string, but the other 15 are identical. It’s a little boring to build the same thing so many times, but fortunately each segment is made from only 13 pieces so they don’t take that long to assemble. Plus, you only have to build the base once before the fun of decorating can begin!
The base also has quite a few useful pieces, including sixteen 1×4 bricks in nougat, sixteen 1×4 hinge bricks, thirty-two 2×4 dark-tan brackets, and a good selection of dark-green pieces. Other parts worth mentioning are the pearl-gold 1×4 round bricks with five petals, and of course the white and red balls used as berries.
The #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set may not be as cute as a gingerbread house or holiday train or as fun as the Advent Calendars, but I still think it’s one of the best holiday sets ever released. It is fun to build and decorate either alone or with family and friends, it comes with several alternate building options, so you can display it differently each year, and it is one of the best sets to use as a “real” holiday decoration. And, as I mentioned, it’s one of the best ways to get a whole bunch of plant pieces at one go. At only 6.8 cents apiece, it’s totally worth it.
If you want to build your own wreath, or you just want to get the pieces for your own projects, the #40426 LEGO Iconic Christmas Wreath 2-in-1 set is going to be available on October 1st at the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop.
What do you think? How do you like the Christmas Wreath? Is this a set you’re planning to get? And how do you like the different alternate builds? Do you have a favorite? Would you use this as a decoration for the holidays? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below!
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