REVIEW: 10229 Winter Village Cottage

[Locutis]

Hello everyone!

This is my extensive build review of the 10229 Winter Village Cottage. I decided to do a review of the set, but photograph the progress of building it in stages. Normally I would organize the pieces and line them up, to showcase what pieces come inside this fantastic set, but I was not feeling well today, and wanted simply to build it!

Lego 10229 Winter Village Cottage

Name: Winter Village Cottage

Set Number: 10229

Pieces: 1490

Price: $99 US / $129 Canada / DE 99.99 € / UK 89.99 £ / DK 899 DKK

Ages: 12+

Minifigs: 8

Theme: Winter Village

Year of Release: 2012

Here we see the box:

Here is the parts listing on the side (sorry for the low resolution - you can view a better version here http://farm9.staticf...e15e0f15d_k.jpg )

In case anyone is interested in the "version" of the set I have, you can see the serial number seal here:

All of the bags from inside the box, laid out in all of it's brand new goodness:

The dreaded sticker sheet. I did not apply these to my reviewed set.

Here are the contents of Bag #1, and the start of the build.

Looks like the snow plough started to roll on its own, and the lumberjack tried to stop it, but failed. Always remember to be careful around heavy machinery!

Here we start bag #2:

Here we start bag #3:

And, we are done with the build!

On with the review!

There is definitely a good assortment and number of minifigs in this set. 3 female characters and 5 male characters, makes a nice variety. From left-to-right, we have the mom, then her mom (the grandmother), the grandchild, and grandpa (holding his newspaper - I did not apply the sticker for this review; I really wish Lego would print these pieces, especially at this price-point). Next we have the girl skier, the snow plough driver, the lumberjack, and lastly the boy skier. Some of the heads feature dual facial prints (the grandchild and the grandpa).

The log shack and igloo are very interesting buildings. I'm not sure if they really add that much to the set, but they are a welcome addition, none-the-less.

This brick-built sled features shovels for the skis! Very simple, yet intricately detailed. I believe the pail on the sled is new.

Next we have the snow plough. I love the design of this vehicle.

You're probably wondering what those brown bricks on the back of the truck are for. The plough on the front of the truck can detach, and be mounted on the back of the truck on those bricks. Nifty!

Inside the wonderfully designed cottage is a light brick. Every Winter Village Set has featured a light brick, and this one is no exception. The use of the light brick in this set is well thought-out. Some of the other Winter Village sets have featured the light brick that simply added light to the room. In this set, the light brick provides a nice warm fire!

The brick-built tree in this set is very simple, yet well designed.

Here's another view of the light-brick fireplace. Let's hope the cat doesn't fall!

And here we have the set shown in full.

I do have the other Winter Village sets in this series, but none built at the time of this review. I may go back and revise this review at a later date with photos of all of the sets together, but not right now.

Overall I really like the size of this set. TLG has been slowly increasing the size (and cost! ) of these special holiday sets since the first release. I can only imagine what the new releases in a few years will feature (2000 + pieces???). I think the $100 price point is essential to stay under, and in my opinion the size of this set is about as large as you want to have with this series.

Here's my rating:

Build: 9/10 There was nothing too repetitive about the build that would make it boring. There are some ingenious structural implementations that would be useful in some MOCs.

Pieces: 1490 10/10 I think the piece count is about as large as you want to have, yet seems just right for a set in this series.

Minifigs: 8!!! 9/10 While the number and variety of minifigs is nice, TLG have introduced some new prints, but some are recycled from other sets.

Price: 7/10 While this set is priced at $99 in the USA (and a good bargain at that), it is priced much higher in other currencies without the exchange rate being considered. In Canadian dollars, this set sells for $129, but the US/Canadian exchange rate is 1:1 right now. That makes this set 30% more expensive in Canada than the USA. I was fortunate enough to drive down to the USA and purchase 2 at $99 and save myself some money. TLG could do better to make their official retail pricing on their sets more in-line with current exchange rates than lining their pockets. I deduct 3 points from the score because of this.

Variety: 10/10 I like all of the variety and use of new pieces in this set. I am especially fond of large plates, and those "brick-bricks". There are 40 "brick-bricks" in this set, making it a wonderful supply for these pieces. Also, the window frames in dark green, and the snow plough piece make this a wonderful set to own multiples of for MOCs. Also nice to have are those dark-blue floor tiles. Yummy!

Overall this set earns 9/10 from me. A definite buy, and a wonderful addition to the Winter Village series.

If you wish to see very high resolution pictures from my Flickr set, you can view the photostream here:

http://www.flickr.co...157631715098000

Locutis

[PsyKater]

I am glad that you had saved this great review of this outstanding set. Thanks for getting it here again! I had much fun watching the minifigure during the build process.

[Lutin]

That is indeed a nice set, but am I the only one who is annoyed by the fact that the boy's room windows is obstructed?

[Brickus]

I just got my set, I love it, excellent build and the finished model looks superb, I can't wait to add it to my other Winter sets.

[Redhead1982]

Thanks for the review of this nice set. I'm really looking forward of getting one myself. I like the selection of minifigures with interesting winter torsos. Also, the cottage has more details inside which is the reason for higher piece count (and price), but has also some nice designs, such as the lamp and the chair. Moreover, there's also a neat selection of bricks (trans-clear and sand green tiles, dark green windows with golden latticed panes, 40 dark tan masonry bricks), so it's a nice pack of parts, too.

[Dazmundo]

Thanks for the review, I picked this set up last weekend (Double VIP points) but I am resisting opening it until the Christmas tree goes up and I build the whole set, I've got a brand new Post office to do too, so that'll be 2 new builds this Christmas :)

[Locutis]

One thing I forgot to mention: I don't like the dark grey trap door plate that holds the roof in place. It looks very silly compared to the rest of the inside of the roof. I think the inside of the roof should have either been all dark grey, or the trap door plate could have been white.

Locutis

[AncientDayz]

I like the set overall. However, I really don't like the roof. The white on the outside seems like too heavy a snowfall compared to the others, and the inside of the roof looks a little awkward. Yet, I'm still looking forward to putting this together at Christmas with the others. Thanks for the review!

[Brickus]

If it's ok, here's my set up of all my Winter sets

[AncientDayz]

If it's ok, here's my set up of all my Winter sets

*snip*

Thanks for the overall pic. Looks good. I changed my Post Office's roof to white so it wouldn't look so out of place.

[nana]

If it's ok, here's my set up of all my Winter sets

This village is so beautiful! I don't have any winter village set now. Too bad the toy shop is already discontinued.

[Blue Wren]

Great review Locutis. And I love your winter village collection Brickus. I'm going to wait until December to put my village together... Right now I'm focusing on building some Halloween style Lego displays

[Hey Joe]

Thanks for the review.

What's the deal with 'version numbers' on the sealing tape? I had no idea there was such a thing.

They're still using those sticks for ski poles? Wonder why they don't use the CMF poles?

For the record; I love the set (except for the ugly inner-roof) but not sure if I'll get it. There's too much snow on the roof compared to, what is it, the post office?

[Locutis]

Thanks for the review.

What's the deal with 'version numbers' on the sealing tape? I had no idea there was such a thing.

They're still using those sticks for ski poles? Wonder why they don't use the CMF poles?

For the record; I love the set (except for the ugly inner-roof) but not sure if I'll get it. There's too much snow on the roof compared to, what is it, the post office?

Each Lego set that is taped shut has unique batch numbers printed on the tape. Each batch is theoretically the same. Therefore, if there are any problems or issues with a set, and it's the whole run that is affected, you can determine others that are problematic just by checking the batch number. This became handy when problems were revealed in the 10197 Fire Brigade in which many bags of pieces were actually missing from an entire batch. It was easy to determine if your batch was affected by checking the serial numbers on your seals.

I had read somewhere else that someone had problems/issues with the consistency of the medium blue in this particular set. I don't know what batch theirs was, but I was providing my batch number for reference.

[Brickus]

This village is so beautiful! I don't have any winter village set now. Too bad the toy shop is already discontinued.

Thanks, you should really try to get the Toy Shop, it's a great set, and it's not too dear on bricklink.

[nana]

Thanks, you should really try to get the Toy Shop, it's a great set, and it's not too dear on bricklink.

The price of Toy Shop in US is very high now, because this holiday is coming. I just asked my friend in another country to buy one for me at about 106 dollars shipped. This is my first time to buy anything more than MSRP. After seeing your photo, I feel that I shouldn't miss the whole winter village line. :)

I heard that the Bakery would be discontinued this December? I will buy it anytime soon.

[finishlast]

You can tweak it with some leds like I did.

Sorry I only have this wip video right now.

http://home.arcor.de/finishlast/2012.wmv

(5mb wmv)

[Angry_Raphael]

Awesome review im sold!

[Gryphon Ink]

I think this set is close to perfect for a Winter Village set. It's a beautiful building. I would take a few points off for the roof problems other people have mentioned, but overall the design is wonderful. The igloo and the woodshed might not seem to add much compared to bigger structures like the skating rink or the gazebo, but a village needs some small pieces of scenery too. The snowplow is a great period vehicle.

Two things annoy me about the set, though. The first is the price. It's fair for what you get, I'm not disputing that, but TLG really need to remember that not everyone can afford to get bigger and pricier sets every year. At $100 we're creeping up towards modular territory, and if it goes any higher I'm going to be shut out of buying Winter Village sets. It's bad enough that the modulars also got more expensive this year, but modulars at least were always meant to be the expensive, top of the line sets. Winter Village was not like that originally. Show some love for people on a budget, TLG!

The second thing is the amount of snow on the roof. I wish they'd standardize the depth of the snow in these sets. A little variation would be fine, but when you put this set next to the Post Office it looks silly.

Overall, a really gorgeous set.