41843 Family Christmas Tree Decoration and 10361 Holiday Express Train

[danth]

New Christmas sets revealed.

https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-41843-family-christmas-tree-and-10361-holiday-express-train-2025-winter-village/

Definitely interesting. 

The train is cute, but I don't know how I feel about it including a 3D printed part. What's the point of that?

The Christmas tree looks smashed on top, which isn't forgivable since it's a $330 set. At least I've never seen a Christmas tree that suddenly goes from a 60 degree and to a 45 degree angle. Also, putting the new bright green space helmet & air tanks in this set is a serious d*ck move unless they also appear in PAB. Also, most of the cool computer readouts are stickers, so I say "meh" to those. 

[karrit]

Well I added up all the upcoming Holiday sets not including any of the Advent Calendars and the grand total in the US comes to $627.94 before taxes.  Add in another $250 if one wanted all the Advent calendars and with taxes added on that's a little under $1000 for everything.  Fortunately I only want two of the Advent Calendars this year and I've already gotten myself two copies of the City one at $10 off each and hoping to secure the other one in Costco with $9 off.  I may be staring into the abyss of another dark age unless I want to end up in the poor house.  I need to get pickier with my purchases so I'm thinking the Train & Tree are off my must buy list unless a great deal on either of them comes along.  May even pass on the Buildable Santa Jumbo Fig.

[hikouki]

UCS Christmas set???

[Slegengr]

@danth TLG definitely seems to be going for the "premium cost" market with sets these days, inflation already accounted for.  Things like the inclusion of parts of a new color of highly-sought Classic Space minifigure in a large but overly-expensive holiday set (unless they show up on PaB, as you mentioned) is direct evidence that TLG knows what will make profit but they do not actually care much about the customer base that got them to the stage they are on today.

Instead of being an imaginative and creative toy for children, the nostalgic adult market has driven TLG to become a high-dollar collector's item, not exclusively but certainly substantially.

The 3D-printed train is not something I want.  Though it looks to be a laser-sintered (and therefore much better quality than extruded filament) print, it looks and emotionally feels distinctly non-LEGO to me.  It seems an obvious grab into the market of the collector-of-rarities like the prior official 3D-printed parts.  TLG knows that secondary market prices soar for the rare collectibles they make...
I think 3D-printing forms a precedent that is dangerous to the core values of the LEGO System of play.  Without the restriction of the building-blocks of the System, it just becomes another model toy.  Would TLG encourage fans to print their own parts?  I think their business model and media related to such topics as train parts seems to clearly indicate they do NOT want that, as it means less internal profit.
This little train is an interesting idea, but really does not seem LEGO to me.
Though the 3D-printed idea may just show up in rare inclusions like this single little train in a much larger set, the business feasibility of including such an element indicates a significant investment into the technology and machines needed for such production (unless they are outsourcing this, which I surely hope so), which could lead to more such inclusions in the future.

Am I wrong in remembering that one significant factor in TLG almost going bankrupt around the turn of the millenia stemmed from a lack of trust in their own brand and product or system of play in competition with digital media?  Was the LEGO Movie and subsequent surge in popularity of TLG not related directly to a core appeal for the original brick and system of play?  It seems strange to me that TLG seems to be moving further today from those core values and trying new things again all across the board hoping something sticks.

All-in-all, I am not taking an overly-negative view of these things yet, but there have been a significant number of recent decisions and changes that indicate prioritization of profit motive rather than my personal values and TLG's earlier stated motto (only the best is good enough) and ideals of imagination and creativity for the original toy that I grew up with.  Thankfully, I already have a large collection of what I like and can still buy individual parts today to build what I want.

[BrickBob Studpants]

As a sucker for transparent pieces, especially trans-red and trans-orange ones, the recoloured dome pieces alone convinced me to buy the Xmas tree  The rest of the set is excellent too! The price not so much, but the PPR seems okay.

As for the WV train, it‘s pretty intriguing to see a 3D-printed piece in an official set! Un-LEGO-like as it may be, it‘s a fun inclusion I think. To me, it‘s akin to special parts like tubes, plastic sails, cloth pieces, and the like and will likely not be applied in any wider capacity, given how different the texture is and how there‘s no comparable clutch power I imagine