[REVIEW] 10293 - Santa's Visit

[Redhead1982]

This year, Christmas came early. At least that's what it felt like opening a large brown card box to reveal this year's Winter Village set. Curious to see more? Just scroll down the page and enjoy the pictures and/or the text.

Disclaimer: This set was provided for review purposes to Eurobricks by The LEGO Group. The opinions presented in this review are my own and do not reflect those of The LEGO Group.

 

Press release

If you’re dreaming of the perfect Christmas Eve, get the festive season off to a magical start with this LEGO Santa’s Visit (10293) model building set. It’s the ideal way to spend quality time with a cozy project for adults and families. Build the intricate Christmas house and explore all of the model’s jolly features before placing it on display.

A build packed with traditions. Spot all the ingredients that make Christmas Eve so special. There are stockings on the fireplace, a plate of cookies with milk for Santa, and even a place setting for him at the dining table. The exterior is equally detailed. See the Christmas tree, which lights up when you press down gently on the treetop. Extra details complete the cheerful scene with presents, a postbox, and brick-built boughs under the ‘snow’-topped roof.

A Christmas building project to savor Santa’s Visit is part of the LEGO Winter Village Collection; a collection of buildable model kits for adults that celebrate the festive season.

• Enjoy a magical Christmas build with this LEGO Santa’s Visit (10293) building kit. Explore all the traditional details of Santa’s visit with an enchanting Christmas house model to display.
• Includes 4 minifigures with dad, mum, girl and Santa so you can recreate endless cosy family Christmas Eve scenes. See Santa drop through the large chimney into the fireplace.
• Enjoy spotting all the festive details of the intricate interior. There are stockings on the fireplace, a plate of cookies with milk for Santa, and gifts hidden around the house.
• This model looks amazing from all angles, making it a perfect seasonal display piece. See the cute kitchen with its sweet brick-built stand mixer.
• Add a festive glow to your Christmas Eve scene. The Christmas tree features a light brick (with battery included) that lights up when you press the top.

 

Basic info of the set

Set no.: 10293

Name: Santa's Visit

Theme: Creator Expert

Subtheme: Winter Village

Year: 2021

Pieces: 1445

Minifigs: 4

Age group: 18+

Price: €89.99, $99.99, £79.99

Price per part: 6.2 c / 6.9 c / 5.5 p

Links: Brickset

 

The box

Similarly, to last year's box design change, this year's set is continuing the adult’s theme. In my opinion, the sleek black box is perfect to show off the bright and detailed model. Moreover, the black with tiny snowflakes create a perfect snowy-white Christmas atmosphere. The top left corner is decorated with a doodle most commonly associated with the Christmas holiday season, holly (Illex aquifolium) and tiny snowflakes. The design differs from last year's (which featured prominent stags) and seems to be heavily inspired by the theme of the set. I wonder what next year's logo will be? Any hints, please?

The characters included in the set are lined up on the side of the box, and while the gifts under the Christmas tree are shown on the other side of the logo. The most important man of the season, although rarely seen in person, is shown as a scale reference.

Overall, the box is smartly designed to reveal many of the details, which create a great first impression of the set, and definitely help spread a positive vibe and make fingers itch to grab the box off the shelf. On the short side of the box, a play feature is indicated. The not so mysterious ’making an entrance through the chimney. This is more clearly seen on the back of the box in small frames showing different aspects of the set. The box is approx. 48 cm in length, 28 cm in width and is 9 cm thick. I checked the dimensions of the box because I was surprised to see the contents of the box so densely packed together. Definitely, a positive change, as I can remember times when a large portion of the box was empty.  

The content of the box

Namely, when I opened the box and shook out its contents, this is what I got. Cleary, the contents stayed packed after  Disclaimer: I did not rearrange the contents for this photo. The bags are covering the instructions and the contents are nicely packed together. Definitely, a nice positive change to get a full box of LEGO parts.

 

The booklet

The set comes with two instruction booklets. I am not sure why there's a need for two booklets, since the smaller one is not that thick and could easily be combined with the main, larger format instruction booklet. The booklets were wrapped in plastic together with a sticker sheet to keep them protected.

Prior to actually building the set I flipped through the instructions to get a glimpse at the building steps. I usually don't complain about instructions having too simple steps or a small number of parts to add per step. Some steps had only a few parts, while others had more parts to add. Above is a page from the booklet, which I specifically chose to show because it was the trickiest part for me. Halfway through, I realised I wasn’t completely following the color scheme for the lights and had to start from the beginning. The addition of red borders around the parts added to the model in each step is pretty handy when you have a disturbing factor running around the table on which you're trying to build your Creator Expert adult-targeted set.

While most of the instructions’ pages are spotless, some of the pages have a yellowish smudge of unknown origin, which I found annoying. At first, I thought my kiddos had fun with yellow markers, but after inspection, I realized they did not touch the instructions (as clearly there would be yellow marks on their fingers and faces). However, these smudges are seen only on a few pages and are not affecting the building process as such. They’re just something to complain about.

 

The parts

In total, the parts and the building process is split into 9 steps – 9 individual bags. Given the fact the inventory for the set is not yet available, you can check the back of the instructions here, here and here.

Alternatively, the parts can be seen here. The predominant colors are reddish brown, light bluish grey and the highlight (in my opinion) the bright light blue. Hi-res pictures of the parts can be seen in my Flickr. There are several interesting parts included in the set, mostly being recolours of existing parts, including a nice variety of medium blue parts. Some of the more interesting parts, in my opinion, will be highlighted further on in ‘The build’ section. Feel free to skip the minifigs and dive right in.

Or not. There’s one more part I should mention here, and that is the sticker sheet. There are only four stickers included, and they all help with creating a story behind the family. I find them quite useful for MOCing, especially the space rocket poster and a new type of clock design. The round family portrait is interesting mostly for its size and shape. It fits a 3x3 round tile and is challenging to apply with even edges throughout. For sure, printed parts would be a better choice for many.

 

The minifigures

There are four minifigs included in the set. A family of three and the most prominent (and hard-to-meet-in-person) minifigure Santa Claus, know under many aliases such as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, etc.

Santa has clearly updated clothing. The most obvious difference is his black boots, which are commonly missing in other minifig Santas. In addition, it seems as his belly grew a bit, and he needed a new coat and a new belt. Too bad the printing doesn’t continue on the sides as well. The slightly wrinkled fabric helps in creating a more rounded body type of Santa.

Family members look pretty generic at first glance. They all have double face expressions, which helps with expressing various emotions (a bonus play feature for the adults). While I initially liked the sweater design, as it can be worn by flashy and yellow figs, the design is quite outdated now. An update of his wardrobe would be great. Perhaps a new sweater is packed in one of those gifts. A more winter- or Christmas-themed outfit, perhaps sweaters similar to those in Ice Skating Rink (40416) would fit even better with the theme. The letter he’s holding is relatively new and available in only 3 sets up to date (according to Bricklink).

Mum of the family stands out with her hairstyle. Her wig is another rare part, which cannot be said for her top. I felt a bit disappointed, as I expected something more winter-like. Again, a more holiday-themed top would be better. Despite her outfit, she seems to be in a great mood having two happy smiling faces.

The daughter of the family is clearly a space fan. She’s super excited to get her new rocket, and judging by her room décor, she’s all-in for space. The girl’s hair reminds me of the iconic ponytails the very old minifigs had. However, her best feature is probably her pyjama. This is what I had in mind when complaining about the lack of winter-themed outfits. Isn’t her dark turquoise pyjama with snowflakes perfect? Complementary to her outfit, she has a sleepy alternative face, which again allows us, the adults, to put the child to bed (in this case, without the evening routine or complaining of any kind). Also, I wouldn’t complain if her parents wore matching pyjamas.

 

The build

To warm up, the building starts with several small models, the first one being the entryway to the property. Here, a small mailbox is added as another play feature – of course, the letter you wrote for Santa has to be mailed by snail mail. The fence is decorated with a lamppost, which is a new color – a satin white round brick that hasn’t been seen before.

Christmas tree is another holiday hallmark that can’t be missed. Considering the fact that TLG designers produce at least one Christmas tree per year, it’s quite challenging to come up with something new and good-looking. At first glance, the tree feels a bit bulky with all the slopes but is overall well designed. The use of trans-clear plates is a neat trick to help light up the tree. The trunk of the tree includes light brick and transparent brick. By gently pressing down the top of the tree, the tree is illuminated. I also like the selection of gifts under the tree. The trumpet/trombone is my least favorite, as it feels too big. It is cleverly designed though, however, I wonder why the dark tan dish was used instead of gold. It would look better for sure.

In many recent sets, especially those featuring apartments, the ground floor deviated from the most natural rectangular design. Specifically in this case, the shape of the floor creates a much more open space, and many of the play features remain accessible for large adult fingers.

A little bit further down the road, the shape of the house becomes more apparent. One side is tiled, where the kitchen will be installed. On the other side, there’s the chimney base, a small carpet, and a tiny gift, which is later hidden from plain sight. Candles are attached to a bar and can be flipped if a certain someone crashes through the chimney. The doormat is a perfect oval shape (another new part in this color). These are available in a limited number of sets in four colors. The dark orange tile is a nice addition to any adult collection.

There’s a lot of smaller parts added, and while it might feel slow to build, these were some of my favorite details. At heart, I’m still a town girl, and building the interior of the house made my heart sing (and not out of tune). My favorite here is definitely the sink, built with lbg cylinder half. The buns, kitchen robot and oven help create that December atmosphere when everyone is baking and the kitchen smells of cinnamon and cookies.

After adding holiday-themed details on the inside, the holidays continue outside as well. The addition of green minifig claws was the first part that stood out to me when I initially saw the set. Still, after building the set, this part seems perfect as Christmas-themed décor. With a little bit of imagination, the cherries and the green claws could pass for the holly. The exterior of the house is painted in bright light blue, which was another feature that stood out to me. There’s a variety of parts in this color included in the set, many seen for the first time in this color. If not for anything else, this set is great as a parts pack for fans of bright light blue.

Throughout the building, there was a constant change from interior to exterior. Now we’re back in the interior with an almost finished chimney and a decorated mantle in front of the fireplace. I’m a bit concerned about fire safety. Those socks are so close to the flames and no fire extinguisher is at hand. If you remember stickers from earlier on, two of them are used here. Both of them fit nicely, but at least the family portrait is tricky to apply. And if you don’t mind, I have to say that I mastered putting a round sticker to that 3x3 round tile. The portrait is attached to the 2x4 dbg double jumper plate which is still rare in this color. The cookies on the side table have a new printing, but I’m not advertising them as there are only 3 of them, and I don’t share my cookies. Trivia: the new cookie printing is inspired by the actual cookies made every year by the LEGO designer’s mother.

The center of the ground floor is fitted with a large dining table, already decorated with a red runner and candles. At this table, the family can gather for meals, talk, play board games or build LEGO sets. etc. Definitely, a nice way to play and perhaps the adults can rehearse some of the talks on how to behave at the table. Above the kitchen, the girl’s bedroom is fitted under the roof. This makes the kitchen very hard to reach for those of us with adult-sized hands. Nevertheless, the girl is still young, and she needs to sleep (unlike her parents, missing a bedroom in this part of the house).

The roof design is probably one of my favorite features. The angles, the curved shape, and the steep slopes are very appealing. The angles are achieved by the use of technic 7L lift arms in reddish-brown (yes, another new re-colored part). I’m not a fan of Technic parts, and I find it challenging to use them. However, these reddish-brown lift arms are already on my wanted list. In addition to their function, they also look good as wood paneling under the roof. Lift arms are attached to the roof on one side and the wall of the house on the other, and simply slip into place very gently.

From the inside, the beams (or lift arms) are seen. The roof is then leaned to another angled element, also reminiscent of a beam. This angled beam helps with the structure of the house as it secures the angled section of the houses on top as well. Additionally, a lamp is hanged from it directly above the table. The only thing missing is a mistletoe hanging down.

The steep roof above the entrance was another popping detail. The green minifig claws and the cherries really stand out and give an impression of garland made from holly. The golden bells, the satin white lamps and the rounded corners are some of my favorite elements of the house.

The house is layered with multiple roof sections and the various angles of the house can be best seen from this view. Don’t mind the blue plates loosely attached to the wall. This was my attempt at the sturdiness of the main angled beam connection between the side walls. It held, but just barely when I tried lifting the whole house by the beam. Definitely not a play feature.

Another nice element of the roof is the section above the girl’s bedroom. As mentioned before, to allow easy access to her room or nook, the roof can easily slide away from the house. The last two stickers are used here, one as a letter to Santa, the other one as a wall poster. Clearly, the girl is all about space, even having a planet hanging from the roof. So if you can’t read her scribbles in the letter to the Santa, I’m pretty sure she wants Classic Space.  

The tree outside the house is probably the only feature I haven’t mentioned so far. It’s a pretty tiny one, covered with snow. At first, it might look as if it was a last-minute detail, but given some thought, this is actually how many young trees look like in winter. They’re short, with few branches, and definitely not standing out. However, what stands out is the cute bird’s house. And again this detail shows how much thought is behind the model design. In winter, there’s less food for birds, and birdhouses are traditionally hung to the tree to provide more birds seeds.

 

The finished product

Congratulations, you almost made it to the end of this review. This is the final product with all the paraphernalia. It doesn’t feel crowded and it takes some volume. Compared to other sets from the Winter Village series, I was excited not to see a vehicle in the set, as was common for many years. The set is actually packed with holiday spirit as many traditions can be recreated with the minifigs. The exterior is pretty to look at, and the irregular shape makes it even more interesting. The bright light blue color is a great choice in my opinion, despite blue being a less common facade color. It would be nice to see this house next to the cottage from 2012, to compare the shape and color. The first impression might be that this house is similar to the previous one, but this is far from the truth. The latest house has a different layout and style, and looks more like a modern house. On the other hand, the cottage from 2021 is a traditional timber house. The only obvious similarities are the blue color of the walls and snow-covered roofs.

Contrary to the exterior, the interior is even brighter and merrier. Not going for the standard rectangular floor plan actually opens up the house, creates a large volume to look at and to reach into. If we speculate that the bathroom and parents’ bedroom are in the ‘other’ half of the house, there’s nothing missing here. There are even some gifts hidden inside in hard-to-reach nooks. Another play feature can be mentioned here. If, in your adult life, you ever wondered how the gifts are delivered, say no more. Clearly, Santa drops the bag so carefully, as to not get caught in the fire in the fireplace, not make any loud noise, and definitely doesn’t hit the side table with hot cocoa and cookies. I’m only not sure if Santa pulls the bag up by some hidden strings or he actually goes down the chimney. The way I see it here, he’s not that excited to jump into the unknown chimney.

 

The final verdict

Design 9/10

The overall design is well done. Considering the set is clearly targeted at adults, it is a great stand-alone display piece. I seriously enjoyed my building experience, as there were interesting details or techniques incorporated. However, being targeted at adults, I would expect a more advanced building. There’s not a lot of SNOT building included, apart from the ground floor and roof section deviating from the standard rectangular shapes. Colorwise, the set is pleasing to the eye. The color choice is interesting, even bold, but stands out nicely and provided many new recolored parts.

 

Parts 10/10

Parts selection is above average in my opinion. There are many bright light blue recolored parts, as well as in other colors. Some of the elements introduced in the set are rare, however, I couldn’t identify any new parts exclusive to the set. As an adult, I chose my sets wisely, based on part count and color. In this perspective, Santa’s Visit is totally up my alley. Although the part count is high due to many small parts, they’re put to good use (as to add details to the interior).

 

Minifigs 7/10

Overall, the four minifigs included in the set fit nicely. Some may argue that 4 minifigs are too low for a set of this size, however, adding another family member (or Santa’s helper) would make the house too crowded. Perhaps, adding a pet would be an additional bonus. Design-wise, Santa is the best figure in the set, given his new clothing and black boots. Number two is definitely the little girl in her new pajamas. The parents on the other side feel quite generic and don’t really stand out much. Luckily, the minifigs (with Santa as an exception), have double-printed faces, which improve their expressions.

 

Build 9/10

While I enjoyed the building process tremendously, I didn’t get the expression of why the set is targeted at adults. It might be more appealing to the adults as a display piece. However, the building process is not very complex. The most intriguing part was building the roof and creating various slopes. Nevertheless, this is something that can’t be considered extremely advanced.

 

Playability 10/10

There’s no doubt that the true potential of the set lies in playability. I have emphasized multiple options of play throughout the review and could list them here again (but I won’t). It might be my impression, but the open wide floor is perfect to reach in, set the minifigs in various positions/actions and just go about their cozy evening waiting for Santa. There’s no direct action such as shooting opponents with extra studs, but there’s the Santa slide (aka chimney). In this respect, it is obvious why the set would be very appealing also to the younger population.

 

Price 9/10

At the time of building this set, the price was not yet available. Therefore, my opinion of the set is not affected by the final price value. Given the part count, the predominant colors, and specific parts, I see a potential in the set, not just as something to display, but also to build-and-rebuild as well as just use for parts. For a price of 89,99 EUR and a part count of 1445, the price per part is well below the 10c limit, which I consider as relevant. True, the part count is high because there’s a lot of small parts, but I found these parts useful, so this is not an issue for me. At the end of the day, the price is reasonable for what you get.

 

Overall 54/60

To sum up this extensive review, Santa’s Visit scored 90% on my value scale. Although the set is officially targeted at adults (18+), it clearly targets a much wider group of LEGO lovers. It offers new recolored and rare parts, the structure is interesting, Santa wears boots, and the set looks fantastic as a display piece on your shelf or the side table. While these might be important factors for the adults, the playability of the set is an attractive factor for younger builders.

 

At the end of the day, I hope I managed to review the latest Winter Village set in sufficient detail for you to form your own opinion. I would love to hear it. Thank you for reading this review.

[Jim]

I see why you have that gold reviewers medal. Awesome pics and great review!

Very nice main picture! Well done.

I do like this set. Seems a bit simple at first, but it does give you that cosy Christmas vibe. 

[Citromon]

I never actually looked to buy a winter village set, but I do like this a lot! The colors and that interior play a big role for me. Also, I like that this is a generic house with some beautiful Christmas decorations, and not something from the North Pole)

Great review and very detailed pictures!       

[JackJonespaw]

Great review! I always love poring over the little details of these sets, thanks for showcasing them off! Crazy to see how far LEGO sets have come since that 2012 Winter Village Cottage set.

[deraven]

6 hours ago, Redhead1982 said:

The set comes with two instruction booklets. I am not sure why there's a need for two booklets, since the smaller one is not that thick and could easily be combined with the main, larger format instruction booklet.

Not sure why there seems to be continued confusion about this since it was a feature that they announced I think 2 years ago now?  It's so more than 1 member of a family can build together.  A child, for instance, can work on the build(s) in the smaller booklet while an adult works on the main one.  The 1-2 person logo on the box indicates that this is a set that contains that feature.

Nice review.  It's smaller and simpler than I was hoping for, but I appreciate that they've gone back to an actual Winter Village building rather than the random fantasy/fairytale stuff.  It's also nice that they have both this and the 40499 Santa's Sleigh set this year which actually works for both themes in this case!  

[Faefrost]

Ooo I like this one. And I've skipped the last few sets as being a little too out there.

[Redhead1982]

4 hours ago, deraven said:

Not sure why there seems to be continued confusion about this since it was a feature that they announced I think 2 years ago now?  It's so more than 1 member of a family can build together.  A child, for instance, can work on the build(s) in the smaller booklet while an adult works on the main one.  The 1-2 person logo on the box indicates that this is a set that contains that feature.

Thanks for this clarification. I admit I wasn't aware of it. Now it makes more sense. I noticed the 1-2 person logo on the box, but wasn't paying enough attention to it. I think it was also the first time I saw this logo.

[Hive]

Nice review, thanks. I'll be getting this one for sure, after having skipped the most recent Winter Village releases on account of them being too "fantasy" with elfs and gingerbread houses. I'm very pleased to see LEGO return to more "real" settings this time around. And the colours are great, love the blue. While not quite as good as the Winter Village Cottage, which I still hope they'll re-release some day, it looks to be a fine set.

[deraven]

21 minutes ago, Redhead1982 said:

I noticed the 1-2 person logo on the box, but wasn't paying enough attention to it. I think it was also the first time I saw this logo.

I think they were mostly using the "build together" language before and just switched to this logo.  If you weren't particularly familiar with Build Together I definitely don't think it would stand out.  Weird that they'd feature it on the box but just kinda stop talking about it otherwise. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

I think the commentary in the instructions is interesting.  Are there more pages like that throughout the instructions (referring to the image above with the bit about hiding gifts around the house)?  That's a fun way to point out some of the designers' details as you're building.

[makoy]

This set feels cozy. I like the interior more than the exterior. It's just a shame we get only half the house. As others pointed out, that 1-2 people logo where it indicates a mom/dad and a child can build together is a nice touch.

Overall great review, and great set!

[Clone OPatra]

Thanks for the lovely review. This set is a wonderful example of very contemporary LEGO set design, eschewing blockiness and simple squares and rectangles. The base shape at first seems so odd, but turns out great, and I love the rounded corners of the roof.

Jay at Jay's Brick Blog has some pictures of it with the old cottage, and it clearly stands apart besides for the colours: https://jaysbrickblog.com/reviews/review-lego-10293-santas-visit-2021/

I've noticed the deliberate splitting of booklets in some sets recently, but while it's a wonderful idea in recent Harry Potter sets like Hogsmeade and the big Harry & Hermione, where the two builds are roughly equal in size, it feels a bit less useful here. Yes it's great that you can give someone else some builds to do at the same time, but I don't think it'd take even a child as long to build those side builds as it would an adult to build the main cottage. You'd have to just be aware of the time difference and factor that in.

[badbob001]

Any ideas on completing the backside of the house with perhaps a second set?

[Lyichir]

22 minutes ago, badbob001 said:

Any ideas on completing the backside of the house with perhaps a second set?

It looks like it'd be a challenge to do so given the varied angles of the floor plan. Probably not impossible, but you might need more than one additional copy of the set to do so, and it might be a complex build to figure out to get the angles of the roof to cooperate.

[Cwetqo]

Nice set and very well made review, thank you!

[TeriXeri]

LEGO really seems to be in a design period with using a lot more rounded plates, its not exactly new to LEGO as 4x8 curved plates existed as far back as the 50s and 60s, but this set really reminded me of it.

[Redhead1982]

Thanks for a positive feedback on the review. It feels great to get a response, especially after such a long review. 

On 9/12/2021 at 7:17 PM, badbob001 said:

Any ideas on completing the backside of the house with perhaps a second set?

Just give your imagination a chance. It doesn't have to be a second set. Perhaps make the back more modern with tall windows and stone walls. That's the beauty here, it can be whatever you want.

On 9/11/2021 at 4:04 PM, Clone OPatra said:

I've noticed the deliberate splitting of booklets in some sets recently, but while it's a wonderful idea in recent Harry Potter sets like Hogsmeade and the big Harry & Hermione, where the two builds are roughly equal in size, it feels a bit less useful here. Yes it's great that you can give someone else some builds to do at the same time, but I don't think it'd take even a child as long to build those side builds as it would an adult to build the main cottage. You'd have to just be aware of the time difference and factor that in.

I had to set some rules while building this set. Children were not allowed to build while I was doing the review. My oldest child now has his chance to rebuild the set. It will take him several afternoons to actually complete the model, but I also know he wouldn't settle for a compromise to do just a tiny part of the model. 

On 9/11/2021 at 8:30 AM, deraven said:

I think the commentary in the instructions is interesting.  Are there more pages like that throughout the instructions (referring to the image above with the bit about hiding gifts around the house)?  That's a fun way to point out some of the designers' details as you're building.

There are more pages like that with comments. One of the comments explains the new cookie print (inspired by actual cookies made by the designer's mum). And the bit about hiding the gifts around the house is very realistic. I remember as a child I used to search for potential gifts around the house. And now as a parent, I often buy weeks in advance, then I need to hide it somewhere so the kiddos don't see the gifts before they're delivered by Santa. These comments are similar to what can be seen in many Architecture models, where specific details on the buildings or skylines are included.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Great review and interesting set!

[Feuer Zug]

Excellent review. I like the final picture. That's a wonderful message.

[MKJoshA]

Fantastic review! I love how they attached the wreath through the window holes in the front door. A new technique to Lego sets I believe.

[LegoDW]

Great review, like the luminated Christmas Tree this year.

[VBBN]

Great review!

I really like seeing the unique floor shape this set achieves. Having those complicated shapes really adds some visual interest to the set - plus it makes for a floor plan in the back that feels open and roomy, but also still seems contained and enclosed within the building. 

[Pchan1983]

Great review, I just built mine and absolutely loving it.  I think this one is better than last year Elf's clubhouse.  I really like all the small details in this one.
Here is my detailed review on this: