Arstotle
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About Arstotle
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I agree with pretty well all of this. A fire truck rolls through my neighborhood every December. Lights flashing, carols playing and Santa sitting up top and waving to kids. It's not a tradition that I grew up with, but it certainly seems to be popular where I live. So, while the Fire Station wasn't my favorite WV set, I do see where it fits into the WV theme. Maybe they'll do a WV police station one day, but there are probably 20 better ideas...if only Lego could figure out how to do the WV line well again. IMO, the only reason it feels like the WV line has run its course is because of the poor choices that Lego makes with this line. They either go with a rehash (train #2, the third toy store - this time in a main street set up) or they go bizarrely off the board (North Pole Post Office). There are a lot of nice options for traditional village shops that would fit into the current WV well (the WV has been in need of a Sweet Shoppe for years) and would not be a rehash, but IMO the Alpine Lodge has been the only decent idea in the last handful of years. That's what is killing this theme - a lack of creativity and execution. Just look at the 2025 Employee exclusive to see what can be done with a 1000 piece holiday set (admittedly, that was another toy store and post office, so not that original, but still very well done). Hopefully they don't give us train station #2 this year (the poor sales of last year's train should speak for themself) and instead come back with an original idea and build. As for the other, I've thought that Lego should do a Halloween Village for years. I would think that would be almost equally popular with the WV. Hopefully that's what this "Haunted House" turns out to be, but I'm not holding my breath.
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I'm skeptical that we'll ever have a dedicated WV police station. Sure, you could put all the drunk mall Santa's in there, but it's just not very cheerful. If they ever did something like a WV town hall, I could see attaching a small constable's office, or something along those lines. But I think that's as close as we ever get to a City-style WV police station. Now, a North Pole version of a police station - maybe Lego could do something with that idea that would be more whimsical and fun, and less dark/sad.
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I agree with this sentiment. Including a smart brick would drastically increase the price, and I'd much rather have the Lego pieces rather than spending money on a smart brick. I don't disagree that there are potential opportunities for the smart brick, but the price of these things is so high...I really think these smart bricks will be gone in a couple years. Every once in a while Lego seems to try to work some gimmick into their sets. I don't think it's ever worked out. With the Winter Village line, Lego needs to focus on creating some new buildings that would fit well in our villages. These repeated sets - both the Toy Store rehash and now the repeat train - seem not to have sold well. The train never even went to backorder in the US, but essentially every other Christmas-themed set was on backorder or Temporarily Out Of Stock for practically all of December. I don't think I'm alone in wanting new, unique sets for our villages. No repeats, and no gimmicks.
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I'd be surprised if any Lego fan would prefer stickers to printed elements. In my opinion, printed elements are always preferred. Several of the Chinese building brick companies are doing all printed elements in their sets, and some of those sets look really nice. Perhaps in time this will bring enough pressure that Lego will move towards more/all printed elements. But they get away with far too many stickers these days.
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Images of the second holiday GWP and the Lego employee gift are now circulating. 40778 - Winter Gazebo - has three minifigures, including a saxophone and a viola/bass. Looks like it might be smaller than the gazebo that came with 10222, but still looks like a nice addition to the Winter Village 4002025 - not sure what the name of the set is, but it looks to be some sort of town set, featuring a toy shop and a post office. Very nice set. Far superior to the train we got for the WV this year.
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I wouldn't be opposed if Lego tried something like that (not that they care what I think), but it's not something I would ever chase. Summer seems to be almost the antithesis of Lego - it's the weather that invites you not to be inside building Lego sets...though it's never really stopped me. As opposed to summer, I've always thought that Lego should do an autumn/Halloween village very akin to the Winter Village line. The upcoming Autumn Garden set is interesting, and I think a WV-type line with autumn colors and various Halloween elements would do very, very well.
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Leak out of Korea - looks like the Black Friday GWP is going to be this Hot Chocolate Stand. A welcome addition to the WV.
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As they haven't officially announced the set, it wouldn't be in that catalogue. I think they do another late holiday catalogue in late November/early December, and it will be in that one. But given the teaser video they released a few weeks back, the set is definitely coming.
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I'm very glad that didn't turn out to the be one of the holiday GWP's. Black Friday is late this year (November 28), so I guess we're still a little more than a month away from the VIP early access weekend. Maybe we'll get some sort of leak in another week...
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Ugh, I hope that's not accurate. With its exclusive GWP, I'm almost certainly going to be picking up the Enterprise-D when it releases on Black Friday (or, more likely, the early BF deal they do for VIP's/Insiders/whatever we're called these days), and I'd like a nice WV GWP to boot! And as for the train - I completely agree. The better sets are the AT-AT and the gingerbread house. I have the first train, but I'm a bit of a completist, so I'll probably pick up this one eventually. But, as always with the Winter Village, it's what could have been. So many more buildings that need to be made. I'll also mention that Santa's Post Office does have the "Retiring Soon" tag in the U.S. Short shelf life on that one, and understandably so, but that also means that secondary prices will likely jump up after it's gone. Just in case anyone is still on the fence...
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This place has been crickets for about a month, which is unsurprising given the general disappointment in this year's train set. Here's hoping that at least one of this year's holiday GWP's will be a nice addition to the winter village. I would think we'll get some sort of leak for the Black Friday GWP in the next couple weeks.
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Yeah, but this is next level clamping down. We've seen pictures of the Enterprise for at least a month, and it's not dropping until the end of November (according to rumors). I'm guessing we don't get the official WV reveal until next week.
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40809 Festive Gingerbread House looks good too. I'll definitely find a place for that in the village. With the UCS Death Star most likely to be revealed on Thursday, I'm guessing that we're stuck waiting until at least next week for the official reveal of this year's WV set.
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Still no more WV news, but pictures of 40806 Gingerbread AT-AT are out. 697 pieces and comes with just the Gingerbread Darth Vader minifigure. Very whimsical, fun set. Will definitely be picking this up.
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That was my first thought as well - I really hope we don't get another train station next year. I believe the first train station only stayed on the shelves for 12-15 months, so I would assume that meant it didn't sell well. Hopefully that fact will save us from another train station. I love the WV line, but I am not much of a train guy, so I'm disappointed overall at another train. I find myself instead looking forward to this gingerbread Star Wars set as well as the 40809 Festive Gingerbread House, and I'm very enthusiastic about the City Advent Calendar this year - those minifigures look great!
