19 November 2024

Review: 40700 Winter Holiday Train GwP for Black Friday LEGO® Toy Deals 2024

Posted by Elspeth De Montes

Several Christmas-themed LEGO® trains, both big and small, have appeared over the years and this coming holiday season brings us 40700 Winter Holiday Train, a Gift with Purchase (GwP) available to LEGO® Insiders from midnight 29 November to 2 December 2024.

A mini scale green Christmas train with red and pearl gold accents appearing on a red background


Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

40700 Winter Holiday Train

  • Threshold: Free gift with purchases above US$170/ £155/ €170/ CAD$220/ AU$280
  • Pieces: 294
  • Availability: 29 November to 2 December 2024 for LEGO Insiders only, while stocks last
View the Winter Holiday Train on:

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In the box

The box for this set depicting the christmas themed train on a wintery background

The set has 294 parts and no stickers.  There are no recolours and no new moulds in this set, but it is a cute build.


The two instruction booklets that come with this set

There are two instructions booklets; one for the engine and a second for the two carriages hauling gifts.

Elements

While there are no new elements, there are a couple of rarer elements in the set.

one dark green truncated cone piece and mutiple red wheel pieces knolled on a red background
  • 1 x Brick Round 2 x 2 Truncated Cone in Dark Green (6411596 | 98100) in 3 other sets
  • 14 x Wheel 11 x 8 with Center Groove in Red (6467942 | 42610) in 2 other sets

Additionally, there are three particular elements that are supplied in a nice quantity for such a small set.

three types of pearl gold elements intermixed on a red background
  • 21x 2 x 2 Jumper plate in Pearl Gold (6107193 | 87580)
  • 10x Fence Lattice 1 x 4 x 1 in Pearl Gold (4536675 | 3633)
  • 11x Plate 2 x 2 in Pearl Gold (6162885 | 3022)

The build

The steam engine of the train assembled into 5 smaller builds waiting to be combined

The steam engine is built first.  There's some offsetting of pieces to centralise the boiler, which is mainly built studs-up.  The smokebox at the front is a little clunky, made using 2 x 2 x 2/3 Curved slope (15068) and the 2 x 1 Curved slope with notches (29120 and 29119) on the sides.


The steam engine now shown assembled except for the front cowcatcher to show how that part of the engine is constructed

My favourite part of the engine itself is the red cowcatcher on the front. It's built using Bar 2L with Stop (78258) and 2 x 2 Trapezoid flags (80324) and looks great on the engine. This train is ready for any snow drifts on the track.


An imagine of the assembled train approaching the frame to showcase the cloud element being used here as steam from the engine's smoke stack

While this cloud piece has appeared in 25 sets already as chimney smoke, engine exhaust fumes or clouds, amazingly this is the first time it has been used as the steam coming from a steam engine. It looks like it was perfectly designed for this set.


The first train car assembled with the the white, medium azure, and pearl gold presents it carries stacked next to it

The two carriages are both built in a similar manner with 1x4x1 lattice fences in pearl gold (4536675 | 3633) encircling stacks of gifts.  


The 10 pieces that combine to form the mini Christmas tree lined up

The mini christmas tree fully assembled and the presents from the second train car stacked next to it

The larger of the two also has space for a tree made by stacking three of the round 2 x 2 x 2/3 bricks with 4 leafs in dark green (6426730 | 15469) and the rather rare 2 x 2 truncated cone, which is topped off with a star, naturally.


The full model fully assembled with the steam engine pulling the two train cars behind it. Both cars have presents and the end car has the mini christmas tree.

The completed model is aesthetically pleasing; indeed rather cute. For a GwP it has a good quantity of elements, including a couple of rarer ones thrown in. While there is nothing exclusive, it is a timely freebie with Christmas approaching and can be enjoyed by younger builders too.  

It's also nice that purchases from any theme will get you to the threshold. US$170/ £150/ €170/ CAD$220/ AU$280 may seem like a lot, but with so many costly sets available it might be easy to achieve, and of course there are Double Insiders Points to accumulate too.

Don't forget about Pick a Brick "Bestseller" elements as well: as for the "Standard" elements, usually the terms and conditions of these promotions specifically exclude those from contributing to your threshold but we have received reports from readers all over the world that in fact, both Bestseller and Standard elements have contributed towards recent GwP thresholds! It's a great time to purchase Pick a Brick, as thousands of elements will be retired on 3 December.

Black Friday / Cyber Monday weekend gifts and promotions

Pick a Brick orders count towards your total, except if your order consists solely of "Standard" elements. Let us know in the comments if you find that is not the case as TLG have not been clear about this!


There are other offers too:
  • Some countries are offering 5009114 Holiday Crafting Set for LEGO® Insiders who spend £60/€65/ AU$105/  or more on LEGO® City, LEGO® Friends or LEGO® DREAMZzz™ themes on LEGO.com, while stocks last.
  • Already underway is the LEGO Insiders Member Offer: Save on selected sets 23 November to 2 December, while supplies last.
  • LEGO Insiders will also have access to special physical and digital rewards, sweepstakes, and more.

The page to check from midnight on Friday is the Black Friday LEGO® Toy Deals 2024 page:

READ MORE: Review of the Black Friday new set: 10335 The Endurance 

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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous19 Nov 2024, 14:05:00

    "While this cloud piece has appeared in 25 sets already as chimney smoke, engine exhaust fumes or clouds, amazingly this is the first time it has been used as the steam coming from a steam engine."
    That's the funnel, also known as the chimney. It's smoke from the fire, not steam. Steam comes from the cylinders, down in front of the driving wheels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Elspeth De Montes20 Nov 2024, 16:05:00

      Strictly speaking...both steam and smoke exit the chimney. But in this case, it's just plastic.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous19 Nov 2024, 17:40:00

    From the recent GWP Bookshelf, Standard Elements on their own did not contribute towards the GWP threshold, However if ANY other item is in the cart that ships normally, like bestseller or another item from the store, it does.

    I was able to use the download from PAB, where you upload any list and already have things in your cart, to seperate out parts into two buckets for a Moc, and purchases to get two orders in both with the GWP, Several improvements to the PAB are on the germany and another countries portals to make this even easier in the future, new elementary reported on them.

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