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 new Gift with Purchase (GwP) available to LEGO® Insiders beginning on 23 November 2024 – along with Double Points.
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/ £150/ €170/ CAD$220/ AU$280
- Pieces: 294
- Availability: 23 and 24 November 2024 for LEGO Insiders only, while stocks last
In the box
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.
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.
- 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.
- 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 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.
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.
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 two carriages are both built in a similar manner with 1x4x1 lattice fences in pearl gold (4536675 | 3633) encircling stacks of gifts.
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 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.
Other LEGO® Insiders Weekend gifts and promotions
In addition to the Winter Holiday Train, there are one or two other GwPs for LEGO Insiders this weekend:
- 40699 Retro Record Player GwP for LEGO Insiders who spend US$250/ £220/ €250/ AU$400/ NZ$420 or more on LEGO.com, while stocks last.
- Some countries are offering 5009114 Holiday Crafting Set for LEGO® Insiders who spend £60/€65 or more on LEGO® City, LEGO® Friends or LEGO® DREAMZzz™ themes on LEGO.com, while stocks last.
There are other offers too:
- 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.
READ MORE: Revealed: 77037 Aloy & Varl vs. Shell-Walker & Sawtooth from LEGO® Horizon Adventures™
Help New Elementary keep publishing articles like this. Become a Patron!
A huge thank you to all our patrons for your support, especially our 'Vibrant Coral' tier: London AFOLs, Antonio Serra, Beyond the Brick,
Huw Millington, Dave Schefcik, David and Breda Fennell, Gerald Lasser, Baixo LMmodels, Sue Ann Barber and Trevor Clark, Markus Rollbühler, Elspeth De Montes, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Chuck Hagenbuch, Jf, Wayne R. Tyler, Daniel Church, Lukas Kurth (StoneWars), Timo Luehnen, Chris Wight, Jonathan Breidert, Brick Owl and our newest top-tier patron, BrickCats! You folks are just the cutest little baby bows.
All text and images are ©2024 New Elementary unless otherwise attributed.
"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."
ReplyDeleteThat'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.
Strictly speaking...both steam and smoke exit the chimney. But in this case, it's just plastic.
DeleteFrom 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.
ReplyDeleteI 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.