09 April 2025

Review: 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth GwP from LEGO® Ideas

Posted by Tim Johnson

The biggest LEGO® Ideas set to date, 21356 River Steamboat, is now available to LEGO® Insiders and will be available to all from midnight Thursday 10 April 2025. In addition, until 13 April or while stocks last, those who buy it from LEGO Stores or LEGO.com will receive the Gift with Purchase (GwP) 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth. Let's see what this 152-piece model has to offer!

finished model of lego Amelia Ticket Booth GwP


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.

5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth GwP
  • Release date: From 7 to 13 April 2025, or while stocks last
  • Pieces: 152
  • Measures: over 3 in. (10 cm) high, 4 in. (11 cm) wide and 3 in. (8 cm) deep
  • Availability: Free with purchases via LEGO Stores or LEGO.com of 21356 River Steamboat

View on LEGO.com

Lego GwP 5009157 Amelia Ticket Booth 

21356 River Steamboat
  • Release date: 7 April for LEGO Insiders, for all from 10 April
  • Pieces: 4090
Price: 

Other countries click here

Lego Ideas 21356 River Steamboat


Exclusive part

Unusually, this GwP comes with an exclusive piece, and it is printed – there is no sticker sheet for this set.

lego tile with printing "amelia" and 2 dots and many lines representing text
  • 1x Tile 1 x 2 in Tan with "AMELIA" timetable sign printing (6564229)
This is a nice touch, especially given that many of the decorated tiles in the steamboat set are stickered. 

Amelia is the name of the steamboat, in turn named after the daughter of the fan designer who submitted the original concept.

Rare parts

I was pleased to locate 3 pieces which have only appeared in 2 other sets so far.

3 lego bits


There are also another 3 parts that have only appeared in 5 or 6 other sets: the Window 1 x 2 x 3 Flat Front in Dark Tan (6468360 | 60593, 3662); its matching Glass in Dark Brown (6581480 | 35287); and four of the Wedge 2 x 2 Facet in Medium Nougat (6469952 | 87620). All very nice pieces to own. 


Construction

It took me 30 seconds to build this model. If you don't believe me, here is the video evidence:


The completed model

To board the Amelia, first you must purchase a ticket from this adorable wee booth! Like the River Steamboat it is not quite minifigure scale. I assume it matches in scale, but I don't have the main boat to comapre.

animation showing the 2 lamps on the Amelia Ticket Booth GwP in 3 different positions around the front side of the booth

The finished hut looks pretty sweet on its chunk of pier with railings and two basic but clever little lamps. One of the lamps does a pretty good job of obscuring that lovely printed tile when positioned as per the instructions, but happily there are other spots you can place them.


rear side view of the back of Lego set Amelia Ticket Booth GwP

The online description of the set claims that a museum is housed within, but given the door at the rear is a brown window pane, and some rather serious railings block the very narrow path to it, it's not very inviting.


close up of the large complex black roof on Amelia Ticket Booth GwP

The roof is impressive given that it uses so few elements, and even has a bell tower – the bell is a pearl gold fez piece (29175, 85975).


The uncompleted model

Strangely, the model's most colourful details are hidden inside the completed booth. So, while you get to appreciate them as you build the set, no-one else can enjoy them.

Amelia Ticket Booth GwP with its roof pulled off

The roof pulls off relatively easily, but that's still not really enough to appreciate the contents within. The angled walls and frames are also simple to remove (and to reattach), but it's a lot just to show someone the interior.


Amelia Ticket Booth GwP mostly deconstructed to show the interior

The interior has a lovely floor pattern, with a cash register and the two items this "museum" has acquired: a sand green statue and a microscale model version of the Amelia!


tiny lego steamboat

Here's a better view of the little steamboat: a great effort for 7 piece-model!


Packaging

We don't normally dwell on the boxes here at New Elementary but this one left me feeling like I was building an inferior product from the outset.

It comes in the standard yellow box style with a cutout window, so that you can see the cover page of the instructions nestled within – a neat idea that saves money, as the boxes can be reused for many sets, and it also protects the instructions:

box of lego set Amelia Ticket Booth GwP

My problem is with the image. I love the muted colour scheme of this model, but it looks awful here. The issue is a combination of the use of the standard black background as well as the poor render quality of the 3D modelling and dull printing. The browns, of which this model has many, come up particularly badly. It actually looks better in my photo above than in reality, which just looks drab – more like some little haunted house – especially seen against the bold, bright yellow frame. 

I appreciate why it looks this way, and I know it's the River Steamboat box that customers are picking up off shelves rather than this, but to me it gives the impression GwPs like these are not premium items that The LEGO Group can afford to spend much time on producing. If this review seems unfairly negative, that may have been influenced by the frame of mind that the poor packaging put me in to begin with.

Conclusion

Our review of 21356 River Steamboat by Kevin J. Walter is coming, but having seen the model in action at Fan Media Days myself, where I was blown away by its exciting functions, interior detail and sheer size, my impression is that it is good value for over 4000 pieces (see list below). 

This cute hut is a clever adjunct to the main model – it extends the concept of the River Steamboat without attaching directly to it, and adds potential roleplay scenarios. After all, the designers explained that the Amelia is a renovated vintage steamboat tourist attraction.

I wonder if, having constructed the pier and charming booth, there was perhaps design budget still left over, resulting in the welcome addition of the exclusive printed tile, and the slightly strange inclusion of some nice items locked away inside? The micro steamboat is sweet enough to earn a spot where it is actually visible on display; maybe it could have somehow been attached to the roof as a sign, or the booth could have been given an open back.

21356 River Steamboat

  • Release date: LEGO Insiders early access from 7 April 2025 and for all customers from 10 April
  • Pieces: 4090
Price: 

Other countries click here

Lego Ideas 21356 River Steamboat - designer interview

READ MORE: Interview with Gus McLaren, design of the LEGO® Icons 10353 Williams Racing FW14B


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