Review: 40602 Winter Market Stall
Posted by Huw,
Traditional Christmas markets at which local artisans sell their wares in wooden huts during the festive period are prevalent across all of Northern Europe at this time of the year.
They have featured in several Winter Village sets, most notably 10235 Winter Village Market, and soon the largest one to date, 40602 Winter Market Stall, will be a gift with purchase later this month.
Summary
40602 Winter Market Stall, 271 pieces.
Buy at LEGO.com »
A delightful model that will fit well in your Winter Village scene
- Attractive design
- Minifigs suitably attired for the season
- Only three products on sale
- A baked goods stand would have been preferable
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
The completed model
This particular stall is selling toys, but not many of them! It's decorated in suitably seasonal colours, and judging by the white roof and its surroundings, there's been a fresh fall of snow.
There's an old-fashioned till in the centre and toys on either side. I particularly like the use of the 4x4 inverted curved pieces used for the gables.
Just three playthings are available: a train engine, a rocket and a Nutcracker, and there are a couple of wrapped boxes in the attic space above. The chimney stack on the top appears superfluous as there is no fireplace below.
A snowman and Christmas tree complete the set. Once again, the Snowman is not very convincing: their design has not really improved much since we published The Frosty Review back in 2017.
Minifigures
Both the figures have wonderfully decorated torsos, printed with knitted jumper designs. They are not Christmas jumpers as such, so they'll be useful for inclusion in your own models.
Verdict
I would have preferred it had the stall been selling baked goods or confectionery to allow for more and more variety of items on offer, but other than that, it's a delightful model that'll fit right in to your Winter Village scene.
It'll be free during the last two weekends in November, so if you're planning on spending over £150 / €170 / $170 I am sure it will be a welcome gift with your purchase.
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30 comments on this article
Is it a chimney stack, or is the rocket intended to take off like Thunderbird 3?
I like it, but $170 is crazy
It’s not terribly ambitious as a model, but I think it’s very well done for what it is. I also enjoy seeing how Lego makes new trains for minifigures to play with each Christmas.
I have so many toys left over from other winter village sets, gwp and advent calenders, I am sure I have plenty to flesh this out...
StoneWars and LEGO homepage say 170€.
Been collecting Winter Village sets since 2012, mostly because of the freebees.
And find this one disappointing, compared to previous years.
Like the nutcracker, snow globe, or last 3 with panorama scene's that can connect.
Also for €170 purchase, it feels like a cash grab really :(
Nice little kit to fill out a WV scene and probably pretty easy to build yourself through Bricklink or whatever. The locomotive looks like a tiny Orient Express engine.
Baked goods would have been preferable just to get more printed cookie pieces and the like.
I agree with the review and others above who feel this set is underwhelming. It seems like a market stall after all the good stuff has already disappeared. The chimney to nowhere perfectly epitomizes the thought level put into this design. We've had so much better in the recent past.
$50 would be too much for this. $170 is really sad.
I like that they're selling toys.
wouldn't be too difficult to turn it into a baked gifts store with all the spare pieces collected over the years.
I'll be selling mine.
Hey, that looks nice, I wonder how much it will cost. Probably a bit over a reasonable price, but-
It's a Gift With Purchase.
Nevermind then. I didn't like it anyway.
-my initial reaction
I also prefer that it is a toy store than baked goods. They did both drinks and pastries already in 10235. An extra 'trophy' figure as an action figure might have been nice, but they have filled up the space quite well with the little builds that they have done.
As for the chimney stack, the Christmas market near me often do wooden chimney stacks on top of the wooden sheds, to make them look like small cottages. Occasionally, there will be a Santa stuck in one of them.
And the snowman is rubbish. I don't think I've ever seen a convincing official one. The bricks needed to put the arms on them always messes up the overall shape.
Would be great if snowmen in sets could at the very least use the head of 71034-3. The rest of the body could be made of parts as per usual.
Baked goods seem to be staples of most advent calendars already , so something different isn't bad in this case.
A very cute little Christmas ornament. Looking forward to getting it as a completely free bonus when I order Concorde.
The snowman is, of course, a perfectly accurate representation of real life snowmen, which normally look utter sh*t!
This and the Majisto Workshop set feel a bit basic. I was looking forward to these sets when announced but I think I’ll be skipping them now
On the topic of snowmen, am I the only one surprised that the head print from https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw1134/snowman-rebel-pilot-helmet never got reused? The "Frosty Review" article even suggested that "Surely someone could at least design a printed snowman face, with orange carrot nose and coal eyes and mouth? It could be re-used every year to improve many of the designs we've looked over."
It's nice, but a definite step down from Santa's workshop (which I was hoping to return as a GWP this year) and the other two diorama sets. I do, however, like the market stalls LEGO did years ago as regular retail sets.
I only have two sets on my list right now (21343 and 21342) and these GWPs aren't going to get me to pull the trigger. This is just a really boring set when I already have tons of better Christmas sets and limited space to display them. I've started limiting purchases and disassembling sets because I'm just getting sick of the clutter and dust collection. I'm nearing another dark age with the ever increasing price and size of sets.
@CCC said:
"As for the chimney stack, the Christmas market near me often do wooden chimney stacks on top of the wooden sheds, to make them look like small cottages."
Same here in Germany.
Christmas market stalls often feature faux chimneys, sometimes even with smoke from a smoke generator. To give the illusion of a cosy home in winter. So at least that feature of the GWP seems very realistic to me.
@Mister_Jonny said:
"I also enjoy seeing how Lego makes new trains for minifigures to play with each Christmas."
So what you're saying is Lego pays more attention to its minifig train fans than its human train fans?
@gearwheel said:
" @Mister_Jonny said:
"I also enjoy seeing how Lego makes new trains for minifigures to play with each Christmas."
So what you're saying is Lego pays more attention to its minifig train fans than its human train fans?"
All LEGO train fans should be minifigs?
if you by "traditional winter markets in northern Europe" means something that was started 20 years ago and smells of bad quality "cratmanship" and extremely expensive fast food for tourists, then yes, this is it :D
Ah yes, winter-markets. I remember my parents dragging me, kicking and screaming, to the winter-markets. All the time I'd be whining and moaning "I don't want to be here! It's cold! Let's go home, where it's warm and I can build nice things with my Lego!"
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Yeah, I think the obvious non-functional fake chimney makes more sense than a functional chimney with fireplace would in this context.
"A baked goods stand would have been preferable"
I disagree - every other winter stand that I have from LEGO sells baked goods, or the ocassional other food category. While there is already a recent Toy Store and the older Toy Workshop, I think it's unique to have a toy stand now. I much prefer that to another baked goods stand.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Ah yes, winter-markets. I remember my parents dragging me, kicking and screaming, to the winter-markets."
Was it just the price tag that they put around your neck that bothered you?
I'd love to see it with the other stalls in the Winter Village Market.
@CCC said:
"I also prefer that it is a toy store than baked goods. They did both drinks and pastries already in 10235. An extra 'trophy' figure as an action figure might have been nice, but they have filled up the space quite well with the little builds that they have done.
As for the chimney stack, the Christmas market near me often do wooden chimney stacks on top of the wooden sheds, to make them look like small cottages. Occasionally, there will be a Santa stuck in one of them.
And the snowman is rubbish. I don't think I've ever seen a convincing official one. The bricks needed to put the arms on them always messes up the overall shape."
That's a great idea. They should've skipped the snowman and used the pieces to have Santa stuck in the faux chimney.