I missed out of 10199: Winter Village Toy Shop, so this re-release was a nice thing to get. I know that the fact that it is nearly identical to the earlier set made a lot of people upset, but I tend to look at this as a precursor to the "out-of-the-vault" series that LEGO has been doing. This is the only Winter Village set that I have as of the time of writing this and I think that it is a perfect representation fo this much beloved line.

This set comprises of a bench with a street light, a Christmas tree with a lager and presents, a snow man, and the toy shop itself. There are 8 minifigures in this set. Two carolers (one male and one female), three children in winter gear (two boys and one girl), three adults (two males and one female. One male is presumably the toy maker and the other two adults are presumably the parents of the children).

The Christmas tree it a very fun build. It uses techniques that I had ever seen used in a set before and it was a nice experience. The final build looks great. You can easily take the lights and the star off if you want it to be just a normal tree. The lager is also nice and you can easily pose a minifigure on it to make it look like they are placing the star on the top of the tree. The toys and presents are a nice inclusion and are scaled to the minifigures well.

The bench is a simple build and it has a stack of snowballs next to it. The lamp on the other hand uses the helmet pieces originally used for Sandy in the Sponge Bob line. It looks great and I would have liked to get one more identical build in this set.

The toy story itself is a fun build and it uses a fun technique to build the roof that I have not seen in any other set. There is a fireplace, a check-out counter, and toys in the window display. Upstairs there is a clock and a work shop where toys can be made. There is a light-brick it this set that lights up the top floor. It would have been nice if there were other places that the light-brick could be placed so that it could light up the fireplace or the bottom floor.

Overall, this is a really fun set that I have enjoyed a lot. If someone already has 10199: Winter Village Toy Shop, the only reason to get this set would be the updated minifigures and some of the color changes. If you missed out on the original set, this is a great set to get and is better in someways than the original.