The second Winter Village set introduces a lighter more-playful tone to the series that LEGO will develop even further in the sets to follow culminating with the Winter Village Market and Santa's Workshop sets. In comparison to the Bakery, the previous year's Toy Shop feel more traditional and darker - almost Dickenson-ian in style.

My favorite part of 10216 is the ice-skating ring with its playful design elements. I also like the horse carriage. The bakery itself if fine, but does not feel particularly remarkable, while the Christmas tree stand seems almost random. Still, the set works very well as part of the overall theme and contributes to the colorfulness of the winter town.

The build is quick and fun. The trans-blue base plates used in the ice skating ring are a nice touch as well as the polar owl. The light brick used in the main building makes it a little more interesting, but not a whole lot so.

I am not quite sure if this set would work well on its own, but as part of a winter village, it adds nicely to the setting. Certainly worth considering, if you are looking to develop your winter town.

OK I know this is an older set but I just bought it the other day and Mr. Postman delivered it to me today. Here are my thoughts.

The ice skating pond is my favorite part of the set. I love the details here with the lamp posts and the x-mas lights hanging between them. There is a little bench on the side of the pond for visitors to put their skates on. The skates are the only part I dont like. I dont know when Lego developed the skates used on the CMF Ice Skater but those would have been a much nicer touch than the 1x1 with spikes that were used in this set. Another great detail is the skater that went head first into the snow bank! Gotta love it.

The tree stand is pretty good but there is only one tree for the tree stand unless you remove trees from other locations. A couple more trees for the tree stand would have been a good touch here.

The horse and cart are part of the tree stand as you are supposed to put a tree in the bed of the cart. This cart is a good build and there is alot of playability here as the cart can be used for hay rides for the town's folk.

And now the bread and butter of this set (yes the pun is intended). The bakery itself is a pretty nice build. The buiding itself has 2 rooms, The first is the customer area with a bread basket and counter. The lower part of the counter has a couple clear bricks that make a showcase with some tastey treats inside. The other side of the building is where the baker does his work. There is an oven with hot coals inside that is just the right temp to bake bread. Also is a display table with some more goodies to show off in front of the big display window. The light brick illuminates the goody display and the display window in a yellowish light that resembles candle light.

The build itself is similar to other creator style sets and is not too hard for young builders but they should be skilled in building to attempt without adult help. The set has some good playability for young kids, and nice enough to be a great holiday display as well.

I picked this up in 2011 to begin my LEGO Christmas/Winter Village Collection.

Box/Instructions

The set comes in a standard cardboard box that all LEGO sets come in and like many of these specialty sets, there usually isn't a set name or theme, just the Item Number.

The instructions are also printed in booklet form with clear, easy to follow illustrated step by step instructions.

Parts

At 687 pieces, the set is valued at $54.99 which is very good. Especially considering the horse figure, the uncommon tree pieces and rare owl that frequently can be a consideration to how a set is priced. Even the special lighted brick piece can cause set's price to go up.

Minifigures

There are 7 & 1/2 minifigures in all for this set. I say half as many who no doubt have pointed out before that you have the lower legs for someone that's fallen into a snowbank. There's a baker, shop patron, two skaters, boy with an apple, wagon driver and the worker for the Christmas Tree Stand.

The build and completed model

Summary

For me, this makes a perfect start to hopefully getting the other Winter Village themed sets that are out and to come in future years. I know there's a "Christmas Village 52" or something like that that can be bought in stores every year. I know that line of collectibles is huge and there's lots of stuff to get for it. Personally I'd rather start on this for a Winter Village collection as it appeals to my love of LEGO. And at the price the sets seem to be going for and all the details, they seem they will be very much so worth it.

I have noticed that LEGO releases every Christmas season a Winter model series for the past 2 years. My wife likes decorating every Christmas with my daughter and we were contemplating before on getting those miniature Christmas houses/sets that are made of ceramic But since LEGO have these models, I then decided that instead of those ceramics, we will just collect these model series.

It has the following advantages on my point of view.

1. It then let us get together every Christmas to decorate our house
2. It makes my little girl appreciate how to collect and take care of toys properly
3. It also makes her learn how to follow the instructions, at the same time be creative in her own way.
4. It makes us anticipate to assemble it every season and make us wait in anticipation on what will be the new model the next Christmas.

On to the review:
1. Minifigs: 5 adult minifigs (2 Female/3 Males(Baker, Horse carriage driver, Seller of pine trees) 2 kids and 1 lower half body stuck in snow.
I like this very much since it has various features especially 2 who has double sided faces which you can change.

2. Construction:
a. Christmas Tree stall: Simple but with colorful roof and has stickers for the banner of the stall. (Wish it was printed instead)

b. Ice skating area: This I like very much since you can pose the minifigs in different ways.Also the minifigs has ice skates :)

c. Bakery shop: This is the main construction, This occupied a lot of pages on the instruction but it is well worth it. What I like this very much again are due to the nice big windows with "plastic" glass, swinging door and also the window frames. Nice slanting roof for the second floor and open back for you to pose the minifigs particularly the oven itself.

The second floor has 1 functional room. The other one is not since the Brick LIGHT is placed there so that when you press on the button it will light up the 1st floor with the different pastries.

d. The Horse Carriage: Very nice since it has an animal included, Horse with functional and swinging sides and back of the carriage so you can pose it as if you are placing the pine trees.

e. Other items I feel are included that make this a must have. Pine trees 4 pcs, the horse, shoe skates and a camera and apple for the little boys, also the different kinds of bread included, plus an axe, shovel, hoe and horse whip. I almost forgot an Owl figure for the flag pole.

3. Sturdiness: The main bakery shop is quite sturdy except for the lamp post that get easily removed if you handle it as well as the brick light placed hanging on the second floor and the roof on top of it. It Easily falls off if you handle it hard. The Pine tree stall has a small base which I just wished it was wider or larger to make it more stable.

4. Some minor gripes:
I have noted that my set has gray single studs instead of black for the lamp post, but looking at it now, it gave some contrast appearance instead of a dull black lamp post. Not sure if LEGO changed it without changing the instructions but I guess this made it unique for this model I got.

5. Modifiable: Well my daughter modified the hair, bodies of the minifigs. As in switching between the minifigs, I let her play with her imagination. :)
Since I bought a Santa Claue with Reindeer last Christmas (# 40010) I can place the whole piece on the top of the Bakery Roof as if Santa is either landing or flying away near the chimney. :) That is way cool for me. :)

So overall, I would say 5 stars for me since I plan to collect this Winter series every year to add to the growing Christmas decors for our family. However, If you dont like the seasonality of this series, then get other models.

Another good holiday set by lego. It fits well with the toy shop and features new components. This seasonal set includes a stand for selling christmas trees, as well as a wagon to transport them. The ice rink is a nice addition too, but it's a little small. The bakery is the best part. The interior includes a tiled floor and a cash register that has pastries displayed beneath it. In the middle of the bakery is an oven and a crate containing two loaves of bread. The left side of the store has a window display of cakes which lights up when the light brick is shined upon it. Definitely buy this set if you already have the toy shop. And if you don't, buy this set anyway. It'll be worth it, especially because of the low price.