This winter village cottage completes my Christmas village which is on top of my chest every year!

Parts

The piece colors are a bit awkward, with two blue buildings. But Lego made a very good job making the blue look nice still.

Minifigures

I noticed that the lumber jack minifigure is apparently supposed to be a rare minifigure from another set, so it's good to get him again here! Otherwise the figures are all quite typical.

The build

The build was very complex compared to most LEGO sets but I still enjoyed building it.

The completed model

It looked amazing when finished. I like the look of the igloo but I dislike how even a short minifigure can't stand up inside, but I guess it would look weird if they made it any taller. The house looks great on the outside, but I'm a bit concerned about the inside. First of all the floor has no studs so all the furniture moves around when I pick up the house. Also, there is no ladder going up to the loft. Nevertheless, I am happy that they at least have a loft included in the house. I am also happy that they got a light up fireplace in the cozy living room section.

Overall opinion

This set is a nice Christmas scene for your winter village. It is particularly useful as you need at least one house in a village!

The Winter Village Cottage is indeed a great looking house. I like the alpine architecture with the steep rooftop, contrasted beams, and cool colors. Tons of great details in the model, including snowbanks, snow-covered roof, cozy living room with back-lit fireplace, floor mosaic, Christmas tree, Christmas light, chandelier, kitchen, etc. The igloo and wood shack are interesting too, although less so than the house. The minifigs are fine, but not particularly unique - I think they represent a 3-generational family. The vintage-looking snowplow truck with its driver would make a nice set on its own, but feel a bit awkward in this set.

The build is not overly complex, but does take some time to complete. The floor mosaic tiles take a while to arrange in place (just like a real mosaic). The parts selection is very nice with lots of white bricks and color elements. The only thing that I don't like about the set is that the couch in the living room is not attached to the floor (which has no studs) so it slides back and forth when you pick up the house.

This set is one of the best Winter Village sets with a detailed house that compares well to the LEGO modular building sets. If you are looking to pick up one or two of the winter village sets, this one should be towards the top of your list.

So I'm writing this review a bit late, considering the Winter Village Cottage was released about 1/2 a year ago and is no longer sold, but if you come across one on eBay or BrickLink, this review's for you...

Let's start at the top. Overall I'm pretty happy with this set, it had some nice elements and playability functions. There's not a whole lot to complain about, considering you're getting 1490 pieces for only $100.

The building was for the most part basic; the igloo, shed, and cottage itself mainly involved building up from the ground in the classic brick-by-brick style, nothing fancy. The gable on the left doesn't actually open into the house; it's sealed off by the roof...yeah might want to fix that. The truck was well done though, and turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the set. One thing that was fun was all the holiday decorations, especially the small Christmas tree included inside the cottage. It almost left me wanting to add more to the house from my own collection.

This set came with a wide range of nice parts, from a 3x2 light brick, sand green tiles (used to top the sink and cabinets inside), 1x1 round tiles in at least 5 different colors, the list goes on. It also came with an abundance of what I believe to be one of the first appearances of dark tan 2x1 brick pieces, which line the foundations of the tool shed + cottage. And animals. Don't forget the fancy multicolor owl. Or the orange cat.

Playability...in and of itself the Winter Village Cottage didn't boast much in this category; it had a truck with wheels that spun, a light brick that turned on, and a door that opened/closed. However, I found one way of making things extremely fun simply using parts included in the set. What I did was I removed the roof sections of the cottage, and supported it at about a 45 degree angle with a stack of 1x2 bricks. This created a crude, although amazingly successful ski slope, and allowed the interior of the cottage to be played with easily.

Value for money gets a bit complicated. So let's start off with not complicated. You're getting 15 pieces per dollar (in the US, at least) with this set. A good piece count IMO is 10 per dollar/1:10 cents. If you're like me and mercilessly shred sets apart after a short display period and use the remains of said sets to create new MOC's, then this set is both good and bad. The reason the Winter Village Cottage achieved such a high piece count is because of the details on the walls. You can make out most of them even from the thumbnail. But such detail requires lots of small parts, like 1x1's, 1x2's, 1x1's with clips at the ends, cheese wedges, etc. Such pieces have, in most cases, low "use-ability". This set does make for an excellent display piece, though. It took me a year and a half to bring myself to tear down the detailed Grand Emporium, and with something as breathtaking as this...it's staying on the shelf for a long, long time.

I was going to upload some pics along side this review, but I don't know how to give URL's to my photos. :/

So, all in all, this is an extremely fun/good set, if you can grab one of these for under $150 that's a steal; but under $200 is still pretty reasonable. Cheers! - D B

Other reviewers have done an excellent job describing this set in detail. I would only add the more general observation that this set is a clear step up from the other (already excellent) Winter Village sets. Lego didn't just make a bigger Toy Shop or Post Office here. This set is chock full of truly creative modeling and clever details - the fireplace, the kitchen range, the bows and garlands, the snowplow, the streetlamp, and many more. The other Winter Village sets were excellent already, but Lego really showered this one with design love. Anyone who's enjoyed the earlier sets shouldn't hesitate to spring for this one, and anyone who starts here should understand that the others don't quite reach these heights.

Of course, the price of all this (beyond just the extra money) is a much longer and more complex build, and that may or may not be a great thing given this set's seasonal and family-oriented nature. My son (5yo) is just getting to the point of building 100-piece sets mostly by himself, and I'm hoping he'll be able to take over some of the Winter Village building duties in the next couple of years. But I'll be building this one myself for some time to come - apart from the plow and igloo, the cottage itself has so many tiny bits and tricky alignments that it's only suitable for older kids and grown-ups. Finally, I'd note that finding 5-6 hours to build this during the holiday season is not quite as easy as one might imagine. :)

Truly an amazing set, on par with the modular buildings and other enthusiast-level offerings.

I bought this set at the lego store for $130. It intrigued me, and it is one of my favourite sets

Pros

• Large House
• Eight Minifigures
• Igloo
• SNOWPLOW!
• Nice Shed
• Easy Build
• 1490 Pieces
• Rare pieces and colours (Dark Blue & green, for example)

Cons

• I don't like how the roof on the inside has browns and greys

Overall, and amazing display. Did I mention the SNOWPLOW??????