I picked this set up for my wife last year, and gave it to her as a Valentine's Day gift. I don't know about you, but where I live (Canada), the only way I'm going to have a romantic picnic in mid-February is to build it with LEGO. Thankfully, she really enjoyed it. She even took it work and displayed it in her office.

Perhaps partly because we're always snowed in with freezing temperatures at Valentine's, this cute little Spring vignette with flowers, birds and thoughts of a pleasant outdoor date was very welcomed.

It's also pretty nice as a LEGO set. There's not too much to the build itself, but I appreciated the tree and it comes with two minifigures and a ton of accessories, which make the scene fun and add a lot of playability and versatility. I also really liked how you can combine the different parts of the set (the tree, picnic blanket and fountain sections are not connected) to form the shape of a heart when viewed from above—very appropriate for a Valentine's Day set.

Sadly, this seems to have retired rather quickly from the Lego Shop Online offerings. I would definitely be interested in picking up another one if I could, if for nothing else, to look at during the dead of winter and give me hope of better times to come. Still, I'm glad to have it. Thank you LEGO for helping me fight Seasonal Affect Disorder.

Set #40236 Romantic Valentine Picnic: I’m pleased to see a return of Minifigure based Holiday sets from The LEGO Store similar to the vignettes of 2015, the 2016 Holiday sets from LEGO were so unimpressive I chose to avoid purchasing them as they just were not my cup of tea.

This year we go back to the fun vignette style of the past and features some pretty impressive looking sets. So read on to see if this set is to your liking.

Box/Instructions

Box: The holiday themed boxes have tended to be similar in design and colouring, mostly using the LEGO standard yellow colour boxes. Here is a red box, in keeping with most Valentine’s sets, and it’s a very functional and cute design. There’s even a space in the upper corner to write down who this special gift is going to, should you be buying it for a gift.

The back shows off the set in fun ways indicating all of the fun that you can have with the set once built.

Instructions: Much like the vignettes of 2015 these instructions serve their purpose well, they show all of the building steps without difficulty and the back cover reveals the Easter themed set. No cross-promotional images in the back either, which is unique for these little LEGO sets.

Parts

A lot of shrubbery parts of various types and some of the new balloon elements are found in this set, as well as some printed cookies and just overall a lot of very useful parts. Not many rare elements, but certainly a load of useful elements for MOC enthusiasts at a very good price.

Minifigures

Boy: Standard LEGO Minifigure here, with some nice torso detailing, love the purple shirt with the star on it and the light blue sweater or jacket. Doesn’t even need to be a boy if you’d prefer, everything is up to your imagination.

There’s a lot of accessories here, from a bottle of fancy juice or wine to a teddy bear and a printed Minifigure head to represent a pineapple again. All of which set up a very lavish looking picnic with romantic gifts for his significant other.

Girl: She’s pretty cute. She’s got a double-sided facial print, one side wearing sunglasses the other not and her top is a cute pink number with butterfly print on the front and ruffles visible from behind. She’s another staple of LEGO Minifigures for these types of sets, the parts aren’t new, but their combination is adequately serviceable for what it is and looks great.

The build

Construction is relegated to affixing pieces onto various types of plates. It’s a lot of micro building for detail work that many folks I’m certain will enjoy. The largest element to be built is a very nice looking small tree with numerous branches, a little birdhouse and a brick-built blue jay. Overall I’d say a very satisfying and simple build, there’s nothing too difficult following along the steps.

The completed model

This is just cute. You can position every piece of the model however you wish, however it is designed on plates to be placed against one another to form a fun little scene on a heart-shaped grassy area.

The section with the tree is extremely impressive. I love the heart shaped water fountain as well. Ok, well it isn’t heart-shaped, but a heart-shaped jewel is used to represent the water flowing out of the little fountain/bird bath element.

The tiny bench looks like something you’d find in a park or somebody’s backyard and the planter box with the six-stem flower is just a bonus.

It’s a very nice holiday themed vignette and very enjoyable, much better than last year’s buildable animals being offered for the Holiday special sets.

Overall opinion

Great set. I enjoyed the Holiday Vignettes of the past and this new batch is shaping up to be a very fun looking set. I’m interested to learn what Christmas will give us, but for the time being I strongly recommend picking this set up if you can still get it. There’s a load of accessories to be had here as well if you’re a fan of populating LEGO City with more detailed elements.