Review: 40337 Gingerbread House
Posted by Huw,40337 Gingerbread House is free with purchases over £100, $99 and €100 at LEGO.com until the 24th December.
That's quite a high threshold to obtain it and unfortunately, in Europe, just buying its larger cousin 10267 Gingerbread House will not be enough to qualify, but it is in the USA.
However, it's an awesome set which is far more complex and satisfying to build that it might first appear.
There are a lot of parts packed into the small box, 499 of them, although I estimate that over half of them are 1x1s or 1x2s.
The thickness of the two instruction manuals (84 and 56 pages) hints at its building complexity and once you start construction it becomes apparent why they are so long.
Virtually all of the ground floor is built using SNOT techniques, for the walls and window and door surrounds.
The 2019 motif is, unfortunately, a sticker.
The SNOT techniques continue as you build upwards. As is customary for such houses, the roof sections are finished in candy and icing.
It's a highly detailed model, with a multitude of small and interesting details throughout. It's also quite heavy on account of it being virtually solid.
The back lacks detail but is neat and tidy.
It replicates its larger cousin in microscale very closely, and all the traits one would expect to find on such a house -- candy canes, sweets on the roof, icing on the edges and so on -- are present and correct.
Overall, then it's a very nice little model and a generously sized GWP. It's just a shame that the spending threshold to obtain it is, once again, so high.
But, if you still have shopping to do at LEGO.com before Christmas, and will be spending enough anyway, it will be a welcome addition to your basket.
Please use this link to place your order to help keep Brickset online.
Thanks to LEGO's affiliate team for sending me one to review. All opinions expressed are my own.
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23 comments on this article
"There are a lot of parts packed into the small box, 277 of them"
Actually a bit more than that. The piece count for the set is 499 pieces.
Corrected, thank you. We had the wrong number in the database for some reason. I thought it was a bit low -- 500 sounds more like it!
The tree was sold out when I tried to make an order and then that order got cancelled anyway because they said out of stock.
So I did place an order to try to get this freebie, but I'm guessing that order won't work either. I don't have much luck with ordering online (and don't live near a store).
The micro build does seem to capture the essence of the big version. I don't particularly love this small version so will likely part it out or try to sell it on.
I wonder if they left it 499 on puropose. Would have been easy to add one to make it 500.
The 2019 tile is a sticker?
Gracious sweet set, I will be aiming for this cutie.
@tspike said:
"The 2019 tile is a sticker? "
Yes, sorry, I meant to mention so.
The 'Big cousin' is out of stock in Europe anyway. Will be delivered by 7 Jan. Who needs a gingerbread house in January?
You can always stash it for Christmas 2020 and avoid applying the 2019 sticker.
The larger cousin, 10267, does qualify in some European countries. In Denmark, orders over 745 DKK qualify and 10267 is 799 DKK.
We Canadians get a better deal on this one as the threshold is $99 Cad. The bigger gingerbread house was $139.99 Cad. The gwp promos in Canada always just use the same dollar amount as the for the americans just in canadian dollars.
Definite thumbs down to TLG for doing another holiday promo. Already made my big purchase from them.
Just looks like a colourful stack of bricks to the non lego layman. Could be a spaceship.
That is an astonishingly detailed build. Wow.
@TheAnalogKid said:
"Definite thumbs down to TLG for doing another holiday promo. Already made my big purchase from them."
Having two Christmas freebies has been going on for many years now. Not sure how Lego gets a thumbs down for it, even if it was a new thing that no one saw coming.
@allthenamesaretaken said:
"We Canadians get a better deal on this one as the threshold is $99 Cad. The bigger gingerbread house was $139.99 Cad. The gwp promos in Canada always just use the same dollar amount as the for the americans just in canadian dollars."
Another good reason to move to Canada!
I'd like to see how it looks next to the big one.
@tspike said:
"The 2019 tile is a sticker? "
Of course..... ??
@Alatariel - the 'Big cousin' is also sold out at LEGO.com in Canada too. I tried ordering the big and little cousins in the same order only to discover this. Oh well, sw lego, along with more needed genuine parts for building the 5004590 bat pod, here we come (I almost have all the parts needed now)
I admit I didn't like the big version to begin with and this one looks even more of a mess to me. So I am not sad to miss out on this. Liked the Christmas tree much more and am glad to have gotten several over the course of Black Friday weekend.
Anybody else tempted to add a hinge at the back, I think it would look great folded in half!
And that lower threshold in the US probably contributed substantially to the big Gingerbread House selling out so soon after this promo went live. Eh, it'll be back in January, and again for next holiday season, but I was waiting until payday to buy one and only lucked out that the local LEGO Store got a return copy that they were able to hold for me.
@dingbat591:
If you're just referring to the small Gingerbread House, you can build it _this_ year and leave the sticker off, but the GWP offer goes up in a poof of ginger-flavored smoke by Christmas. If you're referring to the large version that won't be available again until January, there's no date sticker so it won't matter.
@TheAnalogKid:
dtobin123 has it right. Bricklink is inconsistent in their set descriptions, but based on what I remember the Holiday GWP tradition started in 2011 with a two-part set featuring half of a living room with a tree, and the other half with a fireplace. One GWP was available during Black Friday weekend, and the other during December. Since then, 2012 is the only year I can say with certainty had only one HGWP on offer (the park bench scene and horse-drawn sleigh that many people consider to be an unofficial accessory to the Winter Village theme). It's something that everyone should expect by this point. Whether you actually _want_ any individual HGWP or not is a different matter. So is the question of whether or not you can afford to earn them free with purchase. For some people it's easier to just buy one or both HGWPs on the secondary market rather than trying to float two large purchases at this time of year.
Just got one of these at the Gurnee Mills store, when we went for the new Creator set today. Apparently the Dec 25 date is not set in stone... A nice surprise!