Review: 40059 Santa's Sleigh
Posted by Huw,This year's seasonal holiday polybags have just made an appearance in the stores, so despite there being about 8-weeks until Christmas, I thought I'd do a quick review of them now.
The guys at web store Brick A Brac, who specialise in end-of-line and rare/exclusive sets, received them early and sent them to me, but being away for a couple of weeks recently, I've only just got to them. Today I'll review 40059 Santa's Sleigh and tomorrow, I'll look at 40058 Decorating the Tree.
This 77-piece set consists of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by a reindeer and some random guy with a walkie-talkie.
Honestly, I have no idea who he is. He has short legs and grey hair; so he's not a kid. He's wearing the top half of a pair of dungarees and carrying a walkie-talkie.
Is there something about Santa's helpers I don't know about?
The sleigh is a nice design, with plenty of room for Santa to sit and for the presents to fit in the back.
The Santa minifig is the 'traditional' Santa who hasn't changed much since he first appeared in 1995. It would have been nice if he'd been wearing the new Santa hat from the CMF series 8 version, but I guess that's out of production in China now.
The 1-wide reindeer is very well done. It's a shame the droid body and clip aren't brown to match the rest of the body, but other than that it can't be faulted.
Using a spare part that I'm sure we all have hundreds of, I converted him to Santa's best known reindeer.
Here's a photo of Santa giving Rudolph a carrot (which is not included in the set either!)
After the disappointment of the pumpkin, this is a neat little set that will make an excellent gift over the holiday period.
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34 comments on this article
Definitely looks a great little Christmas set, although I think it should be £5 and £7 is rather expensive for this set actually.
Perhaps it is a robot reindeer competition and the little guy is the remote control operator?
Aww @Niftybrick beat me to the remote control theory.
I guess that is supposed to be a cell phone now?
Not sure why they do not just use that Cellphone 1 x 2 tile piece
Neat set none the less. Cannot wait to get them
You know what?
I am really getting tired of the pompus attitude that comes out of these "reviews"
"Why can't we have this instead of that?"
"Why are the pieces different shades of Orange?"
"Why can't we get the series 8 CMF santa in this small bag?" (heads up he's in the city advent calendar the parts are still being made so your little quirp about China is false.)
"Why can't the gunship come with more of what I want? It should have 6 more troopers and be cheaper!"
It's the demanding and entitled attitudes of some "fans" that is slowly killing the brand.
^ If you aren't enjoying Brickset (for the most part, created and maintained by Huw for free) don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Pointing out that the pumpkin is composed of different shades of orange is certainly of interest to plenty of people - Lego used to be a company that prided themselves on really exacting standards, and now we can see some of those standards slipping.
It's the quality of Lego that has given them nothing short of fanatical customer loyalty - you're always going to get demanding and 'entitled' fans but I can assure you the reviewers here don't come into that category, go find them with their own youtube channels.
I'm sure the little guy is supposed to be an elf. Upon first seeing the photo of this set, I thought the walkie-talkie might be a reference to National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
Hi to all.Are fully in agreement with jhs8swd and Huw. W brickset.com !
The guy with the grey hair is supposed to be an elf, it says so in the official product description in the Lego Shop. Kinda threw me at first though, like "that's no elf I've ever seen!" :-P
Maybe it's Mrs. Kringle
I like this polybag, but I really think its time Lego made a proper Reindeer instead of the brick built one. We've had goats, pigs, horses (lots of horses!) even Ostrichs but never a Reindeer to my knowledge.
@Charger113 - calm down! As jhs8swd said detail like the different shades of orange in the pumpkin are precisely the sorts of details that reviews are useful for. And how is it "entitled" for Huw to mention that the Santa in this set doesn't have the hat that a previous version has come with? Again, how this compares to previous versions and how it could have been is exactly what I want to find out in a review.
While I'm on the subject of that hat, is anyone else seeing the pirate bandanna with the white beard and thinking of an aged Hulk Hogan? :P
^Change out the arms on the Santa torso for yellow ones, to show off the "24-inch pythons"! Hulkamania's running' wild, brother!
We'd need a head printing with sunglasses and that fake 5 o'clock shadow from the "Hollywood Hogan" days, too...
Thank you for your feedback @charger113, I will take it on board.
The reindeer *would* have looked better all-brown and Santa *would* be better with the new hat, I don't think anyone would disagree. We know why they aren't though: for cost reasons, and in a polybag this size, that's fair enough. But I still think it's worth pointing out 'faults' like this and not just stating that 'everything is great' all the time.
Thanks for spoiling everyone's Christmas Eve surprise...
Huw, I for one (granted, I'm relatively new to the site) always enjoy your reviews. Any word on availability of 40058 and 40059 in the U.S.? Don't see them on LEGO.com (by the way, gave you a shout-out there as well when I made my latest purchase.)
Oh, I just love the structural ambiguity!
"This 77 piece set consists of Santa in his sleigh being pulled by a reindeer and some random guy with a walkie-talike." Is the random guy with a walkie talike also pulling the sleigh?
Your site is your site and I like it. It mostly contains facts, but many of us respect your personal opinion greatly. Although I did like my square pumpkin, I don't have the previous ones and I also noticed the orange colors are different.
So I had bought a few of the similar set last year when it was a brick built santa. My current team of 4 reindeer are going to be joined by 5 more this year. It's interesting that the overall structure of the reindeer is the same but there are a few subtle changes. Last year the harness was a 1x1 grey tile with vertical clip connected to the dalek stud, now it seems to be another claw that they're using in the poles of the harness. There was also one more tan 1x1 tile with side clip that went over the snout.
I'm looking forward to replacing santa with a minifig, regardless of the hat.
Here is the official description from shop.lego.com with the region set to UK / English:
Create Santa’s Christmas journey the LEGO® way with a buildable reindeer, sleigh full of gifts to deliver and an elf with a walkie-talkie!
Hope this helps. I may end up getting this set after all at my local LEGO store in the US when it gets to us here in the states.
Considering they have a surfeit of elf-eared hairpieces going now, why wouldn't they use one?
Right now it looks like Santa and an elderly rural CB enthusiast... "breaker, breaker, you got your ears on?"
I seriously thought it was Mrs. Clause on first glance.
love the reviews. keep 'em coming.
toss in a few s11 elves for added play value... more packages to pile on the sleigh.
and a real elf, not a picket-line breaking scab-elf like we've got here.
elves are real, right?
Nice review and I for one like the more rounded reviews we get here. As with all things Lego part of the fun is talking the sets and adding your own elements to them. The red nose is a simple addition but a great one. If you missed the CMF santa last year I think he is included in this years city advent calendar, likewise the CMF santa Elf's from this year will look great with this set.
Lovely polly bag that is nice out the bag but also encourages you to tweak and play if you are so inclined. Mine will be heading to the winter village display later in the year :)
Nice little review, and very helpful as always :)
@Charger113 there is no need for rudeness like that, show huw some resepect for all that he does for this brilliant website
Not /too/ shabby, might pick it up.
Do we know, why the elf's red trousers continue with a green upper part? :)
^ I think the green overall top is supposed to be an apron.
I'm pretty sure that the non-santa figure is an elf traffic controler (the movie The Santa Clause), so that he can make sure that Santa has clear skies, and a un-contested flight path. Santa is probably listening in on his hands-free radio that is an invisible part of the sleigh
Coveralls, hand radio, all make sense. I would have matched the bib color to the legging color - but I'm not a lego designer, and I feel that a lot of the poly bags use existing pieces/designes.
Gentle people this is "Santa". Perhaps your and my view of "Santa" is different from a set designer in some other location. (Though the movies and TV have brought a single idea of "Santa" across the world.)
Nothing wrong with constructive criticism. Maybe this will inspire a sled pulled by all nine reindeer. Hmmm..
To quote Elf... Santa!!!!!
hi
just received 2 of these for my grand kids at xmas they are brilliant
I think the unknown figure is an elf.
What stores in the US can I find these?
Hey Huw, What happened to the Decorating the Tree Set Review?
Yeah! We feel cheated! GIVE US OUR REVIEWS!
@shootvolio and @ilikebigbricksandcannotlie.bogspot.com, calm down, Huw has a life, you know.