Review: 40262 Christmas Train Ride
Posted by MeganL,The 2017 vignettes finish with two Christmas seasonals, 40262 Christmas Train Ride and 40263 Christmas Town Square. They've been available in LEGO Brand stores for a while, but now that I'm is seeing Christmas advertisements everywhere, it's time to break them out for review. Today I'll look at 40262 Christmas Train Ride, and I'll check out the Town Square in a couple days.
The front of the box shows the full set that includes three minifigs, and the namesake train along with some market stalls and a few accessories. The back of the box tells a story, like many of the vignettes this year. It starts with a barista minifig with a dream - a successful market stall selling cookies and hot drinks. In the ensuing panels the industrious shopkeeper sets up shop and pitches his wares to the train riders as they pass by. The treats prove tempting to the train riders, who disembark to enjoy. The final panels shows the train conductor and passenger enjoying their snacks.
Inside the box there are three unnumbered bags and an instruction booklet. It's always a relief to see no stickers!
There are three minfiigs included in the set, which is great considering there are usually only two minifigs in the seasonals. There are two adults and one child: a train driver, a barista and a little girl. The little girl has been seen before - actually many times before, as the torso of blue jacket, grey belt and purple scarf has been used in just about every Winter Village set produced. She has white mittens. She has a freckled face and her hair is in a casual flip, which seems to be a bit mature for a little girl and seems to overwhelm her head. Her clothing is colour coordinated with her pants matching her scarf. The train driver is also a character we've seen before, with a torso that has nice detailing with his striped vest, white shirt with maroon tie and a pocket watch on a chain. His look is finished with a maroon cap. The star of this set is the barista, whose torso is relatively rare, only having been included in two sets prior to this one. He has an open neck shirt with what looks to be an apron. Detailing on the torso include a nametag and the logo for the coffee shop on the front.
There are three small auxiliary builds for this set: a picnic table, a tree perched in a mound of snow and a lamp post. The picnic table and the tree are pretty standard. The lamp post is a nice little mini scene that includes a small bench at its base, a wreath decoration as well as a city map.
There are two small market stalls included. The first is a ticket booth for the train, with tickets represented by 1x2 tile in flame yellowish orange. The little girl is clearly delighted she has her ticket to ride!
The other market stall is the subject of the barista's vision - one selling hot drinks and cookies. The barista has a very knowing expression on his face, like he suspects just how successful his little enterprise will be.
The Christmas train makes up the rest of the build. The red locomotive is a small but effective build with the primary red colour with black and gold detailing. The train has two cars in green that have red and gold flowers on the side. Both the locomotives and each one of the cars has a 2x2 area where a minifig can be seated or used for storing cargo.
Overall thoughts
The seasonal vignettes this year have been quite charming, and this one is no exception. I very much like how much you get for this little set (169 pieces, $9.99, 9.99€, £8.49) - several small builds as well as three minifigs, which is rare for a seasonal this size. It makes for a nice Christmassy scene, either on its own or incorporated in a larger display. I'm looking forward to adding this to my Winter Village display.
Look for the review of 40263 Christmas Town Square in the next couple of days.
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9 comments on this article
This is a neat set! My only complaint is the use of the female torso for the coffee shop dude.
10 quid. Will fit in any Christmas scenes you build. Not a bad shout.
As said above: Look like advent calendars stuff. Very poor.
Really dislike these small builds, prefer a SINGLE larger build: a vignette or a model.
BTW, what happened to the very-soon-to-come review of 70656 garmadon, Garmadon, GARMADON?
Coming very soon!
Thanks for the nice review.
This is indeed a set I have been looking forward to for quite a while now. It was released in the States several weeks before it was in Europe. Finally, not long ago, it was released here. I headed to the local LEGO Store, only to find out it was sold out in two days. I ordered it online once home again, and received it yesterday. I have not built it yet, though it will be built very soon.
The details and spirit go very well to a Christmas layout. And we cannot complain about another The Coffee Chain bar and train guard/driver in the classic uniform.
And I am happy that these two sets can be acquired without buying a lot of stuff for a certain amount. Unless you buy online and want to save the postage ;o)
Nice set. Are we getting a free tree ornament this year like 5004420: Toy Soldier (2016) and the previous tree (2015) and train (2014)?
I don't mind these seasonal sets (and this year's have been pretty cute), but I think these are a bit lacking. The little stalls are only two studs wide inside, so no minifigure can actually fit in there. Why couldn't they have been six wide? Sure, they're pretty, but they're functionally useless.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Somebody sit that girl down before she breaks her neck!