Set 10222, Post Office, is a nice addition to the Winter Village line, and was new for 2011 as the third set of the series. When I first bought Set 10199, Toy Shop, as a holiday decoration for my apartment in late 2011, I kept thinking it would look much better if I added the other Winter Village sets. Within two weeks I had the Post Office AND the Bakery (Set 10216) for a festive holiday scene, and that marked my coming out of the dark ages and becoming a card-carrying AFOL.

Box/Instructions

The box is pretty much standard for the Winter Village line: various poses of minifigures and detail photos.

The instructions were well laid out, starting with the smaller builds such as the bench and the gazebo, and culminating with the construction of the post office itself. I appreciated the tip on the very first page - building on a hard surface and pre-sorting pieces by color and/or type - as the three Winter Village sets were my first Lego sets since childhood. An additional detail of the instruction booklet also helped immensely: an inventory of the required parts for each step, which had not existed in my childhood sets' instruction booklets.

Parts

The 2x3 lighted brick, a common feature of all Winter Village sets, is included, and is mounted above the mail sorting area.

For the steep slanted roof, hinge pieces are used, including Technic pieces for the mail sorting area roof.

For the uneven look on the fireplace and chimney, SNOT technique is used - I liked building this detail as it had not been used in my childhood Lego sets.

The color scheme is pleasant enough, if not outstanding. I was drawn to this set thanks to the green roofing and the baby blue trim line.

There are lots of loose small parts - including 1x2 studless tiles printed with postage pattern for letters and packages. With careless play, these parts could easily get lost.

One interesting detail: usage of upside-down blue transparent "flame" pieces to portray icicles.

One downside: way too many decals are used - including ones for the mailbox, the truck, the entrance (opening hours), and the interior (postage chart).

Minifigures

There are seven, which are very nice:

• Musician 1: He looks great with a red scarf and a black beanie hat. Nice sweater pattern on his torso as well. He is portrayed as a banjo player.
• Musician 2: A full brown beard on this guy (and yes, any Lego minifigure head with anything other than the pre-1989 classic smiley was new and intriguing to me when I built this set). Nice checkered blue shirt. He is portrayed as a saxophone player - and the saxophone itself is a very nice mini-build.
• Shovel Man: I think he is the most plain minifigure of the bunch - plain light gray torso, plain blue slacks, and a smile almost as generic as the old smiley. His one interesting detail is the green hood.
• Boy: Looking great in blue overalls, he is staged holding a bone and a whip to play with his dog.
• Postman: I like the reflective-striped red postal jacket. Wearing a cap and glasses, he looks ready for work.
• Postwoman: She is my favorite minifigure of this set, with lovely red hair, the same reflective-striped red postal jacket as the postman, and nice khaki slacks. She also comes with an alternative, angry face. Sadly due to the design of her hair and the truck's cab, she can't really drive the postal truck (though one of the box pictures shows her leaning out from the truck with her angry face).
• Postal customer: A very nice one here - a very attractive woman with long blonde hair, blue sweater with purple scarf, white gloves, and a black sloped piece for a long skirt. In the Eurobricks review she is portrayed as the one getting all the male minifigures' attention, leaving the postwoman seething mad.

The build

The build took me about 2 1/2 hours. Aside from having to be careful applying the decals, I don't recall having any major problems with the build. I enjoyed building the truck and the gazebo more than building the post office itself.

The completed model

The green roofing, and the gazebo, makes this set stand out from other Winter Village sets. Many reviewers don't seem to like this set as much as the other Winter Village sets as a stand-alone set, and I agree; however, when several Winter Village sets are placed together for a larger scene, that is when this set truly shines. Appearance-wise this is my favorite.

I especially love staging the musicians at the gazebo for a Christmas carol performance. It is also possible to consider staging the two carolers from the Toy Shop with the two musicians of this set.

The post office itself is a bit small for comfortable playability inside. On the other hand, there are lots of places - mailbags, sorting bins, and mailboxes on the outside - where letters (and in some cases, packages) can be placed. The truck also provides places for packages and letters to be placed at. And speaking of the truck, it is one of the better Lego vehicles, and the postman will be busy driving around and making his rounds. (Again, I am a bit bummed about the postwoman being unable to drive.)

Playability in general seems to be good (as a single adult, I use my Winter Village sets strictly as displays), whether by itself or as part of a larger Winter Village collection. Honestly I would save the postwoman's angry face for some of the pranksters from the other Winter Village sets; while the blonde customer could conceivably be a nightmare herself, she has a smiling face which would make it unlikely.

Summary

The Winter Village series is, again, the reason for me coming out of the dark ages and becoming an AFOL. And the Post Office, despite some minor shortcomings, has been a great addition to my collection. And this is one of those sets that don't do much as a stand-alone, but work much better as part of a larger collection. Highly recommended.

Ever since I was a kid growing up in the 60's and 70's I have been a fan of tiny toys with lots of features and this set has plenty of fun stuff in it!

Pros

• * I love the mailbox that you can actually put letters in!
• * The gazebo build was very clever, fascinating and fun to do.
• * The truck was another fun build with a lot of playability features.
• * The female minifigs had interesting new hairstyles and dresses.
• * The musicians' instruments are very cleverly designed.
• …

Cons

• ^ Why does the boy need a whip for training his dog?
• ^ The gazebo is a bit small.
• ^ The female mini-figs didn't stand up well unless they were on a brick plate.
• ^ The set didn't seem as large (dimension wise) as the other 2 holiday sets yet it cost more (it did have the most pieces, but not as many as you would expect for the approx. $10 price difference).
• …

This set has some really fun builds and good playability. Definitely one to add to your collection! Especially since the price seems to have come down about $10 this year (2012).

In the third of the winter village scenes Lego continues in the style of the previous two, with a main building surrounded by a couple of small elements that help flesh out the scene. Having picked up the other two winter village scenes last year, I was keen to check out this one.

Instructions/Stickers

Both the instructions and the sticker sheets were wrapped against a piece of cardboard, keeping them perfectly flat. This is only the second set I've seen with this, and it really does make a difference. As for the bakery before it there are quite a few stickers here showing opening times, prices and the post office bugle symbol. As annoying as stickers are, given the one off nature I can understand it, and at least they are flat thanks to the cardboard. (As an aside, the car grill is a printed 2x2 round piece. This pattern also turned up three times on the new millennium falcon, but as stickers. You couldn't print this up a bit earlier Lego?)

Minifigures

More well rugged up characters, some postal workers and a dog. The most interesting points here are the band members, playing a banjo and what appears to be a sax, very interesting instruments.

The build

There are 4 sections to the model. The bench is straight-forward. The postal van looks good but is again pretty straight forward. It starts getting interesting with the bandstand, which uses some very clever techniques. The curved railings are made from 3 pieces, two skates and an eighth of a spoked wheel I've never seen before. The columns are so-called "bazookas", and are actually extremely stable. The roof uses a 4-clip wheel to keep the quarter sections in place, and makes for a very pleasing silhouette.

The main build is the new post office. This is relatively straight forward at the base, although the curved front window is very well done. Around the roof lines things start getting a lot more interesting. All of the winter village buildings have peaked roofs but use flat base pieces, which means working out some way to attach them. This can be problematic, especially in the winter toy shop, where I find if the roof comes off it's very hard to reattach. In the post office, there are three different methods used, one method for the small roofs over the door and window and separate methods for each of the larger roofs. All three work very well, I think they are much more stable than previous versions, and the slightly different angles of the three of them really looks good.

The completed model

In isolation, this is a good set. The band stand is a piece whose simplicity belies its complex construction. The post office looks great from the front which is good because there's not much to do at the back. The attic is barely big enough to hold the coffee cup in it, and there is one room downstairs split in two. There's a bit of detail here, the price list, some counters, a fireplace to throw all the letters from people the post office workers don't like (or maybe not). But this isn't really a set you play with from the back. For interaction, there's the post office van to drive around in and a lot of minifigures to move around.

But really, this is part of the winter village, and in that context this set comes into its own. The red van adds a nice splash of colour. The band stand goes perfectly with the tree and ice rink, and is a great home for the choristers from the toy shop (Mr Sax and Banjo might have to go busk somewhere). And finally, the post office itself looks great. The detail on the facade with the curves, opening times, peaked roofs and icicles is really first rate, I'd go so far to say it edges out the toy store as the prettiest building yet.

Summary

If you already have the first two winter village sets then you're probably thinking of buying this one. You won't be disappointed. If you're thinking of starting your collection, this isn't a bad one to begin with (although you'd better look to pick up the older ones quickly). However, if you're getting this as a stand alone set, especially for someone else for Christmas, you may want to think twice. Although it's a really good looking set there's not a huge amount of play here by itself, and this is as much a display piece as a play set.

Overall I loved putting together this set and it's a wonderful addition to the winter village. I look forward to seeing what they come up with next year.

perfect, but a little bit to small in comparision to the other winter-sets.

With 8 minifigs and JUST 08.5$ per brick it is way less expensive per brick than the licensed products. You know, sometimes LEGO has failed with there own inventions, like Power Minders or Exo Force, to my mind, but this is smart, nice and worth to have, at least for me as a collector.

Summing up minifigs are cool, building was fun, looks good, what shall we expect else?

As far as Christmas themed sets go, this one is no disappointment. It comes with seven minifigures, a mail delivery truck, a bench, a gazebo, and post office. The minifigures aren't especially unique in any way, but one of them does come with a new eskimo hat that's colored a vibrant green. The mail delivery truck is a fitting red color and its shape kind of resembles the "oldsmobile" from A Christmas Story. It has room to store packages/presents in the back as well as on the top.

The post office is essentially one story, although there is a small attic behind the top window that has barely enough room to house a miniscule cup table. The main floor is tiled with navy blue and tan pieces and is decorated with two small shelves where you can store letters and packages. There is also a counter in the middle of the room and a fireplace behind it. Unfortunately, stickers are used to a great extent in this set, such as on the mailboxes, the banjo, the vehicle, and a stamp price sheet on the inside. The roof of the post office is only partially covered with snow, unlike the other sets where there is no discernible color difference between the roof and the snow mounds on top of it. Also, blue fire pieces are put to ingenious use as icicles hanging from the building. My only real gripe about this set is the gazebo. It looks great, but the two musicians can hardly fit inside of the thing without being crammed. In conclusion, if you own the two other sets, I would recommend expanding your holiday themed town.