It’s Christmas time again! Well, nearly. On October 7th (October 3rd for VIPs) you can pick up a copy of this year’s expansion to the Winter Village Collection, Icons 10308 Holiday Main Street for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99! This 1514 piece set is designed for up to four people to work on it at once – a nice way to bring folks together for the holidays. But will it be any fun for them? Read on to see what we think of this year’s retail therapy!
The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Like the other sets with “Adult Collector” theming, this year’s Winter Village Collection set features a dark background, minimal logos, and a mandatory 18+ age range. In the lower right corner is an icon showing that this set is designed to be built by 1-4 people. Do all of them have to be 18+? Not a chance. There’s very little in the way complex construction in store for anyone.
The back of the thumb-punch box shows the buildings from the rear, as well as two inset shots of the minifigures at home. The set’s dimensions (32cm/12″ wide by 22cm/8.5″ tall) are shown in the lower left. The bottom edge is taken up with a graphic showing how, with substantial additional purchases, you can motorize the trolley. We’ll talk more about that in a bit.
Inside the box are eleven numbered parts bags, spanning six building steps, a loose dark red plate, and an envelope containing the paper goods.
The envelope has some generic printing on it, as well as an inventory control sticker.
Inside, there are four center-staple instruction booklets and a small sticker sheet.
The stickers are pretty reasonable – other than the “Main St.” and bugle designs, these aren’t images that LEGO would likely find additional uses for.
We’ll be taking a look at each of the four sub-models in this set on their own. The first one features a small mailbox diorama, a large Christmas tree, and three minifigures.
The diorama is pretty basic, with a pole-mounted clock, street sign, snowy fences, and a red mailbox.
An early gripe is that the street sign is one sided- you do have to pay attention to which way you display this bit of snowy ground.
The mailbox has the same logo as we saw in the 10222 Winter Village Post Office. This small Easter egg helps tie this set into the larger theme.
This year’s Christmas tree design is based on overlapping wedge plates. One oddity I noticed right away were the high-contrast dots of manufacturing points on all of the dark green parts. That mold injection point is very visible on every piece. The design of the tree ends up covering all of the questionable studs, but this flaw showed up on many of the elements in my copy.
The tree has four identical wedges of branches which attach to a central pillar, a technique we’ve seen in previous Winter Village sets. Some simple gift boxes are wedged in the snow around the base of the tree.
The tree looks good, and is large enough to feel like an actual centerpiece for a town square. Two of the minifigures come with shopping bags, making the “let’s go shopping” theme of this year’s offering quite plain. Mind you, I’m all for supporting your local businesses, so I’m only mostly joking about the horrors of capitalism. This time.
After a decade+ of winter village sets, it seems logical to add a trolley for local transportation. So that’s just what we get – a smart little tram with a conductor all its own.
The base of the trolley has some odd modular construction – rather than the usual long plates that span the entire floor, there are modular sections that attach together.
Things are quickly locked into a standard shape, though. The general chassis is decorated with a bit of holly and greenery mounted on 1×8 plate.
The trolley is also a rolling advertisement for the shops in this set. Both H. Jollie’s Music Store and Santa’s Toys and Games get a placard along the side. The “Have a Toyful Holiday” slogan is both groanworthy and completely believable.
The interior of the trolley has a cargo area with red benches, and a much more minifigure-friendly seating area with a dual-sided padded leather bench.
These red 1x1x2/3rd “block” bricks are new for 2022, with four other appearances so far. They’re used in the roof area of the trolley.
The roof also contains some odd building – parts that don’t seem to make a lot of sense are hidden inside the top windowed area. These are elements that will be needed for the “Powered Up” alternate build, but don’t serve any purpose in the basic version.
The completed trolley looks good. It has a wreath with a central 1×1 round tile on either side, a control rod/brake for the conductor, and room for a few passengers. It rolls smoothly, and the removable roof makes placing the driver a lot easier.
As mentioned earlier, and as pictured on the box, the trolley is designed to be upgraded to a “Powered Up” version. By adding in a 88009 Powered Up hub (US $49.99 | CAN $69.99 | UK £44.99), 88011 Train Motor (US $13.99 | CAN $17.99 | UK £12.99) , 88005 light kit (US $9.99 | CAN $11.99 | UK £8.99) and 60205 train track (US $19.99 | CAN $24.99 | UK £17.99), you can add new animation to your Winter Village layout. The instruction booklet provides the alternate instructions after a page listing the needed additional sets.
I didn’t have those additional sets on hand, so I can’t comment on how well this version of the kit works in real life. It does feel like LEGO missed a pretty big opportunity here, though. A bundled set of those needed parts (along with an exclusive minifigure or similar perk) would have been a great way for LEGO to sell additional stuff, while still keeping the core set affordable. As it is, you now have to hope that all of those individual parts are still in stock (or are already in your collection) if you want the full experience. (Better buy extra track, too. You’ll probably want to run the trolley on a different line from the 2016 Winter Holiday Train.)
That said, in another way LEGO did make the right move. I think NOT including these parts in the base set was the better way to go. Adding another ~$100 US to the purchase price would have kicked this set out of the affordable range for a lot of people. (See our thoughts on the pricing of the Ideas 21335 Motorized Lighthouse for additional commentary along these lines.)
The third sub-model is H. Jollie’s Music store. This one is a bit more parts-intensive than the previous two, so it might be better off being handed to a more experienced builder. Or maybe just to someone who needs to be kept distracted longer at the family gathering. (You know who I’m talking about. Yeah. Them. You think they could have just left them at home, but nooooo.)
The walls of the building are made from a decent range of parts in medium nougat, many of which are appearing in that color for the first time. There’s also a 1×4 tile in dark orange, a common part provided here for color balancing purposes. Not because I mistakenly thought it was rare. No, certainly not for that reason.
The store comes with decent selection of instruments ranging from a brick-built drum kit to a printed 1×2 keyboard tile. The violin, guitar, and saxophone have all appeared before, notably in the Collectible Minifigure line.
The build for the store is pretty basic, with the walls just stacks of 1×2 and 1×4 bricks. The front window is a little more interesting, as the part used adds the appearance of columns to either side of the glass. The instruments are propped up thanks to modified 1×2 plates and robot arms. There’s also a cannister full of drum sticks (Harry Potter wand elements) next to the old-school sand green cash resister.
The first floor exterior is pretty inviting – with the guitar and violin shown to good advantage through the large window. A small strip of greenery on the window ledge is complemented by the wreath mounted above the door. Red clip-flags form an awning, and two lantern-like light fixtures are ready for those late-night shoppers.
Inside, the completed music shop is packed with details but still has a little space for minifigures to maneuver around. The shallow depth does mean that things will remain easy to access and relatively well-lit once the second story goes on.
The walls of the music shop each have a stickered tile to add some personality to the store. Above the saxophone is a poster for a Holiday Concert, while a 2×2 tile above the drum set shows what appears to be a younger H. Jollie performance documented by the Daily Brick newspaper. Easter egg hunters may recall that’s the same paper seen in the Modular Buildings Collection 10278 Police Station.
The second floor uses a few interesting parts. The sand-blue chair has had four previous appearances (including the Star Wars Ultimate Collector Series 75313 AT-AT), but the sand blue cabinet is new in that color. The sand green teapot is also a new color, and the printed 2×2 tile has only one other appearance: Minecraft 21165 The-Bee-Farm. Like the first floor, silver candle sticks are used on the exterior wall for the downspout.
The second story also doesn’t contain much in the way of innovative building techniques, but the overall effect is nice. A simple table in red holds a couple of cookies, two tea cups, and a lit candle. On the wall is another Easter egg – a 2×2 tile with a sticker showing the 2019 10267 Winter Village Gingerbread House. Does H. Jollie have some sort of tie to the Gingerbread people? Is he just fond of the architecture of this building in the Winter Village? And, speaking of that, where do the Gingerbread people live in respect to Main Street? Are they full sized cookie beings who interact with the regular minifigures? Is their home part of the neighborhood or do they live off in the polar regions with Santa? I am made of questions.
Anyway, on the opposite wall is a small kitchenette area with a microwave, a pair of cupboards, and a counter area with a tile backsplash.
The roof looks pretty good, with come organic curves worked into the snow that has accumulated there. The grey plates that make up the roof have more of that high-visibility manufacturing dots, as you can see in our full list of images at the end of the article.
In contrast, from the back the roof looks pretty bad. A few more bricks or tiles here to disguise things (or add an attic level) would have been a nice touch. It feels like this area was hit by cost-cutting measures. It’s not essential, but it looks incomplete compared to the care given to the first two floors.
The final sub-set is Santa’s Toys and Games. This two-story building comes with the proprietress, lots of toys, and the elusive bluebird of happiness.
The dark green ingot makes a second appearance here, the first being in Monkie Kid 80036: The City of Lanterns. The other parts are more common, but still very colorful.
The toys offered in the shop include many brick-built offerings, including a train, building, and robot. While it’s nice to see minifigure accessories like the stuffed bunny and roller skates included, I think the meta of toys being built from the larger LEGO toy bricks is pretty keen.
The shop itself is more straightforward stacked brick building. There’s a bit of SNOT work on the front façade, but nothing exciting. The interior here seems a bit more modern than what we saw in H. Jollie’s shop, and that the designers didn’t just re-use the same cash register for both is a nice touch.
The front of the building gets a bit of holiday trimming, with interlaced holly berries. Or maybe those are just cherries. We can make up our own minds about how these people have decided to decorate, right?
The completed shop interior has enough room for people to browse. You have to wonder what sort of mark up they try for in a tourist town like this one. Maybe they get away with saying everything is small-batch and hand-crafted.
The second floor has a lot of olive green elements. The 1×3 arch and 1×4 SNOT brick are appearing for the first time in olive green here.
Upstairs is a kid’s bedroom. The inset images on the rear of the box tell us that this room belongs to the child mailing the letter from the first sub-set. The build here has some nice touches, like a SNOT-heavy design for the bed.
On the nightstand is a 1×2 tile with a wish list sticker on it. Sometimes LEGO designers like to hide things in tiny text like this, so I zoomed in to check. Sadly, just squiggles this time.
This room also contains a smaller version of the big Christmas tree from earlier. It uses the same basic design of stacked wedge plate around a central trunk, but has multicolored lights thanks to a range of 1×1 round tile.
The bedroom feels like a neat way to wake up on Christmas day. Although I don’t know of too many kids who merit their own dedicated tree. Maybe the toy store downstairs makes a lot more money than I thought.
From the front you can see a good range of colors, and some interesting design work in the second story windows.
While the “most complex” build likely goes to the trolley, this was the sub-model that had the most interesting techniques to me. Make sure this one goes into the hands of an experienced builder, or at least someone who will appreciate a bit of thoughtful construction.
This year’s Christmas tree has some fun construction, and the sedate yellow and gold color scheme feels like a nice touch of elegance. The small main street sign and mailbox play area is simple, but effective.
The trolley is a fun build, even without the teased extra Powered Up features. It rolls smoothly, and without any track, you don’t have to worry about some snarky relative setting up their own “Trolley Problem” diorama under the tree.
The storefronts are inviting, and work as free-standing entries. It might have been nice to see them with wall-to-wall connection points like we see in the larger Modular Collections, but a tiny main street can have gaps between the buildings, too.
The minifigures are a good mix, and there are little things that suggest easy entries into fan fiction. For example, why does H. Jollie’s tile backsplash match the toy store owner’s sweater? Has the child discovered some dark secret about that, and they’re off to mail a blackmail note? I tell you, after binge watching a dozen seasons of Midsomer Murders with my wife, I’m convinced every sleepy little village is full of killers.
The interior spaces are easy to place figures into, and are shallow enough to be well lit without directed lighting. The lack of “realistic” architecture like stairs or a workable floorplan really don’t detract much from the experience.
You also end up with a fairly decent pile of extra parts at the end of the build. A nice little perk, all told.
This set comes with six minifigures, spread out across the four sub-models. None of the figures have exclusive prints or recolors, but most of the torsos here have only one or two other appearances, making them pretty desirable nonetheless.
The first batch of characters came with the tree/mailbox assortment, and include two holiday shoppers and a child on his way to the mailbox.
The first shopper has a dual sided bright purple torso that has had only one other appearance: 60336 LEGO CITY Cargo Train. Her face, hair, and sand-blue legs are a lot more common.
The second shopper has a dual-molded hairpiece only shared with the Collectible Minifigure Series 22 Horse and Groom character. Her dual sided torso is also a new for 2022 part, with the sole other appearance in the LEGO City 60330 Hospital.
The youngster with the letter-writing hobby has a dual sided head, dual-molded red snow hat, short dark azure legs, and a dual sided torso. That toro has shown up twice before, in the Chinese New Year 80109 Lunar New Year Ice Festival and LEGO City 60323 Stunt Plane.
The trolley conductor has a single-sided head, dual sided torso, and plain dark blue legs. His torso debuted this year in the Ideas 21335 Motorized Lighthouse, making this the second appearance.
H Jollie, the music shop owner, has a single-sided face print, a dark stone-grey hairpiece, a double-sided torso featuring a tie and suspenders (4 appearances including the Creator Expert 10270 Bookshop), and dark tan legs. The name H. Jollie seems like an obvious nod to the song “Holly Jolly Christmas”, famously performed by Burl Ives in the 1964 Rankin-Bass Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rumor has it that his real first name* is “Harry”. But “Harry Jollies” sent the wrong message as to what the shop sold.
* Totally not his real first name
Finally, we come to the Santa’s Toys and Games shopkeeper. She has a single-expression head, dual sided sweater, and dark brown legs. Her sweater has only one other appearance, in the 60335 Train station. Her dark orange hair piece has been seen twice before, including the 10297 Boutique Hotel.
In recent years we’ve seen LEGO’s holiday set focus on private residences and parts of Santa’s compound at the north pole. This year’s addition to the winter village collection, however, feels like it’s actually part of a winter village. The idea of visiting main street to do some holiday shopping, enjoy a big Christmas tree, and mail off some cards seems like a very traditional December outing. The two storefronts are well constructed and full of fun details, the tree is festive, and the trolley car has some interesting upgrade potential. But that potential makes this set feel incomplete.
To really experience this set as presented by LEGO, it feels like you need a trolley expansion pack. Tracks, lights, and motorization are all teased on the box and instructions, but only available for a substantial bit of extra shopping and nearly doubling the cost – assuming everything you need is in stock. If you can’t afford the steep upcharge for LEGO motorization and train track, you’re probably happier without it anyway.
For this review, though, let’s evaluate this set on a stand-alone basis: It’s a winner. At the $100 US price point, this set is a good value for the 1514 pieces. The builds are fun, the 4-person shared-build concept works well, and there’s plenty for the town’s residents and shoppers to experience. The minifigures don’t contain any new parts, but all are unique combinations for this set. It works as a holiday treat, a parts pack, and an expansion to the theme. Pretty much a win all around, on those terms.
What do you think? Will you be seeking out the Powered Up version of this set? Or are you happy with Main Street as it is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Icons 10308 Holiday Main Street will be available October 7th (October 3rd for VIP members) from the LEGO Shop Online for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99. It may also available via third-party sellers on Amazon and eBay.
The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.
Check out our full gallery of images
I’m not crazy about the buildings. They are more facades than the other WV buildings. I would have preferred one more complete building than two partials. That said, they do seem like they will go well with the Hogsmead buildings from last year
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.
© Copyright The Brothers Brick, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The Brothers Brick, circle logo, and wordmark are trademarks of The Brothers Brick, LLC.
The Brothers Brick respects your online privacy and security. In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) effective on May 25, 2018, we are providing greater transparency, and we are enabling new privacy controls so you can choose how The Brothers Brick handles your personal information.
The Brothers Brick Privacy Policy provides details on the types of personal information (or user data) we collect, how we process and store that data, and how you can request removal of your user data.
Privacy Policy
Track acceptance of The Brothers Brick’s Privacy Policy in accordance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) effective on May 25, 2018.
Cookies Used
Measure website performance and ensure correct website behaviors for visitors, including retention of user settings and preferences.
Cookies Used
The Brothers Brick relies on a variety of online advertising partners and technology platforms to fund operation of the world’s most popular LEGO hobbyist website. These cookies enable our advertising partners to display relevant advertising to you.
Cookies Used
amazon-adsystem.com
bricklink.com
doubleclick.net
ebay.com
facebook.com
google.com
linksynergy.com
youtube.com
quantserve.com
About Author
