Over 10 years ago, a new festive-themed line of sets was introduced as a sub-theme of the LEGO® Creator Expert theme. The Winter Village range began with a quaint village Toy Shop. Dappled with snow and other festive trinkets, this first set would set the standard for additional Winter Village sets. Over the past 10 years, the line has seen a mix of real-world style buildings as well as a couple more inspired by a more fantastical realm. Which is also where this year’s Winter Village set takes its inspiration from. Although still part of the same product line, the Elf Club House marks a change to the collection. Now part of the 18+ range, the Creator Expert branding has been dropped and the Winter Village Collection sub-branding has been introduced. Here’s a closer look at the Elf Club House.
Product Description
If you’re looking to recreate the cosy feeling of your favourite Christmas memories, we’ve got the perfect thing for you – the LEGO® Elf Club House (10275). It’s the ideal way to enjoy quality time with a sugar-sweet DIY project. Build the intricately detailed Elf Club House then explore all its merry features.
A build packed with Christmas cheer
Ramp up the Christmas spirit as you enter the world of the elves. With waffles, presents and sleigh rides, this model building kit is filled with your favourite Christmas traditions. There’s a Christmas tree decked with ornaments, a selection of gifts and a computer to track who’s naughty and who’s nice. A telescope lets the elves watch Santa’s sleigh as it takes off on Christmas Eve.
A Christmas building project for you
The Elf Club House is part of a collection of LEGO model building kits for adults who love clever design and detailed scenes. And, of course, this model makes a great Christmas present for your loved ones.
- Set Name: Elf Club House
- Set Number: 10275
- Pieces: 1197
- RRP: £84.99/$89.99/€89.99
- Measurements: measures over 8.5” (22cm) high and 5” (13cm) deep
- Minifigures: Four Elf Minifigures & Reindeer
- Availability: LEGO.com & LEGO Stores
The Build
Much of the Winter Village range has been inspired by the sort of buildings you’d find in a small English village, nestled in the countryside. In 2014, the Winter Village headed to the North Pole, to recreate Santa’s Workshop. Last year, the fantasy element continued with a delicious Gingerbread House. For 2020, things return to the North Pole, with the Elf Club House, a place for Santa’s elves for hangout when they aren’t building toys.
As with most other Winter Village sets, the basis is a single building and although based on a fantasy element, it fits nicely with the other Winter Village set especially the Winter Village Train Station and Santa’s workshop. In fact on the outside offers very little hints as to what the building is, yet it still manages to portray plenty of festiveness. A Christmas wreath is displayed above the door and a string of lights frame the central sloped roof. Of course, festive trinkets aren’t the only thing to signify the holiday season, snow is also a key factor when it comes to Winter Village sets and beyond the obvious snow-covered rooftop, I love the tiny drifts of snow hanging from the various window ledges. A simple combination of a curved slope element and a tooth element looks great. I also quite like the two-tone colouring of the outer walls of the Club House, I’ve become quite the fan of sand green, I’ve no idea why, but it looks great here against the white of the snow pieces, and the tan section used for the bottom of the building. This is further enhanced with brown edging across the front of the building.
Other features found on the exterior of the Club House include a balcony with a telescope, a fun North Pole inspired signpost, with a nice nod to the Santa’s Workshop set and a small stable to house the lone reindeer. These are all simple constructions but add so much detail to the exterior of the set.
The real fun begins when you get inside, across the two floors are various features pointing to some elvish activities including a calendar showing the month of December, a picture of Santa and Mrs Claus and an amazingly clever present wrapping station. But there are also two working elements, which also employ cover use of elements to create wonderful play features. The first is located on the upper level of the house, where you’ll find a triple bunk bed. A quick twist of the clock causes the whole structure of beds to tilt forward and eject any oversleeping elves.
The other play function can be found in the chimney stack, which is built separately to the main building and then clipped on. Within the chimney is an oven, where tasty treats can be placed in it and then dropped into the stove below. Again a fairly simple mechanism but it works so well. It wouldn’t be a Winter Village set without the inclusion of a light brick. This is hidden within the main roof, just above the beds. A surprisingly complex mechanism with a rod activates the lighting.
Beyond the main structure of the house, there are a few other little builds including yet another brick-built Christmas tree. Who knew there were so many different ways to craft a tree from LEGO. This is one of my favourites as it’s sturdy yet chunky. Where there’s a tree, there are presents which include a couple of wrapped gifts, a pirate ship, toy plane and every parent dream toy – a keyboard. But one of the best additional builds is a classic computer. For those who have followed the work of the sets designer, Chris, before he started working for LEGO. He created many wonderful builds, including retro appliances such as an old PC. So this is a nice nod to his past work as well as being a great way for the elves to keep track of the naughty and nice list.
Finally, there is a new deer in town. Gone are the brick-built Reindeer as featured in Santa’s Workshop, to be replaced by an awesome new creature element. I say new, it’s actually a recoloured version of the Patronus stag from the Harry Potter theme. It’s a great addition to the set and even has a small brick-built sleigh, which connects to the back of the Reindeer, in the same way as saddles sit on LEGO horses. I really hope we see more Reindeer, one is great but Santa has a few more to help him deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
The Minifigures
The set includes five Minifigures who all, unsurprisingly, happen to be elves. Despite all these cheeky little folk having the same outfits and hats, they each have a unique face print. With a couple having multiple expressions. They all use the elf hat and ear combination element introduced for the elf character from series 11 of the LEGO Minifigures. I must say I’m surprised that the pink version which was recently introduced in the LEGO Store Build a Minifigures or the red one featured on the Happy Elf keychain, hasn’t been used here. They would be perfect additions to the set, but that’s the joy of LEGO you can add whatever you want to it from your own collection.
Overall
The Winter Village range has become a much-loved sub-theme amongst LEGO fans. Many use them to create wondersome festive displays and this will make a fine addition to any of those displays. The build is great fun, with some wonderful architectural flourishes and fun play functions. The way the roof sections have been achieved is very clever and despite the various angles, it’s still very solid. The elf Minifigures inject even more character into the set and I like they are all unique, even if this could have been expanded with different coloured elf hats. I also prefer the moulded Reindeer in place of the brick-built versions. If I had to choose something I wasn’t as much as a fan of, then it would be the exterior could have played up the Elves connection a little more. I’ve built the last few Winter Village sets and this is one of my favourites. It plays nicely on the mythos of Christmas, but not too much that it looks completely alien against other sets in the range.
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