Posted By Adam White on Mar 19, 2020 | 4 comments

Disney Plus is just under a week away for those of us in the UK and parts of Europe, so it’s the perfect time to take a look at the LEGO® Disney Train & Station set. The set was released last year and it’s the second large-scale Disney set based on an iconic area of Disney Theme Parks. It’s also the first Disney set to feature Powered Up functions. One of the biggest draws of the set is the inclusion of an exclusive Goofty Minifigure. Since the first Disney Minifigures were released, many have hoped for Goofy to join the line-up. But is the set worth picking up, beyond the exclusive Minifigure? I was originally going to review the set for Christmas, but it didn’t arrive until a few weeks ago. So here’s my review of the Disney Train and Station set. All aboard!

Product Description

Gather the family for a rewarding build and play experience with the LEGO® ǀ Disney 71044 Train and Station. Kids will love to join Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Chip, Dale and Goofy for magical adventures with this awesome LEGO train set, featuring a motorized steam-style locomotive with tender, passenger car and a luxurious parlor car, plus an oval track and an iconic Disney Parks®-style station building. This set comes with an array of cool details, including app-controlled functionality. Use a smart phone or tablet to drive the locomotive forward, reverse and emit realistic sound effects. Joining up the train cars is simple with the magnetic LEGO couplings, and the panels on the parlor car open for access to its detailed interior complete with table, armchairs, teapot and cup. And the fun doesn’t end there! Inside the toy train station building there’s an array of intricate brick-built furnishings and details, including draped windows, wall clock, ceiling chandelier and a tower room with a little LEGO surprise!

• Set Name: Disney Train & Station
• Set Number: 71044
• Pieces: 2925
• RRP: £299.99/$349.99/€349.99
• Measurements: Station measures 39cm high, 36cm wide and 16cm deep
• Minifigure: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Chip, Dale and Goofy
• Availability: LEGO Brand Store, LEGO.com and shop.Disney.com

The Build

The build is split into two sections – the train and carriages along with the station building. You begin with the train, which is modelled after the real steam locomotive, operated at Walt Disney World in Florida. The classic Disney attraction runs a number of different engines, each with different colour schemes. Although not expressed on the various stickers featured on the set, it seems the version you build is inspired by the Roger E. Broggie engine. The overall style of the engine is a little similar to the Winter Village Christmas train and the Constitution Train from the Lone Ranger theme.

As well as the main engine, there is an additional tender, which is where the Powered Up elements are hidden. A battery box is housed within the tender and connects to a motorized train carriage base. It’s all well hidden and easy to access, should you need to turn it on or change the batteries out. As well as the train engine and tender, there are also two buildable carriages. One is an open passenger car, with a large number of seats and the other is a parlour car.

Both require a surprising amount of elements to build, especially the open passenger carriage. This has a nice looking white and blue canopy, which can be lifted open to reveal a series of seats. The secondary carriage is a more traditional looking one. The parlour car is an enclosed carriage, which matches the style of the engine. One side of the carriage can be removed to access the inside, where you’ll find a couple of more lavish seats and a tea set. Once combined the train and carriages look rather nice and are a decent recreation of the real train. It’s a shame all the graphic detailing is achieved with stickers, especially considering the sets price and the fact the elements with stickers are all flat plates and tiles.

The rest of the build is focused around the station building. The station matches the one found near Main Street in Disneyland. The set only features the main building and the colour scheme is a little different due to the LEGO colour palette. However, the overall appearance of the set is an impressive recreation of the real building. On the face of it, the set does look at a little plain, but there is a load of elements in there. It’s all these smaller pieces which help to add a little more detail. Admittedly some of the tiny elements can be a little fiddly, especially all those black skeleton legs and handcuffs used to create the ironwork lining the roof.

Inside the building, you’ll find two floors and just like the outside of the building, at first glance it seems a little sparse. But on closer inspection, there are some neat details. On the ground floor, there’s a basic ticket desk and a weighing machine. The upper floor has a seat, which matches the ones found in the parlour carriage of the train. There is also a trio of rather ornate curtains lining the upper hallway. On both floors of the lefthand side of the station are a couple of miniature trains. These are joined by a picture of each displayed on the wall next to them, unfortunately, these are stickers. But the best part of the interior is hidden away in the upper section of the tower. Here’s you’ll find a mini version of the Disney Castle and a printed tile to represent the sets box. Finally, there is enough pieces of train track to create an oval. This doesn’t connect to the station and can be expanded with additional LEGO City train track elements.

Powered Up Play

The set makes use of the new powered elements known as Powered Up. Unlike the previous Power Functions system, PUP uses new connectivity standards which allows you to control the train by an additional Powered Up controller or smart device. If using a smart device, additional play features are unlocked included music and sound effects. The Powered Up app also has two seasons, Spring and Winter. Switching between these merely adds different musical effects. It’s a fun addition to play, but I can’t help but feel that the Powered Up aspect of the set has helped to push up the price. The set features almost half the elements of the Disney Castle, but it’s the same price. Plus you don’t even get a PUP controller in the box. Maybe the set would have benefitted with being a standard set, with the option to add Powered Up by purchasing additional pieces. Still, you can’t help but smile as you blast the train around the track. The best way to show off the powered elements is in the LEGO Designer Video.

The Minifigures

The set includes five Minifigures, one of which is an exclusive Goofy Minifigure, only currently found in this set. In fact, all the Minifigures are technically exclusive, as the other characters are in unique outfits. Minnie is the least unique as she is sporting a similar classic red outfit, as she wears in the Disney Castle set, however, and rather oddly, the skirt is switched from a solid element to a material one. Wherever Minnie is, Mickey is far behind and he features an exclusive railroad outfit. This is a combination of the standard Mickey Mouse head and a torso featuring blue overall and a red neckerchief. It feels like it’s missing a hat, especially as the Steamboat Willie hat, would have made a decent train driver cap.

The second series of LEGO Disney Minifigures featured the loveable crime-fighting chipmunks, Chip and Dale. These are one of only a few Disney Minifigures to use unique headpieces, so it’s not surprising that they are repurposed in this set. Both characters have unique outfits to match the railroad theme. My fondest memory of these to woodland critters are from the Rescue Rangers TV series (also streaming on Disney+) so I would out rather have seen them in these outfits instead of the ones here and yes I know they would have nothing to do with trains, but I don’t care.

Finally, as the Disney Castle gave us an exclusive Tinkerbell Minifigures, the Disney Train and Stations includes one of the most asked for Disney characters, Goofy. He is classed as one of the made classic Disney iconic, alongside Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Dasiy Duck. So I can understand the frustration of it being included in such a high priced set. But in the same breath, if you’re buying a high priced set, you’ll expect something special in it. As with the classic character mentioned above, Goofy also uses a unique head element, to capture the right look for the character.

Overall

As a big Disney fan, I love that these sets exist. The Disney Castle was a fun build and certainly one of the most iconic areas of the Disney Parks. The train offers a better play set, compared to the Castle, but it features less of the fun little Disney Easter Eggs. I like that all the Minifigures are uniquely decorated, making them a little more special. But I would have liked a couple more characters to be included, especially considering the price and piece count. The use of stickers feels a little mean as well, I understand some elements need to have stickers, but most of the ones here could and should have been printed. I have to admit that when the set was first revealed, I didn’t think it looked that fun and the pricing seemed a little steep. But after building it I certainly think its a decent set. But I still don’t agree on the pricing, the Powered Up pieces seem to be the reason, which is why it should have been an optional extra. I have the privilege of being able to request the set for free, if I had to buy it, I think I would certainly wait for a Double VIP points event or decent free gift to offset the cost a little. I certainly hope there will be more Disney sets like this, maybe on a slightly smaller scale or at least at a better price point. You can read my review of the Disney Castle here.

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This set was provided by the LEGO Group for the purpose of review. The opinions expressed in this review of that of BricksFanz and do not reflect those of the LEGO Group or the Walt Disney Company.

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