Winter Village 2019

Switchfoot55

I see the conversation regarding the 2019 Winter Village offering have started in the 2018 thread. I thought it might be good (as suggested by @ http:// piratemania7) to get the 2019 thread officially going. 

As I also thought it was a good start to the conversation, I've also copied and pasted information from Toymaker who started the 2018 thread. 

10263 Winter Village Fire Station was officially announced on September 9th
10259 Winter Village Station was officially announced on August 22
10254 Winter Holiday Train on August 11
10249 Winter Village Toy Shop on August 18
10245 Santa's Workshop on August 9 (at San Francisco Bricks by the Bay)
10235 Winter Village Market on July 13 (at Toronto BrickFête)
10229 Winter Village Cottage on August 5


Last year's official announcement was significantly delayed when compared to previous years. There were the teaser photos that were released at the very end of August. However, it was during a time where leaks seemed to be very few and far between. I'm curious to see when either leaks or official announcements come out this year.


Unless the MODs cut some of the last portions of the 2019 discussion out of the 2018 thread and insert them here, there are several comments/predictions already here with the last three comments on the page.

LuLego

Yay! Best thread of the year - great to get the (snow)ball rolling early.

Switchfoot55

^I'm definitely in agreement. I always look forward to the early predictions leading up to the official (or leaked) announcement. 

Toymaker

You've beaten me to it this year ! Reddit had a rumour of a piece count of around 1,477 which would make it a similar size to the cottage.

Every year, I hope for a sort of mountain lodge / ski resort complete with cable car or maybe fashioning the roller coaster tracks to make a funicular railway, but I doubt this would happen, given the recent release of 60203.

10263 and 10259 represented a welcome return to typical 'real-life' buildings after the aberration of 10245 and the somewhat odd-looking 10254 but whether this means the rumours of a Gingerbread house are off the mark or perhaps another incongruous 'fantasy' set is due an outing, I'm not sure. Hopefully not.  

Switchfoot55

Although a 1,477 piece count could indicate a larger set such as the Cottage, I think it could also support a highly decorated Gingerbread House. Just look at #40139. The size of the build is fairly small for a 277 piece set. 

I'm open to whatever the set ends up being. I try not to get too hung up on it not being what I want it to be. I'll just enjoy it for what it is.    ...unless it's a Police Station with a helipad. Then I'm DEFINITELY out!...

I'd definitely love a Town Square/Hall, Ski Resort/Lodge, Sweet Factory, or Sewage Works. But I'll make whatever work!

Russell844

I was actually planning on having a small police substation on my layout and I was going to use #7553 for it.

Bumblepants

Anyone planning to add #60203 Ski Resort to their layout? A bit on the modern side but lots of good stuff in it.

guachi

No, but we do plan on adding the Creator Modular Winter Vacation #31080

Brickchap

@Bumblepants It would look good up on a mountain as in one skis down to the village below. Shame it was modern but I guess one could make the snowplough rescue truck more old fashioned.

As for this years set: Is this year ten years? Or was that 2017? We need a town hall / unofficial church and some sort of accommodation for visitors. Since its a village I think a B&B run by a kindly old lady would do nicely.

Someone mentioned a police station before and personally I wouldnt mind, especially if it was done in an English style with a 1930s/40s Wolsely police car. I personally see the Winter Village like an English village in Miss Marple novels.

The only thing with a police station is that it would need some sort of 'conflict' to make sense. Like police can enjoy Christmas too but we've already had a Salvation Army/fire/police band member in the Fire Station and obviously collecting money for the poor would probably be not quite right for a Lego set so I dont really know what a police officer would do since adding criminals into this (what we hope is) a secluded, peaceful, hamlet would never do.

The other thing we need is a bank. A small branch one perhaps with a Ebenezer Scrooge inspired figure. (I know he wasnt a banker but close enough). I build a Christmas village display every year using resin houses and matchbox cars (in a similar 1900-1940s era as the Lego WV). A bank, fire station and town hall are some of my favourite buildings.

Thinking of that, perhaps a cafe or restaurant? If its a larger set then maybe an inn with a restaurant (in real life it would be a pub with 'pub grub' as we Aussies call it) and small rooms upstairs.

Finally, looking back we've covered the non-religious areas of Christmas: toys (gifts), bakery, post office (for sending letters and parcels), christmas market/fair and the importance of family and stockings by the fireplace and all that with the cottage. O and Santa Claus of course!

What we are missing (not so much here in Australia but anyway) is Christmas turkey! Sadly the same reasons we cant have a modular butchery would probably stop a WV butchery :(

I converted my old toy shop into a butchery with a turkey in the window and used the 2015 as the village toy shop. 

mustang69

This year is the 10th anniversary, just like 2017 was the 10th for the modular buildings. It will be the 11th set though. Hopefully they do something nice.

evantyler

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I would love to see an "old-timey" mill with working water wheel. Something about that says "winter village" to me. A guy can dream...or MOC...haha!

shikadi

evantyler said:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--I would love to see an "old-timey" mill with working water wheel. Something about that says "winter village" to me. A guy can dream...or MOC...haha!

One of the MMV #10193 houses has a water wheel, throw some snow on it and you're half way there!

piratemania7

It doesn’t matter what it is I’ll likely buy thanks for setting this thread up @Switchfoot55

Switchfoot55

Sure thing! I figured it was me or @Toymaker that would likely be the ones to pull the trigger! 

To be clear, my Police Station comment was in jest and related to comments from last years thread. 

I'm very much of the opinion that I'll accept whatever it is and will make it work!

I'd definitely love to add a mill with water wheel to my layout. I have an idea for a small stream headed to a frozen lake that would be the perfect setting. 

WhiteDove

I also will buy it and work with it whatever it is. It is by far my favourite theme so I am really looking forward to the reveal. I guess we still have over a month to wait... I can’t imagine that the announcement will come any earlier than it did last year...

fourstud

If it's a Gingerbread House someone owes me a copy of the set :P 

Just a guess

(1)Stein

It's going to be a re-released version of 10216 Winter Village Bakery! 😜

Brickchap

@(1)Stein I was going to write that myself haha. The pine tree will be a plant made from plants, add a brick separator (teal) and triple the price: An awesome set!

Better still Id love an Americanised WV building.  It would fit very well into the scene.

*sarcasm*

Bumblepants

Brickchap said:

Better still Id love an Americanised WV building.  It would fit very well into the scene.

*sarcasm*

Who wouldn't want to buy the 'Winter Village Strip Mall - Nails, Hair, Donuts, Payday Loans, and Space for Lease' set? 

Brickchap

True. Dont forget anti-anything american shooting gallery. O and a garage to destroy the old cars already in the village cause 'everything old fashioned is bad'....

Since its a larger set they could include a police station with the mandatory black hawk helicopter

Paperballpark

Honestly, I'd be happy if they just designed a different cottage each year...

Toymaker

We're incorporating 75947 Hagrid's Hut (minus Buckbeak etc) into our Winter Village this year as a definite, once the kids have 'snowed it up' a bit. I'm up for anything that fits in an early 20th century, European-style scene. In our display, Santa's Workshop lives on a separate table as a stand-alone North Pole. Would be quite good to see this expanded with other North Pole/Elfy type of sets. Not sure a Gingerbread House would cut the mustard (although I would imagine it would look great), but no doubt if it is, I'll sit it out a year and then cave in the following Christmas like I did for the train!

Switchfoot55

My thoughts on if it's a Gingerbread House is to incorporate it into my "city-square" where I have all of the food stalls from the Carousel, the icy pond from the Fire Station, the Christmas tree from the Toy Shop, etc... Although I have other plans to have a Santa photo-stop, I could use a Gingerbread House as a good fill in. 

I just saw @inklingbricks winter Stage set too that I may need to grab to help fill out the area. 

prevere

This theme has a lot more creativity left in it. I'm ok will a gingerbread house, but here's some other Xmas Village designs that would be great!

Or...a National Lampoon's House (Simpsons House size) as a D2C offering.

M1J0E

Definitely still a lot that could be done!  I’m in for the winter village strip mall personally! :D. Actually whatever it is, I know we need to pick up the #10263 fire station before long, having missed out on it last year, as they seem to have a 2 season lifespan if they make it all the way through the second season.  They could release #10222 again & I’d be happy as well.

Though whatever it is, I’m who will add #60203 to it, as our village already has some modern representation with  #41323 & #41322.

Astrobricks

Bumblepants said:

Brickchap said:

Better still Id love an Americanised WV building.  It would fit very well into the scene.

*sarcasm*

Who wouldn't want to buy the 'Winter Village Strip Mall - Nails, Hair, Donuts, Payday Loans, and Space for Lease' set? 

You forgot Dollar Store :)

colay

All I want for Christmas is a big white (32x32) base, a big white (32x32) base, a big white (32x32) base

milamber

colay said:

All I want for Christmas is a big white (32x32) base, a big white (32x32) base, a big white (32x32) base

I bought a bunch of these which are excellent. Thicker than standard Lego baseplates. They also do a 50x40 I think. Not at home presently so can't check.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Strictly-Briks-Stackable-Baseplates-Compatible/dp/B06ZZWLXHC/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=white+baseplate&qid=1565021862&s=gateway&sr=8-5

Switchfoot55

@milamber, I've looked at those before and wondered how they would match up with LEGO. Good to know your experience is positive!

On a related note, I heard there is a leak for a Winter Village Lepin Factory. Some people are saying the leak is a substandard leak that will hurt the leak industry as a whole. Only time will tell...

Bosstone100

I use the white Strickly Briks plates 32x32 plates as well for my Xmas setup. I have found no difference between these and Lego.

gmonkey76

@Bosstone100 and @milamber are they the same thickness as a LEGO plate?

milamber

gmonkey76 said:

@Bosstone100 and @milamber are they the same thickness as a LEGO plate?

It depends on which baseplates you buy. The 32x32 I linked to are thicker than a Lego 32x32 baseplate, but exactly the same thickness as a standard Lego plate like a 4x10. I think these thicker baseplates are described as 'stackable'

I also have some larger white and green baseplates, 50x42, the same as the black ones here

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BKNX7Q8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

These ones are thinner and the same thickness as a standard Lego 32x32 baseplate.

piratemania7

I’d like to see something “classic”.  I think in recent years we have shied away from the bakery and post office type stuff and I would like to see that genre appear.

LuLego

This is probably the wrong thread to ask this quick one, but it is winter village related...

What’s the origin of the red elf hats? I have accumulated over the years over 80 holiday elves for my Christmas scene but have recently come across some red hats. BrickLink doesn’t offer me any clues either.

Were the red elf hats in a set I don’t know about?

Shib

I disagree with the notion that the past few years haven't been very "classic" - the last three WV sets (Fire Station, Train Station and Train) are all very typical features of a Christmas Village Model display.


The red elf hats have been on BaM bars

Russell844

I got my red elf hats from LEGO Store build-a-mini bars.

LuLego

^ thanks for this. But they must have appeared in a set at some point?

Shib

Nope, there's been quite a few interesting parts show up on BaMs in the last year that aren't in sets

560Heliport

Parts that were never in sets?! Oh the chaos! How are we supposed to know anything anymore? But seriously, I'd love to know how stuff like that gets made- "Well, we've got some molds sitting idle, and some leftover red plastic, so... parts for the BAM bar!"

Shib

I think it's more deliberate than that as there are unique prints too, I think it's incentive to get people in stores. 

I posted this pic on another thread, quite a few of these parts are (so far) BaM bar exclusive

mustang69

@LuLego For the life of me I cant find the set number but last year there was a minifig pack that came with Santa, Mrs. Claus and an elf with the red hat. I never saw it at the Lego store. That's the only set I know of that had the red hat in it.

I have the hat on one of my wanted lists on Bricklink, and I should probably get some before they jump up in price.

Here is a pic I found, its possible they were just PaM figs (seeing as that's the clamshell for them).

PJ76uk

@mustang69 in the UK this was available in Lego stores as my wife picked one up when she was doing her Xmas shopping. I've also seen piles of them stacked in the stores for customers to purchase (no need to pick the parts yourself)...

LuLego

Thanks @mustang69
ive seen this on eBay but it’s quite expensive as probably exclusive to your side of the Atlantic.

Shib

All those parts have been on the BaM so I don't think it's really a set, just prepackaged BaM parts. Always makes me laugh seeing the Santa parts available middle of summer. 

PJ76uk

LuLego said:

Thanks @mustang69
ive seen this on eBay but it’s quite expensive as probably exclusive to your side of the Atlantic.

Available in UK too (see my post above)

madforLEGO

Will be interesting to see if BaM does something similar to what they did for Halloween and Christmas last year.

I think the Village is due for another home. All those poor townsfolk stuffed into #10229 ...

playwell

Shib said:

All those parts have been on the BaM so I don't think it's really a set, just prepackaged BaM parts. Always makes me laugh seeing the Santa parts available middle of summer. 

Think the key is that this was put together by Lego rather than just someone picking BaM parts. I dont think Lego would just make parts to sell loss but they might be from future sets, cancelled sets and so on.

Shib

That would make sense if it was smaller numbers but there's been a sudden glut of parts that are unique to the BaM which started about a year ago. Some of the parts are really difficult to imagine as a part for any set too (teal farmers hat and that new baseball torso spring to mind)

The teal hat was in the BaM over a year ago and can still be found there and has been found at BaM bars in multiple countries, if it was from a cancelled set wouldn't the supply have dried up by now? 
The only thing I could imagine the baseball torso being for is a CMF - I can't imagine a scenario where LEGO would need to cancel a CMF figure after they'd started production, if you've seen the channel 4 documentary you'll know just how far in advance they design the CMF figures. 

I don't see any reason they couldn't be produced with BaM bar and internal promotional use in mind, no new moulds, just recolours and new prints. The BaMs need stock and LEGO know well enough that they are more likely to get AFOLs in for something harder to come by. I've even seen LEGO designers posting about these parts and reference them as special BaM bar pieces. The only odd thing to me is that LEGO have not advertised these "rare" parts at all. 

Shib

Switchfoot55

I just about jumped out of my seat when I saw 16 new posts. 

Figured the Christmas Cat had been let out of the Santa Bag. 

Even still, the BAM pieces are definitely interesting!

Shib

You don't expect us to stay completely on topic do you? I mean what is this, Eurobricks? :-P