Review: LEGO Winter Village 10275 Elf Club House

As promised, we quickly tour the LEGO set 10275 Elf Clubhouse (1197 pieces - 94.99 €), the festive product which joins this year the universe of Winter Village.

Those who are used to investing each year in these pretty buildings with snow-covered roofs and a little loaded decoration will be on familiar ground here. This new building, which obviously serves as a home for the elves when they are not on duty in Santa's workshop, is filled with furniture, accessories and decorative details which explain the presence of nearly 1200 rooms in this little set.

The assembly is entertaining with many techniques that punctuate the essential sequences of stacking bricks and plates for the construction of the walls and roof of the pavilion. Among the various toys to assemble, there is a pirate ship and a piano which obviously refer to the LEGO Creator sets. 31109 Pirate Ship and Ideas 21323 Grand Piano marketed this year. We also get (again) a decorated tree with a different design from those already delivered in the different sets of the range Winter village. It became a gimmick which does not facilitate the creation of a coniferous forest within the dioramas, each designer goes for his version.

Designer Chris McVeigh at work this year does not forget to give a nod to his past as an MOCeur with a buildable computer that sets the standard to his many creations on the subject of computing. It will be just one more detail for many fans, but I find this mini model to be very successful.

Two "big" functions are available here: The mechanism which allows to tilt the bunk beds installed upstairs by turning the button disguised as a clock and the waffle dispenser integrated into the fireplace with a tilting tray to recover the treat evacuated by the machine. We're not going to complain about being able to have a little fun with this set, in my opinion it's always good news when the designers make the effort to offer us assemblies that offer a certain interactivity, even anecdotal.

As with many other constructions on the same theme, this half-house is therefore above all a playset, with its open side which allows you to enjoy the different rooms and their fittings. We could debate the interest of providing us with a half-construction while the model is more intended to take pride of place in the middle of a winter village that emerged from the boxes on the occasion of the end-of-year celebrations, but I find that the house here remains sufficiently "closed" on three sides to be able to be exposed from certain angles.

The light brick supplied to install under the roof does not work miracles. It softly lights up the elves' chamber, and only if you hold your finger on the remote button. We cannot repeat it enough, it is time for LEGO to offer a light brick with an on / off button that would allow more successful staging.

I also hope that the "official" lighting kits project Lego night mode vaguely tested at the start of the year will quickly lead to something concrete. The manufacturer is lagging behind on this subject while many third-party brands have been offering lighting solutions for a long time to integrate into buildings and the two false light garlands placed on the edges of the roof of this clubhouse really deserved to be functional.

The reindeer with non-detachable flexible antlers is based on the same mold as the one supplied in the version patronus in the LEGO Harry Potter set 75945 Expecto Patronum (2019). The figurine is very successful, I would have gladly exchanged one of the four elves for a second copy of the deer. Hopefully, next year LEGO brings us a Santa's sleigh pulled by four of these pretty minifigures, those in the set 10245 Winter Village Santa's Workshop (2014) made of bricks are getting a little old.

The four minifigs are all dressed in the same torso, wearing the same hat with built-in ears, and only two of them feature alternate facial expressions. No character with slightly different outfit identified for example as the team leader, it's a shame.

There are only five stickers to stick in this box, including a portrait of the four elves with their employer, two direction signs, one of which leads to the workshop, a calendar and the computer screen. It's more than the three stickers from the Gingerbread House but it's still reasonable. I notice some differences in color on the bricks in Sand green which constitute the walls of the first floor. The problem is therefore still not resolved, we will have to do with it.

To sum up, this elf house is really on the theme, it is fun to put together, it contributes to the overall context by partnering with Santa's workshop and it can even be transformed into a simple mountain chalet by removing the few festive attributes visible on the facade.

The comparison with the construction of the set 10267 Winter Village Gingerbread House (1477 pieces), which had set the bar very high, is not to the advantage of this new building, less spacious but sold at the same price. The set proposed last year and still available on the official store, however, only allows us to obtain two gingerbread characters, against four minifigs and a molded reindeer this year.

If you are one of those who like to bring their sets out of the universe Winter village at the end of the year, I think this new reference will not disappoint you with an original and well-finished product that will integrate perfectly with the rest of the collection. 94.99 €, it is as often a bit expensive for a small construction of about twenty centimeter high, but it is the price to pay to complete without waiting for a Winter village which grows a little more each year and not having to line the pockets of dealers in the aftermarket when it is too late.

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at 4th October, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.