LEGO Santa’s Visit 10293 review

Just in time for the Christmas Holiday I was sent Santa’s Visit ( set number 10293) by The LEGO Group for review.

The build

Santa’s Visit is a 1445 piece build. The instructions and building process are standard Lego build with a single instruction booklet. I found it to be simple and straightforward to build with no issues. The build took me approximately 5 hours from start to finish. I am not known for my speed building abilities.

The set comes with a short snow covered fence and a mailbox to place in front of the house. I really like this added touch and I feel it is just the thing needed to complete the set.

The house itself has a kitchen area, a large dining table with four chairs, a loft bedroom with a desk a working front door and a fireplace area with a chair. The bedroom loft area has an adjustable roof to help aid in access during play. I liked that feature as it can make photographing the area a bit easier. The back of the house is open and this makes it much easier to photograph.

The chimney on the side of the house has two fun features. First off it has a stud on top of the chimney to place Santa on as he prepares to slide down the chimney. The second feature is fun for play, but serves no real photographic purpose. The chimney is hollow and Santa fits right inside and is able to “slide” right down the chimney and into the house. Lots of fun to play with and it has gotten a chuckle or a “cool” comment from each person I have shown the feature to. The set has a Christmas tree, however it does not appear to be designed to fit inside the house. Instead it fits nicely in the “front yard” of the house. Finally the set has several presents to place ‘neath the tree. A real feel of the holiday season is had.

Minifigures

The set comes with four collectible mini figures (CMF). As is the case quite often with Lego, some of the minifigures can be found in others sets. There is an adult male CMF, an adult female CMF and a female child CMF. The fourth CMF is, of course, Santa and his bag of gifts. Four is the perfect number of CMF for this set.

Special features

There are a few easter eggs. Santa has a new face and additionally Lego has used a dual process on Santas legs to give the appearance of black boots. For the first time LEGO has included a deciduous tree with snow covered leafless branches.

Additionally the cookies included for Santa are based on an actual cookie by the Lego designers mother. The Christmas tree has a light up feature that is really nice, but unfortunately the light does not stay on. Instead it illuminates only when the top of the tree is pressed down. I do wish that it had a feature to remain lit as I think it would not only add to the aesthetics but also make for some really fun photos. I was able to use a couple of work arounds for photos, but kept thinking how nice it would be had I been able to leave the light on. None the less it is a fun feature and Im very happy Lego elected to include this feature in the set instead of as an add on feature.

Santa’s Visit photography potential

The fact that the back of this set is open and part of the roof is easily adjustable definitely helps with the photographers ability to take fun photos. Just a couple of small adjustments by moving a piece of “furniture” here or there and voila a fun photo is easy to create. Additionally the other roof parts are easy to remove if required to place a small light for photographing.

The front fence is just perfect for including in the foreground of photographs as well as some fun photographs on its own.

At $99 US this set is well worth it for the serious Lego photographer as well as the Lego Holiday Village theme collector and builder.

Todd Rosenberg (@toddretired)

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