Seasonal

Ballerina & Nutcracker Scene

A tiny holiday stage that punches above its size, if you can actually get one.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 40701 · 2024

Pieces244

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number40701

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The verdict

This little scene showed up as a holiday gift with purchase in 2024, and it has the kind of charm LEGO's small seasonal builds always seem to nail, a ballerina figure mid pose, a nutcracker soldier standing guard, and a snowy little stage between them that feels like it belongs under a tree rather than on a shelf year round.

I love that it tells a whole story in 244 pieces without a single sticker cheat. The catch is that promotional sets like this one were never sold on their own, so if you missed the window you're hunting resale listings now, and that changes the calculus completely. For anyone who managed to snag it during the promotion, it's a lovely little display piece that costs nothing but a few minutes of build time.

Best for: Collectors who caught the 2024 holiday promotion and love a small narrative scene over a big centerpiece build

The full review

What it is

I remember spotting this one in the promotional lineup and thinking LEGO's design team just has a gift for these bite sized holiday scenes. The Ballerina & Nutcracker Scene is exactly what it sounds like, a small vignette built around the classic Christmas ballet, with a ballerina figure caught mid twirl and a nutcracker soldier standing at attention beside her on a little snow dusted base. It's simple, it's sweet, and it captures the feeling of the story without needing a single word of text.

The catch

Here's the honest part. This was a gift with purchase set in late 2024, meaning LEGO never sold it on shelves for its own price tag, you had to hit a spending threshold in stores or online during the promotional window to get one. That's great if you happened to be shopping at the right time, but it means the set essentially doesn't exist anymore at retail. What's floating around now is secondary market listings, and prices there don't always feel like a fair trade for 244 pieces, even charming ones. At 244 pieces it's also a quick build, so if you're picturing a long cozy evening at the table, this isn't that set, it's closer to a fun coffee break.

Who it's for

Get it if you're a completist for LEGO's seasonal GWP sets, or if you just want a small nutcracker themed display for the holidays and can find one at a reasonable resale price. Skip it if you're looking for build depth or a set you can walk into a store and buy today, because that ship has sailed.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this one is quick and pleasant rather than challenging, which fits its role as a promotional freebie rather than a flagship set. You're working in short bursts, first shaping the little stage and snowy base, then moving into the two figures themselves, and the whole thing comes together fast enough that it feels more like decorating than engineering. That's not a knock, seasonal scenes like this are meant to be approachable for anyone who picked one up at checkout, including builders who don't touch LEGO the rest of the year.

The real charm is in how much personality LEGO squeezed out of a small piece count. The ballerina figure uses posed limbs and a tutu style skirt piece to sell motion in a way a standard minifig never could, and the nutcracker leans on printed detail to get that classic wooden soldier look, tall hat, painted face, crisp uniform lines, without needing a custom mold. Neither figure is going to headline a parts list the way a big vehicle greeble would, but for a 244 piece scene, the character work is doing all the heavy lifting, and it mostly succeeds.

Fun facts

01The set was distributed as a gift with purchase during LEGO's 2024 holiday promotional period rather than sold as a standalone retail product.
02It draws directly on the Nutcracker ballet, pairing a posed ballerina figure with a nutcracker soldier figure on a shared snowy display base.
03As a GWP release, it falls under LEGO's Seasonal theme rather than a licensed line, which is why it never got its own standalone box price.