Seasonal

Holiday Express Train

The train that circles the tree, and the one part everyone is arguing about.

Brick Rated Score

3.8/5

Set 10361 · 2025

Pieces956

Minifigs4

Year2025

Set number10361

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The verdict

This is a warm, genuinely festive train that looks its best chugging in a loop around the base of a Christmas tree, and I love it for that alone.

What holds me back is the loud caveat sitting in its own little gift-wrapped box: the first 3D-printed piece LEGO has ever shipped in a retail set, a tiny blue toy train that plenty of builders feel has no business being here. If you want the seasonal ritual, this delivers. If you want a proper train fan's model, you may walk away grumbling.

Best for: Winter Village collectors who set up a track loop under the tree every December

The full review

What it is

I have a soft spot for the Winter Village trains, and the Holiday Express Train hits the exact note I want from one. It is a proper little four-car train, a locomotive with a bobbing smokestack, a coal tender, a flatcar carrying a bell-ringing polar bear, and an end car with a furnished interior you can peek into. Add the 16 curved tracks and a small platform with a bench and lamppost, and the whole thing becomes less a set on a shelf and more a tradition you set up every December. The first time I saw one running in a slow loop around the base of a tree, I got it completely. That is where this set earns its keep.

The catch

Now for the honest part, because there is plenty to weigh. The price climbed to $129.99, noticeably higher than recent Winter Village sets, and you feel that bump. The 956 pieces build a charming toy, but reviewers have been blunt that the locomotive itself reads more like a generic toy train than something that belongs in a cozy village scene, and a few flat out called its looks a letdown. The assembly can get fiddly too, with the wheels asking you to work out the correct spacing by eye rather than clicking into a fixed guide, which is exactly the kind of thing that trips people up on a train. And breaking with tradition, there are no child minifigs this time, just a conductor, an engineer, and two passengers, though two of them are a sweet nod to children from the 2016 set now grown up.

Who it's for

Then there is the piece everyone is talking about, the tiny 3D-printed blue train tucked in its own gift-wrapped box. It is the first 3D-printed element LEGO has ever put in a widely available retail set, a real milestone, and it is genuinely clever engineering. But a good chunk of builders do not want it. The feeling is that LEGO should be something you construct, not a pre-made model dropped in the box, and some would happily swap it for a brick-built version. So here is where I land: if you are a Winter Village collector who lives for the seasonal display and the ritual of the loop under the tree, get it, you will adore it. If you are a train purist chasing a realistic, satisfying-to-build engine, or if the 3D-printed part bothers you on principle, this one may leave you cold, and that is a fair reaction.

The parts story

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

Building it is a gentle, pleasant few hours rather than a technical workout, which suits a holiday set just fine. The cars come together quickly and the lack of stickers is a real relief, everything is molded or printed, so no fussing with alignment. The one spot that tested my patience was the running gear on the locomotive, where the wheels want you to judge spacing yourself, and if you rush it the train does not roll as cleanly as it should. Take that section slowly and you are rewarded with a train that actually runs, and can be motorized later with the separate Powered Up kit if you want it moving on its own.

On parts, the headline is that gift-wrapped little box holding the 3D-printed blue toy train, the first of its kind in a retail set and the reason this thing made news at all. Beyond the novelty, there are quieter treats: a newly recolored dark tan bogie plate on the rear car, the carrot element showing up in dark green, and those 16 curved tracks using the updated mould whose revised clips genuinely connect more easily than the old ones. With 956 parts across 31 colors, the per-piece cost is fair for a train, and the track pieces alone carry real reuse value if you already run a LEGO railway.

Fun facts

01The little blue train tucked inside is the first 3D-printed element LEGO has ever included in a widely available retail set, made using additive manufacturing to combine connectors and internal functions that a normal mould could not produce.
02Two of the adult passengers are a continuity nod to child minifigures from the 2016 Winter Holiday Train, now grown up.
03It is the first Winter Village train to ship with no child minifigures at all, breaking a long tradition for the family-aimed line.
04The 16 curved tracks use LEGO's updated track mould, with redesigned clips that snap together more easily than the previous version.