Lego Alpine Lodge

 

I always wanted a Lego city when I was a kid. I never got one beyond piecing together a few small, custom made houses here and there. Several years ago we bought a Lego train to go around our Christmas tree. We noticed that Lego sold a winter-themed train station, and it made sense to add it to our train. What good does a train do if there is no station for people to board? At some point we discovered that Lego released Christmas-themed sets every year. One thing led to another, and after a few years we had a pretty bustling little winter village in addition to our train. Some dreams do come true.

This year's set was a ski lodge, which is a perfect addition to our winter village as we don't have any kind of hotel for people visiting to stay. Most of the winter sets are in the 1,000 to 1,500 piece range, so at 1,517 pieces, the lodge is one of the larger sets. With that being said, it was one of the easier and quicker builds. I was able to finish it in just a couple of afternoons. One thing I've noticed Lego doing with their sets recently is dividing the pieces into more bags, which means less time spent searching and separating. Additionally, some of these sets have very complicated and cumbersome parts, typically involving the flooring and infrastructure of the building. This set wasn't like that at all. The most cumbersome part was placing the exterior bricks that make the log cabin look, but even that wasn't too bad. 

Another change that Lego has done over the past couple of years, at least with their winter sets, is that they only build the front half of the building. Previous sets would have the back half as well, with a way to swivel open the structure to access the inside. On the one hand, the new design allows for easier access and play to the inside of the building. On the other hand, it makes the building look half complete. I've got mixed emotions on the change, but probably prefer the older swivel design.

The front of the lodge looks great, however, and fits right in with the aesthetics of the village. My favorite parts of the set include the fireplace, which is quite ornate (pictured below), as well as the snow mobile and outhouse, which is just funny.