The LEGO Group’s latest Winter Village set 10308 Holiday Main Street feels curiously drained of festive spirit – and is utterly failed by its box art.
We’ll stop complaining about the bland black box art given to 18+ sets when it stops completely underselling them, which definitely hasn’t happened with 10308 Holiday Main Street. When they’ve all come together, its two buildings, tram, Christmas tree and small slice of snowy scenery aren’t half bad – but you wouldn’t know it from looking at that box, which is entirely absent of the Christmas spirit.
This is all to say that you shouldn’t let 10308 Holiday Main Street’s packaging put you off giving it a go, because it’s still a decent entry into the Winter Village Collection. But even in the flesh, its move downtown doesn’t quite hit the same festive highs of its predecessors…
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street set details ---
Theme: LEGO ICONS Set name: 10308 Holiday Main Street Release: October 3, 2022 (VIPs), October 7 (wide)
Price: £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 Pieces: 1,514 Minifigures: 6
LEGO:
--- Where to buy LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street ---
LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street launches on October 3 for VIP members and October 7 for everyone else at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores. Chances are it will show up through at least one third-party retailer, but it’s not likely to be widely available elsewhere.
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street build ---
Like several recent sets, 10308 Holiday Main Street is geared around building with family and friends. That means each of its four components – the two buildings, the streetcar and the Christmas tree/scenery – has a separate instruction booklet, allowing up to four pals to build together at once. Of course, that means the division of labour isn’t entirely proportional: whoever gets to assemble the Xmas tree will be done long before everyone else.
It's a compartmentalised build for a compartmentalised set, which – when all’s said and done – feels disparate in a way that no Winter Village model has for a while.
That’s not inherently a bad thing, but it does mean that the 1,514 pieces here are stretched pretty thinly between its four separate components. It’s actually the tram that gets the most love, with instructions (and additional pieces) included to incorporate Powered Up components, which makes sense given this is the first vehicle of its kind in the Winter Village Collection.
The end result, though, is that the rest of the set feels a little lacking – most prominently those two buildings, the interior space of which reaches five studs at the maximum. That makes them the shallowest buildings in the entire Winter Village line-up (with the exception of 10235 Winter Village Market’s stalls), so there’s not a whole lot of room for interior detail, but they do make efficient use of what little space there is: the kitchen built into the apartment above the music store feels straight out of a modular building, while the products lining the shelves of the toy store are fun little sub-assemblies.
Those interiors are really the most enjoyable part of this entire build, which is ultimately over far too quickly – and far too easily – for both its price and the 18+ tag on the box. It circles back round to 10308 Holiday Main Street feeling muddled in its pitch: this is a simple build, relatively free of interesting building techniques, and is clearly designed for play first and foremost. The official lifestyle images even show a parent and kid playing together. But then why market it towards adults? Why go with that awful box art?
Changing the packaging wouldn’t change what’s inside the set, of course, but it would at least help to adjust expectations. If you’re hoping for a Creator Expert level of build from 10308 Holiday Main Street, you’ll probably be disappointed. If you’re instead just looking for a quick and easy addition to your Winter Village, you might be a little more pleased – but only if you’re also happy with a set that seems weirdly restrained in its festivities.
Where some Winter Village models embrace the sillier side of Christmas – 10245 Santa’s Workshop, 10275 Elf Club House and so on – others lean into a more realistic (but still magical) depiction of the season. 10308 Holiday Main Street has gone almost too far that way, stripping away the bright colours of its predecessors to leave us with a drab mix of nougat, olive green and tan, with a small smattering of red and green.
It’s maybe more reflective of a real-life high street, with limited décor on its storefronts, but comes across more ‘downtown’ than ‘village’ – and ultimately doesn’t quite jive with the rest of the Winter Village Collection. It’s not entirely without its charm, but there’s definitely less of it here.
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street minifigures ---
Six minifigures are included to embellish the scene, offering a nice mix of ages, genders and styles. They’re all reasonably generic, as you’d expect from a set like this, but there are a couple of stand-out parts, like the tram conductor’s torso – previously exclusive to 21335 Motorised Lighthouse – and the toy store owner’s sweater.
A proper ugly Christmas sweater might have sweetened the deal, but there’s enough here to populate everything included, even if this is the only LEGO set you own. You can’t ask for much more than that. (Those alternate carol-singing faces are great, too.)
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street price ---
While prices across the LEGO portfolio soar – including on last year’s
As is, you won’t need to cancel Christmas to be able to afford this one. Phew.
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street pictures ---
--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street pros and cons ---
When is a LEGO Winter Village set not a LEGO Winter Village set? When it’s a LEGO CITY set with a bit of snow and a Christmas tree. That’s really what 10308 Holiday Main Street feels like, for better and worse: it’s taking the annual subtheme to new places, sure, but it’s also perhaps leaving behind the charm and festivity that distinguished it from the rest of the LEGO line-up in the first place.
There’s fun to be had here, but you might end up giving in to the urge to swap out some of the colours, add a little more snow and sprinkle around a few more festive decorations. That's the beauty of LEGO, but you'd expect a Winter Village set to be good to go out of the box – no matter what's on the front of it.
| Pros | Cons |
| Tram is substantial, and can be motorised easily | Doesn’t feel festive enough for a Winter Village set |
| Decent selection of seasonally-appropriate minifigures | Buildings are very shallow, and feel like CITY models |
| Fun interior details in the buildings | Colours are a little drab for Xmas |
This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.
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--- LEGO Winter Village 10308 Holiday Main Street alternatives ---
If you want something a little more festive, aim for the retiring 10275 Elf Club House or even last year’s
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