Christmas is a little less than a month away and LEGO sales and deals have hit the markets. One of the ways the LEGO Company increases sales is by offering exclusive Christmas themed sets. See my review of last year's sets here. This year one of those sets is the Snowglobe (#40223). It was available to VIP members in the US about a week prior to the Brick Friday sales for orders over $99 and then it was open to all for orders over $99 on the Brick Friday weekend. It contains 215 pieces and like most years the price on the secondary markets goes up pretty quickly. I ordered a few things in the week prior to Brick Friday and received a set so here is my review.
The container is similar to previous years. The front has a limited edition stamp in the upper right corner. The back just shows that it has a drawer you can open. Magically, the round 1x1 tile pieces are floating in the air.
Set contents are 3 bags of bricks and an instruction booklet.
Onto the build... it starts off with the drawer portion of the set. The 1x2 bricks with the brick-like tile design on the side in the brick red color are new (to me). I think it's a great color and I hope to see it more often in more sets. Has it appeared elsewhere?
The next picture adds the Santa figure. I haven't compared him to the Santa figures of the past, but I think it's pretty good. The hat design seems new, but the beard is the same as previous Santas.
Here's the final set with the globe portion complete. The Christmas tree inside fits nicely. It doesn't have a lot of detail, but looks decent considering the space available. The greenery on the top doesn't do much for me, but they had to do something on the top. The picture on the right shows the drawer open. I don't know what you'd want to put in there, but it's a nice part of the design.
Normally now is the time that I either recommend or tell you to avoid buying a set. I can't do that this time because the set isn't available anymore. If you want to buy it, you have to check out the secondary market. I haven't looked to see what the prices are, but my guess is around $30. While I'm no expert, my recommendation would be to wait for Christmas to be over and to look to buy this set in the summer when there probably isn't a lot of interest. Usually the prices go back up and they start to move faster before Christmas so pick one up before next Christmas if you're interested in one.
Happy Building!