HOLIDAY MAIN STREET (10308) REVIEW

Holiday Main Street (10308) is the latest set in the LEGO® Winter Village Collection. This is the largest set in the collection to date, just edging out Winter Village Cottage (10229), Gingerbread House (10267), and Santa’s Visit (10293). Holiday Main Street is the perfect hub for the other village-based sets like the Winter Village Fire Station (10263) and Winter Village Station (10259), in addition to some of the older sets. A highlight of this set is definitely the trolley. Additionally, the buildings have an open back to make it easier to bring the scene to life through play. There are lots of great details in this set so let’s take a closer look!

NOTE: The LEGO® Group provided this set for review. However, the provision of products does not guarantee a favorable review. I will use the usual True North Bricks rating system (click here for more information) and provide my honest opinion.

HOLIDAY MAIN STREET (10308) SUMMARY

• NAME: Holiday Main Street
• SET #: 10308
• THEME: Icons (Winter Village Collection)
• COST: $129.99 CAD
• BRICK COUNT: 1,514
• MINIFIGURES: 6
• RELEASE DATE: October 7, 2022 (VIP early access Oct 3, 2022)
• COST/BRICK: $0.09
• BRICK-TO-FIG RATIO: 252:1
• DIMENSIONS: 10cm (h) x 17cm (w) x 7cm (l)
• OF NOTE: Trolley works with Powered Up app (components sold separately)

HOLIDAY MAIN STREET (10308) QUICK REVIEW

• VALUE: 91% (very good value)
• BUILD: 85%
• MINIFIGURES: 78%
• ENTERTAINMENT: 85%
• OVERALL SCORE: 85% (good solid performer)

HOLIDAY MAIN STREET (10308) REVIEW

VALUE: 91%

Holiday Main Street (10308) will cost you $129.99 CAD for 1,514 pieces. This translates to a cost per brick of $0.086 which equates to a score of over 100% when compared to other 18+ sets. The score drops slightly to 97% when compared to all sets. Averaging both scores still results in an exceptional score of 99%. This is fantastic value and rather unexpected especially given the recent price increase of many adult oriented LEGO® sets (see our articles here and here). This set is available October 7, 2022 or VIP’s can pick it up early on October 3, 2022.

It took me just over 3 hours to turn the 1,514 pieces into the Holiday Main Street. This results in a cost per minute of $0.71 which earns a score of 78% when compared to other 18+ sets. When compared to all sets reviewed by True North Bricks the score jumps to 87%. Averaging both these scores gives a final cost-per-minute score of 83%. Taking an average of the cost per brick and the cost per minute gives an overall value score of 91%. This is very good value.

BUILD: 85%

Upon opening the Holiday Main Street (10308) set box I was pleasantly surprised to see a cardboard slip for the instructions. I hadn’t expected them to have printing, especially on both sides. I am really happy to see a reduction in single-use plastic, and it makes storing the manuals much nicer.

This set also comes with four separate manuals so that you can build with friends and family. A perfect holiday activity! There is also a sticker sheet. However, it would have been nice to get a few of these as printed tiles, especially the 2×6 stickers as they are harder to put on evenly. Inside the box you will also find 11 set bags numbered from 1 through 7 as well as a loose 6×16 dark red plate.

Trolley

The trolley is a nice little build and it uses some unexpected techniques. In particular, the instructions have you place tile on tile as well as plate on tile. I am not sure the reason for this but perhaps it is to make it easier to take apart.

I really like the design of the double-sided trolley bench. Quite often we see benches and chairs without studs resulting in minifigures easily falling off. In contrast, the trolley has five exposed studs on each side to ensure passengers stay on board. This is particularly important if you decide to motorize your trolley.

There are additional instructions provided if you do decide to motorize the trolley. However, the Powered Up components are sold separately. As I was building the roof of the trolley I was wondering about the odd placement of the four 45 degree 1×2 roof tiles. In turns out that they are hidden in the roof and are only needed if you want to secure the wiring from a battery box.

The trolley roof also includes eight of the new 1x1x2/3 plates with open stud in red. I love these pieces and think they will be useful for MOCs (My Own Creations), especially given their open studs. The trolley uses two 3×6 bogies and can run on standard LEGO® tracks. However, this set does not include any track.

Village scene

In addition to the buildings and trolley, Holiday Main Street (10308) also includes additional small builds for the village scene. These include a sidewalk with mailbox and a street sign/clock combination. The street sign (Main St.) matches the destination on the trolley. There is also a nicely constructed Christmas tree. I really like how the lights are embedded between the wing plates.

The music shop

There are two village shops in the Holiday Main Street (10308) set. I prefer the exterior of H. Jollie’s Music Store over Santa’s Toys and Games shop. The music store has medium nougat masonry bricks that look great with the dark blue windows and red awnings. The down-spout using the silver candle sticks is a nice touch, and necessary especially if you live on the West coast like I do. I also really like the snow line of the roof. The organic shape is created by various plates including the newer 4×2 wedge plate and 6×2 wedge plate.

The interior of the music shop has lots of details. There are tons of instruments including a violin and white guitar. I love the old fashioned sand green cash register.

The apartment upstairs is less of an apartment and more of a kitchen… or at least half of one. To make the space work, they even included half a table. An extra two extra studs in depth would have been nice. However, I do like the sand green tea pot and the sand blue cupboards. There is also a cool printed tile used as backsplash. Additionally, there is a fun nod to another Winter Village set – the Gingerbread House (10267) – hanging on the wall.

Interestingly, the roof of the music shop building has hinges that allow it to open easily. This feels like a lost opportunity since there is no attic floor. It would have been a great spot to hide an extra little detail, like Santa’s toy sack or even a rat.

The toy shop

The lower floor of the Santa’s Toys and Games store has an interesting exterior. It is made using SNOT (studs not on top) elements. Additionally, the windows actually use standard 1x4x6 door frames that are partially obscured by tiles. The garland is a neat touch. However, I have trouble seeing the cherries as holly berries. The exterior of the upper floor lacks texture though it does have architectural detail around the windows and along the roofline. The blue bird perched on the windowsill is a nice touch.

The interior of the toy shop has a stuffed bunny as well as various brick built toys. Some are more obvious than others, like the train and robot. In contrast, I am not entirely sure what the green and trans tower represent, or the pink 1×1 round plate.

The apartment upstairs is nicely furnished. However, it is more like half of a room in an apartment rather than a full apartment. That said, the tiny Christmas tree is nicely done and there is even room for a few presents. I love the use of the dark turquoise log profile bricks as the bedding. There is also a cute lamp and a wish list for Santa. Unfortunately, it is a sticker rather than a printed tile. One noticeable absence in this apartment is the lack of artwork on the wall.

Putting it all together

The overall build experience was enjoyable. There are no complex techniques which could make it a bit boring for some folks. However, the simplicity of it also makes it the perfect set to build while watching your favourite holiday movie. The construction of the trolley was the most interesting and really adds a lot to the set. The buildings have some nice details but they could have been a bit bigger. Overall, I give the Holiday Main Street (10308) a build score of 85%.

MINIFIGURES: 78%

There are six minifigures in this set for a ratio of 252 bricks per minifigure. When comparing the ratio to other 18+ sets, the Holiday Main Street (10308) does extremely well at about 98%. However, when compared to all themes reviewed by True North Bricks the rating drops to 64%. Thus, the brick to minifigure score for this set is 81%. In addition to quantity, the quality of the minifigures is also important.

Citizens of main street

Half of the minifigures have duel-sided heads including the two female-coded shoppers and the little kid. The first shopper has a pink and purple sweater and sand blue pants. One of her expressions is a fairly standard smiling face. The other side is a wider open-mouthed smile with eyes shut. She has black hair in a bob.

The other female-coded shopper also has a pretty standard smiling face on one side. Her other expression features an open mouth that could be talking, yawning, or singing. Her eyes are also closed. She is wearing a green sweater with dark blue pants. Her long wavy black hair is tucked under a dark red toque.

Lastly, the only child minifigure in this set has short legs and is wearing a light blue snowsuit with a red and white pattern. They have an open mouth smile with two front teeth visible. Instead of hair they have a red and tan winter hat, as well as grey hands (gloves). Their other expression is an open mouth talking/yelling, again showing two front teeth.

Village employees

I really like the conductor with his dark blue suit and matching hat. He has a pocket watch tucked into his front pocket as every conductor should. He has a friendly male-coded face with wrinkles and black moustache. Unfortunately, he only has a single expression. I suppose the hat was more important than hair which would have hidden the alternate expression. However, it would have been nice if his only expression was open-mouthed as if to yell, “All aboard!”.

There are also two shop keepers in this set. The first is the female-coded toy store shop keeper. She has on a fantastic orange, yellow and tan argyle sweater vest over a white blouse and dark brown pants. She has a smiling face with glasses and dark orange hair in a bun. I really love this minifigure even though she only has a single expression.

The other shop keeper is male-coded and has a friendly smile. He has a dark grey beard and moustache that match his dark grey receding hair. He is wearing a red shirt with blue suspenders and dark tan pants. He is ready for work with is tan tie. Similar to the other shop keeper, he has no secondary facial expression despite having hair that would hide it.

Overall, the design of the minifigures is pretty good. The secondary expressions on half of the figures are really great. Additionally, I love all the sweaters and especially the argyle sweater vest. However, I think LEGO® missed a great opportunity to have an open-mouthed conductor. Unfortunately, none of the minifigures have printed legs. For these reasons, I give this set a minifigure design score of 75%. Averaging the design score with the with the brick to minifigure ratio, the overall minifigure score is 78%.

ENTERTAINMENT: 85%           

After building all the elements of the Holiday Main Street (10308), it reminded me of the ceramic Lemax buildings and accessories displayed during the holidays. The separate buildings and other elements allow you to arrange the scene in an endless number of ways. Like many folks, I really like festive holidays scenes and the Holiday Main Street will be a nice addition to any layout. As mentioned, the Holiday Main Street goes well with some of the previous winter village sets. In fact, you may have noticed that the mail box has appeared in previous sets including the Winter Village Post Office (10222) and Winter Village Station (10259).

The trolley will appeal to both adults and kids. It makes a great display piece and is really fun to play with. For extra fun you can add your own LEGO® track and even level up by adding Power Up components. That said, without the need for a battery box, there is lots of room to add even more holiday shoppers from your personal collection. I also love how the advertisements on the side of the trolley connect to the shops in this set.

Both of the buildings are shallow but have loads of details. However, they are more of a façade than a full building. It would have been nice to have a couple extra studs to improve playability.

Perhaps one of the best features of this set, is that it has been intentionally designed to be built by multiple builders. The box art features the 1-4 symbol indicating that up to four people can build different components at the same time. I really like this feature, especially for a holiday set. Overall, this set earns an entertainment value of 85%.

OVERALL SCORE: 85%

Initially, when I revealed the Holiday Main Street (10308) I was a bit worried it would be a bit underwhelming, other than the trolley. However, I enjoyed the simple build experience and the playability offered by the set. Unfortunately, the small size of the buildings makes them feel slightly rushed or unfinished. That said, they are filled with details and appear to match the scale of other Winter Village sets. The Holiday Main Street will make a great addition to any Winter Village Collection, or the start of a new collection! Averaging all the score earns the Holiday Main Street an overall score of 85%. What is your favourite set from the Winter Village Collection? Will you be adding the Holiday Main Street? Have you added any of your own MOCs (My Own Creations) to your village? Tell us below or share your thoughts with us on social media!

Play well folks,

-Krista (she/her)

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