All Aboard The LEGO Disney Celebration Train (43212)!

April is finally here and with it a ton of new LEGO sets, including a few celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Disney!

Thankfully the 1st landed on a day I had off work so I nipped to my local LEGO store in Southampton, UK, to grab some goodies. I knew I wanted to pickup the LEGO Minecraft BrickHeadz, LEGO Indiana Jones Plane Chase (77012) and of course the brand new LEGO Disney 4+ Celebration Train (43212), the latter is up for review here.

The Box & Contents:

The box features the set in question, being 4+ the graphics have plenty of space to breathe to give the young LEGO fan something to focus on without being to over-crowding. Along with the bright colours and recognisable characters the box is nice to look at, the back of the box is features slightly more with all the Minifigures, builds and accessories laid out in an eye pleasing way, I wish older aged sets had this feature, would make choosing a set that much easier knowing exactly what’s inside.

Inside the box are 5 numbered bags plus an extra filled with train bases and the Pirate sail. Each bag comprises of a single section of the Train, this is a fabulous idea and splits up the set nicely, there are even separate instruction manuals too. You and some friends could build their own section, joining them together at the end once everyone is done.

The Build & Minifigures:

As mentioned above each bag constructs a different section of the Train, so here we’ll run through the individual carriages.

The first one is obviously the Train engine itself, this features Mickey Mouse. Being a 4+ set the build isn’t taxing at all, with larger parts to handle and no stickers you’ll complete each section rather quickly, granted AFOLs (adult fan of LEGO) aren’t the intended consumer here so don’t expect anything highly detailed and fiddly.

That being said the Train engine does look good, with it’s basic curves, funnels, Disney logo at the front and the printed 2×4 brick slap-bang in the centre. Pop Mickey Mouse onboard and you have a solid start to the build.

The Minifigure is done extremely well, with his Train driver outfit complex with pocket watch. He is also exclusive to the set, which is great news for collectors, in fact checking Bricklink and confirming to confirm my findings, all Minifigures in this set are exclusive!

Peter Pan & Tinkerbell are next in line with their Pirate ship themed carriage. The Skull & Crossbones sail is the key feature here and one to get the LEGO Pirate fans months watering. The sail simply pops over the top of the mast and secured in place by the red flag. This element comes safely stored in a smaller box just like capes do, thanks LEGO for looking matter these fabric pieces.

The Minifigures look great, finally appearing in a set together. We’ve had both characters before in LEGO form, Peter Pan was part of the first Disney CMF (Collectable Minifigures) and Tinkerbell was exclusive to the large Disney Castle set. Both look stunning but Tinkerbell definitely steals the show here, here transparent wings are stunning.

Woody next and his Cowboy themed carriage, complete with Cactus, Barrel and printed Sheriff sign. He is standing on a round brick that rotates yet no other cogs or gears are present to make it spin when the Train moves, rendering it pointless.

The Minifigure however is great and again exclusive to the set, yet we have had a plethora of Woodys over the last couple of years thanks to the LEGO Toy Story sets, making this particular Minifigure over done and unneeded, perhaps a different character would have suited better?

This is perhaps the most anticipated Minifigure of the set, Moana, her first appearance as a LEGO Minifigure!

The printing and overall look of her is great, capturing the essence of the character. Complete with an oar, Moana is ready to set on her Ocean themed carriage, half is covered with rock pieces whilst the foreground is the Sea.

Last but not least is Minnie Mouse and her small Cake stand build. Different to the carriages Minnie Mouse is in charge of the celebrations when the Train arrives, or at least that’s what I got from it. The Minifigure is done well and even comes with a new polkadot skirt piece, which is a little fiddly to put on and arrange, getting the creases right is easy enough but doesn’t take a couple of attempts to get perfect.

Overall the set is good and perfect for it’s intended audienceof 4+.

The real draw of the set for AFOLs are the Minifigures, with a great selection of characters on offer the £34.99 price tag is rather good. Finally getting a Moana Minifigure is the icing on the cake, not just for Disney fans but LEGO fans too.

As an AFOL I will pop the Minifigures on display and most likely partout the carriages into my spares, ready for building MOCs (my own creation). Although this would make an awesome.shelf sitter.

I highly recommend picking up this set when you can as it tends to sell out quickly, when writing this review the set is currently out of stock at LEGO.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this review, I really appreciate your time and support.