LEGO Creator Expert Winter Holiday Train 10254 Christmas Train Set with Full Circle Train Track, Locomotive, and Spinning Christmas Tree Toy (734 Pieces) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

The train is cute - I like that it is modeled after the old train engines. As far as the set itself, it pretty much met my expectations. But function-wise, it's very poor quality. The first problem I noticed was that the tree doesn't spin. To make it spin you have to push down on the cart when you move the train; otherwise there is not enough friction to get the wheels that spin the tree turning. This was the only problem I noticed in using the set without the power functions. Once you add the power functions... As others have observed, the battery box is a bit of an eye sore. But I wouldn't mind so much if the functions themselves worked as you'd expect them to. But they don't. The engine isn't heavy enough to pull all the carts on its own. It'll go a bit and then sit there with its wheels spinning, unable to pull forward. I know others have complained about this already but it really is a problem. To fix this, I followed another reviewers suggestion and put loom bands on the wheels. I also put bands on the wheels that make the tree spin, which fixed that problem too. Once fixed, the power functions work nicely. The noise the power functions make is a little annoying, but if you have the train going fast enough the chugging on the tracks mostly drowns out the little "beep" the power functions make. The only other thing I want to say is that I wish it came with some straight tracks, rather than all curved pieces. The circle the tracks make is just a little too big for my lego table, so there are two spots where the track is "floating" slightly over the edge of the table. I think it would look cute under a small Christmas tree though (it looks too small for a bigger tree. Not that it wouldn't fit around it but it would probably get lost under the branches.). Bottom line: Cute train, a great addition to the Winter Village. If you want the tree to spin, either put loom bands on the wheels under it or use that cart to push the train around. If you want the power functions, put loom bands on the engine's wheels. I think Lego should work on giving the train wheels more friction in general - maybe they could fuse some rubber traction onto the wheels or provide bands for them? Not everyone has loom bands :P.

We love this Christmas train!! We added some straight track to make it an oval under the tree. My grandson helped me put it together and he really enjoyed the little toys, especially the fire engine with the moving ladder. We already had the power functions since we motorized our Lone Ranger Train so we just used those. The bright colors are delightful and it went together very easily.

I just recently started to get into Lego again - and when I ordered the winter village I saw the Winter train and had to get it too. I've built it in a bit over 2 hours - and have been sitting driving my train in circles for another half hour, as the tree spins so nicely when the train is moving... ;) I love the details and how many little extras come with it - I would definitely purchase it again and am very, very happy with it!

Thoroughly enjoyed adding this Christmas train to our LEGO Winter Wonderland Village in our hobby room. The train has wonderful markings and has lots of potential for modification and expansion - which we always love to do. We have motorized our train following the suggestion in the LEGO manual and have had no issues with wheel slippage as mentioned in other reviews and we have created sloped track and bridges which the train negotiates really well. We suspect the issue with wheel slippage may be arising from snug wheels in the Christmas Tree carriage. It is important to carefully follow the diagram on the bottom of page 55 in the instruction booklet which shows you must leave small gaps assuring the wheels rotate well. We believe this will solve any slippage problem. As to the aesthetics of the coal carriage once motorized, this we solved very easily by raising the walls of the carriage with additional black bricks from our LEGO brick stock. We even decided to dress it up by adding Pearl Gold slope pieces on top, completely hiding the battery box, yet allowing easy access to the the power buttons and for removal to change or recharge the batteries. We have just ordered another set for posterity and for future grandchildren.