The upcoming gift with purchase for December is a small outdoor ice skating rink. This gift with purchase, a promotional limited time set available from Lego stores and the Lego online store, will be included for free with a purchase of $150.

The Set

The most prominent feature of this set is the gears that allow the minifigures to circle and pirouette the ice rink. This set would complement an existing Lego town and works well as a holiday display piece.

If the parts listing in the directions are accurate, the unofficial piece count for the set comes to 303 pieces and a few extra pieces in case you lose one. (Since the box did not include the piece count, I calculated this on my own in a spreadsheet.) It measures approximately 5 in (12.7cm) width x 5 ⅝ in (14.29 cm) depth x 3 ¾ in (9.53 cm) height.

It includes two minifigures, four ice skates, two pine trees, one street lamp, a fountain, a beverage stand, two mugs, and an ice rink on a snowy platform.

The Minifigures

The two minifigures include one female and one male. The female minifigure has blonde hair in a ponytail, a red scarf, a white sweater with a grey pattern, and light green pants.

The male minifigure has a blue beanie, a red zip up sweater with a white pattern, and dark blue pants. The holiday sweaters, skates, scarf, and beanie will be very useful for any winter themed photos.

Both minifigures have different smiling faces on both sides.

The Build

I found the miniature scene and the movement of the minifigures spinning round and round very appealing.

While it was fun to watch the gears move at first, they had a tendency to stick a bit. There are many small parts above and below the gears that, if not aligned absolutely correctly, would cause friction in the gears.

I had originally intended on recording a simple video of me turning the gears, but the jerkiness of the movement made me adjust my plans. I made a stop motion gif instead, so that I could smooth out the speed of the movement.

Photographing the Scene

In terms of how well the set photographs, I had to make a few adjustments first. The gears over the top of the ice made it so that it was hard to tell it was a skating rink. If there was a way to have the ice above the gears, instead of below it, the whole set would have been more photograph friendly.

Having the fountain right in the middle of everything had the effect of turning it into a third character. In order to create a scene, I ended up removing the gears, as well as the fountain.

Setting up the scene, I first laid out an inexpensive LED light string that lets you change the colors. The lights underneath gave the snow some color, instead of grey when doing a night scene. I then added some boxes to elevate parts of the terrain, making it not quite so flat. For snow, I laid a sheet of cotton batting. The set was then placed on top of the cotton batting.

I had just purchased some non-Lego tiny LED lights, and they were perfect for inside the street lamp and under the awning of the beverage stand. With the room lights off, I then shot the scenes with a long exposure and light painted the ambient light with a children’s light tracing pad. 

Conclusion

This set has many fun elements that would be great for winter scenes.  I would give this set 8/10, knocking off two points for the sticky gears and the gears over the ice that didn’t photograph well. The winter outfits, the skates, trees, and beverage stand are very useful elements that can be repurposed for numerous stories.