It’s beginning to look a lot like LEGO Christmas and 40573 Christmas Tree is decking the halls brick style. Blocks is taking a trip down to the Christmas tree farm to see if these are worth buying…
Christmas trees are everywhere at this time of the year. Big ones. Small ones. Some are verdant green, others are multicoloured. They can come fresh from a Christmas tree farm or be lugged down from the attic. They can be decorated in limitless ways and the personalisation options of Christmas trees is what makes them so suited to LEGO bricks.
When it comes to Christmas trees the LEGO designers are experts, as Blocks explored previously, so 40573 Christmas Tree needs to be extra special. In particular, it has to compete with its gift-with-purchase (GWP) predecessor 40338 Christmas Tree from 2019.
40573 Christmas Tree details
| LEGO set name | 40573 Christmas Tree |
| Price | £39.99, $44.99, €44.99 |
| Minifigures | 0 |
| Pieces | 784 |
40573 Christmas Tree is immediately dissimilar because it offers options for building different sizes. Fans can either build one big tree, very similar in style to 40338 Christmas Tree, or two smaller ones. It allows for multiple display options within the same box, helping to provide good value for money. Festive fanatics can also buy multiple copies to have all three on display at the same time.
There is an exciting festive feature coming in Blocks magazine Issue 98! If you take out a subscription to Blocks, the LEGO magazine for fans, you’ll get each issue first and at a discount, plus other perks including a free digital subscription and the chance to win LEGO prizes every month.
Each Christmas tree is built onto a base that acts as a tree skirt. It’s surprising how much detail has gone into this area of the build considering it’s mostly covered by the branches later on. Heart tiles and LEGO flower elements create beautiful patterns that seem reminiscent of embroidery or appliqué, adding to the charm of this set.
One thing that cannot be avoided by 40573 is the repetitiveness. Due to the very nature of a Christmas tree and its layers of boughs, the building process hardly varies throughout the model. This acts in two ways. It is slightly frustrating to be doing the same layers again and again, yet at the same time it gets easier because muscle memory means you won’t have to be consulting the instructions as closely. Not to mention the way the layers alternate via studs acting as spacers is ingenious. 40338 looked a little static, while these trees appear far more natural because the boughs point at different angles.
Another nice variation are the decorations. Each tree has a unique style. The most exciting of the three is definitely the medium size, which has ball elements in turquoise and shiny silver for the first time, alongside heart elements more commonly found in Friends sets. Then the smallest one (this is starting to sound like the Christmas version of the Three Bears) is very European, featuring candle elements all across, while pearl-gold star elements act as interpretations of woven straw decorations.
None of the trees have the working function of 40338 Christmas Tree, but that’s probably because LEGO mechanisms are quite tricky to take apart, and this set is designed to be a 3-in-1. If fans are looking to add a little LEGO Christmas cheer to a desk or side-table, then this set is one to wrap up and add to your sleigh.
SCORE: 65/100
VERDICT: Ferociously festive and with some interesting new parts, this set is perfect for fans who missed out on 40338 Christmas Tree.