Review: 10250 Creator - Year of the Snake

[Hey Joe]

Please allow me to introduce you to a unique set for my first Eurobricks review.

Rumors of this limited-to-China set started swirling around in (what was it?) late 2012 and many thought that it was just a hoax.

However in late-January 2013 it started appearing on shelves here in Beijing, so being a Lego fan and living in China how could I not buy it? Even the better half understood the logic of that and I got no resistance on that front.

Brickset informed me that someone had reported buying it in Shanghai at CarreFour so I hustled around the block to the one near me to find it...nowhere in sight.

Luckily, there's a new mall near my home that has both a Lego shop (not a 'real' Lego shop but close enough) AND a Toys R Us, both of whom stock it. Surprisingly it was cheaper at Toys R Us (about US$ 50), especially since I had a small gift certificate from them for my young son's birthday. He didn't complain as he had just gotten a bunch of Duplo for his birthday. Thanks Toys R Us!

It's a high quality box and similar to the ones that the Architecture series come in (I think). It's 38cm wide, 26cm tall and nearly 7cm deep.

Sorry but I don't really read Chinese, maybe I can get my translator to help me during the week next week and I can edit this post at a later date but here are the other views of the box.

The back:

One side:

Another side:

Another side:

It says the set is made in Denmark in English on this side. I believe the white sticker says that the set was imported by Kidsland (which I think is another joint-venture with Toys R Us) but the set was more expensive at the Kidsland Lego shop. Business in China is very confusing!

Ok, let's open this thing up and see what we got!

The suspense is building...

Well, ok, I think I see why the box is so big now.

It very much reminds me of a moon cake gift box. If you've ever been to China during one of their major holidays or are familiar with (Mainland?) Chinese culture, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every manner of thing, you name it; soy sauce, olive oil, cookies, eggs, wine, cigarettes, etc., etc. is packaged into a fancy box so that it can be given as a gift. Premium toys can now be added to that list I guess.

Moon cakes initially came to my mind as they were a major offender in the package-size in relation to the product-size department until the government cracked down and issued regulations about box size a few years back. Let's hope this set is within the limit.

This is what's in the box:

I'm not really sure what to think of the little clear plastic box.

It's a nice box and everything but it's either totally unnecessary or I need about two thousand of them (at no more than US$ 1 each, thank you).

There's a cool drawing of a snake in the compartment that holds the bricks and manuals.

Speaking of manuals, you get three. There's the manual for 10250, the cover for it is the image that opens this review and it contains the instructions for the snake and the gate. There are also two manuals that were in 6914. T-Rex:

and the others:

There's also an A4-sized poster of the Win! kid that no one seems to like (poor guy must have a complex if he reads Eurobricks) in Chinese.

Here are a couple scans from the manual for 10250. The completed snake:

and the completed gate:

If you would like to download the small manuals for yourself, here are the links.

- 6914 part 1

- 6914 part 2

- 10250

Here's the front of the gate (the round door part is the only unique part to this set) with a minifig added for scale. I'm reasonably certain that the Chinese character is the one for snake.

and the back:

Initially I thought it was kinda lame that the door was in one piece (and still kinda do) but I guess it's because there's no structural support to keep it from toppling over if it were in two parts and could be opened.

All of the parts in the bag that contains the round gate build this gate structure so the snake must be built from the same parts that make 6914 I'm guessing? I've not yet had the time to build the other models but I will in the coming weeks and will post them after I do.

Ok, that just about wraps it up for today. A few last words; like I said previously, I'm a fan of Lego and living in China so how could I not buy the first set made specifically for this amazing country?

It's an expensive set but all of them are here, sets cost about twice as much as the US retail price.

It will be really cool if Lego does this every year for every animal in the Chinese zodiac, won't it?

Hope you enjoyed reading this review. I've joined Reviewer's Academy but I'm finding the seamless white background problematic in an apartment with a three year old on the loose!

Joe

Edited April 7, 2013 by Rufus
Indexed

[Devorath]

Nice review! I wish this set was available in other countries, as I want the pieces for the gate. He container would probably end up being used to store leftovers for the next day!

Edited March 30, 2013 by Devorath

[Lyichir]

What a beautiful set! I hope they continue to do this in subsequent years!

[antp]

Nice exotic review :D

Brickset informed me that someone had reported buying it in Shanghai at CarreFour

Funny to see "Carrefour" written like that :D It is originally a French word, not carre + four ;) (even if originally it probably comes from "carre" somehow)

[Hey Joe]

Nice exotic review :D

Funny to see "Carrefour" written like that :D It is originally a French word, not carre + four ;) (even if originally it probably comes from "carre" somehow)

Well, I was tempted to write it 'Jia Le Fu' which is how I usually say it (in Chinese)!

Glad you guys 'n' gals like the review, I was happy to contribute it to the community.

Joe

[aemil]

Nice review Joe, it looks like a good set,

I wish this set was available in other countries, as I want the pieces for the gate

and indeed, this gate piece is somehow really cool