Review of the CR001 Christmas Vacation House building set from LesDIY

 

Hey brick fans!

I was super excited when LesDiy sent me this Christmas Vacation set to review.  As a die-hard fan of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, recreating the pieces from the movie was really special to me.

This Lego compatible set features 1958 pieces and promises a great recreation of the film's key elements: the sprawling Griswold house and garage, Cousin Eddie's shabby RV, the Family Truckster station wagon topped with an absurdly massive Christmas tree, and even a whimsical sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. Notably absent are any minifigures, but the included battery-powered LED lighting kit adds a festive glow that compensates nicely.

LesDiy is a Hong Kong-based toy company founded in 2014 that designs and sells custom building block sets, particularly MOCs (My Own Creations), in collaboration with independent designers. They are known for offering alternative, LEGO-compatible bricks at a fair price and focus on quality and high-quality materials. The company works with hundreds of designers to bring their MOCs to a wider audience.  


On LesDiy.com, the Christmas Vacation set retails for  $119.99.

And it's 83.99 Eur on the sister site LesDiy.de.

But because I'm a LesDIY affiliate, you can save 20% off the retail price just by using my code itsnotlego20 at checkout!

Unboxing

Alright let's check out the set!  The Christmas Vacation House building block set comes in a nice sturdy and colourful box.  It has a code CR001 with an age rating of 8+, showing the number of pieces as 1958 with set dimensions of 46x27x20cm.  The sides of the box say Merry Christmas and Christmas Vacation.

Upon opening the box, I found an instruction manual, a small sticker sheet, a lighting kit and a good assortment of numbered bags of parts.

A quick perusal of the 204 page manual shows clear and concise instructions, divided up over 7 sections.

The small sticker sheet has a holiday wreath, and rust stains that are to be applied to the RV.

A very nice bonus in the set is this LED lighting kit.  It's not the cheap string lightings you get in some other off brand sets.  This one features separate LED light strips, connecting wires, expansion board and battery pack.  I didn't use the battery pack but I believe you need to provide your own 3 AAA batteries.

All the parts come in numbered bags that correspond to the sections in the manual.
Top row is the parts for steps 1, 2 and 3.
Middle row is parts for steps 4, 5 and 6.
Bottom row is parts for step 7, baseplates, and just a view of the box contents.

The sequence of steps for the build is as follows:

Steps 1 and 2: Griswold House main floor
Steps 3 and 4: Griswold House second floor, roof and lighting
Step 5: Garage
Step 6: Cousin Eddie's RV
Step 7: Family Truckster and sleigh


Building the Christmas Vacation House (Steps 1 and 2) 


First we construct the irregularly shaped base which is 38 studs wide by 16 studs deep at their maximum points.

Next we construct the main floor which consists of a dining room and a sitting room.  The dining room comes with lots of accessories, such as a fireplace, a dining table with 4 chairs, curtains for the windows and an assortment of food and tableware.

The sitting room comes with a big comfy chair, a side table and lamp, a coffee table with teapot and cup, another ornamental table with flowers and a christmas tree.

Here's a  pleasant surprise, I was not expecting to find a good assortment of printed pieces in the set.  I should add that the brick quality and clutch feels just like Gobricks, it's that good.

For step 2, we construct the main floor walls, doors and windows and an extra fireplace to boot.

This is what the exterior of the main floor looks like after step 2.

We get some snow covered trees and plants and a small snowman out front.

Building the Christmas Vacation House (Steps 3 and 4) 

Here's the second floor of the Griswold house.

This is Clark's office with bookshelf, a desk and chair, drapes and a phone.  On the desk is a nod to the Christmas Vacation movie, where Clark gets a subscription to the Jelly of the Month Club!

Next to the office is the bedroom, furnished with drapes, a large bed and chest of drawers.

The exterior of the second floor.

Yay, more printed parts!  Of note, the window glass gets printed muntin bars.

Here's how the Griswold House looks after step 4 with roofing completed and brickwork added for the fireplace chimneys.  An extra accessory is the long ladder which reaches all the way up to the snow covered roof.  I can't say that I'm a fan of the 4 dormer windows considering there's no roofing around them.

Ok, here's the backside of the Griswold house.  While the second floor is removable from the first floor, the open back is clearly more representative of a dollhouse than a modular building.

This is the completed house before the lighting is added.  I don't know why but the house looks fairly proportional in this picture, but IRL I find the house is just a bit too squat.  Given the chance, I would probably add another row of bricks to the main floor for extra height.  Still looks pretty decent.  I'll review the rest of the set before I review the lighting.

Building The Garage (Step 5)



The Griswold garage is about 10 studs deep and about 18 studs wide.  It's not deep enough to actually park a vehicle inside.  What we do find is a ping pong table, some boxes and a snow shovel.  The roof is snow covered.  Would have been nice if the set included led lights for the garage, but alas nope.

Building Cousin Eddie's RV (step 6)


The RV is six studs wide and is fairly detailed on the outside with a storage compartment, opening door and side mirrors.  I like the two tone colour with the brown trim accents.

The front grill features a christmas wreath but no headlights.

Not sure what the two notches on the back of the RV are supposed to represent, bike carrier maybe?

The RV roof is removable, but the interior is sparse with only a driver's seat and steering wheel.

Building the Sleigh and Family Truckster (step 7)

Here's the reindeer and sleigh.  The sleigh is pretty basic and the reindeer is brick built.  Can't complain too much because it's another bonus feature of the set.


The family Truckster has wood panelling on the side but is way too short to be a station wagon.  In fact it looks more like something out of a Simpson's cartoon.  The headlights don't match the movie version either.

I liked the construction of the giant tree though. It attaches and holds quite well to the station wagon.



Lighting the Christmas Vacation House


The LED light kit includes lighting for both the interior and exterior of the Christmas Vacation house.  There is a convenient slot in which to hold the battery pack and the light strings span both the main and second floors of the home.

The set really shines on the outside with a combination of bright white LED lights on the roof and multi-coloured lights on the ground floor.

Here's another shot with the sleigh on the roof.

What's Missing from this set?


Why, the Griswold family of course!  Its too bad the Christmas Vacation set doesn't come with any minifigures, otherwise the set would be near perfect.  I decided to make my own versions of the Griswolds: Clark, Ellen, Audrey and Rusty with a Santa Claus in the sleigh.

Final Thoughts


This was a really fun set to build and it exceeded most of my expectations.  The brick quality and clutch were first class, with no issues of loose fitting bricks or scuffed or cloudy transparent parts.  I was expecting stickers but there were a lot of printed parts on the house.   Each room of the Christmas Vacation house was generously detailed with some references to the National Lampoon movie.  The easy to install lighting kit was the cherry on top.

Design wise, I thought the set captured the essence of the Griswold house athough I wasn't a fan of the dormer windows on the roof.  I thought the inclusion of the garage and Santa's sleigh were nice touches despite being quite basic.   The RV and the family Truckster were adequate representations of the movie versions and make nice props for  a Winter village diorama.

In summary, the LesDIY Christmas Vacation set would look perfect  in any Christmas/Winter village and an awesome set for fans of the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie.   Best time is now to get it in time for Christmas!

This set is fairly exclusive to LesDIY.  I checked Rebrickable to see if it was someone's specific MOC but didn't find it there.  At the time of this writing, I also checked Barweer/Youmko, Yourwobb, JMBricklayer and Afobrick as well, but did not find this set there either.  Amazon has similar Christmas Vacation building block sets but not this particular set, so if you like it, feel free to check it out on LesDIY's websites (LesDIY.com and LesDIY.de)




Set Details


Set Name and Number:  LesDIY CR001 Christmas Vacation Holiday Home
Piece Count: 1958 pieces
Stickers: Yes
Printed Parts: Yes
Age Rating: 8+
Minifigures: No
LED Light Kit: Yes

What's included:  Griswold House, Garage, Ernie's RV, Family Truckster, and Santa's Sleigh

Where to get it:  

In Europe:

If you like, please feel free to use my code itsnotlego20 to get 20% off your entire purchase on LesDIY.
Thanks again for getting this far in the review!   Hope you liked it and see you next time!

#lesdiy #christmasvacation #wintervillage