Here's our review of the current Gift with Purchase (GwP), 40785 Northern Lights Diorama which ends on Monday 20 October 2025 along with the 2x points on every purchase for LEGO® Insiders!
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GwP 40785 Northern Lights Diorama
LEGO® Insiders who purchase any products that meet the minimum thresholds below get a free copy of the 40785 Northern Lights Diorama gift with purchase while stocks last, from 14 October to 20 October 2025.
Thresholds:
- US$150 on LEGO.com US
- GB£135 on LEGO.com UK
- AU$245 on LEGO.com Australia
- NZ$265 on LEGO.com New Zealand
- DE€150 on LEGO.com Deutschland
- NL€150 on LEGO.com Nederland
- FR€150 on LEGO.com France
- PLN 625 on LEGO.com Polska
- NOK 1 750 on LEGO.com Norge
- DKK 1125 on LEGO.com Danmark
Recolours
Thrillingly for a GwP, we get two new elements in this set.
- 4x +1 spare Tile Round 1 x 1 Quarter in Trans-Dark Pink (6558904 | 25269)
- 4x Tile 1 x 2 with Groove in Satin Trans-Bright Green (6353610 | 3069b)
It's nice to get these common pieces in yet more vibrant hues, and the opalescent green is certainly appropriate for the subject matter.
The build
Bags 1 and 2 create the landscape, the detail of which surprised me as it is largely covered up in the final model. As with the previous diorama GwP, 40784 African Savanna the water is made more organic by placing angled plates on top. The unusual colours in the river are of course reflections of the aurora – a delightful touch.
Bag 3 creates the sky, which is attached firmly to the brackets added in the earlier stages. This section uses both of the recolours, plus a round 1x1 tile which I was pleased to discover is a glow-in-the-dark element (6284592 | 35381). Another nice touch!
Bag 4 contains the foliage, and certainly qualifies as the "parts pack" of this GwP, as you create 4 small and 9 large snow-topped pine trees. The quantities are worth noting:
- 13x +1 spare Tile Round 1 x 1 with Hollow Bar in Reddish Brown (6186673 | 20482)
- 22x Equipment Candlestick in Dark Brown (6473752 | 37762)
- 26x +1 spare Plant, Flower Stem with Bottom Bar in Dark Green (6498565 | 24855), only in 5 other sets currently
- 13x +1 spare Plant, Flower Stem with Bottom Bar in White (6334087 | 24855)
With those plus some further small pieces added, the model is complete.
Verdict
This is the only one out of the four LEGO Wonders of the Natural World Diorama Collection GwPs not to contain any animals, which is probably due to it being in microscale.
Consequently the focus is very much on the trees, and they certainly dominate. I feel the model is a little cluttered, but obviously it's the simplest of modifications to thin out the forest.
By contrast, the aurorae are minimal, but convey the banded effect well, and the colours are spot on. As mentioned, I love the reflections. Tiles instead of plates would have made more sense there, but I expect the building instructions team would not be keen on having the similar blue and green tiles in the same bag. I suppose the studs do add a sense of sparkling water.
Our Finnish correspondent, Mr Okkonen was struck by the lack of snow. As I love on the other side of the world, I'm not so bothered by the lack of reality there, as the varied colours provide a lot of necessary visual interest. I'm not keen on the white tiles in the river though – combined with the transparent green and pink tiles, they make it look more like a magical pathway.
Those critiques aside, this is indeed a rather magical little diorama that will attract attention, and I'm happy to have these pieces in my collection.
2x Insiders points
From Tuesday 14 to end Monday 20 October 2025, members of the LEGO® Insiders loyalty programme earn 2x points on every purchase. Start that Christmas shopping!
This includes Pick a Brick (PaB), which sadly is still limited in North America, but Europe, Australia and New Zealand have new PaB pieces available this month. Also note that the list of parts that will be removed from PaB later in 2025 has also been published.
Australia (excluding Queensland): signed LEGO® One Piece sets
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| Image: Thomas Jenkins |
Australian LEGO Insiders members aged 18+ (unfortunately this competition excludes residents of Queensland) could win a copy of set 75639 The Going Merry Pirate Ship, signed by a crew member, with no purchase required to enter!
There are five (5) sets to be won, each signed by one of the following cast members from the 2023 One Piece live action series produced by Tomorrow Studios and Netflix:
- One (1) set signed by Inaki Godoy, who plays the character Luffy
- One (1) set signed by Mackenyu Maeda, who plays Roronoa Zoro
- One (1) set signed by Taz Skylar, who plays Sanji
- One (1) set signed by Emily Rudd, who plays Nami
- One (1) set signed by Jacob Romero, who plays Usopp.
You can read all about how awesome the set is in our review of the Going Merry by Thomas.
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The Northern Lights diorama also comes with unprinted 1x2 tiles in trans-opal green! This is very exciting for me, as they've only come printed so far, with the Encanto map graphics.
ReplyDeleteAlso, unrelated, but I'd love to see an analysis of all the new parts and recolors in the Tropical Aquarium from you guys at some point.