Because I am absolutely psychotic when it comes to collecting, I stayed up and ordered the 2014 LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Workshop set online the night that it became available out of some irrational fear that every LEGO Store in my area would be sold out by the time I got there in the morning. So… now I have to wait. But since I couldn’t bear not getting to at least see the LEGO Winter Village 2014 set with my own eyes on launch day, I ended up heading to the LEGO Store anyway, where LEGO Santa’s Workshop 10245 has now been released!

Ordinarily, the “hot new LEGO set” of the month is prominently displayed on an upper-shelf in the LEGO Store so well that I can easily see it from the doorway of the store. The LEGO 2014 Winter Village Santa’s Workshop set? Not so much.

After entering the LEGO Store, I actually did two loops of the store (and began to think I had been right about the store being sold out of the LEGO Santa’s Workshop 10245 set) when I finally spotted the set boxes stocked way down at my knee level.

I guess putting the LEGO Winter Village sets down that low seems like a great idea for making the sets obvious for kids to see (and demand for Christmas), but it’s a weird place to stock such a major set nonetheless.

In spite of the fact that the LEGO 10245 Santa’s Workshop set is so difficult to actually find and buy in the LEGO Stores, the stores do have a pretty nifty LEGO Winter Village sets display set up. In the glass cases in the store, they’ve set up both last’s year LEGO Winter Village Market set and this year’s LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Workshop set so that you can see both sets up-close and personal.

It’s a shame that LEGO retired the previous Winter Village LEGO sets, because I really feel like they could print money by bringing back the retired LEGO Winter Village Toy Shop and Winter Village Post Office sets. That said, this should be the last year for the LEGO Winter Village Market 10235, so make sure you grab one this year if you want it (before the price explodes!).

The 10245 LEGO Santa’s Workshop set is now available for order through the online LEGO Store and in physical LEGO Stores, although you’ll have to log into your LEGO VIP account online or show your LEGO VIP card in-store in order to purchase the set. Alas, I was a crazy person and ordered online instead of just picking the set up in-store, so I have to wait a few days still for my LEGO Winter Village Santa’s Workshop set to arrive.

Anyone else buy their 2014 LEGO Winter Village set already, or are you waiting until closer to the holidays to scoop one up?