Tag: advent calendar

Today we get two more accessories: a ladder for the fireman to climb, so he can rescue the cat, and a crossbow on a wheeled carriage (arcuballista) for the castle soldiers to ward off the skeletons.

So to summarize the calendars so far, we have three distinct scenes for City:

And in the Castle world, one grand battle gearing up:

My Good Twin / Evil Twin plot will have to wait for now…

On day 8, the City advent calendar yields a mediocre tree with a cat stranded at the top, while the Castle guys get an archery target, bow/arrow, and quiver:

This gives our Day 7 guys ways to practice and hone their skills prior to entering into combat. The knight from Day 7 practices his archery; meanwhile, the firefighter from the previous day practices his skills, honed in years of experience:

Reinforcements have arrived! Good Twin gets a comrade-in-arms to stand by his side against the evil undead horde, while the innocent Ice Cream Girl gets support in the form of a fireman to put out that nasty barbecue that Evil Twil used to melt her ice cream.

Today the nemeses get some reinforcements:

Ice Cream Girl, nemesis of Evil Twin, receives some shade and wheels for the ice cream cart. The Skeleton Guy has a reinforcement, who comes with a crossbow weapon for ranged attack. Combined with the previous skeleton and weaponry we now have four weapons for two guys, plus a shield as well. Meanwhile the nemesis of Evil Twin has no weapons at all, just a tasty and refreshing snack.

Things are not looking good for Good Twin.

So today, we get some accessories for the nemeses (Skeleton and Ice Cream Girl):

How does this fit our story? Well, let’s say that Good Twin defeated the skeleton in combat, and Evil Twin’s hot barbecue melted her ice cream, and they both ran back to their respective home bases:

Here they are, ready for round 2:

Now we come to the real drama. Each calendar introduces a nemesis for our heroes! On the Castle side, we get a demented skeleton wielding a flail (mace and chain); whereas on the City side, we get a girl with ice cream.

Why do I say the fair maiden is a nemesis? Remember that I decided City guy was the Evil Twin, and if she’s pure and innocent and good, then she’s his nemesis of course! Anyway, here’s all the stuff we have so far:

Since I waited until almost midnight “yesterday” (half an hour ago) to post, I thought I’d get a head start on day 3. Hope you have opened yours before reading this!!

Anyway, Day 3 brings furniture and utensils for Evil Twin’s Thanksgiving feast. But it’s a small table for one, a frying pan, and a mug. Clearly the intent is he’s only cooking for himself. I guess that does make him pretty Evil. And doing it right next to his Good Twin, who’s hard at work guarding that arch thingy, is doubly cruel. You know the tourists who taunt the guards at Buckingham Palace, who famously have to just stand there and not make any reaction at all? I imagine it’s kind of like that. Good Twin has to stand there and smell the mouth watering-aroma of plastic turkey leg cooking on the open fire, without being able to make a move, even to wipe the drool off his chin.

At least Good Twin gets some new armor and a sword to fight off the bad guys, while his lazy good-for-nothing twin stands there cooking food for himself. Here he is, trying it on:

He’s lucky to get it on day 3. In WoW, a paladin can’t get armor like that until level 40 or so….

Behind Door #2 of the Town Advent calendar, we find a grille, presumably for Evil Twin to reheat that leftover Thanksgiving turkey leg. Not sure why they didn’t just use a microwave oven though. On the Castle side, we get a little arch and flag so the Good Twin has something to guard.

Oh wait, it must be a flashback to before Thanksgiving! Evil Twin is cooking dinner – this must be before he went bad – and Good Twin is hard at work guarding the arch thingy. Ah, innocence.

But all is not well in Advent land. The instructions for the town set clearly indicate that there should be a 1×4 grey plate under the hinges.

However, I didn’t get one! They gave me an extra 1×4 tile instead. That’s OK, because I could use those more in my collection anyway. But for a little kid this would be horrible – they wouldn’t be able to build what’s in the picture! Or if they did, it wouldn’t stay on; it would slide off at the slightest nudge. And little kids are very prone to nudging things, as everyone knows. Here are the parts I got behind Door #2:

So, after adding a 1×4 grey plate from my collection, I was left with a few pieces left over. It’s common for LEGO to give you extras of some small, easily lost parts, like the flame or a 1×1 round plate, but a hinge top?? That’s a weird one.

I’m wondering if it’s just me or if everyone had the same problem? I should confess something at this point… when I went to BrickCon in Seattle, I bought an advent calendar at the LEGO store at a discount, and when I realized I couldn’t afford the baggage space to bring the box home, I had to cheat and open it at my hotel. I’m 99.7% sure that I didn’t have this problem then – I think I’d remember if I did.

Wow, just a few minutes before midnight – not off to an auspicious start. I’d better do Day 3 right after midnight to make up for it…

Thanks to LEGO for relenting and letting us have the Castle advent calendar here in the U.S.! Having both that and the City set, I thought I’d shamelessly rip off the Reasonably Clever annual tradition of having fun with the advent calendars. Each day I’ll be presenting what I find behind the respective door of each.

SPOILER ALERT: Don’t visit this blog until you’ve opened the day’s gift from your Advent Calendar(s) or you may find out too soon what it is! This is your first and final warning!!

However, while I am a little clever, I don’t think I’m quite up to the standard set by “Reasonably” so I’ll just blog about each day’s entry without trying to make a game of it. If you want more cleverness than that, go see what they’re doing over at Advent Wars – for example, you can see what it looks like to open the Advent Calendar boxes for day 1. Plus, the Reasonably Clever comic, BRiCK House, will probably be invaded by Advent madness. It’s all fun and I don’t know where they get the free time for all that cleverness.

Anyway, here’s what I found behind Door Number One on each calendar:

If you look carefully you’ll see it’s the same face in each one! I guess they’re twins.

CITY: Guy with some of the Thanksgiving leftovers (Evil Twin)
CASTLE: Guy guarding the rest of the Thanksgiving leftovers (Good Twin)

P.S.: Yes, I really am waiting until each day comes around to open that day’s box. So if I am ever late with an entry, hopefully you’ll be understanding.