Happy Thanksgiving!
Posted by Huw,
If you are in a country that celebrates today, I hope you have a great Thanksgiving, surrounded by your loved ones and with plenty to eat and drink. For the rest of us, it is just business as usual. :-(
LEGO started producing Thanksgiving seasonal sets in 2003. All but one have focussed on turkeys, dead or alive...
The first one, 10090 Turkey, was sold from shop.LEGO.com, and came in a plain clear polybag.
Its head is made from three sand blue parts, including a 1x1 brick printed with an eye on each side. However, according to BrickLink, the other two sand blue parts were replaced with dark grey in some batches.
It would be seven years before another Thanksgiving set was made. 40011 Thanksgiving Turkey was released in 2010 and was sold in North America only.
It is very similar to 10090 Turkey although unlike that one its head is light grey, its eyes are stickers and its wings black which do not look right at all.
Two years later an almost identical set, 40033 Turkey was released. This time the head utilises two printed white 1x1 bricks.
Once again it was sold only in North America.
2013 saw the first dead turkey in a Thanksgiving set, 40056 Thanksgiving Feast is one of a number of seasonal scenes released that year. It features a couple and their cats about to tuck into a tasty turkey feast laid out on a huge table.
The theme of the 2014 seasonal sets was 'cute characters' which included this 40091 Thanksgiving Turkey, complete with pilgrim's hat.
2015's range of vignettes are arguably the best seasonal sets LEGO has produced. 40123 Thanksgiving Feast features an elderly couple tucking into dinner in their dining room.
The turkey is not shown in this image: it was too big to fit on the table so had to be wheeled in on a trolley!
This year's Thanksgiving set is a departure from turkey themed ones, although the pilgrim in 40204 Pilgrim's Feast is still tucking into a couple of drumsticks.
LEGO has also produced a couple of Thanksgiving Monthly Mini Model Builds for North American brand stores.
The first, MMMB015, came out in November 2009 in the days when MMMBs consisted of just loose parts and a model card.
The following year the turkey has been prepared for dinner and served with accompaniments on a tray in MMMB030.
In 2012 this 40046 Pilgrim was earmarked for use in North American stores but for some reason was not. Perhaps someone in LEGO objected to the (tenuous) religious connection at the last minute.
Although not released, the instruction sheet was, which you can download here.
Happy Thanksgiving -- eat all you can today: you will need all the strength you can muster when you hit the shops tomorrow. :-)
Check back later today for an article that reminds us, on this day of giving thanks, that our hobby is not just about acquiring, building and hoarding.
40 likes
14 comments on this article
I wish LEGO would not put dead animals in their sets.
^what about dead people? All the skeleton, zombie, ghost, vampire minifigs or the dragons, dinosaurs and rancor models etc that can eat people should be banned too?
@magpie9: What makes you think I want them to ban fictional characters or dinosaurs? But yes, I would also object to a set depicting a concentration camp.
Well, take heart. The dead animals are mostly plastic.
Kinda dark comments above, ahh...
The vignettes are sorely missed, I hope they return in a year or two.
^ @BeaRtheBuilder: lighten up! There are far more issues on the world to worry about over plastic food!
Anyway, my son will be assembling set 40056 - as is now traditional - ahead of our meal this evening. Then it'll go back in the thanksgiving box until next year.
Happy thanksgiving; especially this year!
Many of the skeletons in Lego sets actually represent dead people - not fictional characters, e.g. in many pirate and adventure sets.
If you want to make the troll comment go away don't answer to them (first fight of the day).
As someone who could. It buy the vignettes I do hope they make a triumphant return next year.
@ Zordboy and MonsterFighter: You're right; actually it's not the plastic food I worry about... But I realize this is not the right place to have this discussion.
Hopefully they will make a mould of alive minifig turkey soon ;)
How can you tell if a Lego turkey is dead or not? ;-)
I still have my 10090 turkey which I use for Christmas decorations - always thought it was a good seasonal model. There should probably be a few more days a year that families come together to share good times (and food) with each other as a nation. In the UK we only really get one!
I like to imagine it's tofurkey. As everything is awesome in Lego city, it so too is for the animals. But remember, it's just a toy, so have fun with it.
"2015's range of vignettes are arguably the best seasonal sets LEGO has produced."
Completely agree with that. Hope that LEGO will bring something along the vignette line again. The brickish animals don't appeal very much to me.