Friends Advent Calendar - Day 7
Posted by MeganL,
Now we have Emma, Naomi and Heidi the hamster all ready for the holiday. They haven't been given much to do, but there's plenty of things that have been built lately. Will the Friends get active again, or will they continue their life of leisure?
Also, check out the first alternate build that was revealed after Day 4 after the break.
Looks like leisure is the way to go, as we now have a fireplace with a roaring fire. The embers are represented with a red flower piece. It's a three sided fireplace, thanks to the grey translucent plates on each side. There's plenty of room for the Friends to huddle together and get warm.
The mantle is white, topped with blue and black. In (finally!) a nod to the holidays, there's a holiday wreath on the fireplace. It makes for a great decoration inside the house.
Similar to yesterday, this is decent little build of the kind I enjoy seeing in an advent calendar.
As a follow-up to Day 4, here's the alternate build found on lego.com:
The alternate build uses most of the parts from the first four days to serve as a combination bench and hutch to store the ice skates. There's greenery on the side with two red flowers, with another two red flowers on top of the hutch (previously used as the mailbox). The bench is accented with purple and supported by the two 1x2 tan pieces.
This is a decent build with a nice holiday flair. While some of the individual day builds weren't great, I rather like this combo build from the first few days.
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10 comments on this article
What a piece of junk! Nice review though
I don't like the colours of today's model! It was a nice little build but I didn't understand the translucent bits at the side? What sort of fireplace is it supposed to be!?
Totally agree with 'lego4elio' "What a piece of junk!" Surely Lego can do better than that?
Thank you Megan for the alternate build uncovering.
She'll make point five past lightspeed, though Lego4elio.
@kioko21: It appears to be a freestanding fireplace. They're a kind of modern sort of fireplace, and there are many designs of these that are enclosed in glass or wire mesh. Examples: http://www.contemporist.com/9-examples-of-freestanding-fireplaces-that-make-a-statement/ LEGO also included this style of fireplace in 41135 Livi's Pop Star House (most visible in this pic: http://images.brickset.com/sets/AdditionalImages/41135-1/41135_alt5.jpg ).
Strange that LEGO didn't show this type of fireplace in the illustration on the box for this advent calendar, but it's definitely not just something they made up. The build might have been improved if instead of a 2x2 jumper and a single flame they had used two 1x2 jumpers and two flames. Still, I give LEGO a thumbs up for taking a creative approach with this instead of just using a traditional fireplace.
I know we're only, like, a quarter of the way through this one, but this year's Friends calendar has made me glad that I *didn't* buy one for myself. It's only rare (about once every five years, or so) that I'll actually buy one of the advent calendars because they're mostly junk (leaving aside the fact that once you've bought one, you've really bought them all), and I feel justified in thinking that, with the current offering.
@lego4elio is spot on. Wow, this is bad! That mash-up of parts that supposedly represents an "alternate build" is just terrible.
I genuinely feel pity for anyone that spent their hard-earned cash on this... AWFUL.
It would look much better with more festive colors:
https://c6.staticflickr.com/1/690/31499580525_2dc132bcab.jpg
We've got all three advent calenders this year for the first time ever, usually we just get the Friends one for the girls. But especially after those first few days I am glad I got it for more than 50% off, because it's definitely not worth the full RRP. The City and especially Star Wars calenders otoh more than make up for the lacklustre Friends one imho.