City Advent Calendar: Day 9
Posted by CapnRex101,
The excellent quadcopter drone that appeared yesterday is definitely my favourite model from this Advent Calendar so far. Hopefully that high standard will continue on day nine.
Let's open the door and find out...
Lamp posts have become a traditional feature of the Winter Village series and have appeared in several LEGO City Advent Calendars too. This example looks marvellous, consisting primarily of black elements which resemble wrought iron but also introducing a few splashes of white. The white 1x1 round plate with a hollow stud beneath the lantern seems out of place, although this calendar contains a spare black one so you could swap them very easily.
However, the most impressive feature of this lamp post is definitely the holly affixed to its front. This has been cleverly constructed using a green feather piece and some red cherries which are connected via a narrow pin. Both components are then attached using a clip. The resultant design feels very secure and looks superb in my opinion.
Overall - 4.5 - I am very pleased with this lamp post. It looks suitably ornate and exhibits an interesting building technique which may be new to some people.
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12 comments on this article
My question is, why would they use the white pieces at all? The lamp-post looks great, and is obviously meant to be black wrought-iron ... but the white pieces just look so strange. Even if you could argue that the clip collected some fallen snow, the white round plate underneath?
Still, it is a pretty gorgeous lamp-post.
I didn't like it very much, it looks a bit odd and the lamp posts from the 2015 and 2016 all looked better in my opinion, it's good but disappointing
Where connecting the feather and berry pieces is a clever idea, I don’t think the overall appearance is that appealing. In fact, I find it kind of... what some folks would call “vulgar” but it makes me want to giggle?
The two empty “arms” bother me. When a lamppost is equipped with these it’s usually to hold two more bulbs or they are hooks for plants. I’d have rather seen these decorated (with the newish three leaf piece and a red flower, maybe...I think the berry pieces connect to the newish three leaf piece.) than the berries in the center. They look lonely empty. Or, the lamppost—in this state—looks like a female who discovered an intruder while removing her dressing gown (Yes, I can’t believe that I typed that either...)
Oddly enough, I don’t really mind the white. It’s snow that has collected. Maybe if two white rounds would gave capped the arms, I wouldn’t have minded the arms either. Sure, they’re odd places for the snow to collect, but if I’m to imagine that berries could hang at that angle, then I can buy that snow would collect in those places.
Why didn't they include a spare white clip? We have another holly that's sad cannot be affixed.
I can buy that snow might collect on the metalwork where the holly is affixed, but for the snow to gather underneath the body of the lantern? The snow would've had to have been falling *up*.
Or possibly someone came past with a snowblower? That'll work.
The white grip does look rather out of place, but all black would look too bland imo. Perhaps some grey instead to break up the black, where the black paint had weathered, would have faired better.
Perhaps its just the angle of the photograph but those berries, they look... sore...
@Zordboy: I wouldn't be surprised if they were purposely using parts in varied colors so that the instructions are more readable, since they are limited to the space on the inside of the doors. I feel like a lot of the time LEGO fans recognize the limitations on the piece count/piece size for advent calendar gifts but don't think much about that added limitation of making it clear to younger builders how the model goes together even with so much less space for instructions than you would get in an actual booklet or leaflet.
I suppose that if you wanted to make it a little more believable as snow or ice that's built up on the lamppost, you could flip the travis brick and 1x1 round plate with hole so the studs are facing down.
@Aanchir: That's an excellent modyfing idea!
Very impressed with today’s build and the technique of the cherry and feather was i nice surprise when i built it this morning, i love the extra green feather aswell
Replacing the white bricks with black would presumably confound children working from a drawing of connected all-black components.
Good and clever build this day again, the final result is good on display and fits Christmas perfectly. With the drone and race car, the best for the moment in this edition IMO.
I quite like it. I'd replace the white with a gold round if the color really bothered me, but it doesn't, actually.