City Advent Calendar: Day 12

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A minifigure-scale rendition of 60197 Passenger Train emerged yesterday and I am hoping to see this interesting trend continue over the next few days with some more miniature LEGO sets!

Take a look behind door number twelve after the break...

While another minifigure-scale toy would have been excellent, I am also satisfied with this little ice cream dispenser. Its design is fairly simple but the model is instantly recognisable, featuring dispensing handles on either side as well as a 1x2 grille beneath the dispenser which looks realistic.

View image at flickr

There is also a light bluish grey 1x2 jumper plate where you can place a completed ice cream cone on top of the machine. I think this looks quite awkward given the scale of the dispenser, although it is a useful inclusion should the minifigures all be occupied with their own accessories!

Overall - 3.5 - This is an impressive rendition of an ice cream dispenser, although similar models have appeared in a couple of larger sets and something entirely new might have been more appealing.

15 comments on this article

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By in United Kingdom,

I'm intruiged to know if they might ever create an element that more accuratly portrays the ice cream out of a whippy machine, as scoops don't quite do it justice. The Friends cake top part would work, but even that isn't quite right.

Still a 'cool' gift, i love the irony

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By in United Kingdom,

^ @CCC
I agree, maybe if it included a 1x2 white brick to increase the height it would've been better

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By in United Kingdom,

That icecream cone looks comically out of scale with the machine, although I suppose that can't be particularly helped, it still looks odd.
An icecream machine doesn't exactly say Christmas or winter. I guess it's suitable if you're Australian.

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By in Australia,

^ Yeah, I was gonna say, an ice-cream dispenser at Christmas time seems like the calendar took a quick detour to Australia, today.

Still, maybe that's the theme for this year's calendar. It's less "explicitly Christmas tropes", and more just generally cool stuff for kids. There seems to be a really high ratio of minifig-scale toys, so far.

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By in United States,

You see an ice cream dispenser; I see an antiquated steam-powered robot.

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By in Australia,

@ericjohn ... that dispenses ice cream.

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By in United Kingdom,

At last, a nice simple Lego model that doesn't contain any guns...

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By in United Kingdom,

Won't someone think of the children! ;-)

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By in United Kingdom,

And there I was thinking we weren't going to be getting any weapons' racks this year.

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By in Sweden,

At first I wasn't quite sure what this was, the only recognizable part was the ice cream, but now I really like it

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By in Canada,

This definitely feels like a bit of a departure from the rest of the advent calendar, since most everything else falls under the category of "toys/presents for a civilian family" or "Christmas/winter imagery". I don't particularly associate ice cream or frozen yogurt with Christmas (though that might be my northern hemisphere bias), and there isn't even any Christmas-related color coding here. I feel like perhaps a hot cocoa machine might have been more appropriate.

Even so, I think this calendar is a step up from the 2010 City advent calendar (which, I'm not going to lie, was probably my previous favorite from the City theme). While that one had a similar civilian home and Christmas gift theme, the minifigures' clothing wasn't as recognizably "wintry", and the gifts felt a little more generic rather than so many being charming references to particular LEGO sets.

@Jacob1998: Closest I can think of is probably https://brickset.com/parts/design-15470 — though it doesn't have that pointed top that is often associated with soft serve ice cream.

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By in United States,

I thought the ice cream cone on top was a non-edible sign to convey what exactly the contraption was.

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By in United States,

Reminds me of the robot from the classic lost in space TV series. Danger Will Robinson! The Ice Cream is not edible!

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By in United States,

atm meats robot with guns

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