Friends Advent Calendar - Day 5
Posted by MeganL,
Yesterday we had a cute hamster with its pretzel(?!), but the entry was a little disappointing with only four pieces in the build. Still, it isn't the lowest count we've had for a Friends calendar build, especially when you consider the three piece build from a few years ago, or the "build" when the daily surprise was a single handbag.
The hamster is cute, and who couldn't use more pretzels? They might go well with that wolf, sheep, and cabbage soup mentioned yesterday in the comments.
Also, that should mean that we'll get more pieces for today's build....right?
We do! Coming in at 7 pieces (including the spare) we get a mailbox. There's a bit of snow on the top, so I'll count that as being appropriate for the season. While a mailbox on its own isn't holiday related, it does remind us of how important the post is for us around holiday time, with the delivery of holiday wishes (especially this year).
I think it's safe to say that this isn't intended for Emma's bedroom; perhaps the letter is a note she's sent off to Santa with that list from the other day. If so, this is a nice segue from Emma's bedroom to one of the other themes.
Alas, for the first day of the calendar there is no purple included, but for a few more pieces, I'll take it.
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16 comments on this article
No purple? My gosh. Someone alert the National Guard!
I'm quite happy with the HP calendar. Plus, this year I have that awesome Back to the Future calendar from Playmobil, which also cost only about 20 Euro yet has far more substantial contents.
This Friends entry today at least has something useful even for a normal City layout.
Who doesn't love a mailbox? Reminds me of a tiny impulse buy set from the late 90's/early 00's.
Would have been very nice to get a spare letter though, seriously. Can't have enough of those
SHould have come with another Letter. Seriously why Lego is so stingy in terms of advent callendars?
Especialy that Friends one has around 100 pieces LESS than others???
No, this postbox also belongs in Emma’s bedroom, along with her ten thousand unlicensed cars, wild pandas, schoolwork and hamster-eating pretzel.
@Zordboy said:
"No purple? My gosh. Someone alert the National Guard!"
Don’t worry, the designers have already been sacked but I’m sure we have more conspirers than we first thought! Duke Detain is on his way.
Its a nice mailbox. wish there was a spare letter
@Slobrojoe said:
" @Zordboy said:
"No purple? My gosh. Someone alert the National Guard!"
Don’t worry, the designers have already been sacked but I’m sure we have more conspirers than we first thought! Duke Detain is on his way."
Not him ,the elite police!
Frank Drebin, Police Squad. His boss is already on the scene.
Oh, and don't call me Shirley...
;-)
The letter tile has blue "text" and a red "stamp". Red and blue make...purple. You just have to think of it in the same terms as a CRT screen, or newsprint, where the colors are displayed separately, but blend in your vision to produce different colors.
@lordofdragonss:
The Friends calendar also costs $10 less than the HPAC or DWAC, so a lower piece count is to be expected. City is the anomaly.
@PurpleDave said: "The Friends calendar also costs $10 less than the HPAC or DWAC, so a lower piece count is to be expected. City is the anomaly."
That is interesting. Because in Australia, they're all the same price. They all tend to retail for $50 or so ($45 or $40 in the cheaper shops like K-mart).
@Zordboy:
$29.99 for the unlicensed ones, $39.99 for the other two. It really reinforces the myth that a set will automatically cost more if it's licensed. I think a large part of it comes from the exclusive prints they create for the minifigs, many of which they know will never be reused outside of sets that are only available for about three months.
@Zordboy said:
" @PurpleDave said: "The Friends calendar also costs $10 less than the HPAC or DWAC, so a lower piece count is to be expected. City is the anomaly."
That is interesting. Because in Australia, they're all the same price. They all tend to retail for $50 or so ($45 or $40 in the cheaper shops like K-mart). "
I noticed that while the City one could be found for $40, The HP and SW were $45. K-Mart and Big-W, I'm looking at you
@PurpleDave said:
" @Zordboy:
$29.99 for the unlicensed ones, $39.99 for the other two. It really reinforces the myth that a set will automatically cost more if it's licensed. I think a large part of it comes from the exclusive prints they create for the minifigs, many of which they know will never be reused outside of sets that are only available for about three months."
This year, for some reason, in the US, they were all discounted by $10 everywhere big - Target, Amazon, and WalMart - and there was tons of stock. Something a bit rare.
I've been doing the Star Wars and City advent calendars for a long time now [and the original LEGO ones that were more Classic based.]. While @MeganL complains [rightfully so] about low piece count, I clearly remember a City one from a year or 2 ago that had 3 pieces and no build. It was a dog, a bowl/plate piece, and a bone to rest on it. I'm glad to see City doing better thus far - hopefully Friends does too!
Although a nice enough simple build, I think the Friends calendar would do so much better with more builds like Day 3.
@vjl:
Last year the HPAC had one day that didn't involve any construction. It was a silver plate, two gold goblets, a croissant, a pie, and two cookies (plus a spare of the latter). There was a second day in that same calendar that had a similar quantity of pieces, but three of those parts were a turkey that you had to assemble.
As for the discounts, they probably placed their orders before the pandemic really landed in the US, and might have been worried about not being able to blow through their entire stock by December 1st. And besides, once one of them drops the price, everyone else feels compelled to match it (especially if they offer a price match guarantee that forces them to do so or face charges of false advertising). Business is probably also lean in general, especially with many people opting to buy as much as possible online, so Walmart (which I think triggered this price war) may have used this as a loss-leader to bring people into their stores.