City Advent Calendar - Day 9
Posted by MeganL,
It only took 8 days, but we were rewarded with our first holiday build of the calendar yesterday with the Christmas tree.
Hard to say which direction the calendar could take today, as it could be a minifigure, another microbuild, or maybe something to go with the tree. Good thing all we have to do is open door number 9 and find out.
Having presents to put under the tree is a natural next build for the calendar. Presents are a staple in advent calendars and it's pretty difficult to get away from that as it is a core part of the holiday. Today's presents are red and green, and I rather like the use of the white flower pieces for the bows.
While the build is standard, it's pretty inevitable to have presents for a calendar. On the bright side, we haven't seen a toilet paper roll thrower in the calendar, and I don't think that would fit in well with these microbuilds.
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10 comments on this article
Hi I'm new here, I signed up to comment on yesterday's day 8 post but the commenting is closed. We have the Lego city Calendar but the pieces for the tree will NOT fit together. Has anyone else had this issue??
There's something wondrous about lego micro gifts for me. They are exceptionally simple yet they are always immediately evocative.
@RachGam said:
"Hi I'm new here, I signed up to comment on yesterday's day 8 post but the commenting is closed. We have the Lego city Calendar but the pieces for the tree will NOT fit together. Has anyone else had this issue??"
I had difficulty until I checked the illustration more closely. The trunk needs to have two round plates between the bricks with studs on 4 sides (I had only put one in between the bricks). Hopefully that might do the trick?
HPAC gets twice as many presents for one day, because they need one for each House.
@RachGam:
I saw someone else complain about this elsewhere. When you built the trunk, did you put three plates between the two 1x1 bricks w/ studs on four sides, or only two? One plate should be extra, so if you use it, it screws up the geometry. The wedge plates should also be attached with the short edge horizontal, the next longest edge flush with the trunk, and the studs on the trunk should line up with the lowest ring of cheese wedges and the ring of 1x1 round plates. I don’t have this calendar, but the internal geometry is a fairly standard trick that is used for every tree they build in this style.
The comments for each day’s post close when the next post for the same calendar is uploaded, so when City Day 10 is loaded, these will close too.
@RachGam said:
"Hi I'm new here, I signed up to comment on yesterday's day 8 post but the commenting is closed. We have the Lego city Calendar but the pieces for the tree will NOT fit together. Has anyone else had this issue??"
I had the same issue. Putting two brown 1x1 round studs in between the gray blocks solved this for me. Can't tell from the picture if this was correct or not, but it worked.
@PurpleDave said:
"HPAC gets twice as many presents for one day, because they need one for each House.
@RachGam:
I saw someone else complain about this elsewhere. When you built the trunk, did you put three plates between the two 1x1 bricks w/ studs on four sides, or only two? One plate should be extra, so if you use it, it screws up the geometry. The wedge plates should also be attached with the short edge horizontal, the next longest edge flush with the trunk, and the studs on the trunk should line up with the lowest ring of cheese wedges and the ring of 1x1 round plates. I don’t have this calendar, but the internal geometry is a fairly standard trick that is used for every tree they build in this style.
The comments for each day’s post close when the next post for the same calendar is uploaded, so when City Day 10 is loaded, these will close too."
With the HPAC I think we get two days of presents, rather than four in one day.
@kacie:
Last year all four were lumped together.
@PurpleDave said:
" @kacie:
Last year all four were lumped together."
Looking at the picture on the back I think it will be four in one day, which is good I guess, but it might mean that we have more trees, I dislike building trees!
@RachGam said:
"Hi I'm new here, I signed up to comment on yesterday's day 8 post but the commenting is closed. We have the Lego city Calendar but the pieces for the tree will NOT fit together. Has anyone else had this issue??"
Spoiler Alert
The instructions can be found at https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/buildinginstructions/60268
Note that the instructions for ALL days are shown together.
@kacie:
Trees were a large part of the reason I bought so many copies of the previous HPAC. I skipped it entirely, but after seeing the first two weeks of models, I decided I wanted to pick up a single copy (which I got at a moderate discount). With eight days left, and 24 models, I ended up building three per day to finish it up on time, and the two days with trees came pretty early. While building them, I had an idea, which required building a lot of those trees. I sought out ten more copies basically for the trees. Between getting a significantly larger discount (I think I was paying $10-20 per calendar) and being able to quickly unload the six minifigs from nine copies, I actually got a pretty good deal out of it. I harvested all of the trees and the last set of minifigs, but there are a lot of really cool parts that remain (particularly with the chess boards).
@Grahame:
You can look up individual days' sets for each calendar on Bricklink, too. I did so long ago to determine how many copies I wanted to buy. Last year I grabbed 11, and this year only two because there are significantly less models that I want spares of, and I don't really need more than one spare of any of those I do want. But the upshot is that I am already familiar with the entire contents of this HPAC, plus I open my calendars like regular sets by cutting one of the seals and sliding the tray out. I respect that other people really do want to be fully surprised, though, so I pointedly try to steer away from giving away any real spoilers.