Christmas seasonal sets revealed
Posted by Huw,
Details of three of this year's Christmas sets have been revealed at LEGO.com today:
- We now have better images of the fourth and final seasonal vignette/animal set for the year, 40498 Penguin.
- 40494 Polar Bear & Gift Pack is another hanging ornament set, the second Christmas-themed one after last year's 854050 Snowman & Reindeer Duo
- A polybag, 30580 Santa Claus, has been listed at LEGO Customer Services but without an image or inventory, so we'll have to wait and see exactly what it is, but I suspect it'll be a buildable figure similar to others like 30573.
The first two will be available at LEGO.com from 1st October.
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48 comments on this article
Because nothing says Christmas like a . . . penguin.
That penguin makes me nostalgic; I used to love them when I was a kid, they were my favourite animals (even though they're technically birds instead). Not very seasonal, I feel... but eh, it's a cute model, so I'm not gonna complain!
Still like that they modelled it after a rockhopper penguin, specifically, with the yellow tufts behind its eyes. They tend to be less commonly acknowledged in media than emperor and king penguins are, so it's a neat touch ^^
Has LEGO officially abandoned producing Thanksgiving sets?
Although, being from Pittsburgh, have to give a thumbs-up to the Penguin!
I would love to see a full fledged turkey with tail!
I love penguins.
Non-vignette holiday sets do nothing for me.
Is it too soon to ask about this year's Modular Building?
Well, the Linux fans will be happy!
No thanksgiving ?
I'm glad the title mentions that it is a polar bear, I would never have guessed otherwise.
Have all the holiday sets between now and Christmas been revealed?
But more importantly how do you easily find this stuff at LEGO.com? They used to have an easily accessible Seasonal section in “Interests”. That seems to be gone now. How do you find seasonal goods?
A floating polar bear head. The Christmas accessory I didn't know I needed until now...
@ThatBionicleGuy:
Birds are animals. And it could also be a Macaroni Penguin, which has larger yellow tufts than a Rockhopper.
@fulcrumbop:
Maybe they don’t want to assume there will be a reason to be thankful this November? Usually we could at least thank our lucky stars that campaign season was over by the time Turkey Day rolled around, but I can’t remember the last time either side stopped spewing campaign vomit out of their mouths.
@HugeYellowBrick:
No. Feel free to ask when Group 2 boards, while you’re at it. The answer to one of those is two hours and 58 minutes, from what I hear, but it’s probably not the one you’re hoping for.
@Legomann37
October 1
@HugeYellowBrick
Yes. It's too early.
@Blogzilly
Shop --> Interests --> Seasonal is still there, but it's poorly sorted as it includes all the Monkie Kid sets and other items that could be stocking stuffers. Click the wreath with the word "Holiday" underneath and it will show you all the Christmas sets.
Interestingly, earlier this month the US Lego website removed all traces of 40425 Nutcracker BrickHeadz and 40426 Christmas Wreath 2-in-1. My order history of them from February now only shows the SKU.
Still hoping for a Christmas Miracle (the return of 40426 Christmas Wreath 2-in-1)
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
"That penguin makes me nostalgic; I used to love them when I was a kid, they were my favourite animals (even though they're technically birds instead)."
I love birds too. And those are definitely not animals of course... ;-P
These are ok, I guess.
Though if I had kids I would absolutely get the buildable ornaments.
That's either a really big penguin or a really small tree...
@FuddRuckus said:
" @Blogzilly
Shop --> Interests --> Seasonal is still there, but it's poorly sorted as it includes all the Monkie Kid sets and other items that could be stocking stuffers. Click the wreath with the word "Holiday" underneath and it will show you all the Christmas sets."
Wow…I’d like to say my Mom didn’t raise any dummies…but she did. I’ve been viewing the LEGO menu on my iPad since it changed. Always vertically. When I opened ‘Interests’ it ended with ‘Robots for Kids’. I thought, “Hmmm, what happened to seasonal and trains, and I thought space was here?”
Um…yeah, as soon as I flipped my tablet horizontally. I had NO idea. I don’t even know why it does that, but it does. A whole column appears. Thanks for letting me know it was still there, though now I’m going to go eat a bottle of B12…
Available from October 1st? Christmas comes earlier every year!
I love any new LEGO sets and especially seasonal ones, but there is something off about this set. Is it the gargantuan scale of the penguin to the tree, the question of the inclusion of presents (are they from the polar bear trying to lure the penguin to the miniature tree), the bulky base that seems to serve no real purpose? Regardless, as mentioned by others, I would much prefer a seasonal vignette. The good news is that I have the choice to buy this or not, based upon my preferences. This one is likely a pass for me.
@fulcrumbop said:
"Has LEGO officially abandoned producing Thanksgiving sets?"
I would like to know too! It seems Lego isn't releasing a new Halloween Brickheadz this year because last year's 40422 Frankenstein is still listed for sale while the other sets from last year, 40423 Halloween Hayride and 854049 Pumpkin & Bat, are listed as sold out. I was really hoping for another Halloween Brickheadz! :(
@FuddRuckus said:
"
Interestingly, earlier this month the US Lego website removed all traces of 40425 Nutcracker BrickHeadz and 40426 Christmas Wreath 2-in-1. My order history of them from February now only shows the SKU."
Very strange, 40426 was available again mid-July, in North America at least, and now it's gone again.
@picopirate said:
"So the Christmas set is a bird that lives near the south pole... What's next an monkey in an Easter set?"
A large portion of the world would associate snow with Christmas …. And penguins live in the snow! It’s not that hard to draw a link.
Also, are you aware that a fairly large portion of the world’s population lives in the Southern Hemisphere (those continents and countries south of the equator), and some of those are not too far from the South Pole and penguins?
In fact, we have Fairy Penguins in parts of Australia! (Very cute!) - though it doesn’t snow in December here, or at any time of the year!
@TheOtherMike said:
"That's either a really big penguin or a really small tree..."
Clearly it’s a reference to The Big Penguin in Penguin Tasmania.
Set 30580 is Creator polybag with cool brick-built skiing Santa Claus. It has about 70 parts and it is mostly 3 studs wide.
Last time I saw a penguin around Christmas it was mid summer. But it's nicely built.
Lego said they were going to stop producing regional sets - could be why there's nothing for thanksgiving.
I did like 40261 which made a nice autumn vignette on my Lego farm!
Giant penguin or tiny tree?
There's plenty of Halloween sets for this year (40492, 40493, 40497). Personally, I think Thanksgiving is a bit too regional to warrant annual sets, even if US is the largest market.
Penguin looks better the more I look at it, and goes with the bird theme from 40497.
They could've made a Santa, an elf, a reinderr, even a polar bear, but okay
That's weird because if I google Christmassy Penguin I get loads of hits, cute penguins wrapped in scarves, giving out presents etc.
If I google Christmassy Compass, well let's just say I don't feel very festive.
Like it or not, people do associate penguins with Christmas. Round here at least I'd expect to see more than a couple of inflatable penguins in front gardens. Ask someone to name a Christmassy animal and penguin will probably be in the top 5, way after reindeer but way ahead of cats, dogs and black bears.
Chrimmas pengling!
@picopirate said:
" @lemish34 said:
" @picopirate said:
"So the Christmas set is a bird that lives near the south pole... What's next an monkey in an Easter set?"
A large portion of the world would associate snow with Christmas …. And penguins live in the snow! It’s not that hard to draw a link.
Also, are you aware that a fairly large portion of the world’s population lives in the Southern Hemisphere (those continents and countries south of the equator), and some of those are not too far from the South Pole and penguins?
In fact, we have Fairy Penguins in parts of Australia! (Very cute!) - though it doesn’t snow in December here, or at any time of the year!
"
No, that is just apophenia. It is easy to draw connections between two unrelated thing using a common trait. For example, most people associate the north pole with Christmas, compasses point towards the north pole, therefore compasses represent Christmas. Penguins have no association with Christmas. Sure you may find cute cards/wrapping paper/decorations with penguins dressed up for Christmas, but you find that with all sorts of other animals too like dogs, cats, black bears, etc."
Is this really the hill you're going to die on
@Bricktuary:
Offhand, the animals I can recall being most associated with Christmas obviously start with reindeer, then probably polar bears (thanks to Coca-Cola), but would also include mice, cardinals, seals (ask Burl Ives), cats and dogs (both being commonly depicted as Christmas gifts, though usually as kittens or puppies, while Malamutes/Huskies/St. Bernards may get a nod for their association with snow), moose and caribou (besides seeing both types of antlers turned into ornaments recently, Alaskans pretty much associate moose with everything). Anyone named Carol might list partridges, turtle doves, hens of the French variety, any of the more vocal birds, geese, or swans. If they live near Oklahoma City, they might include the majestic hippopotamus on that list. For the culinarily inclined, there’s pigs, turkeys, quail, and Cornish game hens. Penguins might be on that list, again for their association with snow, while some people would smugly point out that they don’t live in the Northern hemisphere (and I would smugly point out that the Galápagos penguin actually does...but not by enough to hang out with Santa).
However, besides the reindeer and polar bears, none of the animals on that list are likely to round out the top five. For that, you need to look to warmer climates where you’d find animals like donkeys, sheep, and camels. Cattle and oxen might also make the cut.
@Bricktuary:
Belated cleverness ahead:
If the thought of quail makes you quail, I hear pheasant can be pleasant. In the UK, feel free to sub in the more festive varieties of llama for moose. And if you do see a Christmas mouse, and it has three heads, best kill it with haste.
I didn't expect to learn about the Galapagos penguin on Brickset. Thanks, @PurpleDave!
The animal I associate most with Christmas is the Robin, as most of the Christmas cards we got over the years from our friends in the UK featured such a bird.
Over here in Germany, we don't really associate animals with Christmas, other than perhaps donkey and oxen next to the manger, or the camels the three wise men arrive on.
Penguins would never have been animals I would have in any way associated with Christmas.
@560heliport:
People learn about the Emperor Penguins and often assume that either that’s the only penguin, or that every other species is pretty similar. The Emperor is the only species that lives in Antarctica all year (but not actually at the South Pole). The King Penguin is the only other species I know of that spends any time on the Antarctic mainland (and then only during the “warm” months). Most of the rest live on the islands near Antarctica, or on the southern parts of South America, Australia, and maybe Africa (not sure about that last one). Others live on islands further north, but still below the equator. And yeah, a few years ago while trying to dig up some penguin-related factoid, I learned that there’s a single species that lives on the top half of the world.
The Detroit Zoo built a fancy new award-winning penguinarium five years ago, which houses King, Rockhopper, Macaroni, and Gentoo Penguins, but the gift shop includes souvenirs based on several others so you can at least learn a few more names and see what they look like.
@AustinPowers:
Not where I live! The American Robin (my state bird) is migratory, and is most closely associated with spring as they are one of the first species to return when the weather starts warming up (my mom says her dad saw 16 on the day I was born). But they’re not closely related to the European Robin.
What has a penguin got to do with Christmas ?!
Santa lives in Lapland which is at the North Pole, whereas penguins live at the South Pole - thousands of miles away !
@lemish34
‘In fact, we have Fairy Penguins in parts of Australia! (Very cute!) - though it doesn’t snow in December here, or at any time of the year!’
How do you account for the SNOW at the top of the mountains in NSW then ?
You only have to an image search for ‘Australia in Winter’ in a search engine to find the proof !
Giant Roast Penguin is a huge part of our family Christmas tradition (we have an exceptionally large family gathering that requires copious amounts of bird flesh to satisfy the holiday feast). This set is just missing the pickled banana held in its beak.
Here is the connection between penguins and Christmas.
Christmas under capitalism is about rampant commercialism and profit maximization. Many non-Christians, myself included, have no interest in Christmas trees or wreaths or any of that stuff. Whereas some of us, myself included, will totally buy a nice-looking LEGO penguin. The LEGO Group therefore manages to reach a broader global customer base, increasing its profits and capturing the true spirit of Christmas.
Xmas ornaments, a-la Chris McVeigh, who now works for LEGO, would be what I am looking for. Especially with all the new pieces released in the past couple of years, they could be awesome. I built most of Chris' ornaments, but I am sure more can be done with this idea.
@Ashton_Giant said:
"What has a penguin got to do with Christmas ?!
Santa lives in Lapland which is at the North Pole, whereas penguins live at the South Pole - thousands of miles away !
"
Lapland is in Finland
@CCC:
Only if it’s The World Is Not Enough. That’s the one where Denise Richards plays Dr. Christmas Jones.
Is everyone forgetting the giant penguins from Batman Returns (1992)? Granted they were Emperor penguins, but that's where the size difference between the tree and penguin could originate. If a Batman symbol is the hidden treasure in the base, that clinches it!
Very underwhelming this year.