The Brick Connection – A novice Lego fan explores the great brick world of LEGO

Happy December LEGO fans!

The holiday season is in full swing! Are you sick of it yet?

I’m not. I LOVE Christmas and the whole holiday season.

Christmas music? Yes! Christmas movies? Yes! Holiday parties with lots of holiday-themed food? YAAAAAASSSSS!

Giving gifts and yes, receiving gifts, particularly when they are meaningful and thoughtful and come from special people in your life? YES!

Well now, for the first time I will be getting into the holiday spirit LEGO-style! I took it upon myself to look up a bunch of holiday-themed LEGO sets, with a focus on the most recent ones. I realize LEGO has been spitting out holiday-themed sets for years, but most of the previous ones are now retired. (Although I guess that’s not that big of a deal since as you probably already know, I will not be purchasing any of these holiday-themed sets myself.)

Let’s take a look at these holly jolly LEGO sets…

Winter Toy Shop – released in 2015

• $79.99
• 898 pieces
• 8 minifigures

I watched a video review of this set by JangBricks.

JangBricks says this is esentially an updated/modified version of a set that was released in 2009.

It's considered an "expert model" and although you may not think that just by looking at it, JangBricks agrees that it's not your usual brick building. There are a lot of little pieces, studs on the side construction, and interlocking elements. It takes time and concentration to complete the build correctly. 

Highlights: 

• double sided printed toy shop sign
• two story structure, with little workshop on the second floor
• working light up top
  
• fireplace   
• the toys for the shop are a bunch of micro-builds, meaning they are not whole pieces
• cool jack-in-the-box 
• very large tree with “lights” and star on top - a somewhat complicated build
• ladder for placing star on top (for the minifigs, not you) 
• little outdoor scene with snow covered ground and random cat 
• snowman
• skier and snowboarder
• carol singers with nice prints and cool singing faces

Apparently there has been a lot of criticism for this set because it is basically a re-release, although with some updates. About those criticisms I say, CHILL. This is a TOY company focused on selling toys to CHILDREN. It’s not about adults who love to collect different toy sets. I’m not saying that to insult toy/LEGO collectors, but to just say it’s not all about you. The LEGO Company does not care about your silly gripes. 




Santa's Workshop - released in 2014 

• $69.99
• 883 pieces
• 6 minifigures

Again, I went to my favorite reviewer, JangBricks for information. 

JangBricks LOVES this set. He refers to it as a big old piece of LEGO wholesome goodness. One of his favorite parts was the reindeer. For this set, another expert model, LEGO doesn't just give you reindeer pieces, you actually have to build them. The face of each reindeer is a 1x1x1 cube piece with eyes printed on it. You even get to build a baby reindeer. So cute! 

Highlights

• Santa's sleigh is sleek and classy
• a lot of great detail, different colors, different shapes
• the look of the workshop building fits in with knight and castle LEGO parts
• cool use of transparent red pieces in window
• fireplace with a portrait of the Clauses over it
• Santa’s office with mail
• cute welcome mat
• assembly line machine for the elves 
• elves!! 
• toys are cute micro-builds
• Santa and Mrs. Claus minifigures look great
• North Pole sign and little Christmas tree included

So those are just two recent holiday sets from LEGO that I really enjoyed looking at. The little details in those sets are so awesome and adorable. Their awedorable! This is when LEGO is at its best. When is LEGO at its worst? I don’t know, I guess when they come up with their prices.

Now I want to look at the LEGO Advent calendars for this year. I had no idea LEGO did advent calendars, but it’s a brilliant idea. There are a lot of ways people countdown to Christmas, but building a little holiday-related LEGO structure every day? Fun! (And that is a genuine opinion from a normally sarcastic me.)

My family and I have a wall-hanging advent calendar that involves velcro-ing little dolls on the wall-hanging to create the manger scene. There are camels, sheep, shepherds, kings, gifts, and angels involved. On the last day, Christmas, you put up baby Jesus. We have a rotation, so that everyone has a turn putting up baby Jesus over the years. It’s a fun little tradition and weirdly religious for a family that hasn’t been to church in about 10 years.

I found at least three LEGO advent calendars that were released this year. Apparently they’ve done a Star Wars Advent calendar for the last few years, which is a neat way to combine a popular franchise with the holiday season. There are also LEGO City and LEGO Friends Advent calendars. 

Star Wars Advent Calendar 2015 - $64.88 on Amazon 

If you don’t mind being spoiled about the builds for each day, check out the video review of this set from just2good.

For each day you open up a little door to get pieces for a build. Most of which are micro-builds. There’s a nice mat attached to the box for you display each little build or minifigure.

Spoiler Alert: My favorite is the Santa C3PO

Just2good didn’t like this calendar as much as the LEGO City one that we will discuss next, but he gave it a very solid B+ grade.

LEGO City Town Advent Calendar 2015 - $45.89 on Amazon

Again, if you don’t mind being spoiled check out this video review from BrickBros UK

I don’t have much detail to offer about this set without spoiling it, but BrickBros said they were great builds and you get to add 6 minifigures to your LEGO City population.

LEGO Friends Advent Calendar 2015 - $36.25 on Amazon

Check out the video review by just2good.

He says that like LEGO Friends in general, the Friends Advent calendars keep getting better and better. He thought the builds were great, there were some nice play features like a hockey game, and great pieces in general to add to your LEGO collection. Just2good gave this set a grade of A. 

Take a look at a couple other LEGO holiday products, LEGO wrapping paper and a LEGO ornament. 

You can find the wrapping paper for sale here for $4.99. The ornament, here, is sold for $7.99. 



And last, but not least, for all you FOMs and MOC builders out there, check out the BrickWarriors Christmas Pack. It comes with everything you see in the picture below and is for sale on Amazon for $9.99. You can make an elf, a reindeer, presents, and have a funky looking horn for some holiday music. 

That's all from me on this holiday edition of The Brick Connection. I guess this is kind of the third holiday edition I've done, but 'tis the season! 

Let me know what your favorite holiday LEGO tradition is! 

Until next time...check out Brickipedia's full list of seasonal LEGO sets that have been released over the last few decades. Who would have thought they could come up with so many Easter-themed ones?

*Compliments, general feedback, and constructive criticism are welcome. Any haters that are gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate can go step on some Lego with their bare feet.*