Advent Madness: Day 3

VS

Advent Madness day three. Can today's presents cheer my cranky mood? Let's find out.

I was talking with my wife about the CITY Advent rehashes last night. She pointed out that there are some families with heirloom Advent Calendars that enjoy the same set of ornaments/toys/whatever year after year. That there are some advent calendar options that are just a piece of candy every morning. So maybe, just maybe, I might want to give CITY a break.

This point of view is backed up in some of the blog comments I've gotten - people who didn't experience the 2005 (or any previous year's) calendar first hand don't have the negative reactions that I do - to them, these are indeed new toys.

These are good points.

I still don't care, though. These products aren't marketed as a "re-use every year" item - they're meant to be new and fresh each time. And, in the bigger picture, CITY is a rich and diverse theme - there's no NEED for repeats. This is just LEGO being lazy and I'm going to continue to call them on it.

Neener.

Anyway, on with the countdown.

DOOR NUMBER THREE

A box of burning chemicals. Yay.

Like yesterday, this is a repeat with variations - Day 23 of 2006 was a burning oil drum. In terms of continuous Advent Action, that happened just four doors back.

It's part of the "Fireman theme" to have something to extinguish, I suppose. But when I saw today's item all I could think of was some homeless CITY mini-figure lighting trash on fire to stay warm, as the LEGO CITY has never released a Homeless Shelter kit. (Can you imagine the outcry if they did, though?)

In terms of part re-use...meh. A box, some 1x1 cones and cylinders, and some fake flame. All common, all bland.

DOOR NUMBER THREE

I guess yesterday was a bed, after all. It must have been, as today's door held this lovely little nightstand. Complete with lamp, mysterious bottle, and hairbrush.

As far as theming goes, this is every bit as lame as today's CITY door. In the comic I've suggested that these items might have a hidden "adult theme" to them, but as a door-by-door review we can't even give it that. These are just...not very festive.

The only redeeming factor is part re-use. Some of those elements are in unusual colors (the 2x2 radar dish in particular) that can probably be put to good use after all this is over.


JUDGMENT:
Like yesterday, neither set really has a clear lead over the other. I'm going to toss this one to Belville for having better parts.

TODAY'S WINNER: