Pirate Advent 2009: Day 24
Treasure Chest and Pirate Booty
After yesterday's dip into evil, I wasn't sure what to expect behind the final door of the 2009 Pirate Advent Calendar. Severed LEGO Monkey heads? The rest of the skeleton from Day 23? A still-warm LEGO heart?
No, instead they gave us the alleged root of ALL evil: Money.
A treasure chest filled with Pirate Booty - a nice selection of Transparent Gems and a lump of gold ore. It sure beats the lumps of coal Santa should have brought these naughty pirates!
But for a grand finale of the Advent Calendar...this is still pretty weak. They could at least have thrown in some gold LEGO coins.
So. Time to wrap up this year's Advent Madness.
How did LEGO do with this limited-release Pirate Themed calendar?
Well, I doubt anyone will complain that it wasn't Pirate-themed enough. From Brickbeard the Pirate Captain to the lovely Mermaid Lass, LEGO found enough swag to fill the calendar.
The problem was that some of the swag was pretty weak. Consider day 10's "Barrel of Crap" and day 20's "barrel and oar": hardly impressive hauls. Considering the difficulty of getting one of these calendars and their already-high price point, I found myself going "is that it?" more than once.
On the flip side, there were some impressive mini-figures to be had. The Pirate Lass, the Castaway, the Mermaid...all had to find figures with quality decoration and accessories. (Provided you're willing to count the mermaid's tail as an accessory, anyway.)
In my role as "grumpy old man who talks about LEGO", I tally this year's calendar up as follows:
Excellent Days: 7, 11, 14
Good Days: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 13, 21
Okay Days: 3, 15, 17, 19, 23, 24
Weak Days: 8, 16, 18, 22
Crap Days: 10, 20
Giving the overall calendar an average of +7, a solid mark higher than just "okay". That puts this year's Pirate theme firmly in the WIN column.
Way to go LEGO! That's 2-for-2 on this year's calendars!
Will we see another Pirate adventure in 2010? Will we return to the Castle universe? Or will we take a dive and explore Atlantis next winter? Or maybe...just maybe...will we explore SPACE?
I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to finding out!
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!
Labels: Advent Madness, LEGO, Pirate2009
Click here for comments and discussion (and possibly the rest of this article!)