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I really like the calendar. New queen, prince, soldiers, peasants, pigs and a frog, what do you need more?

Thanks for the pics of the advent calendar. It is absolutely divine!

Well the hits just keep on coming.

The photos of the battle packs have become available.

The Lion Knights and the outnumbered (in the sets) Dragon Knights.

Changes since the release of preliminary pics: I note that the dragons battle pack gained an archers torso which is a big plus in my book. Unfortunately the dragon knights are armed with light pearl weapons instead of the dark pearl like in the sets. I hope it is not too hard to get a hold of dark pearl weapons as I would like a lot of them to mix into my armies. There appears to be 3 weapons in the advent calendar that are dark pearl. The new packaging is interesting and less dependent on plastic. The shields from the packaging would make a nice addition to the walls in my lego area. I just hope these figs are of good quality.

DaleDVM wrote:The new packaging is interesting and less dependent on plastic. The shields from the packaging would make a nice addition to the walls in my lego area. I just hope these figs are of good quality.

Yeah, I had the same worry about quality, and I hope they are standard quality like in most sets. But if I'm wrong, it will be a very sad day for me.

Between the advent calendar and the battle packs, my day just got about 150% better. As noted, I'm not thrilled about the lack of dark pearl weapons for the dragon battle pack, but being able to more easily build up an army of (what I feel to be) the cooler-looking of the two new factions is entirely worth it.

The advent calendar looks amazing. A new queen, a new blue wizard, and a noble/prince-looking fellow, plus the new peasant and blacksmith... depending on how you catalog the wizard and the prince, that's 5 non-combatants (even if two of them are recycled).

Same old queen in a new dress and our Village Blacksmith and Maiden and the same wizard wearing a darker shade of blue? Okay I will be the only one on Classic Castle to call "foul" on LEGO for that. Everything else looks great and again Castle is left with more of the same leftovers for characters and yellow heads. Not as excited about this one as I was for the 2008 Calender we could BARELY get any of in the USA, mostly for the re-run character choices.

Glad LEGO is doing a Castle Advent Calender, but underwhelmed by some of their minifigure choices. /

DraconisTerrena wrote:Between the advent calendar and the battle packs, my day just got about 150% better.

It's great, but I think TLG are kicking themselves up the a s s at the sametime. Now with the ACs and Battlepacks I don't think I need to bother with the actual sets.

RichardAM wrote: It's great, but I think TLG are kicking themselves up the a s s at the sametime. Now with the ACs and Battlepacks I don't think I need to bother with the actual sets.

I see your point Richard. But, if you don't get any of the sets you don't get any of the 4 available pieces of horse barding, the unicorn horns, or the new great helm in pearl silver, or the king figure, or the princess figure, or the new castle walls, and new windows, and new doors. The new 1x2 cheese slopes, octagonal plates, porticullis, baby dragons, and horses are a draw for some people as well. I think TLG has there backsides covered pretty well.

I don't think that battle packs are a big surprise any more. I will be surprised when they actually release a faction without a battlepack. If you only want to build armies out of the new line then I don't think TLG is bothered by that. They will be happy to sell that stuff to you and make profits. I think it is great that TLG gives people the option to buy what they want be it sets or figures. By doing so they encourage not discourage more purchasing. I personally love collecting both so I am in heaven!

Just out of curiosity what do people think of the new doors, windows, wall pieces, and such. The new doors look more sturdy but I don't like the texture quite as much. The new windows are small but I think they are a panel and therefore not full thickness. I don't really like that. The wall pieces are smaller and I will find them more useful in the long run.

Last but not least does anyone know how they built that arrow loop on the side of the gatehouse? It doesn't look like one piece? I can't imagine them using snot technique in a childs set just for an arrow slit?

Sigh I just saw the AC and the BPs over on Brickset and came Blasting over here, hoping to post the pics but it seems as though I was drastically late. Well that's life. The Advent calendar looks especially rare because of the pieces. Lets hope they release this one in the US.

I see your point Richard. But, if you don't get any of the sets you don't get any of the 4 available pieces of horse barding, the unicorn horns, or the new great helm in pearl silver, or the king figure, or the princess figure, or the new castle walls, and new windows, and new doors. The new 1x2 cheese slopes, octagonal plates, porticullis, baby dragons, and horses are a draw for some people as well. I think TLG has there backsides covered pretty well.

I can see both of your points. Personally, being a tan castle builder, the sets just don't fit my collection, I'd lean toward Richard's opinion. But I did not follow the same opinion for PoP. I own several copies of each set..because near the whole set fit with my collection. But of the list of things you mention that would be missed out on because of not buying the sets, well there is always bricklink. And this year..my money is looking like it is heading Harry Potter instead of these castle sets. I happen to really like the advent calendar, and the impulse sets. I will be happy to purchase those for myself and for gifts.

I am just infinitely happy that a nice number of figs can be added to my collection without having to buy 20+ sets.

Blego7 wrote:Lets hope they release this one in the US.

Thankfully, thanks to the demand of last years, this calendar will be for sale in most retailers among the US.

Hey,

I'm going to unstick this thread. Since the sets are starting to appear in the US, I'm sure we'll soon get additional threads as people purchase and give their full reviews.

Bruce

OverLoad wrote:

Blego7 wrote:Lets hope they release this one in the US.

Thankfully, thanks to the demand of last years, this calendar will be for sale in most retailers among the US.

Praise God!!!

architect wrote: I understand your frustration. For some reason other people inside TLG (not Steve) are hesitant to give fan sites pictures of some lines prior to release. As you pointed out, this does not make much sense since high quality images were taken at toy fair. On the other hand, it is nice for the Community Team to help us out and give us official pictures.

Ben

This is because not all people who work for TLG (corporate) or LBR (LEGO Brand Retail aka LEGO Stores) are AFOLs. Many are told NOT to give out information to the public about new products, until release. Even fewer seem to realize that when the company (all of LEGO) releases info to the general public like Toy Fair, its okay to talk about it. As for pictures... that depends, because my store (Garden State Plaza LEGO Store) didn't get our new City, Power Miners, Atlantis, Space Police, and new subthemes like Kingdoms and World Racers until the 17th on Monday.

I would've said something about that here... but I was the closing manager that night... and I go to BrickLink more than the other LEGO Fansites...

BTW... if you guys are BL members too, you might have seen this post from a few days ago:
http://www.bricklink.com/message.asp?ID=448322

OverLoad wrote:Thankfully, thanks to the demand of last years, this calendar will be for sale in most retailers among the US.

I'm curious where you at getting this information. Hopefully its true, but I haven't seen a statement by Lego that this is happening.

Josh

JoshWedin wrote:

OverLoad wrote:Thankfully, thanks to the demand of last years, this calendar will be for sale in most retailers among the US.

I'm curious where you at getting this information. Hopefully its true, but I haven't seen a statement by Lego that this is happening.

Josh

Well, Dano mentioned that it will be available in both countries this year. Personally, I believe him, but I don't know where HE got the info, but he usually has the info and pictures of sets very early, and before everyone else.

Hopefully we'll have this confirmed, but you never know.