Classic-Castle.com

Got my Lego catalog in mail and it features the city advent calendar which made me do some poking around on the net and unfortunately it seems that there will be no castle advent calendar this year All I found were city, star wars and friends ones

When was the last Castle Advent Calendar? It seems like 2011? Or was it 2012?

2010, or 2011 if i remember. I didnt see one last year.

Curt

Last one was in 2010 (7952). I was hoping that with the release of the new Castle line there would also be an advent calendar available.

Perhaps we will see one then in the next few years. I sure would like one! Maybe we need to move this thread to the "dear Lego" forum?

A castle advent calendar would be very cool! Maybe it should be moved....since we are asking lego.

Yep 2010 http://brickset.com/browse/themes/?them ... e=Seasonal

From what I've heard (and always with a pinch of salt) the new castle line hasn't been selling that well. Personally I think the Chima and city stuff is probably more attractive to Kids, and LOTR more attractive for castle builders (both the builds and for the parts).

That said, a castle calendar would be nice (or even a Hobbit one?), maybe next year Castle will get more of a push.

andhe wrote: That said, a castle calendar would be nice (or even a Hobbit one?), maybe next year Castle will get more of a push.

I agree a Hobbit/LotR themed advent calender would be great, especially since it could be released close to the next Hobbit wave and movie.

Do they actually do licenses as advent calendars or is there some regulation against that? I realize Star Wars is a license, but is it the exception?

Aeridian wrote:

andhe wrote: That said, a castle calendar would be nice (or even a Hobbit one?), maybe next year Castle will get more of a push.

I agree a Hobbit/LotR themed advent calender would be great, especially since it could be released close to the next Hobbit wave and movie.

Did you notice how all of the dwarves from the Hobbit were spread out among different sets, and you would have 1 of each dwarf if you bought every Hobbit set? That is a strong marketing strategy. Tossing a few main characters into a calendar would counter those efforts and leave people with duplicates of some characters.

I think Star Wars works better for advent calendars because they have a lot more generic soldiers, guards, etc. The most recent Star Wars calendar only contained two named figures, and they were both joke costume alternate versions. (Snowman R2-D2 and Santa Darth Maul) The rest were generic things like Gungan Soldier, Battle Droid, Imperial Security Guard, things that it's cool to have in multiples.

I also think the Star Wars stuff has simply been a lot more popular.

rogue27 wrote:

Aeridian wrote: Did you notice how all of the dwarves from the Hobbit were spread out among different sets, and you would have 1 of each dwarf if you bought every Hobbit set? That is a strong marketing strategy. Tossing a few main characters into a calendar would counter those efforts and leave people with duplicates of some characters.

I think Star Wars works better for advent calendars because they have a lot more generic soldiers, guards, etc. The most recent Star Wars calendar only contained two named figures, and they were both joke costume alternate versions. (Snowman R2-D2 and Santa Darth Maul) The rest were generic things like Gungan Soldier, Battle Droid, Imperial Security Guard, things that it's cool to have in multiples.

I also think the Star Wars stuff has simply been a lot more popular.

Yes I think the popularity thing is the main issue to seeing a Hobbit calendar. Whilst I would love one that gave you a different dwarf each day ( ) realistically if they did make one it would be more along the lines of the stars wars stuff. A bunch of mini builds (catapults, chimney, cart etc), some generic figures (eg ork/uruk-hai, rohan soldier, elf?) and maybe Bilbo/Frodo and Gandalf in some Christmas get up.

It may not sell very well, but at least us castle fans could pick it up on discount afterwards

I also think the Star Wars stuff has simply been a lot more popular.

I'm not so sure I agree. In July I was still seeing last year's SW advent calendar in stores. Parents do not want to pay the price for that advent calendar. Other parents are offended by the inclusion of SW into an advent calendar in principle. Although, I"m not sure how it is different from a pirate, or a castle advent calendar...violence is still a theme. But that is off topic.

Advent calendars have been in the past, planned and numbers estimated years in advance. Remember when the US wasn't part of the plan for the first castle advent calendar? We just got lucky with an accidental shipment to the US?

I have been an avid advent calendar buyer since 2004 before they had minifigs in them. The best advent calendar ever was the Belville one. Don't believe me, research it. It was FULL of food parts. At the time food wasn't an easy thing to gather at a cheap price. This is the first year that I won't be buying one. The city is the same every year. SW is just not my thing. And the Friends one is lacking.

Will there be another castle advent calendar? Who knows. I wouldn't bet on it with SW and Friends getting ones...and City rules the LEGO world.

Argh! Dang you Star Wars and your popularity!

Anyway, you're probably right Blue. City is usually just mixed around a little and released every year. And with SW and now a Friends advent calendar coming out, Castle seems to be another miss.

The thing is...I almost would suggest you buy one of those drawer advent calendar boxes or ones with pockets..and fill it with collecti figs or polybags. It probably would be more fun. I know I wish someone in my life would do that for me. It would be a lot more meaningful.

I do think we're overdue another Castle Advent Calendar. I scored the one from a few years ago, and it was awesome. I also liked the nonspecific City one from a few years back--all those vehicle mini-builds make awesome toys for the kids in my Christmas village!

Has there ever been a Pirates Advent Calendar? That seems like another good fit for the concept--lots of potential for interesting mini-builds, and the Christmas Eve minifig could be a mermaid queen or something.