Classic-Castle.com

Welcome to the 2016 Holiday Exchange!

This year's exchange has a theme: The Royal Court. Everybody will be secretly assigned a character to send to somebody else. Possibilities include a King, Jester, Princess, Food Taster, and more! Please read the rules carefully before entering.


How to Enter:

1. Private Message your mailing address to me.

2. You must have been a member since October 1st with at least 5 posts.

3. Minors, please ask your parents.

4. If you have any [url=http://classic-castle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14641]negative feedback[/url], I may decline your entry.

5. You must be willing to ship internationally. Assume shipping could cost $10.

6. Signup is open until the end of November.


How it Works:

1. On December 1st, I will private message you with a character and an address.

2. Prepare a gift based on the assigned character.

3. Send your gift to the address.

4. Please mail your gift during December.

5. Ship from a post office and save your receipt until the gift arrives.

6. Post a photo of the gift you receive.


Gift Guidelines:

1. Include a (realistic or fantasy) medieval minifigure that matches your assigned character.

2. Include accessories and/or construction to go with the figure.

3. Custom cloth, string, printing, stickers, or painting is OK, but all plastic parts should be genuine LEGO.

4. Try to keep the value of your gift around $5 - $10.

5. Example: The size of a "Princess" gift should range from [url=http://brickset.com/sets/71007-3/Fairytale-Princess]Fairytale Princess[/url] to [url=http://brickset.com/sets/6023-1/Maiden-s-Cart]Maiden's Cart[/url].

6. Be creative!

I just wanted to mention that I will be participating.

Since signups are being done via private message, feel free to post anything related to this event in this thread. Questions, complaints, comments, etc.

Looks like a fun twist on the annual fig exchange

yay!

Can I add a comment about a need for tracking? Receipt by itself does not mean much unless there is a tracking number? Also shipping through PayPal is less expensive then from post office itself. When I have a moment I will dig up my writeup about that. Then after you create your shipment all you gotta do is drop it off at the post office . (I'm not a big fan of dropping packages in mailboxes... They don't always get scanned and go missing...)

ludzik wrote:Can I add a comment about a need for tracking? Receipt by itself does not mean much unless there is a tracking number? Also shipping through PayPal is less expensive then from post office itself. When I have a moment I will dig up my writeup about that. Then after you create your shipment all you gotta do is drop it off at the post office . (I'm not a big fan of dropping packages in mailboxes... They don't always get scanned and go missing...)

Thanks for the suggestions. When I say mail it at a post office, I really just mean "Don't put stamps on the envelope and stick it in your own mailbox." I want the postage to be properly calculated either by a post office or by somebody who knows what they are doing and prints their own labels through PayPal, USPS, etc. Feel free to post your information about PayPal shipping. I've never used it, and it might benefit others too.

All first-class and priority packages have free tracking on the receipt, so domestic shipments should be covered. However, I don't want to require tracking, because it is prohibitively expensive on international shipments.

soccerkid6 wrote:Looks like a fun twist on the annual fig exchange

Thanks, I hope so. I was worried that people would revolt against my ideas.


There are three reasons I made changes to the rules:

1. The former style of exchange did not work if there was an odd number of participants. This style of exchange fixes that.

2. I think surprises are fun. This exchange has more surprises than the former.

3. Adding a theme and character assignments should increase creativity. Yes, increase. Studies have shown that restrictions result in greater creativity.


There are now four people signed up.

This is great and I can't wait... PM incoming

Shipping via PayPal is very practical. You can create a label and ship from the comfort of your house BUT I strongly recommend not dropping the package at the mailbox but rather dropping it off at the post office (if you drop at the mailbox, often tracking does not get updated till the package gets delivered).

In order to ship via PayPal you have to have a PayPal account. Once you login and are on the front page, go to the link "Multi Order Shipping". Next a page will load that is the shipping window. There you first will select create as you are not shipping anything that is based on an invoice or an order. I usually ship as "First Class Mail Parcel Service" and use package/thick envelope. Shipment time is 2-5 days dependent on distance and you get free tracking. Also make sure to unselect "no insurance" and put insured value at $25 or less (I can never remember what is the cutoff for the free insurance) - this will insure your package against loss/damage. You also get tracking included and it costs less then if you were to ship the same thing using the same service at the post office.

Once you complete all the steps print your label and attach it to your package. You can also print a page called (IIRC) SCAN which is what you can give at the post office as you drop it off for the clerk to scan which is first tracking point (it's like signing a receipt saying that they received it). If you just drop it off, they'll scan it whenever (just had a package that had tracking show up when it was delivered... lazy post office bums...)

Wow, where did the time go? I was planning to post little teasers every couple days with some of the characters and ideas to draw inspiration from, but I've been busy and failed to do so. Ah well...

It's the last day. Eight people are signed up now. I was hoping for at least a dozen, but eight is great. Since I'm at work all day and have the company holiday party right after work, I'll accept registrations for this until 7:00 PM EST on December 1st.

I will be sending everybody a private message tomorrow, but don't expect them until rather late in the evening.

Only 8, that is kind of a historically low turnout for this...

I hope I don't have to give up one of my jester figures...

Steve

Athos wrote:Only 8, that is kind of a historically low turnout for this...

I hope I don't have to give up one of my jester figures...

Steve

Last year was also historically low. All I can do now is try to make the most of this.

I pmed a while back, but didn't comment here.

Dog Ironbones wrote:I pmed a while back, but didn't comment here.

Yup, I'm counting you.

A ninth person signed up. I am working on the list now, so no more entries.

Okay. Assignments have been posted. The toughest part of this process was picking only nine characters to (randomly) assign. I would have been happy with double or triple the number of participants so I could include more.

I tried to pick a variety of characters to avoid redundancy in our small group. Just as a teaser, here are some of the characters I did NOT use:

Cook
Lady-in-waiting
Midwife
Food Taster
King's Squire
Queen
Fool
Prince
King's Guard
Master of the Horse
Steward
Standard Bearer
Falconer

If you need information about your assigned character, I recommend doing an internet search or looking up your character on wikipedia. Feel free to ask me (privately) for ideas or information if you are stumped.

Please send a description with your minifigure so the recipient knows what it is. Feel free to make up a name or backstory if you want. At a bare minimum, please include what type of character it is. (example: If you send somebody a falconer, at least write "Falconer" on a piece of paper and include it with your gift.)

By the way, Falconer was the last character to get moved to the cut list. I loved the idea, but I couldn't think of any good LEGO falcons... (I think the dark gray parrot is the best option, but I didn't want to make this difficult for somebody who doesn't have one.)

Please keep your assignments a secret until photos are posted here by the recipient.