40562 Creator 3 in 1: Mystic Witch: Gift With Purchase 14-31st October

It’s a funny time of the year: the Christmas/Holiday season sets have been announced, but the Gifts with Purchase are a bit unpredictable until we enter November: We went with early October purchases to secure the Gift with Purchase Ideas Set ‘Ray the Castaway’ and then out of nowhere… This Happens.

The 40562 Mystic Witch set is a Creator 3-in-1 set that will be available as a gift with purchase in the second half of October 2022 (there might even be a day or two of overlap with double GWP Points if you are really clever). In Australia, the purchase threshold is $165 AUD (or $USD100/€100/£100 ROTW): Perfect if you are looking at 10308 – The Holiday Main Street in time for the holidays- or another copy of 10497 Galaxy Explorer because it is an awesome set!

I was fortunate to be sent a copy to look at: will it be enough to trigger purchases during the latter half of October, before the Christmas GWPs start to appear, and indeed before Black Friday in November? Let’s take a look!

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The truth about cats and dogs:

What I learned about SNOT from Furry Animals (31021)

IMG_7389One of my favourite sets of the last few years is the creator set 31021: Furry Animals.

The ‘Hero model’ is a cat and mouse, and the secondary (and tertiary?)models are a rabbit and a small dog.  This set contains a few new(to me) ‘SNOT blocks’ and so provides an opportunity to follow on from my recent post about the SNOT techniques used in the Ocean Explorer (31045).  For those wondering, the term SNOT used in the lego context refers to Studs Not (only) on top. So… focussing on techniques used where the directions of the studs is running at right angle to the primary direction of construction.

Once again, I am suspicious that some of the lego designers are trying to tuck little lessons for advanced building techniques into these small sets.  I am now actively exploring my creator sets for hidden lessons, to adapt for my own creations. Why don’t you join me…

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