Overnight, the next series of Collectible Minifigures was announced via the LEGO Social Media Channels. They must have Disney on their mind at the moment, as this comes hot on the heels of the announcement of the Steamboat Willie Ideas set.
Unlike that monochrome set, this one is bright and colourful, and some might suggest more reasonably priced. There are eighteen figures in this new set, from eight different Disney Licences.
Today we continue our our exploration of LEGO® Christmas Celebrations, as a tribute to the 20th anniversary of LEGO Advent Calendars, and will follow it up with a quick visit to today’s entry for the LEGO Friends calendar.
Today’s entry comes from extremely recent history: today in fact! I visited the shop attached to the local LEGOLAND Discovery Centre (Chadstone Shopping Centre in Melbourne), and found this great little collection of minifigures hanging on the shelf, with an asking price of $19.99AUD.
We have Santa, Mrs Claus and a red hatted elf. I could not help but think that they remind me of the figures from the Creator Expert Winter Village set “Santa’s Workshop”10245 from 2014. There are, however, some subtle differences. Are they enough to justify the purchase?
As you can see, the packet is quite generic. What you see above is what you get: there is no back printing. Which is a shame, as the City Santa from the 2017 and 2018 Advent Calendars has a dual printed torso, with a candy cane tucked in under the belt.
Let’s compare our new figures: with those from Santa’s Workshop.
Let’s start with Mrs Claus. The older version has a red dress, while the newer version has a dark green dress. The details on the skirt elements are the same, although the colouring is slightly different on the new torso. Our new Mrs Claus has grey hair, rather than white, with a bun. She is also carrying a pie element, introduced with one of the collectable minifigure clowns, rather than the red sack element.
On the left is the old Santa, on the right the new one. Superfically, they look pretty similar. The torso’s are identical to the one from the 2016 City Advent calendar. Remove the hat and beard however, and we see that the heads are subtly different. Our new version features greying eye brows and reading glasses. How else can he check his list of who has been naughty or nice? This appears to be a new combination, with this head only otherwise appearing in the Fun at the Beach people pack 60153, the 2017 City Advent Calendar, and attached to some European books.
On the right we have our new elf: he wears the same tunic as the Collectable minifigure Holiday Elf, from Series 11, but has red legs and a red hat. I believe this is the first time this ear/hat element has been seen in red.
They all feel, in part like they have come to perform holiday relief work, to allow Santa, Mrs Claus and the Elves a chance to have a well earned break. I hope they wait until after Christmas to take it!
These are a great selection of holiday themed minifigures, and the new elements are an unexpected bonus. What do you think? Perhaps you will be able to pick them up at your local LEGO Brand retail store, or a LEGOLAND park/discovery centre somewhere around the world. If you do, I’d love to see how you use them…
Let’s open up door number 5 after the break, and see where it takes us…
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