Monday, December 8, 2008

Advent Madness: CITY Day 8

Advent Madness Day Eight
CITY
(Open the Doors Here)



Kitten up a Tree

Well, this is a bit of departure from the CITY sets we've seen in the past. Sure, we're still doing a "Fireman" sub-theme, but this time it's a Pleasantville version where the fire department just waits for a call about a cat up a tree.

As far as trees go, this is a bit iffy - three fronds stuck to a rectangular pole. It's a bit more creative than the one-piece trees LEGO also produces, but to me it looks a bit too cubist. Maybe it's supposed to be a subtle slam against people who buy plastic Christmas trees over the real pine-scented deal. I doubt it, though.

The cat is also a disappointment - last year's Belville Advent also had a cat behind door eight - but that cat had printed features. Once again, LEGO's cost cutting shows through.

Still, I have to give them points for an original twist on a very tired sub-theme. When I saw the fireman yesterday, this set was pretty far down my list of expected follow-ups.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

you really should be giving them a tiny bit of credit.

The leaf things and the cat are not always easy to find. Plus those pieces could b handy with the expansion of people's collections

Christopher Doyle said...

Anon:

Uh, I must be coming across as more cynical than I'm feeling - I thought I put a *somewhat* happy spin on today's item.

Anonymous said...

Incidentally, I this style of cat was introduced in '95 (as near as I can tell) without painted features. So it's not that LEGO is cutting costs, they're just going "old school" and giving the fans what they want.

Katarina Whimsy said...

Just want to giggle at the Plesantville references --the shouting of "CAT!" was one of the absolute funniest moments in the whole movie.