Another Very Merry LEGO Christmas!

From everyone here at Oz Brick Nation we would like to wish you all a Very Merry LEGO Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!

Thank you to each and every one of you again for the fantastic support you've given us so far especially to our Awesome OBN Facebook followers and the brilliant OZLUG Members!

A special thank you to the Minifigures Team for their continuing support, and to everyone of you fine Nerds folks over at the Whirlpool "The Lego Thread"

See you all in 2015!

Tan Tile, OBN team and Families. Signing out!  .....2014.....

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Twenty Four Review.

We made it! We made it to Day 24! Woo hoo!

It went so quick! Why doesn't it go that fast when I'm waiting for a Lego Shop @ Home Order? lol

I hope you have enjoyed this years Advent Calender reviews. We have had a blast building every day.

We have had some wonderful builds while other days we were really left "scratching our heads" but when you look at them as a whole they really did came together in the end.

I'm really going miss the excitement that came from the kids every morning as we opened up our Advent Calendar doors. Bring on next year! Who knows I might change it up and let Chloe have the Star Wars one, I'll get the Friends set and Jaspa would get the City one. We'll see.

Guess what? It's Christmas tomorrow! Woot!

Lets see what we got on our final day and crack open door number 24!


On the final morning Chloe got a Lime Green and White Gift box with a removable lid to store 2 pairs of Ice skates in it. Santa is Most certainly real in Heartlake city. Who else would put put 2 gifts in the one package?
She also got a DSLR camera. I let you know Chloe's feelings at the end of the review.

Spares

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Just like last year I got this brilliant Santa! The only difference is that he has the standard open grin face print rather then the older man looking one...  He also comes a sack like last year and new this year is the cookie printed round tile. A nice strong finish for the lead up to Christmas! 

A couple of spares!

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On Jaspa's last day he got this awesome, awesome (so awesome I had to say it 3 times in the end) Darth Vader dressed in a Christmas cloak and carrying a sack. He also has a red cape and the print on the torso has little presents on his belt! Vader also has such lovely printed legs, as his "cloak" runs down over the legs. "Darth Santa" as Jaspa is calling him, is an absolute hit in the house this morning! You should of seen Jaspa's face! He knew he was getting him all month waiting patiently, (The box gives it away!!) and to finally have him in hand he couldn't contain himself!

I have noticed a few photos on the net today that show people getting a White grill piece on their fireplace, but we got a Black grill piece. A very kind reader pointed out that the grills were swapped, My son swapped it around... said it looked better.

Chloe was a little bit disappointed yet again that her Advent Calendar lacked a Santa...  Again her Advent finished on a present just like last years, she liked it... but I couldn't miss the disappointment on her face as we both got our Santa's this morning. Why couldn't TLG add an extra Minidoll to the set and have either a mum dressed as Mrs Santa Clause or have a dad (like Darth Vader) dressed up in a Santa suit. Finish it off strong like the City and Star Wars versions.


Make sure you pop back in tomorrow to see a little greeting from us!

That's it...  Day 24... The final day of the Advent Calendar reviews is in the bag!

In the last 24 days (up to now.. now) we have had our biggest page views count to date since starting our blog. We have racked up just over 15,000 views for this month alone and we still have 7 days left.
Our previous record was for the same time last year when we got 13,000 views when we did the Advent Calendar Reviews.
It's incredible to see those number really, because we didn't think anyone would be interested in anything we had to say and then stay, considering in our first month of going live we only had 744 views.

Thank you for dropping by every day this month and joined us on this journey. We appreciate everyone who reads our little blog and we enjoy reading comments when we get them, either here or mostly on Facebook and sometimes on the Whirlpool forum. Each one of those comments drive us to create new content. 

A HUGE Thank You for sticking with us!

Tan Tile, Tash, Chloe and Jaspa signing out! 

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Twenty Three Review.

Welcome back for Day 23!

Only one more day to go and we are done for the calendar reviews!

Hopefully by now you are all set for the big day and you have all your Christmas Shopping done. Lets face it, the shopping centers will be jam packed!

Lego aisles will be low on stock and all those sets that were sold will be ready and waiting under millions of Trees. All for that moment when the boys and girls (young, middle aged and old) from around the world wake up on Christmas morning, eager to rip apart the wrapping and start building and having fun!

I simply can not wait! Can you imagine how excited our kids are too? Lol

So what awesome gifts did we get today?


This morning it was Chloe's turn to get a Christmas Tree. And such a lovely tree it is! When I woke up this morning, the first thing Chloe did was come racing up to me, extremely happy to have gotten this Christmas tree. I was surprised to find out through Bricklink that the Green Slope 75 2 x 2 x 2 Quadruple Convex has only been in 7 sets in the past 12 years ( and 2 came in this years Advent set alone) so its a very uncommon piece. I should have realised it back on Day 4 when we first saw the piece that came with the Deer (better late then never). The tree topper is a 1 x 1 Jewel Heart Rock in Trans Pink and it was a new piece for 2014 and only seen in the Disney Princess Theme.

Just the one spare.

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This morning I got the groovy trike bike/tricycle ! Its a simple build using very few parts. The front wheel holder is normally only seen on flying vehicles like planes or helicopters so it's cool to see it on a ground vehicle. The tricycle zooms around pretty smoothly too. It's a great gift and it soooo reminds my of my sons "Radio Flyer" he got 2 years ago... I really like today's gift! 

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Jaspa got something a little more seasonal then Star Warsie < is that even a word?... Anyway what he built was a fireplace. On each side of the fireplace was a Lightsaber (a Blue one and a Red one) and sitting on the top of the mantle is what I believe to be a Jedi Holocron, just like the one seen in 75018: JEK-14's Stealth Starfighter.
All Jaspa cared about were the Lightsabers. He was happy to know Luke got his Lightsaber and Jaspa knows that tomorrow is the last day to open a door, so the Red Lightsaber will be for... you will have to wait and see ;-P

Spares...

Only 2 more sleeps to go!!

Well, that's it for Day 23 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Twenty Two Review.

Welcome to Day 22. We only have 2 days left  of the Advents and we are done for another year.

Each day the kids are getting more excited, I miss that feeling that they now have at this moment. The mystery; the wonderment; sneaking for a peek at  the presents under the tree every chance you had, and shaking it for clues... ahh those were the days.

The kiddies were up much earlier then me today and they had already cracked opened their calendars doors and built them before I even thought about getting out of bed.

Lets scroll down to see what goodies they god behind door number 22...



Well... in typical fashion the Friends calendar likes to do it slow... (not in a bad way I might add) It just likes to build up a scene rather then give the kids an "instant" play thing. Today Chloe got a box with a bow in it. What I liked about today's interesting gift is that the lid is used with the studs down. It's something you don't see every day or at all really. Chloe seems to think the bow is a gift for her "cute wittle kitty cat".

Spares.

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Today's gift is one that we get every year. But each year it is always slightly different, and it seems to get smaller and smaller as the years pass... Today I got our more then expected Christmas tree. It's nicely decorated with "lights" and has a Trans Yellow jewel as it's tree topper. The one thing that I would have preferred with this years tree is, using 2x2 round plates instead of the square ones. I will most likely use the parts from this tree and about 10 others we have to hopefully make one grand Christmas tree one day. It's always fun to build a tree.

Plenty of spare Trans studs.

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According to this whole family, Jaspa's gift for today was the coolest!  What he got was an Exclusive "Festive Astromech", with print details of Red Ornaments on it's cone head to make it look like a Christmas tree. The droid only has printing on the front, nothing at the back. The cone is such a fun and unique piece and its set off with a sparkly tree topper! Jaspa is over the moon about it, he has somewhat an affinity to Astromech Droids.

A couple of Spares.

We could have had a Hat-Trick of Christmas trees today but no, Friends had to give us a bow. Maybe Chloe gets hers tomorrow?

3 sleeps till Santa! Wooo!

Well, that's it for Day 22 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Twenty One Review.

Hello! Welcome back to Day 21! There are only 3 doors left to open now! I'm definitely in holiday mode, these posts are getting later and later.

It's the end of week 3 already! The kids... The kids are already driving me insane!!  We are only 2 days into the holidays and we have 6 weeks of it left... Aghhh!

Deep breaths... Big smile, Biiiig smile! Ok, ok... I'm calm again. But for how long?

So what did we get this morning? Lets go take a look!






On this warm and sunny morning Chloe got a... Bluetooth speaker... aaaand a "iPhone/iPod/Smartphone" with a docking station. When Chloe opened the door she first thought it was a washing machine o_0. I lol'd and said "you got a what..? Let me look at the picture" TLG seem to put more internal details into an imaginary house then they do in any City or Creator house. Oh well...

Spare.

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In my City calendar I got a Lime Green and White present and a Red and White stripe Christmas stocking (should have came with 2). Nothing exciting but are perfect addition's for the impending Christmas tree. For now the police officers can zoom around carrying them on the back of their snowmobile until it does arrive.

My spares for today.

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The Original Trilogy mini builds continue to come thick and fast because today Jaspa got the iconic Y-Wing. This is a great little model that captures that good ol rustic feel. Jaspa is into the Clone Wars series and is more use to the cleaner lines, he thinks "this looks ugly". Damn kid has no respect! :-P

Plenty of spares...

Well, that's it for Day 21 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

 

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Twenty Review.

Good afternoon and welcome back to Day 20 as we continue to countdown the days till Christmas!
Only 5 days to go!!!

Today is the first day of the school holidays and already the kids are starting to get at each others throats. When they are on their own they are like angels but when together it's like there are 10 kids in the house, when actually there is only 2. The horror! :-D

So... While I have the kiddies separated, what did we get today!





This morning Chloe was thrilled to get a "cute wittle kitty cat, look how cute the kitty cat is?" It was fun to see how she reacted to it. It seems to be a rare kitty cat, only being in 2 other sets. The kitty also come with a small bed . I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but Chloe found it amusing to see that she got the cat right underneath the picture of today's cat.

 

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Today's gift was underwhelming... Nothing to write home about. A couple of "stools", a barrel (I do like), a shovel and an axe. Nothing to really build today, more like place holders. At the end of the day they will be useful pieces for a future MOC.

Spare shovel and axe.

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Jaspa got a cool mini build today! An Imperial Shuttle or a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle (or Shuttle Tydirium). "ooo daddy... another spaceship! pew pew pew!" You guessed it, he loved it. I'm sure I'll be looking for this one around the house too later in the day. Like I do everyday with all the other days gifts, so I can photograph with previous day door reveals. :-P

Spare.

Well, that's it for Day 20 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

 

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Nineteen Review.

Good afternoon... Seems these posts are getting later and later. But I do have a reason for being late today. Last minute Christmas shopping for the wifey!

I totally forgot about picking them up so I did it early this morning. By 10am the shops were packed! Thank goodness I got in at 8:45am.

I have been so caught up with these reviews and also building from scratch 8 x transport boxes for our Winter Village MOC. All in preparation for our very first appearance at Brickvention on Jan 17th and 18th 2015. Tickets are available HERE! Sessions are starting to sell out now!
Hope to see you there!

What gifts did we get this morning?


We are still in the lounge room today as Chloe got a sweet Lavender and Pink couch that seats two. 10 pieces are used to build this couch. Chloe was like "Wow dad! look I got a cool looking couch!" Purple/Lavender is her favorite colour.

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This morning before going shopping I got a small table with a big ass roast turkey, a wine bottle and 2 wine glasses! Awesome parts that are very useful! I'm always happy to get turkeys! They are not very common and are only available in 6 sets.

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Behind door 19 Jaspa's mini build was a speeder bike inspired sled, carrying a couple of gifts in a sack. A interesting looking model that looks pretty close to the source material. Jaspa had some difficulty building it and gave up after about 10 mins. But he was happy to give General Rieekan a blaster.

Spare.

Well, that's it for Day 19 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

 

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Eighteen Review.

Good afternoon, welcome back for Day 18.

We are on the home stretch now, just 7 sleeps to go till the big man in red comes to visit! Have you been good?

What did we get today? Scroll do to find out!








This morning in Chloe's Friends calendar she got a small side table with a lamp and a pink book to the side. I thinks it's safe to say we are finally out of the kitchen. A cute build that uses a couple of Nougat coloured log bricks for the legs of the table and a festive Green and Red checkered table cloth on top. From what my wife told me Chloe couldn't be bothered building it (A late night driving around looking at Christmas lights) so Tash did it instead.

A few Spares to add to you collection.

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This morning I got another Police officer. It's pretty much the same as Day 11 but he has a different face print. He also come with a coffee mug and a pair of handcuffs. To be honest I was actually expecting a female officer since TLG have been adding a lot more females into their city sets.

Spare pair of handcuffs.

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In Jaspa's Star Wars Calendar he got to build a General Rieekan minifigure. This is a great way to get this fan favorite Character as he has only been in one other set, 75014: The Battle of Hoth. He has a great torso print with a snow jacket, two pockets and a belt running through the bottom. He  has a one sided face print and he looks rather serious about something... maybe too many snow balls coming in his direction. Jaspa loved the fact that Rieekan is a good guy, he only said the other day "We need more good guys daddy, we have too many bad guys" lol

Well, that's it for Day 18 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.

LEGO 41040: Friends, 60063: City, 75056: Star Wars 2014 Advent Calendar, Day Seventeen Review.

Day 17... hmmm.. There are only 7 more days left in our Advent Calendars. Just 7!

The kids have now transitioned into holiday mode now because it is getting more difficult to wake them up in the mornings... Just 2 weeks ago they were eager to open their Calendars... but now, umm... Not so much. Even Jaspa who is usually the first to wake up in our house is now the last one to get out of bed atm. I think we will will have some issues getting him up and ready in his first year of school starting in late Janauary lol. Wish us luck! :-D







Finally! After enjoying their dessert yesterday it looks like Mia and Ewa are now moving into the lounge room! Chloe was over the moon to get this pretty interesting fireplace build (compared to pretty much everything in this Calender). She was happy to have something more challenging to build rather then "always just adding accessories everyday" (her words not mine).  18 pieces are used to build the fireplace.

Spares

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Behind door number 17 I got a trailer attachment to go with yesterdays Police snowmobile. At the back of the trailer is a Yellow storage section that could possibly store some future gifts in it... maybe? I would have preferred if they stuck with the blue and white colour scheme, after all the 1 x 1 x 1 Corner piece became available this year in two sets. Nothing complicated about today's build, but you can still have fun taking the kids for a ride.

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 We are still on the planet Hoth and today Jaspa got to build a mini turret (it's technical name is a DF.9  anti-infantry battery) Jaspa looked confused by today's gift and to be honest, it had me wondering for a moment what it was too. But it finally dawned on me.

 Just like we saw in Day 7 this mini build uses the new "Stud firing" blaster on the top of the turret and shoots "snow balls" again rather then live ammunition. You get a few different sized White slope pieces to replicate a snow trench and a few 1 x 1 round plates to shoot with (and lose).

Spares for today.

Well, that's it for Day 17 of the Advent Calendar reviews. Thank you for dropping by and please check in again with us tomorrow to see what little goodies we get to build. :-)

Tan Tile signing out! See you all again tomorrow.