All aboard for fun and excitement.
December 22: Train
This is a train. It’s probably a toy train, like an in-world model train for the Lego people and their pets.
Rating
Fun ★★★★★
This train is pretty boss. It has a fun holiday color scheme (the roof is dark green, which may not be obvious in the photo), it has an interesting coupling that actually works (better than the one on the Cyclops-Drawn Toboggan), and it is hocking up some quality smoke. Mostly, it is recognizable as a train, and people know what trains do, so it would be possible to do something fun with it. It was also fun to build, since it had more parts than many of this year’s prizes.
Ease of Build ★★★☆☆
This is a fairly involved build compared to the rest of the calendar, but it wasn’t terribly taxing.
Comprehensibility ★★★★☆
I know what this is. This seems to be the proper use for these train wheels—the same type of parts were used previously as wheels on the Toy Firetruck build, which made for an awful lot of front wheels. Speaking of parts, I am curious about the original intent of the “puff of smoke” piece on the train’s chimney. I guess it could be an actual puff of smoke, like for a car’s exhaust or the barrel of a pirate’s blunderbuss, but pollution and black powder smoke seem like odd thematic choices. I don’t know what else it would be though. Possibly several scoops of vanilla ice cream. Or a model of something with a trigonal pyramidal molecular geometry, like ammonia (NH3). But maybe more likely ice cream.
Extra Parts ★★★★☆
This came with a bunch of spare parts: a clear square, a dark green tile, a dark gray round thing, and more train wheels. Combined with the extra train wheels from the firetruck, there are probably enough extra parts to build a club car.
Overall ★★★★★
As someone who has gone cross-country by train multiple times, I’m probably biased, but I think it’s cool. Thematically relevant, an actual build, something recognizable…this is the kind of thing I’m hoping for in a Lego Advent calendar.
