UPDATE (9/26/08): You can order your copy of the set by following the directions in How to get your 7979 Castle Advent Calendar, currently at the top of the front page.
UPDATE (9/25/08): Limited quantities of this set will be made available on September 26 in the US and Canada.
We’ve recently received news from The LEGO Group that the much-anticipated holiday set 7979 Castle Advent Calendar will not be available in the United States (with ambiguity around its availability in other markets).
Just look at this gorgeous set, full of unique minifigs — including a jester, new witch, peasant woman, goblin, and dwarf:
Naturally, the hue and cry from LEGO Castle fans was heard ’round the ‘net. I’m personally extremely disappointed, and and am therefore abusing my position as the Editor-in-Chief of this blog to rally the LEGO fan community and try to change LEGO’s mind.
Note: For those of you in continental Europe, 7979 Castle Advent Calendar has been confirmed for most of your markets. Elsewhere, there’s still some question about places like the UK, Australia, Canada, and Japan.
EDIT (TG): The set is presently available on Shop@Home for both the UK and Australia.
For those of you who’d like to let The LEGO Group know that you want this set, there are several ways you can communicate your wishes.
- Leave a comment here on The Brothers Brick and one of the resident LEGO Ambassadors will pass your comments on to LEGO.
- Contact LEGO Customer Service by e-mail, phone, or snail-mail.
- Vote in the Brothers Brick poll at the end of this post.
- Vote in the Classic-Castle.com poll and leave a shout-out on the Dear LEGO forum.
Ask about it at your local LEGO Store.- All of the above!
Just to be realistic for a moment, let’s not get our hopes up. It’s already very late in the year to be changing plans for a holiday set. Packaging requirements, for example, are different from market to market, and it may be too late to design, repackage, and ship this set to other markets.
Finally, for those of you on the fence about this, here’s the beautiful peasant woman:
Okay people, fan activism ON!
EDIT (AB): If you see an error when you try to vote, rest assured that your vote is still being counted. (For those who care, see my technical explanation in the comments below.)
[poll id=”13″]
EDIT (AB): Bumping this by a few hours so it stays on the front page a bit longer.
OOOooooo… the drama begins!
Heh heh. I thought I’d try my hand at rabble-rousing. :-P
I’d certainly be interested in getting a couple or three. And how about that small Castle set with the new wizard. I’d like to get several of those. garth
NNOOOOOO!!!!!
I was saving my money for this! And now it is not going to be available!!!!!!
I vote yes I want it in the USA!!
I would buy several of these sets. Not only for myself, but my family as well. Heck, I would buy several sets just to build my castle collection!
That sucks that it’s not in the US because it looks cool
I want. I need. I get.
*Bitehissscratch*
23 please! 1 for each day til christmas!
I am always a firm supporter of TLC and they decision-making.
But…really? Not selling here is just a bad marketing decision. C’mon.
Lego is dumb for doing this. I think they are trying to push fans in the US to buying more of the other sets(chess) instead of getting a handful of nice minifigs for a lower price. Too bad we’re not going to fall for that strategy.
Just for info this is now available at S@H UK for £12.99.
I do feel for you guys in the US. I’ve been looking forward to this set all year.
It’s definitely available in the UK, I just ordered one via S@H, so that question is answered, at least.
Dr. S.
I feel sorry for you americans but you do have to remember you get some sets we don’t.
Thanks Doctor Sinister – i’m ordering one myself too. I notice the city one they have listed is either new, or repackaged – the one i had last year didn’t look like that anyway.
Tinyblob – looks like a CoastGuard guy on the box so I think it’s new, I ordered one of those as well.
Dr. S.
Thanks Dr S, i didn’t spot the More Views button, definitely a new set.. Coastguard, burglar, barbecue, snowman!
Arrrrrgh. This ruins Christmas! :(
I’ve been looking forward to this set since last year! If LEGO sells it in the U.S., I’ll buy one.
I usually just lurk here, appreciating what you guys find and post. But this leads me to leave a post:
Please make this available in the US!
Come on, Lego! You ought to know that we’ve been looking forward to this since it surfaced. Is getting a graphic designer to go into Photoshop and add the required information really going to ruin all chance of any profit on it? This is a major disappointment.
Please LEGO please! A north american release would be an infinite blessing!
REALLY pisses me off.
The City ones have been trash recently and this has two women and a jester! This is insane. And from what I have heard there is no little pieces choking hazard warning on the set and that’s why it can’t be sold in the USA. Why didn’t they put one on? Why can’t they just stick a sticker on it?!
If they don’t release this here, I’m totally buying one from the UK, even if I have to finagle one of my British friends to send it to me international post. With those unique minifigs, a non-US release would be a travesty.
I am a Canadian and was totally hoping to buy at least one set. We might not have real castles here, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have interested in toy ones.
I would buy at least one (and probably 2) here in the US. My son is 5, and he’s been looking forward to this ever since I showed it to him. He keeps saying he can’t wait until December to start opening them one by one! PLEASE bring this to the U.S.!
Is something wrong with the sidebar poll? I tried voting with the North America option and it told me to “select a valid option”. I then tried the inline poll with the blog entry and it seemed to take, which then carried over to the sidebar.
Is it supposed to do that?
Yeah, I would buy one or two of these. My son would want one too… so that makes… 3?
YES U.S.! YES U.S.! YES U.S.!
I have been really looking forward to getting this set ever since the first images arrived on the ‘net. Why? Well, there is a dwarf; an orc; TWO, count ’em, TWO female minifigs, both rare; a jester’s hat, more Crownies; and the wizard-lightning thing. All in addition to whatever OTHER surprise sets are waiting inside! I really think that LEGO should release this in the U.S., and that many people would buy it.
I have been looking forward to this ever since the rumors started. I was planning on picking up four. If its only available in Europe, I will probably be able to get one, but only one, since the secondary market prices will so inflated.
AAAUUUGGGGHHHH!!!! Please, LEGO, I need one!
I would buy one, and I don’t build castle at all. But I do love minifigs, and I need more female pilots!
I have not yet started collecting Castle, but this would be a fantastic set to start with! I’d buy at least one, maybe two.
Oh, man. That’s the worst possible news I could heard from LEGO, short of their new Chess set not being released for North America.
Just LOOK at the jester and peasant woman. Oh, man. I’m very surprised and saddened.
I also usually just lurk, (and I love the Brothers Brick, BTW) but this leads me to post the fact that I would force my wench to buy me one of these as well. ;)
Classic-Castle helped some of us get the (also non-USA) Wizard impulse a few months back and, assuming some way is available, they’re offering to do the same with the calendar:
http://www.classic-castle.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14988&highlight=
LEGO has betrayed the US!!!!
WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can summerize everything about this in one word: WANT
So, LEGO, be a dear and give us that Advent Calendar?
Hey, Andrew, don’t suggest that fans go ask at the local lego store. There are so many things that we want and have no power to acquire. Call that customer service line instead.
That’s a really awful choice by lego, but its not too late to change it.
I was most excited about seeing this, something different than CITY and Clickits(The CITY advent calender isn’t bad, but not very useful, in my opinion…). That set would be really helpful for Castle MOCs(obviously), and would be really awesome if it was retailed in the US. Why won’t you, LEGO; sell this in the US?
Hi, I’m talking from Brazil, and I want to buy this set too, but the probabilty to get it on Brazil Stores is very small, but if they release that set on U.S i should get from some friends i have there =]
So LEGO company be good with us, and release the set on U.S!
I need it too! (ò_ó)
Sorry for my bad english…
And the year in LEGO had been going so well for me before this disappointing news. Makes no sense to me, especially in the wake of 3 previous years of City calendars…
And for the record, I was planing to get around 3 of them.
I was certainly planning to get at least 2 and probably 3.
@Dover (who works at one of the LEGO Stores): Fair enough. :-) Post edited.
-From Malaysia,Asia-
Hopefully this calendar will be available in my country… :(
I’m not sure why TLC would not want this set made avilable in the USA. After all isn’t the US one of the largest buyers of LEGO Sets?
The only reason I would think otherwise would be “IF” (and I can’t stress that enough) the avent calendar set we’re getting is something simular, but not yet revealed.
It is possible, and if Castle = Europe, than Pirates = USA. Now that would be cool.
I just want the wonderful minifigs. Please LEGO?
I’m living in France so I think I will buy one. Hope it will be not too expensive !
Amazon Japan and Toys-R-Us Japan have both already announced the Castle Advent Calendar, so it’s definitely available in Japan.
Living in North America does have it’s share of perks, but I’d still like to be able to buy a 2008 Castle Advent Calender for each of my four children at reasonable rates. I think LEGO needs to understand that availability of information through the internet puts them under the microscope as consumers and fans dream and wish for some pretty marvelous things for Christmas. It is a shame that my families wish list has been reduced by one LEGO set, and it seems the Castle Advent Calender will not be a part of our 2008 celebration. At least, it has become an unreasonable expense I am afraid.
I am outraged that there is not plan to sell this set in the US. LEGO please listen to your fans and release this set in the US! Thank you.
–Mike.
This set certainly seems to be available in the UK – in fact, according to a flier I’ve recently acquired at the Milton Keynes Lego shop it will be free with the Giant Castle Chess Set between 27 & 31 October. If Lego don’t relent my advice is for bricklink or other net traders to buy as many as possible & let our American friends have them at reasonable prices before Xmas. Swings & roundabouts: I only managed to to get 6071, Forestmen’s Crossing, because I was sent to the States to work for 6 weeks in 1992.
I love collecting various advent calendars and would love to get this one. I can’t believe they won’t sell it in the US. I look all over the internet to find my collection so I guess I will have to get it on E-Bay when the people in Europe start putting them up for auction. If anyone else collects advents I found some very beautiful Advent Calendars:
http://www.tealaden.com/advent_houses/advent_calendars.htm
I’d totally buy at least one. Probably 2, maybe 3.
I would have bought two, one for myself and one for my son. I assume TLG had a good reason for doing this, based on some kind of business plan (advent calendars selling poorly in NA?), but considering the buzz this set was getting from when it was leaked way back, I would have thought it would be a best seller everywhere.
Disappointing to say the least.
As much as I disagree with Lego’s decision to do this, I doubt I would have bought the set if it ws available in the states. Good luck everyone.
Shop @ Home Australia has the Castle Advent Calender ($39.95) as a NEW exclusive.
Oooohhhhh, I hadn’t heard about it before; I would definitely have bought one of these. Waahhh I want one! I sure hope you can get TLG to change their minds about releasing it here. My boys just saw it and they are disappointed too.
I’m going to be dang mad if they don’t have this in North America!!!!
Well, I ordered three for myself from the UK Shop at Home site and had them sent to a friend in Edinburgh. Near as I can tell, they let me get away with that, so I expect to get my hot hands on some this season. Exclusives I don’t mind; some places get something special and that can be nice. However, that we saw the preview pics so early and had no idea we could not buy, that just breaks my heart. I’m glad I don’t have any kids who were pining after this!
Well I E-mailed Lego this is what I said….
Dear Lego Company, I Josh Neyman. (Also know as “Brickule” online) Am E-mailing on behalf of the Lego Castle fans in the United States. We are (to put it lightly) disappointed that the Castle Advent Calendar will not be available to us.
We ask that you please reconsider and see the horrible mistake you are making, I myself was hoping to get at least two or three of the sets. We were exited about the maiden available in the calendar, and also were looking forward to the witch. It is not often we have the chance to get women for our castle MOCs. So please, we would very much appreciate it if you made the Castle Advent Calendar available to your loving fans in the good oll’ USA.
And this is what they said….
Dear Joshua
Thank you for contacting us and for your interest in LEGO® brand products.
The Advent Calendar you referred to is not available in our current product selection and is not expected to be available for sale in the United States at this time. We currently have the LEGO City Advent Calendar for sale, item number 7724. To confirm an availability date at a later time or to answer any questions, call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-835-4386. Customer Service hours are 8:00am to 10:00pm EST Monday-Friday and 10:00am to 6:00pm EST Saturday and Sunday. Please call also if you wish to request a catalog which will list our current line of LEGO toys as well as the suggested retail price or check our website at http://www.LEGOshop.com.
Thank you again for contacting us. We wish your family many happy hours of creative building with LEGO brand toys in the years to come.
LEGO Direct Consumer Services
….Not exactly the answer I was expecting. Any way, this is probobly what we will ALL recive in reply to our E-mails.
I’ll be buying one. I’ll be paying more to buy it with shipping and/or Bricklink markups, and it’ll be an annoyance rather than a joy to purchase, but I’ll be buying one. Thanks, TLC.
@Brickule: Arrgh. I hate their pointless, obvious replies. They always tell you what sets are currently out, and have almost nothing to do with what you asked for/about.
Just adding my voice here, in addition to my signing on C-C.
I had been planning on buying multiples.
For all of you trying to vote in the poll, we’ve got a minor conflict between a caching plugin (which speeds up the site and reduces bandwidth usage) and the poll plugin, so a few of you may see a “Select a valid option” error when you try to vote.
Despite that error, your votes are successfully being tallied and should appear the next time you come back to the page (assuming somebody else has left a comment and therefore forced a refresh).
I want one!
I’ll be trying to buy this when I visit Europe for business.
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I sent this message to Lego customer service, if you would like to cut and paste, I would encourage it and just add your name to the end of the message.
**********************************************
Hello! I have just read online that the holiday set 7979 Castle Advent Calendar will not be available in the United States, and I was very unhappy to hear it. I had heard that this set was coming out months ago and hoped to buy at least a dozen! (ok, maybe only 10) I am an adult fan of Lego and have been a huge castle fan for years. I am sad to see this set not available in my country, and would petition that you make it available to the United States. I realize that it may be late in the season to ship these out to stores and such, but even making them available on the Shop at Home site would be fantastic! Even if they are not available before Christmas, I would STILL buy ten of these to add to my castle collection when they become available to me.
I just wanted my opinion and voice to be heard. Thanks for all you do! Lego customer service has always been fantastic in all of my past purchases. Keep up the good work :-)
************************************************
It’s true, I totally WOULD buy a dozen of these, given the chance. And I’m sure many of you agree, even if these are made available AFTER Christmas, we’d snatch them up in a heartbeat!
~E.J.
It’s times like this that I’m thankful I have relatives in the UK. I’m gonna order a few and have ’em sent to my grandparent’s house, then have them bring them here when they come to the States next month. That means that there’ll be some on eBay in October and November. Still, though, I will send an email.
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I want one! I’m happy to import one. Where can I buy it online?
^ Carolyn, click the link in the update at the very top of this post. ;-)
I have seen the set advertised at Amazon in Japan, that is where I plan to get one for my oldest son if the local Legoshop will not sell it.
I just received mine in the mail today, they look sweet! A to Lego for making these available to us in the US :-)
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i’ll ship it from norway if i have to.
This is to be my first year buying a lego advent calendar for my 2 sons…they would be so much more excited about the castle set! I would definitely buy 2. I’ll have to think more about the city version now.
A disappointed LEGO mom
^ Denise, click through the link at the top of this post. :) A small number was made available in North America, and we’re receiving word that some are still available for order as late as today.
I would have bought 3 of these if it was in the shops or at lego.ca. Now because of the shipping costs I will only buy one from the UK.
Bad move lego.
this is crazy dudes
i agree with Tinyblob yuo americans get too much good sets its time for yuo not have some! btw i have this set! and its just too awesome !
wote for yuor favorite!
ps:mines the jester whats yuor?
Lukas,
Well if you’ve been opening the doors on time, you wouldn’t have gotten to the jester yet!
Why did you have to go and spoil my Advent Calendar surprises?
It’s like telling me there’s no Santa Claus :-(
Besides, Dwarves are the best minifigs ever!
well ej yes i opened all the doors :( and yes the dwarve is very good but the jester is better
ps: yuo believe in santa? lol
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