Lego

25 Years of Animal Crossing

On this date in 2001, Animal Crossing was first released in Japan. It didn’t come to the US until the following year, and I have been there since the beginning. I have played every game (I think New Leaf is probably my all-time favorite, but I love them all!), created communities with all my favorite neighbors (Roald, obviously), worked for Tom Nook for what seemed like an eternity, and supported the local businesses (especially the museum and Brewster’s coffee shop) in every neighborhood I have been a part of. I have fond memories of characters we haven’t seen in the current game (Gracie Grace, I’m looking at you!), of furniture series that no longer exist (maybe someday they’ll bring back the Jingle line), and of game mechanics that have fallen by the wayside (I loved the Nook store evolution from “Nook’s Cranny” to “Nook ‘n’ Go” to “Nookway” to the obviously upscale “Nookington’s,” and would love to have to work to make that happen again!). Animal Crossing has been a huge part of my entire adult life, and I love that I’ve had the opportunity to share it with my children through the years. I’m hopeful that there will be an announcement of new game sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, I love the way Nintendo acknowledged this anniversary with a special leaf statue, which I am proudly displaying outside my home:

Did I mention my bestie Roald? He kindly sat down on the swing between our houses with me today for a bit!

There are still a few Lego Animal Crossing sets I haven’t been able to add to my collection…today, I picked up the least expensive one, which is also special because Goldie is one of the original, friendly characters who I remember meeting very early in my Animal Crossing experience:

It’s kind of hard for me to believe that Animal Crossing has been around for a quarter of a century through five mainline games (and a few adjacent games as well)…I hope it continues to bring joy to people around the world, and I can’t wait to see where the next game will go, and when that will be!

Lego Rivendell

After 25 days of building Lego Rivendell throughout the season of Advent, the set is complete!

This is a really great set, and full of splendid details. There are a lot of minifigures, including the entire Fellowship, and Bunny had fun posing them around the set:

Here are a few shots from above:

And a look at the back of the set:

And here are some details that I just really like:

This was a great set for an Advent project. Even Turkey, our resident Lego expert, found some aspects of the build challenging, which is no easy feat. It split up pretty nicely, both across the 25 days of Advent, and in terms of how many bags each of the Fab Five got to build. And I still think it’s the most beautiful set Lego has ever made, and after seeing all of the tiny details and elements of building, I’m even more convinced!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Five

Today Bunny finished Lego Rivendell, putting together bags 48 & 49. Aragorn finally joined the Fellowship:

She also added the resting place of Narsil:

And an armory:

Plus she completed the tree Turkey started yesterday:

Stay tuned for pictures of the complete set!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Four

After weeks of building his home, Elrond has finally arrived to Lego Rivendell!

Turkey built bags 46 & 47, which is the setting for the Council of Elrond, plus another tree:

I love the chair details:

Just one more sleep until Christmas Eve!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Three

Today Moose built bags 44 & 45 of Lego Rivendell, which created the base for the big table for the Council of Elrond:

Just two more builds to go!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-Two

Here we are at Advent IV already!

Today Chickadee added some trees to Lego Rivendell with the contents of bags 42 & 43:

Here’s a closer look at the larger one:

With only three days of Advent left, the set really is close to complete…the largest piece missing is Elrond’s table:

And only Elrond himself and Aragorn are missing from the cast of characters:

I can’t believe Christmas is this week!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty-One

Today was a very exciting day, because Ladybug got to add the penultimate member of the Fellowship, Legolas, to Lego Rivendell:

She put together bags 40 & 41, which add nice covered entrance with even more tiny square roof tiles…I believe she attached all of the roof tiles for the entire set! She also added a table with lembas bread.

Pictures don’t really show how truly immense this set is…we’re running out of room on the table to build it! I looked up the measurements of the completed set before I ordered it, but even that didn’t do it justice.

Just four more days of building to go!

Advent 2025–Day Twenty

Today Ladybug built bags 37, 37, & 39 of Lego Rivendell, and they all joined together to make one large roof panel covered with a zillion tiny little square tiles:

She really enjoys lining up them up just so, and she’s really good at it (and super patient…I would have lost it trying to get them straight!):

Advent 2025–Day Nineteen

Boromir has joined the Fellowship!

Bunny continued the build of Lego Rivendell with bags 35 & 36:

I love these lacy, scrolly bits!

She also added some more artwork:

And another tower:

The view from above shows just how open and intricate this set it!

Advent 2025–Day Eighteen

I was starting to wonder when Gandalf was going to arrive to Lego Rivendell, but as he said, “A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to,” and here he is, staff in hand:

Turkey continued the upward build of the structure with bags 33 & 34, too, which included some arches and balcony railings:

I think we’re only missing three members of the Fellowship at this point, and we only have a week of building to go!