Over the last few years, the LEGO company has released something very cool for Christmas: a Lego Advent Calendar. Usually, the tradition is to do a “City” theme, but last year they decided to throw caution to the wind and give us the first ever “Castle” themed calendar. The awesome didn’t stop there either. By that point in production, LEGO was taking their Castle theme further than ever before. They were making it more fantasy based, somewhat reminiscent of Lord of the Rings. With the new Castle theme chock full of knights, dwarves, skeleton warriors, and trolls, this new Advent Calendar would be one of the coolest Lego had ever released.

And then, the awesome hit a snag.

Don’t get me wrong, the advent calendar was awesome. It contained a couple of unique figures: a witch, complete with cauldron and shelf of magic potions, and the first ever Jester, just to name two. It was easily one of the better sets that came out that year, at least for those who could find/buy one. For some reason, LEGO decided to not release this set in North America.

The fanbase raged, and rightfully so. Luckily for them, with the support of Brothers-Brick.com, and some really great folks at the US LEGO branch, they were able to take advantage of a misshipped pallet of Advent Calendars. Fans were able to call in to the Shop@Home line and order up to two of these calendars. They didn’t last long, and not everyone got one, but a lot of people were satisfied with the outcome. A true Christmas miracle, at least LEGO-wise.

Now, jump forward this year. LEGO felt like mixing things up again, and along with the expected City calendar, they announced the release of a Pirate themed calendar. The fans rejoiced again! That is, until last week, when LEGO made it known that the Pirates won’t be setting sail for the North America either.

It takes a really special company to make a mistake, to recognize it, try to fix it to some degree, and then repeat the exact same mistake the next year. Kudos to you LEGO. You are at the head of the pack for this year’s “Bitter Pill Award”. Few companies can afford to ignore one of their largest sales markets and not suffer devastating financial loss. But you, you have that rare mix of apathy and financial stability to pull it off.

Guess what LEGO, I know you’re a European company, but they aren’t the only ones buying your product.

Who knows, maybe us fans will get lucky again this year, and another couple pallets will “accidentally” get shipped to the US warehouse again. Brothers-Brick has a petition up, similar to last years, hoping for lightning to strike twice. The sad truth is, if it doesn’t happen this year, I’ll still be looking to pick this up from someone overseas. It may annoy me that LEGO is mistreating its North American fans yet again, but this Advent Calendar is too cool to pass up.

-Mr. Rant

For those who want to sign the petition, here is the link (you will have to sign up to their website to participate): Dear Lego, We Want the 6299 LEGO Pirates Advent Calendar.