2018 Secret Santa

snowhitie

You have been waiting long enough, especialy @Muftak1 who's been refreshing every 5 minutes. Here is the official Brickset Secret Santa 2018 thread. Our 6th already. Since these months are busy for Brickset, @CapnRex101 is doing his usual stuff of giving you news and reviews and it is my honour to call you all to this event.

This year, I'm getting help from @cmrt1014 , @kiki180703 and @stlux so a big thank you to them.

The rules of the Brickset Secret Santa are as follows:

• The guide price for the cost of a gift is £15, €20 or $20 (USD, CAD, AUD, NZD) -postage excluded.
• Wish lists are welcome, so please send that with your initial message if you would like to include one, or add a link to you  Brickset 'wanted list' and make sure it is set to public.
  When you share your wishlist, don't just copy and paste the weblink when you are looking at it, because that will show 'my collection', e.g. https://brickset.com/sets/mycollection-wanted The way to go about it is you go to 'my sets', then to 'sets wanted' and then click 'share', this will give you a link to send to the organiser, e.g. https://brickset.com/sets/wantedby-Snowhitie
  If you are happy with whatever please add a line to that effect, just so we know you didn't forget to add any info.
• MOCs are also welcome as long as the total part value roughly corresponds with the guide prices given above.
• Please either wrap the gift before packaging it or indicate on the box that the contents are not wrapped.
• Please ensure that your gift is sent in time for Christmas, final posting dates for each country are available online.
  
• When you open the gift on Christmas day, post a picture or a description when you get the time (I know holidays are frantic).

I know, you just want to know what do now, right?

• Sign up to be included by sending a PM with your username mailing address and wanted list as explained above to the relevant organiser (see below).
• Your Brickset ID will then be entered into a draw.
• Names will be drawn during the weekend of the 3rd of November.
• Within a couple of days of the draw, everyone who entered will be PMed with the name and address of the person they have been assigned to buy a gift for.
• Purchase a gift, adhering to the cost guidelines.
• Send the gift, keeping in mind that it should arrive in time for Christmas.
• If all goes according to plan, everybody will receive their gift before Christmas!

The closing date for signing up to the 2018 Brickset Secret Santa is midnight (GMT+1) on the 2nd of November.

The exchange is divided between the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, North America and Australasia in the hope of keeping postage costs to a minimum. Do let us know if you would like to join in but are elsewhere in the world as we will  try and accommodate everyone if possible.

Here's the list of the relevant organisers:

United Kingdom - @snowhitie
North America - @stlux
Continental Europe and Republic of Ireland - @cmrt1014
Australia and New Zealand or anyone else in the world - @kiki180703

If you are new and you are not sure if this is for you, check out last year's thread to get some inspiration and see all the fun. As you can see on this picture, there's already a whole selection of people ready for action, so come and join the fun.

If there are any questions, post them here or send me or the organiser of your area a PM.

Kaitch

How do you check if you wanted list is set to public?

snowhitie

 

Kaitch said:

How do you check if you wanted list is set to public?

Good question, I thought I had anticipated most of them but you got me ;)

You go to https://brickset.com/profile/edit and you make sure to tick this box at the bottom: Yes, allow Brickset users to view my collection.

Kaitch

Thanks. I kept looking for a "public" check box type thing while viewing my wanted list.

HugeYellowBrick

Been looking forward to this, as well as the round robin box

Thanks @snowhitie for doing this for us all.

Bring it on...

Coolguy5000

Thanks @snowhitie for headlining this, and others for co-ordinating.  This will be my 3rd Brickset Secret santa.... already have a few bits stashed for this. I suppose I better go and update my brickset wanted list... it's the only time of year I do it really to help my SS if needed!

Russell844

FYI the link for @stlux actually goes to @CapnRex101...

BooTheMightyHamster

Fab!  I'm in.  Will sort out the formalities tomoz!

historyman

Count me in

SprinkleOtter

Thanks to all involved! Just a few months to go before cross referencing usernames with locations to track down who to thank Christmas!

HugeYellowBrick

^ and let the cyber-stalking begin.

FowlerBricks

YES! Let's do this!

Switchfoot55

WOOOO!!! So much to do to prepare! 

I may go a bit overboard trying to make up for being lame the last two years and not participating. 

FowlerBricks

@snowhitie So who is actually doing the US? The link goes to @CapnRex101 but says @stlux

Muftak1

Good Lord, Alice let herself go, didn't she?

So, was F5 I really F5 that F5 obvious F5 ? F5F5F5F5F5 :-)

Baby_Yoda

^ A bit of holiday humour is always refreshing.

graphite

Russell844 said:

FYI the link for @stlux actually goes to @CapnRex101...

Can use the one at the top of his post for now.

evantyler

I'm so in! I love Secret Santa! 

snowhitie

@stlux is doing the US, sorry for messing up the link (not sure how that's happened) but it's fixed now thanks to the mods.

TheOriginalSimonB

Yay, here we go. A bit scared of Santamort (or does Voldeclaus work better?) but love that picture.

Kaitch

^...There's also Santa Vader, Santa Maul, and Loki of Christmas, but you're not cared of of them?

SprinkleOtter

Sorry, Loki, the beard might work on your brother, but not for you...

SumoLego

Don't worry.  I've paged reinforcements!

(I think.)

SprinkleOtter

^ (insert nut joke here...)

Kaitch

^^Is this stick a Santa ht on any minifigure you can find with a normal head? Or are there more subtle rules?

Baby_Yoda

^ Deadpool isn't just any minifigure. He's red, thereby fitting in with the Christmas theme. The Santa hat helps bring the figure's inner Christmas spirit. This is just one of many subtle rules, several of which have been permanently lost to the void of time...

snowhitie

Kaitch said:

^^Is this stick a Santa ht on any minifigure you can find with a normal head? Or are there more subtle rules?

Haha :) I tried to find colours that would feel Christmassy (hence Voldeclaus and SaintLoki) and I liked the blue of Alice's dress with the background. Maybe Red Harrington would have been a nice addition too.

Think @SumoLego's deadpool is a nice addition too and @Baby_Yoda is totally right.  But anyone can be a secret Santa, as long as they sign up to the organiser, they get GPS coordinates to the hideout.

paul_merton

I'm dying to see what sausage-themed stuff I will end up getting for the 3rd year running, so count me in :D

Bumblepants

I will have to wait until the 2019 version to be able to join again but I look forward to watching the fun at a distance.

terfsten

Had to check with the wife as we just started renting a new house so funds are pretty tight... but I haven't been able to buy myself any lego either so this gave me the perfect excuse! Lol I'm excited! :)

MegtheCat

Question for the North America category: do you try to keep it within the borders of each country? I.e. US to US, Canada to Canada? The reason I ask is the postal rates are outrageous to anywhere outside the US. I have nothing against Canada but the USPS does seem to.

kiki180703

@MegtheCat We've discussed it and we're going to wait until signups close to see if we'll have a big enough pool for Canada to separate the category. 

SprinkleOtter

^ I really hope so- the cheapest shipping to Canada is usually over $10.

Switchfoot55

I'll add in my agreement with the hope North America can be segmented slightly. 

To be clear, nothing against my friends to the North! But shipping could be nearly as much as the gift itself. 

jmeninno

^Agreed, only based on shipping costs.

starwars4ever

I also agree. While it would be great to get the Bricktober packs from the folk up north, shipping is too much.

Jern92

I shipped from Malaysia to Australia last year, and most places were charging double what the items in the package cost! Ended up going with the most basic mail option so it cost less than half that, but it took a bit longer to arrive.

snowhitie

We will try and see what we can do, apparantly Shipping from Canada to the US is actually not that expensive so in that direction it shouldn't be an issue. We will see how many we get in the end.

Within Europe those kind of prices are regretably also possible, but it's just not possible to do it within countries since the pool will be just to small and it won't be much fun if you always have to send it to the same person.

There are a lot of UK users though, so it makes sense for them to have a separte pool. Got 17 entrants for now and we're about half way the month but to reach our all time high of 44 Secret Santa's in the UK we will need lots more ;) Nice to see new faces popping up in the list though.

Speedman29

How did I miss this thread for a fortnight! Definitely in again for the UK draw, the last couple of years have been so much fun stalking  researching my victim  gift recipient, then waiting patiently for the postman to deliver something in return

Thanks for organising again @snowhitie

Brainslugged

Always missed this in past years. Not going to make the same mistake again. Just gotta update my wish list first, I guess.

snowhitie

@brainslugged you can just send me the wish list later or just the link and make sure it'supated before I send out assignments!

MaffyD

This is on like King Kong playing Ping Pong and having a Sing Song outside a door where the bell goes Ding Dong and the grandfather clock inside goes Bing Bong!
There, hope the mental image makes you smile.

brickedin

Have done this for a number of years and it's always a highlight. Count me in. Thanks to @snowhitie and her team of helpers.

catwrangler

Signed up! I always enjoy following the thread so decided to get involved this year, especially since the Round Robin was so much fun!

TheFew

To sign up or not! Can't decide!

Switchfoot55

^ DO IT!

MegtheCat

I'm doing it this year. Just need to get my want list cleaned up - waiting on orders to arrive.

Brainslugged

I'm in. Already looking forward to opening a mystery box on xmas morning.

SprinkleOtter

Switchfoot55 said:

^ DO IT!

Is this topic off-topic enough for a gif of Shia here? It's killing me not to post it...

snowhitie

All the UK people should have had a PM by now, don't worry if you don't get one straight away, I try to do them in bunches. We already got 6 newbies entering this year, well not newbies to the forum, but new participants to the event.

TheFew

What happens if you don't have a wanted list? Are bricklink parts lists OK? I'm note about the parts than the sets :-)