Why I Oughta...

This one isn't 'new' for 2019, but rather was released last year.  At least....that's according to the  Lemax site that shows this Reindeer Grooming Barn being part of the Santa's Wonderland collection and 'new in 2018'. It is, however, new to me and new to Menards as far as I can tell. This is the fourth Lemax Christmas Village structure that I've put on the blog this year. First was the North Pole Tower - part of Santa's Wonderland. Over the weekend was The Hop Stop craft brew building - part of Harvest Crossing. And most recently, I posted photos of the Sugar Plum Bakery . Like the rest of the standard structures, the Fly-Tru Reindeer Washing Barn retails for $39.99 at Menards, but will be on their reverse Christmas pricing that has discounts that grow as we get closer to Christmas Day. As for Mantleburg...I think you know the answer by now:  the Village Board isn't going to annex anything like this in the near term.

Another 'new' for 2019 building from Lemax at Menards is this Sugar Plum Bakery.  The product page is here on Lemax's site .  It is part of the Santa's Wonderland collection.  This is the 3rd Christmas Village building from the Menards Enchanted Forest Christmas display that I've posted on the blog this year. First was the North Pole Tower - part of Santa's Wonderland. Yesterday was The Hop Stop craft brew building - part of Harvest Crossing.  This is a standard, non-animated building that is being retailed for $34.99. Once again, Mantleburg isn't growing as it seems the citizens won't be having a prosperous Christmas once again this year as the town continues to shrink. 

The craft brewing craze has hit Lemax's Christmas Village in the form of The Hop Stop .  This is new in 2019 - for Lemax and being sold at Menards and is currently listed for $34.99 as part of the Harvest Crossing series .  This is the second day of posting some Lemax Christmas Village buildings from Menards.  Yesterday, I posted some images of the animated North Pole Tower .  Mantleburg had a tavern back in the day , but one would think that the tough times might bring about even more drinking establishments, but the Hop Stop is a little too bougie for a town like Mantleburg that is down on it's luck. 

The time has come for the Lemax Christmas Village posts from the setup at Menards.  I've done this over the years as my interest grew in the little village things and now that my interest is on the wane, I still enjoy going to see the setup and posting some of the more interesting structures.  The first one up is this North Pole Tower that is animated and makes some sound.  You can see the animation in the top image and the product page is here on the Lemax site .  This is new to me - and I think new to Menards - but it was released in 2018.  Part of the Santa's Wonderland series, I suppose it would be nice in Mantleburg, but the town has fallen on some seriously hard times.  Oh, and for you crazy people...this thing retails for $99.99.  Woah. 

Day three of the run of SpookyTown buildings from Menards this season is here.  First there was the Symphony of Screams bandshell .  Then the tabletop Halloween Gateway Countdown yesterday.  Today, is this Wasteland Pub building.  Just like those two, t he Wasteland Pub is new for 2019 and part of the Menards Spookytown setup. As I mentioned the past few days, Mantleburg isn't in a position to want or need any new annexations this season, so the Wasteland Pub is destined for other municipalities.  I posted back in 2016 about another Lemax Pub - the Big Ben Pub from Caddington Village .  A village like Mantleburg that is in distress can probably use a pub to have the community gather.  Alas, the Mayor hasn't been seen in months and there's nobody around to make those decisions.  Too bad, right? 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post about the haunted bandshell from Lemax's Spookytown , Menards has a bunch of new (to me, at least) items in the Halloween Village.  Again....to be clear:  there's been a revolution and the Mayor of Mantleburg has been thrown out and the locals have opted to be annexed by other Villages.  Mostly by the Village of Craigslist. This isn't quite a building and isn't quite a figure - in the Lemax world.  It is technically classified as a 'Tabletop Piece" in the Lemax site architecture.   And, I think that's justified.  Menards had this Gateway Countdown featured *inside* of their SpookyTown setup - you can see it below: So, it can make sense inside of a Halloween Village setup. But, I think it could also make sense on it's own. The little bin holds the extra numbers on the right and you have to go in and switch them out everyday.  Or the kids have to go in and switch them out everyday.   Which, in o...

We recently caught up with the Halloween stuff that Menards has out for the season.  A trip to Menards during the late Summer/early Fall wouldn't be complete without a look at the Lemax SpookyTown buildings that they have set up.  I've done this for the past few years starting in 2016 .  In 2017, I started to post some animated images of the Spookytown buildings that moved including this Ghostly Manor building .  And last year, I posted a few of the Lemax Spookytown buildings, too . I snapped a few photos of the most interesting structures in Spookytown and will post them in the next few days.  Today, let's start with the "Symphony of Screams" - which is new this year .   It has light, sound and movement that you can see below: The full product page can be found here on the Lemax site .  This is a cute bandshell.  The problem?  The fine folks at Mantleburg aren't annexing any property right now and in fact have shed some of t...

A few years back, Nat gifted me this Dept 56 building from "A Christmas Story" line that was part of Mantleburg.  It was the only A Christmas Story (it is difficult to continue to insert that "A" in the name of the buildings, but I'll continue to do it.) building that we have as part of Mantleburg.  And, if you have been paying attention over the past few years, you might know that things have slowed down in Mantleburg.  We haven't added or annexed any new buildings into the Village of Mantleburg for the past few seasons and have seen some of Mantleburg be de-annexed (via Craigslist) and re-annexed into other neighboring communities.  And that's ok.  We're trying to simplify things around Christmastime and we're focusing on the Mantleburg line. This fall, I posted some photos and posts about the various Lemax structures that Menards is carrying this season .  All would be nice, but having my mantra in mind, it is enough to know this exist an...

With our Christmas Train (The Mantleburg Line) set up down in the basement for the first time in a few years, I've been able to go a little deeper into the archives of Lionel O Gauge cars and accessories than before.  One of the cars that I picked up over the years is this Operating Barrel Car.  It is in this weird gold and brown Lionel box listed as "Limited Edition Series".  This is the only car that is in *this* style of box. It runs on the Union Pacific line and is Lionel #6-9290. Inside the box is the car.  Along with six barrels and the little tray that the barrels land in when you operate the car. In the most ideal situation, you wouldn't use that little tray, but instead have a barrel loader accessory (which we don't have!).  To give you a sense for how it would work together, here's a video showing the operating car (that we have!) along with the loader. We're going to get this car up and running on the Mantleburg line tonight, so...

I've mentioned in all of the recent Lemax Christmas Village posts that Mantleburg isn't annexing any new structures into town this year and with the recent election of a slate of Libertarian candidates taking on new leadership roles in town, they've even moved to de-annex some existing portions of Mantleburg and just focus the town's operations on the seasonal train. This year, I've covered a handful of Lemax Christmas Village buildings that are part of the Menards holiday setup including: 1. Draft Brothers Craft Brewing Supplies Store from the Harvest Crossing Collection. 2. The Elf Workshop from Santa's Wonderland Village. 3. Nora's Christmas Boutique from the Caddington Village Collection. 4. The Round-up animated carnival ride from the Carnival Village Collection. The one in the post today is interesting because it *is* potentially train-related.  And that's why, despite their anti-growth/anti-government leanings the new Mayor and ...

Another day, another Lemax Christmas Village building. This one is from the Carnival Village and is called The Round Up.  It is pretty neat.  Lemax lists it as being released in 2012 on their site , but this is the first time I've seen it at Menards.  Quick refresher for this year's Menards Christmas Village buildings: 1.  Draft Brothers Craft Brewing Supplies Store  from the Harvest Crossing Collection 2.  The Elf Workshop from Santa's Wonderland Village. 3.  Nora's Christmas Boutique from the Caddington Village Collection.  Now comes the first carnival-focused, animated, musical structure here on the blog.  This isn't the first one we've bought or come across, but the first one on the blog.  And it is pretty neat. Called The Round Up Village Carnival Ride - priced at $89.99 -   it is described by Menards thusly : The Round Up is an absolute blast! This spinning carnival ride puts gravity to the test as a sout...

Day Three of the Menards Lemax Christmas Village reveal.  First was the Draft Bros Home Brewing Supplies store . Then yesterday was the Elf Workshop .  Today comes Nora's Christmas Boutique.  Nora's is part of Caddington Village which is a Victorian Era town.    If you search [ Caddington ] here on the blog, you'll see a series of structures that I've featured over the years.  It seems that Menards sells a lot of the Caddington Village line every year.  Above you'll see the building in the Menards Village setting.  Below is the box - with the price of $39.99.  (11% back, of course!) As you guys know, Mantleburg isn't adding anything to the town, but the Economic Development Commissioner can't help but listening to the presentations from the merchants who are looking to move into town. In terms of villages, you can get lost over on the /villages page at Lemax's site .  Sure, I've flirted with Vail Village or Spookytown or eve...

I warned you yesterday.  There's a few of these Lemax Christmas Village / Mantleburg posts in the hopper here.  First was the Draft Bros. Craft Brewing Supplies store .  Today is The Elf Workshop that features a few cute elves around the place.  Again, Mantleburg won't be annexing one of these, but if you had a Christmas Village scene, it seems like this would be a good addition. Below is the box at Menards - with this one listed for $10 more than the Home Brewing Supplies structure - at $49.99.

Another year, another display of Lemax Christmas Village buildings at Menards has arrived!  Here's the post from 2017 that heralded the return of the Christmas Village at the store .  And that means a whole series of posts are about to arrive here on the blog showing off some of the new buildings.  The first one, here, is the Draft Brothers Home Brewing Supplies store.  Very topical, eh?  Here's the product listing on the Lemax site  that provides the description including the fact that this structure was released this year.  Alas, Mantleburg is full of libertarians and there is a initiative on the ballot this fall to disband the local municipal government.   Which means, for now, the Mayor and Village Board are not in a position to make any sort of annexations or additions to Main Street.  This Draft Bros Home Brewing Supplies store is listed for $39.99 at Menards this year.

Yesterday, I posted the first in a series of Lemax Spooky Town buildings that Menards is showing this season.  Today, I'm sharing another non-animated Spooky Town building:  Monster Hunting Supplies.  This one is brand new for this year - as the listing shows a 2018 release date .  Their sign bills them as having "The best bait in town".  Cute, but alas, Mantleburg isn't going this direction according to the cryptic press release from the Mayor. Want to see all the Spooky Town structures from Lemax that I've posted about?  Check out the full Spooky Town archive .

Yesterday, I posted a photo of the three kids at the Bolingbrook Menards taking in the Lemax Spooky Town display .  As part of that display, I picked out a few structures that I'll post over the coming days here on the blog.  I started this tradition of posting photos of Spooky Town structures all the way back in 2012 when I posted this photo of this Tombstone Quarry .  In 2016, I did three posts on Spooky Town Lemax buildings and same in 2017.  The full archive of Spooky Town posts can be found here . This year, the display is noticeably small - at least at the Bolingbrook Menards and has this white sign that says "Halloween Village" on top of it.  There are a few animated structures and some neat little people.  I'll post some images and details of some of the buildings in the coming days.  But, today, we'll start with this one above:  the Black Cauldron Bootique.  You'll notice that it is *already* on sale at $10 off the normal price...

Last week, I posted a photo of the Schlitz Lionel O Gauge billboard that I scored at the Christmas Train Show out in Wheaton and hinted that we bought a few more things.  Today, you see one of those:  Plasticville Hall.  The version that I bought was fully assembled as you see it here and decorated by someone with some garland and a wreath over the front door.  It is all doll'd up for Christmas time.  And that's part of the appeal here for me:  we only set up the Mantleburg Line as our traditional Christmas train.  We have enough cars and rolling stock for Mantleburg, but we don't have that many accessories or buildings or structures, so that's what I've been focusing on at the show.  I've come across some of these Plasticville structures and they never appealed to me.  But for some reason (I'm pretty sure it is the garland and wreath!?!?), this one called out to me.  Five dollars later, it was coming home with us.  Turns out,...

Look who is coming along for the ride with the new Bells & Whistles Christmas Decor building from Lemax at Menards this year?  That's right...Santa Claus himself!  That might sway the Mayor of Mantleburg, I would think?  This one is also part of the Caddington Village collection like the past few days that included the Vintage Grind Coffee Company and The Dog House .  Mantleburg is already such a seasonal town, it would seem to be a logical fit to have a Christmas decorations-specific store in town, right?  Boost the local economy when it is thriving?  They only get visitors during the holiday season and they've resisted the whole "spookytown" transformation over the years.  This one seems like slam dunk for annexation, but maybe once the sale prices come to Menards... Or...we actually set up Mantleburg for the first time in three years.  One or the other.

New this year at Menard's is this animated Popcorn factory from Lemax.  You can see a lot of the movement in the image above, but there's also music.  If you want to see it, check out the video below at the bottom of the post.  This one, too, is from the Caddington Village collection. When he goes with his family to the Country House for burgers, the Mayor of Mantleburg is more of a peanuts in the shell guy, not a popcorn guy.  So...unless the developer is going to grease his palm, I'm guessing this one is going to be a tough sell for Mantleburg.  What...with its garishness and bright lights, it seems like it might be out of place amongst the other existing structures?

Pets are big business, right?  Maybe Mantleburg should serve those families who have pups around the house?  Could be a good source of sales tax revenues, but are there enough dogs in town to support the annexation?   Just like the Vintage Grind Coffee Company from yesterday , the Dog House is part of the Caddington Village collection.