The Advent Calendar has been updated through December 12th. Hopefully, I'll be back on schedule by the end of the weekend.
Introducing BUMBLE CHASE, a new kind of battery-operated stuff-moves-across-a-surface holiday decoration/toy thingy! Eerily similar to the Peanuts Prowling Pumpkin Patch that I reviewed last year! Did I need another such item? No!
To tell you the truth, I bought it at the start of the season as a contingency plan, not knowing if the retail world was going to provide me with enough material to slink through an entire month of blog posts. As it turns out, it did, but I've grown so fond of my BUMBLE CHASE that I'm going to review it anyway. (Behind the scenes at X-E is an incredible party.)
What it is: An icy, battery-operated base that plays music from Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, while pushing a quartet of magnet-boosted figures in a vaguely oval pattern. I'd probably come up with something catchier if I was writing its catalog description, but I'm not, so that's what it is.
The moving figures include Rudolph, Hermey, Yukon and Bumble. (Some prefer to call him "The Bumble" -- I do not.) My fascination with yetis makes Bumble my favorite character from the TV special, narrowly edging out the spotted elephant who masterfully danced on one foot while singing about how fucking miserable he was.
Though Bumble converted to heroism by the end of the special, we must assume that he's still in full-on villain mode here. It certainly helps explain why the four figures chase each other in circles for fifteen seconds whenever you hit the magic button. If Bumble isn't trying to eat them, what else could be happening? Are they playing tag? That's so not canonical.
The finale! The figures move, the music plays, and all is well. No clue how CVS gets away with charging $20 each for these sets, but since I bought one, I appear to be part of the problem. Happy SNT. Back with more later.
Posted by Matt on 12/13/2008. E-mail me!
Chestnuts roasted by 
Moony: Thank you! I thought about getting battery-operated lights for it (I live in an apartment with no outlets at the front door), but remembered Matt saying that it took like four batteries to power one tiny strand.
ULTRAMAN: True that. Today I was just thinking about how I miss those long, lazy breaks you used to get in school where you’d basically do jack shit for a few weeks. Then you get old and have to go to work. *sigh* All we get is Christmas Day at my company. One measly day is not enough time to properly celebrate the holidays!