Review: Lego Friends, Star Wars, City advent calendars

It is December 1st and that means it is time to start opening the Lego Advent calendars that have been gathering dust in my Lego hoard for several months now. I will be opening the corresponding day panels on the Friends, City and Star Wars advent calendars each day until Christmas Eve.

These advent calendars are great little kits that Lego has been putting out since 1998, though they didn't start getting cool until 2005 or so. They are usually pretty good value for as many great elements and special minifigures that are included. This year the Friends and City calendars cost $29.99 and are 228 and 218 pieces respectively. The Star Wars calendar was $39.99 for 274 elements, though this licensed set has always been more expensive than the others.

I think these are the perfect sets to pick up for any Lego enthusiast. They give you a bunch of diverse elements and figs to get the ball rolling on a fledgling collection. If you have thousands of bricks, these are great to round out that type of collection. If you are a minimalist and don't like to devote huge amounts of space to your Lego, these are all very small builds and compliment a minimalist collection of Lego nicely.

Friends Advent Calendar (41040)

This is only the third year for the Friends advent calendar but like the line it comes from it is already hugely popular. Below is an image of the box, which folds out to provide a display where you can place your small builds every day until complete.

Behind each numbered compartment, we find that familiar Lego packaging and a piece of the overall set. December 1st is a Mia figure with dark blue trousers, medium lavender jacket and scarf. This minifigure is unique to this set and appears no where else.

City Advent Calendar (60063)

Of the calendars available this year, the City advent calender has been around the longest. When the first one of these came out in 2005 it was the tipping point of when these things really started getting fun. The City calender usually comes with a large amount of minifigures and rare or cool elements and I don't think this year will be any different.

Here is the box with fold down scene and perforated compartments similar to the Friends calendar.

The December 1st build is a child minifigure with an envelope tile. Nothing super spectacular about this figure, though. The hoodie torso has been in the BAM (Build a Minifigure) station at the Lego store for as long as I can remember and the head element and legs are not hard to come by, though as in years past, they do give you an extra hair piece. You also get two 1x2 letter tiles which, though not rare, are nice to have.

Star Wars Advent Calendar (75056)

This calendar is always a favorite. There's something special about Christmas tree droids and Santa Sith; I expect this year will have some fun stuff in store. Again the box with foldout display.

I think the December 1st build is supposed to be a micro version of the AAT (Armored Assault Tank) from The Clone Wars. It is a cool build though, lots of great elements and some SNOT (Studs not on top) building.

Keep an eye on Leg Godt as I'll be putting up another of these posts up every day until Christmas Eve.

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