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2015 LEGO Advent Calendars review

by Thita (admin) on September 11, 2015

in LEGO Exclusives

It’s definitely a bit early to talk about Christmas yet, however since LEGO holiday sets tend to sell out fast, it is a good idea to pick them up as soon as possible, so you don’t have to hunt for them in the last minute. Fortunately LEGO helps with this by releasing their holiday sets a few months before the holidays. We will gradually review all of the Christmas sets, but today we will focus on the three LEGO Advent Calendars. Traditionally LEGO releases three advent calendars each year, and this time is no exception. These are fun sets to count down the days to Christmas, designed in the style of traditional advent calendars. You open a little window in the box each day during the month of December to reveal a small set to build, and you can display them on the included playmat. 🙂

➡ #60099 LEGO CITY ADVENT CALENDAR: Enjoy the countdown to Christmas with the LEGO City Advent Calendar, featuring 24 awesome gifts that will make each day a special day! You can meet Santa, decorate the Christmas tree, build a snowman or blast off into space aboard the shuttle. It’s just like Christmas day! Help the police catch a crook, take a cool remote-controlled car for a spin or cook marshmallows on a festive log fire! This awesome set also includes an array of LEGO minifigures and models that can be integrated with your favorite sets. There’s a town clock, snow scooter, ice skate stand, airplane, bulldozer and more! What an exciting calendar! Includes 6 minifigures: Santa, policeman, crook, girl and 2 boys. 278 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE

LEGO Advent Calendars are full of fun little builds, great minifigures and very nice and even rare elements. This year’s LEGO City Advent Calendar is no exception. The minifigures in this set are not unique, however this much better version of Santa is still very rare (instead of the one that looks like an old pirate), so it is nice to have him in this set. Also, the husky is quite rare, and you get one here. The small vehicles are really well done, especially the small train. All in all this is a great collection of holiday themed elements and minifigures that your family can enjoy, and even add to your LEGO Christmas Village.

➡ #75097 LEGO STAR WARS ADVENT CALENDAR: Take a journey through the galaxy this holiday season with the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar! Open each of the 24 doors to reveal a fun Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, Space or Christmas-themed gift. With minifigures, starships, vehicles and more to discover, as well as a great fold-out playmat, Christmas will arrive faster than you can say “May the Force be with you!”. 292 pieces. Price: $39.99 – BUY HERE

This is usually the most popular LEGO Advent Calendar each year because of the micro versions of iconic Star Wars vehicles, popular Star Wars minifigures, and festive droids. Vehicles include Jabba’s Sail Barge, Sandcrawler, Star Destroyer, Millennium Falcon, AT-AT, A-wing Starfighter and a sleigh. Also featured are an Ewok weapon rack, catapult, gun-turret, blaster-rack and Hoth command post. R2-D2 with the reindeer antlers is pretty funny, so is 3-CPO dressed up as Santa.

➡ #41102 LEGO FRIENDS ADVENT CALENDAR: Count down to a LEGO Friends Christmas this December! Build the winter village in Heartlake City Square, with a new piece to add every day. You’ll find special winter sports equipment, fairground games and Christmas cakes and candies. You might even find some furry winter friends inside too. Includes Andrea and Liza mini-doll figures in a calendar with 24 secret compartments, each containing its own buildable surprise. 233 pieces. Price: $29.99 – BUY HERE

LEGO Friends Advent Calendars (and LEGO Friends sets in general) are a great way to get very unique and rare accessories. The hockey sticks, skis and ski poles, ice-skates, saxophone, brushes and hair accessories, cute animals, and more are fun to collect even if you are not into LEGO Friends. And if you do like LEGO Friends and collect the characters, Andrea dressed in a very nice winter outfit is unique to this set.

As you can see, all three LEGO Advent Calendars are quite nice this year. The LEGO City Advent Calendar has great little micro models or minifigures for each day, and the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar will definitely appeal to LEGO Star Wars Fans. I feel that the distribution of daily surprises is the weakest in the LEGO Friends Advent Calendar. While all in all the set is full of very unique and rare accessories and definitely worth to get, be prepared that there are days when what you build is really boring – the worst has to be a table with nothing on it. Below I’m including video-reviews of all three sets in case you want to see them in more detail.

All three of the LEGO Advent Calendars are already available, and while you may not be thinking about Christmas shopping yet, it would be a good idea to pick them up as early as possible, so you avoid the risk of missing out on the sets during the holiday rush. You can find them under the seasonal items section of the Online LEGO Shop.

So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Advent Calendars this year? Are you planning to get any of them? Or all three? Which one is your favorite? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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Review of the LEGO Architecture Louvre

by Thita (admin) on September 10, 2015

in Other LEGO Sets & Themes

There is a LEGO Architecture set that was released just recently that is worth taking a look at. It is the #21024 LEGO Architecture Louvre, depicting in miniature form the famous museum in France. LEGO Architecture is a niche that mostly appeals to adults who are in the field of architecture and design, but the sets can also be interesting to other LEGO fans who are looking for a different building experience and unique LEGO elements. So let’s take a closer look at the latest addition to the LEGO Architecture line! 🙂

Here is the official description of the #21024 LEGO Architecture Louvre: Celebrate the world of architecture with the LEGO Louvre set! Build a LEGO brick model of the Louvre, the world’s largest museum of art. Located in the heart of Paris on the bank of the river Seine, this magnificent structure, renowned for its striking blend of Renaissance and Modernist architecture, welcomes over 9 million visitors a year and houses over 35,000 works of art, including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The Louvre started life as a fortress, built by King Philip Augustus in 1190 to protect Parisians from foreign invasion, and has since undergone a number of renovations. The result is the architecturally stunning Louvre we know today. This detailed LEGO model features the prominent Pavillon de l’Horloge and the iconic, once controversial glass pyramid designed by the renowned Chinese-American architect, I. M. Pei. 695 pieces. Price: $59.99 – BUY HERE

The #21024 LEGO Architecture Louvre set comes in the same high quality and sleek looking box with a flip-up top as all other LEGO Architecture sets. The instruction book is also very high quality and it includes quite a bit of information on the history and design of the Louvre. Another thing you will notice about this set right away is that the box is surprisingly heavy. I have noticed this with other high piece-count LEGO Architecture sets as well. They tend to be very dense with a large number of small elements, which result in the unusually high weight.

As this is a micro-scale model, the actual size is 5” (13cm) tall, 6” (17cm) wide and 7” (19cm) deep, which puts this into the category of medium-size LEGO Architecture sets. However as I have mentioned above, the building-experience is very different than most LEGO sets; instead of an open, airy design to facilitate easy building and play, here the focus is on accuracy on a small scale. This is achieved by using lots of small pieces and advanced building techniques. If you have never built a LEGO Architecture set before, you would be surprised of how many interesting building-techniques are used. Assembling them is quite enjoyable – especially the medium-size sets. (The smallest ones tend to be too easy and quick to put together, while the largest ones can be a bit tedious.)

The final model is instantly recognizable with the big pyramid at the front, and LEGO even added the little pyramid that is behind the big one! I’m not sure what is going on with the fountains though. For some reason LEGO designers only added them on one side of the pyramid, which gives the set an unfinished, uneven, and even confusing look. Another downside is that only the building behind the pyramid has been added, and not the side-wings. This is understandable however as the set would had to be basically three times larger. Perhaps it would be worth getting a couple of extra sets to build up the sides, or if you have the right pieces you may be able to do it from your own collection. Note, though, that those tan pieces used for the columns are unique to this set and this is the first time they have been used. As I said earlier, LEGO Architecture sets can be excellent sources for unique parts, and this is definitely one of those sets. Below Jason from the BrickShow will show you the set in more detail.

To summarize, the #21024 LEGO Architecture Louvre set is a nice addition to the LEGO Architecture line, and a good representation of the original building. It is also an excellent source of rare parts and colors that you might want to take advantage of. You can find it, along with other great sets, under the LEGO Architecture section of the Online LEGO Shop. I would also like to remind you that the excellent #21050 LEGO Architecture Studio kit is available again, and also there is a gorgeous new coffee-table book, “LEGO Architecture: The Visual Guide” that features all the LEGO Architecture sets that have been released so far. It’s a bit on the expensive side at $39.99, but it is beautiful and definitely worth it. Anyhow, the point is that while other LEGO themes may get more buzz and news coverage, it is worth checking out the LEGO Architecture section once in a while because there are some really nice sets there specifically meant for serious LEGO fans who appreciate impressive looking display pieces.

What do you think? How do you like the LEGO Architecture Louvre set? Do you have it already? Or are you planning to get it? Do you collect the LEGO Architecture series? Which one is your favorite set so far? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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2015 LEGO Advent Calendars review

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