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LEGO Christmas sets: Advent Calendars

by Thita (admin) on November 10, 2012

in LEGO Exclusives

LEGO has been releasing Advent Calendars to count down to Christmas since 1998. The LEGO Advent Calendars contain 24 small sets, so you can build one each day leading up to Christmas. In the past LEGO produced one Advent Calendar for each Christmas season, which gradually increased to two per year in different themes (i.e. LEGO City, LEGO Castle, LEGO Star Wars, etc.), and this year is the first time we get three LEGO Advent Calendars: LEGO Star Wars, LEGO City, and LEGO Friends. 😀

Advent Calendars date all the way back to the 19th Century Germany, and later become popular in other countries as well. Advent Calendars were originally made of cardboard with 24 little windows to open each day until Christmas. Behind each window there was a little picture or verse from the Bible. Later small pockets were added to contain a piece of candy, small toy, or other treat. These days there are many secular Advent Calendars which simply count down to Christmas without any religious reference – amongst these the LEGO Advent Calendars are quite popular.

LEGO Advent Calendars mimic the classic Advent Calendar design. There are 24 little windows built in the box, so you have the fun of opening one each day, and behind it are the parts to assemble for that day. Here I will show you the three LEGO Advent Calendars you can choose form this year with details of each set. So follow along! 😉

➡ #4428 LEGO CITY ADVENT CALENDAR: Help to rescue Santa’s sleigh in time for Christmas! It’s Christmas time again but Santa’s sleigh is stuck in the forest snow! He needs help from the LEGO City forest fire department. Open a door every day, December 1–24, to reveal the minifigures, models and accessories that Santa needs to get him out. Only you can help free Santa’s sleigh in time for Christmas! Gifts include 7 minifigures (Santa, 3 firefighters, brother, sister and mechanic), iconic forest fire equipment racks, fire hydrant and chainsaw, wheelbarrow, snow catapult, mini fire engine and much more!

LEGO Advent Calendars are popular not just with kids but adult LEGO fans, as they contain many cute minifigures and interesting elements often not found anywhere else. Here we get a whole assortment of useful items for LEGO City fans.

➡ #9509 LEGO STAR WARS ADVENT CALENDAR: Feel the Force the holiday season with the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar! Featuring 24 gifts, including iconic starships, minifigures, and accessories, this great advent calendar is the perfect gift for Star Wars fans of any age! Open a window every day to reveal 24 different LEGO Star Wars themed gifts. Features 9 minifigures, including 2 holiday-themed minifigures. Vehicles include mini Gungan Sub and General Grievous’ Starfighter.

Amongst all the LEGO Advent Calendars this is usually the most popular due to all the unique parts and exclusive minifigures. With last year’s LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar we got Santa Yoda, and this year we get Santa Darth Maul. 🙄

The above two LEGO Advent Calendars are available at the Online LEGO Shop and some retailers. If you are interested I would suggest you pick them up soon, as they will likely run out as holiday shoppers raid the stock. Also notice that the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar is currently on sale. Here are the direct links at the Online LEGO Shop: LEGO CITY ADVENT CALENDAR, LEGO STAR WARS ADVENT CALENDAR

➡ #3316 LEGO FRIENDS ADVENT CALENDAR: 24 days of LEGO Friends building fun! The holiday season has arrived in Heartlake City. Head outside with Olivia, Christina and their dog Coco! Build a snowman or go skiing, then warm up by the fire with cookies and milk. Help Olivia and Christina writing a holiday-card, delivering gifts on their snowmobile and decorate the Christmas tree. Includes 24 individual gifts, including 2 mini dolls not found in any other set, a dog, and accessories in colors not available anywhere else. Celebrate the holiday season with LEGO Friends!

This is the third and most elusive of the LEGO Advent Calendars this year. Full cute accessories in interesting colors, and two Friends figures unique to this set. This is a LEGO collector’s dream!

While the LEGO City and LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendars are available both online and by retailers, the LEGO Friends Advent Calendar is limited to LEGO brand stores only (but not at the Online LEGO Shop). And even they get them only in very limited quantities (200-250 per store). I’m not sure why this move by LEGO as Friends is very popular, but if you are interested in this set, you better get it right away. I did find it listed on Amazon at the time of this writing, but I expect that they will sell out soon. You can find the Amazon LEGO Advent Calendar listings below:

How do you like the Christmas LEGO Advent Calendars? Have you been collecting them from previous years? Which one is your favorite this year? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 🙂

You may also like to check out the following related posts to get you in the mood for the Christmas holidays:

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LEGO Botanical Gardens – take a stroll!

by Thita (admin) on November 9, 2012

in Community Articles

(Written by Geneva – gid617)

Long ago, my Grandpa made me a table that we always called “the LEGO table”. It has a removable top, so when there were no babies crawling around we could put the whole thing on the floor. The surface of the table is covered with eight 32×32 stud LEGO plates to build on. Over the years I’ve build a lot on this LEGO table; an airplane I could actually sit in, countless castles and houses, an airport, football fields, campgrounds – just about anything that occurred to me. Most recently I built a LEGO Botanical Garden, inspired by the Build a University Challenge (in the EuroBricks Guilds of Historica). And what would a University be with out a garden! 🙂

I started off with just a few rows of flowers and several pillars in the middle, plus five statues or so. Then someone suggested a pathway, and I thought that was great since it would be an easy space-filler. My mom came up with the bell-tower, based on her experience at the University of Kansas (go Jayhawks!). And I added more flowers, fountains and other details. I believe in total there are ten students, three professors, two gardeners, and eight statues. The entire University is set in the early-mid Renaissance, so nothing too modern!

Ring the bells for any graduating students! I think this is the first time I’ve used the round tower and roof technique. I’m pretty sure I actually crammed it into a bit too small of a circle, but I didn’t have much room! And the tower roof is a bit delicate; it can easily get pushed over if not careful. The bell doesn’t have much room to swing around, but it can move!

I had just bought 100 transparent red and 100 transparent clear round 1×1 LEGO plates, and my brother had done the same. (We actually did that before I started building, otherwise we might have chosen different colors.) Between us both, we just managed to finish up the pavilion. By the time it was done I sure was tired of stacking round plates! 🙄

What’s a garden without a pond? This was one of the first details I added. And at the beginning, I had a minifigure (or, more accurately, half of a minifigure) cleaning it out…

Inside the pavilion or gallery, I built several small displays; a sword in a glass-topped container, a miniature model of a castle, a painting, a mummy in a case, and a miniature light-house model. I had a lot of fun with the painting especially! In general, I really enjoy building in smaller-than-minifigure scale.

Would you like to take a stroll in a LEGO Botanical Garden like this one? I learned a lot about landscaping from building this, and you’ll probably see me use some of the same techniques in a future LEGO creation. I’m sure I could improve on some things, so feel free to give me any suggestions or ask questions you might have in the comment section below. 😉

You might also like to check out some of these related posts:

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LEGO Christmas sets: Advent Calendars

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