The classic Friends sets. Those were the best.

@PurpleDave said:
"This isn't the first time we've seen an Advent Calendar as RSotD, I believe."

We have had 12 Advent Calendars feature. So yes, you are right.

Some of the Advent Calender sets have some nice ideas. Well, this is not one of them.

I may be 12 years late, but spoilers!

@Maxbricks14 said:
"277 days early, Huwbot. Or 88 days late, either could work."

Latey-late days eight.

@Murdoch17 said:
" @Andrusi said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"277 days early, Huwbot. Or 88 days late, either could work."

Latey-late days eight."

An Advent calendar is never late, nor is it early - it arrives precisely when it means to!"

Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire.

@BabuBrick said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Andrusi said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"277 days early, Huwbot. Or 88 days late, either could work."

Latey-late days eight."

An Advent calendar is never late, nor is it early - it arrives precisely when it means to!"

Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

If we are wish listing, I would love an Adventurers one! Or maybe call it 'LEGO throwback' and put in numerous themes from the old days. Minifigs of Lord Sam Sinister, Jack Stone, Nick Bluetooth, Gorm, Junkbot, Lord Ogel, the Brickster, Infomaniac, Max from LEGO Club, and so on...

@BabuBrick said:
" @Murdoch17 said:
" @Andrusi said:
" @Maxbricks14 said:
"277 days early, Huwbot. Or 88 days late, either could work."

Latey-late days eight."

An Advent calendar is never late, nor is it early - it arrives precisely when it means to!"

Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

Yes please! That will most likely never happen though. I do hear a Minecraft one is coming though.

@Murdoch17 : I would love to get my hands on a Max minifigure.

@Maxbricks14 : Hopefully themed to the game, not the movie.... ;)

@Ridgeheart said:
"I'm glad we moved on from classic Friends-sets. They were the worst."
Funny, to me it's the exact opposite. Love the early Friends sets, hate the new ones, especially the awful and hideously overpriced stuff post relaunch.
I'm so glad that our kids are past their LEGO times and not interested in Friends sets anymore.

@BabuBrick said:
"Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

A pipe dream project of mine has been to make a map of Middle-Earth, with removable miniatures representing major locations from the films. A MEAC might just satisfy that itch. There really aren't any vehicles to speak of, so outside of half a dozen minifigs, the other 18 models would have to focus on locations and creatures.

The OG Friends advent calender!

@BabuBrick said:
" @Murdoch17 : I would love to get my hands on a Max minifigure.

@Maxbricks14 : Hopefully themed to the game, not the movie.... ;)"

Yeah, we'll see I guess.

@BabuBrick said:
"Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

Middle-Earth could absolutely be done, but I suspect Lego won't do it. The problem (from Lego Group's perspective) is that Middle-Earth is defined by the characters and giant set pieces. Characters are obviously not a problem, but the giant set pieces don't really translate to under 20 pieces. That would mean that a Middle-Earth advent calendar is basically an oversized Middle-Earth battle pack, and I think Lego Group wants to keep minifigs' perceived value higher than about $2 each.

Jurassic World has a bigger problem as an advent calendar. The theme is all about the dinosaurs - take away the dinosaurs and you're left with some characters you don't care about in a generic modern day wilderness/safari setting. The issue is that there are only three dinosaur moulds that would physically fit in a Lego advent calendar: baby raptor, child raptor, and baby ankylosaurus. You'd end up with either a repetitive advent calendar (multiples of the dinos that do fit) or a calendar that isn't very strongly what it purports to be about.

For the extant advent calendars, City works because it's just generic modern christmas/winter themed, Friends works because it's City but with minidolls and Friends-specific animal moulds plus a brighter, more pastel color palette to differentiate it, Star Wars works because there are so many recognizable space ship and small scale scene things that can be done in few parts to supplement the characters, Marvel/Spiderman works for similar reasons to Star Wars but with more emphasis on named items/equipment and logos, Disney works because custom child minidolls plus the same reasons as Star Wars but with a wider variety of movies/stories to pick from, and Harry Potter works because money.

@gearwheel said:
" @BabuBrick said:
"Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

Middle-Earth could absolutely be done, but I suspect Lego won't do it. The problem (from Lego Group's perspective) is that Middle-Earth is defined by the characters and giant set pieces. Characters are obviously not a problem, but the giant set pieces don't really translate to under 20 pieces. That would mean that a Middle-Earth advent calendar is basically an oversized Middle-Earth battle pack, and I think Lego Group wants to keep minifigs' perceived value higher than about $2 each.

Jurassic World has a bigger problem as an advent calendar. The theme is all about the dinosaurs - take away the dinosaurs and you're left with some characters you don't care about in a generic modern day wilderness/safari setting. The issue is that there are only three dinosaur moulds that would physically fit in a Lego advent calendar: baby raptor, child raptor, and baby ankylosaurus. You'd end up with either a repetitive advent calendar (multiples of the dinos that do fit) or a calendar that isn't very strongly what it purports to be about.

For the extant advent calendars, City works because it's just generic modern christmas/winter themed, Friends works because it's City but with minidolls and Friends-specific animal moulds plus a brighter, more pastel color palette to differentiate it, Star Wars works because there are so many recognizable space ship and small scale scene things that can be done in few parts to supplement the characters, Marvel/Spiderman works for similar reasons to Star Wars but with more emphasis on named items/equipment and logos, Disney works because custom child minidolls plus the same reasons as Star Wars but with a wider variety of movies/stories to pick from, and Harry Potter works because money."

I actually think both of them could work pretty well — for one year only.

Middle-earth, like you said, would prioritize minifigs and locations. I would also throw a couple of cool creature builds in there (Smaug, Treebeard, Fell Beast, Great Eagle, Oliphaunt, Troll, etc.) I actually think that many of the most iconic locations in Middle-earth could translate well into the microscale format. I'm thinking Bag End, the Two Towers, Meduseld, Helm's Deep, Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, there's actually quite a few. Add onto that some of the creatures I mentioned earlier, and a handful of minifigures (hopefully a Santa Gandalf included!), and I think you have a pretty solid calendar lineup — again, only for a year.

As for Jurassic World, I actually think it'd work, maybe even better than LotR. For one thing, the human characters are popular (the original trio, Hammond, Owen, Claire); of course, not as popular as the Dinosaurs, but they would still feature. You could even have some army builder-type characters like the ACU. The baby dinos are musts, for sure, but I also think that microbuilds of adult dinos would be a major focus. I'm sure that most of the main, most popular species could work well in that scale. Additionally, the franchise has a small (small, mind you) selection of vehicles and locations that would be recognizable at a small scale: the JP Visitor Center, the JW Innovation Center, JP Jeep, JP Tour Vehicle, Masrani's helicopter, Gyrosphere. For a one year run, I think it'd be a neat set.

Of course, these wouldn't be near as popular as the Star Wars calendars, but I think that both of them could definitely work. They'd for sure be better than LEGO's recent atempts at Marvel calendars. But I agree with you, I have a hard time seeing TLG doing either of them, especially LotR.

My kids first advent calendar. What fun!

@PurpleDave said:
" @BabuBrick said:
"Just one year (not an ongoing thing, let me clarify that!), just once, I would love a Middle-earth Advent Calendar. Or a Jurassic World one. That would be fire."

A pipe dream project of mine has been to make a map of Middle-Earth, with removable miniatures representing major locations from the films. A MEAC might just satisfy that itch. There really aren't any vehicles to speak of, so outside of half a dozen minifigs, the other 18 models would have to focus on locations and creatures."

That sounds awesome — I would buy that!

LEGO Friends Advent Calendars have been around from the start?