Friends Advent Calendar - Day 24
Posted by MeganL,
We made it! Day 24! It's been quite a journey from Emma's bedroom to Santa's workshop, to the last few days in the winter wonderland. There's a ribbon on this door, so I expect a minidoll to be behind the door. Let's see who it is, and I'll do a short wrap up of the calendar.
As expected - especially since she was featured on the box - we have Mrs. Claus. This is the first time we've had a Santa character in minidoll form, and Mrs. Claus' torso is very appropriate for the occasion. Her bright red top has nice detailing with the gold and heart shaped buttons, and is finished with white fluffy trim at the neck and around the waist. Her head is not new to this set; it's previously been used for Stephanie's mom Alicia in 41398 Stephanie's House, and Lillie in 41393 Baking Competition and 41379 Heartlake City Restaurant.
Mrs. Claus also wears boots very suitable to the snowy weather - heavy brown boots with gold laces. However, she pairs her bright red top with some white tights and a red....miniskirt? That's a first for me, and while it fits with the general style of Heartlake City, it doesn't fit with my image of Mrs. Claus. Did it really have to be a miniskirt?
The printing on the torso doesn't extend the back, which is unfortunate, especially considering all the back printing that we've seen on minidolls this year.
Overall thoughts
With all the gifts open, you can place them on the mat - this is my take, keeping the builds in the appropriate areas. There's plenty of room for the builds; you could argue that's because there's fewer pieces in a Friends advent calendar than there are in any of the others....
Reviewing both the City and Friends calendar really highlighted the difference in the piece count between calendars. Just about every City build was around 20 pieces or more, and there were some really interesting building techniques included. The Friends calendar had some more weighty builds, but many days were rather light on the parts count. With the exception of the snowman, I'm not sure that the building techniques were quite as interesting as the City calendar builds. Of course, when you don't have any many pieces.....
The inequity of pieces aside, there have been some really good portions of the calendar. In particular, the Santa's workshop theme portion stands out for me. I really enjoyed the toy building stations, the waffle making station, and the gift wrapping table. The elves are adorable, though it would be nice to have some different variations - maybe next year.
There were also some disappointing days, such as Day 12 with the skateboard or Day 4 with the hamster and pretzel. I'd love to know the reason behind the lower piece count for the advent calendar, as I'm sure the designer did the best they could with the limitations they had. But still.....Mrs. Claus in a miniskirt?
This is the first time we've seen Santa's Workshop in a Friends calendar, and I hope it's something they continue. All of those builds were perfect for the season. This calendar also wasn't quite as purple-y as some others, though the colour was still present in almost half the builds (10 days).
Looking back through the calendar, I think my favourite days were Day 3 (the hearth), Days 6 and 15 (the elves), Day 13 (the waffle station), and Day 14 (the windup penguin). What were your favourites?
Finally, thank you for joining me the last three and a half weeks. I've enjoyed all the conversations in the comments, and a few times you made me laugh out loud. It's been fun, and I'm already looking forward to next year.
Merry Christmas!
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19 comments on this article
Maybe it’s just me, but all I can see is Helen Mirren wearing a red Christmassy minidress!
Wow. Mrs Claus. That shouldn't have been surprising at all, but it was kind of surprising.
Mini-skirt notwithstanding, I think we did end on a high note :).
Ah! Zombie elves, back from the dead!
I saw it as more of a long tunic
The question is, is that really Mrs. Claus, or is it Alicia dressing up?
I think the gift wrapping station is one of my favourites, just for how clever that roll of wrapping paper is.
Been a great calendar, and this was imo a great way to see off the advent. Loved this advent tbh probably more than the Star Wars one as it gave us unique builds unlike the Star Wars one which was kinda predicable with the X-wings and Droid figures we get every other year.
My favourite: The fireplace. :)
I think my favorites were the penguin-bot, the archway (for being a more substantial build and for the life-preserver wreath) and the train workbench. I also quite liked the duck workbench and the treats tables.
That's a nice figure honestly.
Thank you, Megan, for doing the advent calendars. I've really enjoyed reading them each day. I appreciate seeing the whole scene set up and it does look like there is a bit of a story there with artistic Emma imaging the North Pole. (Would have been great to have her easel set up painting the scene.) I've been doing the HP calendar myself and although the builds seem much more substantial, no special Christmas figures (unless today surprises me!) Have a safe and happy holiday!
I thought she was wearing tight white pants with a long red coat, as you do for Santa
Is this the first Friends calendar to have more than 1 full figure?
@MeganL:
I’m not going to lie and say Sexy Mrs. Claus isn’t a thing in the US, but an alternate way to see this is that she’s wearing white form-fitting pants like you’d wear for riding horses, and the red part is more like a jacket than a dress (you know, like a sweater that hangs below the hips).
Honestly, I was really charmed by this advent calendar. My daughter and I enjoyed the storytelling and how well each build worked together. It was fortunate that my daughter grabbed two plates on Day 1. The 6x6 plate became Emma's house and the 8x16 plate, starting with the candy cane doorway, gradually transformed into Santa's workshop.
I’m grumpy because we didn’t pick this calendar up; I think it looks pretty great all set up on the board with a lot of play that can happen.
We did get the Harry Potter on discount, and where it does look fuller, I just don’t think it looks as fun or complete as the Friends calendar. The walls just stand there, the piano, couch, gramophone, LARGE punch table, and trees just stand there; and they don’t offer that much play. Pick a drink up. Sit on the couch. Tap the piano.
The Friends calendar has always gotten a lot of jeers, but (after a pretty bad first year) it has always looked great on the last day with everything set up.
@The_Toniboeh said:
"Is this the first Friends calendar to have more than 1 full figure? "
Nope. All of the ones from 2012 to 2016 had two.
I feel like this years friends set was completely underwhelming compared to last years friends advent calendar. There were so many great builds and almost all were Christmas themed. We did the city advent this year because this one seemed so lacking. My daughter loved getting all of the Lego cartoon series characters from that one.
I thought this years version was way better than last years. Last year seemed more of a repeat of the previous year but with builds half the size of the year before. The big disappointment for me with the Friends calendar this year was the mostly small builds but that seems to be the way things are going with both the Friends & City Calendars. I guess the Substantial holiday themed builds of years past are gone for good.
I'm seeing it as a red minidress teamed with thick white tights/leggings & a fur-trimmed short red jacket on top.
A miniskirt doesn't really fit for Mrs Claus, outside of the trashier costume shops at least