City Advent Calendar - Day 1
Posted by MeganL,
Another year, another advent calendar! For a second year I'll be working my way through the 60303 City Advent Calendar with you. Last year was a bit of a departure in that we had a lot of microscale models with some minifigures thrown in. The builds were good, but I missed a minifigure scale scene. Let's take a look at the packaging and the first build to see where the City advent calendar is headed this year.
The front of the box shows a wintry scene, with two minifigures playing hockey, another reading off a list, and of course, Santa Claus - so there's no wondering what we'll see on Day 24! Based on the models we see here, it looks like there will be a mix of microscale models and minifgures.
The back of the box shows that play mat with some of the builds on it, so a scene of some kind will be formed. There are also insets of some of this year's sets, so like last year, I think we can expect some scale models.
The play mat shows a predictably city scene, with roads and railways. I think it's not a shock to assume we'll see plenty of vehicles and trains (this is City, after all).
So with those niceties aside, let's look behind door number 1.
Microscale it is! I had to go back a few years to see if this is a scale model of a set, and with some help from CapnRex101, I think it's the bus from 60154 Bus Station. It's a pretty accurate representation, but it looks like I'll have to be going back a little further to find inspiration for these builds.
It's not a particularly festive model, though at least it includes green....
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19 comments on this article
I've never quite been sold on the use of the 2x2 plate with pin holes for wheels. It would look better with 1x1 round plates in the holes maybe? Not sure if that's a legal connection.
@MisterBrickster said:
"I've never quite been sold on the use of the 2x2 plate with pin holes for wheels. It would look better with 1x1 round plates in the holes maybe? Not sure if that's a legal connection."
How about a Technic pin with stud & a round 1x1 tile? Trouble is, that adds 8 parts.
No news on the new Modular ? its gone very quiet....though it was due to be announced on black Friday ?
@DoonsterBuildsLego said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"I've never quite been sold on the use of the 2x2 plate with pin holes for wheels. It would look better with 1x1 round plates in the holes maybe? Not sure if that's a legal connection."
How about a Technic pin with stud & a round 1x1 tile? Trouble is, that adds 8 parts."
Yeah I wondered about that... it's also a wider solution, since the studs now face outwards. Skateboard wheels would be the best choice!
@pjtnorton said:
"No news on the new Modular ? its gone very quiet....though it was due to be announced on black Friday ?
"
It should be coming pretty soon
Police Station revealed Nov. 27th
Bookshop revealed Dec. 6th
Corner Garage revealed Dec. 3rd
Comparing to today's "Random" Set of the Day, I'd say the old one had more utility. Minifigs are always nice and it had quite a few decorations for use in a Lego city.
And in these new sets? What's the purpose of all these microbuilds? I don't see how they could be incorporated in a Lego city. Maybe they could be useful in some dioramas but I imagine they're not really that common (at least I was never interested in making one).
These calendars are pretty expensive for a bunch of loose bricks to use in MOCs.
I love reading the advent calendars each day but would it be possible to have one article per day for ALL the calendars instead of each calendar having its own article each day? Just seems to clutter the front page. Maybe it's just because I'm using a tablet but all the other stuff gets pushed to the next page.
"It's not a particularly festive model, though at least it includes green...."
I agree - it'd be nice if they hooked you into the holiday spirit a little more on day 1. Nice build, though.
@CCC said:
"The red lights look a bit big. It would have been better to have a green plate there or better still a single 2x6 across the whole thing."
Well, at least that way you get red and green.
@Arnoldos said:
"Comparing to today's "Random" Set of the Day, I'd say the old one had more utility. Minifigs are always nice and it had quite a few decorations for use in a Lego city.
And in these new sets? What's the purpose of all these microbuilds? I don't see how they could be incorporated in a Lego city. Maybe they could be useful in some dioramas but I imagine they're not really that common (at least I was never interested in making one).
These calendars are pretty expensive for a bunch of loose bricks to use in MOCs."
Maybe the old builds could have been included in a 2007-era Lego city, but they're *painfully* simplistic and would stick out like a sore thumb next to any set from the last decade.
A fair amount of people keep the calendars together, disassemble and repackage the builds and save it for next Christmas. For that purpose, microbuilds definitely serve the purpose of creating the 'scene.' And considering the stellar quality of the old set's builds, I'd lean more towards both of them counting as spare parts towards a city rather than one having direct contributions and the other being pure spares
(And with Amazon's near-instant discounts and selling the holiday-themed minifigs, they become very reasonably priced parts packs ;))
It is a pretty good representation of the bus from that older set, though, isn't it?
@The_Toniboeh said:
" @pjtnorton said:
"No news on the new Modular ?"
It should be coming pretty soon
Police Station revealed Nov. 27th
Bookshop revealed Dec. 6th
Corner Garage revealed Dec. 3rd"
May be later this year now they have leaks pretty well under control.
The calendars were so bad this year I bought one from ten years ago from Bricklink for my daughter.
I wonder if this looks festive to people who are red/green colorblind.
It's surprising that they based it on a 2017 model. For the target audience of 5+ those 4 years could be a long time!
Wasn't there anything from City from 2021 they could have modeled it after?
Not too shabby. I haven’t picked up this AC and kind of wish I had. I suppose I still have a few hours to do so if I want to keep up with the dates, but my LEGO funds are limited, so I think for 2021 I’ll content myself with this years’s Star Wars AC, as usual for me, plus various older seasonal GWP sets from my stockpile. But I’ve enjoyed a number of the City ACs in years past, and hopefully I’ll go back to multiple ACs next year.
My 5yr old built this and it took us a while to figure out what it was, it was only the box image with the micro car wash that enlightened us!
@MisterBrickster said:
"I've never quite been sold on the use of the 2x2 plate with pin holes for wheels. It would look better with 1x1 round plates in the holes maybe? Not sure if that's a legal connection."
Last year’s City Advent calendar utilized the 1x1 round plates in 2x2 modified plates with pin holes, and they looked quite good. I’ve never been a City fan, but I bought last years for my young child and they loved it. The micro builds got regular attention all the way into summer. I bought this years and my kid is already zooming this little bus around the house.
Seems like a little pile of bricks and a recognizable vehicle can still do the trick.
This is my first City Advent calendar and I am glad we continue to get micro builds of vehicles. I really enjoyed seeing those the last couple of years in these posts and it finally got me to buy it this year. I like this bus build and can’t wait to continue populating the playmat with more builds.