City Advent Calendar - Day 24
Posted by MeganL,
Here we are, the last day of the microscale, er, City calendar! The last two days have brought a very nice holiday train. While the microscale sets were interesting builds, there's still no substitute for a good festive build in a calendar. There's also little mystery as to what lies behind today's door, as it's usually a Santa figure. Let's take a look as well as have a quick overview of the calendar.
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Our Santa figure today is Fendrich, the wealthy businessman from Day 21's building (or chimney). He comes with a bullhorn and a cookie! The cookie I understand, because what Santa doesn't like cookies? But not sure if the bullhorn comes with his character on LEGO City Adventures. The Santa outfit is the same as was introduced in 2017. Fendrich's head may be new; I don't see it listed in the set inventory, and it is the first time he's been included in a set. A sign of things to come, perhaps.
Festive watch - you can't get much more festive than Santa Claus! (or is it Santa Fendrich?)
Overall thoughts
All the builds fit well on the place mat. While the place mat is well scaled for the microscales, it's a little challenging to find an appropriate spot for the minifigure sized builds, and indeed, the minifigures themselves.
I have decidedly mixed feelings about this calendar. If you like microscale buildings - and I'm guessing that some of the target audience does - you would love this calendar! The builds are good, and I had some fun trying to identify which sets they were supposed to represent. However, if you're looking to build a holiday scene from an advent calendar, this calendar was not the one for you. I give a lot of credit to the City designers - it can't be easy designing a calendar every year and keep the content fresh and fun. In that respect, I think they succeeded, especially if you (or the child in your life) enjoyed the microscale builds.
Another plus is that the majority of the minifigures had not been seen many times before, so this calendar was a good opportunity to get those.
My favourite builds of the calendar were definitely the train builds from Days 22 and 23, I think they were perfect for incorporating into any holiday scene. For the microscales, I rather enjoyed the monster truck from Day 9. And props for the imagination of the snowman on Day 12.
Thanks to all of you for joining me on this advent calendar journey. I hope all of you find rattly presents under the tree this year.
Merry Christmas!
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13 comments on this article
Thanks for the reviews Megan. I bought a couple of these for young family members who I don't get to see very often and it's been nice to follow the daily offerings. They both loved their calendars and thanks to you I was able to offer some insight into the builds.
Have a great Christmas.
Maybe not a bullhorn but a speed measuring device (cop in disguise) for the train or car.
Could we have a closer look at that head, preferably without the beard and hat?
The pudding and duckie crafting bench are far more interesting compared to all those microscale builds, and without judging minifigs, 2019 was the last truly great city calendar.
2020-2021 did provide easier access to some LCA characters but that's about the only standout.
A pirates or castle calendar could be nice to see again however with 5 calendars this year that seems very unlikely.
For some reason, I was thinking a new Santa torso had been introduced this year.
I really liked the microscale buildings and vehicles, I could care less about the minifigs (I did like the waste management lady) and I wish there had been some consistency with the builds. Why did we get the toy bench? Who is using it? What is the letter lamp? Why have I had to rely on this blog to know what half the things are?
I will definitely be taking a peek at the contents of the calendars before we buy next year.
Thanks for the reviews! I’m personally not a fan of the microscale builds, but appreciate your balanced review of them. I agree - must be hard for the designers to make everyone happy with these calendars, some will be a hit, some will be a miss... Until next year!
Loved it all but tis dear per piece count .there were some great pieces albeit not enough to create anything big. For kids it's got serious playability, as testified by my Daughter ,who is not as mad about lego as me
We have bought the city, Star Wars, and Marvel advent calendars and I can honestly say this one was the weakest one of the three. The marvel one was kinda refreshing in a way, cause it was something new. Next year I think we will skip the City one.
Thanks for your reviews on the Friends and City calendars MeganL. It is always a joy following along with these at this time of year and I am glad you do this. I feel mixed on this City calendar. I did like some of the micro builds but I am not too into making the figures based on the City Adventures (although my favorite piece overall is the fire fighter minifigure. Great look and prints and accessories). Friends looked pretty good this year. I might have to consider that one over the City next year ;) Have a Merry Christmas!
The Advent Calendars on Brickset are always a high point of my holiday--thank you so much for your excellent reviews, MeganL!
Great reviews. Hope City AC gets back to more fun holiday offerings (sleds, ice sculptures, winter sports, trees, presents, animals, gifts, food and holiday treats) next year without being so heavy on micro builds which are derivatively dull, of limited use, and are largely self-promotional for Lego.
Thanks for the review. I definitely used your insight to figure out what certain builds were. Not sure we'll do City again, as we weren't impressed with the microbuilds. Maybe if they did city/ castle next year. I felt like the designers might have been bored. Maybe first day could be a time machine...