LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar

The City Advent Calendar series is the one that I purchase for my own use every year. I am now sharing it with my grandson who is having a lot of fun learning how to put together Legos (though he calls Duplos Big Legos and has been playing with those for several years.) This is a great set with lots of fun builds. There are six minifigures and lots more. There is a train, a Christmas tree, an ice sculptor, a snowboarder, a Grandma, a skier, a “remote control” helicopter, a fireplace and seating and Santa is pushing a snow blower (though he also has a modern looking sleigh at his disposal, too. I put together Christmas dioramas using both the Winter special scenes, City sets and City Advent calendars each year. This will be a really fun addition to the scenes that I have put together. Be sure not to throw away the box as it is part of the fun. This year the box opens up to a winter scene with snow on the ground and lights on the trees and houses. The fold-out has more snow fun with a picture of a train track (for posing the little train that comes in the set.

This is our second year getting one for our son. He loves it! They are quick things to build and he is so excited to see what each day will be. He puts them together before school and loves arranging the new things in the display. I tried to save last year’s set to make again but he found it in July and combined all the pieces with his other legos, so I bought another. Advice to potential buyers: buy early! Like, late summer! The price goes up the closer it gets to December. And you can use any set any year, not just the year it came out. Some old sets are cheaper than the newest, and some are more expensive. Just look around.

I really do like Christmas. Growing up, we used to have those chocolate advent calendars that you'd get at the candy store. Once we were deemed "too old" for those calendars, though, it stopped. But I never have been one to shake the advent bug. When I found out LEGO was starting to issue Star Wars calendars back in 2008 (if I recall correctly), I wanted to start it back up, but due to family, I was unable to. This is the first one I was able to get, and while I cannot create an opinion based on the contents just yet (I know what is in it, thanks to the pictures, but the days are still a surprise), I still have that excitement for what Christmas has in store this year. December 26 addendum: Now that each of the doors have been opened and the builds have been made, a little more light can be shed. Each of the little micro builds are an interesting, yet simple item. Most of them can be assembled in less than a minute, but you can easily recognize what ship and item they are (except for the hovertank. I bought a second for a Star Wars buddy, and neither one of us could figure out what it was). The minifigs are nothing to write home about, as none of them are 100% exclusive. But it is nice to get a fresh influx of figures, if you're a collector.

We always countdown to Christmas with a Lego advent set, and this year we went with the City theme. Pop the box open on December 1st and every day you will get to open a door that reveals a "mini-build" for an item to populate the holiday scene. Every year the figures vary, so it's a fun tradition that also contributes to filling out your Lego collection. Even if you aren't interested in the religious aspect of Advent, the countdown-to-Santa is still fun for the little ones. As usual, Lego has released three different advent calendars--this City theme, a Star Wars version, and a Friends ("girly") one. If you are careful opening the daily slots, you can re-pack the calendar and use it again and again; sometimes we actually pull out a couple of older calendars and build a little “Advent Town” instead of using just one set. Don't tear up the box to get it open: the top flap just needs to be released and it serves as the background for the builds. I always buy mine early in the fall: Lego makes a certain number of each theme and when they're sold out, that's it!

I wasn't sure if this would be a hit or not but I was surprised that my son liked it. He is 4.5 and wasn't able to put anything together but he does like to play with them. It was a nice introduction to Legos and I hope he gets more interested in the mas he gets older. I do feel like the price was overpriced for what you get but the quality was nice.

Got this on sale before the Christmas buying rush. I have young kids that love Legos and even small sets like this. I love that there is something for each day and that each one is stored behind its own little calendar door. I noticed that the numbers are not in order which will give the young kids some number finding experience which is a bonus. Obviously I haven’t opened the sets yet, but I’ve seen the photos of many of them and am super excited to start this advent calendar on December 1st! *Update* Kids love it! In order to avoid arguments about who goes first we opened up the first three all at once. They have been playing with them all day, and cannot wait to for their next turn to open one!

My 8 year LOVES this thus far. We've done chocolate advent calendars in the past, but this is one where she purposely gets up crazy early to put together her next trinket. The pictures on the inside of the card stock flap also has been making it easy for the 8year old to assemble. The past two mornings, she's spent a solid 2+ hours playing with her character and and the new items she opened. This is such a fun twist on advents, and much healthier. That said, I get Lego wanting us to buy a new one annually, but I'd be willing to pay a lot more if they made it reusable, and just sold "refresher" packs each year, so the outside was made out of Lego plastic with plastic doors that opened. It'd be so fun to display that way as well. Oh well. We're enjoying it!

This is a really cute idea and each of the Lego items was great. Just be aware of your own child - age, etc. My 5-year old grandchild was excited when he saw this but he just couldn't get into the open one a day until Christmas. He so used to opening and building Legos right away that I finally gave up and just let him open all the doors. So if defeated the purpose I had in my mind. I decided it wasn't worth "fighting" with a 5-year-old and taking away his excitement. He immediately set up a little Christmas scene on the cardboard "floor" that comes with the set.