Customer Reviews

LEGO City Advent Calendar 2008

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I ordered this last year for my 4 year old son (who is now 5 1/2). I thought he'd like it, but wasn't sure what to expect. WOO HOO!! This was so much fun. It was definitely one of "those" toys, where you think to yourself, "This was one of the best $30.00 I've spent.". It's by no means cheap, but, honestly, watching my little guy's excitement every time he opened another door was a delight for me.

I incorporated counting, number recognition and the brain-teaser of finding the numbered door. The calendar layout is a scene of the Lego City. The numbered doors are scattered throughout the city, so your child has to hunt for the correct number. I also used this as a way to talk about our family's religious beliefs and what Christmas means to us. For someone like me, who loves the Christmas season, this was a joyful way to bring the holidays into our home all month long.

**Note: I recommend putting the calendar out of reach after each use. We found out, rather quickly, that the calendar's lure was irresistible. One is very likely to end up with doors poked open and prizes pilfered. For $30 I wanted the fun to last all month. :)

We have ordered the LEGO Christmas Calendar every year for at least 10 years, and have never been disappointed. My child is now 16, and still looks forward to opening and assemblying each day's packet! It wouldn't be Christmas without out LEGO Christmas Calendar!!

The idea is a great one - get an advent calendar for your children where they get to open it and have a new little Lego toy each day leading up to Christmas. Well, each toy isn't exactly what I expected. About every third day, you get a Lego person, which my children love, and then the next two days, you get a "prop" to go along with that person (a 6 pc. Lego BBQ or a 10 pc. Lego Ice Cream cart). Most of the props are things my kids won't use with their current Lego sets, and trying to split the days among the three kids meant that some days, one child would get a silly prop toy that doesn't do any good without the next day's prop toy and the previous day's Lego person. Overall, a bit disappointed, but I'm glad we tried it once - won't be doing it again, though.

I should start off by saying that I LOVE Lego. It was my favorite toy as a child... and adolescent... well, and as a young adult. Now, as an older adult, one of my favorite things to do is to create and play with Lego with my children.

Over the past several years, we have purchased one (sometimes more, either for other kids in our family, or as was the case last year different varieties for our two children -- boy and girl) of the Lego Advent calendars. It was with excitement each morning that our kids woke up and wanted to open a Lego window... before going to the bathroom, before having breakfast... heck, they were talking about Lego prizes before they even had one foot on the floor.

And the grown-ups loved them, too... there were holiday-themed toys that could be built on a daily basis; and the projects that were in the Advent calender were the inspiration for the kids building their own Santas and reindeer and snowmen...

This year's Advent calender has been a HUGE disappointment. The daily sets are boring, have little if anything to do with the season, and sometimes just don't make any sense at all. Worse yet, "what is it?" has turned into "I don't want to put it together."

WHAT?? This is Lego we're talking about!! What do you mean, "I don't want to put it together??!!" That NEVER happens with Lego!!

Well, it happened this year. The daily sets get opened up, and if they get assembled at all, the pieces just end up mixed in with our big Lego box.

I'd like to think that we'll just hope that next year's Advent calendar is going to live up to the high standards that Lego has always lived up to, but frankly, I'm not sure that we're going to spend the money on next year's Advent calendar... And that makes me sad, because new Lego sets are one of the things that I think of when I reflect on my childhood Christmas memories... and I hate to think that my kids' Lego memories will be letdowns.

Last year we bought this calendar and this year we bought Playmobil calendars. If you are already permanently in the Lego camp and have older kids that will enjoy these little meaningless peices to add to a larger Lego collection, then this is fine. However, if you are undecided, are looking for a truly great advent calendar regardless of brand, or are looking for a younger child, I highly recommend going with a Playmobil calendar instead. After only a couple days withe the Forest Animals calendar from Playmobile, the value is evident. These Lego calendars do not create an actual scene that means much of anything. As another reviewer noted, they seem like a bunch of disjointed pieces that have little to do with eachother. Additionally, they don't have much to do with Christmas, although, neither do some of the Playmobil models, depending on which you get. Overall, if you want a good calendar, high quality to use for more than one year, I would avoid this and go with Playmobil.

My son's birthday happens to be on the first of December, and this is the best birthday gift ever. It gives him almost a month of anticipation and excitement. He loves to search for the numbers and open the doors.

I got the 2007 calendar from Amazon last year for $20, so I was a bit disappointed to see the price so high this year. Maybe it was cheaper because I ordered and received it a couple of days late. It definitely is very expensive for the amount of pieces you get, but the value lies in the happiness and thrill your child gets each day as he opens the doors.

I definitely recommend!

If your kids love legos, they'll love this! It stretches Christmas out for almost a month. My boys are 7 and 9 and they really enjoyed it. Some of the other advent calendars (My little pony and Littlest pet shop for example) give the kids just a few toys and the other days they get stickers to put on the box or cardboard items to use to play with their toys, like a cardboard pet bed or bone. Cardboard? Seriously? Those are going to go right in the trash. Lego has it right. The kids get a Lego minifigure or the pieces to make a lego item EVERY day. No cheating here. I'm very happy with what we received. I'll be looking for these from now on. Thanks for reading!

This is 24 bits and pieces that are disjointed and have nothing to do with Christmas. Last year's Lego advent calendar had Christmas themed sets and ornaments. I was very dissapointed. For the price, it was a waste.

I bought this for my 9 year old son and 11 year old daughter. They took turns opening/building the LEGO item each day. By 12/24 they had a LEGO scene that they had fun creating. Well worth the $$ to make the anticipation of Christmas adventuresome.

My two girls ages 7&9 absolutely loved this version of the advent calendar. Every day had a cute little Lego piece to put together. I would buy my girls each one again next year!!