City Advent Calendar 2011 Take 2 - The PC Free Version

Bubba

Since my first post about this spawned replies that went a direction that was unintended and resulted in the item being closed before I was able to reply to any questions raised by my original post I figured I'd try it with a PC free wording in hopes of avoid closure.

When I originally posted about the City Advent set for 2011 it was mere minutes after seeing it for the first time and so I was detailing exactly how I felt upon seeing it especially after hearing my kids comment on the set. I believe the 2 word phrase I used (not listed here in hopes of avoiding thread closing) spawned its own heated discussion. The term was meant more to summarize in as short a phrase as possible "first impressions" with the set and how strongly it bothered me in its non-holiday look and theme. Had the set been labeled the LEGO CITY POLICE Advent Calender Set I would not have thought much about it.

I'm not opposed to any set LEGO has ever put out including this one and I doubt ever will be. That said I believe one poster in my original thread best summed it up when they called it a total failure for a City themed "Advent Set". Had the set prominently featured Firemen and Fire Trucks and other Fire fighting pieces I believe more would have agreed that the set failed to deliver as an Advent set which is normally holiday-ish.

In closing I'd like to say that I too want to keep anything posted here as related to Bricks & Buildings as possible however my choice of words I used may have caused the thread to be closed but it was %100 successful in delivering the way I felt about the set with "First Impressions".

Thanks to all who took time to reply as I know most if not all are busy and not just sitting around just looking to comment on something .

achillespdx

I share your feelings on this advent calendar. I was going to buy one (being my first advent calendar) but after looking at the included sets more closely I feel that my dollar will be better spent going towards the Holiday Bakery or Post Office instead. At least those sets will have the wife-stamp-of-approval on them and actually fit in with the spirit of the season.

princedraven

My take on this:
Advent Calendars are traditionally a kids thing. When was the last time any of the Adults here had an Advent Calendar (excluding LEGO).
Therefore these sets will (and should) be aimed at the kids.

And with that in mind I have to say I think my son will LOVE this; as much as I love Christmas for the traditional values (Carols, Good Will, etc), kids growing up these days are faced with a different view of christmas, my sons nativity last year was about Aliens that visited earth to see the baby Jesus being born and his Xmas books are about Underpant stealing Aliens who help Santa or Magic elves who use all sorts of gadgets to get the presents wrapped.

So I can already see that Santa is going to get put in prison by the police in the calendar for speeding in his magical sleigh. Or Santa is going to help the police to catch the thiefs :)

Having said all that I can see that labling it City when it only has Police is a tad misleading, and I would like TLG to stick more to traditional sets for the calendars, however I can see that they will have to 'mix it up' a tad or each years will look almost identical, Santa, tree, presents, reindeer, stocking.....repeat to fade. So I will enjoy building the holiday sets with my son and try to show him what I appreciate about Christmas, but will also probably play the part of the police trying to catch Santa and the bad guys as they go on a rampage through Lego City.

I for one cant wait for Christmas :)

StuBoy

Its like they've just used the 'format' of an Advent Calender (mini-sets opened each day), but disregarded what an Advent Calender should represent. As @Bubba said it should have been more holiday-ish!

ps - sorry if I contributed to your previous discussion being closed, but that got me a bit riled!

princedraven

^ I wonder whether they should look to do some form of 50 / 50 split. 50% holiday, 50% themed. Or as I said above I can see people complaining that is 'just the same as last years!!'. For example, 3 of the last 4 have Christmas trees, 3 of last 4 have Snowmen, etc...

I have to admit this will be the first year I have bought one of these and looking back at last years, I think that is considerably better. The biggest concern I would have is the idea of building one model with parts from 3 days. Kids will not be overly happy with the idea of building 1/3rd of a car or jail, then having to wait another 2 days before completing it. I wonder if this is TLG's attempt to draw more AFOL interest as we are more likely to want to build bigger models and more patient to wait..? Thoughts..

StuBoy

^ Good points on your first post about all the Advent Calenders becoming a bit 'samey'. I guess TLG has to mix it up a bit at some point, and I guess this is it!

Yeah I guess it would be a bit hard for kids to wait 3 days to finish a model, but in the long run its probably better that they get a more substantial model, rather than a poxy little thing. But saying that, the figs are probably the biggest drawcard anyway. Disclaimer: My views are only based on the pictures and descriptions of previous calenders, I've never owned one!

Robb

I too decided against this set due to the theme. I enjoy city sets, but I expected more of a holiday theme in an advent calendar.

I wonder if toy makers are going this way in general with advent calendars. Instead of creating a holiday themed calendar that is enjoyed year after year, they may be making calendars that are intended for use only one year, but whose toys can be used year round.

I have noticed this with Playmobil advent calendars as well. My wife bought be a nativity themed one, and a Santa winter themed one, but since then all she has found are advents that have nothing to do with the holidays. I suppose the non holiday themed advents make more sense for the companies since kids will want a new one year year, and parents will like them since the kids will be more likely to want to play with them year round.

But it still goes against what I expected a Christmas advent calendar to be.

romdam

Was there this much discussion about the Castle and Pirate advent calendars? What about Star Wars?

princedraven

^ good point, and strange how I (and I guess the majority of others) had no expectation of 'holiday themed' content for the Star Wars Advent calendar..

StuBoy

^^ Very true, they don't even have Santa in them (except Yoda).

legoDad

It's just a poorly thought out Advent calendar...theme-wise and design. For kids it's just too boring and with the choice of the Star Wars advent accross the aisle, it's a no brainer for the little ones.
Last year was a great Kingdom's/Castle themed calendar that my son loved and has incorporated those little models into his Castle moc's. That calendar had good payoff each day with fun models and great figs IMO. Load's of weapons to celebrate the holiday...;)
I still wished they had done a NASA themed calendar. With mini shuttle, lunar lander, mini/micro space station...even some moon-scape vigs too...with the payoff theme of a bubble helmeted Santa riding a rocket sleigh...yeahawwww!

TalasAntares

As someone who is non-religious, I personally would rather have seen Lego put their effort towards something useful for everyone...but with that said, I can understand where posters are going when they feel that the content of this calendar is a bit inappropriate for the intended audience. There is much more to the City theme than police and robbers, I wonder why the others were excluded.
In any event, I'll be passing on these calendars as they just won't fit into my current collection. That means more for the rest of you guys! ;-)

Bubba

StuBoy said:

Its like they've just used the 'format' of an Advent Calender (mini-sets opened each day), but disregarded what an Advent Calender should represent. As @Bubba said it should have been more holiday-ish! ps - sorry if I contributed to your previous discussion being closed, but that got me a bit riled!

Riled at me?

Bubba

romdam said:

Was there this much discussion about the Castle and Pirate advent calendars? What about Star Wars?

I didn't even realize there was a Castle and Pirate advent calendar. Do you recall what year that was from?

Bubba

princedraven said:

^ good point, and strange how I (and I guess the majority of others) had no expectation of 'holiday themed' content for the Star Wars Advent calendar..

I'd say that when its a licensed Advent set it's not unexpected that it will be less Holiday themed than the non-licensed sets

Astrobricks

You’re working hard at reanimating a long dead thread :-/

Bubba

Astrobricks said:

You’re working hard at reanimating a long dead thread :-/

And you just helped keep it alive :)