Lego advent calender

[Maryann1975]

I’ve got 3dc. They all love Lego, especially younger 2, one loves ninjago, other loves friends. Oldest isn’t so obsessed, but fiddles about with siblings sets.

Is a Lego advent calender worth the £20. Is the box part of it? The bits on their own might not look like anything that should be linked together, do you display them in the box? Thinking the Lego city one. Can you reuse it next year?

My sister bough one for my dc Last year in north America. The box becomes a sort of backdrop if you want to store all the pieces there but the kids just hung on to theirs after a few days. I have 3 dc so they each took turn about. I really loved the pieces and each one was just enough for one a day. You can't really reuse it as like most advent calendars you do need to rip along the perforation on each door. Ours got 2 extra tears too as it got more used.
If I'm honest I think the kids began to forget about it first thinh on a morning around the 18th/20th of the month like they do with most calendars but would always do it once home from school.
Overall I loved it as did the kids. It was a real treat and if you can afford it I would say buy it. However one of the dc has already asked will we be having another Lego calendar this year so just be careful if you'll end up setting expectations!!!

I love the LEGO calendars.Much better than having chocolate for breakfast.The excitement each morning is great.I gave my 8year old the calendar towards the end of November last year and he used the box as a backdrop for his LEGO creations.He appreciated it so much,it was money well spent.

I would agree with the above. We bought one last year for DSS who was 5 and he adored it. He didn't use the box a lot, maybe at the start nut then took the bits and just carried them with him or added to his own builds. The pieces are good, I definitely did think it was good value for money and will be getting another this year. I think it's also a nice change to the chocolate advent calendars, generally I find them very poor quality for kids so this was definitely an upgrade 😊

My ds1 loves a Lego Star Wars Calendar, hes now 19 and still has one!! Always well worth it for Lego fans.
Ds2 (12) however is not and never been into Lego so his was a waste. He prefers a chocolate one!

We had Lego Friends two years and I was fairly disappointed. I only got the second one as I found it 1/3 off early in November.

The box is the background for the scene but the pieces itself are absolute tiny and it takes until the 15th or so to actually do something with it.

I think it is better buying a good set and breaking it up and putting it into a DIY calendar.

We normally are sweet breakfast eater so a small piece of chocolate for 24 days doesn't bother me at all.

We had lego calendars three years in a row, they’re ok but sometimes its a bit try-hard and after christmas gets broken down into the big tubs anyway. Got Tinc calendars this year for a change.

Yeah, they're really good - we've had Star Wars ones the last two years and they go down a treat. They will go into the parts bucket sometime after Christmas of course.

Amazon/Smyths usually have them for about £20, and you can get previous year's ones still too if you don't fancy the builds in this year's. I think Lego do two or three types (star wars and city are reliable) each year.

DS had a Lego Star Wars advent calendar last year or the year before and I said never again. Me and dp thought it was a waste of money, a few minifigures and mini versions of builds he already had as part of other sets.

The pieces were all chucked in with the rest of the Lego soon after Christmas and never really been made again as the doors with the pics of each build on it have gone missing so they’ve ended up as spare parts. You can get them in 3 for 2s or on offer and that makes it a bit better but honestly he’d have been just as happy with just a chocolate one. But I am a misery and don’t get the trend of the last few years for fancy advent calendars. I thought they seemed fun but it’s just more unnecessary expense really.

Of the toy advent calendars lego is the least disappointing. Not worth the price from an adults point of view but the dc love them. I wanted to fish out the older ones for Christmas displays but they are well and truly lost now in the great box of bits.
It’s an expensive habit to start.

I love Lego advent calendars, both Star Wars and City. The only one I’d avoid is Friends, which is a bit rubbish IME and neither festive nor especially engaging.

DD has had a few of the Friends ones and liked them, I thought they were good too. We stopped because she wanted the Smiggle one instead, which was utterly hideous and filled with cheap cracker-type crap. Complete waste of money and had to change some of the contents that never worked at a shop.

We love advent calendars, from the chocolate ones to the ones that are a door to a picture. The Haribo one last year went down well though.

DD has had 3 now, all City, and really enjoyed the different things. There is a Santa on 24th every year. But she's also got 2 different snowmen, some "remote control cars", Smores sticks, skaters, and various street furniture - which have been well used in other City set ups as she has played. And because she has lots of other small bits, has been able to see how to make more things because of the way they put things together.

She also found that the plastic insert holding the individual days is useful afterwards for sorting various small elements - like heads, bodies, tools/weapons (lots of police and fire brigade elements in our collection), hair and hats, food, .....in different compartments. So she can find bits to be creative that bit easier.

The cardboard backdrop has generally not been used after Christmas, but she had fun with it during advent all 3 years.

But I think we are not going to get it this year - she has moved away from lego generally in the past year.

Saw the Lego City Advent Calendar in Costco yesterday, if anyone has Costco membership and wants it. Don't think it was vastly cheaper than the shops in general though.

Looking at what's actually in them this year (amazon in the States actually shows all the toys inside) the friends one is a lot more Christmassy.

ds8 has Lego city calendar last year and he really liked it. He is now into Lego Star Wars and wants that calendar.
Dd6 had Lego friends calendar last year but this year she wants Lego city because the Lego friends toys look boring.

Lego city/friends calendars currently £16 on amazon.
At that price I think they become worth the money.

Argos have 3 for 2 on the calendars at the moment

An idea for what to do with the Christmas lego bits after, my husband bought this last year and I've stuck the figures in each jar to use as a decoration this year:
www.hobbycraft.co.uk/led-jar-lights-10-pack/623056-1000?query=lights

We tend to get the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar, each year, and the kids take turns opening a window each day. It’s fun and brings with it a small amount of festivity & a lot more LEGO fun.