As I’ve previously stated so many times that its making my head spin, this year represents many significant anniversaries in the the history of the LEGO group: Sixty years of the brick; forty years of the minifigure; twenty years of Mindstorms; fifteen years since the colour change was rolled out, ten years of Architecture…. and Twenty years since the release of the first Advent Calendar. Today, I thought I’s take a look at two of the enduring Advent Calendars: LEGO® City and LEGO Star Wars.

LEGO City, as we now know it, has had an annual Advent Calendar since 2005. Typically rich in minifigures, it has evolved over the years: Initially focussing on showcasing the sub themes of city – e.g. police, fire, healthcare, construction/civic maintenance; mechanics; cooking and domestic life, with a figure and several mini builds (occasionally integrating together to put together a larger build) and culminating with a Christmas type build – either Santa, with some form of transport; or a Christmas tree on the 24th of the month.

In recent years it has adopted a more thematic approach – predominantly police; fire or domestic life; often with children receiving toys – mini builds of vehicles, houses or LEGO sets past or present…

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For me, there have been several highlights over the years in the city Advent Calendar, but perhaps the most amusing has been ‘Showering Santa’, seen in 2010: Unfortunately, once seen, it cannot be unseen.

How about LEGO Star Wars?

The first LEGO Starwars Advent Calendar appeared in 2011, and featured an interesting mixture of Original and prequel trilogy minifigures, micro build spaceships, weapons racks and Today dressed up in a Santa suit…

Even the most casual of Star Wars Fans could identify the majority of characters and vehicles featured.

As the years have passed, we are seeing more and more obscure droids and ships, which might have appeared once in an episode of Clone wars a few years ago…

The other highlight of the Star Wars Advent Calendars is the ‘comedy Christmas figure’ or build. I’ll present a selection of them below… They are probably a better way to celebrate the holidays than the dreaded 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special. And certainly, the typical builds are not very Christmas like…

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What has been your favourite build in the City or Star Wars Calendars over the years? Why not comment below! Our adventure is very nearly over. I wonder what we shall see on the final day.

Catching up with our Friends.

Today, we look behind door 23 of the Friends Advent Calendar. A ring of hearts is pretty generic, especially when dealing with a group of girls, growing up on the mean streets of Heartlake City.

We are getting close to the end of our calendar. we have a number of slopes, in a number of different shades of Green. What can it possibly be?

This might get a bit meta, as we build a tree to hang in a tree. The use of trans fluoro yellowish green studs as decorations gives them an eerie glow. Christmas trees have often featured in LEGO Christmas sets, and I reviewed the history of these a couple of years ago while looking at the Christmas build up in 2016.

I quite like this tree, although I prefer my tree to be a darker green, rather than yellowish. It is. however. a standout in this years builds, has a great Christmas theme and builds on what we have seen in LEGO Christmas trees in the past.

What do you think of today’s build?

What do you think we will see tomorrow?

How is your Christmas preparation going? Smoothly? Or is it a case of only one more sleep and 35 cups of coffee before Christmas? come back tomorrow for our final instalment of the Advent-ure. And until then, play well!