31 replies to this topic

[andy_0306uk]

Here is my first attempt at a pic review.  Please forgive the very poor quality of the pics as they were taken on my mobile not a decent camera

I was really impressed with the 2006 City Advent Calendar so had to have this years as soon as I saw it.  

Set 7907 contains a nice selection of minifigs and bricks but don't think this years are as good.

Front Cover


Back cover


Inside the fold open cover.  The right-hand side contains the numbered push open windows


Parts list


You don't have to open each of the little windows to get at the pieces or to look at the pictures of what to make.  You can easily open an end, slide out the plastic tray and peek inside.

I never pay attention to which order the mini-sets should be made so lets start with the 8 minifigs.

Police Officer and Fireman


Railway Steward and Air Steward


4 workers



It's a shame that there isn't a Santa/St Nicholas/Father Christmas like last year, especially as I was expecting one with the character being on the box

Now, on to the gifts


I like the arrow and will be making more for my construction crew and  *wub*  *wub*  the orange grit bin


hmm, well, the traffic lights are ok, but whats with the radar dish?


*wub*  *wub* more orange!!


Neat little special pieces


Nice places for the city folk to work but a blue light on a desk?


Ahhhh, the fire hydrant to tackle the crate fire

And finally - The Christmas Tree

Cute lil tree

Hope you enjoyed the review

Andy

[xwingyoda]

Tks Andy for this review  ;-)

There is a cool selections of Mfs as usual (especially the stewards).
I can't really make out whats on the two first pics of the gifts. Sure there is a cool trash deposit thingie, ut what the hell are the 3 others ??

Anyhow, its a great set and I really can't wait to get mine hehe !! Its always a great parts pack with cool features !

Tks again for sharing Andy  ;-)

*yoda*

[simonwillems]

Thanks for this review, some pics are a little vague, but still with identifiable objects.

TLC's trainstationplatforms are usually not very long, I can live with that, but the station in this calendar must be of recordbraking-shortness!  :-P

But still a nice variety of items.

[andy_0306uk]

xwingyoda, on Sep 13 2007, 12:33 PM, said:

I can't really make out whats on the two first pics of the gifts. Sure there is a cool trash deposit thingie, ut what the hell are the 3 others ??

:-D that's why I had so much trouble describing them yesterday

Will try to describe them a bit more for you

1st pic - gift on the left = In the UK, when our construction crews need to shut off a road lane, they use flashing arrow signs to direct the drivers.  This one is made from orange 1x1 dots with red/white 1x1 tiles machine the lines at the top/bottom

1st pic - gift on the right = These orange bins are used to store grit salt for putting on the roads in icy conditions

2nd pic - gift on the left = A kind of traffic light.  A 2x4 plate with transparent red/green 1x1 tiles

2nd pic - gift on the right = Radar dish on 1x2 red/white bricks (why include this?)

Hope this helps

[DJ Force]

I´ve got no idea at all what that piece with the radar dish is supposed to be. *wacko*

[xwingyoda]

simonwillems, on Sep 13 2007, 11:39 AM, said:

TLC's trainstationplatforms are usually not very long, I can live with that, but the station in this calendar must be of recordbraking-shortness!  :-P

Loool yeay its a bloody record  X-D  At least we have that great clock  ;-)

andy_0306uk, on Sep 13 2007, 11:41 AM, said:

1st pic - gift on the left = In the UK, when our construction crews need to shut off a road lane, they use flashing arrow signs to direct the drivers.  This one is made from orange 1x1 dots with red/white 1x1 tiles machine the lines at the top/bottom

My bad I didn't pay attention on the disposition of those dots  :-$  Tks a lot for the clarification Andy
Off course you're right and its pretty cool actually.

andy_0306uk, on Sep 13 2007, 11:41 AM, said:

2nd pic - gift on the left = A kind of traffic light.  A 2x4 plate with transparent red/green 1x1 tiles

I think its suppose to be those construction sites mobile traffic lights. I just passed one of those this week end driving to my cousin's house: there was a 1/1 road under rehabilitation and traffic was only available on 1 lane so you had these mobile lights to stop traffic in one way  ;-)
We already had great city traffic lights which were so much different  ;-)

And I totally agree that this radar dish is totally useless  |-/

*yoda*

[SirNadroj]

Oh-oh there goes my surprise!  ;-)

I must say, I like this one better than the last. My favorite would have to be this:



That construction sign is pretty clever with the 'light bulbs'.  X-D

[andy_0306uk]

Details of the Set and each of the minisets have been detailed on Bricklink

Can see a lot more detail on their pics

[xwingyoda]

simonwillems, on Sep 13 2007, 11:39 AM, said:

TLC's trainstationplatforms are usually not very long, I can live with that, but the station in this calendar must be of recordbraking-shortness!  :-P

Under Bricklink its says its a bench with clock  :-D
So the world's smallest station is not this one  :-P

And Tks Andy for the BL link  ;-)

*yoda*

[Asuka]

Thanks andy_0306uk, your very clever strategic decision to serve us with blurry pictures
allowed me to glance at this review without ruinating that whole wonderful Advent surprise
too much....  :-P  *y*
But although I loved the last year´s one, I think they could do another theme (or perhaps
even two calendars), because right now Castle´s pretty hot IMO.

[Holodoc]

Thank you Andy for your speed review! *y*

So there´s nothing left to open while advent? ;-)

I like all the tiny sets, it needn´t be another police- and fireman |-/ , but well, what would an advent calendar be without them? :-D  

One thing about the train traffic lights:

TLC used to give us similar lights, but you could show either of the lights with the other one being covered:

That one was waaay better! :'-(
Just a little piece more would have done the thing...

...and I won´t mention the radar-crap-dish :-X

Let me quote Franz Beckenbauer: "Is' denn scho' Weihnacht?" (legendary quote from an promotional job he did years ago - "is it X-mas already?")

[andy_0306uk]

Asuka, on Sep 13 2007, 01:15 PM, said:

But although I loved the last year´s one, I think they could do another theme (or perhaps
even two calendars), because right now Castle´s pretty hot IMO.

Really hope they do different themes next year but not sure how they'd managed 24 different minisets for Castle?  Can envisage 7-8 minifigs but what else?

[Quarryman]

andy_0306uk, on Sep 13 2007, 01:36 PM, said:

Really hope they do different themes next year but not sure how they'd managed 24 different minisets for Castle?  Can envisage 7-8 minifigs but what else?

One word: civilians! (yes, I know, not going to happen :-/ )

[Asuka]

andy_0306uk, on Sep 13 2007, 01:36 PM, said:

Really hope they do different themes next year but not sure how they'd managed 24 different minisets for Castle?  Can envisage 7-8 minifigs but what else?

Yeah, I guess this would need a little more "out of the box" thinking than TLC´s doing
usually for their Castle line.... Things that are similar to the City theme, and more
civil life based, like some blacksmith equipment, market place, bakery, farmer and so on,
but a wizard workshop, a hidden treasure and some medieval furniture would also work
fine.... And an evil Santa with spiders and coal pieces as gifts.... and a sledge pulled by
a dragon of course.  :-D

[phoinix]

no girls....AGAIN!
and no santa? whats up with that?
sure there are many nice pieces to give life to every city layout..

i would love something more simple
a girl taking her dog for a walk
a boy on a bicycle

simpler things...not all the workmen again!

[Shadows]

Informative review, thanks! *y*

As usual, it makes a fairly good parts pack. Wish I could pick up a few on deep discount, but at full price one is fine. I do like the 'stewards' and some of the workmen.

Overall, I think I'm looking more forward to the Belville calendar, just for it's assortment of unusual parts. Ugh. Belville. Still, parts are parts, and it's got some.

Phoinix summed up one of the most common complaints I hear about all of the lines in 3 simple words ... "no girls....AGAIN!" Good job, now get LEGO to listen. ;-)

[Freddie]

Whoa! It's out already! *places order*

I guess I should thank you Andy, because I might have missed this one just like I missed last year's calendar. Now all I have to do is wait two weeks and pick it up at the post office across the border.

[andy_0306uk]

Freddie, on Sep 13 2007, 03:14 PM, said:

I guess I should thank you Andy ...........

Thanks are not needed but if anyone wants to show me gratitude by sending me all their orange and/or pink bricks ..........  ;-)

[Holodoc]

andy_0306uk, on Sep 13 2007, 02:23 PM, said:

Thanks are not needed but if anyone wants to show me gratitude by sending me all their orange and/or pink bricks ..........  ;-)

Pink bricks? Mine would fit in a matchbox :-/ : 3 and 1 .

... but I won´t send them anyway! :-P  :-D

[andy_0306uk]

Holodoc, on Sep 13 2007, 05:20 PM, said:

Pink bricks? Mine would fit in a matchbox :-/ : 3 and 1 .

OOOOOOOOOo thank you - thank you - thank you -  *wub*  *wub*  *wub*  will PM address details

Holodoc, on Sep 13 2007, 05:20 PM, said:

... but I won´t send them anyway! :-P  :-D

Damn - you lil tease  :-D

Any orange pieces?

[gylman]

I've never been fond of these sets, but still buy them every year because my daughters like them.

I am, however, looking forward to the Belville Advent Calendar, which likely will have some parts that usually are quite hard to get in it.  My girls will love it, and I love all the Belville parts.

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7600


If anyone has pics of what is contained in this set I would love to see them.

[Wout]

phoinix, on Sep 13 2007, 03:18 PM, said:

no girls....AGAIN!
and no santa? whats up with that?
sure there are many nice pieces to give life to every city layout..

i would love something more simple
a girl taking her dog for a walk
a boy on a bicycle

simpler things...not all the workmen again!

I agree, a girl with a dog or a boy with bicycle in a small set would be so nice and strange enough so difficult for TLC.

Nice review.

[alex54]

Thanks Andy for the review!
I prefer the city advent calendar 2006 a lot!
Those mini sets are nor good for me! The "road subtheme" sets are nice, but the others, not so good!
The 05 version waf ok, the 06 version was better, with bigger sets, and more building ones!
And the 07 is poor! It's just 2-3 pieces to put together on 2x4 plates... Where are the gardening accessories? Where are some nice small constructions that you can put in your layout like a mailbox or an orodator?
And the chrismas tree looks  :-X  IMO! And no santa...
*y*  for Andy
*n* for this calendar

[xwingyoda]

gylman, on Sep 13 2007, 05:51 PM, said:

I am, however, looking forward to the Belville Advent Calendar, which likely will have some parts that usually are quite hard to get in it.  My girls will love it, and I love all the Belville parts.

http://shop.lego.com/Product/?p=7600
If anyone has pics of what is contained in this set I would love to see them.

Ohh tks for the news  8-°  It really looks interesting, Belville always have great parts in cool colours !! Excellent indeed !!

*yoda*

[SirNadroj]

xwingyoda, on Sep 13 2007, 06:57 PM, said:

Ohh tks for the news  8-°  It really looks interesting, Belville always have great parts in cool colours !! Excellent indeed !!

*yoda*

Wow, interesting! Lego is really expanding with this advent calendar thing! Watch, next year they'll have ones for specific themes, Boy o boy, think about it, Star Wars Advent Calendar, Indy Advent claendar. Of course, this is only speculation, but it would be cool!  X-D

I'll probably buy both of these (even though I'm a boy  ;-) ) so I get 2 surprises every day instead of one!  :-P  ;-)