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[mikey]

My first Advent Calendar in at least 17 years! And of course it is Lego!

My photography has gone from bad to worse in the last few months, and some of these pictures have very bad lighting. But if you can put up with the pictures, enjoy the review!

And I must say again that this review will ruin all the surprises, so if you want to keep the Advent Calendar Spirit, you should close the post now!

First a few pictures of the box:

The front, showing all the MiniFig's...


The back, not all that intresting!


The side, showing all the pieces you will soon have in your hands!


A bit more interesting now! I loved the square MiniFig footprints in the sand, a nice touch I think.


Now obviously I have broken the rules of the Advent Calendar, and instead of waiting for the 1st December to begin with my first surprise, I wanted them all now.....

and this is what I found.

First of our cast of MiniFigs:

The soldiers. Apart from the plain soldiers hat, no surprises here. Although I would never turn down the chance to have more RedCoats!


The pirates. Nothing must of us will not have, but I was happy to get my 2nd Pirate Castaway which is a particular favourate of mine, Brickbeard, and of course the Pirate Princess.


The Not-Human! Now this is where it is good for me, as I do not have the Mermaid, and I really wanted her. She is great!
Ohh yeah, you also get a Neanderthal Skeleton with a snake.


The cast of animals, my first ever Lego Monkey and Rat. And of course the amazing Swordfish:

Which I think is very cute!

Now to the accesories:
First off, Under The Sea

The white clam with a jewel is just great, and seaweed and small foliage always comes in usefull. To be picky maybe the clam and crab should have been in the Cast of Animals...

A pirate chest (which isn't pearl gold!), crammed full of treasure. You can not close the lid!


Some things which float


Things which would not float

A particular favourate of mine is the Desk with Indy Treasure Map. I just love the design of the Lamp, its very simple but very nice! An extra Fish and Turkey Leg is always nice to have aswell.

More accesories

Very bad lighting, but a barrel with a spade and pick, also a weapons rack with gun, cutless and handcuffs

Now this was a great surprise for me

I was not expecting this little Cannon. But I think it is nice, simple, well designed and proportioned.

But not as great surprise as this

I just interpreted it as some kind of Voodoo Shrine. I am so liking that idea. And who does not enjoy adding Dark Blay Arches to their collection?

And at the end you are left with a handfull of spare pieces:



So as you may have guessed by the tone of the review, I am more than pleased with the set. I am happy with the MiniFig's and Animals, and have also been shown how to make a nice Lamp and a Small Cannon. I paid �16 for mine, so in my opinion it is good value.

If you already have all the 2009 Pirate Sets, apart from the SwordFish there is nothing really New and Spectacular in here. Although I do think it is at a reasonable cost to get extra MiniFigs and Accesories.

With this been a selection of MiniFigs, Accesories, and Tiny Models to give a score will be difficult, but I will make an attempt:
Design: 8 Difficult to judge, I base this score from the Small Cannon, and Desk Lamp!
Parts: 8 SwordFish, a few bits of Foliage, Food & Animals, and some Tan and Dark Blay!
Build: N/A There are no instructions!
Minifigs: 8 An exclusive MiniFig would score 10, but they are all still great characters!
Playability: 10 Well, this is where it excels, how many scenarios could you think off?
Price: 10 No complaints about the price from me. I think it is priced at the right point.

Total: 44/ 50
I am very happy with the Calander, and it being my first for so many years I may be a bit biased towards it! But I would recomend any Pirates Fan to get hold of one if you can!

Edited to get rid of a few typo errors!

This post has been edited by mikey: 10 October 2009 - 04:33 PM

[UsernameMDM]

Nice review! Can't wait to get this set. Should be on it's way from Denmark in a week or so.

[Tom Bricks]

Just a question, even though I can't buy one, are the figs regular or are they the lower quality ones?

[metalandi]

What do you mean with lower quality figs? I always thought all (more or less recent) figures are the same quality. At least i never recognized differents in the quality of them.

[prateek]

Great review! All these figs and accesories are awesome!

[Stewie]

Your lucky that you have in your country.Why LEGO?Why?Why dont we have it here in the
UNITED STATES??

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Great review. I love it. Now if I could just buy one at my local Lego Store

[Peppermint_M]

Thanks for the review! This is shipping to me as we speak (ok, so it is likely sat in a warehouse somewhere, but the email said it is coming!) lots of great parts then and the minifigures will certainly be useful.

[Tom Bricks]

metalandi, on Oct 9 2009, 05:07 PM, said:

What do you mean with lower quality figs? I always thought all (more or less recent) figures are the same quality. At least i never recognized differents in the quality of them.

There have been some low quality figs in recent battle packs, heres the Classic Castle Article.

[UsernameMDM]

Tom Bricks, on Oct 9 2009, 03:02 PM, said:

Just a question, even though I can't buy one, are the figs regular or are they the lower quality ones?

I believe the first review on this advent calendar said they were typical quality minifgs. Please realize all the lower quality minifigs come from sets where the minifigs are preassembled.

[Cardinal Brick]

Thanks for the review, it's a nice calendar but it doesn't demand that I buy it the way last years Castle one did, so I'm still not sure if I'll get one.

[mikey]

Tom Bricks, on Oct 9 2009, 10:02 PM, said:

Just a question, even though I can't buy one, are the figs regular or are they the lower quality ones?

The MiniFig's are the regular, good quality that we expect from Lego.

Cardinal Brick, on Oct 10 2009, 08:22 AM, said:

Thanks for the review, it's a nice calendar but it doesn't demand that I buy it the way last years Castle one did, so I'm still not sure if I'll get one.

True, the only exclusive piece is the SwordFish. For me that and the Mermaid were the deciding factor, along with getting doubles of the best of the Pirate MiniFig's for a reasonable price.


Thanks everyone for all the nice comments on the review. I need to think about how I light my scene a bit more in my future photography, but its just so boring when you have limited free time. And in the time that you have you would prefer to play with your Lego!

[Fumoffu]

Nice review. My set is on its way. Now I just have to decide whether to open it up as soon as it arrives or open it the proper advent calendar way.

[Erdbeereis]

Very nice review! I'll index it.

I like this set, but it doesn't have that "special" feel to it that the Castle calendar did last year.

[ILikePi]

Great review!

Nothing spolied here, since I already read xwingyoda's review of it on BrickHorizon.

Man, your review makes me want it even more now...

Almost all of those minifigures are ones that I don't have.

It's a shame that it probably won't be available to the US, but on the bright side, I'll save $30!

This post has been edited by ILikePi: 10 October 2009 - 03:41 PM