WhiteFang

REVIEW: 7687 City Advent Calendar 2009

On a scale of 1 to 5  

47 members have voted

  1. 1. How do you rate this set?

    • 1 - Poor
      2
    • 2 - Below Average
      4
    • 3 - Average
      7
    • 4 - Above Average
      26
    • 5 - Outstanding
      7
  2. 2. Between these 2 Advent Calendar series, which do you prefer?

    • 2009 - 7687 City Advent Calendar
      32
    • 2008 - 7724 City Advent Calendar
      14


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Hello everyone once again,

It's the month of the LEGO Advent Calendar tradition starting once more. For members like me whom doesn't adhere to the Christmas Advent tradition, we should probably be taking the packets out and construct them at one go, instead waiting to open each box over the month of December for a period of 24 days before Christmas, itself. :tongue:

It has been an exactly a year since I previously done the 7724 City Advent Calendar 2008 review. I have created a second poll to allow members to select between the 2008 and 2009 City Advent Calendars and rate the ones that you prefer the most. Too bad, the Pirates Advent Calendar has not arrived yet. Before I forget, this review of mine actually marks my 6000th posts in Eurobricks. :blush:

Name: LEGO CITY Advent Calender 2009

Theme: LEGO / Holiday / Christmas / Advent Calender

Year: 2009

Pieces: 257

Minifigs: 9

Price: USD$29.99, GBP 19.55, SGD$39.90

Resources: Brickset, Peeron, BrickLink

An image of a 7687, City Advent Calendar 2009

1.jpg

Rear box's image

2.jpg

24 pieces of magical gifts throughout Christmas

3.jpg

Unlike past advent calendar sets, this year, the advent tray is made up of transparent plastic instead of white plastic like before. It's not as flimsy like the trays before. These trays can be useful for sorting out LEGO parts, while building big and complicated sets.

Introducing the citizens

15.jpg

What a great way to start by viewing the minifigures that are included in this series. There are a total of 9 City minifigures, ranging from the usual street cleaner to the smug looking kiddo at the right. Last year, we had 10 City minifigures, I wonder if the child subtract from the previous 10 since child is a little bit much expensive to create. However, this year, the minifigures variety is pretty good, with some good addition such as the 3 civilians which is very useful to increase our town population. :thumbup:

Maintaining traffic order

5.jpg

It seemed almost every year, there is definitely a Policeman that can be found in the Advent Calendar series. For this year, the traffic light is pretty useful that can be used to organise the traffic which can be placed for our road baseplates but the traffic light looks quite incomplete without the amber.

As for the Policeman, I don't understand why his Police Hat is coated with black instead of the usual white. On another note, don't you guys feel that this section is pretty similar to the 8401 City Minifigure Collection.

Modern Santa Claus

6.jpg

There is one exciting gift that we all should be exciting about. I owned City Advent Calendars ranging from 2007 to the current one, and I don't remember seeing any vehicles included. Although the design for this postal car looks extremely simple that reminds a toy car, but I am very glad to see something of this diversification. Matching up with this postal car are the wooden crate and the christmas gift.

I noticed something unusual about the Postman's red cap. It seemed to be quite different from the usual caps' designs and it appear to bend much inwards than normal. Not sure if anyone of you has noticed that, or seen it in other sets? :look:

Edit: Thanks Macoco for providing this info for me.

Looks like this new cap design, can be found currently in 4 sets which are City Corner, Grand Carousel and Wind Turbine Transport.

Gear up

7.jpg

When you placed them all together, it certainly looks nice and suitable for each other.

Snow removal specialist

8.jpg

The street cleaner that is featured this year, is working hard to clear the snow from the pavement with its trusty pushcart. The design of the pushcart is simple but yet effective which can hold up to 2 equipment at its side, and allowing the street cleaner to push it from point to point without much hassle.

Grand Prix RC Rally

9.jpg

I must admit that I was quite surprised of its simple built when I first saw the complete Grand Prix RC Rally combination. The RC cars are really very easy to build, but yet it effectively portrays the image of miniature RC cars very well. The child is one of the best additions of this Advent Calendar. We don't get children minifigures that often, if only we can have one more child to race with him.

Winter Cafe Stand

10.jpg

This stand, featured a nice warm cup of hot chocolate done by our beloved chef is situated near the beautiful fountain which is another simple yet nicely illustrated design that we can used it for parks in our Town. It has been quite awhile since I last saw a flower in recent City sets.

Clear the way mates, dangerous work in progress!

11.jpg

Can't you see that Ras is wearing the striking safety vest to warn others not to come near him. Looks like Ras appeared to be chopping woods and cutting timber with his lumberjack for his part time fiesta. The barricade can be also be used for construction sites, and its good that we are not seeing construction workers in this series.

Central Park

13.jpg

I can just imagine this entire scene is like a miniature central park filled with ice skaters. From the wooden bench to the stand, down to the traditional looking lamp post, it certainly match pretty well. Furthermore, I am pretty pleased with the design of the lamp post. The ice skater is another great reason for getting this, since we don't get good accessories like the helmet.

Building Mr. Snowman

14.jpg

Another snowman design, but I prefer this one compared to the rest. It's much sturdy and firm on its overall built. The design of the snowman sure looks like one that is made by the child on the right bringing along its small ice sledge.

Final moment, Santa Claus!

12.jpg

A great way to end this series is having Santa Claus dropping by at your fireplace, filling up Christmas gifts in your stockings and near the Christmas tree. The fireplace is nicely designed with the christmas stockings hanging at the front plus that brick built Christmas tree, I can just place all of them inside one of the Creator houses to create a nice and warm interior.

Special/Printed parts

16.jpg

To keep up with the Christmas Advent tradition, there is zero stickers in this set, and best of all, it comes with some useful printed parts such as the race flag, red and white 1x3 panel, and the letter. The most surprising thing, is that among these parts, there is a magical wand, that used to be part of the Dragon Masters, Castle theme, wielded by Majisto, the Wizard.

Spare parts

4.jpg

It seemed like this year, the spare parts for the Advent Calendar revolved mainly around 1x1 cheese bricks and those small little studs, that are pretty useful for decoration purposes. I do like having an extra flower plant stem that can be used for future mocs.

Overall, I prefer this year's City Advent Calendar series compared to previous years, mainly because it provides some new additions of minifigures such as the child and 2 generic city minifigures. There are some nice printed parts that are used in this set, plus some great assortment for town enhancement such as the fountain, lamp post, traffic light and bench. More importantly, this is the first City Advent Calendar series that comes with a small vehicle. :wub:

Summary review

Playability: 8.5/10 (Good variety that can be used to integrate into your town settings.)

Design: 8.5/10 (Some nice town enhancements like the fountain and bench are great designs.)

Price: 8/10 (Price is a little bit much expensive compared to last year's Advent Calendar in terms of Singapore context.)

Overall: 8.3/10 (Get it for parts and minifigures, more importantly, get this set for Christmas.)

I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. :wink: What about yours?

Hope everyone of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Critics are strongly welcomed.

Pictures can be found in My Brickshelf (When moderated)

Edited by WhiteFang
Indexed

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Great review. Can't wait to get mine but I'll have to wait until November before I get it.

I like the way you grouped the pieces together. So far everything I seen about this set is organised by what you get each day rather than which ones go together.

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Nice Review WhiteFang!

This is another cool advent calender.

Ice skates? Clever.

If LEGO had let us down with fire and police sets the advent calender is a good way to add some civilians to your town. :laugh:

I also noticed that this one is a little more expensive by about $5.

There are some really cool little sets included there :wub:

My favorite is the mailman, and yes that cap is quite different, it is shorter and rounded :oh:

Never noticed before?

After doing some research on Bricklink I figured it out: Link

According to BL it appears in 4 sets, one as an alternate (City Corner)

The other sets are this advent calender, the Carousel (10196), and Wind Turbine Transport (7747)

Very interesting....

Thx for review! :wink:

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Thanks guys! :classic:

I like the way you grouped the pieces together. So far everything I seen about this set is organised by what you get each day rather than which ones go together.

It looks better and sounds reasonable to place them together, since some of the components has common feature theme feature.

I also noticed that this one is a little more expensive by about $5.

Yes, it does appear to be slightly expensive and I wonder if there is some components like the printed parts and wheels added to the increase of the cost.

There are some really cool little sets included there :wub:

My favorite is the mailman, and yes that cap is quite different, it is shorter and rounded :oh:

Never noticed before?

After doing some research on Bricklink I figured it out: Link

According to BL it appears in 4 sets, one as an alternate (City Corner)

The other sets are this advent calender, the Carousel (10196), and Wind Turbine Transport (7747)

Very interesting....

Thanks for this extremely useful piece of info. I have update the review with this, and to highlight to everyone. One funny thing though, I own the Wind Turbine and City Corner too, but I have not started building them yet. That's why I didn't notice the difference. :tongue:

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Yes, it does appear to be slightly expensive and I wonder if there is some components like the printed parts and wheels added to the increase of the cost.

Either that or LEGO is getting greedy :grin:

I noticed with alot of sets they seem overpriced such as the Farm (only worth about $70) and Wind Turbine ($50)

However I will buy them and by doing so I am ok with the luxury tax :laugh:

Thanks for this extremely useful piece of info. I have update the review with this, and to highlight to everyone. One funny thing though, I own the Wind Turbine and City Corner too, but I have not started building them yet. That's why I didn't notice the difference. :tongue:

No problem, I was extremely fascinated by it. First major change to a LEGO cap in long time. :classic:

I also noticed that this review was being worked on in the Academy forum, I really should check it more often for I didn't know you can get sneak peeks like this , also I could have mentioned the cap in the review there (hehe) :blush::grin:

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Nice review, I also like your choice of grouping stuff together. I quite like this set, I may have to get one. As the review notes it's nice to get civillian minifigures.

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I still thinks this is the worst CAC so far, I rated it below average. On the other hand, 2008 was T-2nd best imho (see this topic).

Quoting myself:

2009:

PROs: Santa is back, a lumberjack (!), a kid minifig (making 9 total minifigs), fountain, streetlight w/Xmas decoration.

CONs: We already saw 90% of this throughout the years, and some were better (snowman faceoff anyone?)

Not to mention, the higher price (on an Italian forum I read that's because TLC was upset with people selling small lots of minifig + accessories on eBay or Bricklink).

Thanks for the review.

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I also noticed that this review was being worked on in the Academy forum, I really should check it more often for I didn't know you can get sneak peeks like this , also I could have mentioned the cap in the review there (hehe) :blush::grin:

These are some of the perks that the teachers can enjoyed. :blush:

:tongue:

I still thinks this is the worst CAC so far, I rated it below average. On the other hand, 2008 was T-2nd best imho (see this topic).

I have missed this discussion. I will give my input when I am able to view pictures once more in my workstation.

Quoting myself:

2009:

PROs: Santa is back, a lumberjack (!), a kid minifig (making 9 total minifigs), fountain, streetlight w/Xmas decoration.

CONs: We already saw 90% of this throughout the years, and some were better (snowman faceoff anyone?)

That's quite harsh but honest feedback. I didn't know you rate it so low in comparsion with the 2008 series. I thought this year is pretty good, but it can be better, of course, if there are female minifigs. Then again, I am quite pleased with this year series too as it provide more Christmas elements than usual series.

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A brilliant review!

I just might have to get this Calendar, for the special parts it includes, even though it has many elements already featured in the City Corner and the City Minifigure Collection I own.

I have to express my disappointment for the absence of female minifigs, not because of my personal need for them, but for the overall issues of equality and tolerance. It wouldn't have been a big job to make the other civilian have a girl's head, for example.

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I'm restraining myself not to look at the pictures. Based on some early previews of what's inside and the relatively positive opinions I ordered one from S@H. Most importantly, I just love the concept of advent calendars. But I'm actually going to wait until December before opening it (one day at a time).

I did have a look at the contents of the pirates calendar and decided not to buy it, because I own all the figs (except the wench) and the models included weren't really original.

Looking forward to December already :tongue:

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Nice review, Whitefang! Always a pleasure to read your annual City A.C. one :sweet:

Maintaining what I've already said about this special set I think it's not so interesting as precedent ones, specially for the lack of new MFs (specially ladies) or new elements but also for being abusively overpriced :sadnew:

Nevertheless it remains a very nice little collection of City elements and people and a great addition if you're a City collector and even a City "army builder" as I am :tongue: You've a bit of all: policeman, postman, community workers, civilians, a kid and even a Santa...

I'm not sure yet and I will depends on my luck for finding it in Spain but thanks to you, WF I'm really considering buying it again this year :classic:

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This is now my favourite Avent Calender, although it could use some female figs :sceptic: That chainsaw is genious! :thumbup:

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I have to express my disappointment for the absence of female minifigs, not because of my personal need for them, but for the overall issues of equality and tolerance. It wouldn't have been a big job to make the other civilian have a girl's head, for example.
Maintaining what I've already said about this special set I think it's not so interesting as precedent ones, specially for the lack of new MFs (specially ladies) or new elements but also for being abusively overpriced :sadnew:

Seems like many of you are not fond of this set at the first look, especially when there is no female minifigs included for this year's Advent Calendar. Last year, there were 2 female minifigs, among the 10 of them. This year, we have 9 minifigs, and 1 of them is actually a kid. I agreed that if we could modify one of the civillans and give a simple hairpiece such as having Agent's Trace hair or a simple ponytail of any colors, could have attracted more buyers. :wub:

I'm restraining myself not to look at the pictures. Based on some early previews of what's inside and the relatively positive opinions I ordered one from S@H. Most importantly, I just love the concept of advent calendars. But I'm actually going to wait until December before opening it (one day at a time).

Then, did you look at the review's picture at all? :tongue:

I'm not sure yet and I will depends on my luck for finding it in Spain but thanks to you, WF I'm really considering buying it again this year :classic:

Go for it BlueBard and build a City army with this. :wink:

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Thank you very much for this great review, WhiteFang! :thumbup:

I voted for

Above Average.

Cons:

- useless policeman and street cleaner minifigures :hmpf:

- no female minifig :thumbdown:

- Christmas tree includes too little Christmas tree ballls :cry_sad:

Pros:

- nine minifigs in total :thumbup:

- three civilian minifigs - including even a kid! :wub:

- a lot of useful and nice stuff :thumbup:

- esp. the fountain and the market stands are :wub:

- the postman's quadbike is very useful, too :thumbup:

I'm really looking forward to this year's advent calendar.

Although last year's advent calendar included a lot of great and useful stuff, too, I prefer the 2009 advent calendar over the one from 2008.

Klaus-Dieter

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Thanks for the great review!

Unfortunately I voted 1- poor. I do think this year's selection is quite bad. All the minifigures are pretty unimaginative, use the most common faces, and there are no females :thumbdown:

Some of the little accessories are cool however: the bench, the tree and the sled at least.

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Must... not... look... at... pictures! This review is such a spoiler!!! :tongue:

I'm most definitely getting the Pirates Advent Calendar, but I thought it would be nice to actually have two calendars this year for a change. We did miss out on last year's calendars and the 2007 City Advent Calendar is the first LEGO set that Asya ever received (she was visiting me in Germany in December and I got it for her as a gift), you can say these Calendars have a sentimental meaning to us. So even if this one is the worst calendar ever, I still think it's worth the 20 EUR.

Sorry for being pretty much offtopic here WhiteFang mate, but I'm doing my best to actually NOT read your review OR look at the pics... :wacko:

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Cons:

- useless policeman and street cleaner minifigures :hmpf:

- no female minifig :thumbdown:

- Christmas tree includes too little Christmas tree ballls :cry_sad:

Pros:

- nine minifigs in total :thumbup:

- three civilian minifigs - including even a kid! :wub:

- a lot of useful and nice stuff :thumbup:

- esp. the fountain and the market stands are :wub:

- the postman's quadbike is very useful, too :thumbup:

K.D, thanks for your feedback. Always enjoyed reading your summarised views of both pros and cons toward this Advent Calendar, and I must said, that your views concide with mine. :wink:

Unfortunately I voted 1- poor. I do think this year's selection is quite bad. All the minifigures are pretty unimaginative, use the most common faces, and there are no females :thumbdown:

Appericate for taking your time to state why you have rated "1". Sometimes, I don't understand why certain sets suffer rating "1", without any explaination. At least now I know why you have felt this way, and for you to vote poor, this advent calendar must have looked very bad in your opnion.

Must... not... look... at... pictures! This review is such a spoiler!!! :tongue:

I'm most definitely getting the Pirates Advent Calendar, but I thought it would be nice to actually have two calendars this year for a change. We did miss out on last year's calendars and the 2007 City Advent Calendar is the first LEGO set that Asya ever received (she was visiting me in Germany in December and I got it for her as a gift), you can say these Calendars have a sentimental meaning to us. So even if this one is the worst calendar ever, I still think it's worth the 20 EUR.

Sorry for being pretty much offtopic here WhiteFang mate, but I'm doing my best to actually NOT read your review OR look at the pics... :wacko:

Then, don't look at it! :tongue:

Anyway, your comment is at the start of page 2, so clicking on it directly, will prevent yourself from reading the page 1, and for my review, the first 2 images, are revolved around the box art, so it doesn't really matter, and I really hope you still keeping the element of surprise in you. :sweet:

That was a very nice story which you have just shared. I am very sure there are very special LEGO sets that hold some hidden and special meaning to us. :blush:

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Just got this today - $2 cheaper than the usual.

First of all, I don't know if it is the usual style; my first time getting the calender set but the building instructions are inside the box itself? I am quite unwilling to cut out, got to use this review to build some of the stuff I couldn't figure out :tongue:

I think it would looks very nice with the upcoming Winter Toy Shop.

In terms of the build, I like the fountain best; favourite part was probably the wand and favourite minifig in the set: the Santa Claus.

Overall I think it is above average - the downside I think I would have wanted a few more pieces of bricks (as always) and probably the pictures not printed in the inner part of the box but as small booklet or something

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K.D, thanks for your feedback. Always enjoyed reading your summarised views of both pros and cons toward this Advent Calendar, and I must said, that your views concide with mine. :wink:

Thanks, WhiteFang. :classic:

Imo the fountain, the boy with his RC cars, the ice skater and the postman with his quadbike are the best parts of this advent calendar.

Btw: Do you think that the fountain included in this advent calendar shall show frozen water or regular water? (I only had this thought since all the other contents of teh advent calendar belong to winter.)

Klaus-Dieter

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First of all, I don't know if it is the usual style; my first time getting the calender set but the building instructions are inside the box itself? I am quite unwilling to cut out, got to use this review to build some of the stuff I couldn't figure out :tongue:

Ah ha! I completed the building process, without cutting the box up. I opened both flaps and used a bright light source and peek through on both sides, to get a better overview of what the item contains. With some quick imagination, I am sure it can get the job done pretty fast. :wink:

Btw: Do you think that the fountain included in this advent calendar shall show frozen water or regular water? (I only had this thought since all the other contents of teh advent calendar belong to winter.)

It's a good question. I was wondering myself, and I feel that the water in the fountain looks frozen to me, especially the lower basin. In fact, this year, I find the setup is pretty suitable for Christmas. :blush:

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Great review WhiteFang! If the Pirates Advent Calendar isn't made available in the US, I just might have to get this one (or maybe the Winter Toy House set)!

I don't have any City minifigures or City related items (other than the 2006 ambulance :grin:), so this would be a great start to my town!

EDIT: I voted for this year's advent calendar as the better one because these mini sets look better designed. Also, there's so many extra cheeses! :oh:

Here's a comparison of the extra parts between the two calendars:

4.jpg7.jpg

The top one is the 2009 version. Although the 2008 calendar has a wider variety of parts, most of them are common (for example the technic pins and the bricks), while the 2009 one has some nice transparent round plates and other things.

Edited by ILikePi

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Appericate for taking your time to state why you have rated "1". Sometimes, I don't understand why certain sets suffer rating "1", without any explaination. At least now I know why you have felt this way, and for you to vote poor, this advent calendar must have looked very bad in your opnion.

It doesn't look terrible, I wouldn't think that people must not buy it, it's still Lego and as such it can't be truly bad :classic:

But we have 5 possible votes and I use all of them. If "3" is average, technically the average result from every vote in every poll about every set should be... 3! But in practice is more like 4.5 because we're all too hooked up on Lego bricks :tongue: Just think of that "1" of mine as the result of comparing this set with others, in particular (but not only) with the previous advent calendars, and then also thinking about the potential ideas that didn't go into it.

PS I'm not even so sure I will not buy this...

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Great review! :thumbup:

Mine should arrive this week. I can't wait to get it!

Edited by chriz

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