On going to the 2011 Brickcon, I saw that one of the vendors there still had plenty of these for sale and with an opportunity presenting itself, I grabbed up this one and held onto it til December came. It was still priced reasonably too at $35.

This too was the calendar that once I started opening doors, "got into trouble" by my five year old daughter who wanted to open doors too. So we ended up doing all of the days together. For her, she rather enjoyed seeing a domestic scene unfolding and getting to play with figures or minikits.

Box/Instructions

As many know by now who've picked up any of the Advent Calendars, there is a flap that you can fold down depicting a scene where you can display any minifigures or minibuilds. There are doors for each of the 24 days before Christmas that you open on their respective days with instructions on how to assemble the minibuild or kit behind the flap.

I have to note though, that some days, the doors didn't seem to want to open very well without ripping or that polybags that minifigures and kits were packed in varied. Some days the polybag was an easy pull open and other days, the design of the bag required the use of scissors to open. It seemed very inconsistent on LEGO's part.

Parts

For me, this was/is a great way to get a goodly number of pieces, that even if I don't keep the minibuilds together, I can use for other microscale models and ideas.

Minifigures

You'll get about 6-7 minifigures in this set, depending on if you count the dog as a minifigure or not. So Mom, Dad, Daughter, Son, Dog and 2 Santas.

The build and the completed model

I rather like the look of a Family's Christmas Morning display once all of the doors are opened and all the "toys" are out on the floor. It does seem a bit odd with all the trucks and planes, ect that it appears so much is geared towards the "little boy" in the set rather than anyone else in the LEGO family. Still, I see plenty of pieces for use in other MOCs.

Summary

I've enjoyed that an opportunity at the 2011 Brickcon allowed me a chance to pick up the previous year's City Advent Calendar as, speaking for myself, I liked the look of this one over the 2011 City Advent and had really hoped or wanted to get it before budget shortfalls took place.

2010 City Advent Calendar must be one of the best, if not the best, so far.

You get 271 pieces, which is more than in recent years (257 in 2009, 196 in 2008).

There are also lots of extra pieces/accessories: a red cap, red bandanna, 2 train wheels, skateboard wheels, a couple of hair pieces, 2 swords, brush, red and blue taps, an orange tooth, red and transparent cheese slope, transparent fire piece, transparent blue 1x2 plate, various 1x1 round pieces, a small transparent and grey parabolic element, a red and yellow 1x1x1 wall corner piece, etc.

There are six minifigs (2x Santa, mom, dad, son, and daughter) and a white cat (without the nice black details like in Winter Toy Shop), and a brown dog.

The micro vehicles are really cool: a train, helicopter, fire truck, bulldozer and crane (including a yellow brick 1x2 with 4 knobs). Absolutely fantastic designs all of them.

The snowman and Christmas tree are also nice, although pretty similar to the ones we have seen before.

The furniture/interior items are mostly ok: a fireplace/chimney, red sofa, and table with a lamp, and lots of those ubiquitous LEGO chairs of course. Santa's shower is the only one that's really new and funny.

The skateboard with ramp, drumset, keyboard and the wood sled with an axe are welcome additions to the set, although their actual playability value might be relatively low.

As always, there were some rare pieces/colors that are potentially useful for MOCing and fun food items like a couple of sausages and a tan French bread.

The box is well designed and unlike in our 2008 City Advent Calendar, everything was found in their right places, neatly packed and instructions printed on the numbered doors.

In summary, as far as City Advent Calendars go, this set is clearly a winner!

2824 has the old style Santa, but there are two of him, so if you've thought about putting him in a beach scene, he is ready to go in a black Speedo. My set was missing two pieces, so I am waiting for a good deal on Lego.Com to get Pick-a-Brick replacements. The brick built snowman is awesome, and I cannot get enough of those. Awesome parts include skateboard, black suitcase, old style dog, and sausage for the dog. I guess bones weren't introduced until later. Mini toys include bulldozer, helicopter, plane, fire engine, and trencher (or is it a crane?). rounding out the set are the usual fireplace, tree, and train. Unique are drum kit, skate ramp, piano/organ, and Santa's shower. The couch is also nice. the included family consists of parts used before.

This is our second Lego City Advent Calendar, last year we actually had the 7907 Calendar from 2008. So for the purposes of this review I'll be comparing this set with that one.

The older calendar had lots of different City themes represented - Police, Fire, Construction, Train, Airport. This new calendar centers around a family (mother, father, son, daughter), their presents, and Santa. While I do like that this set includes a LEGO Santa (two actually), I don't see Santa getting much play time after the Holidays. While many of the small toys you could build were neat (crane, fire truck, helicopter), again I don't know that they'll see much playtime in my kids' LEGO City.

The saddest thing about this calendar was that my son lost interest half way through the month. At first, he would rush downstairs in the morning to open a door and put together a set before school. As the month progressed, eventually he started opening the door, but not bothering to put the set together. Eventually he even forgot about the calendar. Contrast that with last year where the calendar held his interest until the very last day, and clearly something went wrong this year.

While I could write on about the great parts (which there were) or the build of the models, ultimately if an advent calendar doesn't catch the interest of the kids it can't be a complete success. So I'll give this set four bricks for the parts and models that I appreciate, but can't give it five because it failed the 'kid test.'

Hopefully next year LEGO strikes a better balance between models that the kids can add to their LEGO City, and the holiday theme - which while nice isn't the year round focus of LEGO playtime in our LEGO City.

Although I've been collecting lego for a decade, this is my first Advent Calendar, and I'm pretty happy with it. This set cost $30 for 271 peices, which isn't too bad. The extra parts you get are much better than the usual extra studs.

The backround showing the 24 boxes is quite nice, showing a busy Lego city during the holiday season. The packaging of some of the days in the advent calendar is a bit weird, though, and sometimes hard to open without scissors. The folded down part of this set shows a house with an area to put a Christmas tree with a few other things and train tracks around the designated tree area.

I love waking up each morning to a new Lego kit. Some of the best ones in my humble opinion are the train, toy plane, toy bulldozer, and of course, the naked Santa. I think the weakest of the set are the shower, log ensamble, and the table and chairs with lamp.

All in all, I think this Lego City Advent Calendar is a pretty good value, with easy to assemble builds. I reccommend getting this after the holidays while they are on sale :) because for the most part, you wouldn't wanna miss picking up this one.