2019 City Advent Calendar Review

Another advent has come and gone, which means that it is time for my annual Advent calendar review. Even though the box shows all the calendar contents, I still like to wait before I review the calendar. I like to be surprised to find out what I get each day, so I try not to ruin it for others. At this point, there should no longer be any surprises for anyone. This year, the LEGO® Group produced four different calendars: City, Friends, Harry Potter, and Star Wars. However, I only acquired one calendar. As a result, today we will look at the 2019 City Advent Calendar.

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2019 City Advent Calendar Summary

• NAME: Advent Calendar
• SET #: 60235
• THEME: City
• COST: $39.99 CAD
• BRICK COUNT: 234
• MINIFIGURES: 7
• OF INTEREST: 1 husky
• RELEASE DATE: September 1, 2019

2019 City Advent Calendar Quick Review

• VALUE: 70% (The cost per brick is high.)
• BUILD: 80% (The mini builds had a good flow this year.)
• MINIFIGURES: 92% (Decent characters & accessories, amazing brick: fig.)
• ENTERTAINMENT: 90% (Makes the Christmas countdown fun.)
• OVERALL SCORE: 83%

FULL REVIEW

VALUE: 70%

The City advent calendar cost $39.99 in Canada this year, which was what it cost last year as well. However, this year, the kit contained 78 less bricks than it did in 2018. Therefore, the value of the calendar was not as good this time around. The 2019 calendar clocks in at $0.17/brick, which is on par with the City theme in general but is quite expensive when looking at LEGO® sets overall. My current average cost-per-brick is $0.14. I rate the overall value of this advent calendar at 70%.

Construction did not occur all at once, and I did not time how long it took me to put together each of the little builds. Therefore, I will omit the build-time-value score for this review.

BUILD: 80%

The builds included in this year’s City advent calendar were:

1. Snowplow
2. Snowball launcher
3. Male Hooded Minifigure with a broom
4. Ice castle
5. Axe and firewood
6. Mini Christmas tree
7. Minifigure boy with cookie
8. Wrapped presents
9. Snowman
10. Female Minifigure with camera
11. Curling set
12. Rocking chair with side table and lamp
13. Elderly female Minifigure with book
14. Table with glass of milk, cookie, and candle
15. Skidoo
16. Oven
17. Male Minifigure with fire extinguisher
18. Christmas dinner table
19. Grandfather clock
20. Minifigure girl with snowboard
21. Telescope
22. Fireplace
23. Husky pulling sled
24. Santa Claus Minifigure

Like previous years, this calendar still provided wrapped gifts, a little tree, a dog, a snowman, and Santa. Gone this year were the Minifigure scaled toy vehicles. I liked how the little sets flowed a little better this year. We basically got a cozy cottage interior with the stove, rocking chair, side table, book, clock, dinner table, tree, presents, and fireplace. As I have mentioned in past years, I still want a more consistent build in the advent calendar. Ideally a larger set put together day by day.

I liked several the builds this year. Additionally, as mentioned before, I liked that they flowed. I think I will keep a few them to decorate the interior of a MOC apartment. While still not my ideal calendar, I think this year’s offering was an improvement. I rate the builds at 4/5 (80%).

MINIFIGURES: 92%

While this year’s advent calendar had fewer bricks than last year’s, it also had more Minifigures. I complained last year about too few Minifigures. Therefore, this calendar was a step up in this department as well. As a trade off, I will happily take a few fewer bricks in order to get more Minifigures. The 2019 City Advent Calendar came with seven characters. Last year we only got five and a half (the snowman was half Minifigure). Therefore, the 2019 brick-to-Minifigure ratio is 33:1. This is the best brick-to-fig ratio that I have ever seen in a set. Therefore, this advent calendar gets an easy 100% in this category.

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These Minifigures are standard fair. There are no new pieces or designs. Additionally, the 2019 kit contains two stumpy kid Minifigures, which are always a point of contention with me. Apart from those two kids, the other characters come with all the standard Minifigure parts. However, only one them has a double-sided face, and none have any leg printing. Overall, they are good city filler characters. Alone, I would rate them at 67/105 (63%).

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The kit comes with a lot of accessories, twenty to be exact. Including the extra pieces, there are two Santa beards, two orange scarves, two red kerchiefs, a pan, an axe, a broom, a top hat, a husky, a mug, a printed clock face, a camera, a book, a sack, two cookies, a turkey leg, and a Sai (used to top the tree). These accessories bring the design score up to 87/105 (83%). Averaging the design and ratio scores gives the 2019 City Advent Calendar an overall Minifigure rating of 92%.

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ENTERTAINMENT: 90%

As and adult collector, I enjoyed the builds more this year than in other years. They flowed well together and are placeable as filler in a MOC apartment or house. Some of the offerings were less to my liking, but a smaller number of them fall into this category as compared with previous years. I rate the AFOL score at 4/5 (80%).

These LEGO® Advent calendars probably make the Christmas countdown amazing for a kid. I used to have a simple cardboard calendar as a child, and I was still excited to open it each day. Some years we would get a chocolate calendar, and that was really something. Imagine if my calendar had LEGO® bricks in it? I rate the KFOL score for this calendar at 5/5 (100%). Averaging the AFOL and KFOL scores gives an overall entertainment rating of 90%.

OVERALL SCORE: 83%

I liked this year’s City Advent calendar a little more than previous years. There were fewer bricks, which made the value a bit worse. However, there were also more Minifigures. Additionally, there was more of a consistent theme and flow to the builds. I like that they lend themselves to a MOC project well. What did you think of this year’s City calendar? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below or on social media. If you have thoughts on any of the other Advent calendars from this year, share those as well!

Merry Christmas!

-Tom

What do others think?

Brick Insights is an awesome site that aggregates LEGO® set review scores from around the web. Based on their statistics, you can see what other reviewers think of the 2019 City Advent calendar set below.

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