The LEGO City Advent Calendar for 2021 (set #60303) is one of several different advent calendars put out by the LEGO Group this year. I'm not huge on Harry Potter or Star Wars so I typically get the City Advent Calendar as it's the one that appeals the most to me (as well as my son who enjoys the calendar as much, if not more, than I do)!
Originally, I thought about doing a review post for each day of the 24-day advent calendar but I figured that'd get a little bit too "spammy," especially since I haven't been posting all that often here at Playing with Bricks this year! To keep things a bit more concise, I've decided to break the calendar up into four chunks featuring six days' worth of builds. My son and I are opening the calendar "in real time" which means I can only comment on the models based on what we've opened thus far!
Days 01 - 06:
Day 1: Bus
We start things off on a fairly strong foot with a nice mini bus. I appreciate the colors here as the bright yellow does scream "bus" to everyone but you also get a green base (and red taillights) which feel a bit more Christmas-y. My son doesn't like vehicles like this as much though because, in his words, "there are no wheels." He's right, of course, and I do think the mini vehicles would be better if they had actual wheels (if nothing else, they'd certainly be more fun for kids).
Day 2: Car Wash
LEGO City is living up to its name right away with a large city vehicle and now a building. The Car Wash makes good use of blue 1x1 round studs to mimic the classic blue "brush" piece that LEGO uses for many car wash sets.
I also appreciate that the build is big enough to allow Day 1's bus to run through the car wash. I think that's a great pairing of builds for the first two days. It's worth noting that I thought the minifig scale brush acting as a sign for the car wash was kind of cute - your mileage may vary on that concept but if you don't like it then *spoiler* you probably will take issue with a bunch of builds in this year's City Advent calendar!
Day 3: The North Pole?
While the first two days of the calendar were strong, Day 3 was a total swing and miss. I'm not even 100% sure what it is that this is supposed to be? My son and I guessed North Pole but we could easily be wrong. Furthermore, even if it is the North Pole, why is there a lantern right next door that's actually taller than the pole? Furthermore, why is there a letter attached to the lantern? Is this supposed to be a sign for a post office? Why is there no mail box then? So many questions - and if it weren't for the white wedge plate signifying snow, this could have been something like a microscale lighthouse and I would've thought it was just as good as the North Pole idea (which is to say, not all that good at all).
Day 4: Ambulance
Our second vehicle of the calendar is a decent looking ambulance complete with minifigure-sized cast acting as exhaust. The color scheme works here though I have to say I don't really like the front of the ambulance all that much. At least it's better than Day 3's build!
Day 5: Sam Grizzled (police officer)
Each of the minifigures in this year's LEGO City Advent Calendar are named characters (they are all pictured on the side of the box). The first minifig to show up is Sam Grizzled, a police officer who apparently loves to play hockey without a helmet. Not a lot to say about this character - I don't think LEGO City needs any more cops so I'd prefer that LEGO included "quirkier" professions into their LEGO City Advent calendar (kind of like they do in their collectible minifigure line). On the bright side, any custom city can always fit in one more officer so at least Sam Grizzled is likely to find a permanent home on my custom LEGO City table when this year's Advent season is over and done!
Day 6: Police car
Our third vehicle in six days is a police car, ostensibly Sam Grizzled's car I presume. Notice the minifigure sized handcuffs hanging off the back of the car - kind of silly but it's nice to get those handcuffs for whenever the crook of the calendar shows up (stay tuned for that character)!
That does it for Days 01 - 06. Overall, I thought all three vehicles were fine and the included minifigure was also fine. The only build that was a complete miss for me was the pole/lantern day but at least that lantern piece can be reused in a custom build of mine some day (I can always use more of those nice lantern pieces).
Fun start to the calendar - and hopefully I can get my review of the next six days up on the blog before long!
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