Review: 7952 Kingdoms Advent Calendar

[buddy]

same thing for me. I bought it in september and I decided to open it in december. Now the time is coming!

Me too, I bought my Kingdoms Advent Calendar in October and I am waiting to open it in December. I can't wait either.

~buddy~

[Enpaz]

Great review, though I don't see the point in getting an advent calendar and opening it all at once... That takes away all the fun! I mean, what's it for, anyway?

Cheers!

Edited December 4, 2010 by Enpaz

[KristofBD]

I opened mine already in October, but was able to stick to opening just one present a day. It was great fun, and I'm always surprised with the great quality of the content. I actually don't think lego makes that much profit on them given the content and the large quantity of minifigs included. It's more like a special treat for its fans.

PS Regarding the plume and extras for the dark knight: every other set including one green plume, comes with one extra, so that's easily fixed. The overall deficit of Dragon knights is indeed a shame, but I guess that the upcoming wave will include more dragons, possibly even a dragon castle (that would be great!). Fingers crossed.

[vlai23]

Mine is sitting on my mantle, next to my Winter Village scene, eagerly counting down the last few days, waiting to be opened! (I practically need an Advent calendar to the Advent calendar! :D) One thing I haven't decided yet is whether I will punch open the individual windows every day, or just slide the tray out the side of the box. It kind of pains me to mar the great art and since I already know what's behind each window, it doesn't really matter if I'll see the next days'/weeks' sets every day. Any thoughts?

[Sir Fred]

I intend to punch all of mine anyways since to me I don't see the point of using it as an advent calendar if I can just grab everything from it at once. Just a few more days until it can begin to open!

[Captain Becker]

Mine is sitting on my mantle, next to my Winter Village scene, eagerly counting down the last few days, waiting to be opened! (I practically need an Advent calendar to the Advent calendar! :D) One thing I haven't decided yet is whether I will punch open the individual windows every day, or just slide the tray out the side of the box. It kind of pains me to mar the great art and since I already know what's behind each window, it doesn't really matter if I'll see the next days'/weeks' sets every day. Any thoughts?

Ill open one of each day as it should be. I actually know what ill get, but just dont remember wich one came in wich day, so they are still suprise for me.

So forget everything this calender now, and then you can start open those windows one by one, one of each day

Captain Becker

Edited November 28, 2010 by Captain Becker

[Sered]

I bought one September and I opened the same day. It's amazing, a lot of great brick and unique minifig such as the queen and the prince. Last week I was in Paris and I didn't buy another one ... I made a great, great, mistake!

Edited November 29, 2010 by Sered

[Zeya]

I was behind the ball on getting this set, and it seems like it's sold out now. They don't have an option to buy on S@H (you can only wishlist it), and I called my local Lego store and they're all sold out. The cheapest I can find online is about ten dollars over MSRP and that's before shipping costs. Does anyone have any tips for me?

Also, if I can't/won't buy this for this year's Christmas, do you think the price will drop on this set in, say January or February? (Since the holiday season will have been over by then.)

[Sir Fred]

The chances of a price drop are next to nothing since the set is sold out and they usually don't make a second run of the advent calendars, once they're gone, they're gone unfortunately for you. I think the city one usually has some sort of price drop since it doesn't always sell out but I'm not sure on that one since I never really pay attention to it.

[Artanis I]

Mine is sitting on my mantle, next to my Winter Village scene, eagerly counting down the last few days, waiting to be opened! (I practically need an Advent calendar to the Advent calendar! :D) One thing I haven't decided yet is whether I will punch open the individual windows every day, or just slide the tray out the side of the box. It kind of pains me to mar the great art and since I already know what's behind each window, it doesn't really matter if I'll see the next days'/weeks' sets every day. Any thoughts?

I bought it a month or so ago, I don't remember. I opened it before long, and built it all. Didn't want to ruin the box so I took the tray out and built them in order. Only problem was that the pictures are on the inside of the box - some of them were difficult to see & therefore build, but possible. I have the nice looking box scene sitting on display, and all the pieces are incorporated into the Lego displays.

[Mr Man]

I want this set now. Only 1 day left to get it . Love the amount of extra weapons, and some cool new (well I haven't got) colours.

[Ogre]

The chances of a price drop are next to nothing since the set is sold out and they usually don't make a second run of the advent calendars, once they're gone, they're gone unfortunately for you. I think the city one usually has some sort of price drop since it doesn't always sell out but I'm not sure on that one since I never really pay attention to it.

Last time I looked, BOTH advent calendars were sold out on S@H.

Which is kind of weird. Last year and this year were the only two years that I can recall where the City advent calendar didn't make it to the 'Boxing Day' sales. I used to buy them every year at 50% off. Last year, since I was waiting for the sale, I almost missed out on one. Thankfully, a store near me had a few left in stock.

[wylun]

so i dont get it.. these just come w/ the figures and no set?

[Ogre]

so i dont get it.. these just come w/ the figures and no set?

Figs and accessories.

[Bingo Little]

Am I the only one who thinks the morningstars in today's door are closer to dark pearl than usual?

[Stiel]

Am I the only one who thinks the morningstars in today's door are closer to dark pearl than usual?

All the pearl light gray weapons got slightly darker. I like this new color more (although I'm fine with the old version too, I will stick to those with my Fantasy Era army). It's a bit sad they aren't a separate color on BrickLink, because it makes it harder to obtain the proper shade you want.

Picture (clicky):

From left to right: pearl light gray (fantasy era), pearl light gray (kingdoms), pearl dark gray, black

[Bingo Little]

I was comparing it to a kingdoms era battlepack morningstar, actually. Might be the using up of old stock or the issues with Chinese plastic - still, as I'm starting to get Kingdom's pieces like the greathelm and knight torso's in non chinese plastic for the first time, I can't remotely spot a difference in anything else.

[fred67]

We finally opened ours... I did intend for them to be used as Advent Calendars by my kids, so I stuck them under the return on my desk and forgot about them until my wife mentioned it... all good, though, they got to catch up 8 days all at once, and have done the past couple of days. One got the City, one got the Kingdoms, and I got one of each ( ), which I'll open when we start building like crazy in a couple weeks (we're all off from work, school; even my son's martial arts classes which drag me away for about 10 hours a week being a chauffeur are canceled for two weeks, which is unusual for them).

Even after reading the review, I'm impressed with the extras; thrilled at the extra plume (I got a bunch of elf helmets from brickforge, so I'm digging any extra plumes I can get). I love the women... not in a weird way, but because I like a more "realistic" display and they always seem lacking (in quantity). I suppose I could do without kings and queens and princesses, though... unlike other figures, you CAN have too many of them.

But the REAL reason I'm resurrecting this is because I'd never seen one of those old skeletons... I was really impressed with the articulated shoulders! I see now they're an older style... since my dark ages, I'd only collected Fantasy Era and now Kingdoms. This is probably the first skeleton I actually like.

I wonder what the reasoning behind discontinuing that style was; I'm guessing they didn't pose well.

[The Cobra]

Great review, though I don't see the point in getting an advent calendar and opening it all at once... That takes away all the fun! I mean, what's it for, anyway?

Cheers!

The point was being (for once) the first in the world in reviewing a set. Plus, I've always been opening these calendars some months later, so I had to compensate.

[Sire Pirol]

The Advent Calendar looks tempting. I really love the blacksmith gear added in this "set." These elements really make this theme more rich and it brings the first civilian minifigs into the series. How long is the Advent Calender available?

[Ogre]

The Advent Calendar looks tempting. I really love the blacksmith gear added in this "set." These elements really make this theme more rich and it brings the first civilian minifigs into the series. How long is the Advent Calender available?

Unfortunately, unless you're lucky enough to stumble across one in a LEGO store, you'll probably have to resort to Bricklink, or e-Bay, or something similar, because (last I looked) that set is sold out at LEGO S@H.

[GRogall]

Just bought 5 of these at a local store (V-Markt) at an incredible €7.00 for 8 Minifigures an incredible price!

[buddy]

Just bought 5 of these at a local store (V-Markt) at an incredible €7.00 for 8 Minifigures an incredible price!

That a great deal for great sets, I'm thoroughly enjoying my Kingdoms Advent Calendar.

~buddy~

[gormadoc]

The wizard reminds me of a modern version of Majisto from the Dragon Masters.

[fred67]

Day 20... I find the daily opening (my kids are each doing a calendar... one City, one Kingdoms) to be quite underwhelming. Taken as a whole, it's fantastic... just underwhelming on a daily basis.

"What did you get today?"

"I got a pot with an apple in it..." (on the same day my daughter got "Naked Santa" in the city set).

Can't wait for the 24th, when he gets the "Mage" with a fairy wand... and as a bonus, you get multiple fairy wands!