LEGO LEGO Friends LEGO® Friends Advent Calendar 41353

Wow! 24 different mini-models here! Some are really cute. There's even a tiny tic-tac-toe game and a signature model for each Friends character (see guitar, roller skate, trophy, camera, and microscope!). Looking at other reviews here, I didn't see it mentioned that this year's Friends Advent Calendar has more than DOUBLE the usual piece count (500 vs. 215 or so). I imagine this is because minidolls are one of the most expensive parts that LEGO makes, and they aren't included this time. Personally, I have no problem with that. This is a different play experience than in the past. Instead of building a tiny scene with the Friends characters, children are encouraged to build life-sized ornaments to decorate their tree, or other space. I imagine this "shared crafting experience" (similar to the 41346 Friendship Box) may encourage kids to pull out their spare bricks and try making more decorations of their own designs! I appreciate that the wide variety of colorful parts included are generic enough to be re-used throughout the year — add them to your other sets or build more original creations!

I always choose between Friends, City and StarWars advent calendars every year. Usually City wins. But this year the Friends calendar is the one to pick in my opinion. It has over 100 pieces more than either of the others and every mini build is designed to act as a tree ornament, just thread some string through and there you go. I must admit I'm not a fan of mini-dolls so the fact that this doesn't have any is a bonus for me but I can understand why people are annoyed about there not being any. The City and StarWars ones both come with several. I do think that this should have at least one exclusive printed figure. If the StarWars calendar came with an exclusive printed figure I'd buy that hands down but this year it's Friends all the way.