BRIO has released a new advent calendar for 2018. This one is particularly interesting because it features a cat figure:
The cat was originally going to be a part of the BRIO Village series, in the #33957 Figure Pack, but for some reason that product was never released:
Instead of discarding the mold for the cat, it seems to have been re-purposed.
Alas, like the Advent calendars from 2015 and 2017, this one is only available in European markets.
Good evening,
That advent calendar is not easy to find even in Europe (In France I’ve only seen it on amazon but the seller has poor ratings).
I don’t know how I went on your blog but here I am, and I wanted you to know how amazed I am about your knowledge on Brio’s collection. Really want to know more about their item’s history.
As you, I didn’t have toy trains when I was a child, it may explain why now that I have a son, I felt in love with that brand and started a collection, officially for my kid.
It means to me some good hours reading your blog !
Thank you for your work of investigation and the share of your passion.
I’ve most commonly seen the advent calendars from German sellers on eBay. The best time to look is around October or early November. I tend to buy the previous year’s product since they sell for less.
Thank you for your kind words. A lot of what I’ve learned has come from sharing information with other collectors and pouring through catalogs. My goal with this site has always been to help share that knowledge.
Thank you for your welcome and advices about the best time to look for the holiday sets. So I will also try to get this calendar when it’s gonna be less expensive.
If you follow Brio on Instagram or Facebook, they have created a christmas tale where the cat is the hero of the story. It may be a way to justify why that strange black cat is part of the calendar (I first thought that the cat would be betterfor an halloween thing), and finaly it works !
PS: Please excuse my awful english level. High school english lessons are far by now …
I just received 2018’s calendar yesterday. It’s definitely still for sale. This link might go out of date, since it’s an Amazon one, but this is the one I got: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B079X724NY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o00_s00
Mind, the picture of the calendar is the 2017 one. But the SKU, 33898, is for the 2018 version, which is the one I got.
Now I still have to find the 2017 and 2015 one! That’ll be hard I guess :/
It actually is the 2018 one, just in a different configuration… as it says on the pic, it’s a packaging prototype.
The problem with that seller is that they shipped the box as is, it was not wrapped. And my son saw it arrive 🙂 But he’ll have to wait several more months until he can open it, one day at a time 😉
You’ll probably never see this message, but if you’re still looking for the 2017 one… here it is:
https://www.planethappy.be/artikel/28342/brio-houten-trein-adventskalender-2017-33877.html
And they ship to France for €4.99 it seems.