The site hasn’t been the most active lately… 2023 has been a sledgehammer to the face of a few of us and it’s hard to get the time to keep up with everything. I can’t speak for everyone here, but the annual tradition of us opening all the calendars and being shocked at the iffy builds is something that we look forward to.
We’re doing it a bit different this year, or more specifically, Nick just couldn’t find all that much joy in just doing the LEGO Marvel Super Heroes. So he’s decided to do more than that one and compare them all a bit. Ace is going to do his normal review of it as well, and Eric will be covering Harry Potter yet again, for whatever the wizarding version of Groundhog Day is. And double the Star Wars!
We’re also bringing back our “random advent” calendar tradition, because it was fun last year. So tune in to see we go through and talk about. Maybe I’ll even bring in a special guest expert to talk about the one that I picked up…
It was an interesting start to everything, with Marvel continuing it’s tradition failing to even achieve mediocrity, Star Wars starting strong, City going weird, and Harry Potter being Harry Potter.
Star Wars: 1 Hits / 0 Misses
Harry Potter: 1 Hits / 0 Misses
City: 1 Hits / 0 Misses
Marvel: 0 Hits / 1 Misses
Bonus Star Wars: 1 Hits / 0 Misses
Star Wars Day 2 – Ace
I don’t know what this is. Judging by the color and general shape, I’d guess it’s some sort of ship. I’d also fathom a guess it’s an Imperial vessel but I could be wrong. Maybe it’s from Ahsoka. I haven’t watched that one yet. But hooray for obscure ships making the cut I guess? I’m ambivalent towards it so I’ll give it a thumbs up. Giving it a thumbs down would feel like I’m punishing it for my own ignorance so I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that it’s done well, whatever “it” is supposed to be. And no I’m not going to cheat and read ahead to see what Nick wrote about it.
Day 2 of the chocolate calendar gives us a “Lindt Mini Milk Chocolate Double Milk TEDDY”. Not sure why TEDDY is in all caps. Perhaps he’s a loud fellow and sends all his texts in all caps.
Gotta had it to fine chocolate makers around the world for shaping their chocolates into the shape they are supposed to represent. TEDDY is no exception and looks the part.
When I read “double milk chocolate” I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be white chocolate. I feel cheated. I was hoping for a slightly different milk chocolate texture on the inside. To be fair, that’s exactly what I got but after I took the bite I was like, “this is not what I was expecting”. It was passable as a chocolate treat, but the bar is raised when they claimed “double milk” and the treat fails spectacularly by giving you sweetened cocoa butter instead. Thumbs down. I’m sad that I have two more of these things to ingest in the coming days.
Harry Potter Day 2 – Eric
Okay, now that we’ve gotten our court-appointed Harry Potter minifigure out of the way, we can move on to potentially more interesting builds.
Potentially, I said.
This isn’t…I mean it’s not bad. But it’s hard to really say a whole lot about it. I’m assuming this is meant to represent Honeydukes Sweetshop based on the color scheme. Also, weirdly, looks like Honeydukes has a specific address in Orlando – 6000 Universal Blvd if you want to send them some fan mail.
I do approve of this jelly bean print. Unfortunately I’m going to sort this in with the rest of my 1×1 bricks, which means I will likely never see it again. So now’s my only chance.
And what about the tea, I hear you pleading with me?
It’s called RELAX. These names aren’t exactly specific. Let’s give it a try.
Well, it’s definitely better than yesterday. It’s still pretty light, and to me it tastes like drinking grass water. There is a nice aftertaste that keeps drawing me back to sip, but overall I’m still unimpressed. 2/5.
See ya tomorrow!
City Day 2 – Nick
Okay, take note other calendars… this is a perfect little insert. A printed tile that has Santa and a reindeer? There are so many little joke tiles that could have gone into every single calendar like this. A great Day 2, and the clear winner for the things I put together (spoiler, to the other entries, I guess).
Marvel Day 2 – Nick
Bricklink calls this a Holiday Quinjet. Except… is it? It basically looks vaguely like the red-and-white Avenjet crossed with a Quinjet. Maybe if it had some green or something in there.
No matter, though, it’s just ugly. The flat-across wings really kill it, and it’s fragile beyond belief. Better than Iron Man, but still a miss.
Bonus Star Wars Day 2 – Nick
The Justifier is an ugly and forgettable ship that appeared in one Bad Batch episode – Cad Bane is also whatever the villain version of a Mary Sue is, and he brings down almost any episode he’s in (except Book of Boba Fett, where he got what he deserved).
I didn’t even realize that this was the Justifier at first, I had to look it up. I assumed it was some weird speeder or something. Seriously, if you’re going to go with the Bad Batch, why not do The Marauder, which is more important to the Clones and an actual important part of the show.
Swing and a miss, Star Wars. Or whatever Star Wars-y pun makes up Baseball. Shoot at a womprat and miss… gonna have to workshop that one a bit.
Pokemon Day 2 – Nick & Family
My kid’s review: “Oooooh, a little Piplup, that’s so cute!” Cute, but he doesn’t stand up for anything.
Previous Days
