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 Nick picked up…
Star Wars: 10 Hits / 8 Misses
Harry Potter: 10 Hits / 8 Misses
City: 13 Hits / 5 Misses
Marvel: 5 Hits / 13 Misses
Bonus Star Wars: 9 Hits / 9 Misses
Star Wars Day 19 – Ace
Keeping up with the Endor theme, for today we get that giant radar dish. I’m okay with it. When I was young, I was always confused how the radar dish was able to put shield around the Death Star II. Yeah, that was the one thing my adolescent brain couldn’t wrap around. But The Force was totally believable.
I think the last time we got a Mini Milk Chocolate Elf with Hazelnut Filling was way back on Day 1. It’s nice to not get something hollow and with hazelnut to boot! Yum.
Harry Potter Day 19 – Eric
Wouldn’t be a Harry Potter calendar without a fireplace!
Although looking back, 2023’s fireplace is, like, the third best. But they’re all pretty indistinctive.
Today’s tea is definitely distinctive. I have no idea what TULSI CLARITY means. Maybe something to do with former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard?
It tastes pretty fruity, which I don’t generally love in my teas. A 2/5.
City Day 19 – Nick
This is a good build with one thing that really bugs me… the candelabra that is missing the central candle. Did Lumière finally go to far and Cogsworth snapped in the middle of the night and “took care of his problem?” Are times hard and thy traded a candle for the turkey? Was someone so much of a sucker that they thought a candle was worth more than a turkey? A hit in spite of the missing center.
I do like that the turkey is actually made to be put on the table so it doesn’t just fall off, unlike…
Marvel Day 19 – Nick
I mean, you know, sure, why not. Let’s just throw an apple on this thing with a lamp. Everyone remembers that iconic scene in Avengers: Turn on the Lamp, where there was an apple. It was a memorable performance, because the actors were so amazing, they made you actually believe that a Red Delicious apple was actually delicious, and not just a collection of sawdust and leftover pulp that’s been assembled into an apple shape, like your typical store-bought red “delicious” apple.
What I’m trying to say is… miss.
Bonus Star Wars Day 19 – Nick
Oh hey, it’s that thing that blew up somehow when Han and friends put down those cylinder things that the Emperor let them do because it was all an elaborate trap to bring the Rebels to Endor in order to lure the whole fleet so they could be wiped out…
… you know, the plot of Return of the Jedi makes no sense – honestly no more than Rise of Skywalker. Every plan Palpatine makes is so bonkers convoluted that it could be easily undone if he wasn’t surrounded by a universe so oblivious and incompetent. It’s only that the rest of the film is still fun that makes it a great movie. Oh, and there is an actual plot and things happen, not just “somehow Palpatine returned” and then stuff keeps popping up without any reason or explanation.
While Return of the Jedi will always be my favorite of the OT movies, because it’s the one I have memories of as a kid, I’ll admit that the layout and scale of the Imperial base on the moon make no sense to me. The Rebels broke in to what looked like a small garage to plant their bombs. There clearly was not a giant shield projecting satellite dish above them at any point in the fight, yet that’s the thing they were trying to blow up. Where was this thing during that whole fight?
Anyway… as a build, it’s mostly meh. The dish is fine, but it needs more green cones to surround it by forest. I would have rather seen a small landing pad or something like that to put our shuttle on, because that feels more in the movie, where Luke turned himself in to Vader. But that’s just me. Going to call it a miss because it just feels so slapped together compared to the other great builds.
Pokemon Day 19 – Nick & Family
Um… what? Did… they like forget a day and need to scramble to throw something inside there? Honestly, this feels like something was missing, but based on the count for things, it’s right. So… random single sticker. They must have let the Marvel advent people come visit or something.
Previous Days
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 1
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 2
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 3
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 4
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 5
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 6
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 7
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 8
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 9
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 10
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 11
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 12
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 13
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 14
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 15
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 16
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 17
- Seasons of Spam 2023 – Day 18
