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…
Ace and Nick didn’t quite agree on the Pit Droid, but that might honestly speak more to variation on parts in LEGO and the long-term dip in quality that has happened. The Harry Potter calendar missed with its sign, and City saw its first miss as well. Marvel continued it’s path of suckitude by giving us what should have just been included with Spider-man and cheating us out of a full day of stuff.
Star Wars: 2 Hits / 2 Misses
Harry Potter: 3 Hits / 1 Misses
City: 4 Hits / 0 Misses
Marvel: 1 Hits / 3 Misses
Bonus Star Wars: 3 Hits / 1 Misses
Star Wars Day 1 – Ace
“Oh neat!” That’s what I said when I first laid eyes on the little instruction panel. Even in it’s semi-deconstructed state I knew we had a winner. Even though the wheels of the Clone Turbo Tank are floating above the ground they’re supposed to be rolling on, there is a certain level of charm to it just scraping along the surface. It doesn’t work but it works so well at the same time. This reminds me of the little trains from the CITY advent calendars a few years back. I love this thing and I’m not even a huge fan of the source material.
Today’s chocolate offering are two “Lindt Mini Solid Milk Chocolate Balls”. I’m glad it was a two-fer ’cause if there was only just one it would have been a sad advent day.
And the chocolate maker still managed to put some texture on the ball. Not that anyone would notice, ’cause the balls would immediately go straight into one’s mouth.
Being solid, there’s no surprises here. The chocolate is the same through and through. I should probably start using a knife and cut these things in half cause I destroyed this thing.
The back of the box showed three balls but we get two today. I’m beginning to think the back of the box isn’t showing us the complete offering of the calendar. I don’t think they’d stiff us with one chocolate ball on a single day anymore, if today is any indication. That’s kind of good news.
Harry Potter Day 5 – Eric
Honestly, it’s kinda nice to have a dud every once in a while. Keeps me honest.
Today, though, is far from a dud.
Well, unless I’m speaking about the character of Ron Weasley. Big dud energy for sure. But there’s a ton to like about this minifig. The half-sized legs, of course, but the jacket is excellent, and so is the hat / hair. And the angsty teenage face. So great!
This is actually our fourth Ron overall. And, without a doubt, the best. 2020 comes close, but Ron’s dumb little beanie from this year really puts it over the top.
And to make things even better, today’s tea is DE-LIC-IOUS!
It’s CHAMOMILLE, VANILLA, AND MANUKA HONEY, and it’s just a great tea. It’s the kind of tea that I’d drink normally, so I slurped this bad boy down. You can never go wrong with chamomille, believe me. 5/5.
Onto Day 6!
City Day 5 – Nick
The streak couldn’t continue forever, I guess, and yeah, I was marginal for the hockey player, but this just feels like something that should have been included with the hockey player and not its own thing. So, a miss…
Marvel Day 5 – Nick
Do I grade these things on a curve? Because this is simultaneously nice for being a snowman, and stupid because it’s Iron-Snowman. It’s only that because it has an arc reactor, I guess, on the front, and blasters or something instead of arms. There are dozens of better ways this could have been done. Put a War Machine helmet on it, put robot arms on instead of those stupid blasters.
I know, it’s winter, but it just wasn’t a fun build. Taking off the arms would make this better, and given that it’s 1/5th of the build, that’s not a good thing. So going to call it a miss.
Bonus Star Wars Day 5 – Nick
Oh, the Clone Turbo Tank / Turbo Tank / Juggernaut… three things that aren’t the same but also are, because they’ve never really been around for more than a few seconds. Yet it’s had multiple, really good, LEGO sets. You can tell immediately what this is when you see it, and it’s just little and simple. Bonus points for using the pucks as wheels, which just makes it nice. So a hit.
Pokemon Day 5 – Nick & Family
Okay, not only do we have a Squirtle, we have a Squirtle with a snowball and earmuffs. How cute is that?
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