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…
Star Wars: 4 Hits / 4 Misses
City: 5 Hits / 3 Misses
Harry Potter: 6 Hits / 2 Misses
Marvel: 4 Hits / 4 Misses
Star Wars: 4 Hits / 4 Misses
Star Wars Day 9 – Ace
This is not a mistake. Your eyes are not deceiving you. When I should have gotten a STAP I instead got a duplicate of Day 6. Machine malfunction I assume as it went down the assembly line. Day 6 is right above Day 9:
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See? You just can’t trust robots. I would have much rather gotten the STAP. It gives yesterday’s Battle Droid some legitimacy. I guess two clones is okay too. I’m sure if this happened to someone else they would have been thrilled. If you want the skinny on the Day 9’s real offering check out Nick’s calendar day below. I’m gonna give this one a thumbs down because I didn’t get what I was supposed to get.
A third Double Milk Teddy. Same as before, so I’ll link Day 3’s impression here.
The back of the box shows three, but we’ve already established that the back of the box doesn’t give us the complete picture of the calendar’s offerings. I sincerely hope this is the last though.
A man can only take so much white chocolate.
Harry Potter Day 9 – Eric
If it’s not a horrible wooden sign, the odds are good.
Oh, even better odds! It’s Hermionie! Once again, I’m a huge fan of the hat / hair combo. It adds so much character. I was raised in the age of LEGO when you either had hat or hair. I can’t remember when LEGO started switching it up, but the more, the merrier.
Just like Ron, this is the fourth Hermionie, and, once again, just like Ron, 2020 and 2023 are really fighting for the prize.
Today’s tea is not a normal matcha green. This is SUPREME MATCHA GREEN. Let’s give it a taste.
Wow. I think matcha might be my new favorite kind of tea. It’s sweet without being overpowering, and it has the minty aftertaste.
Go get yourself this one. An easy 5/5.
Onto tomorrow!
City Day 9 – Nick
Before I get to this figure, and the one little gap I leave in a build just to bother a few specific people (you know who you are)… I saw Ace’s comment on white chocolate, and there is not limit on how much white chocolate a man can take. This man can take all of the white chocolate, and gladly.
Anyway, after a couple of subpar days, we get what may be my favorite City holiday character ever in a calendar. There are a few different singers, carolers, and wassailers in this little subtheme. As a slice of modern but throwback Christmas, this is just… perfect. Yes, it’s very much a “Christmas” more than holiday thing, but even my heathen little heart recognizes this and enjoys it – and there are tons of commercial songs that have been belted out like this.
Marvel Day 9 – Nick
I like 99% of Steve Rogers, right up until they ruined the whole arc of the character with the end of Endgame, the worst movie of the whole of the first phase of the MCU (fight me, I’ll die on that hill – Dark World, Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 3 are all better than it is).
He’s also a character that could so easily be made holiday, and would lean so hard into it as well. He’s basically made to be happily reluctant Santa. But we just get a stock Steve. We’re bad to the old Marvel BS, and this is a miss.
Bonus Star Wars Day 9 – Nick
Yesterday’s Battle Droid gets a ride in a STAP, which I think gives us our elventyeth version of this little vehicle that showed up on the screen for about forty seconds in Episode I. Why do robots need a vehicle, anyway? They could basically just be the vehicle. The whole idea of battle droids is kind of silly, the tank can be a robot, why build a robot that just replaces a body?
As a build… it’s meh. The droid should have been included in the day, for starters. It also needs to sit higher on its little base, one brick height isn’t all that great. There are much better versions of this in sets, and not all that many more parts.
I think the biggest issue is that it’s made to hold the droid, which makes it feel like it’s simultaneously straddle the mini-build in spots, but a regular build, but it’s part limited. It’s got substance compared to most days, so it’s a marginal hit, but only because it’s something to build and use.
Pokemon Day 9 – Nick & Family
Another cardboard build, and a much lamer version compared to the earlier one. It’s a snow pile, with an opening too small for almost all of the Pokemon we’ve gotten. This is the most meh thing yet, and my kids didn’t even put it together, they just dropped it to play with the other things
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