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 / 5 Misses
City: 6 Hits / 3 Misses
Harry Potter: 7 Hits / 2 Misses
Marvel: 4 Hits / 5 Misses
Star Wars: 4 Hits / 5 Misses
Star Wars Day 10 – Ace
Okay, this thing wins the entire month, hands down. A Hailfire Droid! It is so gorram charming at this scale, words escape me. But this emoji sums it up: 😍
And if that wasn’t enough of an advent banger, I got this in the Lindt calendar today:
Another truffle ball! Same as before, so I’ll link Day 4 here if you want my impression.
Doing its best Death Star impression.
I used a knife to cut it this time to get a profile. I learned two things by doing this: 1) there’s an air bubble and this is probably true for all of the truffle balls, and 2) the Death Star dimple is actually the plug and an entirely separate chocolate piece. You can kinda see the plug between the two halves, My guess is they make two hemispheres with one of those hemispheres having a hole. They melt the two together to form a ball. Inject the chocolate truffle ganache through the hole, and the plug it with the dimple and then melt it into place. Neat!
Harry Potter Day 10 – Eric
If there’s one thing I can count on from these calendars, it’s a crappy Christmas tree.
Never fails.
But, I was surprised when I looked back at the other years and learned: the tree design is different. Every year. Props to LEGO’s committment to modifying it. It still sucks every year though.
Although 2023 definitely takes the cake as the worst.
Today’s tea – WINTER WARMER – came at the right time. Not 3 minutes before I got the bag, I said “I’m really cold.”
What are the odds?
The tea itself is…fine. It’s full of spices and tastes like orange, but it’s not really blowing me away. I’m a bigger fan of the warmth than anything, and I can get that with any tea.
3/5.
Next day!
City Day 10 – Nick
Fireplaces are to the City calendars what signs must be to the Harry Potter calendars, because we get one every year and they consistently get worse each time. Or, you know, what the Marvel calendars are. I mean, I question the value of exhausting your fireplace directly into the room right above the top of the fire bowl, and also don’t know why you’d put wood pillars where the fire is.
It’s just not a good build, and we’ve gotten parts in this calendar that could have made it better. Sure, some decent parts, but not enough of them to make this anything but a miss.
Marvel Day 10 – Nick
A jetpack. Wow. I’m so excited for this. I’m totally not going to forget it’s a thing and never put it on a any of the minifigures in the set. It’s the perfect accessory for them, all of the figures included are well known for their use of Jet packs, and used them multiple times in the TV shows and films.
Ugh. Miss.
Bonus Star Wars Day 10 – Nick
Okay, wow. I’m not the biggest fan of mini and micro builds in general, but wow, this is the absolute perfect way to do one of them. Immediately recognizable, and it hits all the tones. The missile pods, the angle of the wheels, the front gun. Even the little light eye, represented perfectly.
Honestly, it’s better than the minifig versions of the set, which have been kinda terrible. Big, big hit, and like Ace, I’d say this is absolutely the star of the calendar so far.
Pokemon Day 10 – Nick & Family
Char! Char! My favorite of the starters (I’m basic, I admit it), and he has a snowball. What’s not to love about this guy? Opening this immediately kicked off a fight over who got him between my son and daughter, and the compromise was that whoever got Charmander means they don’t get to get the other holiday picks (which we assume are going to be Pikachu and Bulbasaur).
My daughter ended up with him, my son ended up getting Squirtle, since he has a plush Squirtle that he’s had since he was two. My eye is on Bulbasaur, to match the plush I have up on my shelf…
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