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: 7 Hits / 6 Misses
Harry Potter: 8 Hits / 5 Misses
City: 9 Hits / 4 Misses
Marvel: 5 Hits / 8 Misses
Bonus Star Wars: 8 Hits / 5 Misses

Star Wars Day 14 – Ace

Endor Leia looking pretty spiffy. I find it interesting that in addition to holiday cookies, the set designer saw fit to include a gun too. Two of them to boot! For you know, when those Ewoks get out of hand and she has to dual wield her way out of a teddy bear village.

She has an alternate face printing. Looking back, it makes more sense now to pair the accessories with the expression. Cookies = happy, guns = angry.

Today’s chocolate offering was also a bit of a duality. I find it a bit odd that we are getting two different chocolates in one day. Other days with multiple offerings, they were of the same type.

Here we get a “Lindt Mini Milk Chocolate Reindeer”.

Which, of course, was hollow.

The other was a “Lindt Mini Solid Milk Chocolate Ball”.

It was just like the mini solid balls but slightly bigger.

Not sure why they were both included in one. Maybe the tray came out larger than expected so rather than try and include a bigger chocolate, they decided to just add an extra one. In the end, we the consumer are the real winners here. The solid ball offset the hollow reindeer making today a rather neutral one, but the fact that we got two tips the scales to the thumbs up side.

Harry Potter Day 14 – Eric

Now this is nice! It’s just a pretty simple little table, but like the displays earlier in the calendar, it captures a lot in a very small amount of space. Plus, I’m a sucker for these LEGO candles.

Today’s tea kinda came out of nowhere: LICORICE & CINNAMON. I’m not the biggest fan of licorice, and thankfully the taste wasn’t too overwhelming, but it’s definitely more of a dessert kind of tea than something I’d drink every day.

2/5

City Day 14 – Nick

Today is the day of 1×1 round tile biscuits*, apparently. We get a fairly standard minifig in the City calendar, but dressed up in seasonally appropriate garb. Very simple and straight-forward, and nice in the fact that it’d look fine in a seasonal setup or just any fall/winter display. The addition of the phone is a good touch as well, so good solid hit.

Marvel Day 14 – Nick

I mean this is just leftover stuff that could have easily been elsewhere. If you look at the box art, Okoye is wearing the ice skating gear, something that… feels a bit out of character? She feels like a scarf and snowball fight kind of gal (snowballs out of a catapult of some sort, but still). It’s all just so paltry as well, and the most half-assed gift we’re ever likely to get in any advent. This is a real egg, Marvel.

Bonus Star Wars Day 14 – Nick

Okay, Star Wars, this is Marvel-level of “phoning it in.” I mean, yes, I always appreciate getting a Leia figure in any set. Bonus points for it being an Endor version of Leia, also known as arguably tied for the best with Cloud City (that’s the best looking, this is most butt-kicking). But throwing on one cookie doesn’t make this Holiday… and including a blaster really makes it look like she’s just baiting Ewok’s for sport. Extremely marginal miss, mostly because they could have done just a teeny bit more to make it a little bit more holiday.

* biscuit is a slang term for a hockey puck, as well as British people those things they try to pass off as cookies, so I’m going with it to unify all the 1×1 round tiles

Pokemon Day 14 – Nick & Family

Back to cardboard, and we get a better one than the last few entries. Honestly, this one makes a solid little play piece for plenty of toys, be it Pokemon or LEGO. My son claimed this one and moved it for use with his Mario figures. Bowser has been hanging out in it all the time.

Which is strange, since he’s on his Kart and in Hot Wheels form.

Previous Days

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