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: 12 Hits / 8 Misses
Harry Potter: 10 Hits / 10 Misses
City: 15 Hits / 5 Misses
Marvel: 6 Hits / 14 Misses
Bonus Star Wars: 10 Hits / 10 Misses

Star Wars Day 21 – Ace

I don’t like this chair. I want to like it I do but I don’t. I’m not a fan of builds that are split up where a single day’s offering really is nothing to write home about without another day putting it into context in some way. Day 7’s Snowball Sentry Post is a prime example of this. By itself is meaningless and borderline worthless. It’s not until you pair it with the Clone from the day before where it finally comes together. Today’s chair is slightly better because even without Palpatine sitting in it, it still looks ilke a chair pulled from a scene in Star Wars. It’s when you couple it with yesterday’s Palpatine that it really shines:

See look at that! It looks great. But by itself, again, it is nearly acceptable except that it is unbalanced. The chair back is attached to the seat by way of a clip and bar putting the center of gravity so far back that the entire chair will fall back. It’s not an issue once you seat the good Emperor since the weight of the minifig is entirely over the seat. And because of that, I poo-poo on today’s offering.

Thankfully, I got another Hazelnut Elf to wash away the bad taste left behind by that chair. Mmmmm.

Harry Potter Day 21 – Eric

Final four builds!

And what is probably the last minifig of the calendar: Draco Malfoy. Honestly, every minifig this year has been great. I love the winter gear.

Especially this hat. What a great piece.

I want to give a shout-out to today’s tea LOVE. I put the teabag in at 10:20, and was going to drink it during a job interview. BUT – I forgot about the tea. The interview lasted 45 minutes, and the whole time the tea was sitting on my counter, which is usually way too long. But, honestly, the taste wasn’t bad. Not, you know, great, but that’s more of a me problem.

I give the tea a 4/5 just for being a good sport.

And I give myself a 1/5.

City Day 21 – Nick

Okay, we opened this calendar with me talking about SSX and that weird time in the early 00s when the whole world cared about winter sports for about seven months. Here, we get the most extreme version of that, in what would have been an unlockable character in one of those games – and sadly, turned into a $25 DLC in modern video games that also cost you $70 and run ads inside it, because capitalism is the worst – Mrs. Claus on a snowboard.

She’s fine, but the snowboard could have been better. I would have loved to see something with printing or more interesting than just… green. Still, I’m not going to give a Mrs. Claus. I’m not a monster.

Marvel Day 21 – Nick

Six parts. They couldn’t even give us a base for the table leg to sit on, or raise it up. You get a wine bottle, I guess. You know, this calendar has included a lot of things that feel vaguely Asgardian, except, you know… any Asgardians.

Miss. For the six reasons/parts I listed above.

Bonus Star Wars Day 21 – Nick

It feels like Secret Labs is really missing out in not offering a branded Imperial Chair that looks like Palpatine’s throne. I’d seriously consider buying new armrests for mine that had Imperial or Rebel logos on them, TBH, even at their absurd prices.

Side note, the engineering of the chairs is impressive if you’re in to that sort of thing, and the armrest pads are held on by magnets. So you can swap them freely if you have more than one set. I’ve got regular and memory foam pads for my chair.

The build is absolutely fine and goes well with our fantastic figure from yesterday, so solid hit. Like I said with the City tree, I don’t mind at all combining days across builds, so long as they can stand alone in some way, or have some substance to them.

Pokemon Day 21 – Nick & Family

This is not specifically a holiday Eevee, but it is adorable, so that counts for something. Eevee is a favorite of this family, so we’re always happy to see one. I suppose this one is destined to become a Glaceon, but only if we find her an ice stone.

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