Season’s of Spam 2024: Advent’s Galore Day 19

This has been a quiet year for the site… for some documented reasons for some that will probably be documented later on in this whole thing. But we’ve all been looking forward to doing the Advents, our yearly tradition that still happens to be a thing despite the fact that the internet is dead and it’s just bots talking to bots now. Beep boop.

Originally, we were going to mix it up this year but… things didn’t work out. Scalpers went hard in Dallas and the Star Wars Advent disappeared within a few days and never came back in stock, so Nick’s plan to do the Star Wars calendar fell through. We’re going to go with it just being the universe punishing him by making him do the Marvel Advent yet again. Something that just might finish him off this time.

We’re also going to do the newer tradition of going with non-LEGO calendars, because Advents are the new socks are the new ugly sweaters are the new yearly ornaments. Okay, that joke got away, but the point is that everything has an advent now.

Even Rocks.

That’s a hint, LEGO… bring back Rock Raiders. The world needs them now more than ever.

The scores so far:

• Star Wars: 14 Hits / 4 Misses
• Disney: 15 Hits / 3 Misses
• Marvel: 5 Hits / 13 Misses

Ace: Star Wars Day 19 (and Disney)

I think this is supposed to be a Jedi Starfighter, Yoda’s Jedi Starfighter to be exact if I’m remembering the color scheme correctly. Honestly, I thought Jedi Starfighters were such trash. One of the first and lasting impressions I have of the mystical nature of Jedi was when Obi-Wan gave his speech to Luke about how Jedi uses a lightsaber because, and I quote: “This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.” And then in the prequels you have starfighters specifically made for the Jedi and they’re just blasting away with laser cannons. It was so jarring and inconsistent with that philosophy. I suppose it wouldn’t have made sense to have the starfighter whip out a robotic arm and then activate a giant lightsaber in space but this is science fiction. Lucasfilm couldn’t have made anything else up? This micro model desperately needs some wedge plates instead of the 1×3 plate, but even then it wouldn’t have saved it from being hot garbage. Hard pass on this one.

Another Encanto prop, no Mirabel. Lame model by itself and easily forgettable. If the candle didn’t play such a significant role in the movie, it would have felt out of place. So I guess it makes sense but still feels incomplete and out of context.

Two duds today. Bummer.

Eric: Disney Day 19 (and Hot Sauces)

I am doing the LEGO Disney Advent Calendar this year. I am not in the target demographic for this advent calendar, and that is okay. I am also eating a hot wing every day, tossed in one of 24 random hot sauces. Enjoy my pain.

WATCH ME EAT AND BUILD THIS ON TIKTOK

YEEHAW – the finish line is in sight! Today’s hot sauce is cowboy-themed: AMERICAN WILD WEST HOT SAUCE BUFFALO. Is it hot? No. Is it buffalo sauce? Not really, even. Pretty disappointing.

(I’m still out of sync on the days, btw. So this is day 17’s build. I’ll be back on track tomorrow.)

As is today’s build – the contractually-obligated LEGO Christmas tree. LEGO decided on a design a few years back and has religiously stuck with it. So every year, I get to build a little tree, and every year, I bemoan building a little tree. BORING!

LEGO Day 19: 2/5

HOT SAUCE Day 19: 1/5

Nick: Marvel Day 19 (and Rocks and Dice)

I just… I can’t… how… what…

Okay, honestly how hard would it have been to make this character special and do a red suit for the Green Goblin to make him look more Santa like. Based on the day and the garbage bag, this is our “Santa” figure for the calendar, and they just give us a stock Green Goblin figure.

I have no idea how this calendar, which has been the worst in history thus far, managed to half-ass this so much. At the very least, make the pumpkin or bag Santa themed. Give the goblin a beard. SOMETHING.

Huge miss that somehow disappoints me more than I would have thought after we’d seen a slight uptick in quality.

Um… okaaaaaaay. I don’t know if this was just a problem in the packaging or someone who was working on this suddenly remembered how to count to 24 and realized they were going to come up way short. We get a couple of dark horse completions of sets, the transparent blue and the Christmas-color mini dice, all crammed in the same day.

I think this is supposed to be Obsidian but honestly, it just looks like gravel with a bit of a shine to me. Or more accurately granite… in fact, this is back to the countertop material, because this looks like my countertops. I should probably go check them and make sure something hasn’t gone catastrophically wrong in my kitchen.