Season’s of Spam 2024: Advent’s Galore Day 24

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: 16 Hits / 7 Misses
• Disney: 16 Hits / 4 Misses
• Marvel: 6 Hits / 17 Misses

Ace: Star Wars Day 24 (and Disney)

Things were looking a bit sketchy for a couple of days there but the past few builds have been remarkably brilliant. Here’s hoping Star Wars closes out with a banger! So without further ado, let’s see what we get?

What the hell is this?!? Some kind of a Santa ship? And why are there two exposed studs on the back? Is that for Santa to stand on? This thing is stupid and ugly. And if it’s from the Star Wars universe and recolored to make it look like a Santa style ship, it’s still stupid and ugly. Like what the heck.  An utter disappointment. After riding the high for the majority of the calendar, this is what we end with? Lame!

Well here’s the final piece for Cinderella’s castle. No Cinderella baby minidoll in sight though. Kinda disappointing. But is it better once you put it all together?

No, no it’s not. Especially since there’s no Cinderella to speak of. Had she been included it would have taken the sting out of what accumulated to what the kids say nowadays: it’s just mid.

I’ll have more thoughts on both calendars in our wrap up post tomorrow.

Eric: Disney Day 24 (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

The Disney castle is complete! And it…is…great! Like I’ve said before, the multi-day builds really add an air of anticipation. I would like to see more of this in future calendars.

Today’s hot sauce – CHIPOTLE HOT SAUCE – is more of the same. Acidic, thin, and not spicy. A somewhat dull way to cap off a somewhat dull collection of hot sauces.

LEGO Day 24: 5/5

HOT SAUCE Day 24: 2/5

Nick: Marvel Day 24 (and Rocks and Dice)

I have no words to describe how this wet rolling dumpster full of old tires on fire of a calendar manages to hit the last couple of days, capping it all off with this absolute banger of a Christmas tree… in a calendar that didn’t include Electro. I love this build, and I’m going to give it a thumb’s up, but let’s take a moment to look at the best thing to come out of this calendar has no connection to the rest of it. Our “Santa” was the Green Goblin, and there are certainly builds that could have been done for it, but he was just the Goblin with nothing else. We could have gotten an Electro, but I’m pretty sure we got him in one of the past calendars and Loki-forbid we get something repeated that makes sense.

The final tally of 7 out of 24 is… sad. This was the worst calendar that I’ve ever done, full stop. And the worst that Marvel has ever offered. I’ll have more thoughts tomorrow in our wrap-up but I’m glad we got something decent in the end.

The best color dice give us the last two we need, rounding up that set. All of the sets ended up completed, but I won’t lie… this was a bit of a let down for the overall calendar. I paid $50 for it, which is considerably less than the one I was first looking at, but don’t think I got even that value from it.

It’s not a calendar without a silly gimmick, just like LEGO can’t make a set without putting in some silly conflict. So obviously we’re going to have rocks that get broken open to reveal a surprise. The old Rock Raiders had this, with the two-part rocks, but obviously we’re going to have to put a distopian-2024 spin on this…

So the surprise rocks are an included blind-bag that go into the box. A randomized part bag of one of the magic rock crystals that may or may not line up in the set. Obviously, we will have different tiers of these bags, one for the $15-35 set, another series for the $40-$80, and of course the most attractive one in our big money sets.

And because we’re going to think like LEGO, they’re going to cut the part count by 25% to include these, and jack the prices up by $5 or so too. Why dip once when you can dip twice? A small large price to pay for getting our Rock Raiders back…

This was one of those little plaster-y rocks that they put in garbage STEM toys you get at places like Michael’s or educational stores with a crap toy selection. It was meant to be chipped and brushed, but I just used water. These things make an awful mess and that let me keep it in the sink.

Sad thing about this calendar is that the rock was at the very top of that crystal, within a quarter of an inch of the outer layer. So I got it out right away and the rest was all wasted space. Fairly certain that this is some rose quartz, but it was a pretty small stone. Hard to tell in this picture, but it’s less than an inch wide.