Okay, yeah, maybe this year hasn’t been exactly the most active for us… I can’t speak for Ace or Eric but 2025 has been a consistent run of kicks in the nuts for me (Nick). My antique of a truck has finally gotten to the point where it’s not worth fixing anymore, I’ve had multiple surgeries (not all of which were planned), a couple of other hospitalizations for family members. Oh, and somehow, one of my kids is a f’n teenager now so that’s a whole thing. But there’s one thing that we who think about writing for this site agree on, and it’s that we love doing the Advent Calendars every year. It’s probably our longest-standing tradition here, and in a world that’s melted down into constant tire-fires, an internet that’s mostly unusable AI slop and noise, it’s sometimes nice to visit that old site and see something written by humans. Well, mostly. I think.
So another year, and mostly the same format: Ace handling Star Wars, Eric looking at Harry Potter, and in a shocking turn of events, Nick not having to deal with a Marvel calendar dedicated to causing physical pain – he’ll be handling City this year because while his kids may be into Minecraft he decidedly is not (and also that thing was impossible to find in his area). As always, there will be some extra special bonuses, a lot of cheeky writing, tons of typos and things we miss that someone will demand we go and hire an editor to fix.
We will not do that.
Ace – Star Wars
It’s been a rough couple of years man. And despite having what feels like less free time than ever before, I still wanted to do these Advent calendar posts. It’s like having your own personal daily gatcha. What will I get today? Does it suck or does it rock? Huh… now that I’ve typed that out, I feel like that phrase is all too familiar. Did I use that before during a previous advent season?
I knew that in order for me to get this first day out the door, it would come down to the wire and here I am at 8:51pm the night before cracking open the first day’s door. Usually, if planned a little better, we’d preload these days but I couldn’t get to my contribution until now. It was at the end of a long day. I’m stressed, and it’s past my bedtime. So when I sat down, I grabbed the calendar and muttered to myself, “So what kind of s****y calendar are we getting this year?” I didn’t think it would start with actual s**t. I had completely forgotten what this character’s name was so I cheated and peeked down below at Nick’s section to get a name. Baby Frik as in why the frik is the calendar starting with this pos? I hated the sequel trilogy. I hated them so much they make the prequels look like Oscar contenders. Babu Frik looks like a sentient pug but worse. And for day 1 to include just this one singular piece, it betrays the idea of what a building toy advent calendar should be. I’m actually surprised at myself for taking it out of the plastic bag. There’s 5 seconds of my life I’ll never get back.
Tomorrow better not be his workshop or some other such nonsense. What a terrible start.
Eric – Harry Potter
Hey folks! No advent calendars beyond LEGO for me this year. While I had plans to do 24 days of hot sauce like I did have done last year ultimately I decided I didn’t have the bandwidth to do both that and (shameful plug here) my new LEGO podcast Clutch Power: A Show about the Ways We Love LEGO. It’s a professional LEGO podcast uninterested in the sensationalism of “the latest LEGO news and rumors!!!!!” etc., and it has been a ton of fun so far. I’m planning to do an episode about FBTB and other fansites eventually, and if you have any other ideas for episodes, hit me up at clutchpowerpod@gmail.com.
Anyway, that’s enough about Clutch Power! I’m returning to LEGO Harry Potter after pivoting last year to check out what was going on in the LEGO Disney Advent Calendar (spoiler: a 3 outta 5). But now we’re back and man it wouldn’t be a HP Advent Calendar without the boy who lived himself: Harry Potter!
Yep there he is. I’ve been doing these calendars since the first one in 2019, and they sure have included a Harry Potter in each and every one of them. So if you’re doing the math, that’s five (no 2024) Harry Potters I’ve gotten! Wow! I’m not tired of seeing him at all!
The sweater print is honestly really charming. A Gryffindor…owl? Which is not the House’s mascot (it’s an owl), but that’s okay. The torso reads as “Christmas sweater” without being too detailed. I’m a fan. If only the head wasn’t the exact one I’ve been getting since pre-COVID.
Nick – City
As people on our Discord know, I’ve been pretty down on LEGO for some time now. The sets they put out are a ven diagram of “too expensive” and “too dull” far too much of the time. But there are some glimmers where clearly the designers are allowed to actually have some fun and do it at price points that don’t require giving up eating for a few weeks to pay for. City and Creator are just all hitting so much of that old LEGO magic and it’s kind of sad they’re overshadowed by the licensed stuff that dominates toy aisles.
For day 1, we get this absolutely adorbs kid in a polar bear costume with a popsicle. We get a winter theme and great mini all in one. Great start and a big hit.
I’m a little bit ashamed to admit this, but I’ve watched precious little Star Wars this year. I haven’t even finished watching Andor season 2 yet. Even last year, I bounced pretty hard off Acolyte. Most of the negativity about it was unwarranted, it just didn’t press my buttons. I mean, hell, I haven’t finished watching Peacemaker season 2 either and I loved that show. I haven’t kept up on the news for things at all either, so I have no real idea what’s going on with it. But I did grab the Star Wars Advent Calendar… and haven’t even looked at the box as of typing this; I’m just prepping the post as I do this. So I’m going into what’s in this thing totally blind.
I’m gonna be honest… I don’t understand the whole obsession with Babu Frik. In part because Rise of Skywalker is the single worst thing ever made in Star Wars; worse than the Holiday Special, worse than Ewoks, and worse than the Gungan Cut of Episode I. Yeah, he’s interesting, but he feels so contrived just to try and force fan attachment. I get people like him though, but this is just a very boring, and tiny, way to start the calendar. Big ole miss.
For my extra special calendar this year, I was originally going to go with a joke of “the marvel calendar gives us nothing” and call everyone a hit, but then I ran across the Zuru Mini Brands Kawaii advent and me and my oldest are a sucker for tiny cute things, and have been watching a lot of anime together as of late. So that became my celebration of pointless consumerism.
Our first mini thing of today is a Pixie Dust Donut. Right off the bat I’m surprised at how… nice these are. They’re bigger than I was thinking, and a solid plastic part with the great custom paper the mini things have. Yes… maybe my kids and I have gotten these dumb things before and loved them.
