What a crazy, whirlwind year! For those of you who’ve stuck around through 12 months of very few posts…thank you. I can’t speak for Ace or Nick, but FBTB is an important site for me and really informed my earliest brushes with LEGO and video game fandom. I’m grateful to you all, even if this is your first time here.
What have I been up to? Well, this and that. My life is in a complete different place than it was a year ago. I left my job and started a new career. Fell in love. Moved apartments. Learned guitar. Bought a car. 2024 has been a monumental year for me and my personal growth. It’s been hard, but hard is good. Hard makes diamonds.
But: my media consumption has dropped. Gone are the days I could spend hours playing video games. My list of movies to watch is ever-growing. I haven’t watched any long-form TV this year. But from what little I have consumed, there are some real gems.
⋅ 10333 BARAD-DÛR ⋅
I am sure that somewhere on this site is an article of me bemoaning missing out on the original wave of Lord of the Rings sets. I got two and no more because I A.) was a child and B.) had no disposable income. Well, those are no longer true!
So I bought a big tower.
Like, big big. This thing is almost three feet tall. I put it on my bookshelf so that Sauron peers down at all my guests and makes them really uncomfortable.
A lot of large LEGO sets look cool but are God-awful to build. Repetitive. Mind-numbing. Not Barad-dur. Every bag is something new.
There are so many references to LOTR in here, tucked away in secret spots along the tower. I will never see them again once the tower is built, but that’s okay. They made me smile while I was building, and that’s plenty for me.
This is the largest LEGO set I own and one that I am completely satisfied with.
Is it worth $459? For me, 100%.
⋅ SIFU ⋅
I broke my pinkie finger playing this game. Seriously. I got so mad at this game that I punched the floor.
On paper, Sifu is simple: five levels, five bosses. When you die, you give up years of your life to continue. Get too old, you restart. Simple.
But not easy.
As you play, you will unlock a bunch of moves and combos to the point where you’re flicking around control sticks and punching buttons at the speed of light.
Palm strike into flurry of blows into leg sweep into a face punch – OH! – someone throws a bottle at you so catch the bottle and throw it at someone else then kick a stool and knock someone over then parry another attacker and take his sword and…
You get the point.
Only Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice can compete with this game for its combat flow. When you are in the zone, you are in the zone. When you’re not…you break a pinkie.
⋅ SLY COOPER ⋅
In the third level of Sly Cooper, I said, out loud: “They don’t make games like this anymore.” The PS2 was perfect for action platformers like Sly Cooper. It easily sits among its peers Ratchet & Clank and Jax & Daxter.
Every level introduces a new mechanic, and every level includes an unlockable move (or upgrade). No points, no shop, no skill tree – just find all the hidden bottles and open the safe.
It’s so perfect in its simplicity. So much of the fat is trimmed away, save for the last few levels, which is when I said, out loud, in a different tone: “They don’t make games like this anymore.”
Annoying hitboxes, janky physics, and awkward camera controls.
Do those damn Sly Cooper? Not one bit. It is an absolute treat to play, and a refreshing break from the graphics-pushing, mechanics-full games of today.
⋅ RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 ⋅
Perhaps the above sentence is a criticism of RDR2. Perhaps.
I should hate RDR2. It is sluggish. Slow. Obtuse. I’ve never been motivated by graphics or story. If the game isn’t fun, why would I play it?
I…don’t know. I wondered that often. I wondered that while sitting at a campfire and carving notches into my bullets, one at a time. I wondered that while turning through magazine pages looking for a holster. I wondered that while dying in combat time after time because the aiming…sucks!
It’s badass to be a cowboy. It’s badass to fight off a bear. It’s badass to build a house for your wife and son. Simple as that.
It ain’t gotta be anything more.
⋅ LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL ⋅
I’d like to thank my girlfriend for introducing me to some really great horror movies. Late Night with the Devil stands above all of them.
It’s a failing late-night talk show where the host decides to bring in some supernatural types to spice things up. And spice things up they do. A little too much.
You know going in that things will go wrong. But you can’t wait to see it unfold.
Almost everything in the movie is played straight, like a live broadcast of, say, The Tonight Show. You’re seeing what viewers of the show would see.
The core concept is so fun, so engaging, and so unique that you will be glued to the screen. It’s a wild ride that any horror movie fan needs to watch.
⋅ THE HOLDOVERS ⋅
This is a Christmas movie that I watched four times this year. None of which were in December.
I really cannot say more without saying everything, and that would take up a lot of space.
If you want to have your soul warmed and your heart broken, then you need to watch The Holdovers.
Just trust me. It’ll change you.
⋅ CARRIE ⋅
Is this the only book that’s been on one of these year-end lists?
I avoided Stephen King for a long time. To me, he was the book equivalent of Quentin Tarantino: the director all the annoying kids at my film school lauded.
But then I read Stephen King’s book Carrie and I got it. Turns out that King’s fame is not overrated. Turns out this guy know how to write a really damn good book. I know, the popular writer is a good writer. Surprise.
The most unbelievable part of Carrie is that it is Stephen King’s first novel. His FIRST! King has such confidence and conviction in his plot and setting that you’d think this would be his magnum opus.
But nope. Most lists don’t even put it in the top 5.
Amazing.
2025?
Usually, here I’d talk about my predictions for the next year: the games, sets, and movies I’m looking forward to. But, to be honest, I’m not sure what I’ll have time for in 2025. Life changes fast and hobbies ebb and flow. Perhaps I’ll play the newest, hottest games. Perhaps not. Either way, I’m excited to see what unfolds.
So… I wrote this whole thing about a year ago and never got around to posting it. Here we are, at the end of 2024 and I’m working on my current year and so little feels like it hasn’t changed. So my 2024 review makes sense, I’m going to just post this and go from there. Below is the unedited post that I’d more or less wrapped up back in February. Look for this year’s “year in review stuff” soon, likely on New Year’s Eve. But who knows. I’m scheduling this to post at the start of December and a lot can go seriously wrong between now and then.
Also, it’s just sad how much of this is the same, except worse.
2023 can * bleep * right off. I don’t think that’s honestly a controversial opinion. Sure, 2020 gave us a Pandemic, and 2021 gave us it’s terrible sequel year. 2022 was the year where things looked like they were improving a little bit, but not really, while 2023 is where everything started to come apart at the seems. Not sure about you, but it’s the year where all the inflation caused by unchecked corporate greed, legislative inaction, and decades of tax breaks that benefit the .01% have made everything vastly more expensive than it has to be.
Not gonna lie, this last year was absolutely brutal for me. I have scaled back my posting over the years just because… you know, life and what not, but this year there are a few more things pushing that. (Not at all) fun fact… I learned this year that long-term general anxiety can develop into full-on depression. You can probably guess how I learned that. So here we are, in mid-February, and I’m finally getting around to writing about last year.
There’s a whole bunch of talk of “the economy” being good, except that honestly doesn’t feel true for the middle class (where I’m firmly seated). Where I live in Texas, houses went from “scrimp and save” to “you’re never gonna get one of these.” Groceries bills have more or less doubled, because that’s a spot where inflation has hit the hardest. So many companies that I like(d) or have purchased from have gone from “companies are not your friend” to “actively trying to destroy the world.” Oh, and obviously… Texas.
So a lot of 2023 was spent treading water and spinning plates, desperately trying to keep them up… and by the end of the year, I’d mostly failed at that in the end. I won’t dump a whole lot here, that’s for when I talk to my therapist (seriously, y’all, therapy can help – it’s not a cure, but it helps)… more just saying why this list is what it is. There were also fun things like the vicious cycle of weight loss and gaining a lot of it back, some skin cancer and surgery to remove it (thankfully all gone), money troubles because of unexpected expenses, and working in technology when unchecked greed and corporations start laying of thousands for fun.
It wasn’t all bad things, though, there were some legit fun things. I did more stuff this year in my core hobbies, and even may have purchased a toy or two for myself. Or one very expensive toy that 3D prints toys.
LEGO Sets
Wait, what? Since when do I get LEGO sets? True fact, I have a bunch of sets around that I need to take pictures of for reviews. Most didn’t come out this year, and my paralysis at getting things done has made some of them kind of pointless, since the sets are no longer available.
LEGO Icons Atari 2600
This is one of those reviews that I need to get done, because this might have become one of my favorite sets of all time now*. Which… is honestly saying something. The Atari has a weird place in my life… I never had one, but had a cousin that did. I was supposed to get one for a Christmas back in the early 80s, but my dick of a father decided to return it after I found the poorly hidden gift since it was “no longer a surprise.” Which, you know, is just a great thing to do to a five year old. Funny what memories you can remember despite it being several decades ago. Can’t remember what I did six months ago, can remember that as one of my earliest memories.
While the Nintendo was a more formative part of my childhood, the Atari is what defined it early. I remember that ugly 2600 box and being blow away by the massive pixels of the machine and playing games with my cousin.
More than that, though, as a LEGO set, this was simply a joy to build in a way that the Nintendo Entertainment System just… wasn’t. I still need to get the review done, but there’s so much to this set, so many little wonderful things, that are just fantastic. While I rated the NES highly, and love the set… the biggest knock on it was that it was more about the engineering than getting the little bits and touches. Fixed buttons, a cartridge insert that barely worked, and one Easter Egg that you wouldn’t ever see unless you knew it was there.
This set, by contrast, is just dripping with those little touches and Easter Eggs. This set is designed as a celebration of the the set, rather than an engineering marvel of being able to turn a screen. There’s still some of that, with “working” switches and power buttons, but first and foremost, it’s about just being a beautiful celebration of when Atari wasn’t a shell of a company that just hawked its brand.
This is a review i need to finish before the set gets retired, but since Icons stuff seems to hang around a lot longer than normal sets, it’ll likely stick around for some time.
*For the record, I’d say my top five sets of all time are (in no particular order):
Of course, if I had to build this list a week from now, it’d probably be full of different things. But those are sets that I have that get rebuilt and displayed occasionally, and I won’t ever get rid of.
The Worst of LEGO
It was very much a mixed bag for me in this little dabbling of LEGO, because honestly, most of them were just… not all that great? Either the set or the experience, or both. Most Star Wars and Marvel sets feel like “let’s throw this together and hit a price point” rather than builds that feel thought out and loved. The ones that are, like things in the UCS line, command prices that are just absurd and I wish no one would purchase at this point. The price escalation of LEGO overall should have killed it three or four times over, but they’ve strangled out so many other things, or hidden in a marketplace where people (i.e. adult nerds) have just started to accept forever escalating prices with less and less value.
Marvel Collectable Minifigures Series 2
This is another article that I never finished, but if you’re on our Discord, you know why I have a particular grudge against the CMF lines at this point. I stopped collecting them years ago, before i dropped other LEGO sets, mostly because the system was just… gross. It’s gatcha products, and they tie up too many interesting things
Okay, so, I had a whole article that I never got around to finishing, about how bad my experience was. Spoiler for that article… but I bought 20 figures at a Target around me and got… four different minifigs in them. One of them was unique, the rest were repeats of just three figures. Clearly, it had been picked over or something like that, but they had just been put out on the cashwrap area when I got them.
When these came out, there was a whole stream of articles for people who were buying up small portable scales to go and weigh the different boxes to figure out what’s inside, and clearly, I got the end result of that. I’ll go into this more in the article, but let me say this… if you’re an AFOL (or more likely a scalper) who does something like this – f*** you. Just, f*** you. You and the other “bag fondlers” that go through an entire store selection to strip out figures and leave the leftovers are a blight, and you’re no better than the people who buy up every set to sell on the aftermarket or parting them out so no one else can get them. In fact, people who go and strip out the minifigs are probably worse.
I’m and adult and was buying these for myself, but I can easily imagine a parent getting a few figures for their kid while checking out. When said kid opens three of them and gets the same figure, likely someone they don’t even know… that kid’s day is kind of ruined and they’re never going to get another figure like this again. If I bought these for my kids and saw this, there’d be an outright “no, those things are a ripoff” line ready every time I saw a LEGO polybag.
That there were honest discussions about bringing a scale and measuring these to find out what was inside, and that so few stepped back and asked themselves “wait a sec” is an indictment of that whole flavor of AFOL and the product in general.
For my part, I completed my set after collaborating with someone in our Discord to get the ones I was missing after another trip to a different Target with fairly similar results. But those were the last CMF figures I will ever buy.
Movies and Streaming
Unlike last year, where I didn’t actually watch any new movies… I watched at three four* new movies this year. Okay, so, movies still aren’t really by thing to me anymore… most of my time is spent rewatching the old things I’ve always liked or just watching streaming shows or YouTube.
*I forgot that I also saw Spider-Verse, but how about I don’t go into the fact that it was 90% awesome and 10% worst thing I watched all year.
Super Mario Bros.
This was always going to be a movie that my family was going to see. My son loves Mario, and has loved him for a few years – though his favorite character from the series is Princess Peach, and his favorite Hot Wheel Mario Kart is Bowser. He was dressed as Mario for Halloween back in 2022 (he went as a Pokemon trainer this year)… owns a Cappy, and asked for a Mario-themed birthday party. So yeah, we were always going to watch it.
It was surprisingly enjoyable… not saying that it’s going to win an Oscar or any real awards unless the Kid’s Choice Awards are still a thing (or a Grammy, cause, you know, Peaches).
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
This is the first of three times that D&D is going to show up on this list, so I’ll save the “oh my god, Hasbro, you suck” for a later section. But as a thing, D&D was a sandwich wrapped in a layer of thin crap, with a terrible start and a terrible end to the year with some wonderful things in the middle.
The D&D movie, Honor Among Thieves, was one of those things that should have just been awful. D&D as a whole hasn’t exactly translated well to… anything other than video games, really. The last D&D movie was… just god awful, and followed up on a cartoon from the 80s that’s remembered fondly for just how terrible it was. So when a new one was announced, everything was stacked against it.
At the same time, though, there were some actual big names tied to the movie. Chris Pine was set to star, along with plenty of other big names. It also didn’t look like it was going to be a straight-up lowest effort movie, with actual effects and an existing setting. Honestly, a lot of this has been driven by stuff like Critical Role being genuinely good and loved, and D&D having gone firmly mainstream compared to the other efforts. Still, like most video game movies, the chances of this being awful were high.
So when I watched it in the theater, and not only was it fun and entertaining, it could be called legitimately a good movie. It’s not going to win any awards, and it was full of all the tropes and so many things that are just inside jokes and fan service… but it still was just fun. They managed to create a movie stuffed to the brim with those things, yet could be watched by anyone and still be fun. The story only was enriched by knowing all the jokes, but not required. Unlike anything Marvel does, you didn’t have to do homework in order to watch the film.
Barbie
I’m too “old man” at this point to have cared even a little bit about the whole Barbieheimer or whatever happened this summer… so I saw this when it came out on Max a few weeks ago. I knew I’d like it, and I did. It certainly had a message, one I was perfectly fine with, and it was funny as well. Not perfect, but still pretty great.
The Not So Good
Obviously, I’m not the person to ask about the latest movies coming out. When I can count the number of movies I’ve watched – not just went to in the theater (though that number was two), but new movies in general. Most of that is driven by the fact that I’m just… over a lot of stuff. I’m not going to put Ahsoka on this list, because I’m not really tired of Star Wars, per se, I just don’t feel the need to immediately watch anything that’s not named Andor.
All things Marvel and DC
What I am tired of is basically everything Marvel and Disney are doing in that space right now. I haven’t watched anything this year, and don’t really plan to. The last thing I watched through and enjoyed was Hawkeye… so that’s two years or so where I just gave Marvel a complete pass. They aren’t helped by the fact they waited until the very last minute to drop a known abuser, waiting for an official court verdict, because obviously that’s the thing that a private company needs to do.
Beyond that, though… it’s just honestly not interesting. The last thing I watched and loved was Peacemaker, something I’ve rewatched a couple of times. Gunn, now lording over the DCU and killing the things that are interesting (Henry Cavill clearly needs a hug after losing Superman, and I enthusiastically volunteer to be the one to give it to him; don’t feel bad though, he’s got 40k now) but needed help.
Comic movies, as a genre, are basically gone. The next and likely only thing I’ll watch will be Deadpool 3, mostly because my wife and I will go and watch it together. Oh, I guess I did watch Spider-Verse, I was supremely disappointed in the ending and the fact that the movie didn’t bother to wrap things up before just… ending. It pissed me off then, and pisses me off now. That turned a movie that was a 10/10 into a firm 5/10, because it undermined the whole movie.
Revivals of Old Things
I never watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull… Last Crusade was a wonderful way to end the story and it always felt “done.” So when another movie in the series was announced, I wasn’t enthused. In fact, I’m still not, and haven’t watched it.
If the previous decade was all about reboots, the current era seems to be much more about “restarts.” Shows that had been off the air for a decade or more were getting additional, often terrible, seasons. Frasier wasn’t ever my favorite show, but oh my god, the new one is so terrible that it’s just replacements of the old characters with new ones. I made it through one episode before I just noped out and wouldn’t watch it.
Same with “That 90s Show,” which was a new season of “That 70s Show,” something I did like… and oh my god is was as bad as Frasier. I couldn’t finish the second episode, because it was about as funny as anything Aston Kutcher has done outside of the original show. The Futurama “uncancelled again” season was hit-or-miss, with the real highlights coming towards the end and some real awful things in the middle.
Nostalgia is already a dangerous thing to play with, and it seems to be the only idea going for a lot of things out there. Which is odd in a year where we got the best adaptation of a video game ever, and other new shows that are legitimatelyfunnier than just revisiting the old things.
Video Games
I’ve probably played more video games this year than I have in more recent years on record. This was bolstered, in part, by the fact that my daughter, officially a preteen now (which, WTF, time, stop it), has also gotten into games in a big, big, way. She’s also too smart for her own good and snarky, so, she takes after me in a lot of ways – though she’s probably smarter. Not all of them, though, I can’t get her to watch Star Wars or Star Trek.
Vampire Survivors
This was my game at the end of last year, when it came out, and dominated the start, middle, and end of my year as the new DLC came out. I’m not a huge fan of roguelike’s, and yet… this game just does all the things for me.
There were multiple patches and DLCs put out in 2023, including a surprise crossover with Among Us in early December. It also landed on Switch in 2023, added free content, and continued to be worth every single cent you put into it. It was my game of choice on the Steam Deck, and I strongly suggest everyone get it. It’s just that good.
Baldur’s Gate 3
The second major highlight of the D&D year was arguably the best game released all year. Don’t trust me though, the Video Game Advertisements gave it an award too – but didn’t let them stay and talk about a team member who died because there were more trailers to show! Fun fact, apparently 41.5 minutes of the nearly 4 hour show was spent on award announcements and speeches. In other words, the Video Game Trailers Show sucks, Geoff Keighley is a pandering sack of shit that doesn’t care about video games, and Baldur’s Gate 3 is one of the best games ever made.
The original two games, and the spinoff Neverwinter Nights series, stand as some of the greatest RPGs ever made. The game Planescape: Torment, often tops the list of greatest ever, and arguably so (my personal top is Final Fantasy VI or Fallout New Vegas). It was simultaneously under-the-radar, while also being hugely hyped up, because as it got closer and closer to release, what was being said just became more and more bonkers.
You know, like the bear sex.
When the first reviews started to hit, the hype only increased, because people were overwhelmingly in love with the game. Part of that excitement is that Larian Studios made a game that didn’t have any microtransactions, day-0 DLC packs, or all the other crap that modern games “have to have.” It was just pay the money and you get to play the game, all of the game, and enjoy it. That aspect was so refreshing as to seem revolutionary, which is sad, because it’s how things used to work.
That being said, the game itself is awesome, the hype is absolutely deserved. It’s a giant, sprawling, beautiful game. How you can play is unique almost every time, because there’s that D&D aspect of “rolls” tied in to checks, where you can be overpowered and still fail, or underpowered and succeed gloriously. Every quest had multiple, sometimes non-obvious, ways to solve and resolve them… better yet, sometimes, you could just fail and the game let you go on. The story was good and interesting, the companions were legitimately great and wonderful, and the gameplay managed to feel like D&D even with necessary changes to make it… not suck.
And, of course, bear sex*.
*Spoiler for this joke: it’s a druid companion you can romance, not an actual bear
Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
I didn’t get super far into this game, but it basically controlled a few weeks of my life, and currently dominates my daughter’s life. Discussions with her right now are 2% what’s going on for an eleven-year-old and 98% talking endlessly about Zelda. I get to go full “god, I’m old” in response and point out that “yes, I know, I played the original back in 86” when it comes to Zelda lore.
Much like Baldur’s Gate 3, it was a complete game, not split off into a lot of cosmetic loot box or mini DLC nonsense. Of course, for a lot of Nintendo (but not all, their mobile offerings are pure gacha garbage) games that’s normal. It didn’t fix most of the fundamental issues I had with Breath of the Wild – a great game but by no mean’s perfect. There was still terrible direction-setting of what to do and a flow of the game, weapon durability is still a garbage mechanic that serves no real purpose other than to annoy people, and it’s just as incomprehensible as any other Zelda game.
Yet… the loop is so satisfying and it’s still a Zelda game. More than that, the biggest marvel, is that the game is just huge. More than triple the size of the original game, with new modes of play and unique things to it that make it so, so satisfying. There was so much to it that just… works. It also pushes the switch to the absolute max, making a legitimately gorgeous game on a console that was old and out of date when it launched.
Bad Video Games and Worse Companies Making Them
2023 was a garbage year for video games, despite the great stuff I listed above. Layoffs and studio closures dominated the industry, often not even for failed projects, but perfectly successful ones where the company needed to make a nickel and couldn’t dare cut CEO salary or stop doing stock buybacks, so they instead laid off thousands of workers.
Even with that, though, there were some things that just stood out as games.
Starfield
I’m sure some people in our Discord knew that this game was going to end up here, because I was pretty vocal on all of my problems with the game as I was playing it. Which I did, a lot, because it’s a Bethesda game and they have some things that I genuinely like. Maybe. Or maybe not…
Maybe it’s time to just acknowledge that Bethesda make kind of crappy games that rely on the community to make not suck. Skyrim was not a good game, but you could make it good. Honestly, think about it… how many of you that have played it can explain what the plot of Skyrim is? Or those who enjoyed it have memories you enjoy that are related at all to that plot… or was it all the other things you could do?
It pains me to think that, because I like games like Fallout 3 and 4, but they’re also… you know… not good. Fallout 4’s main plot was infamously bad, the companions were memes, and the best parts of the game had nothing to do at all with playing the story. It was little side quests, building, or doing weird and random things. Fallout 3’s ending was so bad they had to program and charge everyone for a DLC to write a better one.
An aside, but the last act of Baldur’s Gate 3 was much weaker than the first two, and a lot of players were unsatisfied with how some stories wrapped up. Larian listened to player feedback and… patched in new stuff to fix that for free. Bethesda on the other hand screwed over Fallout 3 players more than a decade ago by charging for DLC to undue the stupid ending.
So this was a chance at redemption, to prove they could do something great… and they really didn’t. Starfield is their first new IP of this century (or as my daughter liked to twist the knife when I made my ’86 comment and pointed out that was “last millennium”) – and it was hyped for years, first being teased with a single title screen eight years ago.
The end product is a devoid, lifeless, mostly boring husk. Remember how No Man’s Sky was overhyped and ultimately disappointing? This is worse, because that was just a small studio that clearly overcommitted… this is a major AAA company backed with Microsoft money who underdelivered and made a repetitive and pointless game.
I should do a whole review of it, in fact I was planning on doing it, but ultimately couldn’t get the motivation to do it. So much of the game is just examples where things were quarter-assed to stick in, with clearly too many ideas and not enough refinement of them, and it all comes together as a jumbled, unfun mess.
The worst part, for me, was coming to this game right after playing Baldur’s Gate 3. A game so full of choices and personality, with interesting and fantastic companions who were all distinct and unique, and a story that drew you in while not sitting you entirely on rails. Yes, one is an “open” (and empty) world game, while the other is a structured linear experience, but they are the two biggest RPGs of the year and couldn’t be further apart in underlying execution and quality.
You legitimately build, grow, and earn trust with the people around you in Baldur’s Gate 3. It goes to great length to make you the “hero” but not call you the special. In fact, at one point, you find out that a good portion of your companions are getting the exact same “special one” things you are… you just happen to be the one that the game is centered on as POV.
In Starfield, you’re immediately just trusted (or hated) by everyone. Strangers on the street, on a planet you’ve never been too, walk up and give you life details or quests. The intro is quite literally “here, take my ship, you’re the hero now” and that’s it. And often, there are clearly multiple ways something could be done, but because they didn’t design it that way, you only have one choice to make and one way to go. The only time you have options are when it explicitly gives you more than one.
Which is all to say it’s a bad game that has already been mostly forgotten. But hey, their first big update will be adding “new ways to travel” between pointless planets where you can accomplish nothing. Maybe it’s telling that the best game in any of the modern Bethesda settings was the one not made by Bethesda.
I spent a lot of hours in Starfield, even “beating” the main story, trying to find the good game. But it’s just not there. Also, before anyone jumps in that you have to play it “such and such” way, or play it for so long before it gets good… those are both things that terrible games do.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
It’s weird to put a game I play daily on the bad list, but I’ve talked about how this is a game with a satisfying loop and little else before. They put out a needless version this year of what was a hacked-together story no one remembers at this point, and the same fun multiplayer loop. Cheating is still rampant, there is both too much and not enough to do, and it’s stuffed to the gills with microtransactions.
Really, it’s here because there was no reason for this to come out. MW2 was a solid game that was fun to play. MW3 was rushed and adds nothing of value overall. But still commanded a $70+ price tag supported by absurdly expensive cosmetic micro-transactions.
Tabletop
This will be a little bit different from the other sections, because my good and my bad for this category all stem from the same general places: Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro, Games Workshop, and Asmodee. Those are the three biggest “gaming” companies out there in the tabletop space, and the makers of the games that I deal with.
Games Workshop Games
I’ve been a player of almost everything that Games Workshop has done for years now. I’ve written about it here, covered it in depth with the calendars in 2022, and it’s been my primary hobby for several years. It started with Necromunda all the way back in 1996, which fun fact, I bought while I was traveling to Texas (I lived in the northern US back then) to visit a friend in the Army and drop off a car. We’d stopped off at a hobby store while going through Oklahoma City, saw it on the shelf, and figured it’d be fun to play with our friend while down there.
That was a very expensive path to start down. That spiraled into Warhammer Fantasy, then Warhammer 40k, and I’ve taken several breaks over the years, but back in 2020, got back in, and play Necromunda (again, the new version), Warhammer 40k, Age of Sigmar, and several other games. Kill Team, and slow-planning an Old World army for when I see my friend again that I used to play Fantasy way back when.
That being said… Games Workshop can be an absolutely infuriating company to be a fan and customer of. While a lot of their “fans” ascribe them to be some kind of sinister cabal and empire, they’re often the epitome of “don’t ascribe to malice what could be chalked up to incompetence.” They’re firmly stuck in the past, for better or worse, and they make decisions to protect their bottom line and sales.
Capitalism sucks, and they are a company – not a friend, which means they will make decisions that will piss people off. Like releasing rules for free for 10th edition, which happened last year, only to start pulling them as books get released. Or constantly releasing and “patching” the game as they lean harder and harder into the more competitive modes of play, neglecting the casual and narrative players that make up the bulk of their player base.
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 final tally was…
Star Wars: 11 Hits / 1 Misses UPDATE
Disney: 20 Hits / 4 Misses
Marvel: 7 Hits / 17 Misses
Ace: Star Wars and Disney Thoughts
This year’s Star Wars calendar was just stellar. Final score ended up being 16-8. If my memory is correct, in past year’s they were always right around the 50% mark. One of reasons it scored so high was the fact that there were no weapon racks, or builds that entirely depended on another day for context, functionality, or completeness. This is how calendars should be. Each day should be a treat on its own. I hold the opposite opinion of Eric in this regard but that’s okay. I can’t remember if the Harry Potter calendars he used to do had multi-day builds like Star Wars did.
There were five minifigs included in this year’s calendar, two of which are unique in the form of ugly Christmas sweater minifigs. They are bangers. The others I wasn’t too thrilled with as I don’t feel like I am the target audience for whatever piece of media they were sourced from but they were fine.
The ships and vehicles were mostly great. A few them I had a hard time recognizing but thanks our #lego discord channel they were easily identified. Again, that is just an unfortunate byproduct of not being in the target demographic and/or not consuming every piece of Star Wars media. I can’t really fault LEGO for wanting to include the more obscure models but if ever there was a choice between including something from the core set of movies or from a kids show on a streaming platform, I would think the choice would be obvious.
My favorite build of the Star Wars calendar has to be hands down the Millennium Falcon from day 9. I never get tired of this ship. I recently rewatched the original trilogy and seeing it in action is so satisfying. This micro model is pretty great and I am tempted to throw a binocular element or rollerskate on top for the gunner station.
It was a little difficult picking my least favorite build only because for this year’s calendar when it hit a lot it really hit a low. I’d have to give the honors to this thing. Apparently it’s the Crimson Firehawk from the Young Jedi Adventures cartoon. There is an official set that was a 4+ set but even that wasn’t pleasing to the eye either. It’s just atrocious all around.
Onto Disney…
The Disney calendar was an impulse buy for me at Costco. I wasn’t aware that Eric was planning on reviewing the Disney one until it was too late. Had I known I would have covered the Harry Potter one. One of my kids opted for the HP calendar this year so maybe I’ll just do a brief write up on that in the next couple of days. I didn’t keep an official tally for the Disney calendar, but going back and tallying the score, it ended up at 13 thumbs up and 11 thumbs down. I feel like I was being overly generous though as some of the castle builds i think I was being too kind.
This calendar was chock full of paired builds, with some themes going over three days. The paired builds mostly consisted of a princess baby minidoll and the environment from which they came. All of the environment builds were built similarly consisting of some design elements and an arch. If you place them next to each, you would understandably come to the conclusion that the princess should be placed under the arch.
But the baby minidoll was simply too large both in height, and depth, and sometimes even width. Mirabel above is a prime example. The above photo makes it look like she actually fits right in front but that is not really the case.
She is leaning forward slightly because her hair element is so large. Mirabel was the one princess that looked the most normal when trying to place her in her environment. I’ve had varying degrees of success with the other franchises.
Moana came second but because of the micro scale hut element, she had to be turned sideways in order to make contact with the stud for her feet.
Elsa and her ice castle also had to be placed sideways and is also slightly tilted.
Tiana couldn’t even be placed on the bottom floor.
Ariel was also turned and slightly angled.
One of the other main issues I had with these little castle builds is that even if the princess mini doll could fit under the arch, it wouldn’t have been centered because the arch width was two studs and the baby minidoll required just a single stud. So the princess placement would be off either slightly to the left or to the right. A jumper plate would have mitigated this and settled my OCD by correctly placing the minifig dead center between the two arch supports. But this is an entirely moot point since the princess couldn’t fit under the arch to begin with.
The last four days of the build ended up becoming Cinderella’s castle complete with not only an arch but two arches. And one of those arches has a balcony. Seems nice but again, the multi day nature of the build just sapped any enthusiasm out of me. And plus, and this might be the biggest knock against this castle, there was no Cinderella baby minidoll.
I was going to try and solo whatever basic game LEGO tried to shoehorn into the Disney calendar but decided against it. The negatives I outlined above has already left such a sour taste in my mouth that putting in the additional effort was just not worth my time. LEGO already got my money from me by buying this set, I don’t feel like any additional effort for this review is worth my time or yours.
Between the two calendars, Star Wars was the clear winner. Complete builds, no multi-day nonsense, and a nice variety of vehicles and minifigs. Disney could have also had a great advent calendar if they removed the whole arch design requirement and made better micro castles that were akin to Vader’s Castle from the Star Wars castle. Kinda funny that the Star Wars calendar had a better castle build than anything from the Disney one.
Eric: Disney and Hot Sauces Thoughts
This is, I think, my sixth year doing these advent calendars for FBTB, and my first year branching off of Harry Potter. I chose the Disney calendar, though next year, I may not. Here are the pros and cons:
PROS:
It’s not as predictable as Harry Potter.
A wide range of colors and pieces: lime green, white, bright pink, etc.
The castle vignettes are legitimately cool and pack a nice amount of detail into a handful of pieces.
CONS:
The minidolls (or whatever they are) are extremely ugly.
Some of the builds feel out-of-place or like fillers.
LEGO is determined to include some dumb spinning game in all these calendars.
We got a Christmas tree. Again. It’s terrible. Again.
My overall impressions, then? Well…it was fine. Looking at Nick’s and Ace’s calendars, I think mine was the only one that had ZERO to do with Christmas (save for the shoehorned Christmas tree). That’s not great. I am not into Disney, so it’s hard to justify a price tag that sits equal with Star Wars, Marvel, and Harry Potter. If you or your kid like Disney more than the other properties, go for it. If they just want to do ANY advent calendar, I’d go with the LEGO City or LEGO Friends calendars. Save $15. But expect a boring Christmas tree model. It always shows up, no matter the calendar.
As for the hot sauces…they sucked. I got two hot sauce calendars from World Market: 12 Days of Hot Sauce and Culinary Passport Hot Sauce Collection. I should have known better, because these calendars usually are extremely distilled and not spicy, and that sure is what I encountered. A real disappointment compared to the genuine pain from the hot sauces in 2022.
I am already working on next year’s hot sauces and, believe me, each and every one of them will be HOT.
FINAL SCORES:
LEGO Disney Advent Calendar: 20 Hits / 4 Misses
HOT SAUCES: ALL BAD
Nick: Marvel and Rocks and Dice Thoughts
The Marvel calendar has become a running joke around here, and the rumor mill has it that this will be its last year, with another theme taking over. Why can’t we get a good DC or Batman calendar on the rotation, LEGO? You could charge $100 for a minifigure heavy Batman calendar and I would happily lap it up.
We only got 5 full minifigures in the set, and only one of them is truly unique. And the one that was unique was just half-assed with those terrible gray legs.
So many of the builds were Spider-Man themed but… not great. Either two small, spread across multiple days, or worse… just boring. The stuff that wasn’t was fine, but again, so much of it was lazy or forgettable.
Even when this calendar tries, it so often misses, like putting Gwen in front of a toy drum set that doesn’t have enough parts. Or, it’s biggest sin…
… giving us a not-Santa with the Goblin. Just putting the regular goblin on this terrible glider, and not theming the bag or pumpkin is a great picture of the laziness of this calendar.
This is the sum-total of dice that you get in this calendar, which isn’t a terrible amount of dice, but it also shows how much Chessex has sort of stagnated in their dice as of late. I’ve got… a few (hundred, maybe thousand) dice around, and the older I’ve gotten, the less I like gimmicky dice and instead focus on things like how nice they look and how usable they are. Contrast between the number and dice is the most important to me.
The best of the sets we got spread out were the blue and white, and hit all of the spots I want in dice. These are going to go into the bag with other good sets to be used for D&D games and the like.
The second best set, probably won’t be in a regular rotation for me, but I’ll go into my loaner dice that I keep around for other players or give away to new people.
The worst of the three full size sets, I just don’t like the look of these. They’re too inconsistent in look, and not colors I’d normally use. They’ll go in the dice dungeon, which is a large bag of dice that I put in a storage box somewhere and forget about until I open the box and look for something else.
The rock calendar was a fun little idea, but I’ll be honest, the final output of it was fairly unimpressive. About a third of them were nice, pretty stones, but so many weren’t clear what they were or weren’t even on the list of rocks that were supposed to be with it.
I did have fun imagining what Rock Raiders 2026 would be like, though, so I guess the $15 I spent on this were worth it. And my kids will get a whole bunch of rocks to put into collections of other rocks.
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.
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.
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: 15 Hits / 7 Misses
Disney: 16 Hits / 4 Misses (waiting for the finished Disney castle)
Marvel: 5 Hits / 17 Misses
Ace: Star Wars Day 23 (and Disney)
As micro Landspeeders go, this is probably as good as it’s going to get. And that’s not a bad thing at all. This model is outstanding. It definitely helps that a half circle tile piece now exists. The studs that represent Luke and C-3PO instantly replays the scene in your head where they are out searching for R2 in the Jundland Wastes. Just a fantastic little build.a clear plate or two on the bottom to give it the hover effect would have been awesome!
The other side of the castle. It’s an exact mirror of day 21 so I’m giving it the exact same thumbs down score. I cannot wait for this calendar to end.
Eric: Disney Day 23 (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.
And here’s the right side of the castle. It is identical to Day 21’s build, except flipped. Not a lot to say about this one. It’s a necessity, but a boring one.
The hot sauce – AFRICAN CAYENNE HOT SAUCE – was, as per usual, not hot and very acidic. Pretty dull day.
LEGO Day 23: NO RANKING
HOT SAUCE Day 23: 2/5
Nick: Marvel Day 23 (and Rocks and Dice)
And lo, on the 23 day, he looked down upon us and said, “enough with this crap, give them something great.” And so it was. A Spider-Ham snowman is every great little thing that’s on there, including the extra nose detail. Would I have liked a more rounded center? Yes. But I won’t ding this as the best thing in the calendar so far. Not enough to make up for this garbage pile, but a nice penultimate day.
Our last little d4 for the ugly set, so we can wrap that one up too. I’ll go through all the sets on the last day, but it does feel vaguely threatening that they keep ending on the terror that is the d4.
Fairly certain this is moonstone, and it’s always a cool little rock to get. For our Rock Raiders reboot, this is the source of the Old Rocks, and every one of the new ships is powered by it. It’s vanishing from the universe, and so it’s always in demand.
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 / 7 Misses
Disney: 16 Hits / 4 Misses (waiting for the finished Disney castle)
Marvel: 5 Hits / 16 Misses
Ace: Star Wars Day 22 (and Disney)
The Razor Crest is pretty recognizable, isn’t it? Nothing else in the Star Wars universe comes close. Not a fan of the American cheese slice tile on the side. I don’t think the pattern on the source material is really all that distinguishable to warrant the tile. It’s a shame Favreau decided to, spoiler alert, blow it up. I think Mando’s replacement ship, a repurposed Naboo N-1, is a huge downgrade. That aside, this micro model is the bee’s knees!
Yep. Multi day build for what is seemingly Cinderella’s castle. Since today is day 22, I’m guessing there are two more builds coming to complete this model, taking us to the end. I’d be very surprised if the last day included a baby minidoll of Cinderella herself. I read what Eric wrote about liking these multi day builds. I can see both the merit, but I’ve always complained about stuff like this. What if in the Star Wars calendar, we get one really nice wing from an X-Wing Starfighter for one day and the rest of the ship spread out for the next four days? I’d burn the calendar to the ground. There shouldn’t be an exception because this is a Disney calendar.
Eric: Disney Day 22 (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.
Here’s the middle bit of the Disney castle. I’m a big fan of the vignettes in this calendar – there’s a lot of detail captured (or implied) in just a handful of pieces. I’m still not going to rank them yet, but just know that I LOVE this part.
Today’s sauce is called ORIGINAL HOT SAUCE. It is not original, nor is it good. Therefore it is bad and honestly extremely acidic. Terrible.
LEGO Day 22: NO RANKING
HOT SAUCE Day 22: 1/5
Nick: Marvel Day 22 (and Rocks and Dice)
I know I asked for some real sized gifts earlier in this garbage calendar, but I don’t think it was this. The whole half-assedry of this calendar continues to amaze. We get… a Mysterio-themed gift, I guess? They just forgot that we had the Goblin, Miles, and Gwen in this? Or is this supposed to be the Green Goblin and he’s taken up fortune telling? I need a new word for the nature of missing in this calendar. With two days left, this is already far and away the worst calendar we’ve ever done on this site, so I have no idea how it could save anything.
Hey there, we can complete up this set… which will make a good gift for my daughter. She loves blue and colorful things.
Have you ever wondered what it’d be like to get to get the leftover bits of a geode after someone breaks it open to see the really good parts? That’s what we have here. We’re not going to put this into our wonderful Rock Raiders revival, because this is the stuff you get when you pull tools off the little sprue.
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 / 6 Misses
Disney: 16 Hits / 4 Misses
Marvel: 5 Hits / 15 Misses
Ace: Star Wars Day 21 (and Disney)
I always found it odd that there would be a set called Darth Vader’s Castle, and that the castle would be located on a lava river. Really? This guy was forged from lava and not by his own free will either. And he chooses to put abode there? I mean, I understand sometimes it feels good to press hard on a bruise as it fades away but losing your legs and an arm in a fight with your mentor you’d think he’d opt for settling somewhere that’s not on Mustafar, like on Hoth or something. He could have taken over the lease at the Rebel base. Also, it’s known as “Fortress Vader” on Wookieepedia, and that sounds way more apropros than “Vader’s Castle”. Zero out of ten for just being lame all around. To be fair though, I’ll give one point for accuracy. Seems like things are on a downward spiral for the calendar… let’s hope it picks back up.
Today is castle day it seems. I think its Cinderella’s castle? I can’t tell if I like or hate the fact that I have to guess who this paired build belongs to. Maybe this is part one of a multi-day castle build? That would be kind of neat and lame at the same time. I’m gonna have to poopoo on this one and give it a thumbs down.
Eric: Disney Day 21 (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.
This is just one of four parts of a full Disney castle build, so I can’t really rate it as-is, because, you know, it’s not complete. I will, however, say that I really like this idea: building just parts of a whole throughout the advent calendar. It feels more cohesive and there’s more anticipation, strangely, when you know what’s coming. I hope LEGO does more of this in the future.
The hot sauce – JALAPENO HOT SAUCE MEXICO – was actually really good. Actually kind of spicy, and it really tasted like a fresh jalapeno pepper. I am shocked, especially since it is rated as “mild”. I would actually cook with this one.
LEGO Day 21: NO RANKING
HOT SAUCE Day 21: 5/5
Nick: Marvel Day 21 (and Rocks and Dice)
Second half of the sleigh isn’t the nightmarish mess that the other half of this thing was, but it’s so insignificant that there doesn’t feel like there’s any reason these couldn’t have been put together. Yeah, that’d be a lot of parts for one day, but given how the rest of this thing was they could have done it.
We get the rest of the dice from a bit more than a week ago, and it’s probably the best of the lot that we’ve gotten. Strange that the two full sets we’ve gotten, one mini and one full sized, were both spread across just a couple of days.
Is this a gray agate or is it a clamshell? I don’t know, and neither will the mercenary crew S.H.E.L.L. Because no one messes with crabs, and they’ll sell their services to the highest bidder, studding their shells with rocks and stones.
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 / 5 Misses
Disney: 15 Hits / 4 Misses
Marvel: 5 Hits / 14 Misses
Ace: Star Wars Day 20 (and Disney)
One of those guards from the stupidest Star Wars movie ever. Praetorian Guard? ::checks Google:: OMG I was right. I’m amazed I remembered the correct name. What’s hilarious is that in all of LEGO’s efforts to put faces on every Star Wars minifig, the Praetorian Guard has just a blank red minifig head. Lame.
At last, Mirabel makes her appearance capping off an eternity of Encanto builds. I absolutely love the hair piece. If there’s one thing that the past couple of years have given us LEGO fans that I truly appreciate, it’s the variety of hair elements. Thumbs up.
Eric: Disney Day 20 (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.
Again, let me reiterate: I have not seen Encanto. At this point, I doubt that I ever will see Encanto. So I can’t make any funny jokes about this lady, because I don’t know anything about this lady.
Still, I like her hair piece. That’s good enough for me.
Today’s sauce is a mainstay at my house: SRIRACHA. Yep. Just sriracha. It’s really good. I eat it on salmon often.
LEGO Day 20: 4/5
HOT SAUCE Day 20: 5/5
Nick: Marvel Day 20 (and Rocks and Dice)
Can I go back and retroactively make the Goblin even more of a negative after seeing that they did, sort of, put a holiday theme on the glider? I hate these multiple day builds, we get one every year, and they’re never good. This one is… just a bunch of parts mashed together. It’s better than most of the stuff, but still not good and it’s just ugly. More than that, it’s tough getting Goblin to stick on there well, and we’re not going to get his garbage bin holder until tomorrow. Still a miss, because despite it being themed, it wasn’t at all fun to build.
Another random d20 day and none of our bigger sets filled. It’s a very pretty color though, with excellent contrast. The arrow indicators are kind of odd, because I guess someone might assume they rolled a 91 or a L1 without the arrow. But not an OZ, because that’d just be silly.
This is the most Green Fluorite to have ever greened, and obviously, back to our rock raiders theme, this is the elemental force that powers all things. It’s in all of us, around us, and it moves through us.
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.
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.
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: 13 Hits / 4 Misses
Disney: 14 Hits / 3 Misses
Marvel: 5 Hits / 12 Misses
Ace: Star Wars Day 18 (and Disney)
The U-Wing was one set from the Rogue One themed sets that I regret not picking up. I didn’t think too much of it when it was on the store shelf. It wasn’t until after I saw it in action that it grew on me. Oh well. At least I have this micro version of it, even if the forward wings don’t fold back. If they did, that would have just been insane and blown my mind. Now that I think about it, if they used those old hinge plates, it might be doable at this scale. But as it is, it’s still fun to swoosh around and pretty recognizable, even for an old fogey like me.
The house from Encanto is what I’m guessing. And that guess is purely based on a process of elimination: it doesn’t look like it belongs to any of the princesses we’ve already gotten, especially since they’ve already been matched up with their respective houses. And as far as the princesses we haven’t seen yet, Mirabel is a contender. We’ll see if we get a tiny version of her tomorrow. I guess I’m going to have to thumbs up this one.
Looking ahead at Eric’s post, he did what I did a few days ago and got the days mixed up. I apologize on his behalf if it spoils anything.
Eric: Disney Day 18 (and Hot Sauces)
I am also 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.
Again, I have not seen Encanto, so I do not know anything about this table and this candle. But – I like it! I like the design the leaves add to it, I like the colors, I like it all.
I don’t hate today’s sauce – LOUISIANA HOT SAUCE. But I grew up hearing about how hot this sauce allegedly was. Now I am thinking that the people I grew up with never ate anything spicy, because this wasn’t even a blip on the radar. It was absolutely delicious, but not hot at all.
God, that’s so frustrating.
LEGO Day 18: 3/5
HOT SAUCE Day 18: 4/5
Nick: Marvel Day 18 (and Rocks and Dice)
Well, I guess the streak is done. I get that this is supposed to be a milk and cookies and… the traditional Christmas pizza. Honestly the biggest issue here is the table just being so lackluster, 3 whole parts that can’t even give us a big base. Pizza is very Spidey but this just all feels tossed together.
More orange and white, with more white than orange, so this one is easier to see than some of the others have been. We’re close on this set, five of them done so just waiting on the other two.
My camera hated trying to get a picture of this stone and I have absolutely no idea why. It’s apparently “Chevron Amethyst,” which is one of the apparently twelve variety of amethyst out there. Also, trying to search for gemstones or rocks is apparently just fifty pages of crystal healing nonsense. Or maybe AI responses for how many of these things that you can eat safely.
This doesn’t look like cheese though, so I don’t really need that answer.
