December 1st has finally arrived, which means for many that the winter holiday celebrations can truly begin. For us it means that it’s finally time to dive into unpacking this year’s LEGO Advent Calendars. Earlier in the year we took a look at all three new calendars for 2018. But rather than only count down to the holidays with one like last year, we’ll be assembling both the Star Wars and City kits. With 24 different builds to assemble for each set, it’ll be exciting to see what’s included this time around. Head below to see what today’s builds have stacked up to.
Day 24:
Star Wars – Rebel Pilot Snowman
Unfortunately, LEGO outdid themselves last year with the festive Santa hat-clad BB-8. For this year, they’re taking a similar Christmas-themed approach with a Rebel Pilot Snowman. The seven-piece build is high-lighted by an exclusive new helmet printing that pairs perfectly with the snowman minifigure head. It’s a fantastic way to end the calendar, and a delightful take on a festive Star Wars build.
City – Santa
On the City side, LEGO is ending the Advent calendar with the a minifigure of Kris Kringle himself. What would a countdown to the holidays be without Santa, and today’s gift unwraps a him alongside his iconic red suit, beard and a bag of toys. There’s nothing exclusive about the figure, though it’s still a nice addition to any collection.
Day 23:
Star Wars – General Antoc Merrick
The name Antoc Merrick may not instantly ring a bell for you, as he’s one of the more recent additions to the Star Wars universe. Making his debut in Rogue One, Merrick is as leader of Blue Squadron. Even though he is only makes a few-second long appearance in the film, the character’s first brick-built appearance is just phenomenal.
All of the minifigure’s printing is just top-notch, with a torso design that carries into his legs. The face and hair piece aren’t rare, but overall, this my favorite minifig we’ve seen so far. Tomorrow’s final build has its work cut out, as this is just tough to beat.
City – Rescue Helicopter
As what may very well be the final miniature build of the Advent calendar, today we’re getting a bright yellow rescue helicopter. The 16-piece creation nails its execution and while the rotor up top doesn’t actually spin, it’s still a detailed build for its size and one of the more unique so far.
Day 22:
Star Wars – Festive Moisture Vaporator
As the first actually festive Star Wars build, today assemble a holiday-themed Moisture Vaporator. If you’re wondering what exactly a Moisture Vaporator is, well they’re devices found on Tatooine to collect water. They make an appearance in Episode 4 and many other times in a galaxy far, far away.
But today’s version comes decked out in green. It’s the closest thing we’re going to get to a Christmas Tree in the Star Wars for now, but the 16-piece build is great fits perfectly into the calendar.
City – Toy Robot
Day 22 stacks up to fantastic 14-piece robot creation. It has a nice printed gauge element on the front, but what’s even better is a wind-up key on the back. This little robot is certainly one of the more novel miniature builds we’ve seen in the calendar so far, and perhaps even my favorite. A building is included as well, so you can recreate all your scenes from a favorite giant robot movie.
Day 21:
Star Wars – Speeder Bike
To end work week, day 21 is giving us a miniature speeder bike build. This particular speeder is one of the Imperial bikes from Endor and is surprising detailed for its size. There is some very clever usage of parts, like the bucket handle for handlebars. It isn’t quite minifigure scale, but is maybe only half the size that a true one would be.
It’s one of the best creations so far, meaning with only three days to go, LEGO is going to be pulling out all the stops.
City – Candy Cane Clock Tower
Finally, another festive-themed build! Today we’re graced with a candy cane clock tower build that stacks up to just ten pieces. Naturally, it is comprised mainly of red and white elements but is then joined by a green plant part as well as a nice printed piece.
It stands just over the height of a minifigure, making it a great addition to your LEGO City. We’ve seen pretty few holiday builds that weren’t just presents, so it’s exciting that as the days wind down to Christmas, we’ve gotten yet another festive creation.
Day 20:
Star Wars – Zeta Class Cargo Shuttle
Following up yesterday’s AT-ACT, today’s build focuses on recreating a vehicle from Rogue One as well. While not as exciting as the walker, the cargo shuttle is prominently featured in the film as a way to transport Kyber Crystals from Jedha and is then taken to Scarif for the latter half of the film.
It isn’t the most recognizable transport vehicle in the Star Wars universe. So that being said, the miniature rendition does a pretty good job making its inspiration apparent.
City – Mining Vehicle
On the City side of things, today’s build stacks up to a miniature mining vehicle. I’m not entirely sure if there’s a specific real-life one it is modeled after though. The creation’s red and yellow color scheme is a nice change of pace from what we’ve seen so far. The black treads are a nice touch as well, and overall, today’s miniature is one of the better ones in my account.
Day 19:
Star Wars – AT-ACT Walker
Making its silver-screen debut in Rogue One, the AT-ACT Walker is an alternative model of the iconic four-legged vehicles we first saw on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back. The Imperial land transport is defined by an orange section of its body, but still features the same menacing design as the original version.
This is the first time we’ve seen the AT-ACT Walker make its official LEGO appearance. Given its smaller part count, they’ve definitely done the walker justice. Today’s miniature is one of the more appealing ones in my book, and I love how posable it is.
City – RC Cars
For day 19 in the City calendar, we’re getting two RC cars. Sporting red and blue colorways, the cars are paired with matching controllers. The designs for them are pretty ingenious, with only six pieces making up each of the vehicles. They’re the perfect scale to go along with the minifigures, which is another added bonus.
Day 18:
Star Wars – First Order Tie Fighter
Day 18 is sticking with the Sequel Trilogy theming, but opting to mix things up with a miniature First Order Tie Fighter. This is by no means we’ve seen the starfighter make a LEGO appearance, as we’ve seen minifigure-scale kits, mini-scale and even a poly bag release in the past. Today’s inclusion in the Advent Calendar is by far the smallest through.
It does a great job at simplifying the design down to just 12 pieces. Still incorporated are the Tie Fighter’s signature colors, a transparent red cockpit and a touch of red accenting. It’s definitely one of the cooler micro builds we’ve seen so far in my book.
City – Monster Truck
After sinking our teeth into so dessert-themed builds the past two days, we’re now getting another miniature creation for day 18. The 15-part build stacks up to a little monster truck with added dirt ramp for some extra playability. It’s a little too big to be a toy for a minifigure, and too small to be a scaled-down version to ride on. But, the colors are nice and the design is pretty spot on, even if it doesn’t fit quite perfectly into the calendar.
Day 17:
Star Wars – Guavian Death Gang Soldier
To pair with yesterday’s Rathtar, the 17th Star Wars creation is minifigure from The Force Awakens. As one of the lesser- known characters in the film, the Guavian Death Gang Soldiers barely received any screen time. The same can be said for the soldier when it comes to LEGO, as we’ve only see the figure in one kit prior to this; 2017’s Rathtar Escape set.
Even so, it’s a nicely designed figure with a unique head along with some detailed printing on both the torso and legs. He doesn’t have a blaster, so that weapon rack is coming in handy after all. Odds are many won’t already have the figure, so today’s inclusion is a pretty nice one at that.
City – Pastry Chef
And just as we had hoped, today’s build continues the theming of yesterday’s dessert cart. The new pastry chef minifigure comes with a festive-looking sweater, plain brown pants, a chef’s hat and most importantly, a plate full of cookies. It’s nice to see LEGO pairing multiple day’s worth of builds together like this, with today’s creation being one of the better figures we’ve seen so far in my book.
Day 16:
Star Wars – Rathtar
Today’s Star Wars build returns to the Sequel Trilogy with a lesser-known creation. We’ve seen the Rathtar make an appearance in LEGO form only once before, with 2017’s Rathtar Escape set. This time the menacing creature is a lot smaller and only comprised of 12 pieces. Even so, it’s a very detailed miniature build and does a really great job recreating its inspiration from The Force Awakens.
City – Dessert Cart
We’re in for a treat with today’s City build, as it assembles a quaint little desserts shop. As one of the more complex builds so far, it stacks up to 21 pieces. The cart features two round wheels which are complemented by a transparent brick to help sell the rolling capabilities. It also includes two little cup cake-like desserts and a multi-colored canopy. Perhaps we’ll see a cart operator to go along with it in tomorrow’s gift.
Day 15:
Star Wars – Death Trooper
We’re heading into the third week of the calendar, and getting another must-have minifigure. Today’s gift unwraps the sleek Death Trooper, a Stormtrooper variant popularized by the more recent film Rogue One. They’ve appeared in other sets before, like Krennic’s Imperial Shuttle, which is where I first fell in love with their all-black designs and new helmet form-factor.
The figures are much less common than typical Stormtrooper, making this a great chance to expand your Imperial army. The only real downside is that the minifigure doesn’t come with a gun. But if you recall, yesterday’s weapon rack included two LEGO blasters. So I’m sure if one went missing no one would notice…
The printing is just spot-on, with both the torso and legs receiving detailed markings. This is definitely the best minifigure we’ve gotten so far in my book, so it’ll one interesting to see if what’s to come can top it.
City – Christmas Tree
As a wonderful followup to yesterday’s presents, today assembles a top-notch brick-built Christmas Tree. The 22-piece creation stacks up to minifigure scale and does a fantastic job executing the tree design, but also on adding in lights. It’s topped off by a golden microfigure, which is some of the most best parts’ usage we’ve seen so far.
It’s great to get two festive builds back-to-back, and that only makes me more excited for what is to come tomorrow.
Day 14:
Star Wars – Weapons Rack
The dreaded day has finally come. Each year of the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar, there’s always that one super lackluster build. While we weren’t overly enthused by the laser turret from Day 10, today’s is the least appealing that we’re likely to see. Today’s weapons rack is comprised of just nine pieces, with two of those being LEGO rifles. With 10 days left, hopefully we’ll start seeing some more notable builds now that things can only go uphill.
City – Presents
Finally! Another festive city build. Today unwraps three uniquely colored LEGO presents. The designs aren’t overly complex, but with 14 total pieces, they are very well-crafted. The red and white stocking is by far the best of the bunch in my book though. Now if only there was a tree to put them under…
Day 13:
Star Wars – Imperial Troop Transport
Today’s unboxing brings up back to the Original Trilogy, to showcase a vehicle from the outer reaches of the Star Wars universe. Unlike ships like the X-Wing or Tie Fighter, the Imperial Troop Transport doesn’t receive any screen time in the original three films. It’s one of the
We’ve seen a vehicle by the same name appear back in 2015, but it’s not apparent that the two models share the same inspiration. The build is very plain and blocky. And with the fact that many won’t instantly recognize it, makes today’s miniature one of the less appealing ones so far.
City – Girl with Ice Cream
As a nice follow up to yesterday’s ice cream machine, today we’re getting another minifigure. The girl features a nice holiday sweater and carries a pretty tasty looking brick-build ice cream cone. There isn’t much to go on about here though. She’s a composed of pretty common elements and aside from the festive attire, today’s build is just alright in my opinion. Though, it is always nice to have another figure to popular one’s LEGO city with.
Day 12:
Star Wars – Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter
Day 12 has returned us to the Clone Wars with an excellent brick-build miniature of Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter. Despite being one of the more memorable vehicles in the Prequel Era, Anakin’s ship of choice has only popped up in the LEGO world a small handful of times. This makes the its only third debut in the past eleven years.
The micro build may be its smallest incarnation yet, but it does a fantastic job at recreating the ship. It’s yellow and grey color scheme is instantly recognizable. While the design is well-thought out for much of the build, of course, my favorite aspect is the single white stud mean to be R2-D2 on the starfighter’s hood.
City – Ice Cream Machine
On the City calendar side, day 12 brings us yet another minifigure scale prop to fill our brick-built towns with. The ice cream machine is comprised of 14 pieces does an alright job of conveying that it is in fact an ice cream machine. Without the cone on top of the build, I might have been left guessing what it was. But at such a low part count, it’s hard to fault it.
Even through we’re half-way through the calendar, we’ve only really gotten two holiday-themed builds so far. So hopefully LEGO has saved the Christmas spirit for the second half and tomorrow we’ll start seeing some more festive creations.
Day 11:
Star Wars – Rowan Freemaker
Today’s unboxing brings us our second true minifigure and fourth if you consider the two droids. Much like day three’s Arrowhead starfighter, Rowan entered the Star Wars universe from the Freemaker Adventures animated series. The figure has shown up in a few different sets so far, making it a fairly common minifig as far as they come, But for many who haven’t collected any of those kits, today’s inclusion will very well be the first instance of Rowan in your collection.
City – Toy Train
Day eleven brings us back to another brick-built gift. This time we’re getting a nice 17-piece toy train that features a nice orange coat of paint and is comprised of two different cars. It’s one of the larger builds from the City calendar thus far and that’s at least notable. But otherwise, there isn’t much that really makes it stand out, as the parts usage is fairly common.
Day 10:
Star Wars – Laser Turret
Not every day of the advent calendar can unwrap an awesome new minifigure or miniature starfighter. Some of the builds are more generic creations to hold us over until the next day. Today’s Laser Turret is the first one of these that the 2018 Star Wars calendar has seen.
The build isn’t modeled after anything in particular from the Star Wars universe and stacks up to just 10 pieces. It does have a stud-shooter though, which is at least a nice touch and an improvement from past year’s filler creations. Hopefully tomorrow’s isn’t as lack-luster and we’ll get some more variety from just Prequel Era builds.
City – Soccer Goals
Unfortunately, the City calendar has followed its Star Wars counterpart. Day ten here also stacks up to a mediocre build, with two soccer goals and an orange ball. Each of the goals are comprised of six pieces and come in red and blue versions. They’re both joined by a ball piece to complete the soccer game.
Just like the Star Wars laser turret, there isn’t much to really say about these builds other than that they’re not as appealing to the previous day’s creations. Our fingers are crossed that tomorrow’s model gets us back on the festive train with some more Christmas-themed miniatures.
Day 9:
Star Wars – General Grievous Starfighter
Continuing the trend from the last few days, we’re now seeing a miniature brick-build version of General Grievous’ Starfighter. First making an appearance in Revenge of the Sith, the ship has made a variety of different LEGO appearances over the past 13 years. In fact, today’s inclusion is actually the second time it has made it into a Star Wars advent calendar. Back in 2012 we got a smaller version of the micro build, with the new model improving on its predecessor with an interesting selection of parts and more.
The build itself is one of my favorites so far. It nails the source material and while it may not be one of the most well-known vehicles in the Star Wars universe, I’ve always been pretty partial to it.
City – Steet Lamp
Today’s City build is about as classic of a festive decoration as you could ask. The holiday-themed street lamp is features a pretty normal looking lamp outfitted with some holly. It looks straight out of the Winter Village line of sets, making it a perfect addition to your festive City.
While we’ve seen the snowman and sled already, this is really the first Christmas-centered build so far. The street lamp may not be the flashiest way to decorate your town, but it’s a very solid one at that and a good omen for what’s to come down the line.
Day 8:
Star Wars – Battle Droid
Today’s gift follows nicely from yesterday, with a standard Battle Droid. Similarly to the Naboo Starfighter, the droids made their way into a galaxy far, far away in The Phantom Menace. In the LEGO world, they’ve dethroned Stormtroopers or Clones as the most commonly reoccurring minifigures in the Star Wars line up. Even so, it’s still a nice inclusion, as you can always have one more to add to your Trade Federation Army.
City – Drone
Today’s City build takes the form of a quadcopter drone with controller. Measuring up to 15 pieces, it’s about on-par with all of the other models that we’ve seen so far and utilizes clever parts usage better than any of the other City creations.
This is definitely my favorite build from the City calendar so far. The use of the steering wheels for propellers is such a great decision. It also follows the theming of many other miniatures so far, holiday gifts. I mean, who wouldn’t want to unwrap such a spiffy little drone. It may not be the most festive like the snowman, but I’m a big fan nonetheless.
Day 7:
Star Wars – Naboo Starfighter
Just as we were getting comfortable enjoying builds from the Original Trilogy, LEGO has thrown us a curveball. Day seven of the advent calendar drops us into the Prequel era with a The Phantom Menace-themed build. The miniature Naboo Starfigher stacks up to 16 pieces and does a phenomenal job recreating the sleek space craft.
It’s one of the most recognizable items from the Episode 1, so it makes sense that LEGO has chosen it as the first build from that section of the Star Wars universe. We’ve had three really top-notch builds in a row, and with LEGO abandoning any kind of order to the gifts, it’ll be exciting to see what we unbox tomorrow.
City – Shovel Women
The seventh day of the City Advent Calendar finally gives us our second minifigure. While we’ve seen three so far from the Star Wars side, today’s women with shovel has only been preceded by the boy with coin. The new figure is fairly average in my book as far as City characters go.
Her torso does have some great printing with a belt and scarf, though with just white pants, as well as common head and hair pieces, there isn’t much that makes today’s calendar inclusion standout too much.
Day 6:
Star Wars – Cloud City
Breaking the cycle that we’ve thus far, day six of the calendar returns to Bespin with such a fantastic miniature recreation of Cloud City. Rather than moving onto the. Sequel Trilogy, the calendar has stayed in the confines of the Empire Strikes Back. Yesterday we saw an IG-88 figure which tied in perfectly to Cloud City, so today’s gift is a pretty nice followup.
Sure it only stacks up to 12 pieces. But this micro build might just have one of the most brilliant usage of parts we’ve seen. It nails the look of the floating city and the extra touch of the miniature cloud car is just such a delightful addition. The previous builds have been great, but day six is definitely my favorite so far.
City – Snowman
Day six of the City Advent Calendar is giving us the most wintery builds so far, with a neat minifigure-scale snowman. It leverages a white torso alongside a nice snow bank-looking element and is rounded out by a top hat, scarf and a cup of hot cocoa.
Though not having a face printed on the snowman’s head is a little bit disappointing. There are plenty of different sets that do opt to include such a part. So it could have been done, but sadly was not. Even so, today’s build is a nice addition.
Day 5:
Star Wars – IG-88
Day five in the Star Wars calendar gives us our second minifigure, the infamous bounty hunter IG-88. The droid is a pretty standard build, with the same general design dating back quite a few years. IG-88 does have a very nice printed ‘face’ that features decals all the way around the 1 x 1 cylinder.
Similar bounty hunter droids have appeared in various LEGO sets in the past. Even though it is the same figure as this year’s Betrayal at Cloud City set, it’s a nice addition to one’s collection of Star Wars minifigures. Now that we’re back to the Original Trilogy, there’s a good chance that tomorrow we’ll see a build from the Sequel era if things continue similarly to the first four days.
City – Sled
In what seems like a perfect addition to yesterday’s calendar gift, today unwraps a miniature brick-built sled with a snowbank. Stacking up to 11 pieces, it isn’t the most complex build we’ve seen so far. But it fits the theming quite nicely and gives our boy minifigure yet another toy to play with.
The fact that it can fit a minifigure is a nice touch, though the two-piece snow pile build is almost as minimal as it gets and kind of silly. I see why they decided to include it, but those two pieces could have been better spent improving the sled or for another day’s build. Regardless, day five’s creation is yet another great way to add a little more festive cheer to your brick-built city.
Day 4:
Star Wars – Republic Fighter Tank
The fourth day’s build takes us to yet another part of the Star Wars universe. Stemming from the Clone Wars era, the miniature Republic Fighter Tank has seen its fair share of LEGO releases over the years. For its first model at this scale though, the LEGO creators have done a great job capturing its likeness in under 20 pieces.
You’ll find the tank’s iconic red sloping, a translucent cockpit and even two side-mounted cannons. As the first Prequel Era build we’ve seen so far, it’s a pretty great one and a nice way to round out all of the different models we’ve seen so far. In past years the calendars opted to hit us with several builds in the same era back-to-back. So it’s refreshing that we’re getting some variety each day.
City – Husky
While we’ve been pretty lucky with the first few days of the City Advent Calendar, day four brings us the first lackluster build. Comprised of just three different pieces, today we get a Siberian husky dog with a plate and turkey leg to snack on. It’ll be a nice addition to one’s LEGO city for sure. Though, the husky figure is pretty common amongst the City Arctic sets, so there isn’t anything exclusive or even rare. So compared to the other miniature models we’ve seen, it’s the weakest of the batch so far. Regardless, this husky is still a very good boy.
Day 3:
Star Wars – The Arrowhead
Today’s build was one that I wasn’t exactly familiar with right off the bat. The miniature ship isn’t exactly the most well-known star fighter in the Star Wars universe, and is in fact tied directly to the brick-built version of a galaxy far, far away. The Arrowhead made its debut last year in Freemaker Adventures.
As such, this is sure to be a bigger hit with younger LEGO fans than someone like myself. Even so, the build is well-done and captures the essence of the model it’s shaped from. Every year we get a few odd-ball inclusions in the calendar, and it looks like now we can check one of those off the list.
City – Formula One Car
Day three of City side of things brings us a neat little brick-built race car. It’s scaled perfectly with the boy minifigure and manages to include rolling wheels despite its smaller size. The build clocks in with a smaller part count than the daily builds usually do, but it makes such good use of the included parts that it’s hard to complain. Plus, the fact that it actually fits a minifigure makes it even more of a delightful little build.
So far the City advent calendar is packing a lot more playability than the Star Wars counterpart. Though we have yet to really get any festive-themed builds, the three miniatures thus far have all in hits in my book.
Days 2:
Star Wars – Rose Tico
This year LEGO is wasting no time diving into the Sequel Trilogy, and we’ve even gotten a notable minifigure as well. Today unboxes Rose Tico, a Resistance mechanic that joined the Star Wars universe with the debut of The Last Jedi. This is the same figure that was originally included in the Resistance Transport Pod set. Even though it isn’t an exclusive, this is only the second inclusion of Rose in a kit.
Rose’s printing is on par with just about any other Star Wars minifigure. The tan jumpsuit includes some nice detailing on the belt, with the torso featuring most of the notable printing. Given that she isn’t been in many sets before, the figure is a surprising early inclusion for the calendar and is a great addition to my Star Wars minifigure collection.
City – Boy with coin
The City calendar’s second day also brings a minifigure, which in this case is a small boy with a coin. He comes donning a puffy green jacket with blue pants. A gray beanie and $5 silver coin then complete the assumable. The figure’s face has a lot of character compared to a typical generic minifigure, and features a double-sided print; a smile on one side and an anxiety-filled lip-bitting look on the other.
It’s a solid figure for this early in the calendar and it will be interesting to see if tomorrow’s build assembles a new toy for the boy or if we’ll get some other kind of festive creation.
Day 1:
Star Wars – Landspeeder
Starting things off with some love for the Original Trilogy, the Star Wars Advent Calendar’s first build is a small but well-crafted Landspeeder. Even though it doesn’t get that much screen time in the first film, Luke’s speeder has still become one of the more memorable vehicles in the franchise.
As such we’ve seen it appear in LEGO form a variety of times in the past, with today’s build being the second miniature rendition. Back in 2014’s advent calendar there was a similar Landspeeder, but this year’s version features notable improvements. The 18-piece build nails the speeder’s design despite relying on mainly tan and brown pieces and all-in-all, the micro build is a fantastic start to this year’s festivities.
City – Space Shuttle
On the City side of things, we’re also getting a space-themed vehicle for day one of the advent calendar. Not to be shown up by the build from a galaxy far, far away, this micro space shuttle build was pretty surprising to find right off the bat. And at just 17 pieces, easily resembles its real-life inspiration.
The build is comprised of the space shuttle itself on top of a nicely-made booster rocket. The lower section employs some translucent orange bricks to give the appearance it’s in flight, which is a nice touch. It’s scale makes it the perfect size to use for a minifigure’s toy spaceship, a theme which we’re likely to see a lot of through the City calendar.
Be sure to check back in tomorrow to see what etach of the advent calendars have in store for us.
[9to5-press-release]
Open the doors of this galactic 75213 LEGO® Star Wars Advent Calendar each day in December to discover themed LEGO minifigures, starships, vehicles and other collectibles. When you’ve opened all the doors, there’s even a foldout playmat with desert and ice-planet scenes for playing out epic Star Wars adventures. This great gift with 5 minifigures and 3 figures is the perfect way for fans of all ages to get ready for the holidays.
- Open a door every day to reveal 24 different LEGO® Star Wars themed gifts.
- LEGO® Star Wars Advent calendar features 5 minifigures and 3 figures.
- Weapons include a blaster pistol, 3 blaster rifles, 2 blasters and a Lightsaber.
- Also includes a festive-themed moisture vaporator and a snowman, plus extra ammo studs.
- Collect all the gifts and play out your own desert and ice-planet adventures on the included foldout playmat.
[/9to5-press-release]
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