Our Advent calendar countdowns concluded yesterday, but we have one more article to publish on the subject, which has been written by Marty P.

Find a comfy chair, pour a glass of sherry, and make yourself comfortable because it's a long and interesting read:

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Hello there! When I was a child, I always had a fascination when playing with LEGO to build small, microscale builds of spaceships with a dozen or so pieces or less. I always rationalised it in my brain as these spacecraft were simply farther away from a forced perspective sense, hence their small relative appearance.

It made sense then that I was always fascinated with the Star Wars advent calendars LEGO would make. I initially missed the early years advent calendars due to being off in college, but I became aware of them later and initially picked some up for the unique minifigures, but found the build experience fun enough to the point I now have the entire series, with duplicates of some of a couple of the ones that I particularly liked.

Because of this fascination and collecting, I have become aware of some trends within the calendars (e.g., roughly every other year you will see a new Gonk droid in the build). I have seen the new 75418 2025 calendar and the surrounding discussion, and my observations led to doing some study of the entire advent series to put some data around what up until now had just been gut feelings.

I had the suspicion that there was some cost engineering going on behind the scenes (that's going on within the entire LEGO brand), but my review has highlighted to me the ways in which it has happened. It has also enabled me to make some overall observations, predictions and suggestions for improvement, which I wanted to share with you. It may be that some of you long-time LEGO enthusiasts have already caught on to these trends. But for even those who didn't explicitly observe this, in the words of another online hack Star Wars critic, you may not have noticed it, but your brain did. Join me, won't you?

Part 1: Boring Facts

I started with some objective data:

I don t have perfect confidence in my inflation data, but it seemed to for the most part to come to within a few cents with several of the sources I compared, so I believe it is accurate enough for this analysis.

I found a couple of charts here helped to visualise some of the data and make it more useful for trend analysis:

Please note that above I set my base y-axis at $35. This was to better highlight the differences with inflation. What does stand out is that prices in this series have been fairly consistent with the exception of 2012, which seems like a bit of LEGO feeling out what the market would accept.

A count of pieces shows that sets have been growing in general, with the true anomaly being 2025's calendar (more on that later). Now we know that this might be partly because of efficiency improvements in manufacturing processes, but could also be attributed to designs utilising small pieces (a trend that seems common across the entirety of LEGO right now). We really see what this was doing when looking at price per piece data:

What this shows to me is that it does seem there is a bit of a floor for the lowest price per piece a calendar can tolerate, being somewhere around 0.13 to 0.15 cents per piece as expressed in 2025 dollars. The drop in part count allows 2025's calendar to return to approximately 0.15 cents per piece, which seems to be more in keeping with the historical average when inflation is taken into account.

Part 2: What makes an Advent calendar?

I next wanted to do some break downs into what really goes into each of these sets. In general, I saw there being 3 major categories of builds within each calendar:

1. Minifigures: I categorise these as being that which have arms, hands, legs, hips, a torso and a head at minimum. That means 3PO counts as a minifigure in my counting, but R2 does not.

The reason is, I am looking at these in the way that I think LEGO does. While we the end consumer may treat each fig as a collection of 4-5ish pieces, I suspect LEGO thinks of them differently. I think they see a collection of usually at least 10 pieces (2 legs, hips, torso, 2 arms, 2 hands, a head, and usually some sort of hair or helmet piece).

Worse than builds, the legs and torso have to be sub-assembled, which is an additional process for each, plus all the extra parts inventory and Work-In-Progress that has to be managed. Then, to top it all off, the torso and head, at a minimum, have printing, and in some cases the legs and helmets need additional work (plus all the additional overhead of WIP). Point being, minifigures have more inherent value than a lot of simple builds.

2. Droids: I classify this category as really any being or creature that is built at minifigure scale. That means Porgs and Mynocks get lumped into this category as well, but in general, the vast majority of these builds are Droids as classically defined by Star Wars (battle droids, R2 units, etc.). This category usually has less printing than minifigs (though it still has some), and has the usual benefit that there is no sub-assembly required.

3. Builds: This is where I lumped everything else. Mostly microscale ships and vehicles from the world of Star Wars, but since these are Christmas-themed advent calendars, you will also sometimes get a bit of holiday scenery. However, there is the feared subcategory:

3a. Weapons racks: Frequently hated upon due to their robbing a potential slot from what some may feel is a more deserving build, the existence of weapons racks makes some sense from a cost standpoint, as blasters themselves are frequently another cost-intensive adder due to the intricate nature of the moulds used to make them.

With all that said, here is what I came up with as the content for each calendar:

In compiling this list, I did find it interesting that weapons racks have dropped off significantly relative to the initial years (though some might argue 2025 has a lot of weapons racks; I opted to only count those which actually had parts meant to be hand-held that were clipped on to some sort of build).

So far as composition, here is another visual aid I came up with:

The trend I see is the number of minifigures included in each calendar has been working its way down over this period. It started out averaging 6/year, peaked in the mid to late 2010s, and slipped to five-ish from 2021 onwards. The 2025 calendar has a gimmick which totally throws its numbers out of whack, though I believe that is tied to the shrinkflation I mentioned when talking about price per piece.

Part 3: Boring Opinions

I started all this by just reviewing all the calendars and coming with my own arbitrary opinion and ranking system just be reviewing each of the overview pictures. Since I m sure you care so much about a random stranger's opinion of an oddball seasonal subseries of a children's toyline, here s my general, overall at-a-glance opinion of each of the advent calendars:

2011: 7958

I tend to be more favourable to the earlier calendars than I think others are, as I look at them with historical context, which I feel is important. There is a decade and a half of design and process improvements at play that modern sets benefit from, so I definitely curve my opinion with that in mind.

That said, I feel this was a strong start with many of the builds hitting many classic vehicle designs. The X-wing design has only undergone one significant improvement in that time, and that was because I don t believe the stud with the open centre had been developed yet to complete the engine intake. I also liked the minifigure assortment, with special nods to Nute Gunray, the droids, and the clone pilot (even if the helmet wasn t perfect). A Christmas tree and Santa Yoda round out the holiday theme succinctly and sufficiently in my mind.

2012: 9509

The Phantom Menace took centre stage for the 2012 calendar, with half the entries being specific to Episode I. Notable for its then-high fifty-dollar price tag, I again remember liking the builds which I grant in some cases were still somewhat simplistic, but accented with some fun, colourful builds (looking at you Flash speeder, Bongo and N1).

A Gugan warrior and Security battle droid were some fun unique items, and a snowman, R2 and Santa Maul made their holiday appearance, with Maul using a red parka hood to cleverly get around not having the crown of horns piece we have traditionally come to associate with the figure.

2013: 75023

Attack of the Clones! The dawn of the Clone Wars was in focus for 2013's calendar, with a number of Battle of Geonosis builds in the set. The Clone Gunship, AT-TE and Republic Dropship all scaled closely with each other, the latter of which can actually work together to recreate the initial AT-TE drop-off scene.

An Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter and a Jango's Slave I (oh, sorry; Jango Fett's Firespray-Class starship) also played well together. I like the R5-F7 and FA-4 Solar Sail pilot s inclusion, as they both came with rarer sets. To complete the AotC theme, Santa Jango was included, along with a rocket-sled, to add in the Christmas spirit.

2014: 75056

Harkening back to the 2011 calendar, 2014 went with a more eclectic assortment of references, running the then-gamut of Star Wars. Improvements in designs of builds is really the theme of this calendar. From somehow that has not been done yet (Luke's landspeeder, speeder bike, Anakin's starfighter, the AAT) to refined designs (TIE fighter) to a surprising number of rehashes (Y-wing, Imperial shuttle, Snowspeeder, recolour of the Vulture droid) I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did.

The General Rieken always stood out as an oddity to me, though I like the figure. The Christmas tree R2 and Santa Vader do some heavy lifting for this collection's favorability rating for me, more so than a great many of the Christmas characters. A shoutout to the fireplace hearth for being a clever way to hide what is really a weapons rack.

2015: 75097

Tatooine, Hoth, and Endor take focus in 2015. Again, there are some improved designs (AT-AT, Star Destroyer, A-wing), and some new additions that I liked (the Ion cannon, Jabba s Sail Barge).

I want to note the three weapon s racks, though some differentiated theming helps to hide them. The clever part usage to make R2 a reindeer for Santa Threepio was a clever twist, and the beard and sack really help bring home the fun holiday theme.

2016: 75146

Eight minifigures. One arguable weapons rack, though every minifigure you would expect to have a weapon comes with one. 2016 represented bang for your buck, with the majority of the figures being good army builders so you didn t mind having copies.

Slave I and Obi-wan's starfighter got good looking makeovers, and I loved this year s capital ships in the Venator and Tantive IV. A white Chewbacca with a red and green bandoleer was another home run for the Christmas theme, helping to propel this to what in my mind is the best calendar.

2017: 75184

The sequels and Disney entries finally arrived in 2017, strangely long after movies had started hitting (2015 for Force Awakens, 2016 for Rouge One). I've wondered if this was to avoid toy spoilers, or if this was finally when they had a good idea of what excess minifigures they had lying around and decided to use them here.

My movie bias shines through here as I like the Rouge One stuff and am largely indifferent to the Forces awakens entries. Krennic's shuttle is the standout here, and I actually like the snowblower, though I do now wonder if this build was copied from a LEGO City advent calendar. Snowboarding BB8 with a Santa hat was your holiday part, though it was a nice cheap way to get him at the time. Also, I think this is notable for being the only Advent calendar to have no Battle Droid, Super-Battle Droid, or IG-style assassin droid.

2018: 75213

The 2018 calendar does not seem to be liked amongst the community, which in some ways I get. You saw a lot of rehashes this year with few improvements (proto-AT-AT, speeder bike, N1, Anakin's starfighter, Luke's landspeeder), and some ho-hum LEGO Freemaker stuff.

However, the Rouge One transport, Cloud City, and neat minifigures save this from being the bottom for me. I really liked the exclusive Antoc Merrick minifig and including the helmet as part of the snowman was clever. Still probably the weakest holiday entry with a Christmas moisture vaporator.

2019: 75245

2019 is a weird one for me, nothing really stands out, but I also don't dislike any part of this set. I think a lot of the dark earth-tones present make this calendar pleasing to look at as a whole. I like the quad-jumper design, and the inclusion of the Mynock was great for those who couldn't afford or have the space for a UCS Falcon.

Gift-wrapped Gonk and a Santa Porg with a Christmas gift represented the holiday spirit. I liked the hobo-isolationist Luke. In fact, I really liked the idea of Advent calendars getting a weird, fringe in-universe minifigure that didn't appear in any other set (that is, something that is unique and exclusive and not a holiday figure). Variety, after all, is the spice of life. I m sure these kind of exclusive figs are a trend we ll continue to see the future

(it wasn't.)

2020: 75279

Just in time to save us from our pandemic-induced doldrum came 2020's excellent calendar. Peak A-wing and X-wing designs deserve a spotlight, as does a much-improved Republic diplomatic cruiser and a great Lucrehulk-class (thanks Wookiepedia) Separatist ship.

Snowman Gonk and some Christmas sweaters helped set the tone. I might have actually put this calendar at the top of may rankings if it were not also the genesis of a sinister Advent trend that I ll talk about more later.

2021: 75307

Mando! The success of the Disney+ show was enough to get the Mandalorian his own advent calendar. Some old great designs along with new fun stuff make this calendar a classic.

What's this? Did you think I wouldn't notice LEGO? Sure, the hover-pram is great, but did you really think I wouldn't notice? Three weapons racks? Plus, some silly little targets? Really, the other theme for this year's calendar is peaks-and-valleys; when it's good, it's very good, and when it's bad, it's baaaaad. Fortunately, the good outnumbers the bad to still end up fairly net positive.

2022: 75340

Avert your eyes, yee faint of heart – for I m about to commit what some may consider blasphemy against the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar line. I have an admittedly irrational hate for 2022's calendar. It represents what I feel is the worst pattern to see in these calendars; the poster child for minimum viable product; there are the bare minimum of new good designs (B-Wing, Skyhopper, that cool landspeeder, and the Tri-fighter; we didn t get that already? Huh.).

There are then a bunch of rehashes that I don't find particularly fun. But what about the Clone Gunship? Oh, you mean that design that only looks really good from the photographed angle we see because there is a big awkward gap in it? Cool. But what about the Wampa cave – you can hang Luke up in it? So they made a glorified weapons rack that doesn t even include any weapons? There's Christmas themed Threepio and Artoo, and a Santa Gonk. Yeah, I have more to say on them later, but for the time being, let s just call them lazy. What about Vader at the beach- and he has a sand castle? How fun and Christmas themed for all the Australians, I guess? Or is it because people like to holiday at the beach at holiday time? I never got this; is it supposed to be joke because the one character in the franchise known to hate sand is at the beach? Whatever it is, it's a waste in my eyes. Okay, I've hated on this long enough; feels good to get that out.

2023: 75366

A bit a split theme again. This time we see the Clone Wars, the battle of Endor, and few other shows that were running at the time. I like the true tiniest Turbo Tank we have ever seen (though 2025 gives it a run for its money), as well as the STAP, the Hailfire droid, and the improved Imperial shuttle.

The minifigures are not particularly great, though the Christmas Ewok is a fun addition. A sweater-wearing Emperor, holiday Pit droid and reindeer Gonk then round out the festive theme for the year.

2024: 75395

The 2024 calendar introduced a unique novel gimmick to coincide with the 25 years of LEGO Star Wars. Each build or minifigure is meant to represent a set that was released in each of those years starting from the series inception up to present-day. A clever little twist that allows this calendar to skate by more than it probably deserves.

I like that the X-wing and TIE fighter are colored to look like their initial LEGO releases, it s a clever callback. There are a few decent new builds, and a lot of nostalgia by bringing in the Minikit from the LEGO Star Wars video game. There isn't really a specific holiday build here; just Luke and Leia wearing holiday jumpers (have you caught on to the trend yet?).

2025: 75418

Finally, we arrive at the present. I'm currently just going off of the initial pictures that have come out for the 2025 calendar, unlike all the others, so my opinion may vary slightly post-build, but I feel like I have a good enough sense of what my opinion will be, especially once looking at all the builds. This year again introduced a new gimmick by making the entire calendar build into a Christmas-themed Jawa junk/droid shop.

A lot of shelves can be built together to make a little scene. I actually think there is a bunch of creative droid builds here. I like the Buzz droid, Treadwell droid, B2MEO, and probe droid. The holiday theming is provided by a sweater-wearing Jawa, Snowman BB8, gift-wrapped Mouse Droid, and Christmas tree medical droid.

However, all the cleverness in the world cannot hide that this set has only a few minifigs (I opted to be generous and counted Babu Frik as a minifig, bringing my count to 3). There is also no hiding that this is one of the smallest piece counts with the exception of 2012. I have a hunch this was to hold the price of the set steady and apply some shrinkflation to the set to cover the potential cost of tariffs. I feel like my opinion of this calendar is like that of a well-made B-movie; I appreciate the creative effort, but I can see there was a limited budget in play here.

Now that you have my general overall impressions, I bet I know what you re thinking: gosh, I really wish this internet stranger would have also graded all of the sub-builds of each calendar in another subjective opinion matrix. Behold my F to S tier ranking of every calendar entry. I started using the overview pictures shown above, starting at the top and going to left-to-right. I'm not sub-labelling everything, sorry:

I then devised a GPA metric, with F being 0 points and S being 5 points. I then compared both of my results against the sets rankings on Brickset:

Expressed visually, you can see that in a broad sense my opinion and GPA ranking generally align with most of the rankings found at Brickset:

Part 4: Trends

After running through the different calendars, I wanted to highlight some trends that I noticed at various times and highlight some other findings.

I'll start by pointing out a short-lived idea that I think added some novelty. After the inaugural 2011 calendar, both 2012 and 2013 saw the idea of making each movie episode the focus of the year. 2012 saw twelve of the builds being Phantom-Menace focused, concluding with a Santa Maul.

The next year had Attack of the Clones covered with 15 builds based off that film, and then also included young Boba and Santa Jango Fett. The next year it seems like it should have been no-brainer; include builds for a Tri-fighter, a Venator, a Turbo-Tank (all things that would eventually see advent builds), and some other pieces from Revenge of the Sith. Then cap the entire thing off with a Santa Grievous, with candy-cane red and white light sabers and a red cape. I ve wondered if the new minifig for Grievous just wasn t ready in time, and they seemed to abandon the episode theming and revert to a more general cross-section of Star Wars as a whole.

It may have also been market research found that there was more interest with a broader focus, though it also could be that it was found to be easier to make builds that synergised by having part overlap with other sets in production at the same time. Whatever the reason, the episode focus did not return in 2013, and a unified calendar theme has only briefly reappeared for the Mandalorian in 2021. I think there is some interesting potential to add some flares now and then for fun, and this could be used to correspond to anniversary dates for the films. Since the future slate of Star Wars films and shows looks thin, there will be a need to find some callbacks to the existing films.

The 2020 calendar, despite being one of the best ever received, did kick off one of a trend that has infected and haunted the advent series ever since. In a then-novel clever piece of cost engineering, the Vader and Poe minifigures were given holiday jumper torsos . I haven't looked into the City and Harry Potter lines to see if they were the genesis of this and see if there is blame that can be spread around. However, the real point is almost every set since 2020 has continued the trend of what, in my mind, is a low-effort work-around to the holiday conundrum. Need to make the set feel a little more in the holiday spirit? Why not just throw a holiday jumper on a minifig (or two!)?

A plague of holiday sweaters

It's perfect; don't even bother changing any part of the character, because more customisation means more SCUs to keep track of and manage. You can keep the cost synergies you get for using low-volume minifigs but keep the customisation down. Contrast this to the early 2010s, when holiday figures included at least a little extra something to make them feel more spirited:

An assortment of (mostly) Santas

Maul gets a red parka hood, Santa Vader got a custom torso and(!) leg print. Some red capes was a small touch, but it stood out to make it feel a little more special. The 2021 Mandalorian calendar slightly avoided this trend, but even then, Din just got a custom torso print with a scarf, which while not a jumper, is still the same spirit with the minimised changes to the torso. I'm just done with the jumpers now, and I am making an appeal for creativity to be employed in making something different and new rather than creative cost-cutting.

Other miscellaneous observations/notes:

Going through the different years, I did try to be aware of what bias I might have had, but I acknowledge that I will still have my own internal preference. As a result, I think my ratings probably reflect my preferences so far as interest of the source material. I have little interest in the Sequels, Bad Batch, or most of the LEGO IP like Freemaker.

I learnt after I wrote up my tirade on the 2022 calendar that the beach theme tied in with a summer vacation-themed special on Disney+. That fact, however, doesn't really change my feelings about its inclusion. I don't inherently hate the idea of extra joke throw-ins, but I want jokes additions to not feel like they are actively detracting from the build. Making a second build for the sandcastle meant that a twelfth of the calendar was dedicated to the joke; I think something that is meant to be a humorous gag really should only get a single day's build.

To my amusement, I realised that the sequels have undergone near total erasure, with the last sequel-specific build being a TIE dagger in 2020. The Mandalorian would take up the banner of the Disney era right around then, and since then, the only sequel content has been Babu Frik; though even then I think he was probably included because another of his kind is appearing in next year's Mandalorian movie and they can reuse the mould.

Part 5: The future

Where do LEGO Advent calendars go from here? I feel like my data studies and reflections have given me some insights and predictions and recommendations for the future.

Price increase: The shrinkflation of 2025's calendar was a clever way to keep the cost steady and buy time and see where tariffs landed. However, I recognise that we have had inflation the last few years that has been higher than that of the 2010s, and that in order to keep pace and maintain the quality of calendars moving forward, another price increase is warranted. I think at least another five-dollar hike is more than acceptable, given that the last time the price was increased it was by this amount. This also doesn't factor in whatever premium might be needed to cover tariff expenses that can be added on top as required. Let's be clear, however, The LEGO Group, that there will absolutely be an expectation of an increase in quality over the last few calendars. This is NOT permission to increase the margin, give the consumers a few breadcrumbs and eat the rest. I would expect the part count to go back up to the historical average. If you re struggling to come up with ideas of how to accomplish this, I have a few other ideas, please see below.

More, better Minifigs: I feel like I have firmly established earlier that minifigures have more value than a small build. I have noticed the trend has been to decrease figures from the average of six to five in more recent years. The first thing to use some of that additional revenue from the increased price is to get back to the average number of minifigures.

Typically, the calendar will include a few figs that are solid army builders (storm/clone trooper, rebel, etc.). It will then usually include some sort of unique figure that only saw a limited release (some might argue that this constitutes dumping a figure that couldn't be used elsewhere, but I'm fine with it); last year's Ashoka or 2023's Omega are examples of figures that came it sets that probably saw limited sales. There will then typically be one or two Christmas themed minifigs. As I alluded to earlier, I really like the idea of exclusive minifigures that were some sort of oddball pull from the Star Wars universe that didn't make sense to include in other sets.

In-universe minifigures exclusive to advent calendars

I wonder if the experiment of 2018/2019 showed that the exclusive minifigures didn't drive additional calendar sales from minifigure collectors, and the idea was dropped. However, since LEGO is now working to appeal to older collectors, I feel like there is a lot of potential here; revisiting some Clone Wars Jedi, some obscure element the shows, or maybe even a minifig from some of the non-canon media if you're looking to make a joke. This idea somewhat ties into the next idea:

Get Obscure: As far as builds go, I worry that things are becoming a bit too stale; there are just certain vehicles I am sick of seeing. I struggle with this because, on one hand, I recognise the need to make sure every generation of children get a small buildable Millennium Falcon or Lukes's landspeeder, since they are classic, recognisable designs. Regardless, I still have grown weary of them. My preference would be for some variety here; I liked the random taxi speeder from the first Mandalorian episode, which was, in many ways, a variation on Luke's landspeeder design.

I also have noticed there has been no attempt at ever doing a Kessel Run Falcon, which seems like there could be something there. A unique craft we have not seen in LEGO form is Lando's Lady Luck; since it's unlikely we get that ship as a playscale build, that I think that would be a worthwhile addition. It's worth noting that I'm not as tired with vehicles that make sense as army-builders; I donn't care if I have a pile of rebel fighters or TIE craft; it makes sense for there to be duplicates, since we always saw a multitude of these vehicles in scenes together. Getting back to the topic of more obscure vehicles, a Partisan X-wing or TIE Avenger would be potential worthwhile entries.

Partisan X-wing, TIE Avenger

Versus: LEGO has become good at setting their sets up to introduce some sort of good guys versus bad guys setup. We have sporadically had advent calendar builds that fit this trope: X-wing versus TIE fighter, or Obi-Wan's fighter versus Jango's Slave 1 are some classic examples. I was shocked to find we have never had a Snowspeeder vs. an AT-AT; they're not at the same scale, but the pairing makes inherent sense for a Hoth match up. An ARC-170 vs. a Tri-fighter has never happened, or you could also go with V-19 vs. a Geonosian fighter for another Clone Wars tie-in. The inherent play value in these types of matchups is because of the established adversarial nature of the ships involved.

Go Big: For another idea, I like the notion of doing miniature capital ships, and feel there some potential there. We haven't seen an Invisible Hand, Home One, Nebulon-b, the Hoth transports, or a Hammerhead Frigate. As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, I like having small versions of very large ships; since all these builds are micro-builds, I say embrace the different scales and put in some large ships. I also feel like there is some potential in speeder designs; we haven't seen many Coruscant speeders or podracers, and those all have some unique, colourful designs that could help inject some colour into the greyness that if feels much of Star Wars slips into.

Nebulon-b, Sebulba s Podracer

Strategically inserting some of these I feel would help on the innovation side of things and help stave off the been there-done that that it feels like things have fallen into.

Deep-cuts: The LEGO Rebuild the Galaxy series has put some fun touches in with callbacks and references, which I think is a clever way to make some pre-Disney characters/vehicles relevant. If that show can throw in Kyle Katarn, then I feel it's not unreasonable to want a real-life minifig version of the character.

Speaking of, Kyle had two ships, the Moldy Crow and the Raven's Claw, both of which were designed in an older era of video game graphics design; their stark angular shapes would probably lend very easily to making them in a small advent calendar build. Since we're on the subject of older Star Wars video games, then I'm going to nominate the Ebon Hawk from Knights of the Old Republic; both Revan and Malak have made LEGO appearances so it seems fair to draw in the most notable ship from the series.

But really, the title of this section was Deep Cuts, and honestly some of these ideas might be a little too mainstream yet. How about the Havoc or the Mantis from the old Starfighter video games? How about some bizarre character like those talk show hosts from Andor, or Harvey Korman's instructional video host from the holiday special? Go deep, I don't care, how about Willrow Hood; that guy's got like three seconds of screen time, a four thousand-word Wookiepedia article and an appearance in the LEGO Skywalker Saga video game and he's a pretty basic minifigure design.

Heck, at this point something from the Acolyte might be considered pretty obscure. The point being is there are plenty of Glup Shittos out there that can be used to broaden things up. This really just an appeal to get weird and celebrate the bizarre vastness of the Star Wars universe.

I tried to make my ideas innovative, yet still achievable from a business perspective. I'm not ignorant and know the LEGO Group needs to continue to be a going concern and turn a profit. Hence, I tried to avoid suggestions that would demand new or complex moulds since those are expensive.

I'm also not asking that everything panders to middle-aged man-babies who never grew up; I'm fine with there still being child-focused elements such as LEGO IP, or kid's shows. What I'm appealing for is some variety and uniqueness compared to what we have seen to date.

Part 6: Parting Shots

This whole essay initially started from me just looking at the Advent calendar subseries on Brickset, and noticing the ranking system, which led to me thinking about how I would rank all the entries.

As I dug in, the various patterns and trends emerged, and I feel like I started to see some things that could use some addressing. I fear these sets have been taken for granted, because they are silly little toys for kids and the real prestige focus has turned to the UCS series, midi-scale sets, helmets, and other adult-focused sets as a result of LEGO's Adult's Welcome initiative.

Speaking as an adult who has grown up with LEGO, I've had some very mixed feelings about this, as I ve worried about how the child-focused products will fare long-term (I felt a little horror and guilt when I visited a LEGO store and one side of the store was just black boxes; I wondered what black-boxed sets I had contributed to the creation of, and what shelf space for colourful children toys had been taken up in part because of me).

A wall of black-boxed sets

I feel like some of my suggestions might have some potential appeal to older collectors, and I'm fine with the idea of older customers subsidising LEGO to make things more accessible for children.

What's funny is that, despite the length of this diatribe, I don't think of myself as being exceptionally passionate about this topic; I just took it as a bit of personal challenge to think about, well, if I think LEGO can do better, what suggestions would I have about how that could be achieved?

I really want the takeaway for those who read this to be to consider how some innovation and creativity could be employed for the sake of making a better LEGO product. I understand that amongst the unevenness of the Star Wars brand, the pandemic, inflation, and tariffs, the instinct for LEGO has been to lean on the safe and reliable, that s why I m making an appeal for risks to be taken. Given that Advent builds are small, I feel like the risks I m proposing are literally small, and could help inject a little life into the brand.

I think that's about all I have to say. Thanks for bearing with me, and as I wrap up, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Joyful Life Day!

43 comments on this article

By purple_toadstool in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 10:07

Really enjoyed the article

By ELH2806 in Norway, 25 Dec 2025 10:22

I miss the Santa figures :(

By captaincassianandor in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 10:26

Babu Frik, Antoc Merrick and episode 8 Luke are the three advent calendar minifigures that I truly treasure in my collection. Would love more unique minifigures like them made for future years.

By CT8088 in Netherlands, 25 Dec 2025 10:30

Oof, this is a long article. I'll split it in 24 parts and read one every day. That makes it more manageable.

By legoDad42 in United States, 25 Dec 2025 10:40

Good lord!!! Snore!

By ShinyBidoof in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 10:55

TL:DR

I did read (almost) all the daily articles and nothing made me change my mind that all the advent calendars are a complete waste of time and money.

Buy a chocolate one and use the £20+ you've saved for a decent set or the minifigure(s) you want from Bricklink (given you know exactly what ones are in the calendar boy looking at the box).

By TheOtherMike in United States, 25 Dec 2025 11:12

I, for one, enjoy the Christmas sweater minifigures. Although I totally agree with you that they should put a Kessel Run Falcon in a SWAC. Since I never got my hands on 75212 and don't really have the space anyway, I'd also love to see a Microfighter version.

By Yrraabb in United States, 25 Dec 2025 11:14

Can we get more pictures of all the festive /special figures together like the sweater one and the Santa one?

By ytjedi in United States, 25 Dec 2025 11:30

I personally love the holiday jumpers, and this year's and last year's City Advent calendars were especially good on it. They're more versatile as some that can be used for custom sigfigs.

While not the most exciting builds this year I did appreciate the overall theme of the droid workshop, combined with the artwork it was definitely giving vibes of the Star Wars Christmas album. The final picture of the article made me think one year they should go all in on the theme of the Holiday Special; Life Day robe Chewie and pastel-colored Boba Fett please.

One thing the data showed is the advent calendars kinda ebb and flow, so if this year's was lack-luster, in the next year or two we should get a banger. That or Star Wars may take a break from advent calendars for awhile and lean more into the candy/gingerbread builds. Gingerbread Vader needs more companions.

Last side note: how has there seriously not been at least one DC Advent Calendar? Even if it was just Batman themed?

By Trigger_ in United States, 25 Dec 2025 11:47

Speaking of the holiday special and Life Day, I think I got as baked last night as Carrie Fisher did while doing her role in the special. Happy Life Day!

By sjr60 in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 12:11

Yikes... something snuck past the advent news ban!

By Dannygast in Czechia, 25 Dec 2025 12:11

What a boring Wall of text. Can't be bothered to read all that.

By Brick_Master in Hong Kong, 25 Dec 2025 12:46

That was a great article to read after the second bottle of Christmas wine! I have bought every SW advent calendar since 2016, and I'll probably continue to buy them, but I agree with your feelings on christmas sweaters - yes, they're nice, but they're a lazy option vs a unique xmas minifig!

i disagree, however about Vader at the beach with the sandcastle - those two days' builds are some of the very few that found a permanent space on display!.

In any case, well done for a great write up on a topic most of us couldn't be bothered to write 100 words about!

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 13:09

One thing that really sticks out to me is that certain major characters have never appeared in an Advent Calendar. Off the top of my head:

- Han Solo
- Lando Calrissian
- Obi-Wan Kenobi

There's any number of major prequel and sequel characters we're lacking as well, but those three over 15 years really stick out.

By MegaBlocks in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 13:15

This year's calendar has been lingering on the shelves and reductions (including at Lego) so that is telling.

By Andrusi in United States, 25 Dec 2025 13:27

@MegaBlocks said:
"This year's calendar has been lingering on the shelves and reductions (including at Lego) so that is telling."

Yeah, it's a good indicator that the economy is in the toilet, or perhaps that people didn't like last year's calendar or that Star Wars is unpopular recently.

By ClutchPowers7306 in United States, 25 Dec 2025 13:48

@Dannygast said:
"What a boring Wall of text. Can't be bothered to read all that."
Stfu then, why would anyone who read this article find you saying ‘My attention span is too short for this, idk what you guys are talking about’ interesting at all. Sometimes it’s better to just say nothing.

On another note I would love to see something from the Acolyte, it’s not perfect, but I don’t think any star wars is tbh, and I liked it.

By Brickalili in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 13:52

Not sure I really get the article’s dislike for the Christmas jumper minifigs. It praises the Santa Vader for having a unique torso print…but is that not also exactly what the jumpers are? Really feels like that’s quite a lot of personal feeling bleeding through in what had otherwise been fairly objective

By TheOtherMike in United States, 25 Dec 2025 13:54

@CT8088 said:
"Oof, this is a long article. I'll split it in 24 parts and read one every day. That makes it more manageable."

@Dannygast said:"What a boring Wall of text. Can't be bothered to read all that."

Some people have no attention spans...

By Brickalili in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 14:08

@TheOtherMike said:
" @CT8088 said:
"Oof, this is a long article. I'll split it in 24 parts and read one every day. That makes it more manageable."

@Dannygast said:"What a boring Wall of text. Can't be bothered to read all that."

Some people have no attention spans..."

I’m wondering what they expected from something titled “an excruciating deep dive”. Feel like they were given fair warning exactly what kind of article this would be, could have just not read it and certainly not commented

By krysto2002 in United States, 25 Dec 2025 14:20

"How fun and Christmas themed for all the Australians"

Because there are notably no other countries south of the equator ;p

By Pekingduckman in Australia, 25 Dec 2025 14:40

Heh, the classic misspelling of Rogue One as "Rouge One".

By Pekingduckman in Australia, 25 Dec 2025 14:46

@Brickalili said:
"Not sure I really get the article’s dislike for the Christmas jumper minifigs. It praises the Santa Vader for having a unique torso print…but is that not also exactly what the jumpers are? Really feels like that’s quite a lot of personal feeling bleeding through in what had otherwise been fairly objective"

Personally I dislike the sweaters, not only because they're very cheap torso swaps of regular minifigures, but they've also taken over the Marvel and Harry Potter advent calendars.

By Lego_Rat70 in United States, 25 Dec 2025 14:47

I remember being so happy I didn't get the 2021 calendar cause I watched 1 and a half episodes of the mandalorian and a calendar pretty much centering around the show and its ships and characters would not have appealed to me at all lol

By jonah2018wsu in United States, 25 Dec 2025 14:47

The reason 2012’s and 2013’s calendars are themed on Episodes 1 and 2 was because the movies were being released in 3D (although the latter got cancelled)

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 14:57

@jonah2018wsu said:
"The reason 2012’s and 2013’s calendars are themed on Episodes 1 and 2 was because the movies were being released in 3D (although the latter got cancelled)"

I'd hazard that the real reason is because Episodes I and II were the predominant Star Wars themes those years and it was very easy for the design team to work off materials already in production. This was also true in the City calendars around 2011-2014: if the predominant theme was, say, Police (2011), the calendar followed suit.

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 14:58

Anyway, I'm begging for a Rebuild the Galaxy theme next year. It'd be awesome if we could get some rebuildable micro builds and a Santa Jedi Bob.

By LuvsLEGO_Cool_J in United States, 25 Dec 2025 15:03

Interesting read. I still don't see a weapons rack in this year's calendar. Unless you're counting the crowbar or wrench. But those are weapons in Half-Life and BioShock or Clue.

By ao_ka in Brazil, 25 Dec 2025 15:18

"...What about Vader at the beach- and he has a sand castle? How fun and Christmas themed for all the Australians, I guess? Or is it because people like to holiday at the beach at holiday time? I never got this..."

Crazy, seems like the entire southern hemisphere, where it is summer during the Christmas, has been erased from existence, except for Australia (that one is okay because it is part of the "First World", right?)

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 15:23

@ao_ka said:
""...What about Vader at the beach- and he has a sand castle? How fun and Christmas themed for all the Australians, I guess? Or is it because people like to holiday at the beach at holiday time? I never got this..."

Crazy, seems like the entire southern hemisphere, where it is summer during the Christmas, has been erased from existence, except for Australia (that one is okay because it is part of the "First World", right?)"

I'm going to generously assume that Huw is Australian and was speaking from personal experience. Let's not "bean soup theory" the poor guy on Christmas.

(Please Google "bean soup theory" for reflections on one of social media's worst tendencies.)

By chrisaw in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 15:50

"Speaking as an adult who has grown up with LEGO, I've had some very mixed feelings about this, as I ve worried about how the child-focused products will fare long-term (I felt a little horror and guilt when I visited a LEGO store and one side of the store was just black boxes; I wondered what black-boxed sets I had contributed to the creation of, and what shelf space for colourful children toys had been taken up in part because of me)."

I find this argument a little tiresome. It's an 'X or X' situation, it's an 'X and Y' scenario.
The presence of more varied adult sets to appeal to those that have fallen out of love with or never got into LEGO doesn't preclude sets for children.
To trot this statement out ignores the fact that LEGO did and continue to make a huge core of their range focused to children: Duplo, Friends, City, Creator 3-in-1, Monkie Kid, Dreamzzz, Superheroes, Ninjago, Disney, Super Mario, Animal Crossing etc etc.

By Murdoch17 in United States, 25 Dec 2025 16:02

@Brickalili said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
" @CT8088 said:
"Oof, this is a long article. I'll split it in 24 parts and read one every day. That makes it more manageable."

@Dannygast said:"What a boring Wall of text. Can't be bothered to read all that."

Some people have no attention spans..."

I’m wondering what they expected from something titled “an excruciating deep dive”. Feel like they were given fair warning exactly what kind of article this would be, could have just not read it and certainly not commented "

My thoughts exactly! Apparently they've never heard the saying: 'If you have nothing nice to say, then don't say anything at all!'

By eliminator in United States, 25 Dec 2025 16:23

Great article. Very useful for reference. One day I'll think of a good way to display these? Maybe groupings by trilogy/show.

By DoonsterBuildsLego in United Kingdom, 25 Dec 2025 17:09

2 telling charts are the inflation-adjusted prices and piece count showing the prices generally falling & piece count rising. That was a bit of a surprise.

From a production standpoint, I don't think the Christmas jumper torsos are a cheap option: they're limited run, exclusive & double sided prints. Not much different than the Santas (except the Santa Vader, who has exclusive torso & leg prints and a cape).

By Winklebob in Canada, 25 Dec 2025 18:17

Incredible article! Thank you so much!
I'm now looking through my City advent calendars for similar trends.
I agree about the sweaters, although what others are saying about that being down to personal preference does make sense. Maybe it's because I didn't grow up with the xmas sweater tradition that the sweater minifigs feel meaningless to me in comparison to the other holiday figures.
Although somehow, I do enjoy the Din Djarin with a scarf, even though it's objectively lower effort than even the sweaters.

By yellowcastle in United States, 25 Dec 2025 19:24

Too funny about 2012!

Also, can’t fathom why some folks would go out of their way to trash what was obviously a labor of love article. I get that it might not be for everyone but my goodness, it’s Christmas, just move on.

As for the concern that Icons/large expensive sets may be taking over LEGO, that’s a legitimate concern and one I share. As much as I love most $200+ sets and even with LEGO releasing more sets per year, there is only so much shelf and storeroom space. And the success of larger, more expensive, excessively greebled sets will inevitably bleed down to all other themes.

There’s also the argument that these awful black boxes ruin the joyful LEGO box designs of yesteryear.

Even if only a one off homage, LEGO should release the next throwback Icons set in a flip top box and showing the set in action.

By PicnicBasketSam in United States, 25 Dec 2025 19:52

May have missed a reference to this somewhere but I think it's interesting that a few vehicles have only appeared in LEGO form in these calendars. Droid battleship, Padme's personal transport, the shuttle and modified orange cargo AT-AT from Rogue One, the blue speeder from the first episode of the Mandalorian. That miniature model of the entirety of Cloud City

By PurpleDave in United States, 25 Dec 2025 20:48

I forgot how expensive the 2012 SWAC was. That may be the point when I started trying to land at least a $10 discount on every AC I bought.

Adding Weapons Racks makes no sense if you can come up with an alternate model that uses no more pieces than the rack with the weapons removed. You still get the weapons included in the overall set, so no money is saved there. The only cost savings is if they're stingy with the rack design, but the lightsaber hearth is one that's actually thoughtfully designed and still uses a fair number of pieces. The real benefit lies in being able to reduce the number of actual models that need to be designed, as many of the racks aren't much more than a lump of parts with a clip or two.

Regarding the Set Composition graph, I was thinking it would have made more sense to cap the graph at 24, since that's the locked number of days for every AC, but 2025 kinda throws things out of whack. The last day should count as both a Droid and a Build, and the addition of a second B1 Battle Droid through some of the Parts Racks and such could legitimately push the count to 26.

For 75146, I know these have gotten grief for being Weapons Racks, but I'd classify the artilery pieces separately. The stud shooter doesn't belong to any specific minifig, and its inclusion is a play feature rather than a storage system. And 75397 has two traditional Weapons Racks, plus two artillery pieces, so by the stated guidelines should have counted as having four.

I skipped 2017, and still don't regret it. When the best day in a SWAC looks like it came from the CAC, that's an epic fail. Otherwise, the only model I somewhat wish I owned is the AT-ST. The Y-Wing was a rehash, and while it may not be noticeable at this scale, it's the wrong Falcon. 2018-2020 I only got one copy each, specifically so I could build the non-sequel models. Every other year I've got at least two copies (one post-2020 year, Walmart had the SWAC clearanced below $15 by October, so I got three).

The HPAC could well have inspired the Christmas sweater shift, since the first HPAC (2019) included Harry and Ron in their H and R sweaters. However, those are both canonical designs from the first film, and 2025 is the only year that they've included non-canonical minifigs of any sort. I believe the SWAC sweater minifigs are all drawn from the LSW specials (which are paywalled behind D-, so I've never watched them), in which case you'd need to know where the idea came from to work them into those specials.

By TheOtherMike in United States, 25 Dec 2025 21:27

@Pekingduckman said:
"Heh, the classic misspelling of Rogue One as "Rouge One"."

https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83af65960a08e3f24655ba65af0bfd8aa773490703f0b5bb4383bc406e2b04a1.jpg

@Pekingduckman said:"Personally I dislike the sweaters, not only because they're very cheap torso swaps of regular minifigures, but they've also taken over the Marvel and Harry Potter advent calendars."

How are unique torsos that will only ever be used in one set "cheap" because they represent Christmas sweaters, instead of Christmas-themed Mandalorian armor or what-have-you? Either way, Lego has to dedicate a storage slot to the necessary piece. Although, as @DoonsterBuildsLego pointed out, Santa Vader did have both both exclusive torso and leg printing, he's been the only one. All other Holiday figures have had only torso printing.

@ResIpsaLoquitur said:"Anyway, I'm begging for a Rebuild the Galaxy theme next year. It'd be awesome if we could get some rebuildable micro builds and a Santa Jedi Bob."

Oh, I'd be all over that. Maybe we could get a Jaxxon! Do it Lego!

@ResIpsaLoquitur said:" @ao_ka said:""...What about Vader at the beach- and he has a sand castle? How fun and Christmas themed for all the Australians, I guess? Or is it because people like to holiday at the beach at holiday time? I never got this..."

Crazy, seems like the entire southern hemisphere, where it is summer during the Christmas, has been erased from existence, except for Australia (that one is okay because it is part of the "First World", right?)"

I'm going to generously assume that Huw is Australian and was speaking from personal experience. Let's not "bean soup theory" the poor guy on Christmas.

(Please Google "bean soup theory" for reflections on one of social media's worst tendencies.)"

@Huw didn't write the article, someone named Marty P. did, and Huw just posted it.

@chrisaw said:""Speaking as an adult who has grown up with LEGO, I've had some very mixed feelings about this, as I ve worried about how the child-focused products will fare long-term (I felt a little horror and guilt when I visited a LEGO store and one side of the store was just black boxes; I wondered what black-boxed sets I had contributed to the creation of, and what shelf space for colourful children toys had been taken up in part because of me)."

I find this argument a little tiresome. It's an 'X or X' situation, it's an 'X and Y' scenario.
The presence of more varied adult sets to appeal to those that have fallen out of love with or never got into LEGO doesn't preclude sets for children.
To trot this statement out ignores the fact that LEGO did and continue to make a huge core of their range focused to children: Duplo, Friends, City, Creator 3-in-1, Monkie Kid, Dreamzzz, Superheroes, Ninjago, Disney, Super Mario, Animal Crossing etc etc."

Yeah. Lego's end-of-year profit statement will be coming up soon. Look at what lines brought them the most profits.

@PicnicBasketSam said:"May have missed a reference to this somewhere but I think it's interesting that a few vehicles have only appeared in LEGO form in these calendars. Droid battleship, Padme's personal transport, the shuttle and modified orange cargo AT-AT from Rogue One, the blue speeder from the first episode of the Mandalorian. That miniature model of the entirety of Cloud City"

Do you really expect them to do a Cloud City set that *isn't* well below minifig-scale, if it represents the whole city? Unless you were thinking about something midi-scale, which would equire some sort of cradle, because there's no way the whole model could be held up by that stalk. Also, you forgot the Naboo Royal Yacht, which has only been represented in 9509.

By PurpleDave in United States, 25 Dec 2025 21:35

@Brickalili said:
"Not sure I really get the article’s dislike for the Christmas jumper minifigs. It praises the Santa Vader for having a unique torso print…but is that not also exactly what the jumpers are? Really feels like that’s quite a lot of personal feeling bleeding through in what had otherwise been fairly objective"

I liked both options. For several years, I would put my Echo Park MOC out at holiday shows, with two baseplates filled with a 10" Christmas tree, theme-appropriate gags, and every holiday SWAC minifig from 2011-2016 added as they became available. The last two years, however, I've had the 2020 Vader walking with the 2024 Luke/Leia on short legs, and I've occasionally slipped the 2022 droids into holiday displays.

@ao_ka:
90% of the human population does live north of the equator. The bigger issue that's not addressed here is that a significant portion of that number lives in tropical climates, where it's never "winter" at any time of year. But I suspect the reason why Australia was singled out is that Oceania likely makes up a significant portion of Brickset's readership from the southern hemisphere.

@DoonsterBuildsLego:
When making new minifigs, two things will require the use of a "frame". New prints are the obvious one, but also making the unprinted torso assembly in a different color combination than currently exists will require the use of a second. Looking at the lineups of Santa and Sweater minifigs, Snowbacca and Santa Vader may be the only regular minifigs shown here that didn't use two frames per torso (in fact, Snowbacca may not have even used one, since it's plain and solid white). Santa Vader uses a red torso with white hands, which could have been in production for a regular Santa minifig, meaning they only needed one frame to get the print (which could explain why they burned a second frame on print for the legs). When you consider the hand colors involved, adding gold hands to any non-gold torso is likely going to burn a frame. Sweater Luke's mismatched hands, Santa Fett's dark-red on red, and Santa Yoda's sand-green are all unlikely to have been used on any other minifigs ever made. Even black hands on these bright torsos may have been unique at time of release.

@Winklebob:
For the CAC, it's worth noting that getting a modern Santa every year since 2013, and some form of Pirate Santa every preceding year going back to 2005, excluding only 2007 and 2008. That's 17 straight years of getting a Santa Clause minifig, with very little to differentiate them in the past 13 years. I've got piles of Santa minifigs from the CMF release and the past several years of BAM seasonal assortments. I don't really care about the CAC Santa, and the only reason I bought my first CAC was to get the Mrs. Claus minifig. The only reason I've bought doubles of the next two was for the sweater families. At least with the SWAC, the Santa/Sweater minifigs are all visually distinct.

@PicnicBasketSam:
Even though the Twin Pod Cloud Car has appeared _once_ in minifig form, it was the inclusion of the same, and Cloud City, and the Cloud Car pilot, that made me even consider buying a single copy each of the 2018/2019 SWACs.

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 21:45

Doing the two Naboo ships in Lego would be hard without a return to true chrome pieces.

By ResIpsaLoquitur in United States, 25 Dec 2025 21:49

BTW, I'd love to see a retrospective on how the micro ships have evolved. Marty is correct that the Xwing is relatively unchanged, and the Falcon had had superficial changes. But the A-wing has been significantly revised twice.

By etcknight in United States, 25 Dec 2025 22:37

Surprised to find i have purchased all of these one way or another over the years - but have thankfully managed to nab them at $20 or less in most cases and thus avoided shrinkflation + inflation.