Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 3
Posted by CapnRex101,
The Bad Batch has rarely been represented in a Star Wars Advent Calendar before and provides ample material for further items inspired by the animated series, likely continuing today.
Find out after the break...
It seems not, as attention moves to another Disney+ series with Din Djarin's N-1 Starfighter. A classic Naboo Starfighter has appeared in two previous calendars and is among my favourite mini-vehicles of all, so this one comes with high expectations. Fortunately, I think the version from The Mandalorian looks fantastic as well, despite sharing few building techniques with its precursor.
2x2 wedge plates are used to excellent effect at the front, while the dark tan and flame yellowish orange highlights look nice further back. In addition, the twin canopies for Din Djarin and Grogu are faithful to the onscreen vehicle, but my favourite detail is actually the use of a 1x2 log brick under the cockpit, which gives a slight impression of the N-1 Starfighter's curved bodywork.
Overall - Din's N-1 Starfighter has been translated perfectly to this scale and is undoubtedly a worthy successor to the earlier microscale N-1 Starfighter.
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A nice, sleek design and great parts usage to bring some unique elements from the small build.
I love how every LEGO version of this has Grogu's bubble, and then almost immediately in Season 3, Din has it reverted back to the Astromech Port for R5-D4. Similarly, the Darksaber finally has a mold made after 11 years of it being around in LEGO sets (see 9525 ), and then it gets destroyed in the show! XD Come on LEGO, you gotta stop lagging behind.
Let's try spinning! That's a good trick!
It even has a spare round 1x1 trans blue plate to use as the thrusters on yesterday's Justifier.
It was only when I turned it around did I realise what it was! Nothing beats that eureka moment, especially on a lazy Sunday!
@Binnekamp said:
"Let's try spinning! That's a good trick!"
Now this is podracing!
This is enough of an improvement that I'd wish it'd be rereleased in yellow in a future AC.
Also, someday I'd love to see a retrospective on changes in Advent Calendar microbuilds. I think the X-Wing is the only ship that's remained relatively unchanged since 2011. The Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, Republic Gunship, and now the Naboo Starfighter are now way different.
The N-1 star-fighter is one of my favourite ships in star wars, and this micro-scale version is great, even though it's from The Mandalorian instead of episode 1. And i felt they could have included a couple more yellow pieces.
The bad batch shuttle was in last year's calendar js
Yeah this one looks great and my 5-year-old managed to figure it out with no help. Plus it's always fun to discover a new (to me) part--the semi-circular jumper plate.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"This is enough of an improvement that I'd wish it'd be rereleased in yellow in a future AC.
Also, someday I'd love to see a retrospective on changes in Advent Calendar microbuilds. I think the X-Wing is the only ship that's remained relatively unchanged since 2011. The Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, Republic Gunship, and now the Naboo Starfighter are now way different."
I wonder, with the ones that have changed significantly, how much of it is down to new more suitable parts becoming available and how much is just designers giving it a second attempt with added hindsight?
I thought the default build of this model looked a bit off, like it was too stubby.
I ended up swapping out the long engine spines for the tail piece (looks like it could be a unicorn horn? Fortunately there was an extra in this build) and it looks SO MUCH BETTER.
https://tinyurl.com/d6xvze7x
@Brickalili said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"This is enough of an improvement that I'd wish it'd be rereleased in yellow in a future AC.
Also, someday I'd love to see a retrospective on changes in Advent Calendar microbuilds. I think the X-Wing is the only ship that's remained relatively unchanged since 2011. The Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, Republic Gunship, and now the Naboo Starfighter are now way different."
I wonder, with the ones that have changed significantly, how much of it is down to new more suitable parts becoming available and how much is just designers giving it a second attempt with added hindsight?"
The original microscale N-1 relied heavily on headlight bricks. It was recognizable, but didn't nearly capture the sleekness of the actual ship. This is doing well with flatter pieces, two SNOT plates (one of which is 2-3 years old, maybe?), the new small angle plates, and of course, the round jumper.
There's another model coming in this calendar that's also a radical redesign of a 2011 ship.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
" @Brickalili said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"This is enough of an improvement that I'd wish it'd be rereleased in yellow in a future AC.
Also, someday I'd love to see a retrospective on changes in Advent Calendar microbuilds. I think the X-Wing is the only ship that's remained relatively unchanged since 2011. The Millennium Falcon, Y-Wing, Republic Gunship, and now the Naboo Starfighter are now way different."
I wonder, with the ones that have changed significantly, how much of it is down to new more suitable parts becoming available and how much is just designers giving it a second attempt with added hindsight?"
The original microscale N-1 relied heavily on headlight bricks. It was recognizable, but didn't nearly capture the sleekness of the actual ship. This is doing well with flatter pieces, two SNOT plates (one of which is 2-3 years old, maybe?), the new small angle plates, and of course, the round jumper.
There's another model coming in this calendar that's also a radical redesign of a 2011 ship."
I count 6 days that we get an updated release (some more radicaly redesigned than others) of builds that have been in at least 1 previous calendar!
I love the use of the studded version of the 1x2 tile at the front - right where there's the exposed engine on the full-sized model.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @Binnekamp said:
"Let's try spinning! That's a good trick!"
Now this is podracing!"
Yippee!
I just got the microfighter for this for an early secret santa! Great set, great microbuild for day 3!
And recreated in 3x scale. Check out: https://www.instagram.com/p/C0ZrEyEpdCk/
This time, it's ot oversized,
Day 3
5. SW - Lo-res
4. City - a bit awkward unless it's meant to be a toy deer
3. HP - furniture is always useful
2. Friends - the puppy:poopy ratio comment got me!
1. Marvel - the sweater takes the prize. Is it self-knit?
I can't be the only one who got the engine finials and the tail finial mixed up. It can be so hard to make out those tiny instructions sometimes...
@MCLegoboy said:
"I love how every LEGO version of this has Grogu's bubble, and then almost immediately in Season 3, Din has it reverted back to the Astromech Port for R5-D4. Similarly, the Darksaber finally has a mold made after 11 years of it being around in LEGO sets (see 9525 ), and then it gets destroyed in the show! XD Come on LEGO, you gotta stop lagging behind."
Well, with the Darksaber at least I imagine there’s a chance of it being repaired. Particularly if you can get Huyang back to his galaxy of origin.
At any rate, it’s not like the temporary nature of a character, concept, or feature has ever stopped LEGO before, nor necessarily should. I mean, we’re still missing Minifigures of Jedi Masters from the films, yet we have ones of Kit Fisto’s former apprentice turned Jedi Knight and General Grievous’ surgeon droid who died in the same The Clone Wars episode they were introduced in.
@MCLegoboy:
The advent calendars are shown at NYTF in February. There’s lead time to develop them as well. By the time people are supposed to open these, well over a year has passed since the designer is assigned to it.
@Maxbricks1:
The only parts that don’t currently exist in regular yellow are the tooth-plate, the finned spearhead, and the half-round jumper plate. You could sub Puppycorn horns for the spears, and a standard jumper for the half-round version. The tooth plate is a bit tough, if you don’t want to mix in other shades of yellow (or transparent yellow).
It's a very nice little model. The only improvement I could think of is one of the half-round 1x1 tile (design number 35398), but surprisingly Lego hasn't made that piece in trans-clear yet.