Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 18
Posted by CapnRex101,
Yesterday's new Luke Skywalker minifigure was very welcome, although only loosely related to LEGO Star Wars in 2015. Nonetheless, I expect something based on the 2016 range for today.
Once again, there are plenty of options...
With the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016, a U-wing was probably the obvious choice. Surprisingly, this popular vehicle has not appeared in an Advent Calendar before and it works well at this scale, thanks in part to its vibrant white, yellow and blue colours. The general shape is reasonable too, including angular wings and four engines at the rear.
However, this design shares some problems with the Ghost from day sixteen. Both models are bigger than most Advent Calendar vehicles, but their proportions are severely squashed. There really should be a gap between the wings and the engines because the U-wing's fuselage looks much too short without it.
Overall - I feel exactly the same about the U-wing as I did about the Ghost. I appreciate its size and level of detail, but the proportions could be improved.
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Here is today's ranking (in my opinion):
6. Star Wars
5. Spider-Man
4. Friends
3. City
2. Harry Potter
1. Disney
Adds to my mental note that I need to figure out how well Advent ships scale with each other.
AFAICT, the U-Wing is approximately slightly shorter than the Falcon. This sort of makes it too small to scale with Advent X-wings and Y-Wings, but too big to scale with any of the Falcons. Argh.
Yeah, checking:
Millennium Falcon: 34 meters
U-wing: 25 meters
X-Wing: 12 meters
Y-Wing: 16 meters (OT version)
You forgot to mention what exact set this references, so I checked myself - 75155 . Might as well make @WolfpackBricksStudios 's job a bit easier ;-)
If TLG weren't cowards, they'd give an Echo Base minimodel tomorrow :-P
@Brickes_ficko said:
"Here is today's ranking (in my opinion):
6. Star Wars
5. Spider-Man
4. Friends
3. City
2. Harry Potter
1. Disney"
Even if you don't like the source material, you've got to admit that SW today gave you the most bang for your buck.
More pieces than several other of today's AC builds combined.
How can that be last place?
I was hoping for a Rogue One set today, and I think this was the best option.
I think it definitely pulls off the mini build better than the Ghost or Gauntlet did. I wouldn’t struggle to recognise it like the Gauntlet and the proportions aren’t wildly off like the Ghost
6. Dis A piece of wall for me and not festive at all (0 points today + 37 points previously earned = 37 points total)
5. SW Minibuilds just aren't my thing (1+40=41)
4. SM Pizza is good, but not very christmas-y (2+34=36)
3. Fr Fits with the theme and yesterday's kitchen part (3+37=40)
2. HP Here's the tree and it comes with a Santa hat! (4+43=47)
1. City I find this super creative =) (5+49=54) <- Yesterday's addition for City had an error, sorry for that
More zooming!
I didn't even know what I was building until I snapped that second 3x3 in place and realized that it was the only Star Wars ship named after a basketball player. (If you don't get the joke, Patrick Ewing.) But then, the only other U-Wing I have (30496) is also too small for minifigs, and it's been years since I built that or watched Rogue One.
@AustinPowers said:
" Even if you don't like the source material, you've got to admit that SW today gave you the most bang for your buck.
More pieces than several other of today's AC builds combined.
How can that be last place? "
I try to pay less attention to which themes are my favourites and more to the specific things. I compared it to the original. It hasn't been in an AC yet and I'm not saying it's bad but it's another spaceship. The Spider-Man one, with today's item turns into a Christmas scene, there are treats for Santa and the pizza is nice to get as a part as well. However, I much prefer the other four today.
@TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't even know what I was building until I snapped that second 3x3 in place and realized that it was the only Star Wars ship named after a basketball player. (If you don't get the joke, Patrick Ewing.) But then, the only other U-Wing I have (30496) is also too small for minifigs, and it's been years since I built that or watched Rogue One."
Ever wake up from a bad dream and find a U-wing in your shower?
(Bad joke. Ask your parents.)
Day 1: X-Wing - representing 7140 from 1999
Day 2: Princess Leia - representing her first appearance in 2000
Day 3: TIE Fighter - representing 7146 from 2001
Day 4: Super Battle Droid - representing its first appearance in 2002
Day 5: AT-AT Walker - representing 4483 from 2003
Day 6: Y-Wing - representing 10134 from 2004
Day 7: Minikit - representing LEGO Star Wars: The Videogame, released in 2005
Day 8: Jabba's Sail Barge - representing 6210 from 2006
Day 9: Millennium Falcon - representing 10179 from 2007
Day 10: Ahsoka Tano - representing her first appearances in 2008
Day 11: Venator-Class Attack Cruiser, representing 8039 from 2009
Day 12: Theta-Class Shuttle, representing 8096 from 2010
Day 13: T-6 Jedi Shuttle, representing 7931 from 2011
Day 14: Mandalorian Starfighter, representing 9525 from 2012
Day 15: 501st Clone Trooper, representing his first appearance in 2013
Day 16: Ghost, representing 75053 from 2014
Day 17: Luke Skywalker, representing 75110 from 2015
Day 18: U-Wing Fighter, representing 75155 from 2016
My biggest problem is with the 3x3 plates. They should've been white instead of light bluish gray so that the model's color scheme is more cohesive.
Blech. S-foils began with the X-Wing, but in a way that made sense. Open them, and for sure you get a greater spread of shots with all four cannons firing together (a fact which served me well in the X-Wing games). This? “Hey, guys, I have a great idea! Let’s have the wings fold up right in front of the doors for parking, so you can squeeze it into a narrower space, because there’s no way that could possibly backfire on us.”
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't even know what I was building until I snapped that second 3x3 in place and realized that it was the only Star Wars ship named after a basketball player. (If you don't get the joke, Patrick Ewing.) But then, the only other U-Wing I have (30496) is also too small for minifigs, and it's been years since I built that or watched Rogue One."
Ever wake up from a bad dream and find a U-wing in your shower?
(Bad joke. Ask your parents.)"
I got it, due to Pop Cultural Osmosis. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PopCulturalOsmosis
Always happy to see a U-Wing but indeed it misses the mark just a little.
I moved the wing plates forward by a stud, shifted the yellow tiles forward onto them, and swapped the cockpit and blue plate for good measure. Gets the shape a bit more accurately, and you can even pretend the empty spots between the two grey plates are the open doors of the troop bay!
@PurpleDave said:
"Blech. S-foils began with the X-Wing, but in a way that made sense. Open them, and for sure you get a greater spread of shots with all four cannons firing together (a fact which served me well in the X-Wing games). This? “Hey, guys, I have a great idea! Let’s have the wings fold up right in front of the doors for parking, so you can squeeze it into a narrower space, because there’s no way that could possibly backfire on us.”"
I feel similarly about the Sequel Trilogy X-Wings and the way the half-cylindrical sections work. A solid cylinder IMO is more believable than two half-cylinders.
It seems kind of arbitrary which films are getting acknowledged during their release years. So far, only Episode II and RO have had something representing their film during its year of release, while Episodes I, III, and VII have gone ignored.
Regardless, the U-wing has been sorely missing from these calendars, and I'm glad they decided on that ship as opposed to a redesign of another ship from RO. Wish it had movable S-foils, though.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"I didn't even know what I was building until I snapped that second 3x3 in place and realized that it was the only Star Wars ship named after a basketball player. (If you don't get the joke, Patrick Ewing.) But then, the only other U-Wing I have (30496) is also too small for minifigs, and it's been years since I built that or watched Rogue One."
Ever wake up from a bad dream and find a U-wing in your shower?
(Bad joke. Ask your parents.)"
Ha ha, very good!
For some reason I got another Leia minifigure - not sure if I should be disappointed or pleased. Never had this issue before after many years of having Lego advent calendars
@Brickes_ficko said:
" @AustinPowers said:
" Even if you don't like the source material, you've got to admit that SW today gave you the most bang for your buck.
More pieces than several other of today's AC builds combined.
How can that be last place? "
I try to pay less attention to which themes are my favourites and more to the specific things. I compared it to the original. It hasn't been in an AC yet and I'm not saying it's bad but it's another spaceship. The Spider-Man one, with today's item turns into a Christmas scene, there are treats for Santa and the pizza is nice to get as a part as well. However, I much prefer the other four today."
You are astonished getting spaceships in a SWAC?
ROTL
I like it. And it's something not that commonly adapted, so that's nice. I was starting to worry lego was only really producing stuff that appeared this year anyway or very recently with some exceptions. But this is something new and very, very 2016. Nice!
@legospaceslug said:
"For some reason I got another Leia minifigure - not sure if I should be disappointed or pleased. Never had this issue before after many years of having Lego advent calendars "
I pulled out the bag, looked at the instructions, and put the bag down. I’ll decide this evening if I’m going to actually build it.
@UProbeck:
Revenge of the LEGO? Return of the LEGO?
Fine, I built it. But I made sure all the logos are facing the wrong way, and the pips are all as prominently displayed as possible.
Was anyone else confused by the diagram printed on the door? I thought it showed 1x1 round plates on the front of the four engines, but a 1x1 doesn't actually fit there and not enough were supplied. Or maybe my eyes are just that bad.