Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 24
Posted by CapnRex101,
I have enjoyed the chronological design of the Star Wars Advent Calendar and I am curious to see how it finishes, presumably with something based on the 2023 range.
View the final item and my overall thoughts on the calendar after the break...
The calendar concludes with the Crimson Firehawk from Young Jedi Adventures, which seems like an odd choice to me. I suppose it works in the sense of combining 2023 and 2024 into one item, as the animated series debuted last year and 75384 The Crimson Firehawk was released earlier this year, but I think something more iconic would be better for the final day.
The model's execution is mixed. Its general shape is reasonable and I appreciate the effort to recreate the Crimson Firehawk's distinctive engine configuration, but more recognisable ships are far better suited to this scale. However, the red and white colour scheme is festive, which is a bonus for Christmas Eve.
Overall - While this is not a bad model of the Crimson Firehawk, I would question the choice of vehicle.
Summary
LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendars found a successful formula from the beginning, offering a good variety of microscale models and hopefully some appealing minifigures, with a couple of exclusive designs among them. This calendar continues the tradition and I am pleased with the selection generally, including a number of excellent mini vehicles and the delightful Minikit!
Not all have impressed though. The slim rendition of the Ghost on day sixteen was poor and I think the Kom'rk-class starfighter could be better, not to mention today's model of the Crimson Firehawk.
However, maybe my favourite aspect of the Advent Calendar has been how it marked the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, revisiting certain memorable sets and milestones. There have been a few strange picks along the way and more unique minifigures would always be welcome, but I have enjoyed the calendar and its structure, nonetheless.
What ar your favourite items from this Advent Calendar and have you enjoyed it overall? Let us know in the comments.
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Addendum to yesterday:
Crimson Firehawk: 75395
What a lame way to end the calendar, I was waiting for this article to find out what this even was ;_;
But overall the calendar was pretty good, it had good figures and I love the minikit A LOT!
I hope they can include more minifigures in the future, the Harry Potter calendar this year had 7 exclusive ones, I don't need all of these to be exclusive, I just wish they included one or two more.
Here is today's ranking (in my opinion):
6. Spider-Man
5. Star Wars
4. Friends
3. Disney
2. Harry Potter
1. City
I gave each AC a score from 0 to 5 every day based on my ranking, as @jkb did. That is, not by how good/how much I like them, but by how high I thought they were ranked _that_ day.
Here are the results:
Spider-Man got 40 points, finishing 1st on 2 days and 2nd on 1 day, for a total of 6th place.
Star Wars got 44 points, finishing 1st on 1 day and 2nd on 1 day, for a total of 5th place.
Disney got 60 points, finishing 1st on 3 days and 2nd on 5 days, for a total of 4th place.
City got 64 points, finishing 1st on 5 days and 2nd on 3 days, for a total of 3rd place.
Harry Potter got 75 points, finishing 1st on 5 days and 2nd on 9 days, for a total of 2nd place.
Friends got 77 points, finishing 1st on 8 days and 2nd on 5 days, for a total of 1st place.
Merry Christmas to the Brickset staff and everyone else around the world!
The designers really said ‘let’s save the worst for last’
I would not have expected Day 24 to be a non iconic ship only the youngling fan base would recognize. I smell the work of Darth Jar Jar in today's entry. It seems like Luke or Leia would have been the better choice for today. If you had to keep with the order based on year of release, surely there would have been a minifig worthy of today.
I think the AC was good overall with lots of detailed builds, nice holiday minifigs and some good army builders. Other than the Day 24 disappointment, I also would have swapped out a few of the ships for location builds to balance things out a bit.
I know they already had two exclusive characters earlier in the calendar, but still odd not to do anything festive or unique for Day 24. Before this post I thought it might be some kind of completely novel ship or a deep cut reference... Crimson Firehawk makes sense with the 2023/2024 theme I suppose.
Still, the timeline theme for this year's calendar makes it one of my favorites they've ever done. The 1999 X-wing, the 2001 TIE, the minikit... all great surprises, and I really liked trying to guess what each day's model would be. I hope they do more concepts like this one again!
I'm gonna make this brief because I think I'm maxxing out the character limit.
1: 7140
2: https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0026
3: 7146
4: https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0056
5: 4483
6: 10134 (please just let me live this one down I was legitimately confused)
7: https://brickset.com/sets/PC384-1
8: 6210
9: 10179
10: https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0192
11: 8039
12: 8096
13: 7931
14: 9525
15: https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0445
16: 75053
17: 75110
18: 75155
19: 75168
20: https://brickset.com/minifigs/sw0947
21: 75251
22: 75292
23: 75341
24: 75384
Overall I think this one and Friends have been the best advent calendars this year. City was really hurt by the reduced part count. Harry Potter was ok but some of the builds didn't quite work (like those weird statues). Disney and Spider-man were overpriced and often lazy.
This was the first year I've gone for Star Wars and I enjoyed most of the builds and minifigs. Even if sometimes I had to wait until 4pm to find out what they were :)
I definitely think this calendar started out extremely strong but lost momentum over time. I think we've come to expect a festive minifig on the final day, but to get a tribute to a 4+ set based on a show for very young children as the Christmas Eve gift is baffling. Imagine if we'd got Santa Nein Numb or something like that!
Well, at least it's swooshable. But what I would love to have seen was a red and green Star Destroyer, to homage 75394. It would be festive it it would represent a set that had an anniversary fig. Besides, have they done a Christmas-colored Star Wars ship outside of 4002019?
There are way better sets this year that could've worked for day 24. For example:
Micro 75394
Micro 75383
Micro 75374
Micro 75389
Micro 75382
Or heck, just leave out 2024 and do something from 2023, like 75354 , 75365 to pair with Vader's Castle, or even one of the starfighters from 75364 !
Literally ANYTHING but the Crapson Farthawk.
I had Absolutely no clue what this build was today.
I’ll give it points for the red and white colouring, which has been a theme for a couple of other final calendar builds this year, it’s just a nice touch. Can’t help but feel it would have been funnier having the minikit as the last build though, replicating how you have to hunt them down in hidden places in the games
If they wanted to represent Young Jedi Adventures, getting a High Republic version of Santa Yoda would’ve been perfect!
Day 24 Should have done the red and white gunship. The best build was the minikit from Day 7!
As I mentioned in another post on one of the Disney calendar days, I don't celebrate X-mas, but this calendar was delightful to follow along with. A build/minifig based off of every year of the theme's run is just a fantastic idea, and the execution is great.
I'd say that the only two things I think could be improved are the odd minifig choices (fantastic figs, they're just a bit of a stretch to represent the years they're meant to), and the complete memory holing of the sequel trilogy. I dislike the sequels as much as the next guy, but there's no denying that the first two were huge when they released, and to pretend that didn't happen feels kind of shameful.
EDIT: I would have also liked to see RotS representation (this calendar had none!), but I'm willing to excuse that for the awesome Minikit that took it's biggest potential slot lol.
Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day, with whatever you do or don't celebrate! (Or, if you're like me, have a happy early Hanukkah!)
Apparently I forgot to check the AC day with the razor crest.
Anyway, today's build is... ehm... nevermind. They could have left it up to last year and included the andor ship if you ask me. Or the Onyx Cinder. Idk.
Anyway, as someone who experienced all years of LSW, I must say the anniversary gimmick was fun. Especially the earliest entries were great because they were clearly about the lego version, not just the most accurate Star Wars subject matter. This momentum started to slow down halfway through the calender, and it eventually became clear they would rather have their cake and eat it too by trying to make references double to this year's releases. In some ways that was fine (luke), but in others it tried to do two things and failed at both (the Jedi Shuttle trying to homage the 2011 set but ALSO trying to be the 2024 set. At microscale!).
Overall a fresh take for an advent calender. It was a blast to keep up with this one, and all others this year.
Thank you for everything, Brickset team! Happy holidays!
6. Dis Still not the best. Even the finished castle is rather underwhelming (0 points today + 38 points previously earned = 38 points total)
5. SW At least, it's red (1+55=56)
4. SM A different kind of Christmas tree. I like it! (2+55=57)
3. Fr Nobody saw Santa, but milk and cookies are gone... (3+50=53)
2. City The classic. Thanks! (4+65=69)
1. HP Dumbledore can easily Pose as Santa, He just needs the right hat! And his robe is awesome! (5+63=68)
Final ranking:
6 Disney (38 points) not very festive and poor contents.
5 Friends (53 points) This year's AC wasn't bad at all, it's just that Friends didn't win many top spots. The idea to have younger versions of the main characters celebrating is cute!
4 Star Wars (57 points) I'm quite surprised that it's not lower. Cool to have a flashback theme, but it should have been more holiday-related. Just two sweaters are poor.
3 Spider Man (57 points) A surprise third place, I genuinely enjoyed it this year.
2 Harry Potter (68 points) The designers provided again how well you can mix Christmas and a licensed IP!
1 City (69 points) Just so beat HP with lots of festive Gifts!
All of you, have happy holidays, whether you celebrate or not! And a happy new year!
I’m always excited for an advent calendar with a millennium Falcon because I like seeing how Lego improves theirs each time. Here’s the current version compared with the custom one I’ve been editing each year:
https://www.reddit.com/r/legostarwars/s/jNklmXc9VC
"However, maybe my favourite aspect of the Advent Calendar has been how it marked the 25th anniversary of LEGO Star Wars, revisiting certain memorable sets and milestones. There have been a few strange picks along the way and more unique minifigures would always be welcome, but I have enjoyed the calendar and its structure, nonetheless."
I tore into my SW advent calendar back in November when I bought it and I didn't even realize that there was a set representing each year until I was reading the reviews here. While this is a nice nod to the LEGO Starwars franchise over the past 25 years, a lot of kids who get one of these calendars will have no idea about the significance of the mini models that make up this year's assortment.
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"6: 10134 (please just let me live this one down I was legitimately confused)"
It's okay man, I think that we all just wanted you to fix it lol. Thank you for your excellent service!
@Inkomi said:
"What a lame way to end the calendar, I was waiting for this article to find out what this even was ;_;
But overall the calendar was pretty good, it had good figures and I love the minikit A LOT!
I hope they can include more minifigures in the future, the Harry Potter calendar this year had 7 exclusive ones, I don't need all of these to be exclusive, I just wish they included one or two more."
What did you expect? A sound brick that played the Star Wars outro?
I feel like maybe the tail fell off of this thing, with some poor tail gunner trapped inside.
Also, only 125 more years until we have a complete set of official Minikits!
@TheSpecial:
The cockpit is too flat, and something on top to represent the quad-cannon would be nice, but otherwise that looks pretty good. I came up with my own version about ten years ago, so a lot of those parts didn’t even exist, but I favor the fez for the cockpit.
Hey we didn’t get any weapons racks. I think that alone makes this one of, if not the best SW calendars we’ve ever had. Not every ship was perfect, but I think it ended up good overall!
@WolfpackBricksStudios said:
"There are way better sets this year that could've worked for day 24. For example:
Micro 75394
Micro 75383
Micro 75374
Micro 75389
Micro 75382
Or heck, just leave out 2024 and do something from 2023, like 75354 , 75365 to pair with Vader's Castle, or even one of the starfighters from 75364 !
Literally ANYTHING but the Crapson Farthawk."
This calendar already has a Falcon, so 75388 would be a better choice than 75389. Besides, Jedi Bob paid homage to the history of Lego Star Wars, too!
@jkb said:
"2 Harry Potter (68 points) The designers provided again how well you can mix Christmas and a licensed IP!
1 City (69 points) Just so beat HP with lots of festive Gifts!"
Ouch, this was close! I was rooting for HP ;) however, thanks a lot @jkb for your rankings - it's always a pleasure to read them, as you're definitely part of my Christmas tradition! See you next year, and happy holidays!
The minikit won it for me this year, so it was an enjoyable advent calendar to build.
Razor Crest and Yoda’s Jedi Interceptor were my favorite models. And the minikit!
NGL LEGO needs to do more High Republic stuff that's not 4+
@TheOtherMike said:
"Well, at least it's swooshable. But what I would love to have seen was a red and green Star Destroyer, to homage 75394. It would be festive it it would represent a set that had an anniversary fig. Besides, have they done a Christmas-colored Star Wars ship outside of 4002019?"
Or even just red: something that even has roots in the original EU with Booster Terrik's Errant Venture, the galaxy's only bright red star destroyer! Could have been pretty neat to get that represented in Lego form, as it would have been a pretty deep cut as well as being festive!
So, sure the last model, and a couple of the others, is a dud. But it's an interesting iteration as there's not a single weapon rack, accessory build or minifig terrain to be seen. There's only one of the builds isn't a ship or ground vehicle. Unusual! Forced of course by the concept of having each day represent a year's releases, it focused the requirements of the builds. Bet such things will be back with a vengeance next year.
(Also, as we're on a run of Christmas jumpers, when are we getting Christmas jumper Han, Lando, Ashoka and Jar Jar?
@stevesheriw said:
"I would not have expected Day 24 to be a non iconic ship only the youngling fan base would recognize. I smell the work of Darth Jar Jar in today's entry. It seems like Luke or Leia would have been the better choice for today. If you had to keep with the order based on year of release, surely there would have been a minifig worthy of today.
I think the AC was good overall with lots of detailed builds, nice holiday minifigs and some good army builders. Other than the Day 24 disappointment, I also would have swapped out a few of the ships for location builds to balance things out a bit. "
Definitely a DDJ lump of coal for AFOLs.
Thanks for all the AC fun, o' Cap'n, my Cap'n!
Merry Christmas, everyone!! I love my fellow BS commentators, and wish you all the best. I hope your packages are filled with colorful ABS instead of coal.
The Lego Star Wars team, however, can go and bite my -
[the remainder of SC's comment has been deleted for violations of length, moderation, subjugation, conjugation, illiteration, salutation, and general lack of Christmas spirit. We here at Brickset advised him to drink another nog, which he happily accepted]
Given the current state of Star Wars, we should be thankful this wasn't an Acolyte build.
Merry Christmas!
@Legodp said:
" @jkb said:
"2 Harry Potter (68 points) The designers provided again how well you can mix Christmas and a licensed IP!
1 City (69 points) Just so beat HP with lots of festive Gifts!"
Ouch, this was close! I was rooting for HP ;) however, thanks a lot @jkb for your rankings - it's always a pleasure to read them, as you're definitely part of my Christmas tradition! See you next year, and happy holidays!"
Thank you, too! That's the kind of motivation that makes me do this!
@Jelippo said:
"The designers really said ‘let’s save the worst for last’"
Usually I wouldn't defend Disney Star Wars at all, but I'll do an exception for the Young Jedi Adventures*. If you watch the series with the eyes of the target audience, it's a pretty neat adventure series. The animated Crimson Firehawk is a nice design, and neither the AC-version nor the grosser overpriced 4+ version do it any justice.
*I would also defend Andor, Rogue One, Skeleton Crew and The Mandalorian**.
**The first two seasons and season 2.5***, of course.
*** The episodes Mando hijacked from Boba Fett.
@ThatBionicleGuy said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"Well, at least it's swooshable. But what I would love to have seen was a red and green Star Destroyer, to homage 75394. It would be festive it it would represent a set that had an anniversary fig. Besides, have they done a Christmas-colored Star Wars ship outside of 4002019?"
Or even just red: something that even has roots in the original EU with Booster Terrik's Errant Venture, the galaxy's only bright red star destroyer! Could have been pretty neat to get that represented in Lego form, as it would have been a pretty deep cut as well as being festive!"
I know it'll never happen, but I'd love something like that. At least Rebuild the Galaxy gave us Ewoks flying snubfighters. Yub yub, commander...
@Al_S said:"So, sure the last model, and a couple of the others, is a dud. But it's an interesting iteration as there's not a single weapon rack, accessory build or minifig terrain to be seen. There's only one of the builds isn't a ship or ground vehicle. Unusual! Forced of course by the concept of having each day represent a year's releases, it focused the requirements of the builds. Bet such things will be back with a vengeance next year.
(Also, as we're on a run of Christmas jumpers, when are we getting Christmas jumper Han, Lando, Ashoka and Jar Jar?"
We haven't gotten a weapons rack since 2021, so even if they're not gone for good, at least they're not showing up as frequently as they used to. And I don't mind scenery builds, as long as their easily recognizable. (Now that I've said that, I sort of want a Jedi Temple in a calendar somewhere don the road, although I'm not sure how it could be made recognizable a AC scale.) And yeas, I want a Christmas Jar Jar.
It's pretty awful that the Lego advent calendar has something for kids in it.
Overall I’d say it’s been a pretty solid calandar, definitely the best of 2024. Followed closely by HP and friends.
My favourite thing about this years Advent Calendar...
NO GUN RACKS!!! :))
Edit: Though I wish Princess Leah came armed.
@ggfile said:
"My favourite thing about this years Advent Calendar...
NO GUN RACKS!!! :))
Edit: Though I wish Princess Leah came armed."
If you played Lego Star Wars, you know that she is.
Wow. That was underwhelming.
This calendar was such a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, it was really inventive and I loved the added twist of each day representing a year in LEGO Star Wars history. On the other hand, some of the choices that were made of builds and minifigs to represent certain years were so frustrating, that this calendar got less and less enjoyable for me as the weeks went on.
Aside from ignoring the Sequels, which, as an unapologetic Sequel fan, is super frustrating, not ending on a Christmas minifigure as usual was absurd (they could have very easily ended on Christmas Luke to represent 2023 and RotJ's 40th anniversary and just not acknowledged 2024).
Also, I don't think anyone else has mentioned this, but this was supposed to be a celebration of LEGO Star Wars' history, so, why didn't they put a couple of builds in to represent some of the television shows that aired on Cartoon Network and Disney XD that were, frankly, better than any other piece of canon Star Wars TV I've seen. I'm thinking specifically microbuilds of 75018 for 2013, 75147 for 2016, and 75185 for 2017. Sure, they're obscure, but so was the minikit and today's build! Those shows were a huge milestone for the LEGO Star Wars partnership; plus, they're just great, fun shows to watch, and certainly deserved some acknowledgment here.
Anyway, I know this was long, but I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
A pretty good to great overall advent calendar but what a horrible horrible decision to chose this for the last one.
Far too obscure.
This may be the last year I actually buy the Star Wars Advent Calendar. The micro builds will likely all be disassembled and added to the parts bin. So over all I spent way too much just to get the three Minifigures I really wanted from this one. Luckily I did get it on sale as I've learned to wait before buying these. Very disappointed that there weren't any festive builds this year other than the two ugly Christmas sweaters.