Star Wars Advent Calendar: Day 4
Posted by CapnRex101,
The first three days of this year's LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar have taken inspiration from Star Wars Rebels. There are several more vehicles and characters that could be included so presumably that trend will continue today.
This mounted blaster cannon is sufficiently generic that it could fit into any era. It does not seem to be based upon anything specific but loosely resembles the blaster cannon from Star Wars Battlefront II, albeit with four legs rather than the standard three. These are formed using black 1x1 plates with bars and clips so they can be posed individually to suit the terrain. The trans-clear 2x2 dish beneath the turret ensures absolute stability but is not actually required to support the model so can be removed if you prefer.
A dark bluish grey rifle forms the barrel of the gun and fits perfectly into the Star Wars universe, despite having been designed originally for the Super Secret Police in The LEGO Movie. I like the textured area underneath and the grip is ideally positioned for a minifigure to hold it while sitting down and looking through the scope on top.
Overall - 4.0 - It might have been nice to see something based upon a specific weapon but this generic blaster cannon is well designed and makes good use of a piece which does not initially appear suited to Star Wars.
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26 comments on this article
I actually didn't really like this build, partially because I wasn't entirely sure what it was from. The only turret I was remembering was one that some storm troopers set up to stop Finn and Poe from escaping in a tie fighter near the beginning of TFA, but I cant remember exactly what that looked like.
Edit: Thanks for the clarification, @CapnRex101
@Toa_of_Pi - That was an FWMB-10 repeating blaster. We have seen several First Order Heavy Assault Stormtroopers minifigures but never their trademark weapon, oddly.
After initially thinking this was going to be one of several obligatory random junk builds of the month, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I like this compact little thing. The four relatively new/rare studs with bar certainly helped.
I would say more like the cannons from The Clone Wars. However, they already did that before, and that top bar has me a bit confused. Maybe they just needed something to put in the clip.
0 points for being recognizable, but possibly a little better than a weapon rack. Nothing about it says "Star Wars" to me. With no weight given to piece rarity or parts for MOC, I give this a solid 1.
Just means tomorrow will be a better build! No matter what it is ;)
I actually really like this. It's generic enough to fit in with any era, and even if you don't like the look of it it features some nifty pieces.
Nice. I'm a big fan of little gun placements in scenes, so this is right down my alley.
Probably the best of today's Calendar builds.
I agree w Capn's 4. I like the blaster, its look, stability, and the pieces in it. TheHastyTadpole, you don't like the stud w bar piece?
Neat build! Almost feels chibi to me.
Having no affinity with Rebels then receiving a model that doesn’t even appear in Star Wars I have to say I’m extremely disappointed with the calendar so far this year. Still it just means it can only get better...
I at first thought it was the same blaster gun used in the Dino theme back in 2012, but a quick visit to Bricklink convinced me otherwise. Different moulds.
Blah, but better than a weapons rack.
1x1 plate with bar - good. Dbg clips - good. Better than the weapons racks of years gone by and some pieces I'll find genuinely useful. Still looking forward to some of the builds though.
My best guess is it's the Mark II EWHB-10 Medium repeating blaster from the Battle of Hoth.
At first I thought it was Cassian Andor's blaster rifle w scope from "Rogue One".
To me, it's...not bad, especially due to the 1x1 w/ bar, but I think I would've preferred another SW Rebels model or (especially) a figure, like Zeb or Hera, who we haven't seen in more than one or two sets.
As a thing, it's... alright. As parts, pretty neat.
^ I agree and will add this has been my favourite build so far in the Advent. I immediately recognized this blaster and said "all right!". Awesome parts pack for MOC too, though I collect the SW Advent Calendars so I doubt that will happen.
My guess on this was a clone wars AV-7 antivehicle cannon. Great little build though
I really like CapnRex101’s idea about using a minifigure to hold and use this as a weapon.
As far as the calender on the whole is concerned I am not happy about this year's selection up to now. I am not into all the tangential SW stuff, i.e. anything apart from the movies. Don't care about TV shows, games, novels, comics, etc. Fortunately I got this year's calender for less than half price, otherwise I would consider it almost a total write-off, at least as far as the content up to now is concerned. And as a parts pack? Meh as well, didn't find a lot of useful pieces up to now. I wish they had kept producing the old 2555 design, then today's build would have been a treasure trove to me.
And for my final gripe, especially with today's model: this is supposed to be an Advent calender for Christ's sake (literally). I know, Star Wars, as the title itself implies, is not about peaceful coexistence, but at least Lego could have had the decency to give us another Minifig, scenery, or vehicle, instead of an outright weapon of all things. Especially one that doesn't look very SW-like or in any way recognisable. Quite hypocritical when Lego otoh refuses to do tanks or other military equipment.
I agree with doclego, it looks closest to a Mark II EWHB-10 Medium Repeating Blaster. Although the colors don't quite match up and for a scope I would have gone for a smaller one.
@CreativeTim i agree also
According to the image on the box, it's actually a snowball launcher!
Maybe including a few "snowballs" in the build would have helped show that it's intended to be fun, not violent.
The gun will be useful for the mini-figures.