Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 21
Posted by CapnRex101,
Christmas is fast approaching, leaving only four remaining items within 75279 Star Wars Advent Calendar. Another mini model based upon Hoth seems probable today.
Find out after the break...
Gonk.
Hans Burkhard Schlömer has designed three Star Wars Advent Calendars and each of those calendars feature GNK Power Droids! The newest example is a snowman, consisting primarily of white and medium azure parts which appear fittingly icy. The shape of the GNK Power Droid is recognisable and I like how traditional snowman features have been integrated, including the top hat and carrot nose.
The nose does appear slightly odd when connected this way around and black sticks would probably have been more suitable to represent arms. Additionally, the legs seem rather long, compared with the original droids. I love the angled feet though, matching more conventional Gonk Droids which have appeared as recently as 75932 Resistance I-TS Transport.
Overall - 3.5 - Transforming a classic Gonk Droid into a snowman certainly seems festive and this model includes nice detail, although I think some potential for improvement remains.
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This is horrible. I'd rather have a gun rack. Last years present version was a million times better.
Honestly this kinda looks more like a festive Junkbot to me.
Still, it’s a fun little addition! Looks weird, but I’m sure it would fit well with a group of generic yet festive droids.
Was there a Day 18 review (the tauntaun)? Looking back, I couldn't find day 18 for either SW or HP.
*insert NOOT sound effect here*
@donutboy said:
"This is horrible. I'd rather have a gun rack. Last years present version was a million times better."
C'mon how are you gonna say that about snowman Gonk?
The backwards carrot bugs me. I would have used 1 x 2 Technic brick w/ axle hole and a short bar to insert in the back of the carrot. Otherwise, fine festive model for me.
It would be cute if your four-year-old built this...
I kind of like it, but of course this is coming off of the disappointment from yesterday.
I thought it didn't look that great, but I turned the carrot around (Just holding it to the face) and it looked really good! Maybe even something that could deserve a 5!
Why not brown branches and the carrot the right way round? Would have made it a 4.5 or 5 instead of what I'd call a 2. Just seems poorly executed.
@Brainslugged said:
"Was there a Day 18 review (the tauntaun)? Looking back, I couldn't find day 18 for either SW or HP."
Tauntaun is Day 19th - https://brickset.com/article/55368/star-wars-advent-calendar-day-19
Who gave a Gonk droid long legs?!
The concept here is solid, but the execution is a total miss.
The problem with the carrot is I really can’t think of any alternate solution to flip it around.
@Brainslugged:
If you didn’t stop by the last two days, the Advent Calendar articles fall off the front page feed as soon as the next day’s article for the same calendar gets posted. You can access the full run by clicking on the “Advent Countdown” tag near the headline. When you consider that they’re running four calendars simultaneously, they’re generating 96 daily build articles this year alone, plus one more just to warn people that it was about to start. It really clutters up the main feed, so this was the compromise Huw went with.
He looks like a Honker from Sesame Street.
Hmmmm. Is there a 1x1 bottlecap piece in white? They could have used a blue technic pin in the hole, put the bottlecap on that, and then invert the carrot. The nose would be longer, but this thing is already way goofy, so....
Also, brown branches for the arms, not green. Brown has literally been done in past ACs.
At this point, Lego just needs to release a Snowman CMF.
I see some negative comments, but I *love* this little Christmas droid. The green arms are more of a Christmas color than brown or black, the backwards carrot matches the junky style of a Gonk Droid In my mind, and even the longer legs don’t bother me.
Nothing beats the exclusive torsos with the Star Wars Christmas sweaters, but I do get a lot of joy out of the days like this where they take something Star Wars and give it a little Christmas spin. Even something as simple as giving the tauntaun a red 1x1 circular stud for the nose was enough to upgrade that tauntaun from good to great in my opinion.
My other favorite part of the Lego Advent Calendars is the shared experience of opening each day alongside Lego fans from around the world. Thanks again to Brickset for helping me to experience this!
I love it. It's so bad.
This is a quirky build I must say. A bit trippy!
Our snow Gonk friend is a little off in his default form, but luckily fixing him isn't too hard.
To start, swap his leg brick out with either a pair of stacked rounded 1x2 plates, or two pairs of stacked studs.
Next, you can swap out his green sticks for brown if you like.
Finally, the nose. The easiest option is to just replace the carrot with a small orange tooth piece used on past snowmen, but if like me you're dead set on getting the carrot the right way, there are two options. Option 1 is easy but it makes the nose a little longer: get a 1x1 tile with bar and attach it to the light gray pin, then stick the carrot on. Option 2 looks best: Swap the white technic brick for a white technic axle brick, cut a short length of flex tube, or whatever color of 4-long bar you're fine with breaking, and mount the carrot.
All the comments about the nose and everyone seems to be missing the obvious solution. Just use the piece Olaf's minifig used!
Thanks for the review Cap'n. A fun little set that is ideal for an advent calendar and will also contribute useful parts to my other projects when I break up my 2020 display to find a home for all the micro-builds and minifigs within my Star Wars collection. I love putting the micro-builds alongside the larger models - the scale difference makes me smile!
I think it looks less like a Gonk and more like one of Richard Hargreaves Mr Men!