Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 14
Posted by CapnRex101,
An excellent Imperial Scout Trooper minifigure appeared yesterday. I accordingly envisage the Imperial focus continuing today, with a suitable vehicle for that Scout Trooper.
Let's open door number fourteen and see...
Of course, a weapons rack was another possibility since the Imperial Scout Trooper was unarmed. This design is quite simple, accommodating two different blasters for both the Scout Trooper and the earlier Stormtrooper. Nevertheless, the blocky structure seems fitting for the Galactic Empire and I like the gap at the centre, allowing minifigures to shoot from behind cover.
Despite those qualities, previous Star Wars Advent Calendars have demonstrated that weapons racks are unnecessary. Examples like this one therefore feel superfluous, as though few options for Advent Calendar items were available. We will discover whether there were other possibilities upon reaching the end of this calendar!
Overall - 2.0 - I dislike weapons racks in general, but this creation provides slightly greater play value than many comparable models.
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26 comments on this article
In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
@MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
romeo and juliet and weapons rack. what more can you ask for.
@MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
*One Scout (Imperial) you mean?
@MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
I always imagined the wall to be little more to the tan/white colour side.
I assume these things get focus tested to the river Styx and back, so while adults may dislike them, surely kids must enjoy receiving them. If they didn't, LEGO would (or should) know and could just as easily supply a microscale model instead.
Given the microbuilds in the City calendar, I imagined this to be a microbuild of the Imperial base on Nevarro, especially given that we've had the Marauder and Landspeeder from the raid on that base.
On the one hand, guns.
On the other... grey wall.
This looks kind of like something you might see in Battlefront, so I'm ok with it, but would have preferred something recognisable.
5.0 a surprise (not on the box anywhere) weapons rack, appropriately themed for the imperials, the tradition continues!
now looking forward to the remaining rack with ig-11's blaster rifle and Din's Amban sniper rifle
The gap confused me, because it's too low for the scout trooper to actually see through (their head is blocked by the top grey 1x4), but a perfect height for any enemy to shoot them in the chest.
Given that weapons racks are an inevitability, I rather like this. It could have only been one or two bricks tall, but instead we’re given something that minifigs can interact with. Bravo!
One improvement, however, could have been the inclusion of a gatekeeper droid (the eyeball on a stick), as seen in Season 1 (or, more famously, in Return of the Jedi), or even a Christmas wreath to attach to the front.
Hey, spare blasters! They Scout trooper from yesterday and the earlier Stormtrooper look great as action figures, but since they don’t really go with the numbers of older troops I’ve accumulated I think they’re going to be treated as individual display items rather than adding to my troop complements. But these blasters can easily be used with older minifigures without breaking visual uniformity.
I don’t mind weapons racks, though I’d like for them to have more on them than just the bare minimum accessories for the accompanying minifigures. A rack with four guns would be great.
Anyone else notice that there are two stud shooter canons, two targets, and two barriers? This seems to be set up for kids to play together as either a tusken raider or imperial forces. I think this kind of cohesion excuses the multiple weapon racks.
As stated by others, I think the weapon racks in this calendar are a lot more tolerable because they are also a defensive wall. I generally like builds that can interact with minifigures as they are more useful than even succesful micro-builds. Though yeah, most weapon racks are terrible and the weapons could be included with the figurs.
@ohrmazd said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
romeo and juliet and weapons rack. what more can you ask for."
Midsummer Night's Dream
@ohrmazd:
Well, Romeo’s obsession with Juliet did kill off a lot of people...
@medgyesid said:
" @ohrmazd said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
romeo and juliet and weapons rack. what more can you ask for."
Midsummer Night's Dream "
Ah geez. I thought Pyramus and Thisby was the performance in Romeo and Juliet, since it mirrored the greater play...my bad...
@Toa_of_Pi said:
"The gap confused me, because it's too low for the scout trooper to actually see through (their head is blocked by the top grey 1x4), but a perfect height for any enemy to shoot them in the chest."
If make a figure "kneel" (one leg forwards, one leg back), they'll fit perfectly. just the right height to look (and shoot) through the barrier.
@unslipped said:
"Given that weapons racks are an inevitability, I rather like this. [...] "
They don't have to be, as several previous years have demonstrated. We could be getting the accessories with the minifigs, and have more mini builds and stuff instead, but evidently not all designers like doing that.
Ugh. Nipper 2 was not impressed with a second weapons rack.
Something there is that does not love a wall... Oh wait, it's the AFOL fanbase!
I would give the rack a 5.0 rating if the grey 1x4 above the gap had a printed label in Italian that translates to "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
@MisterBrickster said:
"In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
Did whisper often very secretly.
This loam, this rough-cast and this stone doth show
That I am that same wall; the truth is so:
And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper."
It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard discourse, my lord.
Replace the guns with whips and chains and you have a totally different use for this wall.
Ooh the comments are too high brow for yours truly here! Still, as weapons racks go I rather like this. I must be mellowing out in my old age.......
@Reventon:
Well, that’s yet again a different type of rack.
@Jackthenipper said:
"Ugh. Nipper 2 was not impressed with a second weapons rack."
2 down... [spoiler alert], one to go!