Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 20
Posted by CapnRex101,
Small renditions of famous vehicles have proven impressive throughout the Advent Calendar and the Slave I which arrived yesterday was splendid, as expected.
Hopefully that quality continues...
IG-11 appears prominently during the first season of The Mandalorian, eventually become a fierce guardian of Grogu. This figure returns from 75292 The Razor Crest and his availability here is welcome, featuring an impressive printed head that varies from other assassin droids. The metallic silver and red sensors look superb.
Unfortunately, I find LEGO assassin droid designs reasonably bland and IG-11 is no exception, despite the accurate head decoration. The clip on his back seems particularly awkward and a weapon should definitely have been provided. I was hoping we could avoid another weapons rack in this Advent Calendar, but perhaps not.
Overall - 3.5 - IG-11's return from 75292 The Razor Crest is appreciated and I love the printed head, but the figure is otherwise underwhelming.
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The thing with IG Assassin droids is: at some point, you have enough of them. And yet, they keep popping up in the advent calendars. I vote for a SW:Resistance themed calendar next year. Nobody ever talks about the show - certainly for good reasons - but there are so few LEGO sets from the series that we could at least expect something we've never seen before.
Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.
I guess it's not a B1. But really, a weapon rack still to come in the last few days before Christmas? Boo.
My son was enjoying building his first IG droid until he noticed the empty clip on its back. Then he gave me "the look"
Love how the printing of his sensors forms a smiley face.
He played some crucial roles in Season 1, so disappointing that everything from the neck down is a grey VBD, but hopefully this is the last trough before a great finishing wave of the calendar.
Me: I don't know what to make of this
LEGO: what's wrong with it.
Me: I dunno... just funny-looking (Fargo)
@stevesheriw said:
"My son was enjoying building his first IG droid until he noticed the empty clip on its back. Then he gave me "the look""
My son isn't old enough to appreciate the weapons rack ire just yet but he did bemoan the lack of blaster.
I’m happy with this one, apart from the fact no accessories are included, having been reserved for the weapons rack we know is coming (hardly a spoiler, since it’s shown on the outside of the box - at the left edge of the flap, next to the stormtrooper).
The packaging actually tells us three or four of the remaining reveals from the last four days - a combo weapons rack / computer terminal, a festively-attired Din Djarin, a similarly festive Grogu, and Grogu’s floating bassinet/stroller-thingy. The only questions are what order they come in, and whether Grogu’s floating sleeper thingy is included with him or gets a separate slot to itself. Given how other personal accessories have been parted out to different days from their figures in this calendar, the latter is entirely possible, though it would be disappointing if so. But I think that’s going to be the case.
I was very happy with this figure, plus the spares: 2 pairs of arms! But also disappointed no blaster(s).
@jkb said:
"The thing with IG Assassin droids is: at some point, you have enough of them. And yet, they keep popping up in the advent calendars. I vote for a SW:Resistance themed calendar next year. Nobody ever talks about the show - certainly for good reasons - but there are so few LEGO sets from the series that we could at least expect something we've never seen before."
I’d love to see a whole SW AC devoted to the original Star Wars Holiday Special, but I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for it. ;D
One thing I think might be cool would be an entire AC given over to droid figures, a few of whom might be traditional minifigures, like Threepio, and the rest having either astromech- or battle droid-type builds, or being purely brick-built, like power droids, mouse droids, etc.
@MisterBrickster said:
"Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.
I guess it's not a B1. But really, a weapon rack still to come in the last few days before Christmas? Boo."
You may wish to reserve your boo. In trying to deduce the remaining days, it looks like one might be a single piece not requiring any assembly. :)
These assassin droids gave me nightmares for years! Well, not IG-11s specifically, since that character didn't exist at the time. But still.
Star Wars: Droidworks was a pretty tame PC game in all respects, I grant; but especially so for the first eight or so levels - of which there were three iterations each to be completed - where there had been no enemies of any kind, and just cheerful background music as you zipped around with your custom-built droid accomplishing objectives designed to teach simple physics principles to kids.
And then you get to the final wave of levels. The cheerful music is GONE, replaced by the eerie tones of Attack of the Sand People. The locations start to carry a feeling of being abandoned and ominous, a feeling only aided by that music. And then there comes the point where you turn a corner - and AN ASSASSIN DROID IS CHARGING STRAIGHT AT YOU, GUNS BLAZING. No warning, and its screeching voice spelling certain doom for your poor little helpless droid... all you can do is RUN THE HECK OUT OF THERE and duck around a corner or lock the door and hope it can't get to you. For a young kid, that is FREAKY, especially when the game had been so low-key and happy right up to that point... quite traumatising! I couldn't even bring myself to finish the level, that first time; and even when I did work up the courage to continue progressing, I found that *all three levels* of that wave had similar moments, each with equally little warning, and my little eight-year-old nerves couldn't take it!
In hindsight, it was still pretty tame; the droids didn't do that much damage, and I think they were fairly slow... you could probably just have strolled on past them and been more-or-less fine. But the jump-scare nature of their appearances, combined with the tense atmosphere of those levels, made them indescribably menacing to me at the time - especially when I was an easily-scared kid anyway. Even after I finally conquered those levels, I still intermittently had dreams, where I'd be playing that game and they'd *appear* out of the most ominous places and chase me down, for several years after!
All that is to say... yeah, looks pretty authentic here, to me! Wouldn't want to meet this guy coming around a corner unexpectedly... xD
I had real trouble building this one, initially not realising the two arms were different and each had a spare too.
Embarrassingly I have had to wait for the Brickset review to work out where the clip went.
The B1 torso and legs always look a bit wimpy on these droids, especially since Lego insists on the cone+brick head. The Magna Guard torso and Magna Guard/Super Battle Droid legs look much more formidable, but I assume both of those elements are likely retired now.
@Rob42 said:
"The B1 torso and legs always look a bit wimpy on these droids, especially since Lego insists on the cone+brick head. The Magna Guard torso and Magna Guard/Super Battle Droid legs look much more formidable, but I assume both of those elements are likely retired now."
The magna guard torso is almost certainly retired since they haven't appeared since the clone wars waves. The super battle droid legs should still be available since they are a very common enemy. Wait, was the last time they were in a set Battle of Saleucami? That set was released in 2014. I guess they may have retired that part as well. Hopefully we get a Separatist droid battle pack soon.
@PhantomBricks said:
" @Rob42 said:
"The B1 torso and legs always look a bit wimpy on these droids, especially since Lego insists on the cone+brick head. The Magna Guard torso and Magna Guard/Super Battle Droid legs look much more formidable, but I assume both of those elements are likely retired now."
The magna guard torso is almost certainly retired since they haven't appeared since the clone wars waves. The super battle droid legs should still be available since they are a very common enemy. Wait, was the last time they were in a set Battle of Saleucami? That set was released in 2014. I guess they may have retired that part as well. Hopefully we get a Separatist droid battle pack soon."
That's crazy, I didn't realize it had been so long! The last Super Battle Droid was in 75085 in 2015, but the legs appeared on K-2SO in 75156 in 2016. Nothing since then. I wonder if they'll get an update or what?
@LeGobrick_Threepwood said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"Melancholy is the nurse of frenzy.
I guess it's not a B1. But really, a weapon rack still to come in the last few days before Christmas? Boo."
You may wish to reserve your boo. In trying to deduce the remaining days, it looks like one might be a single piece not requiring any assembly. :)"
I don’t think so. We have four days left, and we know they include the weapons rack with two blasters, Din Djarin, a backpack sack (commonly worn by Santas in the past, along with City thieves, mail carriers, etc. who use it for money or mail on 1x2 tiles), Grogu, and Grogu’s hover pram. If these last two items are separate, that still gives us the two-piece Grogu baby figure, plus the sack (which is used by the Biker Scout to carry Grogu on the speeder bike). There have been ACs in the past that have had single-element reveals for one day or another, but I suspect the smallest build by part count in this one will be Grogu, and that day should still have three pieces (his head, his body, and the sack he can ride in on the bike).
Alternately, we could get Grogu and his hover pram all together at once, and then get something like a classic pine tree on the last day. That would mean there is indeed a single-piece “build” in the set, but it’d also mean actually getting a little more than expected near the end, so I for one wouldn’t mind too much.
Is there a reason the clip on his back is attached by a 1x1 round stud? I think its unnecessary and it makes the gun sit too far off his back.
@CDM:
Sounds like he’s perfectly old enough to understand the weapons rack ire. He just doesn’t realize it yet. It stems from the fact that the accessories are generally included with the minifigs in other calendars, but holding a gun or lightsaber back just feels like you got less than a complete day each time a minifig pops up. And then when the weapons racks tend to be not particularly interesting designs, it only throws salt on the wound. At least when they did it with this year’s HPAC, they gave Harry two days of nothing but accessories, including a few rare and exclusive items. The luggage cart might feel like a weapon rack, but it is something that featured in the film. And they only give you one for the whole calendar.
@Blondie_Wan:
No spoilers here, but Punt-Yoda seems light even for a Weapons Rack Advent Calendar, so I would be inclined to expect him to come with his baby buggy. But I could be wrong.
@gorf43 said:
"Is there a reason the clip on his back is attached by a 1x1 round stud? I think its unnecessary and it makes the gun sit too far off his back. "
I believe it’s because if you attach the plate with clip directly to his back without the round plate first, it limits the back-and-forth movement of the head - the bar-with-clip’s clip and the 1x1 square plate get in each other’s way.
A subtle thing but on the plus side: The leg clip feels to have much better resistance than previous battle droids or IG figures. (Not so floppy a waist, in other words.) I don’t have my IG-11 from the Razor Crest model handy to compare, but just something I noticed putting this together today.
@jkb said:
"The thing with IG Assassin droids is: at some point, you have enough of them. And yet, they keep popping up in the advent calendars. I vote for a SW:Resistance themed calendar next year. Nobody ever talks about the show - certainly for good reasons - but there are so few LEGO sets from the series that we could at least expect something we've never seen before."
I wouldn't mind seeing more Resistance content in LEGO, too. No sure about an entire AC at this point in time, but certainly a few items sprinkled around would be appreciated. I feel the show was underappreciated and, in my opinion, helped make the Sequel Trilogy feel more cohesive.
For those of us who are uninitiated:
what is the difference between this print, and an IG-88
?
@andygott:
Oh, about 77, I’d guess.
could you condense all of the advent calendars into one daily post so the news feed doesn't get flooded please?
@ToaofPlastic:
This has been addressed repeatedly (perhaps annually), several times. You can eliminate all AC posts from the front page, if you’re logged in, and each article is retired from the front page as a new day’s post goes live for the same calendar, but with five AC posts up every day, perhaps it is time to consider other solutions. Maybe a way to eliminate the main posts from the front page, but opt in for an aggregate post?