Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 21
Posted by CapnRex101,
IG-11 emerged yesterday, albeit conspicuously lacking his weapon. Unfortunately, yet another weapons rack may therefore succeed the droid, given precedent of this calendar.
Hopefully that can be avoided...
LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendars have routinely avoided weapons rack during recent years, allowing more consistent quality throughout each set and perhaps acknowledging the negative response to these storage racks. Including three in this Advent Calendar is therefore bewildering and the latest design appears as bland as usual.
Two rifles are mounted on the clips, including Din Djarin's distinctive Amban phase-pulse blaster, around a trans-red console. Such detail improves upon a completely generic weapons rack, but the model remains disappointing. In fact, 75097 Star Wars Advent Calendar is the only previous Advent Calendar to include three weapons racks and they were properly themed around specific minifigures, so were better than these.
Overall - 1.5 - Weapons racks can evidently be omitted, so their presence feels like the designers ran short of ideas for this Advent Calendar.
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40 comments on this article
I like weapon racks! =D
Request: a Brickset article specifically discussing/comparing/contrasting weapons racks.
...I'm going to say that the best one was back in maybe 2013 and came with a Phase II Trooper helmet. It looked like something that would fit well in a Clone Wars vignette.
I put mine together in relatively low light and didn’t notice until this pic that the lightsaber hilt piece was dark brown and not black. Had to go back and check to see if mine was brown too.
Also, is it just me or does the trans red grille have a LOT more clutch than other trans elements or other grille pieces?
This is worse than the previous one
At least it an be made into a little scooter, but three weapons racks are pretty weak offerings.
I'm just judging this by the reviews (I don't have any Advent Calendars, and never have had), but is it just me, or is the Star Wars calendar this year really... weak? Normally every year, at least once every few days (often several days in a row), I click on the article and am wowed by some awesome microbuild or minifig. I have yet to see anything like that in this year's Star Wars articles.
I hope 2022 advent calendar is exclusively weapon racks. That'll show them!
@Robot99 said:
"I'm just judging this by the reviews (I don't have any Advent Calendars, and never have had), but is it just me, or is the Star Wars calendar this year really... weak? Normally every year, at least once every few days (often several days in a row), I click on the article and am wowed by some awesome microbuild or minifig. I have yet to see anything like that in this year's Star Wars articles."
I've said elsewhere: my suspicion is that we're seeing the Star Wars calendars hit their upper limit in terms of the increased price of plastic (and on top of that, probably Lego's licensing fees) against the continued calendar cost of $39.99 USD. In other words: Lego's designers have to use fewer and fewer bricks to produce the same content at the same price.
I'm loathe to want a price increase in these things, but the SW calendars might improve if the price went up $5-10. I hate that option, particularly in light of the fact that the Marvel and Harry Potter calendars are also very attractive and I don't want to spend $150 in ACs every year. (I wish they'd retire the City theme, which is also getting worse and worse every year.)
Welcome to shrinkflation, Lego Disney Star Wars style. Where by definition, you have to cut back in quality and/or size to maintain a stable price. Last year, we had 6 minifigs that were not droids, two droid minifigs, and 2 droids made of parts. Accessories were provided with the minifigs. This year, we get a whopping 4 non droid minifigs, a droid minifig, and a really small minifig. None of the minifigs came with accessories. If you consider all of the blaster racks, shooters, and targets, you come to the conclusion that it took an entire 25% of the calendar to arm them. Some of the builds were repeats of previous years, even as recent as last year. Now the question is, where do you go from here? Raise the price in order to give us a decent calendar? Or do we continue down this road? Yeah, I know. The reasons we bought this calendar are contained in two of the next three doors. It reminds me of the 1980s when you bought a 12 track CD for that one song....
Of course, I could be somewhat wrong. The piece count is up this year (335 pieces). Past years have been in the low 200s...although we've also gotten more true (non-droid) minifigures in the past. I do think more recent builds have been blockier and less creative (e.g., the speeder bike was BORING this year).
@stevesheriw said:
"Welcome to shrinkflation, Lego Disney Star Wars style. Where by definition, you have to cut back in quality and/or size to maintain a stable price. Last year, we had 6 minifigs that were not droids, two droid minifigs, and 2 droids made of parts. Accessories were provided with the minifigs. This year, we get a whopping 4 non droid minifigs, a droid minifig, and a really small minifig. None of the minifigs came with accessories. If you consider all of the blaster racks, shooters, and targets, you come to the conclusion that it took an entire 25% of the calendar to arm them. Some of the builds were repeats of previous years, even as recent as last year. Now the question is, where do you go from here? Raise the price in order to give us a decent calendar? Or do we continue down this road? Yeah, I know. The reasons we bought this calendar are contained in two of the next three doors. It reminds me of the 1980s when you bought a 12 track CD for that one song...."
I wonder if anyone would be really upset if the Advent Calendars were replaced with, say, a seasonal Battle Pack. I used to love them for being 1) a year-in review (City was great about this) or 2) an army builder (I have so many Battle Droids and Stormtroopers from 10 years of ACs now). This year hasn't been very fun for either.
I hope we get a weapons only advent calendar next year. Every day a nice weapon rack to shoot my way to christmas!
@jkb said:
"I like weapon racks! =D"
… said no one. Ever. :)
@lessjunkfood said:
"I put mine together in relatively low light and didn’t notice until this pic that the lightsaber hilt piece was dark brown and not black. Had to go back and check to see if mine was brown too.
Also, is it just me or does the trans red grille have a LOT more clutch than other trans elements or other grille pieces?"
thought the same thing!
the grille is really hard to get off!!!
One rack is acceptable (almost a tradition), two is clear filler…at three it just feels like we’re being trolled. Maybe ACs are designer’s least favorite project every year? Maybe they want to see how little effort can be put in while maintaining sales?
This one could have been the only one. The gaffi stick barely qualifies.
Would’ve loved to see a Dark Trooper fig in this, it being the SW/Mando calendar and that fig only otherwise available in 75315 Imperial Light Cruiser (…and sadly only one in that set). But even if there was a figure budget restriction, the same part count could’ve been put into many other minibuild options. The ice spider creature comes to mind…or the Jedi temple where Grogu was taken. There are just a lot of cool subjects unique to The Mandalorian that would’ve made this AC stand out if they’d put a little more effort in.
Weapon racks may be tedious, but day 21 isn't going to be a friggin' full featured expansion to Ninjago City. Perhaps Lego wanted us to contemplate the tedium of arms races in general: the accumulation of weapons and militarization of our societies is a stumbling block to contemplation of greater empathy towards other beings trapped in the painful state we call existence as a sapient life form. If, on day 21, the Lego Star Wars advent calendar featured a shitty ten-piece microbuild to encourage us to love one another, parents would complain.
It’s not bland. It has red on it. Makes it look sinister, but ultimately harmless if you avoid contact. Like a bowl of turnips.
@ResIpsaLoquitur:
Hands down the best one was 2014, with the hearth that had Luke’s and Vader’s lightsabers hanging on either side. Also, if City and Friends can deliver at $10 less, and HP and Marvel can deliver at the same price, then SW has zero excuse to phone it in. This is just a case where some designers clearly like including weapons racks, while the person who designed the last two (at least) abhors them.
Minifigs also throw off piece counts. A minifig can consist of as few as three “elements”, but factor much more heavily than three basic bricks.
I honestly don’t mind weapons racks. It’s kind of fun to find ways to sneak them into mocs
It's out of the way. Now the last 3 days can hopefully be a solid run, without the threat of a weapons rack hovering over them.
@CCC said:
"I don't mind weapons racks, especially when they come with larger blasters. That alone is often worth more to me than the handful of basic parts on some days that go to make something I don't recognise, I will never display and wouldn't even know what it is if I didn't look here."
The guns should just come with the figures in the first place. It's not like these are extras or anything, they're here to arm the minifigs that had the audacity to show up without accessories.
@CopperTablet said:
"Weapon racks may be tedious, but day 21 isn't going to be a friggin' full featured expansion to Ninjago City. Perhaps Lego wanted us to contemplate the tedium of arms races in general: the accumulation of weapons and militarization of our societies is a stumbling block to contemplation of greater empathy towards other beings trapped in the painful state we call existence as a sapient life form. If, on day 21, the Lego Star Wars advent calendar featured a shitty ten-piece microbuild to encourage us to love one another, parents would complain."
Dang bro. Too deep for me.
@gunther_schnitzel said:
" @jkb said:
"I like weapon racks! =D"
… said no one. Ever. :)
"
No, but i WROTE it! =)
Oh, two of the better weapons racks were the Endor stump and the Hoth gun holder (same set, I forget what year). Both looked like they could easily fit into a vignette.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Oh, two of the better weapons racks were the Endor stump and the Hoth gun holder (same set, I forget what year). Both looked like they could easily fit into a vignette."
I think it was 2015 or 16. I loved that year’s calendar, it also had the little Ewok village microbuild
For it falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
While it was ours.
It's better than the pile of dirt with the stick. And it's better than it needs to be to function. If weapons racks contained extra weapons I'd be fine with them, but this doesn't even have two blasters for Iggy Pop.
Is this a Star Wars advent calendar record? 3 weapons racks in a single one.
Scan read the article, so it's a joint record.
@CCC:
If the weapons “rack” is a tripod with an E-Web sitting on top of it, I’m inclined to agree. But I’d rather have a 3pc Twin Pod Cloud Car that actually shows they were trying than a 10pc lump of dirt with a single clip on it.
Aargh-rest assured a strongly worded letter will be sent to the LEGO group regarding this travesty!
Well, hopefully price won't get any higher. But even at the risk of missing out entirely, I wait until someone has it for $30 to buy it. So if price goes up and they then have to have it on "sale" at $35 which is almost the old full price, I may have to quit buying them altogether, or at least limit myself to just HP.
@stevesheriw said:
"Welcome to shrinkflation, Lego Disney Star Wars style. Where by definition, you have to cut back in quality and/or size to maintain a stable price. Last year, we had 6 minifigs that were not droids, two droid minifigs, and 2 droids made of parts. Accessories were provided with the minifigs. This year, we get a whopping 4 non droid minifigs, a droid minifig, and a really small minifig. None of the minifigs came with accessories. If you consider all of the blaster racks, shooters, and targets, you come to the conclusion that it took an entire 25% of the calendar to arm them. Some of the builds were repeats of previous years, even as recent as last year. Now the question is, where do you go from here? Raise the price in order to give us a decent calendar? Or do we continue down this road? Yeah, I know. The reasons we bought this calendar are contained in two of the next three doors. It reminds me of the 1980s when you bought a 12 track CD for that one song...."
Two droid figures, actually - IG-11 and the interrogator. But points taken.
I’m still enjoying this AC and glad I got it, but I do think it’s the weakest this year, the weakest one ever in the theme, and one of the weakest ACs they’ve had in any theme. I’m glad I got it at a discount.
@gunther_schnitzel said:
" @jkb said:
"I like weapon racks! =D"
… said no one. Ever. :)
"
Except the troopers, who don't want to just leave their weapons lying around on the ground.
I'm waiting for the all-advent weapons rack... in Lego City. Sold exclusively in the US.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"Of course, I could be somewhat wrong. The piece count is up this year (335 pieces). Past years have been in the low 200s...although we've also gotten more true (non-droid) minifigures in the past. I do think more recent builds have been blockier and less creative (e.g., the speeder bike was BORING this year)."
Calling the speeder bike boring is a bit of a stretch I think. They can’t exactly put the battle pack version in a tiny advent box, and I think it’s actually impressive that they fit such a substantial build in one day of the calendar.
@CCC:
75213, day 6 was a 12pc Cloud City with a TPCC flying around the ventral antenna. Combined, it’s actually a really cool model. By itself, even just the TPCC, consisting of a mere 3pcs, impressed me more than the lump of dirt holding up the Tusken’s weapon this year. Give the weapon to the minifig as they’ve shown they were fully capable of doing the last couple years, and I’d be embarrassed to actually take that bag out, build the model according to the instructions, and add it to the lineup. It looks like the sort of thing someone would build if they were in visible bathroom distress and were told by their boss that they couldn’t leave with only 23 models finished.
Will there be a weapons rack rack, to hold the weapons racks?
@mickywrx said:
"Is this a Star Wars advent calendar record? 3 weapons racks in a single one.
Scan read the article, so it's a joint record."
So far!
It's pretty clear that they ran out of ideas when trying to theme the advent calendar around a TV series with only 16 episodes. ...but I still feel like I could have come up with some better ideas than weapons racks. (Obviously they limit the number of minifigures, so simply replacing them all with characters isn't an option.)
I feel like this would make a good contest for the site: Design 3 unique replacements for weapons racks using a limited amount of pieces. Prize? Bragging rights.
@hewhocaves said:
"I'm waiting for the all-advent weapons rack... in Lego City. Sold exclusively in the US. "
Don't tell anyone, I have just received word on the 2022 May the Fourth set:
75399 UCS Star Wars Weapons Rack
6,548 pieces, 125 stickers, 950 USD
People (especially in the US) will drool over it - until they find out about a sub-assembly in the base that due to some weird construction technique can't be properly disassembled...
;-)
@gunther_schnitzel said:
"Will there be a weapons rack rack, to hold the weapons racks?"
The very wet dream of any weapons rack enthusiast. That or what @AustinPowers suggested.
Or a UCS Weapons rack rack!
Or an advent calendar with a weapons rack behind every door!
City weapons rack! Avengers weapons rack! Harry potter magic wands rack! Castle AV medieval weapons rack! Pirates AV sabre & musket rack! Friends... uhm... brushes rack?
@PDelahanty:
I’ve seen at least one missing vehicle mentioned in the comments. That’s 1/3 of the problem right there. The other two could have been actual artillery pieces with stud shooters, and people would have complained less. Some, but less.
@CCC:
You’d get the guns either way. That’s a large part of the complaint against weapons racks. At that point, what do you care whether it’s random parts that make a ship or scene vs random parts that make...dirt?