Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 1
Posted by CapnRex101,
75340 Star Wars Advent Calendar continues the long-running collection of festive Star Wars sets, which have usually proven enjoyable in the past.
The recent influx of new Star Wars series should provide ample inspiration for interesting models and minifigures.
Hopefully those expectations will be met on day one...
Star Wars Advent Calendars are known for visiting snowy planets on their packaging, previously including Hoth, Starkiller Base and Maldo Kreis. However, the latest calendar instead features a freezing Endor scene, with an AT-AT decorated for Christmas passing in the background! Other designs have been more creative or elaborate, but this one is fun and offers generous room to place the items as they arrive.
Hans Burkhard Schlömer has designed several LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendars and often includes mini versions of his creations behind the first door, including the Slave I in 2016, a First Order Star Destroyer in 2019 and an A-wing in 2020. The popular Republic Gunship accordingly emerges today, in reference to 75309 Republic Gunship!
This rendition of the troop transport looks superb, succeeding another model that has appeared twice before. The version from 2011 and 2013 was good, but this example is substantially larger and includes much greater detail, with a hollow troop compartment and accurate lime green and dark red highlights. There are some gaps around the cockpit, but they are certainly excusable at such a tiny scale.
Overall - I have always considered the previous Republic Gunship an Advent Calendar classic, but this design is even better!
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23 comments on this article
The gaps are unseemly. I cannot think of what parts currently in existence would correct this, or how the bricks could be rearranged to cover it.
I do think the nacelles are way too thin. I already modded mine by adding a white 1x1 cylinder, maroon 1x1 round plate with hole, and black 1x1 round plate with hole to the bottom of the shaft, and then one more 1x1 maroon round plate with hole to the front of clip. Looks SO MUCH better.
I'd be tempted to add a 1x1 maroon cone to the front, but I can't find any in my pile. And there'd still be a white stump sticking out of the front, which would look wrong.
Big thanks to the Brickset crew for the annual advent ritual postings. I didn't buy any of them this year although I'm already regretting not picking up the SW flavor, mainly for the exclusive figures. My son picked a Pokemon advent this year (eyeroll). Happy December, everyone!
I don't really have a favorite, they're just fun little builds.
You know Christmas has started when Brickset get the annual advent calendar reviews on the go. Love them!
Just a thought about the poll, would be interesting if you could do a rank from 1 to 5 with best being 1 and 'worst' being 5 and then seeing how the calendars play out over the month.
Are you not doing scores this year?
I always enjoyed loudly cursing, “5.0?! What is he, blind?” Or, “Why did this only get 2.5 when it is perfect!”
Bring back the scores I say!
A good micro build! This one's a great rendition! I hope the parts budget hasn't been symphoned from a later model though.
This isn't my favorite ship in the minifigure / UCS sizes, but it's a strong start at this scale. I'd probably give it a 3.5, but will bump it up to 4.0 due to having a green piece, the most sorely lacking color in SW Advent calendars.
@CCC said:
"Shouldn't that poll be a separate article? People that aren't into Star Wars are less likely to visit the article than Star Wars fans, and so the results of the poll will be skewed by the bias of where it is located. "
I agree. While I do think Star Wars legitimately "won" today, if the poll only shows up in the Star Wars article it seems likely that the results will be skewed to SW.
@CCC said:
"Shouldn't that poll be a separate article? People that aren't into Star Wars are less likely to visit the article than Star Wars fans, and so the results of the poll will be skewed by the bias of where it is located. "
Exactly. I'm not bothered about the Star Wars Calendar this year, but thought I'd see what todays item was anyway. Very silly to ask who 'won' the day in an article alot of people won't read.
I am disappointed that it’s not a model of SantAT-AT.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"The gaps are unseemly. I cannot think of what parts currently in existence would correct this, or how the bricks could be rearranged to cover it.
I do think the nacelles are way too thin. I already modded mine by adding a white 1x1 cylinder, maroon 1x1 round plate with hole, and black 1x1 round plate with hole to the bottom of the shaft, and then one more 1x1 maroon round plate with hole to the front of clip. Looks SO MUCH better.
I'd be tempted to add a 1x1 maroon cone to the front, but I can't find any in my pile. And there'd still be a white stump sticking out of the front, which would look wrong."
Good ideas. I'm going to add those- especially because I have the dark red cones. They look even better if you sub black antennae for the white.
But, those aren't nacelles, they're missle launching tubes.
I pulled all the mini figs out of mine weeks ago to fill up a frame.
@StyleCounselor said:
" @ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"The gaps are unseemly. I cannot think of what parts currently in existence would correct this, or how the bricks could be rearranged to cover it.
I do think the nacelles are way too thin. I already modded mine by adding a white 1x1 cylinder, maroon 1x1 round plate with hole, and black 1x1 round plate with hole to the bottom of the shaft, and then one more 1x1 maroon round plate with hole to the front of clip. Looks SO MUCH better.
I'd be tempted to add a 1x1 maroon cone to the front, but I can't find any in my pile. And there'd still be a white stump sticking out of the front, which would look wrong."
Good ideas. I'm going to add those- especially because I have the dark red cones. They look even better if you sub black antennae for the white.
But, those aren't nacelles, they're missle launching tubes. "
I actually keep my Advent Calendar builds intact and use them to make micro-build scenes, so I have this irrational deep aversion to removing parts from the builds. "Adding to" is fine; swapping out parts kills me, for some reason.
Last year, I swapped out holiday Spider-Man's pants for dual-molded legs, and I modified the drone to look more like the ones from the Far Frome Home sets. Both of those required active part swapping, and I...hated it despite the massive improvements.
@CCC said:
"Shouldn't that poll be a separate article? People that aren't into Star Wars are less likely to visit the article than Star Wars fans, and so the results of the poll will be skewed by the bias of where it is located. "
Fair point. There is considerable overlap in article readership, but we will publish a poll at the end of Advent instead, to see which was the favourite.
@MrKettle said:
"Are you not doing scores this year?
I always enjoyed loudly cursing, “5.0?! What is he, blind?” Or, “Why did this only get 2.5 when it is perfect!”
Bring back the scores I say!"
I considered it, but those debates often completely derail the comments, so I decided scoring was best avoided.
I miss the scores as well; I liked having arbitrary numbers assigned to each day's build, and I think it would be fine as long as people don't take it too seriously. P. S. I think Harry Potter won today.
Such a great start! Also, Hans always tries to avoid putting weapon racks in his calendars and has been successful so far, hopefully this year continues that!
I thoroughly enjoyed building this. An auspicious start I must say. As for scoring call me biased but the Star Wars Advent Calendars are are towering over the others. If you disagree then all I can say is "I find your lack of faith disturbing"!!!!
Bah, give it your own scores, people!
Personally, I think this does an excellent job at that scale of conveying the ship, and although I think there are some valid improvements being suggested, that doesn't make this bad--easily an A-grade range micro model.
At first glance, I thought it was an X-Wing. Then I took a closer look. I love the way they keep finding uses for that bucket handle.
@PurpleDave: Shouldn't that be SAnT-AT?
@CapnRex101 said:
" @CCC said:
"Shouldn't that poll be a separate article? People that aren't into Star Wars are less likely to visit the article than Star Wars fans, and so the results of the poll will be skewed by the bias of where it is located. "
Fair point. There is considerable overlap in article readership, but we will publish a poll at the end of Advent instead, to see which was the favourite.
@MrKettle said:
"Are you not doing scores this year?
I always enjoyed loudly cursing, “5.0?! What is he, blind?” Or, “Why did this only get 2.5 when it is perfect!”
Bring back the scores I say!"
I considered it, but those debates often completely derail the comments, so I decided scoring was best avoided."
What if we all promised to play nice? Pretty Pleeeease.
Did yours come with a few extra pieces? Just not sure if I did mine right.
So cool, I blew mine up! 3X upscale that is. Check out my fun "UCS" version of this set. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cloaq0ZrK95/
@MeatFingers said:
"Did yours come with a few extra pieces? Just not sure if I did mine right."
Lego sets always come with spares of common small parts. Any 1x1 plates and other odds and ends will have spares. By day 24, you'll have a pile.