Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 22
Posted by CapnRex101,
The first sixteen days of this Star Wars Advent Calendar loosely followed chronological order, interrupted only by Hoth's annual appearance over the past five days.
Perhaps there is time to visit one more planet...
Or perhaps not, as we remain ensconced on Hoth! This ice cave is pretty rudimentary, but comprises a variety of slopes to create natural walls, along with two different tooth plates. These provide welcome texture, although the unadorned 2x6 plate on top looks odd. A couple more slopes could have improved this area.
Nonetheless, the Luke Skywalker minifigure that emerged yesterday fits neatly in the cave, suspended from the ceiling as shown in The Empire Strikes Back. The bone on the floor looks good too, presumably belonging to Luke's Tauntaun or another of the Wampa's unfortunate victims, but the tan 1x1 clip seems out of place. This contrasting colour was doubtless required for ease of construction.
Overall - While relatively bland alone, the Wampa cave looks great with Luke hanging upside down inside!
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34 comments on this article
Ease of construction and visibility when finished. Nice build!
This was almost perfect. (The rectangular shape of the whole thing throws me, but I get that it's a limited vignette.) I'd love to see more of these in future Star Wars ACs: something that ups the game of the weapons rack to a tiny play environment or vignette. Little Death Star cubbies or things like that would be wonderful.
Pretty substantial, even when considering it's a frame with a big empty space in the middle.
Otherwise not much of note here. it kind of only works with Luke from the previous day.
I actually quite like the tan clip, I think it adds some much-needed non-white colour!
I secretly hope for a weapon rack in day 24...
The only thing that disappointed me was there was nowhere to place the lightsabre on the groud.
@Yooha said:
"I secretly hope for a weapon rack in day 24..."
A weapon rack Santa? That's perverse! Festivus!
I like this weapon wall, vignette, Wampa target practice, whatever. I agree that the bit of tan looks like its part of an older bone or dirty or blood-tainted snow. The Wampa lair shouldn't be all pristine white.
Sorry, this is Grade A naff...
Okay, Hoth is getting old…
Hopefully the next three days will just be all the parts for a brick-built Wampa. (With a Santa hat?)
Ease of construction?
ROFL
You're kidding, right?
I mean, this thing has what, fifteen pieces or so?
This could be built by a blind person, it's that simple. Whatever the reason, ease of construction would be a laughable one.
@AustinPowers said:
"Ease of construction?
ROFL
You're kidding, right?
I mean, this thing has what, fifteen pieces or so?
This could be built by a blind person, it's that simple. Whatever the reason, ease of construction would be a laughable one. "
The instructions for Advent Calendar models are only a single image inside the door, so ease of construction is vital. In fact, the designer of this very Advent Calendar alluded to including parts in contrasting colours on day four: https://brickset.com/article/84485/star-wars-advent-calendar-day-4
I realise the contrasting colours might seem unnecessary to experienced builders, but LEGO knows its primary market.
Suddenly lightnunchuks don't seem like such a great idea.
@Yooha:
What are you talking about? This _is_ a weapons rack. His hands are lethal weapons! You know, because he does the hand-wavey thing when using the Force.
@deathmoth:
Three days? Advent Calendars end at 24, since you've got the main event coming on the 25th (unless your family opens one or more presents on Christmas Eve, like my mom's did). There are only two more days left.
@CapnRex101:
That depends on the builder. Some of us recognize the extreme difficulty of producing a single step that shows how an entire model can be built, particularly as the designers attempt to make even more complex models. It's a delicate balance, in some cases. This is the only instance where I've discovered that it's easier to build using the downloadable PDF instructions, since at least with those you can zoom in to get a better look.
@CapnRex101: I know the "instructions" for AC items are just a single image, but are you seriously trying to tell me that this one single piece being a different colour will make any difference in the complexity of the build?
There's only three available studs down there to position that clip piece to begin with, and only one where the clip will even fit with the bone attached.
If that's too hard for anyone to master, perhaps building with LEGO is the wrong hobby for such people.
It's a nice model, and I like that it can incorporate the Luke from yesterday, but it reminds me that I never got 8089, so I hate it! (Kidding, I consider it a nice consolation prize.)
@AustinPowers said:
" @CapnRex101: I know the "instructions" for AC items are just a single image, but are you seriously trying to tell me that this one single piece being a different colour will make any difference in the complexity of the build?
There's only three available studs down there to position that clip piece to begin with, and only one where the clip will even fit with the bone attached.
If that's too hard for anyone to master, perhaps building with LEGO is the wrong hobby for such people. "
This is a really weird topic to get defensive and angry about.
I also like the tan.
@DoonsterBuildsLego said:
"The only thing that disappointed me was there was nowhere to place the lightsabre on the groud."
Just remove the bone from the clip! Seems like it was definitely placed there with that transplant in mind.
@AustinPowers said:
" @CapnRex101: I know the "instructions" for AC items are just a single image, but are you seriously trying to tell me that this one single piece being a different colour will make any difference in the complexity of the build?
There's only three available studs down there to position that clip piece to begin with, and only one where the clip will even fit with the bone attached.
If that's too hard for anyone to master, perhaps building with LEGO is the wrong hobby for such people. "
This seems like an odd hill (or cave) to die on.
And putting aside the longstanding practice of adding color to make the builds more easily understandable, in this case, this is likely meant to just add some visual contrast to the scene. There were plenty of rocks in Wampa's cave and light hitting snow in different ways can also create different colors. Snow does not make everything uniformly white, especially if it's not freshly fallen.
@deathmoth said:
"Hopefully the next three days will just be all the parts for a brick-built Wampa. (With a Santa hat?)"
I was hoping it would be one bigfig Wampa arm.
@Isitaboutmycube said:
"And putting aside the longstanding practice of adding color to make the builds more easily understandable, in this case, this is likely meant to just add some visual contrast to the scene. There were plenty of rocks in Wampa's cave and light hitting snow in different ways can also create different colors. Snow does not make everything uniformly white, especially if it's not freshly fallen."
Don't eat the tan snow.
I was surprised with the volume of parts in this day. Pretty fun build with Luke hanging inside – I might just put it on a shelf somewhere like this, a neat little display for the minifig.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"This is a really weird topic to get defensive and angry about."
AustinPowers in a nutshell!
@Rob42 said:
"I was surprised with the volume of parts in this day. Pretty fun build with Luke hanging inside – I might just put it on a shelf somewhere like this, a neat little display for the minifig.
@ResIpsaLoquitur said:
"This is a really weird topic to get defensive and angry about."
AustinPowers in a nutshell!"
Nonsense. I'm not angry at all. Building with bricks is no reason to get angry, quite the opposite, wouldn't you agree?
I merely found the argument "ease of construction" laughable in this case, where it's about a single piece in an off-colour. A piece no less that can't even fit anywhere else in its intended way.
At least the argument of adding a little bit of visual interest to the build makes sense.
People here regularly fail to understand that I am only angry about a lot of things TLG does - NOT about the hobby of brick building itself. Especially since by now there are so many alternatives that I wouldn't have to buy any current LEGO product at all anymore anyway.
Which is actually what I am partly doing currently. Of the last fifty sets I bought only about 20 percent are current LEGO products. The rest are products from alternative manufacturers as well as old LEGO sets from my youth I buy via Bricklink or ebay.
Only 2 more days and sweater Artoo as well as Gonky Claus haven't arrived yet... No more accesories left.
to me, the highlight of the calendar. How often do you get minifig-sized terrain builds in advent calendar? Exactly!
@AustinPowers, thank you for further demonstrating my point.
@Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers, thank you for further demonstrating my point."
Funny how you either don't read or don't understand my posts at all.
Anyway, moving on.
Hopefully we will get the Abominable Snowman tomorrow!!!
Do you know why the call it the wampa? Because after Luke cut off its arm it had only "one paw"!
I would have preferred a white clip with tan bone. I'll see what spares I got laying around...
@darkstonegrey:
If you've got any spare tan bones, send me a couple, would you?
@PurpleDave said:
" @darkstonegrey:
If you've got any spare tan bones, send me a couple, would you?"
I've got several white ones I left out to yellow and are now tan in color. Will work perfectly!
@AustinPowers said:
" @Rob42 said:
" @AustinPowers, thank you for further demonstrating my point."
Funny how you either don't read or don't understand my posts at all.
Anyway, moving on. "
That's why he's my favorite grumpy German. There's so many layers to AP. It's like peeling an onion! ;)
@darkstonegrey said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @darkstonegrey:
If you've got any spare tan bones, send me a couple, would you?"
I've got several white ones I left out to yellow and are now tan in color. Will work perfectly!"
That's... almost evil? XD
So where is the wampa minifigure?
@StyleCounselor said:
"That's why he's my favorite grumpy German. There's so many layers to AP. It's like peeling an onion! ;)"
;-)