Star Wars Advent Calendar - Day 23
Posted by CapnRex101,
Hoth nearly always appears prominently in Star Wars Advent Calendars and reasonably so, given its wintry climate. Presumably this frozen planet will remain in focus today.
Let's open door number 23 and find out...
Gonk droids are a common feature of modern Star Wars sets, although none are as elaborate as this! I find this festive Gonk droid very charming, featuring seasonal colours and sporting a nice brick-built hat, with a spherical bobble on top. Additionally, I like the boots and textured beard, which is formed using a 2x2 rock element.
Unfortunately, the droid looks less appealing from behind, where a pair of light bluish grey 1x2 bricks with studs on the side remain visible. Ideally, these would be red to match the rest of the figure, but at least grey seems appropriate for a droid.
Overall - I am pleased with Gonka Claus and invite any better names for this character in the comments!
65 likes
21 comments on this article
The problem I have with this droid is that, visually, I can't tell what I'm looking at with all the excess. If you remove the hat and the beard, it's far more recognizable as a GNK. The hat in particular is overkill, and I might be a little more behind it if they'd used a minifigure Santa hat on some studs or something. I may peel this figure back by removing the hat and replacing the jumper plates with some flat tiles. Maaaaaybe I'll leave the beard.
Unrelated, I was bored and inventoried what we've gotten in every Advent calendar (I left off things like weapons racks and play walls). I'll post it tomorrow after we've gotten the last reveal which is not at all completely obvious and already shown on the box cover.
Who wouldn't love another gonk droid, especially a Christmas-themed one.
Also, happy Festivus to the rest of us, especially you @StyleCounselor
It is now time for me to leave, as I have to tell my family everything I hate about them, after enjoying the customary meatloaf of course.
love it, but it should've been tomorrow's build
I know I'm in the minority here but I don't understand the fascination with the Gonk Droid and always felt it was unnecessary and overly cheesy. I suppose that's exactly why so many like it. In any event, Merry Gonkmas to those that celebrate!
All hail the Gonk!
Is it…mooning us? If it’s not, that’s a lot of plumber’s crack.
@CDM:
Part of it probably stems from the long-running argument over whether it’s a Gonk droid or a Gomp droid.
GONK
I was expecting this guy tomorrow, as Santa figures are traditionally found on the last day of the calendar.
For a name, I suggest "Santa Gonko", sung to the tune of "Santa Baby".
I really like it, it has a generous parts usage and was instantly recognizable to me. Those pieces work really well for the beard and hat. This is definitely the type of build which I would hope would come in an advent calendar.
@CDM said:
"I know I'm in the minority here but I don't understand the fascination with the Gonk Droid and always felt it was unnecessary and overly cheesy. I suppose that's exactly why so many like it. In any event, Merry Gonkmas to those that celebrate!"
I know for some it stretches all the way back to the days of the Internet before the Web rose to dominance. Once upon a time in Usenet it was noticed that Gonk was the only 'droid outside of the main characters that appeared in al three movies. Whereupon The Gonk Wars arose. The Gonkites claimed Gonk was divine and had been responsible for the events of the series and The Heretics argued that Gonk was simply another 'droid.
http://www.shavenwookie.com/orhp/history/hist2.html
@casloren said:
"Who wouldn't love another gonk droid, especially a Christmas-themed one.
Also, happy Festivus to the rest of us, especially you @StyleCounselor
It is now time for me to leave, as I have to tell my family everything I hate about them, after enjoying the customary meatloaf of course."
It's a Festivus Miracle!!
Thanks. Happy Festivus to all of the rest of us and you too! I'll be waiting for you during the feats of strength. What'cha got?!
I like the grey. It goes with the grey ingot on front to tell us this is Gonky in constume or to make it more droid-like.
P.S., in order to truly celebrate Festivus, please consider a large monetary donation to The Human Fund in care of @StyleCounselor ;)
This is not the droid I'm looking for.
Santa-like characters usually arrive on Christmas eve, so I was expecting Artoo...
@Tometheus:
Is he for sure? Wedge managed to fly an X-Wing into both Death Star battles (4 & 6), and presumably flew one out of Hoth (5), so there’s a slim possibility that he kept the same astromech through all three films and that we managed to see it somewhere on-screen during Empire.
The other thing I’d point out after reading the second half of that page is that Han did mention that the Falcon makes “point five past light speed”, so I’d take that to mean there are differences in how fast various starships travel in hyperspace. There’s just probably not any point in dawdling, as the Enterprise is known to do. I mean, if you have something to deliver, or someplace to be, what point is there intentionally taking longer to arrive? I once showed up to check in for a flight with a layover, and I was told that I could go with my original itinerary, which would have me hanging out in that airport for a couple more hours, and then (unbeknownst to me) racing across O’Hare to make my connection. Or, I could hop on a plane that was starting to board, and spend a couple hours at the layover, with plenty of time to make my connection. I of course jumped at the chance for the latter…and then got told to go across the hallway to a room where they were going to manually inspect the contents of all my bags because I made a last-second itinerary change (this was five months after 9/11, and I was headed to NYC, so, I mean…). They did hold the plane for me, so I did get to arrive a few hours earlier than I had originally planned for, which worked out great for me. There’s no guarantee they would have held the second plane for me if my original first flight got delayed.
Likewise, the longer you spend slow-cruising from one system to another, the more likely you are to have your hyperdrive crap out between systems. Get there ASAP, and maybe you’ll be able to limp in on sublight engines rather than having your dedicated corpse stare out the viewport as your ship drifts right past the planet.
@StyleCounselor:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
Whew! There. I considered it.
Just going to say it, he looks like the imposter
Better then any droid 'built' under 'Dismal'...
Gonk Gonk Gonk! Merry Christmas!
It's... a bit unsuccesful. But it's sheer Gonkiness makes up for it!
"...and invite any better names for this character in the comments!"
I think it could be called a S4-N7A series Gonk droid.
How the Gonk Stole Christmas
I was initially underwhelmed by this one (neat techniques and ideas but visually looks like a first draft) but charmed enough by the feet/boots that it is growing on me somewhat.