Happy holidays to all of our fellow LEGO builders! As is tradition, we at The Brothers Brick will be opening our advent calendars as we count down to Christmas. We’ll also be sharing commentary on each one, which will be both insightful and hilarious!
This year we have new Harry Potter, Star Wars, City and Friends advent calendars to open! We will be sharing images of the new calendars every day through Christmas. Now let’s get the holidays started with day one!
Just as with last year, Harry Potter returns dressed in his finest for the Yule Ball, as told in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Next to him is the A-wing starfighter, a Star Wars spaceship first seen in Return of the Jedi.
Chris: Hey, we’re off to a good start here! That A-wing is a really nifty model! And Harry is looking sharp in his tux and an exclusive invitation to the Yule Ball.
CJ: I look at most the Advent sets as just multi-day part packs, and these two entries don’t disappoint. Lots of great minifig parts to repurpose in Harry, there, and the A-Wing has some useful bits, and a fun bit of microscale construction to boot.
Benjamin: Printed tiles are always nice, so this Harry is decently exciting for a character that everyone has about a billion of. That’s a pretty solid A-wing, too, instantly recognizable and even swooshable.
Ed: Harry could not decide if he wanted to attend the Yule Ball or take his new A-wing for a spin. Instead of taking flight on his Nimbus 2000 that offers no protection from the open and wind in his hair, this will definitely be a great upgrade in comfort and style. Great looking A-wing in micro-scale. 10 points for the house of Rebelpuff!
From the LEGO Friends and LEGO City 2020 advent calendars, we have a cargo ship and an Emma figure.
Daniel: Wow, what an awesome ship in the city calendar. I’d love to see more larger commercial vehicles at this scale.
Chris: The Emma minidoll is nice with her sleepy moon pajamas, but I can’t help but feel the Friends calendar is already a bit lacking. Harry got an invitation, a wand, and a table and candle, but Emma here only gets a hairbrush? Lame. The ship is a nice minimodel for City, though perhaps not the most exciting thing to kick off with. Maybe this is celebrating how your LEGO is shipped to you from its factory half-way around the world? A shame it’s not a Maersk ship…
Bart: I am jealous of those cute moon pajamas.
CJ: Kind of a weak start for both of these calendars. The ship looks okay, I guess, but it doesn’t have much “wow” factor, or any real tie to holiday theming. Emma has a cute outfit, but…meh. The hairbrush seems like an odd inclusion, but maybe we’ll see a dresser or something later on that will tie it to a larger sub-theme.
Ed: Emma is considering leaving her friends and taking up a new career offered by her employers.Executives at LEGO promised her that she could be the lead character in her own Theme: Friend-ships. The rumor behind the writers notes (from the usual LEGO leaks) tell us it’s going to inspired by “The Love Boat” from the 80s. And uh, they told her she could only bring a single personal item on board from the current Friends theme. She chose her hairbrush.
The best thing about these fun builds is when you get to combine them for a crazy scene, like this:
Looks like Harry’s got another date for the dance! Good luck with that two-step!
I’m sure the City boat is actually a micro version of this year’s 60266 Ocean Exploration Ship.
CJ: ” The ship looks okay, I guess, but it doesn’t have much “wow” factor…”
Daniel: “Wow, what an awesome ship…”
@Alex – behold the awesome power of diverse opinions among the Brothers Brick contributors! I do think it’s great that others can see a plus where I see a minus. And I’m usually pretty open to learning why something I thought was meh is actually cool. But…this one is still “meh” to me.
Maybe future days will be more promising. :)