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. Let’s see what there is to open on Day 4!

In keeping with yesterday’s rival Hogwarts school, today’s build included the chariot from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. Pulled by a winged horse, it carries students to watch the Triwizard Tournament. For Star Wars, we have the classic Luke Skywalker minifigure carrying a pair of macrobinoculars.

Chris: You know, I was looking at my LEGO Star Wars collection the other day, and my first thought was “huh. I don’t have enough Luke Skywalkers. I definitely need another one.” All kidding aside, I understand why they include core characters in these things, but I do wish they’d at least make exclusive prints or something. For Harry Potter, that tiny Beauxbatons’ carriage is splendid. The full-size set was magnificent too, but I can’t get over that tiny microscale Pegasus–it even floats!

Ed: Luke: (Mwgahhhh) (moan) (groan) Aunt Beru!!! I told you I wanted a speeder bike to chase those womp rats! How am I going to chase those nasty rodents in this chariot? Even the Jawas wouldn’t take this in if they find it lying on the sand dunes unattended. Aunt Beru: Go ask your uncle Owen! And for goodness sake, you think Republic Credits grow on trees? Make do with what you have boy and stop whining!

Lino: “You know how Star Wars and Harry Potter made a boatload of money? Well, have I got a pitch for you! Luke gazes longingly into the double sunset wishing for a world of adventure when suddenly this Harry Potter chariot arrives…”

Adam: With four characters from the OT, four from ST and just two from the PT, this could have been a chance to include a prequel/Clone Wars character like Padme, Ahsoka or Hondo. I mean, Luke is fantastic, but if there was any character to replace in this calendar I would have chosen Luke. For Harry Potter, the carriage is cute. I’m glad it includes a horse, though since it also looks like a dove or a partridge, you could easily mount it on top of a LEGO Christmas tree or pear tree. 

CJ: Another couple of solid Advent days. I’m really starting to regret passing on these two and going with City and Friends for my household. Luke may be a pretty common character, but I don’t think too many kids (or adults) will complain about adding another version/copy into their playtime. The Potter carriage thingy also looks interesting, and has some fun colors. I agree with Adam that the Pegasus looks more like a bird than an equine. But for a four piece sub-build it’s not bad.

Bart: Looks like Luke got a Playmobil carriage for Christmas.

The City advent calendar is a gift that keeps on giving, with today gifting us a microscale truck. From Friends we discovered a pretzel and an adorable puppy/hamster/bear.

Adam: I built the truck with my 3-year-old son. He loves it! I appreciate how every microscale vehicle in this calendar are all relative sizes with each other. It’s like getting a bunch of Hot Wheels cars. I like the pretzel, though not sure how tiny bear relates to said pretzel and table. Four pieces is kind of lame. There could have been at least 4-1×1 studs included as table legs.

Bart: Hamsters and pretzels, what more could we wish for!

CJ: (Trying to stay positive) I guess the truck is well designed. And the hamster is cute. And pretzels are yummy….man, I hope things get a lot more interesting for the Friends calendar.

Lino: “Alright, alright, alright!”

Benjamin: Not a bad little truck. Not great, either, but not bad. The hamster with the pretzel, though? Did people actually pay for that calendar?

Ed: That ain’t no pretzel folks. It’s poop! And it’s rather large coming from a hamster that size yea? Must have had a delicious lunch. Poop truck picker to the cleanup rescue! What a nice Christmassy story for kids to imagine and play with. 

Chris: The truck is boring even for a dumptruck, but it adds flavor to your microscale town. But the hamster and pretzel? What is this, a Kia commercial? I’m all for animals in these Advent calendars (one of the few things the Friends calendars were good at in previous years) but you should include sensible things with them. Is LEGO saying Hamsters eat pretzels? That hamsters should eat pretzels? That you should eat pretzels and hamsters? And the table/gift/whatever those 2×2 bits are supposed to be under it…this is just low effort. LEGO, this is bad and you should feel bad.

Not seeing happy ratings coming from the reviews. Gotta pick up your game, LEGO! However, when the sets are combined you have yourself a little holiday race scene! Who will take the pretzel prize for the Life Day Derby?

I’ve got my money on Luke. We can’t wait to see what comes on Monday!

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