After getting one back yesterday with a marvelous entry, HP moves within striking distance of SW. Can HP square things up again, or will SW blast off to another two day lead? Let’s find out:

Harry Potter- Day 16

Matt: After arguably the best entry of the calendar season yesterday with Padma Patil, will we see the other Patil twin today? Behind door 16 are two small yule ball-ish trees. These are companion trees to the previous “large” tree we received on Day 13. Just like its inaugural 2019 calendar, this year’s HP Advent Calendar now includes 3 trees, albeit in different shapes. This now feels like a disturbing trend, and today’s model disappoints if only for the fact that we’ve already received a tree this year. The recycled nature of entries from year on year may not bother new HPAC fans in 2020, but if you took part in last year’s calendar, today’s entry feels like a direct rehash. The trees themselves are eerily similar, although last year’s small trees had stars mounted on top. Furthermore, we see the use of the 1×1 trans light blue and trans-clear cheese wedges here to stick on the “icy, yule ball” theme. Overall, can’t say that today’s offering is impressive at all, but at least it’s festive and on theme. That’s about all I can say.

Star Wars- Day 16

Steve: Star Wars presents us with Anakin’s pod-racer. It’s not a great representation of the craft from the movies. The lack of transparent pieces mean the build appears to be all connected, rather than the floating engine effect of the movie version. Honestly, if not for the yellow-and-blue colour scheme I would have had difficulty being sure what it was supposed to be. I’ve seen much better microscale versions of this craft, so the scale is no excuse. Easily the worst build from Star Wars yet.

Verdict

Today’s entries on both sides were strikingly mediocre, bordering on awful; a trend we’ve seen too much this season. In an awkward matchup today, HP pulls a “reverse battle droid” and steals the sheepish of points from SW, owing to its festive and on theme entry. With that we are somehow all tied up, and the score sits at:

HP- 8

SW- 8

To be continued…