Day 9 begins with all three calendars still neck and neck. Let’s see how it shakes out on this Thursday:
Day 9- MCU
Steve: Day 9 for the MCU LEGO Advent Calendar – can we hold our lead?
Today’s door gives us a Christmas present and a snowglobe. It’s a small build, but well done and on-theme. The bow of the present is a small arc reactor, which is a nice touch to tie the build to the MCU. The snowglobe actually could be the “Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart” gift that Pepper Potts gives to Tony in “Iron Man” which would be a nice throwback to the original MCU movie (as well as being present in hs funeral scene in Endgame). Overall, solid if small build.
Day 9- SW
Patrick: Day Number 9 of the Star Wars advent provides us with an accessory for yesterday’s Tusken Raider, as well as a bit of terrain for him to stand on. While the sandy terrain and clip build is unimpressive, its a practical way to create a weapon holder naturally. And speaking of the weapon, the one included here is the traditional weapon and tool of Tusken Raiders, the Gaffi Stick. Its an effective enough build, though I would have liked to have gotten the Gaffi Stick yesterday and ditched the sand build altogether.
Day 9- HP
Matt: On Day 9, we get…a wall. All in all, it’s just a…nevermind.
Ok, not just any wall. It’s the magical entrance to Diagon Alley, found out back of the Leaky Cauldron. We are still proceeding chronologically through the first novel/film at this point so that’s nice to see. The build itself actually contains nice colours, but more importantly, employs some neat building techniques. The inverted 1×3 dark brown tile is definitely a rarer part, and it allows us to build the right-half of the wall upside down. Really cool to see. By doing this, we get an entranceway that’s able to split in half, just like the film, bringing an element of functionality to today’s build. It fits nicely on to the game board, and would arguably be one of the cooler functions when playing through the game, as your character passes through the entrance. Overall though, a shaky entry for HP today that will likely divide fans. Heading into discussion phase, I honestly don’t know which gift will come out on top today.
Verdict
All reviewers agreed that the builds from all three calendars today were disappointing in their own way. That said, we made a rule from the start to select a first, second, and third place finisher each day- so we had to form a consensus. All builds are “on theme” and to scale today, so each one tied across those metrics. MCU/HP have either a functional element (ie. the wall splits and opens) or festive element (presents for Christmas). SW lacked both, and also split the Tusken Raider and his accessory over two days, similar to HP’s fireplace from Day’s 3 & 4. For that reason, SW finishes in 3rd place.
It came down to function vs festive. Buildable gifts are a common occurrence in advent calendars, but MCU has some neat parts. However, HP’s does too. The slightest of edges was ultimately given to HP, due to the building techniques employed to achieve the final result along with its functionality. MCU therefore gets 2nd place while HP edges out the full two points.
As such, we are floored (or rather, walled) that HP came out on top today, and Day 9 will forever live on in advent calendar infamy as one of the darkest days during the 2021 season. With today’s abysmal results, the score is now:
MCU- 10
HP- 10
SW- 7
To be continued…
NewfoundLUG 