MCU/HP are tied with SW looking to catch up. Let’s see what shakes out on Day 16:
Day 16- MCU
Steve: Day 16 – What is behind the door to finish the first 2/3rds of the MCU calendar?
For day 16 we have an Iron Man Snowman. While technically Bricklink defines this as a minifig, I think that is stretching the definition a LOT.
It’s an OK build, I like the inclusion of the un-printed all-white Iron Man helmet, and the Space Ray Guns as arms are neat. I always like the winter and festive-themed builds more, so this one is all right. Not great, not awful – but all right.
Day 16- SW
Patrick: Continuing with the Navarro Speeder concept, Day 16 of the Star Wars advent calendar provides a nice little model of the speeder Mando jumps into the back of towards the end of Chapter 3 when he’s having the shootout against Greef Carga and the bounty hunters guild, before the rest of the Mandalorian Covert shows up to rescue him. The flatbed-like pan is well replicated and can fit a figure lid down to replicate the shootout scene. Also, the fixed astromech speeder pilot is pretty effectively replicated with some modified 1×1 plates and another one of those nice BB-9E dome pieces. Overall this is another great speeder build, but has some tough competition within the final 10 days of the calendar.
Day 16- HP
Matt: After a somewhat lackluster entry yesterday, I really don’t know what to expect out of HP today.
Behind Door #16 is another “accessory pack” if you will, albeit much more robust. Today, we get four items- Hedwig the Owl, a chocolate frog, a chocolate frog collectible wizard card, and an exclusive 1x printed Hogwarts Express train ticket! The latter item is definitely the star of the show, as this hasn’t been seen before. With gold and silver accents, the ticket has some great synergy with other HP retail sets. We are clearly boarding the Hogwarts Express now in the chronology as well as the game board.
In addition to the ticket, this is my first collectible wizarding card printed 2×2 tile. Steve pointed out that the tile you receive today is actually random, and not consistent across all advent calendars. I think this is pretty unique, adding another element of surprise to the calendar. Fittingly, by some stroke of luck, I received an Albus Dumbledore card, which is the same one Harry receives on the train with Ron! Getting Hedwig and a chocolate frog is a bonus today to round off the offering.
Overall, while accessory packs can be hard to judge within the context of an advent calendar battle, today’s entry certainly passes the eye test and is a solid gift for HP lovers.
Verdict
With its exclusive/unique printed 1×2 ticket plus chocolate frog card tile, HP takes the two points today, with about as good an accessory pack offering as you can hope for in a calendar. The battle for 2nd place was more contested. In the end, we felt as though MCU offered a festive build, and the white iron man helmet helped that. Also, it is worth noting that Bricklink considers today’s MCU offering a “figure” and has been given that status. While we don’t necessarily all agree with that distinction, it helped serve as a tiebreaker today. Therefore, SW finishes in 3rd place with an obscure but interesting deep cut from The Mandalorian.
With today’s results, the score is now:
HP- 18
MCU- 17
SW- 13
To be continued…
NewfoundLUG 