With HP sealing the win, the battle for second place is still close! Let’s see how all calendars finish, as we review the final three days:

Day 22- MCU

Steve: Day 22 for the MCU presents – The God of Thunder Himself, Thor Odinson!

This is a really excellent figure with a nice red scarf that gives the him a unique, festive touch. For accessories, he comes with both Mjolnir and a flick-fire snowball blast. No leg printing, although the torso printing is crisp and clean with metallic highlights. The head is dual-sided, with the “Thunder face” shown and a more happy smile as well. Sadly, I don’t think Thor is the god of “defeating Grogu in a Christmas Onesie”.

Day 22- SW

Patrick: Day 22 of the Star Wars advent calendar kicks off the final stretch with a banger; Grogu in a festive jumper and a baby carrier! This is the first festive unique Star Wars minifigure of the advent calendar and, in my opinion, its one of the better ones in recent memory for the theme in advents. Though the head is the same as the version appearing in sets over the last year, the torso and leg joint piece is brand new in red featuring a printed green scarf and a white, spotted sweater pattern. He snugly fits in the baby carrier included which is a welcomed addition, though I don’t think he was ever transported like that in the show? Either way, the carrier allows you the put him over the neck pin of any minifigure, including the IG-11 received a couple days ago. Great figure overall, its a welcomed version as only our 2nd official Grogu Minifig design!

Day 22- HP

Matt: With HP locking up the overall seasonal win, I’m curious to see if they can finish strong or limp out of the 2021 season.

Behind Day 22 is another exclusive minifigure- Draco Malfoy. Little surprised to see this particular character this late in the calendar (was hoping for a Hagrid or Dumbledore) but it’s still welcome. There is a poignant scene between Malfoy and Harry prior to entering the great hall for the sorting ceremony, where Malfoy extends his hand to Harry and offers to show him which wizards are “better” than others. Harry replies that he can tell the wrong sort for himself.

The fig is wearing the same unsorted house robes as Hermione and Ron, however they are welcome as it makes this fig unique and also gives us another set of robes should we want to create an HP moc/scene. Dual sided head and an extra sprue round off this excellent entry. However, up against the god of thunder and festive Grogu, I can’t see Draco getting any points for Slytherin today.

Verdict

Our second major minfigure battle of the season winds up with MCU and HP pleading no contest, as the festive Grogu pretty much represents the top tier gift a calendar can offer- exclusive, unique, and festive. In 2nd place, MCU gets the point as Thor has a festive element to his fig as well. In 3rd, an exclusive Draco Malfoy is still respectable even if this is now the third time the robes are used this season.

As such, the race for 2nd tightens up, and the scores are now:

HP- 27

MCU- 21

SW- 18

To be continued…