The competition remains tight after Day 8, but MCU is in dire need of top marks if they want to remain in the hunt. After some insightful review contributions courtesy Andrew House, I am back (Matt Z.) with the HP reviews for the next few days. Let’s see what happens on Day 9.

Day 9- MCU

Steve: On the ninth day of Christmas the Guardians gave to meeeeee…. A fig that made me very happeeeee.

After a long drought, MCU has delivered a solid gift for day 9. We get Nebula in a unique Christmas sweater.

This is what we want to see in the Advent calendars. She also doesn’t show on the box, so she was a total surprise. It’s a great fig, metallic printed front and back on the head. The sweater has Thanos with the Infinity Gems on the front, and the back has Nebula and Gamora in a heart. 

For a finishing touch, she has a small buildable present as an accessory. Just solid all the way.

Day 9- SW

Pat: Alight, now we’re getting into it! Day 9 for Star Wars gives us our first exclusive minifig of the calendar in the form of Christmas Sweater C-3PO! I am shocked to see this fig so early as I expected the two Christmas Sweater figs to clue up the calendar for days 23 and 24, but this is great too! This C-3PO minifig uses a brand new torso print depicting a knitted R2-D2 Christmas sweater, which is just adorable – R2 and 3PO wear each other on their sweaters! The leg print for 3PO is also super crisp, and turns out its brand new for 2022 too, appearing beforehand on the 3PO from the Trash Compactor Diorama 75339.

Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me expand further on where we saw Christmas C3PO in an R2-D2 sweater – I feel like I’m experiencing the Mandela Effect! I could have sworn R2 and 3PO dressed inappropriately in the Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation special we got this past summer and were wearing these sweaters at the beginning of the “movie”, but after a brief scan I don’t see them at all? So then I was sure I saw them in the Holiday Special from 2021, but I don’t see them there either? Oh well! A fantastic minifigure nonetheless, I can’t wait for the R2 counterpart!

Day 9- HP

Matt: Just want to start off by thanking Andrew for his HP reviews over this past week! We’ve seen HP and SW exchange top marks in the microbuild category, which is an interesting hill to duke it out on this season. Let’s see if we get more of that today.

Behind Door 9 is Sirius Black! Sirius is of course James’ Potter’s best friend and Harry’s godfather. Once thought to be a criminal, he was wrongly imprisoned and managed to escape to become a key figure in Harry’s life and a major part of the overall HP story. A bit of digging tells me that this variant of Sirius is exclusive (tan sweater) to this calendar and isn’t present in any other available retail sets. For me, the big draw from today’s offering is the never-before-seen 1×2 printed tile with Azkaban prison tile. I find it somewhat amusing to see Sirius with a winter-sweater, while holding his Azkaban licence plate and an angry expression. The closest we got to something similar was a Bellatrix Lestrange Azkaban accessory in CMF Series 2.  Nonetheless, I’m thrilled to get such a unique print, and these are coveted items especially in advent calendars. I will certainly find a use for this in my HP LEGO displays.

Today’s gift is almost everything you could ask for in an advent calendar- exclusive fig variant with an exclusive accessory. However, it lacks that festive element that the other two entries have today, which unfortunately results in no points on the board for HP on this day. Overall, I’m happy with this gift even if the results weren’t there on the battle scorecard- that’s the way she goes.

Verdict

One of the most memorable days in the history of the Battle saw THREE exclusive minifigure variants go head-to-head-to-head! That’s not something you’re going to see year over year, but it’s days like today we’re thrilled to open the advent doors and compare entries.

In first place, MCU secures a much-needed win, but a well-deserved one with its exclusive, festive, Nebula fig with accessory. In second place, an exclusive, festive C3PO with R2 sweater- an excellent gift. In third place, exclusive Sirius Black with Azkaban tile.

With that, MCU stays alive, and the scores are now:

SW- 11

HP- 10

MCU- 6

To be continued…