The battle remains tight and HP has a two point buffer. Can they extend this, or will SW stay locked in? Will MCU bow out or die another day? Read on!

Day 19 – MCU

Steve: On the nineteenth day of Christmas, the Guardians gave to meeeee – a dude who is looking like a treeeee….

First of all – let’s talk numbers.  Counting today, there are 6 days left.  The MCU enters those final 6 days with 12 points, so that means to still be POSSIBLE for the MCU to take the overall win, the MCU needs to post 6 days of wins.  In a row.  No second places, 6 wins.

Let’s see how we start that final sprint!  Door #19 for the Guardians gives us The Flora Colossus himself – Groot!

Bricklink lists this as a unique figure, but a careful eye reveals that the prints and head moulds are not new or unique, it’s the addition of the neck bracket that marks it as “new.”  However,  the no-neck-bracket version is only available in The Guardians Ship, which is a pretty expensive set.  It’s a good figure, with detailed torso, leg and foot printing.  The prints have some sand green mixed in which makes the print really pop.

We also get a white figure stand to represent some fluffy snow and a cell phone print (likely to represent the hand-held video game from the Guardians Christmas special).

Given that the only other source for this fig is a very expensive set, this is a great find for an Advent calendar.

Day 19- SW

Pat: Star Wars continues its Hoth meander with another micro build, and unfortunately, the bogged-down back half of the calendar seems to continue. We get another Hoth micro build on day 19, and this time, it’s an AT-ST walker. While not it’s most popular appearance in the Star Wars original trilogy, the AT-ST “Chicken” Walker was indeed featured in the background on Hoth and appeared with a slightly different design from its Episode 6 counterpart (the real-world explanation for this is the usage of small, stop-motion models versus larger designs in the Endor forest set, but the Hoth version also has further apart feet, different weapons, and no slits in the cockpit for snow terrain).

The build itself for the AT-ST is fine. They achieve the “chicken” shape nicely by hinging the legs at the back of the build, giving the head/cockpit the illusion of being before the legs, which is appropriate. We get more of those cool new 1×1 plates with a clip on each side for the legs, and a white modified plate on bottom as a base for the walker to stand up. The build uses a Travis brick for the cockpit and some cheese wedges, studs on bars, and a rollerblade to achieve the shaping, which I think works! Pretty well! To be honest, all aspects of the build are quality and accurate to the in-universe vehicle, it’s honestly the awkwardness of the vehicle design that holds this build back. It’s spindly and topheavy, needing the base to even stay up. We’ve seen 16 iterations of the AT-ST now from Lego, with half of them being micro or polybag scale, and honestly, not one of those 8 look great. So yea, valiant effort by Lego on an iconic vehicle, but still not a perfect micro. At least the extra pieces are great!

Day 19- HP

Matt: With three figures over a four-day span, this might be HP’s best run of the season. I find myself again in the “cautiously optimistic” camp with respect to HP’s performance in the Battle. Let’s find out what happens on Day 19.

Behind door 19 is a microscale version of Hagrid’s flying motorcycle. More accurately, it’s the motorcycle Hagrid inherits/borrows from Sirius Black. Fans of the series may remember that in Film 1, Hagrid brings The Boy Who Lived to Albus Dumbledore and the Dursleys doorstep in the dead of night, the child having just defied one of the most dangerous wizards to ever live. More on this later.

As an advent calendar gift, it’s unimpressive in my opinion. We get a different colored 2×4 plate today, signifying the start of the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) in our chronological calendar. I’m not a huge fan of microscale, and I feel that trying to represent this is really tough, especially since it’s not a huge item/asset overall (yes, it was used in the “7 Potters” extraction, which might be its most significant role). I don’t mind some of the techniques employed and it’s actually a parts-intensive build today, which is nice. My colleagues and I note that the angle NOT showing the sidecar actually makes the bike a bit more aesthetically pleasing (see additional photo below).

Overall, I’m not going to get too amped up over most microbuilds in the best of times and here, I feel HP selected a more obscure item to represent this late in the game. 

P.S- Circling back real quickly, I suppose the more romantic aspect of today’s build touches upon Harry coming “full circle” in some respects. He was dropped off at 4 Privet Drive as a child by Hagrid. For years, Harry endured a lot of pain and sadness at that house- it was never a home. In some respects, it seems fitting that when it came time to leave for the final time, it was the same man- Hagrid- there to take him away on his bike. In that light, maybe it’s viewed more favorably by the hardcore Potter fan.

Verdict

With perhaps its best minifigure of the year so far in Groot, MCU cruises to a daily victory and remains mathematically still in the Battle. In second place, SW snags a sheepish point with its AT-ST micro. In 3rd, HP’s motorcycle micro just didn’t have enough to finish on the scoresheet today.

With that, HP’s two point lead is back to one, and the scores shift to:

HP- 22

SW- 21

MCU- 14

To be continued…