All three calendars are still in contention, but MCU is staring down the barrel of elimination. Will today be their final hurrah? Read on.

Day 20 – MCU

Steve: On the twentieth day of Christmas, the Guardians gave to meeeee…. Mathematical elimination.

Every day of the last 5 were do-or-die for the MCU, and today they chose… death.  Door #20 is a Christmas Tree decoration for the Groot figure from day #19.

I’m not going to lie – as a combined figure, the Christmas-Tree-Groot is easily my favourite figure so far across all three calendars.  Alas, LEGO decided to spread this top-tier figure across two days, leaving day 2 of the build lacking.  No great parts or prints, this harkens back to day 2 of the 2021 Calendar when all we got was the energy blasts to go with the Tony Stark figure from day one.  Even the distinctively festive element doesn’t save this as an add-on.

With this, the MCU must tip its hat to our worthy foes, and let the giants battle for first.  Second is still a possibility, but it would require quite a stumble from Star Wars and Harry Potter.

Day 20- SW

Pat: Star Wars breaks the 20th of the month with… another Hoth micro, this time the Rebel Laser Cannon. OK, to be fair, I think this is the best of the three we’ve received so far because it’s almost impossible to mess up. Not only is it not scaled down much from the in-universe design, but it’s essentially a mounted satellite dish, making it extremely versatile for MOCs and battle scenes. A 2×2 and 3×3 dish make up the head of the laser, with a grey ski pole (which seems to be THE piece of the advent calendar, appearing in 4 builds, with a spare in each) serving as the barrel. The build is mounted on a white plate, attached to an inverted grey battle droid torso as the body of the cannon itself. Overall, it’s a pretty simplistic build, but it’s valuable for any Star Wars collector, in my opinion!

Day 20- HP

Matt: After a questionable microbuild yesterday, I’m hoping HP can get back on track in a hurry. As we know from previous years, they tend to finish calendars very poorly. Let’s see what happens today.

Behind Door 20 is a microscale rendition of The Burrow. This is of course the Weasley’s magical home. Placing my overall dislike of micro builds aside, I might rank today’s offering as the best of the bunch in HP’s 2022 calendar- for a couple of reasons. Instantly recognizable, this build uses some great colors- medium nougat, red, green, tan, olive green, and medium blue. I think the choice of color here evokes the existing renditions of the burrow seen in previous LEGO sets. Secondly, we get a lot of new parts here that many of us don’t yet have, namely the small red slopes that kinda look like Monopoly pieces and the “double plate brick” officially called a “Modified 1 x 1 x 2/3 with Open Stud” per Bricklink. 

Overall, I think this build achieves the angles and feel we’ve come to associate with The Burrow. Depending on your HP layout, you might even be able to keep this one intact at season’s end. 

Verdict

With no heavy hitters today, it came down to the best build of the bunch. Ultimately with its microscale rendition of The Burrow, HP comes out on top. In second place, SW with another Hoth micro, this time with a Rebel Laser Canon. In 3rd place, MCU, with a festive branch to now complete its previous Goot minifig.

With the loss, MCU is now mathematically eliminated from this years battle. I’m sure Steve will have much more commentary to provide in the days to come, and in our final thoughts article on the 24th. MCU now takes on the role of spoiler and can steal critical points away from the other two contenders.

With the results today, the scores are now:

HP- 24

SW- 22

MCU- 14

To be continued…