LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar 2022 – Daily Countdown
December 1, 2022
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Hi there and welcome to the Jay’s Brick Blog Daily daily countdown of the 2022 LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar!
LEGO Marvel Advent calendars have been a relatively new fixture, having started in 2021 with the Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar which was by all measures, a big success and one of the best ones last year.
This year, we have a special twist with the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar, which is a direct tie-in to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which is now streaming on Disney+
Highly recommend watching the special before you start so the inclusions make sense!
Take a walk down memory lane and relive the 2021 LEGO Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar to see what we got last year!
This year, I’ll be counting down 4 Advent Calendars – Star Wars, Harry Potter, Friends and the GOTG one.
You can check out each countdown here
- 2022 LEGO Harry Potter Advent Calendar
- 2022 LEGO Friends Advent Calendar
- 2022 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar
- 2022 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar
To make it easier for you to check out each day’s section, as this post is going to grow longer with every new window, all you have to do is click on the Day you want, and you will instantly jump to the corresponding section.
- Day 1 – Star-Lord
- Day 2 – Present and Walkman
- Day 3 – Kyln Hoverbot
- Day 4 – Tool Rack
- Day 5 – Rocket Raccoon
- Day 6 – Rocket’s Crate
- Day 7 – Rocket’s Blaster
- Day 8 – Turkey
- Day 9 – Nebula
- Day 10 – Laser Drill Spaceship
- Day 11 – Mining and Escape Pods
- Day 12 – Table with Food & Drinks
- Day 13 – Mantis
- Day 14 – The Guardians’ Ship
- Day 15 – Candy Cane
- Day 16 – Hi-Fi System
- Day 17 – Thanos Snowman
- Day 18 – Milano Spaceship
- Day 19 – Groot
- Day 20 – Wearable Christmas Tree
- Day 21 – Rocket Sleigh Cockpit
- Day 22 – Rocket Sleigh Wings
- Day 23 – Rocket Sleigh Present Trailer
- Day 24 – Christmas Sweater Drax
- Conclusion and Final Thoughts
How does the daily advent calendar countdown work?
If you’re new here, I post daily updates on each window of the 2022 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar. I usually post updates in the late afternoon, but sometimes if things get too busy, updates will be posted in the evening. I’ll update this post each day, as I don’t really enjoy the practice of creating new posts for each day as it keeps it so much cleaner, so bookmark this post to come back every day!
Unlike other sites, I’m actually opening each window as I go, and I’ve been able to be relatively spoiler-free to be as surprised as I can get. All reviews, thoughts and reactions are live as we go along, there are no pre-planned photos or thoughts, unless I happen to be travelling or away from home.
Do note that I’m based in Melbourne, Australia (GMT +11) so we’re ahead of most of the world (except New Zealand) so to avoid spoilers, try to come back to this post after you’ve opened your window and built the daily model especially if you’re located in other time zones.
PS: If you’re planning to buy any LEGO for Christmas and would like to support the work I do blog, please use these affiliate links if you’re shopping on Amazon, Amazon Australia or LEGO.com!
I receive a small commission if you purchase something, which goes a long way in paying for equipment and server costs, and of course LEGO I purchase for content. All my advent calendars (except this calendar which was provided by LEGO) were purchased myself.
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To follow along, it’s best to bookmark this post to check back each day. You can also find a link to this post from the home page via a link in the top navigation bar. If you’re on mobile, you have to expand the burger menu (the button with the 3 lines) to find it.
Here’s the front of the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar, which folds out to form a playmat of sorts to display all the mini builds.
The metal flooring has grates and panels, suggesting that it takes place on one of the GOTG’s ships – perhaps the Benatar?
The individual look like coloured energy barriers, which are in festive Christmas-y colours.
Remember, we count upwards from 1 to 24, so don’t make the mistake of going backwards!
As always, the instruction of each day’s builds are printed on the inside of the doors, so be careful and try not to rip them out!
Without wasting any time, let’s get started with the 2022 Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar countdown!
Day 1
Unsurprisingly, Day 1 of the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar begins with Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians. The special revolves around Mantis, Drax and the rest of the Ravagers crew on Knowhere trying to cheer Star-Lord (aka Peter Quill) up with some Christmas spirit and festivities.
Star-Lord comes with silver blasters, and curiously a pair of skateboards that are stuck to the sides of his boots. I don’t recall seeing Star-Lord wear these in the special, so maybe these are gifts!
Update: Oh, these could be Star-Lord’s rocket boots, as mentioned in the comments! They look kinda clunky though.
The torso with the Ravagers design isn’t new, but has appeared only once in 76193 The Guardians’ Ship, making this a really budget-friendly way to get if you can’t afford the bigger ship!
Here’s a look at the back printing.
And here’s a look at Star-Lord’s alternate expression, which really, is just the default Christ Pratt face at this stage.
Not a bad start, and always great to start an Advent Calendar with a relatively rare minifgure! Check in tomorrow to see what Day 2 brings!
Day 2
On Day 2 of the GOTG Advent Calendar, we get some gifts for Star-Lord, a wrapped present and a new walkman as well!
Opening up the lid of the present revealed a pair of headphones fitting snugly inside the crate. You actually get an extra pair which is a bit of a nice touch.
I also really like the printed casette tape, which I believe is a new element and exclusive to this Advent Calendar, so this is really a pretty decent window, even if the build is somewhat on the smaller side of things.
There’s no other printing, but you can imagine that this is one of Star-Lord’s Awesome Mixes.
For those born after the 2000s, we used to get our music from these casette tapes!
And that’s it for Day 2 so far, check back in to see what Day 3 brings! Hopefully more things to cheer Star-Lord up!
Day 3
Day 3 is going to be a slightly tricky one for people to guess, but it’s a Kyln Hoverbot, or better known as the Prison Drones from Guardians of the Galaxy 1.
This is the correct orientation of the build, so the instructions on the flap are upside down, but you should remember these pesky drones from the prison break scene in the first Guardians movie, and are especially memorable as we get the first “I am Groot” from Groot as he takes a whole swarm of them down.
Remember these guys?
Here’s a look at the back which has trans-orange elements for the jet propulsion, but otherwise, it’s a pretty accurate rendition of a fairly obscure GOTG 1 reference.
Very glad to see that we’re also getting callbacks to non-Holiday Special movies and I’m looking forward to seeing what else we get!
And that’s it for Day 3 so far – hope it wasn’t too tricky for you to figure out! Check back tomorrow to see what Day 4 brings!
Day 4
Oh dear, did the LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar designers get a job doing the GOTG Calendar? Day 4 gives us a tool rack, a very simple and unexciting build that comes with a hammer, wrench, and a stick of a dynamite, attached to a grill.
That’s it. No interesting GOTG references, no interesting elements just a Weapons Tool Rack
Day 4 is pretty forgettable, and the only positive I can think of is that they got this out of the way super quickly, so hopefully we won’t get any more Racks after this!
Check back tomorrow to see if Day 5 can make up for this Tool Rack!
Day 5
After yesterday’s slightly disappointing Tool Rack, we get another minifigure, weaponry and demolitions expert Rocket Raccoon!
Like Star-Lord, this version of Rocket Raccoon is identical to the one from 76913 The Guardians’ Ship, which is both good and bad. Good if you don’t own it, but bad if you do, and now you have more double-up minifigures.
The printing on the back and front of Rocket’s torso is nicely detailed, as is the head which nails Rocket’s mischievous (and sometimes psychotic) personality.
Its’s always a good day when we get minifigures, and explains why we got the Tool Rack – Rocket now has some tools and a stick of dynamite to mess around with!
Check back tomorrow for what we get on Day 6!
Day 6
This is a bit more of a fun one! Day 6’s window of the GOTG Advent Calendar gives us a crate full of Rocket Raccoon’s mementos!
It might seem like a box of random scraps, but each individual item in the crate has a special reference to the Guardians of the Galaxy films, and it was a lot of fun trying to figure out what each item was!
From left to right, we have Yondu’s Arrow, an Annulax Battery (from GOTG Volume 2), a Quarnyx Battery (from the Prison Scene in GOTG 1), an eyeball that he gets Baby Groot to collect, and the prisoner’s prosthetic leg from the same Prison Break scene in GOTG 1.
Here’s some shots from the movies referenced to jog your memory!
Overall, not a bad day, especially if you enjoy Guardians of the Galaxy movie references, even if the contents are a little plain, but I appreciate the Easter Eggs included!
Check in tomorrow for Day 7 to see if we get a more substantial build!
Day 7
Rocket has been exceptionally nice this year, as we get yet another accessory for him! Day 7 gives us this massive blaster which has a really interesting design.
As the Guardians’ weaponry and demolitions expert, it’s quite fitting, and I love how easy it is for Rocket to hold it, despite being as large as him, as well as the kickstand that allows it to balance nicely on the ground, so that Rocket doesn’t topple under its weight.
That’s it for Day 7 so far! I sure hope we get some other non-Rocket items for Day 8!
Day 8
Day 8 is a bit of a nothingburger, even if it’s reasonable festive. We get a complete LEGO Turkey, a stand/table, and some flames to roast it.
Honestly, it’s quite bland like Turkey (sorry to all the Turkey fans, but ham is better), and feels like it should’ve been paired with another build as it’s not substantial at all, or very GOTG.
You can attach the flames to Rocket’s Blaster from Day 7, so he can use his heavy weaponry to roast the turkey, and that’s it!
Hopefully Day 9 makes up for this! Check in tomorrow to see what we get!
Day 9
On Day 9, we get an extremely festive and fun minifigure with Nebula in an ugly Christmas sweater! She also has a wrapped present, but the highlight is her Christmas sweater which has a crude Thanos knitted into it, as well as what I believe are Infinity Stone baubles on each side.
As if that wasn’t good enough, over on the back, we have Nebula and her stepsister Gamora knitted in a love heart, which is the cutest thing ever.
Here’s a closer look at the torso, which is a great exclusive, and one of the chief reasons I was looking forward to the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar.
That’s it for Day 9 so far. It does kind of make up for several lacklustre days in succession, and fingers crossed we get another memorable minifigure or build from tomorrow’s window!
Day 10
Things are starting to look up with the LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar with Day 10’s Laser Drill Spaceship, a mining craft piloted (and stolen) by Yondu in GOTG Vol 2 to drill a hole into Ego the living planet.
It’s a lovely little rendition of the craft, which looks like a snail, and there are some nice details like the clear cockpit, and trans-blue stud in the back for the thruster.
It’s also a nice homage to a LEGO GOTG set from 2017, 76080 Ayesha’s Revenge which featured the Laser Drill and Yondu.
Not bad from Day 10, and with so many cool and unique spaceship designs to draw from, I sure hope this won’t be the last micro-build we see!
Check back tomorrow to see what Day 11 brings!
Day 11
Here we are with Day 11 of the LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar with a Mining Pod and Escape pod!
The instructions are a little tricky, so it took me a while to realise that these were 2 separate ships, and not meant to join together.
The designs are fairly simplistic, with only the general shape and colours used to clue you into what they actually are.
The Mining Pod has previously made an appearance in the first wave of GOTG sets, 76020 Knowhere Escape Mission and the Escape Pod was from 76102 Thor’s Weapon Quest, in case you’re wondering where these little pods are from.
Day 11 is a nice nod to these historical LEGO Guardians of the Galaxy sets, but their simplistic designs does leave much to be desired. At least we got 2 of them in one window, and I’m glad they weren’t stretched out across 2 days, which would’ve been tragic.
That’s it for Day 11! Kinda underwhelming, and I’m hoping Day 12 makes up for today! Check in tomorrow to see what we get!
Day 12
Eh, Day 13 gives us yet another forgettable build with this Table of Food and Drinks. It’s honestly so boring, and unlike other builds, there’s nothing “Guardians of the Galaxy” about this build.
The gunmetal grey cups are nice, and we do get a printed orange slice tile, but other than that, this is really underwhelming.
That’s 2 lacklustre builds in a row, and even Star-Lord is coping by drinking whatever is in that green bottle to not lose his holiday spirit.
I really hope Day 13 improves, as this has been a really hit and miss Advent Calendar, with more misses than hits!
Day 13
Day 13 of the LEGO GOTG Advent Calendar begins to try and make amends for the last few days with a Mantis minifigure!
The minifigure is the same as the one found in 76913 The Guardians’ Ship, and also comes with a blue (dark azure) Fender Stratocaster-esque electric guitar.
Here’s look at Mantis’ back print and her angry alternate face. Not sure if its just me, but the antenna are a little wonky on her hairpiece which is made out of rubbery plastic, which isn’t my favourite material.
So far, we have 4 minifigures in the GOTG calendar, 3 of which have come from 76913 The Guardians’ Ship, which may or may not be a good thing, depending of course if you have the set or not.
Hoping that this is a start of stronger run as we enter the second half of the Advent Calendar! Check back tomorrow to see what we get on Day 14!
Day 14
On Day 14, we get a big orange ship, aka The Guardians’ Ship aka The Benatar. It’s not the best-looking ship, although it does capture the general look of the Guardians’ Ship with its shape and unmistakeable colour scheme.
The design does leave much to be desired (the story of this Advent Calendar so far), as it’s quite flat, and I really dislike the long tile on top of it.
Looking at the excellent ship designs we’ve been getting in the Star Wars Advent Calendar, I don’t think it’s a lot to ask for a more sophisticated design that truly mimics and does The Guardians’ Ship design justice.
But hey, at least it isn’t some weird blocky thing with clips on each side!
Check back tomorrow to see what we get in Day 15!
Day 15
Day 15 is a Candy Cane. That’s it. A large Candy Cane decoration. I guess it’s Christmas after all, and there blow-up Candy Cane decorations in the GOTG Holiday Special, but this could pop out of the City or LEGO Friends Advent Calendar, and it wouldn’t be out of place at all.
We are all Star-Lord, trying to figure out why this Candy Cane is here, instead of something more substantial or interesting.
After yesterday’s random candy cane (which I’m informed by many of you is Mantis’ that she stole from Kevin Bacon), Day 16 gives us a Hi-Fi system. It utilises the same cassette tape from the walkman, and also comes with 2 bookshelf speakers.
At least there’s a music theme going on, and Peter Quill does like his tunes. But it’s still consistently a let down, and doesn’t really scream GOTG or Christmas much.
Hoping for a better Day 17!
Day 17
Now this is more like it! On Day 17, we finally get something festive AND related to GOTG – a snowman wearing Thanos armour! It’s a clever twist on the way Thanos hangs up his armour on a scarecrow, when he retire to the farm after snapping half the universe’s life away.
A fantastic build, and I also love the shoulderpads attached to the sticks.
As an added bonus, you get a spare stick. Using some really common spare parts, you can fashion it into a potted Baby Groot, which I highly recommend doing!
Finally a really good build, after days of lacklustre ones. Hoping they can build the momentum again, but I wouldn’t dare having high hopes given what we’ve seen so far. Check back tomorrow to see what we get for Day 18!
Day 18
We FINALLY get a decent build out of the GOTG Advent Calendar with Day 18’s sensational Milano Spaceship.
Based on the Milano Spaceship from the first Guardians of the Galaxy, there is some excellent part usage here to translate the Milano’s bird-like silhouette to this microscale build.
I love what they’ve done with the wings, which can be fanned out at different angles, and just how sleek this ship looks. It’s pretty much perfect, and I’m so glad that we finally get a build worth getting this excited for.
The original LEGO 76021 The Milano Spaceship Rescue is one of my favourite sets ever, and I still have the ship on display since 2014, so here’s a side by side with the full-sized Milano.
It’s remarkable just how good the design is, especially when compared with the Benatar from Day 14. I can’t believe we’ve had two back to back awesome days.
Can we get a threepeat? Check in tomorrow to see what we get on Day 19! Less than a week to go before Christmas!
Day 19
Well would you look at that, we did for three for three with Day 19’s Groot minifigure. We get a young adult version of Groot, which has a dark tan colour scheme, and really nice detailed printing across his torso and legs.
He comes with a smartphone tile and a neck bracket, which suggests he’s going to get a backpack or some attachment soon.
Here’ how he stacks up against other Groot variants. It’s always nice to get a member of the Guardians, and like the other minifigures, is also the same variant as the one from 76193 The Guardians’ Ship.
Not too shabby, and we’ve almost completed our guardians crew! Check back tomorrow to see what we get for Day 20!
Day 20
As predicted, Day 20’s build is this Wearable Christmas Tree, perfect to turn Groot into festive holiday mode!
Here’s how the tree looks clipped onto Groot’s neck bracket. In hindsight, I should’ve swivelled it so that the star is at the top, but I only realised it while editing today’s photos!
It’s one of the most creative Advent Calendar Christmas trees yet, and it pairs remarkably well with Groot, who’s, well, a sentient tree. It also fits the scene from the GOTG Holiday special where Groot serves as a Christmas Tree, so this is both accurate and festive all at the same time.
Check back tomorrow to see what we get on Day 21!
Day 21
On Day 21, we get what looks like an incomplete build, suggesting that we’ll have a few days of components to build some sort of ship, perhaps a Sleigh?
The steering wheel means this is some kind of cockpit. A little plain, but I like the concept of combining several days for a more substantial build. Hope it’s good! Check back in tomorrow to see if we can complete the Rocket Sleigh with Day 22’s build!
Day 22
Okay, it looks like we have a three-day build on our hands! Day 22 gives us some Rocket Sleigh Wings, that you can attach to yesterday’s cockpit.
Yesterday’s cockpit also has a clip that’s unused, so that tells me that there’s at least one more build to combine them all to form some sort of rocket sleigh or spaceship.
The wing designs are pretty decent – I like the use of teal instead of green to still relay those Christmas vibes.
Check back in tomorrow to see what we get on Day 23!
Day 23
On Day 23, we get the final piece of this Christmas Rocket Sleigh, a present trailer! It has a connector, that can be clipped to the cockpit, allowing you to combine this with Day 22 and 21 for a larger build!
There’s even a green present sack as well, which could be a nod to all the Christmas paraphernalia that Mantis and Drax steals from Earth.
Here’s a look at the completed ship! It’s pretty good, and has space for one minifigure to pilot it, but overall, it feels like they could’ve squeezed it into 2 days instead of 3, wasting precious spots close toward the end of the Advent Calendar.
Tomorrow is Day 24, the finale of the 2022 GOTG Advent Calendar! Check in tomorrow to see what we get, and for a wrapup of this very hit and miss Advent Calendar!
Day 24
We’re here on the final day, and to close us off, we have an exclusive Christmas Sweater Drax pop out of Day 24’s window!
The minifigure design is great, and he comes with a fork and spoon, as well as a pair of Infinity Stones (the purple Power Stone), presumably as a snack?
I also love that he has Baby Groot in a Pot wearing a Santa hat as a knitted pattern on his jumper.
Here’s a look at his back printing, and the back of his head.
If you’re wondering why Drax is Green, it’s a nod to his comic book appearance, where he’s depicted as green instead of grey like in the James Gunn movies. This is a really nice nod to the character, that will delight Marvel comicbook fans, as it would’ve been really hard to get a green variant of Drax otherwise.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
And that’s it for the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar! To be honest, I’m mostly disappointed by the Calendar, mostly because of strings of forgettable days and builds, with items that were a stretch to connect to Christmas, the Guardians of the Galaxy or even the Holiday Special.
Even the 3-day ship feels like it should’ve been kept to 2 days at the max, but this has been quite poor, especially when you compare it against the Star Wars, Harry Potter and even Friends Advent Calendars which have largely been excellent.
A shame as last year’s Marvel Advent Calendar was the best out of the bunch!
The only bright point is the minifigure lineup, in which you can get the entire Guardians of the Galaxy team (minus Gamora) for a fairly accessible price, as well as Drax and Nebula in their festive ugly Christmas sweaters.
A very special thank YOU for persevering through year’s LEGO GOTG Advent Calendar countdown. It’s definitely helped commiserating on some of the lackluster days by joking about how bad the builds were, and sharing in the fact that we’re all subjected to the same experience!
Whether you’re here for the first time, or have been following for years, I’ve really enjoyed reading every single comment, and for yet another successful year!
A very Merry Christmas to all who are celebrating, and I hope you have some rattling boxes under your Christmas Tree! If you’re new to the blog, I’d love for you to stick around, so feel free to subscribe or follow my social channels below for your fix of LEGO news, reviews and more!
Merry Christmas, and hope to see you again next year!
Looking for the other advent calendars? Here are links to the Star Wars, Friends and Harry Potter Advent Calendars!
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