LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar 2014

Hello! If you’re looking for 2015’s Daily Advent Calendar post, please visit this post instead!

The first of December can only mean one thing – LEGO Advent Calendars! This year, I’ve decided to go with the 2014 Star Wars Advent Calendar as the Friends and City one didn’t really appeal to me.

I’ll be chronicling the contents of each window every day, as we count down towards Christmas. Instead of putting up a new post every day, I’ll be updating this post to reduce the clutter.

To make it easier for you to keep track of the Star Wars Advent Calendar, I’ve added a link to this post which you will be able to find on the menu bar. Refer to the large red arrow if you get lost.

It’s never too late to join in the Advent Calendar fun and pick one up. The City ones are pretty hard to find – the only stores I’ve seen them in recently are Toys R Us or some Big Ws, depending on stock. Friends Advent Calendars can be found in most Kmarts and for the elusive Star Wars advent calendar, you’ll have to check your local Toyworld for stock if you’re looking to buy one. Toyworld are the only retailer in Australia that sells the Star Wars Advent Calendars.

On to the Star Wars Advent Calendar! I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan so pardon me if I get my Wookies and Ewoks mixed up.

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Update on Star Wars Advent Calendar Codes:

If you’ve been reading the comments section, you would’ve noticed quite a robust discussion about codes to unlock characters in this year’s online game Empire vs Rebels. Apparently the codes were not on this year’s Star Wars Advent Calendar, which left a lot of people confused.

I reached out to LEGO to find out more information and to get the story about where I could find the codes and was delighted when they got back to me.

Here are the codes that you can use in the following order: W318, 2T06, T43F,  E729

Apparently, there was a small mistake with the 2014 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar which is why the codes are nowhere to be found – they are working on updating the website to help fix this problem.

Hope this helps!

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To make it easier for you to check out each day, here’s a bunch of hyperlinks to each day’s content. Click on each Day and you will jump to the corresponding section of the page.

• Day 1 – AAT

• Day 2 – Super Battle Droid

• Day 3 – AV-7 Anti-Vehicle Cannon

• Day 4 – Santa Clone Trooper

• Day 5 – Weapons Rack

• Day 6 – Vulture Droid

• Day  7 – Snowtrooper Tripod-Mounted Gun

• Day 8 – Snowtrooper

• Day 9 – Jedi Starfighter

• Day 10 – TIE Fighter

• Day 11 – TIE Pilot

• Day 12 – Landspeeder

• Day 13 – Luke Skywalker

• Day 14 – Moisture Vaporator

• Day 15 – Snowspeeder

• Day 16 – Snowspeeder Pilot

• Day 17 – Echo Base Turret

• Day 18 – General Rieekan

• Day 19 – Speeder Bike

• Day 20 – Imperial Shuttle

• Day 21 – Y-wing Starfighter

• Day 22 – Christmas Astromech Droid

• Day 23 – Lightsaber Fireplace

• Day 24 – Santa Darth Vader

Day 1

Opening Window #1 reveals a micro-scale AAT (Armoured Assault Tank) which bear the Confederacy of Independent Systems colours – better known as Clone War colours. It’s quite a tight little build and represents the source material quite well. I’m far from a hardcore fan and I could remember these from Episode 1 (but those were tan coloured), mowing down Gungans in Naboo.

We’re off to a great start, check in tomorrow for Day 2!

Day 2

 

Here’s the contents of Day 2’s window, a Super Battle Droid which you might remember from the Star Wars prequels (Episode 2 if I recall correctly). I don’t own that many Star Wars sets (I prefer Original Trilogy sets) so this is my very first Super Battle Droid. The Droid has some great detail on it and has a nice metallic dark grey sheen to it.

You can move the arms up and down but the legs are fused together – I would’ve liked it to separate so that you can at least pose them a little more, but it’s still a neat little figure.

Is this a Droid for Super Battles or is it a Battle Droid that’s Super? #mysteriesoflife

That’s it for Day 2! I wonder what tomorrow will bring!

Day 3

Here’s Day 3’s build, a Republic AV-7 Anti Vehicle Cannon – what a mouthful of a name! I’ve seen vacuum cleaners with catchier names than the AV-7.

As it’s name suggests, it’s a cannon designed to combat the Droid army and act as a deterrent against enemy vehicles. The AV-7 actually made an appearance as a full fledged set earlier this year, something I only discovered by looking through Wookiepedia.

It’s another build from the Clone Wars, which makes it three in a row so far? I’m more of an Original Trilogy kind of guy when it comes to Star Wars, so I’m not particularly too keen on this. It’s still a pretty neat build, it’s very stable thanks to its four legs and you can adjust the cannon. I like the yellow and red round studs which helps the cannon visually ‘pop’.

Here’s the Super Battle Droid playing around with his mini AV-7 cannon. That’s all for Day 3, here’s hoping that the next day gives us some much needed Original Trilogy builds or characters!

Day 4

On the fourth day of the Star Wars Advent Calendar, we are given a Santa Clone Trooper. Despite not being an Original Trilogy character, the Clone Trooper packs a lot of charm and character thanks to his Santa hat. He also has a hot mug of galactic hot chocolate to warm him up.

Despite being festively dressed, the Santa Clone Trooper has a look of incredible annoyance on his face – maybe his hot chocolate isn’t warm any more or maybe he doesn’t like his face revealed or his Santa Hat, as mandated by the Republic.

The Clone Trooper is nicely detailed, with back printing although the colours of my Santa Hat weren’t as precisely painted on as I would’ve liked. Other than that, his torso details are nice and crisp. It would’ve been SO awesome if we had received a novelty coffee cup, with the Republic’s logo printed on it!

All in all, it’s always a special occasion when a minifigure pops out of a LEGO Advent Calendar window so the Santa Clone Trooper is a welcome addition to the pack, which is quickly becoming quite festive!

Day 5

Day 5 is a delightful little Weapons Rack for the surly Santa Clone Trooper. The design is extremely basic but it does the job. The best part about Day 5’s build is that there are blasters! You get two – a medium and large one. I don’t collect Star Wars sets so extra blasters are always nice to have.

There’s also a Clone Trooper helmet which has a stand of its own. Being quite unfamiliar with Star Wars minifigures, I was impressed by the little details such as the blue marks (which I’m guessing is some sort of rank insignia?) on the sides.

Five days into the Star Wars Advent Calendar and we’re looking good so far. You know what would be really cool and festive? Micro vehicles of iconic Star Wars ships in Christmas colours. LEGO designers, please take note!

Day 6

Day 6 and hope is beginning to fade that I will ever get Original Trilogy vehicles or characters. Day 6 gives us a Vulture Droid – yet another pre-Original Trilogy build! The Vulture Droid also made an appearance as a LEGO set this year.

The build is kind of average – it barely just captures the Vulture Droid’s appearance enough that I did not have to do too much Googling to find out what it was. A neat little build technique the designers incorporated is that its legs/wings can swivel, allowing the Vulture Droid to scuttle on its legs.

With the Vulture Droid’s inclusion, we’ve got quite a bit of variety so far but no mainstream Star Wars vehicles or interesting characters yet. The colours are also strangely uniform, so I’m hoping we get a more exciting splash of colour in the coming few days. Thanks for reading!

Day 7

FINALLY. Something from the original trilogy. Day 7’s build is a Tripod-Mounted Gun used by Snowtroopers in Empire Strikes Backs’ Battle of Hoth. An alternate version of this gun made an appearance in the 2011 Hoth Echo Base Set if you remember that one.

To fit in with the Advent Calendar’s festive theme, the Mounted Gun has a few holiday modifications made to it to fire snowballs (in the form of 1 x 1 round studs) instead of deadly rounds. The barrel of the gun utilises the new Star Wars “click” blasters which propels the white studs with admirable force. It’s a fun little interactive element and I appreciate the playfulness of the snowballs.

A gun from Hoth is a good indicator that we may be on the verge of more Original Trilogy builds or characters! Will we get a Snowtrooper tomorrow to man the deadly Snowball gun? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Day 8

Lo and behold, we get a Snowtrooper minifigure in Day 8’s window! This is my very first Snowtrooper ever so I’m pretty excited about it. The details on the minifigure are brilliant, from his mask to torso printing and even the grey gloves on his hands.

Here’s the Snowtrooper unmasked – you may recognize the generic face from other Imperial infantry such as Stormtroopers, or Other-Troopers. Sadly their eyes don’t line up with the mask’s goggles, so that I do is just turn his head around so his eyes are blacked out.

The group is getting livelier! I really like the progression of builds and characters so far, my anticipation for next day’s window grows every day. Can’t wait to see what we get tomorrow?

Also, for those asking about the codes for the online game, I still haven’t been able to find any code on the box without having to open all the remaining windows. It’s certainly quite strange, since a lot of people seem to want answers. I’ve reached out to LEGO for clarification about this, so hopefully I’ll get an official answer soon.

Day 9

A little early today because I will be out all day! On the ninth day, we’re treated to a yellow Jedi Starfighter, a spaceship piloted by Jedi Knights. It is also sometimes called the Jedi Interceptor which was also recently in a Star Wars set that came out early this year. I opted to call this the Jedi Starfighter since that’s what the Advent Calendar description calls it.

Thanks to Teri for pointing my error out. Apparently this ship is a Delta 7B Aethersprite-class light interceptor! The last time this ship appeared as a LEGO set was way back in 2007. Ugh, my Star Wars knowledge is abysmal – please forgive me!

The Jedi Starfighter is kind of average looking – it achieves its triangular shape quite well but because it’s made out of so few pieces, lacks the curvy look that I normally associate with these ships. Another pet peeve I have is the different coloured yellow bricks. If you stare at it closely, you’ll notice that the 1 x 3 plate right under the cock pit is a totally different shade of yellow than the rest of the parts. This is a known problem with yellow LEGO elements and pisses me off beyond belief.

Other than that, the Jedi Starfighter still manages to look really cute thanks to its size and simplicity. I was easily able to identify this ship without being a hardcore Star Wars fan, so props to the designers for getting the look and feel mostly right.

That’s 9 days of Star Wars models and characters so far, stretching from the Clone Wars, to Hoth to Revenge of the Sith. Where will we end up next? Be sure to check this post tomorrow to find out! Don’t forget to like my Facebook page for other updates throughout the month.

Day 10

Sorry for the delay putting this up! I had a long day out and only just managed to get some time to update. WHOAAAA! Today’s window contains one of my favourite Star Wars vehicles of all time, the iconic TIE Fighter! When I was younger, I likened these ships to mosquitoes since they always seem to be buzzing around the rebel spaceships and they’d often get swat down quite easily as well.

It’s a fantastic looking model. If I manage to scrounge up enough spare parts, I will consider making a whole fleet of these micro TIE Fighters as they’re just so cute.

 

The TIE Fighter is a delightful micro build, perfectly capturing the TIE Fighter’s trademark look and shape. It’s simple in the very best way and will sure to be a favourite of any Star Wars fan. The TIE Fighter is the very first Original Trilogy vehicle and I’m hoping we get more in the coming few days.

We’re picking up a lot of steam with the Star Wars Advent Calendar – will we get a pilot minifigure to go with today’s micro TIE Fighter? Check back tomorrow to find out!

Day 11

Of course we get a TIE Pilot in Day 11 to go with yesterday’s TIE Fighter micro build. The TIE Pilot looks brilliant with very elaborate torso and helmet printing. I particularly like his helmet which is moulded exceptionally well. I probably should buy more Star Wars sets.

One of the things I didn’t like about the TIE Pilot is the back of his helmet which has a really awful looking empty space where you can see his fleshy minifigure head. It just looks weird and exposed. If the minifigure had a plain black head, it wouldn’t look so visually jarring.

Speaking of fleshy heads, the TIE Pilot has the exact same head and face as Day 4’s Clone Trooper. The TIE Pilot’s head is pictured on the right – can you spot anything off about it? The painting is all wonky and blurry which makes it look really bad, even though his face is hidden in his helmet. This is probably a manufacturing error and I will most likely be writing in to LEGO’s customer service for a replacement.

Well, that’s that for Day 11! Printing issues and exposed minifigure heads aside, a new minifigure character  – bonus points for being from the Original Trilogy – is always a fantastic thing!

Day 12

Sorry about the delay with Day 12 – I was at an office Christmas retreat and I didn’t have time to update! Anyway, Day 12’s build is a wonderful micro Landspeeder model. The Landspeeder is quite possibly one of the most recognizable vehicles from Episode IV: A New Hope and I think the designers have done a brilliant job shrinking it down to this scale.

The model is one of my favourites from the Advent Calendar so far – I really can’t find anything I don’t like about it! I love how they managed to capture the Landspeeder’s large rounded front almost perfectly.

That’s all for Day 12 – we’ve got quite a nice little mix of micro-vehicles so far! It seems like we’ve now shifted our focus to Tatooine. I wonder what we’re going to get tomorrow!

Day 13

Well what do you know, we’ve got Luke Skywalker in Day 13’s window! It’s a delight every time a major Star Wars character pops out of the Advent Calendar. Luke Skywalker’s minifigure looks really good – I like the details on his torso and legs, although it’s a little jarring the printing of his boots kind of abruptly stop just above his feet.

Back printing and even an all alternate face is all accounted for. His alternate face looks pretty funny, with raised eyebrows and pursed lips.

Here’s our existing Star Wars Advent Calendar characters preparing a welcome for Luke. Hope they get along!

I’m really enjoying all the models and characters that have popped out of the Advent Calendar. Now that we’ve crossed the halfway mark, I hope that we continue the momentum of great micro builds and characters as we make our way towards Christmas.

Day 14

Day 14 makes it the third day in a row that we’ve received a Tatooine-themed model – a Moisture Vaporator! If you remember Star Wars IV: A New Hope, you’d have seen this handy machines around Luke Skywalker’s home and moisture farm, which turns humidity into water – which is what his adoptive family farms.

The build is fairly simple, but once again the designers have done an admirable job recreating the Moisture Vaporator’s look. While it’s not nearly as exciting as a spaceship or minifigure, it has a a simplistic and nostalgic charm to it – mostly because it brings back fond memories of my first time watching A New Hope.

That’s it for today! We’re halfway through 2014’s Star Wars Advent Calendar and racing towards Christmas! I hope you’re as excited about the next few days as I am!

Day 15

The Star Wars Advent Calendar continues to deliver with a sweet micro Snowspeeder popping out of Day 15’s window. The model has a lot more detail than previous micro models, with clever use of transparent cheese slopes as the cockpit, two grey sticks as blaster cannons, an orange jumper plate to give it some colour and curiously a binocular piece to top it off. The binocular piece is by far the strangest piece in use, as I don’t recall Snowspeeders in Empire Strikes Back having anything above the rear thrusters.

Speaking of the rear thrusters, the Snowspeeder looks remarkable from the back as well. The grill and grey round studs really add to the whole package making the Snowspeeder one of the most impressive models so far. Really nice, and going by the last few days’ models, I hope this kicks off more Hoth-related builds or characters.

That’s Day 15 so far, the Snowtrooper finally has something to play with! Come back again tomorrow and check out what Day 16 will bring!

Day 16

Today, we get a Snowspeeder Pilot to accompany yesterday’s micro Snowspeeder! The minifigure is great and also marks the second “good guy” character so far. The printing on the Snowspeeder Pilot is quite impressive, except for the white areas in the middle of his torso, which look a little like the orange paint bled in.

The Snowspeeder pilot also has a dual sided face – which looks like a combination of being startled and angry. As this is my first ever Snowspeeder Pilot, I felt that his helmet was quite plain in comparison to his body – with only two blue rebel logos on it for detail. The face has some issues too, namely that the chin strap obscures most of his facial expression

That being said, minifigures are always a welcome addition to the growing crowd of Advent Calendar models. I hope that tomorrow’s build will be a lot more exciting!

Day 17

What’s this, three Hoth builds in a row? I’m not complaining, seeing as how Hoth is one of the coolest planets in the Star Wars universe. Day 17 has blessed us with an Echo Base Turret – you might recognize these base defences which guarded the Rebels’ Echo Base when it came under siege in Empire Strikes Back.

It’s a relatively simply build albeit a little too squat for my tastes (compared to the original) but I kind of like it. Like the Day 7’s Snowtrooper Gatling Gun, the Echo Base Turret fires snowballs! It gives it some really great flavour, especially now that you can pit the Snowspeeder pilot against the Snowtrooper!

Really loving the scenes that you can create so far. It adds a lot of playability to the Advent Calendar models and I’m having a lot of fun seeing how I can incorporate each day’s build with the existing models and characters.

I have a feeling that we will be leaving Hoth tomorrow, I can’t wait to see what’s next!

Day 18

The Hoth party continues with General Rieekan aka that guy that ran the Hoth Echo Base from Episode V! To be completely honest, when I opened Day 18’s window, out popped this elderly looking gentleman which I could not remember. Only after checking the Advent Calendar box and looking him up on Wookiepedia was I able to remember (vaguely) who he was.

Despite him being a relatively obscure Star Wars character to me, I really like this minifigure. His tan uniform has tons of brilliant little details – I especially like the padding on his upper chest area. You could easily repurpose his torso and legs for a winter-themed  minifig or scene.

This year’s Advent Calendar is giving us lots of Hoth love with General Rieekan being the 5th model from the icy planet so far! Will we get a Sith 6th tomorrow?

Day 19

No Hoth on Day 19 – instead we get a Speeder Bike from the forest moon of Endor! This has to be the toughest and most complex build of this year’s Advent Calendar – there are a lot of cascading parts and the diagram on the window was a little hard to make out but I managed to get there in the end.

The micro Speeder Bike models looks fantastic and is an excellent recreation of the original vehicle. Because it’s Christmas, there is a little present sack that hangs from the Speeder Bike’s rear end – a very nice and festive touch. I also like that we have a 2 x 2 area which works perfectly as a seat for minifigs as they zoom about delivering presents to the local Ewok populace.

With only 5 days remaining, I’m starting to feel a twinge of sadness as we approach the end of my 2014 Advent Calendar journey! But hey, at least there’s Christmas to look forward to 😉 Check in again tomorrow to see what we get next!

Day 20

*cue Imperial March theme* Day 20’s Lambda-class Imperial Shuttle is a fitting build to herald the arrival of Christmas Eve and a certain Sithly character. But that’s probably days away, so for today, let’s focus on this lovely little build.

The micro Imperial Shuttle looks fantastic – it was easy to assemble and packs quite a little playability thanks to the foldable wings and cockpit, which you can swivel up and down.

One element that I really like that adds so much to the build is the transparent blue grills which act as the Imperial Shuttle’s engines. The only thing I didn’t like about the shuttle is the rounded base which makes it quite challenging to stand since it wobbles quite a bit. A flat tile at the bottom would’ve been way better.

So that’s Day 20 so far – with only 4 days left to go, the anticipation is reaching fever pitch! Hope you guys have gotten some time off from work for Christmas – I know I have, so I’m 100% in holiday mood right now!

Day 21

The great Star Wars micro builds keep on coming, with an excellent rendition of a Y-wing Starfighter in Day 21’s window. The build captures the Y-wing’s iconic look incredibly well in such a simple manner that it’s almost faultless. I do feel that it could be slightly enhanced with the use of flat 1 x 1 round tiles instead of studs, just to give it a cleaner and smoother look.

The Y-wing Starfighter is another impressive addition to our collection of micro Star Wars vehicles and earns bonus points because it’s quite a popular Original Trilogy spaceship.

 

 

That’s it for Day 21 so far. The group photo is starting to get very crowded in a very festive way! This may seem like a crazy idea, but I’ve really liked the builds that have a bit of Christmas flavour to them, such as the Clone Trooper and Speeder Bike. It would be great next year for LEGO to build on this and give us some wacky Christmas colour editions of popular Star Wars starfighters or vehicles, to add to the holiday cheer.

What do you think? Do you hate or love that idea?

Day 22

Sorry for the delay posting this, I’m on a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney and have been driving for most of the day with limited internet access!

With only 2 days left to go, we’re starting to get to some of the best builds so far. Day 22’s Advent Calendar window has a very special festive surprise for Astromech Droid enthusiasts with a special Christmas-tree version!

Astromech Droids are often attached to Starfighters and help out as trust robo sidekicks, the most famous and renowned of them being R2-D2. This Christmas Astromech Droid is dark green and features a cone-shaped head with baubels and Christmas tree leaves on it, topped with a shiny star.

This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Christmas tree in this year’s Advent Calendar and I am mighty pleased with this! Just yesterday, I mused about getting Star Wars characters, ships or models coloured or decorated to reflect Christmas themes and it’s great to get one today. More like this, LEGO!

Only two more days till we’re done!

Day 23

We’re on the second last day, and in preparation for the big reveal tomorrow, we get a very festive Lightsaber Fireplace. It has 2 lightsabers attached to the one, the blue one for Luke Skywalker and the red one for a special Sith character that has yet to be revealed. I wonder who he is? 🙂

On the fireplace ledge, there’s also a little transparent cube thing, which I’m guessing is some sort of energy or communication device. My limited Star Wars knowledge has failed me and I can’t identify this at all. The fireplace is a decent little build although I’m not a fan of how the lightsabers are clipped to the side since they are attached by their beams. That doesn’t make any sense at all. You can’t attach it to the lightsaber hilt since they’re too long – which I think is a glaring design flaw.

I’m a little sad now that we’ve only got one more window to open! Check in tomorrow for the big finale! Luke is pretty excited!

Day 24

It’s Christmas Eve and the final (insert sad emoji here) day of 2014’s stellar Star Wars Advent Calendar! In our very final window we have the big daddy of all Star Wars character Darth Vader in a spectacular Santa outfit! Darth Santa is perfectly festive, with a red cape and what seems to be a Santa costume over his usual black apparel.

The printing on his torso and legs is sublime – he even has presents attached to his belt! For accessories, Santa Darth Vader has a big bag of presents for his family and friends.

Speaking of family, Santa Darth Vader is elated to spend some quality time with his son, Luke!

It’s with a heavy heart that I wrap up this year’s daily Star Wars advent calendar updates – I’ve had a terrific time opening each new window and writing about it each day. For the readers that have been faithfully following every day, I’d like to thank you for all your comments and for following me on this Christmasy adventure in a galaxy far far away.

Final thoughts about this year’s Advent Calendar? It’s safe to say  that this has been my favourite Advent Calendar that I’ve opened so far! The builds have been pleasantly varied and interspersed with some very Christmasy flourishes which have added so much festive cheer to the Star Wars universe.

My only complaint this year was that the Star Wars Advent Calendar was only available as an exclusive to Toyworld. This was not communicated very well by LEGO Australia and I imagine it was quite a scramble and challenge for fans to figure that out. I have nothing against retailer-exclusive sets, but I would have loved a much more transparent and timely manner of communication – instead of me spending weeks wondering why the Star Wars Advent Calendar hadn’t shown up at any other retailers before it dawned upon me.

I’m a pretty switched on LEGO fan, who spends more time than the average person keeping abreast of LEGO news. What about more casual enthusiasts or parents who just want to get this set for their kids?

Any way, I don’t want to sully the festive spirit with a rant, so I’ll end here!

So this is the end, now that all 24 windows have been opened – let me know what your final thoughts were of this year’s Star Wars Advent Calendar? Did it live up to your expectations, what was your favourite Day or even just rant about the ubiquity of prequel trilogy sets in the comments!

Thank you for reading and a very Merry Christmas to you!