Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 24: Santa Yoda

My nephew LOVES this minifig. I opened my advent calendar weeks ago, and Prince Lego has been playing with it ever since. He carries Santa Yoda around with his other (human) Santa minifig and makes a sleigh for both Santas to store their toys in. Santa's reindeer are an odd mix of Kingdoms horses and skeleton horses. Maybe now that Prince Lego has his own Santa Yoda minifig, he'll let me have mine back! ;o)

I hope you are all enjoying time with your families and loved ones today and tomorrow and throughout the holidays. I'm also enjoying having a month break before my next semester of school starts. :o)

Sometimes I wonder if I use too many smileys, but then I think maybe I'm just a person who smiles a lot!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

Santa Claus:

Yoda:

Lego Santa Yoda:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 23: Christmas Tree

These last two days are way easy, so I would just like to say THANK YOU to everyone who read these posts and to those who commented too. I very much appreciate your encouragement and feedback. Thanks!

Christmas Tree:

(photo by ShellyS)

Lego Christmas Tree:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 22: A-Wing Starfighter

The RZ-1 A-Wing Interceptor (aka A-Wing) was a kind of touchy little craft, and required great skill to pilot. A-Wings did not use astromech droids. Like the TIE fighter, the A-Wing left little chance of survival after a collision.

A-Wings are found in Episode VI. The most notable A-Wing is the one which crashed into the bridge of the Empire's super star destroyer, which in turn crashed tip-first into the second Death Star.

A-Wing Interceptor:

Lego A-Wing Interceptor:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 21: Millennium Falcon

Hooray! The Millennium Falcon!

Pretty much everyone knows about the Millennium Falcon (and if you don't, go away and don't come back until you've watched the original Star Wars trilogy!), so here is a link to a YouTube video of Episode IV excerpts with Rifftrax narration. Rifftrax produces hilarious audio tracks to play with your favorite movies; if you've ever seen MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000), you'll know what I'm talking about--these are those same guys*. In the video I linked to, the Millennium Falcon connection comes in at 5 minutes.

Millennium Falcon:

Lego Millennium Falcon:

*Note: Some of the Rifftrax audio is aimed at an adult audience, but mostly it's pretty clean.

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 20: TIE Fighter

Yesterday's TIE pilot doesn't fit inside very well, but today we get a tiny TIE fighter. It's not the most spectacular thing ever. It does destruct easily if you throw it against a wall though, so that's just like a real TIE fighter would be--easily destructible. :o)

TIE Fighter:

Lego TIE Fighter:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 19: TIE Pilot

Today's build is a TIE pilot. You probably never would have guessed, but TIE pilots fly TIE fighters. Crazy, huh? ;o) You can see TIE pilots in each of the movies in the original Star Wars trilogy.

One interesting thing I learned from Wookieepedia is that TIE pilots didn't normally carry survival equipment or emergency rations with them, because in the event they crashed, it wasn't very likely they'd survive anyway.

The photo on Wookieepedia of an actual TIE pilot (see below) looks kind of insectoid to me, but the advent calendar minifig looks cute (as usual). I gave my TIE pilot one of the blaster guns from the weapons stand, even though TIE pilots didn't often carry firearms.

TIE Pilot:

Lego TIE Pilot:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 18: Y-Wing Starfighter

Today's build is the BTL-B Y-wing starfighter (that's a mouthful, eh? Personally, I'd prefer a BLT-B Y-wing starfighter...) (har har har). Anakin Skywalker flew this particular type of Y-wing during the Clone Wars, so you won't actually see this ship in any of the original 6 movies. The BTL-B did show up in the TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. :o)

Y-Wing Starfighter:

Lego Y-Wing Starfighter:

I don't know why, but those two little jet engines sticking out the back like that remind me of turkey legs...

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 17: Weapons Stand

The weapons stand today is not specific to any particular movie, but it has some fun stuff on it: two blaster rifles, one lightsaber, and a pair of macrobinoculars.

Blaster Rifle:

Lightsaber:

Macrobinoculars:

Lego Weapons Stand:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 16: Clone Pilot

In the regular Lego sets, a clone pilot's head looks like this:

(If you stare at his head long enough, his mouth turns into a mustache, and then he is smiling at you.)

In the advent calendar, the clone's head is just a plain black head. I guess you can't have everything, right?

Clone Pilot:

Lego Clone Pilot:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 15: Republic Gunship

Today's build is a Low Altitude Assault Transport (LAAT), also known as a Republic gunship. I found another really cool microbuild of the Republic gunship, but it's a bit bigger and more involved than the one in the calendar. The building instructions are on brickshelf.com.

There's not much to say about the Republic gunship–it was used to transport troops, was especially easy to maneuver, and had a lot of weaponry on it.

The Republic gunship can be seen in Episodes II and III.

Republic Gunship:

Photo from C4Des.

Lego Republic Gunship:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 14: Mouse Droid

Here are some forms of inter-office communication one might encounter in real life or fiction:

Business: email
Junior high: 5th-period student assistant
University: courier
Mansion: intercom
Star Trek: communicators
Ministry of Magic: paper airplanes
Star Wars: mouse droid

The mouse droid wasn't just for carrying notes around spacecraft though: according to Wookiepedia, it could also be used for sanitation, security (mostly as an alert system, I'm guessing), and navigating troops through Imperial ships to wherever they were needed. Direct quote from Wookiepedia: "Their use was only limited by their owner's creativity."

And here I thought they were just there to feed the cat droids. :o)

You can see mouse droids in Episodes III, IV, V, and VI.

Mouse Droid:

Lego Mouse Droid:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 13: R2-Q5 Astromech Droid

Astromech droids are cute, and Lego astromech droids even more so. R2-Q5 is an astromech droid. You can see him in Return of the Jedi, about three-and-a-half minutes in, if you look closely at the background area as the camera pans over the troops. The Stockholm Droid Factory has a good picture if you want to see where to look.

R2-Q5:

Lego R2-Q5:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 12: Rebel Snowspeeder

The T-47 airspeeder, aka rebel snowspeeder, was seen in Episode V, during the battle on Hoth.

To me, snowspeeders have always resembled some sort of sucker-type animal, or maybe a stingray.

Photo by Kevin Eddy

But maybe that's just me. :o)

Rebel Snowspeeder:

Lego Rebel Snowspeeder:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 11: Pilot Battle Droid

Following the theme of shuttles, starfighters, and other flying things, today's build is a pilot battle droid (not to be confused with the command battle droid, security battle droid, or generic B1 battle droid).

I've always wondered about humanoid droids--is the upright human shape really the most efficient design in terms of mechanics and function? Particularly in the case of a battle droid, I'd think it would make more sense to incorporate weapons into the droid's body structure directly, rather than having it hold the weapon, but that's just me. :o)

OOM-series Pilot Battle Droid:

Lego OOM-series Pilot Battle Droid (with extra arms for carrying weapons or not):

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 10: Imperial Shuttle

Apparently this isn't just an imperial shuttle, it's a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle. I never would have guessed. :o)

You've seen the imperial shuttle in Return of the Jedi, when the Emperor visited the second Death Star. It's also the shuttle that Han, Luke, Chewbacca, Leia, and the rest of the strike team used to land on the moon of Endor, which led to the downfall of the Empire. Woohoo!

The coolest thing about this Lego build, in my opinion, is the blue plate which represents the lights on the back of the shuttle.

Imperial Shuttle:

Lego Imperial Shuttle:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 9: X-Wing Starfighter

I've always loved the X-Wing: it's the starfighter Luke flew when he destroyed the first Death Star, it's the starfighter Yoda raised from the murky swamps of Dagobah, it's the starfighter that was used by Rebel pilots in the destruction of the second Death Star, and it pretty much just looks awesome.

Another cool thing about the X-Wing is how the wings can be locked together or spread apart, which Lego captured perfectly in their Day 9 build.

X-Wing Starfighter:

Lego X-Wing Starfighter:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 8: Zev Senesca

Day 8 Minifig's identification is a little tricky. For some reason, Bricklink.com lists Day 8 Minifig as Dack Ralter (alternately spelled Dak Ralter--not sure which is right). However, compared to all the other non-advent-calendar minifigs Lego has produced, the Day 8 Minifig looks most like Zev Senesca. Here are two pages from an awesome book called Lego Star Wars Character Encyclopedia (Amazon page) to compare the two (convenient that Zev and Dak are on the same spread, eh?):

The only difference between Day 8 Minifig and Zev Senesca is that Day 8 Minifig only gets a plain white helmet--no cool markings. Thus I conclude that Day 8 Minifig is Zev Senesca with a bleached-out helmet.

Zev Senesca was the pilot who, during Episode V, located Luke and Han after they spent a frigid night outside the rebel base on Hoth. Zev died not long thereafter, during the battle with the Empire forces.

Zev Senesca:

Lego Zev Senesca:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 7: Tool Stand & Barrel

Yesterday we got Chewbacca, and where would Chewie be without his bowcaster?

Today's build is a tool stand/depot/barrel. I'm not sure whether this is modeled off an actual stand as represented in any of the movies or literature, but I do know there are plenty of weapon and tool stands in the films, so it's not unlikely.

The crossbow is meant to be Chewbacca's bowcaster, which he uses in Episodes III, V, and VI. The other tools included are generic Lego, but they could be some of the tools Chewbacca used as he fixed the Millennium Falcon during Episode V. :o)

Bowcaster (shoots more like a blaster gun than a crossbow):

Lego tool depot:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 6: Chewbacca

Who doesn't love Chewbacca? This minifig really confused my little 5-year-old nephew at first. He kept asking me, "Where's his head? Where's his head?" I think he finally got it when I showed him that the head was included on the entire big piece that went over the body, so he didn't need a standard minifig head too. :o)

Chewbacca:

Lego Chewbacca:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 5: Slave I

The Slave I was Jango Fett's ship, but Boba Fett took control of it after Jango died. The ship in the advent calendar is the Slave I under the ownership of Boba Fett.

Slave I:

Lego Slave I:

Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar, Day 4: Homing Spider Droid

As seen in Episode II: Clone Wars. I think it's a pretty good likeness. :o)

Homing spider droid:

Lego homing spider droid: