REVIEW: 75056 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2014

[Ritz Brick]

*EDIT COULD A MODERATOR PLEASE CHANGE THE TITLE TO "REVIEW:75056 Star Wars Advent Calendar"*

I managed to crawl out of the Sarlacc in time to review the newest Star Wars advent calendar which has become a staple alongside the City version. Some interesting trivia about this set, it has the least amount of figures compared to the other, but does have the most amount of pieces. Is that good or bad? Read on and find out for yourself.

Set Name: Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar

Set Number: 75056

Pieces: 274 (there are about 20-30 extras)

Minifigures: 8

Price: $49.99 CDN $39.99 USD

Year of Release: 2014

Apologies for the yellowness, that's what I get for taking pictures in minimal lighting.

Anyway, the front of the box shows us most of what we're getting. (except for that green lightsabre which I really wanted).

I really like this little detail so I took a close up.

The back shows us some more of what we're getting plus a promotion for Yoda Chronicles? I think.

The top of the box displays the complete lineup of figures. There is not anything else notable on the other sides. (apologies for the glare, very glossy box)

The box can be opened one of two ways, the intended way where you open the doors, or you can slide out the entire tray and go to work.

Inside the flap is some sort of Hoth landscape that isn't all that usefull in my opinion.

For those who don't know, the instruction is located inside the panel of the corresponding model.

Day 1; AAT nifty little model which is pretty good for it's size.

Day 2; Super Battle Droid. To be added to the collection.

Day 3:Republic Cannon, we received the larger version of this guy a while ago and the micro model is pretty good as well.

Day 4;Santa Clone Trooper. Where is his helmet you may ask? You'll find out soon enough.

Day 5;Waste of space. Here is the helmet and some extra gear. I really dislike when these things get added in the calendars.

Day 6;Droid Fighter. A slight variation from what we got in 2011 but in blue.

Day 7;E-Web-snowlauncherdealy. I'm starting to like these stud launchers a bit and it's incorporated nicely in here.

Day 8;Snowtrooper, it's nice to see this guy again. Not a big fan of the new version.

Day 9; Jedi Starfighter, look familiar? It should, we got the exact same thing in 2013 but in red.

Day 10;TIE Fighter, a VAST improvement over the 2011 version.

Day 11;TIE Pilot. There are so many variation of these guys I didn't have any others to compare I can't tell if it's new.

Day 12;Landspeeder. Nothing much to say other than it's a good little build.

Day 13;Luke, He's similar to the Millennium Falcon version, but TLC altered him just slightly so now he's NEW!

Comparison to the most recent. New version has back printing.

Day 14;Moisture Vaporator, sticking to the Tatooine theme, we get this piece of scenery.

Day 15;Snowspeeder, hopping on over to Hoth we get this. It looks very odd to me and I can't put my finger on it...

Day 16;Snowspeeder Pilot. Someone has to fly it. TLC, can we just get Hobbie already?

Day 17;Snow Turret Hill, it's better than another supply rack.

Day 18;General Reikkan. A great way to get him if you didn't feel like shelling out $64.99 for the other set he's in. (Is that the Purina logo)?

Day 19;Speeder Bike, a very odd choice of model which doesn't quite work IMO

Day 20; Imperial Shuttle. How many rehashes of micro models have we gotten already?

Day 21;Y-Wing. Speaking of rehashes....

Day 22; R2-XTREE. I always love getting R2 variants.

Day 23; Fireplace. It's a pretty neat concept. Notice the holocron.

Day 24; Santa Vader, waht we've all been waiting for.

No back printing

Extra pieces, mostly just studs. Nothing to fancy.

The whole gang, its quite a random assortment from the movies, usually there is some sort of theme amongst them.

This year we got;

0 models from Ep. I

4 from Ep. II

2 from Ep.III

6 from Ep. IV

5 from Ep. V

2 from Ep.VI

5 random things.

Vader only wanted to celebrate Christmas with his son.

So like I said before, the speeder bike doesn't entirely work.

All in all I rank this my 2nd favourite. 2012 being the best, followed by 2011. The figures are really the standout, (besides the battledroid). The micro models aren't my favourite though. I'd like to see a calendar where all the pieces you get could be combined into something larger instead of smaller less impressive models, but hey, this is aimed at kids who should enjoy this very much. Thanks for reading! See you next year!

[GallardoLU]

just want to point out that on the poll, it should read Mall Santa..... wait no... Maul Santa

[neoconagenda]

Fireplace is neat. Santa Vader is always cool. Thanks for the post!

[TWP]

Ooh well, you forgot the big spoiler alert banner!

[will]

I think Luke is the same as the Cantina version, as far as I can tell anyway.

[DarthBrickus]

Damn, i have had mine sitting around for like months now. Get to December already!

Santa Vader and R2-Tree2 are off the Charts!

[Just The Doctor]

Very nice review, I look forward to getting this!

[Godtshep]

Great review!

Does the new Luke torso work with the old legs?

[WhiteFang]

Updated the topic title for you. Nice review. This is one of my favourite advent for Star Wars.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Well, I'm still going to get it, but I'm annoyed that it's not more Ep-III centric given how the last two calendars went. I'd have loved to have gotten a Wookie and a Clone Pilot for some army-building goodness, along with a Santa Greivous with red and green sabers.

Any word on how this is selling? Last year's calendar cleared out before Thanksgiving and sold for a lot of markup on the secondary market.

[HawkLord]

This one has been in stock at nearly every store I've gone to - lego stores, target, Walmart, toysrus, etc. I think lego may be compensating for the sellout last year. Funny thing is, the 2013 set can still be bought pretty cheap despite the high mark-up (almost $100) just before Christmas last year.

Great review and nice pics. I'm thinking I might open mine sooner than later.

[Venkefedo]

Great review!

Does the new Luke torso work with the old legs?

Looks like it should; the vertical edge of the tunic seems to be in about the same place, there's no belt bleed-over, so I don't see anything to stop it from working.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

This one has been in stock at nearly every store I've gone to - lego stores, target, Walmart, toysrus, etc. I think lego may be compensating for the sellout last year. Funny thing is, the 2013 set can still be bought pretty cheap despite the high mark-up (almost $100) just before Christmas last year.

Maybe, maybe. I stopped at one of my Targets tonight and they had no Star Wars or Friends calendars on the shelf (but they did have spots for them). Still plenty of City calendars. It could be another hot year.

[DarthTwoShedsJackson]

And here I was hoping that we'd get Sabine's helmet in the calendar. Now that'd be great.

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

I hit another one of my Targets today and they were clean out of this set. Could be that they had more in the back, but there were none on the shelf. I recommend grabbing it while you can.

[KopakaFan116]

Great review

Ritz Brick!

It is very in-depth, so I like your style. It makes me even more excited about opening mine on December 1st!

[Manx]

Nice review of a quite good calendar, but I miss a special minifig, like Boba was in previous one ...

[WarSquirrel]

Thanks for this review, I was unsure whether the clone trooper included a helmet or not but now since I know I want to get this

[Blondie-Wan]

Aww, I always like the little equipment racks like the one in Day 5 here. It always surprises me a little to see that others don't, but I gather I'm actually in the minority on this. Ah, well.

Part of me thinks I shouldn't even check out the reviews for the calendars if I'm going to open them myself, but realistically I know I'll forget most of the details of specific days by the time I start on mine, so I shouldn't spoil myself too badly.

Thanks for the review!

[ResIpsaLoquitur]

Aww, I always like the little equipment racks like the one in Day 5 here. It always surprises me a little to see that others don't, but I gather I'm actually in the minority on this. Ah, well.

I think the complaint with the rack tend to be that the weapons could be included with the minifigs and the racks could be replaced with another ship or figure. I will concede that this year's fireplace makes a cute Star-Warsey item which would look festive on the Death Star.

[stephpar]

Love it all. Looks like a blast.

[Huntleyfx]

Interestingly enough, I think this is the first time in an advent calendar where we actually have a proper number of weapons for outfitting the figures.