Advent 2016

Another year, another set of LEGO Advent Calendars. Once more this year we have three: 60133 City Advent Calendar, 41131 Friends Advent Calendar, and 75146 Star Wars Advent Calendar. But new this year there is another option, a 24-in-1 set 40222 Christmas Build Up, so on top of the usual City, Friends, and Star Wars calendars, I was also building a Build-Up model each day, plus designing my own MOC from the leftover parts! Instructions for all the MOCs are in a separate post. As usual, each post was originally a separate blog entry, starting with Day 1, and continuing with a daily post about that day’s advent models. However, to clean up the site, I’ve condensed all those daily posts to a single post per year. Here’s the 2016 edition.

Day 1

In Friends, we get a mini doll with a festive green sweater:

Star Wars has a mini model of Boba Fett’s ship, the Slave I:

And in City, we get not just one but two snowpeople:

For the Christmas Build-Up set, we get a large assortment of bricks but we will have to take the models apart each day in order to build the next one. So here’s the model for Day 1:

After I built that, I doodled with the leftover parts and came up with a bust of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer:

Here’s a photo of my camera setup.

The CowboyStudio 30-Inch Light Box is a great way to take photos, giving a nice way to diffuse the light. The lights are Julius Studio LED lamps and tripods and the camera is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-G5 with a Panasonic H-FS045200 45-200 zoom lens. I bought the camera in 2012 so there are much better ones available now, but this one is still serving me well.

Day 2

Two minifigs today (City and Star Wars) and some ice skates (Friends). The Christmas Build Up set gives us a reindeer, and I used the leftover parts to build a little snowman MOC.

The City model is a female firefighter with … an electric guitar?!?! That seems kind of random. Comes with spare visor.

In Star Wars, we get another figure with a blaster (and a spare).

The Friends model is a little stool for trying on ice skates, and two pairs of skates, with one extra skate and an extra flower.

So the natural thing is to put the skates on the two figures:

Here are all the models together:

Meanwhile the Christmas Build Up model for today is a reindeer. I was able to build it entirely until the last two steps without having to disassemble the previous day’s models. I needed the eyeballs from my Rudolph, and the dark grey 1×4 plate from the little boat, but otherwise didn’t need any parts from those models.

I used some of the leftover parts from the Christmas Build Up box to build a little snowman:

Day 3

A little mailbox (Friends), a microphone on a stand with an amp (City), and a TIE Fighter (Star Wars). The Building Up to Christmas set gives us a little gift and I used leftover parts to design a puppy.

The Friends mailbox:

Because of the angled piece used in the “wings” of the TIE Fighter, the model wants to sit nose-down, which I really didn’t like, so I mounted it on a transparent dome piece:

Here are all three models together:

I got together the band members from the previous two days and set them up with the mic and amp:

Day 3’s Christmas Build Up model is a simple box shaped Christmas present. It didn’t use any of the parts from Day 2’s model, but I had used the 3×3 white plate in my snowman yesterday.

I used the leftover parts from today’s model to build this cute little puppy:

Day 4

Another musical firefighter, this time blowing a horn, for City; a weird little bush with a burning candle for Friends; and a mean looking guy with a gun for Star Wars. The Christmas Build Up set model for today is a cute monkey, and I built a jet fighter with the leftover parts.

Our guitar wielding firefighter from before (oh I get it, she has an AXE!) is joined by a horn blowing companion.

In Friends, we get this weird little build with a bush and some red flowers, and a candle with a flame.

The Star Wars model is a guy with a helmet that reminds me of the one Mel Brooks wore in Spaceballs, and a blaster gun. It’s shaping up to be a pretty violent Life Day.

Here are all three models together.

Meanwhile the Christmas Build Up model for Day 4 is a cute little monkey. I didn’t peek ahead when I built the dog in Day 3, I swear! It didn’t use any of the parts from the gift I built yesterday, but it did of course use a lot of parts from the dog.

Here is a view of the backside of the monkey.

With the leftover parts, I built a fighter jet.

Here is the back of the fighter.

Day 4 ran a little late; the lights I use for photos are battery-powered and apparently I’d left them on after the previous day’s shoot. (In the true spirit of Advent Calendars I didn’t build the models ahead of time, just built and shot them on the actual day, so sometimes that meant a bit of a delay.)

Day 5

A firefighting snowmobile (City), another figure with a festive holiday sweater (Friends), and a micro scale Ion Cannon from the ice planet Hoth (Star Wars). On the Christmas Build Up side of things, we get a little snow shovel truck, and I built a turkey.

Here is the snowmobile. It comes with a fire extinguisher. I especially like the way they simulated the drive treads on the back.

Finally we get another Friends figure; the other two calendars have had two each so now we are caught up.

More evidence of a hostile Life Day this year – rebel defensive guns from the Empire Strikes Back.

Here are all three Advent models together.

Now over to Christmas Build Up, where we have a snowplow truck. This time I did have to take apart the previous day’s model (monkey) as well as my MOC to get the parts to build it.

And with the leftover parts we have a turkey … gobble gobble! I used the brick separator as a tail.

Here’s a rear view of the turkey.

Day 6

A snowplow for the snowmobile (City), a cute little animal and its habitat (Friends), a snow trooper (Star Wars), and a chimney with stocking (Build Up). I also built a one-horse open sleigh with leftover parts from the Build Up set.

Here’s the City model – bet you were wondering why there was a ball socket on the front of that snowmobile!

Our horn playing fireman clearing snow.

On Friends we get a cute little animal – maybe a hamster or guinea pig? – and a nice little habitat with a vegetable for it to gnaw on and a water dispenser.

Here’s a close up of the little guy.

And a side view.

We continue the violent leadup to Life Day in Star Wars with the snow trooper from Empire Strikes Back. The scale is WAY off from Day 5’s Ion Cannon – is it selective compression?

He’s got a printed tile on his backpack that I haven’t seen before.

Here are all the Advent models together.

Meanwhile in Christmas Build Up we get a hearth. I didn’t get very far before I had to take apart Day 5’s model to get parts.

With the leftover parts I cobbled together a One Horse Open Sleigh, as in the Jingle Bells song.

Rear view of the sleigh.

Update 12/8: I realized too late I had forgot to include the spare parts with the Friends and Star Wars model photos, so I took one more photo:

Day 7

Things are getting a little weird. We get a couple of weird holiday decorations (Friends and City) and an Imperial snowball launching snowman (Star Wars). In the Christmas Build Up we get a nice little airplane and I built a micro scale gingerbread house.

Here is the Friends model, a sort of fireplace I guess?

The City model is certainly a holiday themed decoration, a wreath on some sort of furniture or architectural detail?

Star Wars is getting truly weird. We get a snowman with a droopy red nose and an Imperial helmet with a snowball cannon.

Here are all three Advent models together.

Here’s the Christmas Build Up model, a little airplane (though I think my MOC from the other day was better). I had to take apart the previous day’s model right away to reuse the 1×1 clear plate.

With leftover parts, I built a tiny little gingerbread house.

The roof is carefully balanced on the house, as I couldn’t think of a clever way to attach it using the available parts. There’s a 1×1 brick with a stud on one side holding the two roof parts together, but it just sits on top of the house.

Day 7 ran a day late too; that’s the risk of refusing to build them a day early like some bloggers do… I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone building along each day before reading the blog.

Day 8

An ice hockey player (City), some snacks (Friends), and a laser cannon (Star Wars). Christmas Build Up gives us a weird creature (mouse?), and I built a fire truck.

The hockey player from City is all set to play:

We get milk, a jelly doughnut, and a carrot for Friends:

The Star Wars model is a laser cannon. Every Star Wars model so far has been either an armed spaceship, a guy with a gun, or a weapon turret like this one. Life Day is going to be a blood bath this year.

And here are all the Advent Calendar models:

For the Christmas Build Up set, this time we get a strange little creature.. at first I thought it was a cat, but the round ears suggest mouse. Given that I recently had a couple of unwanted housemates of the mouse persuasion (which I evicted and relocated to a nearby golf course), I’m not too happy with mice in general.

Here is the backside. The tail isn’t very mouselike.

I used leftover parts this time to build a fire truck.

A
showing the rear of the truck.

Day 9

A hockey goal (City), a stage with mic (Friends), and a snow rebel with a gun (Star Wars). In Christmas Build Up we get a candy cane, and I built a moose with leftover parts.

Here’s the hockey goal from City. I like the use of the lattice fence to attach to studs – it is a technique I learned when I was a small child from the 362 Windmill set, but I thought that LEGO designers weren’t allowed to use this as it doesn’t fit the normal geometry rules.

Here we have Day 8’s hockey player lining up to score a goal.

In Friends, we get what I can only assume is a partial model, looks like a stage with a turntable on it.

I’ve gathered together the musicians from earlier to dress up today’s model.

Another day, another Star Wars model with a gun. Well it is called Star Wars after all. I think this is a Rebel from the Ice Planet Hoth.

Here’s the laser turret from Day 8 being manned by Day 9’s figure.

Here are all three Advent models together:

Meanwhile Christmas Build up gives us this candy cane:

while I used the leftover parts to build a moose:

Here’s another angle on the moose.

Day 10

A piano or organ (Friends), an ice hockey goalie (City), a micro scale Venator-class Star Destroyer (Star Wars), and another mysterious little animal (Build Up). I built a MOC of an aquarium fish.

We start with Friends, extending the musical theme with a piano (organ?).

Here one of the dolls puts it through its paces. Chopsticks or Chopin?

Meanwhile City continues the ice hockey theme with another player, this one I am saying is the goalie because of the face mask.

Here she defends the goal from our other player’s attack.

In Star Wars we get the Venator class Star Destroyer from the prequel movies.

Here is a rear
of the ship. It’s a great little model.

Here are all three models together.

In Christmas Build Up, I’m going to say this is a hamster, but I’m really not sure. I disagree with the closed eye, I think it’s upside down.

Rear view of the little guy.

For the MOC today I started building a fish, but couldn’t figure out how to get the tail to work well, so I gave up and decided to build a little aquarium castle for it to be coming out of. The color scheme reminds me of an Italian flag but that’s what parts I had to work with.

Here is a side view of the fish and its castle.

This rear
shows how the fish is attached.

Close up of the fish – I used a closed eye on the other side, oriented (in my opinion) correctly.

Day 11

A bare bones Christmas tree (City), guitar on a stand (Friends), and one of those prequel hover tanks (Star Wars). The Christmas Build Up model for today is a proper Christmas tree, and I used leftover parts to build a mouse.

Here’s the City model, which is kind of a Charlie Brown type Christmas tree.

Friends continues the musical theme with an electric guitar and a stand to display it on:

Today’s Star Wars model is a neat little micro version of one of those hover tanks from the prequel movie we all want to forget.

Here are the three Advent models together.

In Christmas Build Up, we get this neat little Christmas tree:

And I used leftover parts to build a mouse that is a little more realistic (though still not very) compared to the other models of rodents we’ve been building.

Here’s a side
of my mouse.

Day 12

Can you believe we’re halfway through already? Only 12 more days until Christmas! A festive lamppost (City), an assortment of kitchen utensils (Friends), and a Droid Gunship (Star Wars).

This is a lovely little Christmas themed lamppost in City.

The Friends model for today is their usual baggie of kitchen stuff.

According to today’s FBTB Spampocalypse! entry this is a Droid Gunship, but I didn’t recognize it. I’m really a terrible Star Wars geek, especially outside the original trilogy.

Here are all three models.

Today’s Christmas Build-Up model is a very cute micro scale suburban house.

I made a rattlesnake with the leftover parts.

Day 13

Into the second half now, with some military looking dude with a remote control (City), two chairs and a low table with some cupcakes (Friends), and a battle droid (Star Wars); in Christmas Build Up we have a cute little robot, and for some reason I made a vacuum cleaner.

Not sure what this guy is supposed to be .. demolitions expert maybe? He’s got some kind of remote control that seems ominous to me and the torso has a military type feel to it…

Here’s the back of the figure; there’s printing on the back of the torso.

For Friends we get a nice little table and chairs. Feels like the set of a talk show to me.

Star Wars gives us an armed (of course) battle droid.

Here are the three models together.

And here the two figures sit down for a snack. Well one of them gets a snack anyway.

The Christmas Build Up model for Day 13 is pretty simple, but very cute (and doesn’t require taking apart Day 12’s model) – a tiny robot.

Now I don’t know what I was thinking but for some reason I decided to build a vacuum cleaner with googly eyes.

Here it is without the eyes.

from the side…

…and the back.

Day 14

Two mini models today – a helicopter (City) and a Jedi fighter (Star Wars) – and a little tea set (Friends). Christmas Build Up gives us a cute kitty kat, and I used leftovers to build a Christmas tree.

Here’s the helicopter for City. Perhaps that’s what Day 13’s minifig was doing with a remote control – it’s a drone!

In Friends we get a tea set to go with Day 13’s chairs.

The Star Wars model is a nice mini Jedi fighter.

Here are the three models together.

To build the kitty I had to take apart Day 13’s robot, as they both use the same brick to hold the eyes. I don’t like these closed eyes oriented this way, but this is how they said to build it. I would turn them around 180 degrees. As for the tail, the instructions show it pointing straight back, but if a cat is happy it should be pointing up.

[Note: I realized on the 23rd that I had accidentally started building models off by one day, starting at Day 14. I accidentally built model #15 on the 14th, and continued off by one until I discovered myself building the final model! This should have been the Day 15 model, but I built it a day early. To make up for it, I built the Day 14 model on the 23rd and added a correction on each of the days from 14-23. Sorry about the mistake!]

With the leftovers I built this Christmas tree with presents arrayed at its base.

Day 15

A little kiosk (City), a camera (Friends), and a Rebel Blockade Runner (Star Wars); in the Christmas Build-Up we get a cute steam train, and I built a pug dog.

The City model is a kiosk with what I can only assume is bulletproof glass. Wonder what they’re selling?

Friends gives us a camera, in that all-black color scheme that Friends is so not famous for. Clever idea using that piece for a tripod quadropod?.

The Star Wars model is finally something I recognize from the original movies! The Rebel Blockade Runner from the opening scene of Episode IV. “Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope.” It’s a nice design, especially the rockets.

Here are the three models together.

For Christmas Build-Up we get a steam locomotive delivering some Christmas trees :)

[Note: This is actually the Day 16 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

With leftover parts from that I built a pug dog. My second dog MOC out of this series, and I don’t even like dogs! At least LEGO parts don’t bite, drool, or bark.

Here’s the back end of the pug.

Day 16

A nice little airplane (City), a table with some scissors (Friends), a silver C-3PO (Star Wars), and a cute micro scale castle (Build Up). I built an owl with leftover parts.

The City model is a cute little airplane, continuing the micro aviation subtheme.

The wings are made using this 3-way piece which I thought was a brilliant idea … the OCD in me wants to rebuild and reshoot the photo with the piece aligned more symmetrically, but the lazy in me seems to be winnning the battle.

For Friends, we get a table with scissors and a baby bottle?

Star Wars gives us C-3PO in his silver/grey color from before he was gold plated.

Here are the three Advent models together.

For Christmas Build Up we make this lovely little castle – one of my favorites yet.

[Note: This is actually the Day 17 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

I used leftover parts to build an owl.

Just like the real thing his head can rotate around to face back.

Day 17

Another kiosk (City), a couple of gifts (Friends), and a walking droid (Star Wars). In Christmas Build Up we get… I have no idea. But I built a wishing well with leftover parts from it.

The City model continues the kiosk theme from Day 16.

Friends gives us two little gifts – one with a bow and one with a pair of pink sunglasses. The lids are printed inverse tiles, which is something I haven’t seen before.

This cute little waddling droid from Star Wars is a nice build, and I especially like the large number of hollow-stud 1×1 round plates – 4 grey and 3 black (plus one extra of each)!

Here are the three models together.

Now for Christmas Build Up I have no clue what this is. Some kind of elf maybe?

[Note: This is actually the Day 18 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

With leftover parts I built this wishing well.

Day 18

Day 18 is 75% of the way to Christmas! Have you done all your shopping? Anyway today City gives us a cookie baking firefighter, Friends gives us a Christmas tree, Star Wars gives us a nanoscale model of Jabba’s Palace, and the Build Up model is a micro scale van. I used leftover parts to make a bunny wabbit.

This firefighter is equipped for dealing with a lot more smoke than you usually get baking cookies.

Here’s a nice Christmas tree from the Friends set.

This is a great little nano scale model of Jabba the Hutt’s hut.

Here’s the three models together.

The Christmas Build Up set today was a microscale van.

[Note: This is actually the Day 19 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

And finally here’s the model I came up with using the leftover parts – a bunny wabbit.

Day 19

On Day 19, we open up the Advent calendars to find an oven (City), a record player (Friends), and Luke Skywalker in black (Star Wars). The Christmas Build-Up model for today is a cute dragon, and I built a biplane with leftover parts.

We start with the City model, an oven. It has a cookie sitting out (cooling?) and a white cylinder (glass of milk?) so I guess we just baked a cookie for Santa.

In Friends we get a record player. I suppose the lever is the arm of the record player but the instructions don’t indicate it should be bent down. There is an extra lever and a pair of party hats also provided as a part of the model, and since these are small parts, a bonus of the hats and the extra lever is also given, which is an awful lot of loose parts – typical Friends. I don’t understand why they gave us an extra record player arm, much less the bonus one.

Star Wars gives us Luke Skywalker in all black, with one black hand. The lightsaber hilt is a small part so we get a bonus one.

Here are all three models together.

Christmas Build-Up gives us this little dragon, probably my favorite of all the models they have included in this set.

[Note: This is actually the Day 20 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

Here is another
of the dragon so you can see the scales on his back and tail.

With leftover parts I built this biplane. Given how much of the green parts ended up in the dragon I was surprised to find that I had enoguh leftover to use as airplane wings. I’d prefer to use all one color for the fuselage instead of two shades of grey, but that’s what I had to work with.

Rear view of the plane.

Day 20

Day 20 is here already! Today we get gifts from City, a BBQ from Friends, a speeder bike from Star Wars, and a sleighload of gifts from Christmas Build Up. I used leftover parts to build a little black kitten.

For the City calendar we get a couple of gifts.

Friends gives us a barbecue grill with a turkey leg (and a spare one).

Today’s Star Wars model is a speeder bike.

Here are the three models together.

Day 20’s Christmas Build-Up model is a sleigh laden with gifts. I didn’t need to take apart Day 19’s model until the very last step, to make the lime green gift which needed the 1×2 plate from the dragon’s face.

[Note: This is actually the Day 21 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

With leftover parts, I made a little black kitten.

Another angle on the kitten.

Day 21

Happy Winter Solstice everyone! Day 21 gives us a Christmas Tree (City), something weird (Friends), a stormtrooper (Star Wars), and two little birds (Christmas Build Up). I built a larger bird with the leftover parts.

The City model is a nice Christmas tree.

I have no idea what the Friends model is…. propane cylinder and fire extinguisher maybe to go with Day 20’s BBQ? Plenty of leftover parts too.

Stormtrooper. I’ve seen nothing to dissuade my Life Day bloodbath prediction.

Here are all three models together.

For Christmas Build Up we build two tiny little birds. Cute, but this exact design has appeared in a number of LEGO sets, and it’s not using much of the parts available.

[Note: This is actually the Day 22 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

Rear view of the birds.

To prove they didn’t use the parts very effectively I built a larger bird using the leftover parts.

Rear view of my bird.

Day 22

Today is Day 22 and we get a dog and its feed trough (City), a table (City), an Imperial Shuttle (Star Wars), and a snowman (Build-Up). With the leftover parts I built a green lizard.

One of the nicest LEGO dogs they’ve made, this looks like an Alaskan Malamute.

This table is pretty basic and unexciting, hopefully something nice will go on it in Day 23.

This is a pretty nice micro model of an Imperial Shuttle from Star Wars.

Here are the three Advent models.

The Christmas Build-Up model today is a rather odd looking (IMHO) snowman.

[Note: This is actually the Day 23 model (off-by-one, see Day 14).]

I used leftover parts from the snowman to build this green lizard with red spikes along its spine.

Here’s a side/rear
of the lizard.

Day 23

Day 23 of the Advent calendars – just one more to go – gives us two sleighs (City and Star Wars) and a snowman (Friends).

[Note: For Christmas Build Up, I realized today I screwed up a week ago and each model since the 14th has been off by one day! So today I made up for it by building Day 14, and then used leftovers to build a MOC of a kid on a sled.]

Today’s City model is a sleigh, ready to be shackled to a horse or reindeer….

Friends gives us a nice snowman. I like the idea of using the truncated cone for the base and the use of skeleton legs as arms.

Star Wars brings us another sled, this time using hockey sticks for runners, and presumably powered by the Force.

Here’s the three models together.

When it comes to the Christmas Build-Up model, I have an embarrassing confession to make. I realized today that I had accidentally started building models off by one day, starting at Day 14. I accidentally built model #15 on the 14th, and continued off by one until today when I discovered myself building the final model! To make up for it, I’m building the Day 14 model on the 23rd and posting a correction on each of the days from 14-23. Sorry about the mistake!

So Day 14 should have been this model, a cute little bridge:

At least I think it’s a bridge, but the rear
shows green instead of blue below it.

My model made with the leftover parts is yet another sled, but I swear I built it before even looking at the City and Star Wars models! I guess it’s just a sledapalooza day. This one is a different scale though, and has a rider.

Rear view of the sled.

Day 24

Merry Christmas! It’s December 24th, the last day of the Advent Calendars, and Christmas Eve. Our final entries are Santa Claus (City), a baby polar bear stalking a fish (Friends), and Snowbacca (Star Wars). The final model from Christmas Build-Up is also Santa Claus, with an assortment of gifts. I built a sleigh and Rudolph with the leftover parts.

The City model is a minifigure of Santa Claus, always a good way to finish up an Advent Calendar.

The Friends model is cute, but I was disappointed they gave us this for the final entry instead of something more explicitly Christmassy. It’s a baby polar bear watching a fish jumping out of a hole in the ice.

Star Wars gives us another minifigure, which I’ll call Snowbacca – it’s Chewbacca but cast in all white, with red and green ammunition on his bandolier, armed with his famous crossbow but this one, new to me at least, actually shoots! It uses the same mechanism as the shooters introduced a couple years ago, except this time you put the ammunition in horizontally. And it’s a snowball. I’ve been saying all along that Star Wars Advent was gearing up to a violent Life Day, so it is suitable that Chewbacca is the last model.

(You have seen the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, haven’t you? If not, don’t bother. Really. It’s that bad. It used to be available on YouTube but it looks like Disney recently had it taken down, which is a holiday gift we should all be grateful for.)

Here are the three Advent models.

Our final entry in the Christmas Build-Up models is appropriately enough, also Santa Claus, with a few gifts for the good children.

I used leftover parts to build a sleigh pulled by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I used black dots for his eyes because the eyeball tiles were already taken by Santa, and I didn’t think Rudolph the visibility aid should be blind or with closed eyes.

Here’s another angle of the sleigh and reindeer.

This gallery has all the photos from these advent calendars and MOCs.