75213 Star Wars Advent Calendar Review

As per usual, with all three of the 2018 Advent Calendars, I’ll be updating this post daily. Each day will have an image of the day’s build, a quick comment, with a final overall review at the end of the month. If you want to keep up to date with the post, use the link to the right of the page – it’ll be there for the duration of December. I won’t be posting any pics on social media, so it won’t get spoilt by me!

Theme: Seasonal; Star Wars
No: 75213
Release Year: 2018
Cost: AUD $49.95
Pieces: 307 (with seven minifigures)

It’s such a shame that there are so many spoilers on the box! This happens every single year – I can count 12 of them – that’s half the box spoiled already! C’mon LEGO Advent Calendar designers – at least give us a chance to be surprised. Isn’t that the whole point?

The display stand is once again highly detailed, and shows a Christmas’d up version of Hoth and Jakku.

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Day 1: Landspeeder

We’re off too a flying start, with a Landspeeder. It’s a brilliant rendition of Luke’s craft from Episode IV: A New Hope, with some excellent details. The colours work well together, and it’s a relatively complex build for an Advent Calendar. Happy days!

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Day 2: Rose Tico

We’re on our second day, with our first minifigure, in the form of Rose Tico from Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Remember the maintenance tech that met Finn and then got dragged along in an adventure? Well, here she is in LEGO form. She’s been seen like this already – in 75176 Resistance Transport Pod, but that’s it, so she’s quite rare. She’s got a blaster, and a double sided head, with a standard face on the back – she’s not smiling, but not grumpy either. 

The printing on the torso and legs is highly detailed, but the highlight here for me is that hair! It’s only with Rose, and looks fantastic, with a ponytail! Some people may not like her character, but surely LEGO fans will appreciate a new hairstyle.

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Day 3: The Arrowhead

Ok, this one took a bit of Googling. It’s the Arrowhead, from LEGO Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. To be honest, it’s a really weird and obscure choice. If you’re like me and have absolutely no idea what that is, well it’s a LEGO animated TV series that started on the Disney XD channel in mid 2016. It has been seen before in LEGO form, last year, with 75186 The Arrowhead, so it’s not unique to LEGO, but it comes from a 2016 run of only six sets, so it’s very obscure. I have no idea why they chose to add it in this year’s calendar! You’d think it would have been in 2016’s one. 

I mean, it looks cool, and it’s a fair representation of the ship, but I guarantee there’ll be a lot of confused LEGO fans today!

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Day 4: Republic Fighter Tank

We’re continuing with our brief tour across the Star Wars universe, today stopping in at the Clone Wars, with a Republic Fighter Tank. I’ve never seen the Clone Wars, but it’s a pretty cool looking build. I like the turrets at the top, and I reckon they’ve done pretty well to stick to the original design. It’s difficult at this scale, but it’s well done.

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Day 5: IG-88

Advent Calendar wise, the last time we saw IG-88, the assassin droid sent by Darth Vader to locate Han Solo and capture the Millennium Falcon, was way back in 2015, where he didn’t have a printed head (only a transparent orange stud for a face, surrounded by dark grey studs), and didn’t have any weapons.

This year we get a printed head and a couple of blasters. It’s a great addition to the set! There’s also two full sets of arms – two with vertical hands and two with horizontal hands. I wonder what’s in store tomorrow?

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Day 6: Cloud City & Cloud Car

Now this is good! To celebrate getting a quarter of the way through, we get a stunning microscale Cloud City, complete with a Cloud Car, made from a Technic element. It’s absolutely superb – a favourite of the whole calendar for sure.

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Day 7: Naboo N-1 Starfighter

After yesterday’s awesomeness, they’ve backed it up with this stunning Naboo N-1 Starfighter. It’s one of the prettiest vehicles in the whole Star Wars universe – seen in The Phantom Menace, and a favourite of mine. There’s a ton of detail here, and the colours are spot on.

After two amazing builds, I wonder what will happen tomorrow?

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Day 8: Battle Droid

Bummer. It’s a bit dull for the Star Wars fans today, with a bog standard battle droid. They’re not all that exciting, and I’m still puzzled as to why it has a weapon, when everyone knows it’s terrible at it! They’re good in a big army scene, but by itself, it’s a little disappointing. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

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Day 9: Soulless One

For those of you who aren’t sure what this is meant to be, this is the Soulless One, General Grievous’ custom starfighter. It’s pretty mean, and this LEGO version is a pretty good representation. It’s sleek, with the same colour scheme. Nice job!

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Day 10: Blaster Cannon

Today’s build is a bit of a let down after the last few days. We’ve got a blaster cannon. The playability is there, and we’ve certainly seen worse, but surely there’s something better than a plain blaster cannon? It’s a stud shooter with big handles and a scope. That’s it.

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Day 11: Rowan Freemaker

We’re back with the relatively obscure Freemaker Adventures, with this little guy – Rowan Freemaker. Apparently he’s able to sense the Force, and is a core part of the show. The printing is good, as well as some nice details on the back, of the Freemaker sigil.

Rowan’s got a trans blue lightsaber, and a metallic hilt, which looks good in any collection! It’s not something I know anything about, but he looks pretty good.

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Day 12: Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter

We’re back to The Clone Wars with Anakin’s Jedi Starfighter, and the shaping is fantastic. The colour scheme is spot on, and it’s also not the first time we’ve seen this craft in LEGO form, in fact, it’s the third. There’s been 7669 from 2008, and more recently, 75214 available right now. It’s also great to see a white stud representing R2-D2 as well. Another quality little build, and we’re only halfway!

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Day 13: Imperial Troop Transport

Ouch. This is a bit of a let down. It’s a rather dull Imperial Troop Transport. Grey, blocky and boring. The corner 1×3 plates are kind of cool, and the little cockpit is nice, but that’s it. I certainly hope it’s better tomorrow!

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Day 14: Weapons Rack

It’s a weapons rack. The standard dull inclusion in every Star Wars advent calendar for years. It’s not very interesting, but the rifles are good additions. It’s been worse, but it could definitely be better.

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Day 15: Death Trooper

It’s another minifigure, a Death Trooper, and he looks excellent! I was in a bit of a rush this morning and didn’t take a photo of his face, but the printing and shaping on the helmet is fantastic. Death Troopers were the elite versions of the Stormtroopers, and they haven’t been seen in many sets before, so getting one here is great.

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Day 16: Rathtar

This is interesting! Today’s build is a little Rathtar, those big, dangerous and ugly things that Han was transporting in The Force Awakens. It’s not easy getting these right in microscale form, but I reckon the designers have done reasonably well! It’s something new, and comes with some interesting parts.

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Day 17: Guavian Security Soldier

This is cool! Straight out of The Force Awakens, we get a Guavian Security Soldier, or the Guavian Death Gang Soldier. It’s got some excellent printing on the torso and legs, and that head piece is nothing short of brilliance. It’s pretty imposing. These minifigures have only been seen in one other set – 75180 Rathtar Escape, so it’s superb to get one here.

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Day 18: First Order TIE Fighter

We’ve got another space craft today, and it’s a ripper! A First Order TIE Fighter. It’s a recoloured standard TIE Fighter, and it looks pretty great here. After looking at the image though, I’ve realised I built it wrong! There should be a red stud on one side, and a black on the other, not both. Oops! The wing shaping is perfect, and the colouring is menacing. I like it.

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Day 19: AT-ACT

What a great build! To bring in the final quarter of the Advent Calendars we get a brilliant AT-ACT (All Terrain Armoured Cargo Transport) – the cargo carrying big brother of the AT-AT. We’ve seen this basic design before with  the AT-AT from 2015’s calendar, but it’s still a great design, so why change it! It’s also fairly poseable too, so well done LEGO.

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Day 20: Zeta Class Imperial Shuttle

We’re sticking with Rogue One again today, with a fantastic micro rendition of a Zeta class Imperial Shuttle. It looks absolutely superb, with the tell-tale wings and angled roof of the cockpit. I also like the turrets on the sides. It’s been a solid selection so far! I what we’ll get tomorrow?

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Day 21: Speeder Bike

Sorry for the delay with Day 21’s entry – I was at my work Christmas party until very late last night, and went straight to bed! Day 21 in Star Wars is a brilliantly composed Speeder Bike! The LEGO rendition of this is superb – it’s immediately identifiable, and it’s also great to see the little stand included as well.

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Day 22: Moisture Vaporator Christmas Tree

This is different! It’s a little moisture vaporator dressed up as a Christmas Tree. It’s simple, but I really like it. It’s immediately recognisable as the devices seen on dry planets like Tatooine that collect water vapour. I like the little star on top too. Two more to go before it’s all over for another year!

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Day 23: Antoc Merrick

Today we’ve got a pretty special minifigure, as it’s unique to this set. General Antoc Merrick (Blue Leader) was a pilot in the Battle of Scarif. I absolutely love the printing on his torso and legs, and the details on his face are great. He’s got a blaster, and some stylish hair! One more day – I wonder what we’ll finish with?

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Day 24

Today’s build is simple to finish it off – a Rebel Pilot Snowman. The good thing about this are those two printed elements in the head and helmet, as they’re both unique to the set! The helmet is exciting for Star Wars fans, but the snowman head is exciting for a lot more of us as we can finally have some more detail on our snowmen. It’s a great way to wrap up the calendar for 2018.

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That’s all we’ve got for the calendar this year. The standouts for this calendar have to be the AT-ACT and the microscale Cloud City. There’s a lot more, but they’re the ones I like the most – it’s been a good calendar this year! The let downs have been the weapons rack and the blaster cannon.

What have your favourites been? Any you’d be happy to leave behind?