I thoroughly enjoyed the Castle Advent Calendar last year, so when I heard there was going to be a Star Wars one, I had to have it. I was a little worried that the mix of mini (micro?) vehicles and minifigs would not mesh as well as other Calendars, but Lego did a great job of relating them to each other. All the mini vehicles are as spot on as possible given the size (and cost) restraints and most of the minifigures are pilots related to the vehicles. Even the mini-fig accessory gifts are decent and useful to a collection. I for one like the mecho-chair for Nute Gunray. As you can see from my brick ratings, I definitely found this Calendar better than the sum of its parts.

I have still seen this set on clearance at local stores and I definitely recommend picking it up and saving it for next year if you didn't get it this year. It looks like it will be better than next year's offering.

Okay, wow. It has been quite a while since my last review. Anyways, this is a fabulous set. I picked it up at the Mall of America yesterday, and (despite its model-a-day setup) I built every one of the models. For those of you who do not want to know what the models are, skip to the bottom of the review, where you will find a review of the non-secretive aspects of this set.

For those of you who really don't care about the models staying a secret, I will detail each of the days.

SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT IF SUPRISE IS EVERYTHING!

Day 1- Mini Republic Cruiser- As seen in The Phantom Menace. That bright red ship in the beginning of the first movie that made a awesome target for a Separatist laser cannon. It makes a great mini.

Day 2- Nute Gunray- Pretty rare minifigure. Only available in this set and the Separatist Shuttle. Love the hat :-D. The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith is where you can see this guy.

Day 3- Um...Half a four-legged destroyer droid? No, I am fairly certain that this is the walking chair for Nute Gunray, as seen in The Phantom Menace. I wish it was the Lego chair piece, instead of the 2x2 round piece. Oh well.

Day 4- Mini Homing Spider Droid- Another decent mini. I had to take a second look at it to make sure it was the Homing Spider Droid, as seen in Attack of the Clones, probably The Clone Wars (I don't know, I have only seen the movie, and part of a couple episodes), and, correct me if I am wrong, Revenge of the Sith. Great mini, not one of my favorites, though.

Day 5- One of my two favorites, the mini Slave I. I know, I know, its so unoriginal. How many mini versions of this ship have been made? Three? But, it is Boba Fett's ship. Of course its awesome. The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi for you non-Star Wars fans.

Day 6- Chewie! Not too much more to say. Hard to find in sets under 50 USD. He stars in Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. Great to have another "walking carpet." :-D

Day 7- A tool barrel holding a wrench and hammer, and a sideways clip holding a crossbow. I can only assume the crossbow is for Chewie. Not black as pictured on the box. A chrome, similar to the Kingdoms' weapons and helmets. A nice little extra that is not in any movie I know of (Star Wars or otherwise).

Day 8- A Rebel Alliance pilot. Identical to Zev Senesca, but with no markings on the helmet. Just plain white. All right! A "new" pilot other than the named ones. Pilots like this one are commonly seen in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

Day 9- Probably the largest of the minis (wow, wasn't that helpful?) the X-wing Fighter. Pretty good mini, but I can't help feel that the other mini versions may be better (I don't know, this is my only mini X-wing). Ditto to the movies listed under day 8.

Day 10- Mini Imperial Shuttle- A nice little shuttle. From the front and back it looks great. Side view, not so much. Return of the Jedi was where this craft was commonly seen.

Day 11- Pilot Battle Droid- Blue-torso with some beige markings. For a Battle Droid, not bad. Includes a blaster, which is a plus. These droids were given fleeting glimpses in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, and, I am only guessing, The Clone Wars.

Day 12- Snow Speeder- Not as good as the one in the mini AT-ST and Snow Speeder combo from way back when. The wings are not sloped at all, giving it a not-quite-right shape. Still not bad, though. Brave pilots flew these in The Empire Strikes Back against the Imperial AT-ATs.

Day 13- A black astromech droid. Very rare. This guy is great to have for any ship with an astromech droid socket. I cannot remember any specific movie scene with a droid like this, but there probably is one like this somewhere in the series.

Day 14- Mouse Droid- This little one appears in the a couple of sets, but I know that at least in the Star Destroyer set the colors were slightly different. Either way, not a bad little droid. Episodes IV, V, VI are the episodes that one can see a droid like this.

Day 15- My other favorite mini: Mini Republic Gunship. Nicely made, with great building techniques. It looks spot on. Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Clone Wars are where one can commonly see these amazing Republic ships.

Day 16- Clone Pilot- Standard Clone Wars pilot. One oddity: His head is solid black, like many Stormtroopers, and Episode II and III Clones. Not bad. I love sets with Clones, especially when they have color!

Day 17- Weapons holder. The weapons that are available a green lightsaber, two middle-sized blasters, and electrobinoculars. Again, not specific to a movie, but certainly welcome. No Star Wars Clone or Droid shall go unarmed!

Day 18- Mini Y-wing- I cannot be sure as to whether this is a Classic trilogy (episodes IV, V, VI) or Clone Wars Y-wing. Either way, it is a great mini.

Day 19- TIE pilot- A great minifig that can be found in the TIE Interceptor set. The newer helmet is nice, though perhaps a little bulky. Episodes IV, V, and VI are where these guys can be seen as they seek to destroy the Rebel Alliance.

Day 20- Mini TIE Fighter- Probably my least favorite of the minis. It is a simple set made up of 7 pieces. The way it looks is fine, but in some ways, it just strikes me as a little too simple. Episodes IV, V, and VI are where these ships can be seen exploding.

Day 21- Mini Millennium Falcon- A nice, compact design. However, my main complaint would be the lack of a printed dish. This probably would have catapulted it to be my top favorite. As it is, it is average. Need I say what episodes it is in? (To you new fans episodes IV, V, VI).

Day 22- Mini A-wing- Interesting in its design. Average. Because of the original design of the ship, there is not too much to say. Return of the Jedi is where this ship is highlighted.

Day 23- In a galaxy far, far away we have... A Christmas tree? Oh, that's right. This is an Advent set. The Christmas tree is a good design. I am looking forward to putting it on my Star Wars shelf and having friends ask about the random Christmas tree.

Day 24- So, who brings gifts to all of the good little children? Well...Yoda...Claus. When my sister saw this figure, that is what she dubbed it. Yoda Claus is a wonderful figure, with a 2011 backpack (seen in many of the City sets) with gifts tucked inside. He also includes his standard walking stick. Seeing Yoda dressed in red, with a candy cane tucked in his belt, brings a whole new dimension to Star Wars. You won't see this in a movie, folks!

ALL RIGHT, SPOILER REPORT IS OVER!

Well that review was a lot longer than I anticipated. For those of you who who did not read the spoiler report, I salute you. For those of you who did, I would have too :-D. As to the other, not-so-secret aspects of this set.

The Box

The box is as pictured here on Brickset, however, my box features a string of Christmas lights between the Captain Rex and the pictures of some of the Lego surprises.

The Instructions

Instructions for this unusual set are printed on the inside flaps of each individual box. One picture each, which for some of the models could prove a challenge for younger children.

While this Star Wars set does not show the true meaning of Christmas, it is a great set with great pieces and figures. It is well-worth the money.

Your humble servant,

Z

Advent calendar isn't really a set I could write about much. There are a few neat mini models such as X-wing or Slave I, and a few that are completely pointless, like weapons stand or Nute Gunrays walking chair, or whatever it is. Personally, I wouldn't buy this set for myself, maybe because I enjoy challenging build, which this set lacks. However I got it without any special occasion from my girlfriend, so I was quite happy about it. It made a perfect foretaste before buying a Venator cruiser :)

Thank you Lego, its true ,you do listen to the fans and for about 5 years they have been screaming "Lego star wars ad calender!" and its finally here! I enjoyed this set allot every 24 days of it. The mini sets were amazingly detailed (for a mini set!) and knew everyday towards Christmas i would wake up to an amazing gift.

Box/Instructions

The box was truly brilliant with 3d pictures and glossy outside. The colours were great and stood out the box, with the doors clearly marked of the days up to Christmas, which was taken in a traditional way with only 24 doors. The instructions were on the backs of the doors and were quite small, and as an experienced builder found it quite hard to figure out which piece went where, but i did do it in the end.

Parts

In every door of opening i found a couple spare pieces which was good and the pieces in there can be made into allot of different builds of your choice. there was adleast 10-15 in each door so was a good piece count.

Minifigures

The minifigures were somewhat rare is some eyes but i could see some flaws with them, like some printing missing and back of the torso printing missing but its mostly good for any collection. and the last door had the Yoda "Santa" figure and i thought he had some great detail.

The build

The building of the small models was much fun for the upcoming days to Christmas and i loved every second. They were good builds but were quite hard as i said in the "Box/Instructions" paragraph

The completed model

To put all the models together was a good experience as there is allot of play ability with them and they look very detailed and easily recognized iconic ships and figures.

Summary

I completely loved the advent calender and hope they have one next year and if you missed out this year, Get it next year!

It was 24 long days before Christmas in december and Iam so glad that I purchased this advent calendar.

The parts and playability from the models is very high and good especially for a 24 day advent calendar. For £24.99, the advent calendar is quite expensive for what it is but most of the days have excellent models.

Day 1/ Republic frigate, an excellent mall rendition of the full size Frigate, 9/10

Day 2, Nute Gunray, A fairly well designed figure however an exact copy of the seperatist shuttle model, 8/10,

Day 3, Meccano chair, a device separatists use however unfortunately despite being a accesserie for day 2's model seems rather boring in a way, 2/10.

Day 4, Spider Droid, an astounding micro scale version of the set which is exact to detail to the original full size one which came out in 2008, 10/10

Day 5, Slave I, An excellent represenation of the iconic slave I model which has been done in micro scale very well and even has movign wings, 10/10

Day 6, Chewbacca, a rather nice and fundamental figure from the original films however is a figure far from rarity and is perhaps now in request of a revamp, 6/10.

Day 7, Chewie accesserie, Nothing special on it's own however accompanies chewwie very well from day 6, 6/10.

Day 8, Dack Ralter, a figure who has not appeared much in the series and is a great addition to the calendar and also variating from previous models, 8/10.

Day 9, X-wing starfighter, despite it's frequent amount of mini remakes it's a model masterpiece which even has a micro R2 D2 included as well as accurate wing detail, 10/10.

Day 10, Imperial Shuttle, not quite as good as previous calendar mini models but still of a fairly good standard and good addition to the X-wing to play, 7/10.

Day 11, Blue Battle Droid, Despite being a very common figure in recent star wars sets, the blue one makes this one slightly rarer as it has not appeared in a few sets and goes well with Nute gunray from day 2, 7/10.

Day 12, Snow Speeder, Yet another excellent mini model which incorpates all other mini sets very well, 9/10.

Day 13, R2-Q5, An excellent droid figure who is a very rare figure having appeared in one set that is now discontinued and another that most lego fans could only dream for at £275. This figure contains a wonderful colour on this astromech droid, 10/10.

Day 14, Mouse droid, a nice little addition who like the astromech droid is very rare however is a very small model and does not offer much for day 14, 7/10.

Day 15, Republic gunship, An outstanding micro model of the gun ship which uses a few small parts but is very effective, 10/10.

Day 16, Clone pilot, You can never have too many clones and unlike droids are much more interesting and this figure is a great addition having not appeared for a while, 9/10.

Day 17, Clone accesseries, A little set of accesseries to accompani the clone trooper. Nothing special but improoves playability in many ways, 6/10.

Day 18, Y wing, A very nice Y-wing micro model which is great to add with the X-wing,10/10.

Day 19, Tie Defender pilot, a figure who is nothing special but has not appeared in many sets. A good and different addition to previous models in the calendar, 7/10.

Day 20, Tie Fighter, An ok model but out of scale from the X& Y wing models and should have been a bit bigger really, 6/10.

Day 21, Millenium Falcon, the 8th version of the set and also the smallest. This set is an excellent micro model of the larger versions of the sets, 10/10.

Day 22, A wing starfighter, a rather plain simple model but is quite affective in what it's presenting, 8/10.

Day 23, Christmas tree, The only model in the calendar with no relation to star wars. But thats barely a bad thing as it is now very close to christmas at this time and all guesses go to who is expected on the last day, 8/10.

Dat 24, Yoda Claus, a new take on a classic figure who is packed with great festive detail and is arguably the best figure in the calendar, 10/10.

Overall score, 8/10, an excellent range of models from the vast majority of days and an excellent calendar. It may be more than the city one but it's much better in model quality and is easily the best advent calendar for christmas 2011.

If you can still find it around for a relistic price, I sugguest to get it. It's your choice as to whether you want to open it all at once or wait til next chirstmas but option B is much more fun!