Day 13 of the LEGO GOTG Advent Calendar begins to try and make amends for the last few days with a Mantis minifigure! Based on the Milano Spaceship from the first Guardians of the Galaxy, there is some excellent part usage here to translate the Milano’s bird-like silhouette to this microscale build. LEGO Marvel 76231 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar launches alongside four other seasonal sets in 75340 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar, 76404 LEGO Harry Potter Advent Calendar, 60352 LEGO CITY Advent Calendar and 41706 LEGO Friends Advent Calendar. No matter your interest, that line-up should have something for everyone to enjoy over the holiday season. The image doesn’t spoil ALL of the contents, but in addition to C-3PO and R2-D2 in ugly christmas sweaters, we also get a beach Darth Vader, Snow Trooper, Battle Droid and a Clone Commander, which looks suspiciously like the one from the UCS Republic Gunship. Eh, Day 13 gives us yet another forgettable build with this Table of Food and Drinks. It’s honestly so boring, and unlike other builds, there’s nothing “Guardians of the Galaxy” about this build.

On the inside of each flap door is a picture of its respective build, which also doubles as your instructions; there is no separate booklet to explain how to put these together. In theory, this means that the single picture must be self-evident enough to convey what is typically depicted in multiple steps. Day 15 is a Candy Cane. That’s it. A large Candy Cane decoration. I guess it’s Christmas after all, and there blow-up Candy Cane decorations in the GOTG Holiday Special, but this could pop out of the City or LEGO Friends Advent Calendar, and it wouldn’t be out of place at all. Even the 3-day ship feels like it should’ve been kept to 2 days at the max, but this has been quite poor, especially when you compare it against the Star Wars, Harry Potter and even Friends Advent Calendars which have largely been excellent. It’s a shame to see that LEGO advent calendars still can’t escape their usual tropes even when based on a source material as vast as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, though it’s only one day in what is otherwise a great variety of models. — LEGO Marvel 76231 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar characters — Endlessly versatile – As the big day approaches, kids can mix different gifts together to recreate favorite scenes and Marvel adventures of their ownHere’s a closer look at the torso, which is a great exclusive, and one of the chief reasons I was looking forward to the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar. Behind each of the Advent calendar’s 24 doors is a daily Marvel gift for kids to discover throughout the December build-up to Christmas. After yesterday’s random candy cane (which I’m informed by many of you is Mantis’ that she stole from Kevin Bacon), Day 16 gives us a Hi-Fi system. It utilises the same cassette tape from the walkman, and also comes with 2 bookshelf speakers.

They're based in convenient locations including supermarkets, newsagents and train stations. Plus they're often open late and on Sundays. Despite multiple days combined into one model and a missing team member, the level of thought and the many references in 76231 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar make it great value, as long as you’re a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Fans of Marvel comics might have preferred a mix of other heroes outside of the Guardians of the Galaxy, though to be fair the name of the set makes it very clear that this isn’t going to be the case over the 24 days. I really hope Day 13 improves, as this has been a really hit and miss Advent Calendar, with more misses than hits! I love what they’ve done with the wings, which can be fanned out at different angles, and just how sleek this ship looks. It’s pretty much perfect, and I’m so glad that we finally get a build worth getting this excited for.This margic Marvel Advent calendar is the perfect pre-Christmas gift for youngsters with 6 superhero figures

Take a walk down memory lane and relive the 2021 LEGO Marvel Avengers Advent Calendar to see what we got last year! We’re here on the final day, and to close us off, we have an exclusive Christmas Sweater Drax pop out of Day 24’s window! On Day 9, we get an extremely festive and fun minifigure with Nebula in an ugly Christmas sweater! She also has a wrapped present, but the highlight is her Christmas sweater which has a crude Thanos knitted into it, as well as what I believe are Infinity Stone baubles on each side.

Rating

This year, we have a special twist with the Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar, which is a direct tie-in to the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, which is now streaming on Disney+ The Mining Pod has previously made an appearance in the first wave of GOTG sets, 76020 Knowhere Escape Mission and the Escape Pod was from 76102 Thor’s Weapon Quest, in case you’re wondering where these little pods are from. The holiday season is fast approaching, and that means new LEGO Advent Calendars! New for 2022, we now have our very first detailed look at two new sets – 76231 Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar and 75340 Star Wars Advent Calendar, which should be released on 1 September 2022, as is tradition.