Star Wars ugly Christmas sweaters! That’s the only reason I bought this set, and I’m only a little bit ashamed to admit it. An undignified squeal may have escaped my lips when I saw it at Costco. Hurry! Make a note of the item number and year, my friend: LEGO 75279 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2020.
For me, it was all about the sweaters, the one of BB-8 in particular. Not for a specific LEGO stop motion project but for the overwhelming cuteness factor.
I don’t care if they’re holiday sweaters; my little LEGO people, minifigures, will be wearing them all winter long.
What’s so special about the sweaters?
- They are super-cute cannot be found in any other sets,
- can be worn by other characters
- can be worn by a character of any skin tone, including black ones, which isn’t always the case, as I’ve explained in a post on black LEGO minifigures,
- make great gifts for Star Wars fans who aren’t LEGO fans, and, sure
- we can use them in a variety of situations in LEGO animations and photos.
Where can you find the sweaters?
Poe Dameron is wearing the BB-8 sweater, and Darth Vader is wearing the Death Star version. Both can be found in the 2020 LEGO® Star Wars™ Advent Calendar. The set number is 75279.
LEGO.com
As of this writing, this set is sold out there, but don’t fret, because you have other options, including:
Amazon
As of this writing, the set is sold out from Amazon-proper, but you can still find it from non-Amazon sellers on Amazon’s site.
Walmart
As of this writing, it’s available online. I bought it in person at Walmart a short while ago. Their numbers are dwindling, but they’re still there for just under $30.00.
Costco
There was a good supply of them as well as the Harry Potter, Friends, and City advent calendars this week, in person, also for just under $30.00.
Target
As of this writing, you can get one online for $31.99.
BrickLink
When I first fell in lust with the BB-8 ugly sweater, I immediately searched for it on BrickLink, which is the largest LEGO marketplace in the world. There was only one Poe Dameron with ugly sweater available, for about $6.50, and it would ship from New Zealand. What would the total be after shipping? I might as well get 6 minifgures of humans plus all the other items for $30.00, right?
Do you know how to use BrickLink? If not, I’ve created a beginner’s guide so you can follow along.
Other Places
I’m sure there are other places to find this set, but these, including the brick-and-mortar LEGO Store, are my haunts. Try Kohl’s, Target, and eBay, knowing that the original price was $39.99 and around $29.00 at Costco and Walmart.
LEGO 75279 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2020
Let’s look at the entire set, shall we?
WARNING
This blogpost is one long spoiler, so if you want to use the advent calendar as intended, stop reading now! Also, since I make brickfilms at a minifig scale, I’m not interested in micro-builds and don’t pay much attention to them.
Advent Calendars
Advent is the period of waiting and preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ.
An Advent Calendar is a calendar used to count down the days until Christmas Day. There are reusable ones made of fabric with pockets that can be filled with pictures, poems, stories, candy, or small gifts. Others are made of cardboard with little windows to be opened daily.
I remember seeing the ones with some kind of writing or picture and a big candy surprise on the last day. That’s when I was a child. Now I see calendars with gourmet candy, wine, and even one for men that includes bison-meat jerky.
In the case of LEGO 75279, each day you open a little door to find either a minifigure or a LEGO build of a starship, or location.
Who is the LEGO 75279 Star Wars Advent Calendar for?
- makers of LEGO stop motion animation in general
- makers of LEGO Star Wars animation in particular
- Star Wars fans
- LEGO fans
- people ages 7 and up
Tie-ins
This set is a tie with the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special streaming on Disney+ and a game, i.e. Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. There are letters on the inside of a number of the flaps you open to reveal the gift of the day. Those letters spell “Life Day,” which is the Wookiee holiday celebrated in the LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special, an animated program. Finally, there’s a sticker on the set box that reveals a code to be used for the game.
PROS
- The ugly sweaters, which are exclusive, printed items—as opposed to stickers, or pieces available in every set.
- This is a fast way to collect a number of minifigures.
- The beautiful background representing Chewbacca’s home planet of Kashyyyk with tall, exotic trees and the Millenium Falcon, decorated for the holidays.
- The background extends under your tiny actors’ feet.
- Built-in storyline ideas include using the sweaters on different characters and having them interact with each other and/or the droids.
- Christmas is the obvious thing to include in a storyline because of the sweaters and the Christmas themed figures: Darth Vader, Poe Dameron, the Gonk Droid, Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Tauntaun, and D-O.
- There’s always the option of a storyline around the carrot if you cannibalize the Gonk Droid.
- If you have enough of your own pieces to recreate the tauntaun, you can have Santa or a Santa equivalent be transported by Rudolf the Red-Nosed Tauntaun and however many of his LEGO tauntaun buddies you can make.
- You could, in theory, make a LEGO video using only the pieces in this set because of the background.
CONS
- No building instructions. For the non-minifigures, there’s a drawing of what the ship or droid is supposed to look like and how the pieces should fit together, but not the step-by-step instructions we expect from LEGO products. Experienced builders on YouTube have had a little bit of trouble with one build in particular: the Millenium Falcon. It’s not terrible, but it’s not a quick, no-brainer, either. A review on Amazon recommends going to LEGO.com and looking up the instructions, but I’ve been unable to locate the ones for this set. I’ll confess: I had trouble with Rudolf, the Red-Nosed Tauntaun.
- Once you open the little doors and remove the LEGO pieces, it’ll be more difficult for the background to lie beautifully flat.
- The beautiful background would need some adjustment if you wanted to use it in your brickfilm because it’s got 24 numbers as well as large minifigures printed on it so, this is . . .
- Not an ideal set for brickfilmers who have no other LEGO sets or pieces.
OTHER REVIEWS of LEGO 75279
Amazon
Many of the reviews are from parents and grandparents who know just enough about LEGO or Star Wars to keep up with their children. A number of them buy the new advent calendar every year, and it’s part of their family holiday rituals.
A small number of negative reviews are related to packages being damaged upon arrival, crushed so that the day-by-day opening of the little doors to reveal a treasure becomes impossible. The other complaint was about the 2 large stickers on the front of the box announcing the secret codes for the game.
YouTube
Watching reviews of LEGO 75279 can be entertaining because each reviewer’s personality and preferences for the specific characters or builds are different. Watching the ones faking Star Wars knowledge is fun, as is reading the comments below each video.
just2good
YouTube reviewer just2good wasn’t really in love with this holiday set because
- there were too many micro builds
- the micro-builds fell apart too easily
- there were no minifig-scale builds
He did appreciate
- that this set had one of the strongest minifigure collections in a long time, including
- rare minifigs: Sith Trooper, Rey, D-O
- the exclusive ugly sweater prints.
JBBrickFanatic
As I watched this review by JBBrickFanatic I smiled, as he moved the starships in the air, making swooshing sounds. These are, after all, intended to be toys that bring joy, Gentle Reader!
During his video, I was thinking there were some interesting pieces you’d want for your collection, certainly as a beginner in LEGO and LEGO stop motion. I’ve listed them below.,
JBBrickFanatic is also (inadvertently?) thinking like a filmmaker when he looks at the micro-build of Darth Vader’s castle: “The back is ugly, but we don’t look at the back,” he says.
When we build sets for our LEGO animations, we only care about what the camera sees.
Zee’s Thoughts on LEGO 75279
This is a great set if you’re a Star Wars fan starting out collecting LEGO or making brickfilms (LEGO stop motion animation videos) because of all the minifigures and special pieces, including the
- silver bowl
- 2×3 wedge plates he says are new
- Santa hat
- 1×1 round plate with hole (and 1×1 with pin)
- carrot
- weapons
- top hat
- SNOT (Studs Not On Top–you’ll learn to love these!) pieces
If you have a large Star Wars LEGO collection, maybe BrickLink is a better route.
My mistake with the box
If I were to buy another LEGO advent calendar, it’s unlikely that I would use it as an actual calendar. That’s why I would open the entire box and remove the tray containing the little packages. If I really needed the building instructions, I would open only those specific flaps, pushing them out from inside the box, then taping them shut from the inside when I no longer need to picture on the flap.
Better yet, I would follow along with a set review on YouTube and pause when there’s a close-up on the daily gift being removed, just so I could see the instructions on the flap.
As a bonus, you can use the tray for sorting/storage after the holidays.
Gonk
A number of YouTubers commenting on review videos wanted this set because of the Christmas Gonk Droid, but the pieces on this droid aren’t rare. Interesting, right?
Army Building
Several reviewers and commenters noted that the stormtrooper and battle droid are a bonus because you need lots of them for your armies. If it’s for display, I hope you have a good dust-prevention strategy. If it’s for a LEGO video, yikes! That’s a lot of individual movements you have to add, otherwise your scene will look weird with lots of soldiers standing perfectly still.
with a LEGO wall of white and call it snow.
CONCLUSION
For makers of LEGO stop motion animations, especially beginners with smaller collections, LEGO 75279 Star Wars Advent Calendar 2020 is a fantastic set for
- building a collection of minifigures
- making a brickfilm with a theme of Star Wars or Christmas or a combination of both
- acquiring some special LEGO parts.
For brickfilmers with no other LEGO parts or minifigs, it would easier and more rewarding to start your LEGO filming journey with a smaller set that has more obvious, built-in storyline and props for your tiny actors.