Culture on My Mind
The 2024 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar
January 29, 2025
It’s time to talk about the 2024 LEGO Star Wars Advent Calendar!
My family has been doing the LEGO advent calendars since 2015 and I chronicle the daily builds on Instagram. Each of the annual box sets has been spotlighted on this site. This year, we continued our tradition of building the Star Wars calendars. The joy of this calendar is seeing how LEGO interprets ships and locales from the nearly 60 years of adventures in the galaxy far, far away.
The box contained 24 windows with a single LEGO build in each.
Days 2 and 17: The Skywalker Twins
Luke and Leia both make appearances this year in their new holiday sweaters. The twins are the cornerstone of the Star Wars franchise. Luke comes with a lightsaber and is based on his Return of the Jedi look. Leia has her A New Hope hair buns and a coffee mug. Since the newer minifigs comes with two faces, typically a smile and a grimace, my wife had a hard time deciding if Leia should be “post-coffee” or “pre-coffee”.
Days 7: Minikit
This was a LEGO Star Wars deep cut. In the video games, these minikits unlocked bonuses on the road to scoring 100% in the game. Each level had a certain number of minikits hidden in hard-to-reach places, and each one unlocked a piece of a ship in the level. Collect all of them and you have the ship as a trophy.
Seeing one of these in the calendar made me laugh. It was well-played for the 25th anniversary of LEGO’s involvement with this franchise.
Day 10: Ahsoka Tano
It’s no secret that Ahsoka Tano is one of my favorite Star Wars characters, so it was nice to see her represented in the calendar. It’s the same minifig from the T-6 Shuttle set (75362), so it’s not super common but it’s definitely not new.
That said, this is the first time that Ahsoka has been in the calendar. Hopefully, with her many versions since her debut in 2008, it won’t be her last.
(Maybe even with a holiday sweater?)
Days 4 and 15: The Clone Wars
The Clone Wars made a modest showing this year. The two minifigs from the era were a 501st Legion clone trooper and a B2 Super Battle Droid. I enjoy seeing the clones represented since each year tends to include a clone trooper or stormtrooper. Each year also contains a droid soldier, and the B2 is a nice change of pace from the standard B1 Battle Droid.
I think future calendars could branch out a bit with the Separatist troops. Maybe the TX-20 tactical droid (which has only been released once in the 2011 Mace Windu Starfighter set), one of the Commando Droids, or even one of the various B1 repaints.
Oooh! An excellent repaint would be one of R2-D2’s battle droids from the Clone Wars Citadel trilogy!
Day 19: Yoda’s Starfighter
Day 19 brought Yoda’s starfighter from Season Six of The Clone Wars. Yoda is another of my favorites, and his arc in that season was a beautiful addition to the overall Skywalker mythos. I bought the larger starfighter set when it came out, and this mini build is a fantastic interpretation of that build.
Day 20: Praetorian Guard
The calendar had some representation for The Mandalorian, and this minifig was a decent part of it. While I’m not a fan of the bad guys, I’m a sucker for the red armor. This minifig comes from the 2024 Paz Vizsla and Moff Gideon battle set, so it’s another somewhat limited release.
Days 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 21, 22, 23: The Themed Builds
One of the strengths in the Star Wars advent calendars is the themed builds. The company taps into the history and plays with those elements in efficient micro-builds. I love seeing what they do every year and how they interpret the Star Wars elements in tiny form.
The builds also offer the opportunity to have fun, like the AT-AT walker (a staple of recent calendars). Yeah, it’s a fearsome war machine, but after 2010’s AT-AT Dog Day Afternoon, it’s also been an Imperial puppy in our house, and makes us laugh as we put bows or other decor on its head. None of the themed builds are boring, even it we’ve seen them done before (like the AT-AT or the Millennium Falcon) because LEGO keeps innovating, even on this scale.
This block of builds is the magic of the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar.
Day 16: The Ghost
I loved seeing this for purely sentimental reasons. The Ghost was home for the Star Wars: Rebels crew, an animated series that didn’t pull many punches when it came to exploring the galaxy in the height of the Empire. It’s a simple build but a fun one to see.
Day 24: The Crimson Firehawk
It’s easy for Star Wars fans to get jaded. I see collectors griping all the time about action figures and how Hasbro doesn’t manage the lines exactly like they would. I see fans complaining about new movies and series, some even making up lies from whole cloth to express how they feel. Don’t even get me started about the people who still can’t let the Expanded Universe go.
But there are also Star Wars fans who give new things a chance, and I’m glad I listened to them about the Young Jedi Adventures show. I’m not in the target demographic for this show about younglings training to be Jedi in the High Republic era, but I found it to be wholesome and fun. Yes, it’s predictable, but it’s also a great in-road for little kids and echoes the era of animated shows presenting a life lesson alongside entertainment.
The Crimson Firehawk belongs to pilot Nash Durango, a kid who isn’t a Jedi but helps them on missions when she can. The show ran for two seasons on Disney, and it wasn’t something I expected to see in the advent calendar despite having a whole line of LEGO sets. I think it’s neat to see LEGO speaking to fans of the Young Jedi Adventures, telling them that they belong to this fandom regardless of their entry point.
It was a surprise to end the calendar and a welcome message in an era of jaded adult fans.
Overall, I really enjoyed this year’s calendar. As I’ve said before, the strength is in embracing the brand and its history, and they continue this every year with innovations to keep it fresh.
Something I’d love to see is more of that history, such as builds from the comics or novels, and even from the Expanded Universe. I’m thinking E-Wings and Thrawn here, both of which LEGO has done in the main line. I’d also like more Clone Wars and Sequel Trilogy minifigs (like Rey with her yellow lightsaber, Pong Krell, or other Jedi Knights).
This year also marks the 10th anniversary of The Force Awakens, the 20th anniversary of Revenge of the Sith, and the 40th anniversary of both the Ewoks animated series and The Battle for Endor. It would be fun to celebrate some of this in the calendar, though I don’t expect to see a Princess Kneesaa (even though it would be a pretty easy repaint to pull off).
Finally, it would be fun to do a one-off Indiana Jones-themed calendar. Minifigs could include Indy, Marion, Sallah, and others, and the themed builds could represent the Ark of the Covenant, the sankara stones, the boat from Venice, and so much more. The five films (and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles) are chock full of icons and ideas, and with the franchise formally coming to an end in 2024, if could be a fun send-off.
Anyway, if you’re looking for a fun interactive gift leading up to the holiday season, I wholeheartedly recommend the LEGO Star Wars advent calendar. We have a blast each year and people love following along with us on Facebook and Instagram.
Culture on My Mind is inspired by the weekly Can’t Let It Go segment on the NPR Politics Podcast where each host brings one thing to the table that they just can’t stop thinking about.
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