And today, the final day of the advent calendar, the gods of Christmas(who also rule over cheddar cheese strangely enough), have bestowed upon the masses: This festive Minion minifigure! ...Hooray?
...Yeah, this is surprisingly underwhelming. It's the final Minion to round out the trio, but... it's just the final Minion to round out the trio! This was your ultimate Christmas surprise? Your best foot forward? The one you wanted us to wait more than 3 weeks for? ...I don't think they've invented a word to sum up my level of disappointment... So I will!
The word is "Rhanbostuset(RAN-BOSS-TOO-SET)!" I'm feeling very Rhanbostuset that they used this model as the final window.
Oh, but they gave it red overalls with stars and a Christmas tree on it, so it's the most festive model! ...Well, we already have two Minions dressed in green overalls, so we already have festive Christmas clothing. They just gave us the other color and did a quick paint job on the front. At least they could have given him Santa clothing or a hat or SOMETHING to make him feel like a symbol of Christmas!
Heck, the paint job is so poor, you can see large gaps in the paint and that they painted over the obvious molded pocket!
And if they had to use a Minion as the final window, then why did they pick the creepiest one?! Look at that face! That is a look of someone with no coherent thought in his mind. It's like he smoked some wacky backy right before I took him out of the window and he's currently seeing pink unicorns and talking Kewpie dolls with triangle heads.
This isn't a symbol of peace and love and giving. This is the perv who gets a job as Santa so he can fondle your children! Probably follows you home afterwards and waits in the bushes until all the lights go out in the house... I think James Rolfe said it best:
EDIT: Apparently, I put the goggles on upside-down and THIS is actually how its supposed to look, which is a little less creepy. ...But now he looks like he's just finished emptying a bladder he's been holding in all day...
And that's how this look at the Minions Advent Calendar ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. ...And that's the only profound thing it shares with the universe.
But before we go, let's gather the models and see them one last time the way they're meant to be seen.
...Throw away your Nativity set, THIS is the grandest scene to ever be associated with the holidays!
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Quality: It's standard Mega Bloks quality plastic, which, as I mentioned in my Nuketown review, strangely annoys me. It's like it's trying to be Lego, but at the same time, it's trying to be a bit more rubbery, and it just throws me off. That said, I couldn't find anything terribly off about the bricks and everything fit together fine, even if the plastic made it a little hard to snap a lot of the bricks together. The paint job is fine, save for a few hiccups that are especially apparent with the Jelly Jar and Festive Minion. Overall, I could tell that it was made by a mainstream company that tries to keep a relatively high quality standard.
Design: It's a little hard to describe overall design for a calendar with 24 different models, but I'll try. I think this had a fair amount of accurately-designed models they put a bit of thought into, especially with the gun, robot, water cooler, fireplace, and the animal figures. I especially like that they could add some custom features to make it more obvious what some of the models were, like the face on the gingerbread man and the Gru logo on the stocking. ...But then you have models that were lazily thought out(the tree, the candy cane), or that I couldn't even identify(the ladybug house?, the robot table?) And while I think they did the first two Minions fine, I think they got REALLY lazy with the final one, with the terrible paint job and terrifying expression they gave him. So it basically balances out to roughly half-and-half. Some had good designs that showed a good amount of effort... and some were just cobbled together during lunch break.
Creativity: While the idea of the Minions having their own advent calendar could be interesting, considering all the other toys and franchises that have gotten one, it's not too out of place. I do like that Mega Bloks used their own unique library of bricks in designing a lot of these models, since the thin "pipe" pieces do help give the animal models a much more natural look. And they did have to create a unique mold for the Minions, as opposed to Lego, which probably would have done something similar to the Spongebob minifigures and given them these "vests" with a face. The choices they made for things to put in the calendar were a little interesting, even though a lot of them didn't have much to do with the holiday nor even with the movies. And, as I mentioned, they might have gotten a little "too" creative with some of the designs, since I can't tell what they're supposed to be! If I was designing this calendar, I probably would have put all the Christmas models in the final few windows and maybe have given the Minions more accessories they could hold, but that's just me. It's not the most creative layout I've seen, but it's interesting what they did.
Readability: This didn't come with the standard booklet or single sheet of instructions most models do. Instead, the directions were all printed in one square behind each door, which roughly showed you how to piece each model together. For the simpler models, this was fine, but for the more complicated models, it was REALLY easy to overlook something or skip a brick. I guess I wouldn't have minded having an actual booklet with it just in case I couldn't tell what went where, but nothing was impossible to figure out and I got them all put together in the end, so as far as instructions go, they were decent.
Packaging: It's a little strange to be reviewing the packaging of something you're SUPPOSED to tear apart. ...But that's what it does. It TEARS, and very easily. It's nearly impossible to open a window without taking off half the box with it and the dotted line that's supposed to rip doesn't usually rip, but the stuff around it does. ...But again, that's sort of the point with advent calendars, so I guess I can't really fault them for that. I think that the design is pretty generic, just showing a scene with the stuff you get inside the calendar. I'm personally not a fan of these since I think it ruins a bit of the surprise, but they don't tell you what's behind each window, so I guess there's still an element. I also don't get the advent calendar trope of shuffling the days instead of just laying them out so "1" is in the top-left and "24" is bottom-right, but again, nitpick. And if you're into Minions, I think they do show enough on the front of the box to give you a good idea of what you're in for and convince you that a Minions advent calendar is the way to go. I'm not one of those people, but I could see other people going for that.
Compatibility: Being Mega Bloks, there's a lot that is compatible with Lego, and a lot that isn't. Most of the bricks are in standard Lego shape and size, and the Minion figures can easily stand on standard Lego studs and hold regular accessories. However, the pipe pieces are incompatible with most standard bricks, except for the headlight bricks and others that have a bit of a "slot", and I don't know what use they would serve with other sets, so that's a bit of a compatibility issue. ...But just a bit of one. If you decided to do a Mega Bloks/Lego crossover, you probably wouldn't have much difficulty getting these two worlds to gel.
Overall:
I'm pretty indifferent to this set. As I said when I first started this countdown, I'm not into the Minions, and nothing really changed my opinion of the series for the better. The quality is standard, the idea is uninspired, and nothing really stood out that I'd want to set aside for display. There are a few good designs, but, at the same time, there are a lot of poor choices and lazy moves that really ruin this calendar. So unless you're really into the Minions, or you just want a cheap toy advent calendar, this might be something to skip over. I think this was relatively... Rhanbostuset.
And that concludes our first annual Advent Calendar opening! But the holiday season isn't over yet! Check in tomorrow for this year's special Christmas set!
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