Rhino's Sports Pub and Bacon Bistro

As a gift for Thanksgiving (gift-giving on Thanksgiving? Yes, we hope this fun really takes off), I received a Lego Star Wars Advent calendar. The pieces are small, but I’m going to try to the best of my ability to keep a tally of what treats it presents between now and Christmas Day …

Dec. 1: Radiant VII (it’s the first spaceship you see in “Star Wars: Episode I – A Phantom Menace”. Kind of a ho-hum start, but maybe this thing is building up to something grand as we approach the big holiday … )
Dec.2: Nute Gunray (you know, that Trade Federation hack whose actions helped set in motion the events of the Clone Wars.)
Dec. 3: That Trade Federation spider hologram mechano-walker chair thing (a quick Google search did not reveal the appropriate name for this thing, so I’m going to name it myself: TF-R17 holo-seat 7958 class. It gives ol’ Nute a great place to sit down and command the feeble Trade Federation army)
Dec. 4: OG-9 homing spider droid (built it, looked at it, played with it, looked at it again, and still had no clue what it was. Had to go to the Google to figure this one out. Turns out, this droid made My Star Wars droid power rankings, by default, however.)
Dec. 5: Slave-1 (which made its debut in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, but its chronological debut in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. I will use this opportunity to rail against the hapless way Boba Fett died in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. It probably should have been a bit more epic. I have no qualms with how Jango Fett perished … he should have known better than to mess with a Jedi, particularly the mighty Mace Windu.)
Dec. 6: Chewy (what a St. Nicholas Day treat … the mighty Chewbacca, a lead character in the Star Wars Holiday Special, among other adventures.)
Dec. 7: Barrel for tools, bowcaster (well, yeah, this one seemed like a lost piece from the Lego Toolshed Advent calendar. Not sure if this piece made an appearance in any of the films, and at first seems like a workstation for the contracted temp workers on the second Death Star. Instead, it makes sense — sorta-kinda somewhat — if you pair it with the previous day’s piece — Chewbacca — since it has his bowcaster.)
Dec. 8: Luke Skywalker, in X-Wing Fighter pilot gear (was it just a coincidence that the day Luke Skywalker is a part of the Lego Star Wars Advent calendar that it was announced that scientists are about to find The Force? I think not.)
Dec. 9: X-Wing Fighter (probably the coolest piece yet … the very intergalactic fighter craft that played a prominent role in taking down the very first — “the ultimate power in the universe” that earned some Imperial hack a choke job at the hands of Darth Vader — Death Star. Did you know that the maximum speed of an X-Wing is 3,700 Gs? You can learn fun stuff like this on the Internet^(source).)
Dec. 10: Imperial shuttle (which has fold-able wings so that it can land like a dainty butterfly.)
Dec. 11: Trade Federation battle droid (yup, those wimpy, mass-produced droids that had a sad, sad existence in the prequel trilogy.)
Dec. 12: Snowspeeder (cool equipment of the Rebel Alliance only appeared in Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back in the Battle of Hoth — Hoth? They should call it ‘Coldth’.)
Dec. 13: R2-Q5 (an astromech droid, but not THE astromech droid, which makes this piece’s inclusion kinda cool. R2-Q5 met an unfortunate end on the second Death Star.)
Dec. 14: Mouse droid (Mouse droid! Which just so happens to top My Star Wars droid power rankings.)
Dec. 15: Clone gunship (or, Los Altitude Assault Transport for short.)
Dec. 16: Clone trooper (straight outta the “Grand Army of the Republic,” Clone Troopers were decidedly better shots than their successors, the Stormtroopers, the clumsy “Soldiers of the Empire,” telling folks to “move along.”)
Dec. 17: Weapons stand (Weapons!)
Dec. 18: Y-Wing Fighter (this particular Y-Wing is apparently — according to Google searches — from “The Clone Wars” cartoon series airing on the Cartoon Network. This is a BTL-B Y-Wing, which is not to be confused with the more familiar BTL-S3 Y-Wing, which gets some serious action time in the “Star Wars Holiday Special” cartoon.)
Dec. 19: TIE Fighter pilot (I had one of these action figures — along with the obligatory TIE Fighter — when I was a youngster. It was one of my favorites. The TIE Fighter was cool because you could press a button and the wings would pop off.)
Dec. 20: TIE Fighter (TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine. And, the “terrifying roar of a TIE’s engines strikes fear into the hearts of all enemies of the Empire,” according to StarWars.com.)
Dec. 21: Millennium Falcon (which probably took a much shorter time to put together than this one.)
Dec. 22: RZ-1 A-wing interceptor (which is a really fancy name for something that was approximately 8-to-10 pieces. In the Star Wars universe, the A-wing comes at a cost of 175,000 credits^(source). For perspective, Obi-Wan Kenobi “Old Ben” and Luke Skywalker hooked up with Han Solo and Chewbacca for a ride on the Millennium Falcon for 17,000 credits in Mos Eisley.)
Dec. 23: Intergalactic Life Day tree (looks a lot like our traditional Christmas tree.)
Dec. 24: Yoda Claus (he even has gifts to give to the younglings!)

Related Star Wars points of discussion here at Rhino’s Sports Pub and Bacon Bistro:
• My inconsequential Stars Wars characters that I owned action figures of power rankings
• My power rankings of what Lobot is listening to in those headphones
• My things that are awesome power rankings: Star Wars bounty hunters
• My Star Wars droid power rankings
• My dark lords of the Sith power rankings
• My Star Wars bounty hunter power rankings
• My Star Wars planets power rankings