Tag: 2022 Gaming Haul

The Shell Walker: Rounding Out My Unofficial Horizon Collection

Toy Review · Purchased November 11, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Jooooooy.com

Horizon Shell Walker brick build
Horizon Zero Dawn Shell Walker MOC. Photo: reseller listing

The Setup

Roughly 1,700 pieces recreating the Shell-Walker, a turtle-like combat machine from the Horizon Zero Dawn games. Like the plus-size Tallneck from Vonado earlier this year, this is an unofficial fan MOC — LEGO’s own real Horizon license didn’t cover a Shell-Walker toy for years after this, so this is the only way to get one at any real scale, purchased through Jooooooy rather than Vonado this time.

The Review

This rounds out a small but genuinely fun unofficial Horizon collection alongside the giant Tallneck, and the Shell-Walker’s boxier, more armored silhouette translates into brick form more cleanly than the Tallneck’s long, thin neck did — fewer awkward angles to fake with clone bricks. At this scale it’s a satisfying, absorbing build without tipping into the multi-evening commitment the Tallneck demanded.

The usual bootleg trade-offs apply — PDF instructions, clone bricks, and the color/clutch inconsistencies that come with this whole product category — but this one felt like a slightly cleaner build experience than either the Vonado Tallneck or the Jooooooy Han Solo slab, landing somewhere comfortably in the middle for quality control this year.

What I Liked

  • Boxier, armored design translates into brick form more cleanly than the Tallneck did
  • Satisfying build without demanding a multi-evening commitment
  • Fills a genuine gap since LEGO’s own official Horizon license hadn’t covered this machine yet

What I Didn’t

  • Same PDF-only instructions and clone-brick compromises as the rest of this category
  • No official licensing or affiliation with Horizon or LEGO

The Verdict

Rating: 3.5/5

A satisfying build that fills a real gap in official Horizon merchandise, with a cleaner build experience than some of this year’s other bootleg purchases.

Where to Buy

  • Discontinued/varies by reseller — search “MOC Horizon Shell Walker”

A Second Lighting Kit: Same Idea, Different Store

Hardware Review · Purchased December 15, 2022 · $50.00 CAD via Michaels

The Setup

A second LED lighting accessory kit, this time picked up at Michaels rather than ordered online — the same general category as the Light My Bricks-style kit from a few days earlier, meant to add illumination to another LEGO City build.

The Review

Grabbing this one in-store rather than online meant no waiting on shipping, which was genuinely convenient this close to Christmas, though the trade-off is a less set-specific kit than the online options — it’s a more generic LED string-light setup rather than something engineered to snap precisely into a particular model’s window layout the way the online kit was.

It still does the basic job of adding some warm glow to a display, just with more manual positioning and improvising required to get the lights where I actually wanted them, compared to the more purpose-built kit. For a quick, in-person pickup with no shipping wait, it’s a reasonable stopgap; for a cleaner, more precise result, ordering a set-specific kit online is still the better call.

What I Liked

  • Available in-store with no shipping wait
  • Still adds a nice warm glow to a display
  • Flexible enough to use on more than one type of set

What I Didn’t

  • Less set-specific than a purpose-built kit — more manual positioning required
  • Less clean, precise result than the online kit purchased earlier

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

A convenient last-minute stopgap, but the purpose-built online kit from a few days earlier is the better way to do this.

Where to Buy

  • Check your local Michaels craft store’s LED lighting section

Light My Bricks: The Kit That Finally Made My LEGO City Glow

Hardware Review · Purchased December 9, 2022 · $88.44 CAD via Amazon.ca

The Setup

A third-party LED lighting kit — LEGO doesn’t make these itself, so this almost certainly came from Light My Bricks, the dominant brand in this space on Amazon.ca — designed to snap into a LEGO City set and add illuminated windows and streetlight effects that the set doesn’t come with out of the box.

The Review

This is the kind of accessory that punches way above its price once it’s actually installed — a static LEGO City building suddenly looks like a scene rather than a model the moment the windows light up, and the effect is genuinely more impressive in person than it sounds on paper. The kit itself is well-organized and the LED runs are the right length for the set it was designed for.

Installation is fiddly — threading tiny LED wires through a completed build takes patience, and in a couple of spots I had to partially disassemble sections I thought were finished to route wires properly. It’s not a difficult job, just a slow, careful one. Once it’s in, though, it’s a genuinely transformative upgrade for the price, and it’s made me want to go back and retrofit some of my older City sets too.

What I Liked

  • Genuinely transforms a static set into a lit-up scene
  • Well-organized kit with correctly sized LED runs
  • Great value for the visual impact it adds

What I Didn’t

  • Fiddly installation that sometimes requires partial disassembly
  • Routing tiny LED wires through a finished build takes real patience

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A fiddly install, but a genuinely transformative upgrade for any LEGO City set — worth the patience it takes to fit.

Where to Buy

Han Solo in Carbonite: A Wall Slab With a Quality-Control Problem

Toy Review · Purchased November 11, 2022 · $150.00 CAD via Jooooooy.com

Han Solo in Carbonite mega figure wall slab
Han Solo in Carbonite Mega Figure, MOC-94303. Photo: Jooooooy

The Setup

My first purchase from Jooooooy rather than Lightake, but the same general product category — MOC-94303 is a 1,717-piece, wall-mountable brick recreation of Han Solo frozen in carbonite from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, in the same “mega figure” bootleg family as the earlier Star Wars busts.

The Review

Design-wise, this is a genuinely good idea — the flat carbonite slab format lends itself naturally to a brick build in a way that a rounded helmet bust doesn’t, and the finished piece reads unmistakably as the scene the moment you see it. Han’s frozen expression and posture come through clearly at this scale, and it mounts to a wall just as easily as the trash compactor diorama earlier in the year.

Unfortunately, this is the one purchase in the bootleg-bust line where quality control actually became a real problem rather than a minor cosmetic quibble — my kit arrived missing several dozen pieces, which meant a frustrating stretch of comparing the manual against what actually showed up before I could even start building properly. It got there in the end, and the finished piece looks good, but it’s a genuine mark against Jooooooy specifically compared to the cleaner experience I’d had with Lightake’s busts earlier in the year.

What I Liked

  • Flat carbonite slab format is a natural fit for a brick build
  • Unmistakably reads as the scene at a glance
  • Wall-mountable, same as the official Death Star Trash Compactor diorama

What I Didn’t

  • Arrived with dozens of pieces missing from the kit
  • PDF-only instructions, no printed manual
  • Noticeably worse quality control than Lightake’s busts earlier this year

The Verdict

Rating: 2.5/5

A genuinely clever design let down by a real quality-control miss — the finished piece looks great, but getting there was more frustrating than it should have been.

Where to Buy

Sonic Colors: Ultimate, A Nostalgia Remaster That Knows It’s a Nostalgia Remaster

Game Review · Purchased November 22, 2022 · $30.00 CAD via Amazon.ca

Sonic Colors Ultimate key art
Sonic Colors: Ultimate. Photo: Steam

The Setup

A 4K/60fps remaster of the 2010 Wii original, with Sonic infiltrating Dr. Eggman’s “Interstellar Amusement Park” to free enslaved Wisps — alien creatures granting temporary powers like laser-drilling or rocket boosts — from being used to power a mind-control weapon.

The Review

This is exactly what it says on the box — a visual and performance upgrade over a well-liked 2010 platformer, with a handful of genuinely nice additions like new Rival Rush races against Metal Sonic and some character customization. The Wisp power-up loop is still the most inventive part of the design, giving each stage a reason to feel a little different from the last, and at $30 it’s an easy, low-stakes pickup for anyone wanting a lighter platformer between bigger releases.

Judged against 2022’s platforming competition rather than 2010’s, the level design feels samey and the challenge stays firmly on the easy side even for an experienced player, and the 4K/60fps coat of paint can’t fully disguise that this is, structurally, a 12-year-old game. It’s a fine, comfortable choice for a younger or less experienced player, or for pure nostalgia — just don’t expect it to compete with anything genuinely new.

What I Liked

  • Wisp power-up system still gives levels real variety
  • New Rival Rush races and customization add worthwhile extra content
  • Visual/performance upgrade to 4K/60fps is a genuine improvement
  • Low price point makes it an easy, low-stakes pickup

What I Didn’t

  • Overly simplistic, floaty platforming for experienced players
  • Level design feels samey across the whole game
  • Still visibly a 12-year-old game structurally, despite the coat of paint

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

A perfectly fine budget nostalgia trip, but not much more than that — fine for younger players or pure Sonic nostalgia, skippable otherwise.

Where to Buy

  • Steam listing (also on Nintendo eShop, PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store)

LEGO City Car Wash: The Small, Forgettable Palate Cleanser of the Bunch

Toy Review · Purchased November 11, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Jooooooy.com

LEGO City Car Wash 60362
Car Wash, LEGO City 60362 design. Photo: LEGO

The Setup

The design here matches LEGO City’s official 243-piece Car Wash set (60362) — a car wash building with spinning brush rollers, a car, and two minifigures. Bought the same day as the Bowser and Shell Walker builds from Jooooooy, so it’s worth flagging the same sourcing uncertainty: this may well be a clone rather than the genuine article, though I couldn’t find as clear-cut evidence of a specific bootleg listing for this one as I could for the others.

The Review

There’s not a lot to say about this one, and that’s sort of the point — it’s a simple, kid-friendly LEGO City playset with a straightforward build and a fun little spinning-brush mechanism that actually works when you push the car through. After the much bigger, more involved builds earlier this same order, it was a nice quick change of pace, done in well under an hour.

It’s not a set that’s trying to be memorable, and it succeeds at exactly what it sets out to do without leaving much of an impression beyond that. A perfectly fine, forgettable little build.

What I Liked

  • Fun, functional spinning-brush mechanism
  • Quick, easy build — a nice change of pace after bigger sets
  • Straightforward, kid-friendly LEGO City design

What I Didn’t

  • Unremarkable and forgettable once built
  • Sourced through Jooooooy, so genuine-vs-clone status is uncertain

The Verdict

Rating: 3/5

A perfectly serviceable, entirely unmemorable little build — fine as a quick palate cleanser, not a set worth seeking out.

Where to Buy

Polk’s Monitor XT30 Center Channel: The Unglamorous Speaker Doing the Most Work

Hardware Review · Purchased November 18, 2022 · $321.54 CAD via Amazon.ca

Polk Monitor XT30 center channel speaker
Polk Monitor XT30 center channel. Photo: Polk Audio

The Setup

A compact center channel from Polk’s budget-to-midrange Monitor XT line, built around a 1″ Terylene dome tweeter and dual 5.25″ bilaminate woofers, Hi-Res Audio certified and Dolby Atmos/DTS:X compatible. Its whole job is dialogue — sitting below the TV and carrying every line of speech clearly in a home theater setup.

The Review

Nobody buys a center channel for excitement, but this one does exactly the unglamorous job it’s supposed to do — dialogue comes through clean and clear even at lower volumes, which is the actual metric that matters for a speaker whose entire purpose is making sure you don’t miss a line. The compact cabinet fits neatly below my TV without fighting for space the way a taller speaker would, and it integrates cleanly with the rest of the Monitor XT lineup and my AVR without any fuss.

It’s genuinely light on low-mid punch on its own, which isn’t a surprise for a speaker this size, and it benefits from being crossed over around 100Hz or higher so a subwoofer can pick up the slack. In a room with harder, more reflective surfaces it can also edge toward bright or harsh at higher volumes. None of that matters much given what a center channel is actually for — it’s not meant to be the star of the system, and this one is a genuinely solid, unremarkable-in-the-best-way choice for that role.

What I Liked

  • Clear, focused dialogue reproduction even at low volumes
  • Compact cabinet fits neatly below the TV
  • Integrates cleanly with other Polk Monitor XT speakers and a mainstream AVR
  • Strong price-to-performance for a budget/midrange home theater setup

What I Didn’t

  • Limited low-mid bass punch without a subwoofer
  • Can sound slightly bright in rooms with hard, reflective surfaces
  • Not built for large rooms or reference-level volume

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Exactly what a good budget center channel should be — unremarkable in the best possible way, and it does its actual job well.

Where to Buy

God of War Ragnarok: A Launch-Day Buy That Earns Every Bit of Its Ambition

Game Review · Purchased November 9, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Walmart.ca

God of War Ragnarok key art
God of War Ragnarok. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Picked up right on launch day, Ragnarok continues Kratos and Atreus’s Norse saga three years after 2018’s God of War, as the pair prepare for the prophesied Ragnarok while confronting Thor and Odin across all nine realms.

The Review

The combat retains everything that made the 2018 game feel so good — the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos are just as satisfying to swing here, and the environmental puzzle design across all nine realms gives exploration real texture rather than just padding between fights. The story is the real headline, though: this is genuinely ambitious mythology-building, with Thor and Odin as compelling antagonists, and letting you directly control Atreus in dedicated sections adds welcome variety to a formula that could have easily just repeated itself.

A few specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty that stands out against how well-tuned most of the rest of the combat is, and the second half leans on more backtracking than I’d like. The health-item button doubling as the grapple button also caused more than a few accidental deaths in the heat of combat. None of that meaningfully dents what’s otherwise a hugely ambitious, well-told conclusion to this era of the series.

What I Liked

  • Combat retains the brutal, satisfying feel of the 2018 game
  • Ambitious Norse mythology storytelling with compelling new antagonists
  • Playable Atreus sections add genuine variety
  • Excellent PS5 visuals and performance/graphics mode options

What I Didn’t

  • Some specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty
  • Noticeable backtracking in the second half
  • Health item and grapple sharing a button causes accidental deaths in combat

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

A hugely ambitious, well-earned conclusion to this saga — an easy launch-day purchase that was worth every bit of the hype.

Where to Buy

The Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar: LEGO’s First Marvel Countdown Done Right

Toy Review · Purchased October 11, 2022 · $60.00 CAD via Amazon.ca

LEGO Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar 76231
Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar, 76231. Photo: LEGO

The Setup

Set 76231 marks LEGO’s first-ever Marvel-licensed advent calendar, at 268 pieces across 24 doors, with small vehicle and gear builds alongside minifigures including Star-Lord, Groot, and Rocket.

The Review

LEGO’s Star Wars and City advent calendars have been a holiday staple for years, so it’s a little surprising it took this long for Marvel to get one, but the wait was worth it. The mix behind the 24 doors is genuinely well balanced — a good spread of small vehicles, gadgets, and character minifigures rather than padding out the count with filler pieces, and getting a new Guardians character or item revealed each day for a month has a real novelty to it that a single big set doesn’t offer.

As with any advent calendar, the individual builds are necessarily tiny and simple, so this isn’t the set to reach for if you want a substantial building session on any single day. But as a first outing for LEGO Marvel in this format, it’s a confident one, and it’s an easy recommendation for any Guardians fan looking for a low-stakes, spread-out way to get some genuinely fun little builds and minifigures.

What I Liked

  • Well-balanced mix of vehicles, gear, and character minifigures across the 24 doors
  • Genuinely fun day-by-day reveal format
  • Good value for a first-of-its-kind licensed calendar
  • Solid entry point into LEGO Marvel minifigures

What I Didn’t

  • Individual daily builds are necessarily tiny and simple
  • Seasonal-only availability makes it hard to find outside the holidays

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A confident first outing for LEGO Marvel’s advent calendar format — well worth it for any Guardians fan.

Where to Buy

Funko’s Star Wars Holiday Snowman 5-Pack: A Genuinely Fun Seasonal Gimmick

Collectible Review · Purchased October 16, 2022 · $92.31 CAD via Amazon.ca

Funko Pop Star Wars Holiday Snowman 5 pack
Star Wars Holiday: Snowman 5-Pack. Photo: Funko

The Setup

An Amazon-exclusive Funko Pop bundle reimagining five Star Wars characters — Darth Vader, a Stormtrooper, Boba Fett, C-3PO, and R2-D2 — as snowmen, complete with snowflake detailing and carrot/twig facial accents, each individually boxed within the set.

The Review

This is exactly the kind of silly, seasonal gimmick that Funko does well — five instantly recognizable characters reimagined just enough to feel novel without losing what makes them recognizable in the first place. Getting five figures individually boxed within one set is a genuinely nice touch too, since it means any of them can be pulled out and displayed or gifted on their own without breaking up a single combined package.

The usual Funko quality-control caveats apply — paint application on mass-produced Pops is always a bit of a lottery, and outer box corners took some minor shelf wear even before I opened them. As an Amazon exclusive, it’s also the kind of thing that will probably command inflated secondary-market prices once it sells out for the season. None of that outweighs how much fun it is as a one-off holiday display piece.

What I Liked

  • Fun, novel holiday reimagining of five instantly recognizable characters
  • Individually boxed figures within the set make gifting or separating them easy
  • Good per-figure value compared to buying five singles

What I Didn’t

  • Usual Funko paint-consistency lottery applies
  • Some minor box wear straight out of shipping
  • Amazon-exclusive status means secondary-market prices will likely climb once sold out

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A genuinely charming seasonal gimmick that nails the balance between novelty and recognizability.

Where to Buy