Unwrapping the 2023 Star Wars LEGO Advent Calendar: Day 8

Day 8 of the 2023 Star Wars LEGO Advent Calendar sees the return of the B1 battle droid. It makes sense: We’ve spent the rest of the week arming the Grand Army of the Republic. The Separatists were due for some firepower.

This minifigure is a repeat from last year, which is a slight bummer. This particular little guy bears no markings—he’s not a commander or part of any special forces. Just your run of the mill battle droid. He’s got a blaster and a few extra arms—I assume because Jedi keep slicing them off.

That said, if we know anything about B1 battle droids, it’s that their power is in their numbers: one of these guys is hardly a threat; a whole bunch of them can take down a planet. If you’ve acquired any Clone Wars-era LEGO sets, chances are you’ve got a few B1 battle droids sitting around, ready to form a battalion.

B1 battle droids were staples of the Clone Wars. We were first introduced to them in Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace. The Trade Federation used them to invade the planet Naboo, and a young Anakin Skywalker disabled the whole mess of them by taking down the Droid Control Ship orbiting the planet. When the Trade Federation joined the Separatists, they brought their slightly comical and not entirely effective droid army with them. And so, we saw B1 battle droids spread throughout the galaxy during the Clone Wars, the bane of many a clone trooper.

Though B1 battle droids were generally phased out after the Clone Wars, they do pop up time and again across Star Wars storytelling. Some less-than-decommissioned B1 battle droids caused trouble for our heroes in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars Rebels and more, and a young Temmin “Snap” Wexley—future pilot and hero of the Resistance—had a modified B1 battle droid called Mister Bones serve as his protector, as seen in the Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of novels.

Will we add to our Separatist forces tomorrow?