Yes, I did in fact buy this advent calendar in July and open the entire thing the day it arrived. Someone had to do it! Overall I think that this is a great advent calendar. The most notable feature on display here are the nine included character figures-- Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy Rose, Mighty, Ray, Dr. Eggman, Metal Sonic, and Super Sonic. That's the entire playable cast of Sonic Mania Plus, along with two of its villains, and even Amy! Hard to ask for a better selection than that. Along with those figures come three Badniks (the robots!), along with a whole slew of accessories. The accessories are unfortunately where the calendar falters a bit, but not too badly. I don't have much to say about the quality of the figures. They're on the same level as Jakks' usual fair, reasonable quality control but with the occasional minor paint error. However, the included Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are unique Christmas themed variants! Sonic and Tails are particularly cute, with both of them totally decked out in full Christmas outfits, Sonic as Santa and Tails as a reindeer. Knuckles gets the short end of the stick here, wearing only a santa hat, but it's still a great figure nonetheless. As well, it's worth mentioning that this is the very first release of the classic Metal Sonic, Ray, and Chopper figures! Unfortunately for collectors, that means that if you want to get ahold of these guys before they get released separately, you'll have to deal with receiving duplicates of several characters you already likely own. Not really a big issue though. Now, the accessories. It comes with a lot of the most crucial accessories for a set of Sonic figures- Rings, item monitors, Chaos Emeralds, springs, etc. But the selection isn't perfect. For some reason, it includes multiple 10-ring items (the rings with a big number 10 in the center), which aren't an item associated with Classic Sonic... and also a very dull accessory in general compared to the others. As well, this advent calendar contains one "exclusive" accessory, a tiny plastic wrapped present. At the risk of sounding nitpicky, it's a bit disappointing. The Sonic figure can't hold it, it doesn't do anything, and it's not an item from any of the games so it's not very exciting. I would've preferred something else, like another Chaos Emerald, or a different sort of accessory that wasn't already included, like a Checkpoint. But, despite all the words I just wrote about it, it's really not that big of a deal, as it's just one day out of the 24. That said, this advent calendar's gift distribution falls a little flat at the end. Spoilers--- The three days leading up to the final day are two Chaos Emeralds (back to back!), followed by the wrapped present, and the final day is Sonic. The Sonic is obviously great, but you'd think that they wouldn't make the final few days leading up to the big finale some of the most repetitive. At any rate, my complaints here are all just nitpicks. This is a great advent calendar for a Sonic fan. It comes with a huge slew of characters and lots of robots for them to bop, and tons of accessories to add to the fun! I love it, and would highly recommend it.
