Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 13
Posted by CapnRex101,
After three days of outdoor Hogsmeade models, I think we should head back inside and continue our exploration of the village's shops. This would be a welcome change.
View today's item after the break...
Minifigures in the Harry Potter Advent Calendars tend to impress, often including new pieces and depicting unusual variants of popular characters. However, today we see something even better, as a brand new character arrives in the form of Aberforth Dumbledore! Albus' brother is an important figure in the latter Harry Potter films, so I am surprised he has never appeared in LEGO before.
The minifigure includes a new torso and double-sided head, although neither are really visible behind Aberforth's huge beard. This beard looks good and reflects the character's appearance onscreen fairly well, although Albus Dumbledore uses the same piece and it is hard to tell them apart as minifigures. I think a few flecks of white in the beard would have been effective.
In addition, this purple shade is far too bright for Aberforth's robes in the movies, although no suitable colour exists in LEGO's palette. On that basis, this torso looks reasonable and I think the double-sided head is excellent, featuring cheerful and serious expressions, which work well for Aberforth. The goblet is a good inclusion too, given this character's ownership of the Hog's Head Inn.
Overall - Aberforth Dumbledore is certainly a desirable character and an outstanding addition to this Advent Calendar, but I think his minifigure could be improved.
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16 comments on this article
First! My comment and Abe's appearance as a minifig. Nice. Wish his legs were printed (aside from crotch flash).
Ah, Creedence's father. But we don't talk about that.
Now all they have to do is get him a goat or two. ;-)
@TheRichrocker: And they just made a new goat mold. Missed opportunity.
I mean, I could add him to my Dumbledores Army (he _is_ a Dumbledore, after all), but I don’t know what color wand to give him.
Despite this minifigure being exclusive and a character we haven't had before, it doesn't spark joy for me. The purple looks completely wrong and while the print is good it is all but covered by the beard. I would have gone with dark red, even though the real colour is somewhere between dark red and purple.
Here's hoping that we get some more Hogsmeade sets. Maybe a Hogs' Head/Zonko's set to go with 76388 and 76407. Now that they're done with the modular version of Hogwarts, they seem to be focusing on the grounds and surrounding area (owlery, Hagrid's hut, boathouse, forest). More Hogsmeade would fit right in with that.
I was going to make a Gandalf wearing purple joke... but I was surprised this is Albus' brother instead of the headmaster himself. The color and hair and beard threw me off.
So ehm... Gandalf's brother the purple wizard (it's one of the blue wizards, just a bit further on the color spectrum)
@CapnRex101:
"Albus' brother is an important figure in the latter Harry Potter films, so I am surprised he has never appeared in LEGO before."
He’s been stuck north of the wall. Took him this long just to get across the border.
He should have had the shorter Santa beard in gray instead. Very nice face print, though.
@PurpleDave said:
"I mean, I could add him to my Dumbledores Army (he _is_ a Dumbledore, after all), but I don’t know what color wand to give him."
Gold! :)
Honestly thought this was Albus, not Aberforth; the purple body is quite reminiscent of the Dumbledores that came in the very first HP sets
This fig desperately needed leg printing. Not a single leg print in the whole advent, apparently.
@beige2:
Well, I had to do something with the pile of extra Dumbledores I had after building all eight submodels of 30435, plus the Rebrickable version that combines eight copies to build an even bigger Hogwarts…
(Re: yesterday's - Day 13) I think it is the pensieve. What do you all think?
@Luna123 said:
"(Re: yesterday's - Day 13) I think it is the pensieve. What do you all think?"
Everything else points to this year being based around Hogsmeade, and so far there haven’t even been any miniature vehicles to break that streak. Does Aberforth have his own Pensieve?