Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 16
Posted by CapnRex101,
Earlier in this Advent Calendar, Honeydukes and Zonko's Joke Shop were represented by a pair of items each and the Hog's Head Inn received the same treatment on days fourteen and fifteen.
I therefore expect attention to shift today...
I considered yesterday's keg acceptable, although far from innovative. This lamp post is worse in that regard and does not really belong in a Harry Potter Advent Calendar, I would argue. Even so, the design is fairly attractive and bears a definite resemblance to light fixtures in Hogsmeade, due primarily to its slender proportions.
Overall - This lamp post looks nice, but is hardly an exciting addition to the Advent Calendar.
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These last couple explain why my husband caught up and passed me around the middle of the month when we did the box in a night. (I did City '22, he did HP '23.) Small and simple, even as advent calendar builds go.
It's the hight that the City lamp post needs. Conclusion: merge ideas.
Having seen this on both the front and back of the box, I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t fit back inside the chamber once built. It does, but barely.
I would have bought a LEGO Narnia advent calendar.
@Andrusi said:
"I would have bought a LEGO Narnia advent calendar."
You’d be able to fit anything behind those doors!
This years calendars are pretty disappointing, my nephew stopped opening his with half of them still to go.
I’m honestly torn over whether I like this sleek design or if I’d have preferred it to have some Hogwartsy twist to it
@johleth said:
"This years calendars are pretty disappointing, my nephew stopped opening his with half of them still to go."
That says it all. While I think the Avengers Advent Calendar was good today, it is definitely among the weakest I have experienced. About half the items feel like random efforts to fill the remaining days, with no consistency between them and often only tangential or superficial links to Marvel.
As for the Harry Potter calendar, I think most of the items have been reasonable in design, but for a child or a more casual Harry Potter fan, the calendar has major problems. Several items are only identifiable by contextual guesswork or knowledge of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, such as the models from Zonko's Joke Shop, so I doubt a younger or relatively casual fan is going to recognise them.
Taking days thirteen to fifteen as an example, I am sure many people received their Aberforth Dumbledore minifigure and assumed it was Albus because they seem essentially identical in minifigure form. On that basis, there was nothing to signal that the next pair of items were from the Hog's Head Inn, so that is three days of apparently disconnected items, followed by a featureless lamp post.
@CapnRex101 said:
" @johleth said:
"This years calendars are pretty disappointing, my nephew stopped opening his with half of them still to go."
That says it all. While I think the Avengers Advent Calendar was good today, it is definitely among the weakest I have experienced. About half the items feel like random efforts to fill the remaining days, with no consistency between them and often only tangential or superficial links to Marvel.
As for the Harry Potter calendar, I think most of the items have been reasonable in design, but for a child or a more casual Harry Potter fan, the calendar has major problems. Several items are only identifiable by contextual guesswork or knowledge of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, such as the models from Zonko's Joke Shop, so I doubt a younger or relatively casual fan is going to recognise them.
Taking days thirteen to fifteen as an example, I am sure many people received their Aberforth Dumbledore minifigure and assumed it was Albus because they seem essentially identical in minifigure form. On that basis, there was nothing to signal that the next pair of items were from the Hog's Head Inn, so that is three days of apparently disconnected items, followed by a featureless lamp post."
He has asked that next year to get the Friends calendar, which is something I never thought would happen. (He also asked for an Animal Crossing calendar if they do one, as they are the sets he is most looking forward to next year. )
I will say I like the use of https://brickset.com/parts/design-35344 to depict snow piled up on top.
@johleth said:
" @CapnRex101 said:
" @johleth said:
"This years calendars are pretty disappointing, my nephew stopped opening his with half of them still to go."
That says it all. While I think the Avengers Advent Calendar was good today, it is definitely among the weakest I have experienced. About half the items feel like random efforts to fill the remaining days, with no consistency between them and often only tangential or superficial links to Marvel.
As for the Harry Potter calendar, I think most of the items have been reasonable in design, but for a child or a more casual Harry Potter fan, the calendar has major problems. Several items are only identifiable by contextual guesswork or knowledge of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, such as the models from Zonko's Joke Shop, so I doubt a younger or relatively casual fan is going to recognise them.
Taking days thirteen to fifteen as an example, I am sure many people received their Aberforth Dumbledore minifigure and assumed it was Albus because they seem essentially identical in minifigure form. On that basis, there was nothing to signal that the next pair of items were from the Hog's Head Inn, so that is three days of apparently disconnected items, followed by a featureless lamp post."
He has asked that next year to get the Friends calendar, which is something I never thought would happen. (He also asked for an Animal Crossing calendar if they do one, as they are the sets he is most looking forward to next year. )"
You've got a good kid. Great taste
I like the lamp, but agree completely with the criticism of the good Cap'n.
Especially with HP, there's so many different items and things from Hogsmeade that could be mini-builds. They really should work a bit harder to make them identifiable rather than basic filler parts. As an adult, I appreciate the items as they can be used in a layout.
But, I think a kid would struggle to play with generic of undeveloped items.
A lamppost. Riveting
I get that it’s not the most exciting Harry Potter themed decoration, but they do need things for the exterior areas of Hogsmeade. As far as knowing where things go, they have added the patterns to the back of the tab on each door which match the flooring (or stone) of the areas where each item goes. Even Aberforth has the wood planking id’ing him as belonging to the bar in the bottom right corner.
My kids are also doing the 2019 and 2020 HP ACs this year, and tomorrow in 2019’s will be the fourth set of basically identical house banners, so while a simple lamppost isn’t exciting, at least it’s not the same thing we’ve seen three times already.
@WilsonPark:
My initial reaction to the NYTF reveal was that the first HPAC was severely underdeveloped, but watching these articles play out for the first two weeks was enough to convince me to go buy a copy and three-fer the entire calendar in the last eight days. And then I got ten more copies on deep clearance. It's not immediately obvious, but most of the calendar builds a cohesive scene. So did the 2020 HPAC, and so will this one. 2021 told the entire first story from the start to the point they get Sorted, and last year's was models and minifigs representing all eight films. Those two also had a playable game component, which probably plays better with the kids than adults.