Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 24
Posted by CapnRex101,
Following three weeks of interesting minifigures and models, this impressive Harry Potter Advent Calendar has reached its ending. I hope the final offering will maintain the high standard we have come to expect.
Find out after the break...
Various accessories are provided today, in preparation for beginning life at Hogwarts. They include a medium nougat chest, an opening book, some chocolate and Hedwig! These elements are enjoyable and I am pleased to see the printed Wingardium Leviosa tile again, although providing these items on the concluding day seems strange because they are not thematically linked with Christmas.
However, an exclusive 2x3 tile is also provided and improves this selection of accessories. Harry's acceptance letter for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is great, displaying the Hogwarts crest towards the top and somewhat legible writing underneath! This letter seems enormous beside minifigures but that has allowed the graphic designer to include great detail.
In case you are curious, the letter reads as follows:
Dear Mr Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that, as you have now turned eleven years of age and have the necessary talents, you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Sincerely,
McGonagall
Overall - 4.0 - Despite seeming unsuitable for the final day of this Advent Calendar, these accessories are appreciated and the Hogwarts acceptance letter is excellent.
Christmas appears prominently in each Harry Potter book, hence 75964 Harry Potter Advent Calendar seems perfectly suited to the festive season. The minifigure collection has been wonderful, comprising several popular characters and four completely exclusive variants. Moreover, the accompanying items are consistently focused upon the Great Hall, with only a couple of exceptions.
Unfortunately, there have been some repetitious gifts. The house banners should certainly have been packaged in pairs, for example. Nevertheless, I am extremely impressed with this Harry Potter Advent Calendar and hope LEGO will create further Advent Calendars in subsequent years. There is certainly ample festive source material to draw upon from across the Wizarding World!
I hope you have enjoyed my discussion of the Harry Potter Advent Calendar. Which items have been your favourites and have you been satisfied with the Advent Calendar? Let us know in the comments.
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21 comments on this article
Thank you for the great reviews. I'm looking forward to next year's calendar. I hope @Norikins suggestion of a Santa Hagrid comes true. That would be awesome. Merry Christmas Lego peeps!
Indeed not very Christmas-y, but nice either way. That letter tile is amazing.
I may have to pick up one of these calendars after all. I followed it on here every day, and while it had some weaker days, many of the builds are really charming.
It really feels like they stuck the landing with this inaugural Harry Potter calendar. A great selection of figures and builds that were (largely) thematically appropriate to the venue & the season.
Picked this one up for 19 quid today for my gf for next year, she doesn't care for Lego much but loves Harry Potter (basically the opposite of me then). Don't mind dropping that much on it considering how good its contents are, miles ahead of the other calendars this year IMO.
As for today's entry - would've saved Dumbledore for last. Today's offering would have been a better fit for day 2.
I actually did like having this on the last day, as it felt like the invitation is directed to everyone who got the advent calendar. :-) As in: "All who received this set, you are hereby invited to join HP and friends to a grand, adventurous time at Hogwarts!"
I was gonna write the same as @Golem25; very surprised that Dumbledore was not the last day. Today's excellent selection of parts would have been perfect on day 2 after the Harry on day 1.
Overall really happy with the calendar though and hope they will make another one next year.
Happy Holidays everyone!
Nah, SW won this round.
Overall, a really good calendar. As stated yesterday, I agree that Dumbledore should have been today's entry. He looks suitable for the part! I would have also combined the banners into two days. Today was not really a build, but it does give us three more printed parts, a book piece (cannot have enough of those), and the owl. After seeing what SW got, I would still give the point to HP. I hope they do another calendar next year. It looks like there is more than enough fan base.
Thanks for the reviews. I was surprised LEGO produced a Harry Potter one. It is a great calendar for a first time. Maybe LEGO will see enough reasons to produce a second one next year. I think today's gift should've been earlier in the calendar (day 2 maybe) just like everyone else has said.
This is one of the best calendars of the last few years, especially as most of the builds are actually usefull
My son is very happy with the Star Wars calendar every year but my daughter is much trickier. Got this one for her as she's a bit of Potter fan and, for the most part, it has exceeded expectations.
I very much like the idea of broadly theming this around The Philosopher's Stone and overall it works very well -- in fact, it gives a much more cohesive "whole" scene than any of the Star Wars calendars have ever done. I do hope they carry this forward to next year and produce a calendar themed around The Chamber of Secrets! If this works, we have another six years of book-themed HP calendars we can look forward to!
Yes, the House Banners were a bit repetitive but in the context of creating the whole scene they work well and were necessary. I had guessed that Hedwig and assorted accessories would on the 23rd with Dumbledore on the 24th but, overall, can't complain! The great thing is that all of the items have a role outside of the calendar scene: everything works well as extra accessories for the Great Hall or the Clock Tower sets. The Star Wars calendar feels quite random by comparison.
LEGO, if you're reading -- KEEP IT UP...!! We want more like this!! :o)
Today the Harry Potter advent gave us a great set of pieces including the chest, Hedwig and some nice tiles including an exclusive 2x3. Star Wars gives us a exclusive Santa Porg with some fairly common parts and a few uncommon ones like its head piece. The Porg also had a nice present build.
But I believe the Harry Potter has to take the final point: here is the final score
HP : 14
SW : 10
Merry Christmas Everyone and a Happy New Year
Thanks to @Matt_z_ for starting this great Advent Calendar score.
Thanks very much @CapnRex101 for the great Harry Potter advent calendar daily reviews.
HP may have scored higher, but the repetitive banners and the lack of a seasonal twist to the last day's offering means my wife was not best pleased with her calendar overall. She thought my SW calendar was far better, to the point that I swapped days with her a few times.
@VictorvanSchagen:
In that regard, it may have made more sense to lead with Hedwig than conclude.
@blue_squadron:
Six if you go by books, or maybe seven if consider that these are really based on the movies. Fantastic Beasts might be an option, as well, but I don’t think those have as strong a following as the original set of stories. Technically, there’s also the two sequel plays, but I suspect we’ll never see anything based on them until they turn them into movies. And you know sometime down the road they won’t be able to resist. Maybe after they run out of Fantastic Beasts movies...
Honestly, I loved everything. Granted the tables & banners are rather bland & don’t fit in an unmodified Great Hall very well, but are nice inclusions.
The exclusive minifigures are great. All are, but I already have the others from the sets.
The printed parts are brilliant & another of the newer book pieces is always welcome. It’ll go in Birch Books.
To me the HP calendar wins hands down. I don't even care about repetitions as I open up the calendar in one go anyway to use its contents for decorating my enlarged great hall MOC. Can't say the same about this year's SW calendar, where most of the pieces are destined to go straight in the parts bin. They should try this concept of providing more or less of a cohesive scene in next year's SW calendar too.
I know ASDA is currently selling these for £5 so if you want to pick one up, well worth it!
I'm tempted to get one of these now, and save it until next year, because this calendar looked really good.
But I live in hope for that Ninjago calendar that we all ask for, every year.
Great reviews as always Cap. Bring on Year 2, a calendar based on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets! Happy Christmas everyone & keep up the great work Brickset.
They should've had Dumbledore in an exclusive Santa-like garb for day 24, and today's in at day 23.
Still, an enjoyable calendar and I'd imagine these things would go nicely inside the Great Hall set.
My Harry Potter Advent Calendar was faulty :(
I did not get this really neat, day 24 piece. Instead I got a second 23, So I have two Dumbledores instead.