Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 12
Posted by CapnRex101,
The requisite fireplace which appears in several LEGO Advent Calendars emerged on day eleven, integrating some vacant clips. I wonder whether something will occupy those clips today.
Find out after the break...
An unusual window emerges today, including decorative foliage across the lintel. These green and red elements contrast against the tan and dark tan elements underneath. Moreover, I like the glass connected to the windowsill and assembling the model sideways was sensible. The plain 1x4 tiles that flank the window appear bland though and the window is rather low beside minifigures.
Today's model includes two bars which are evidently intended to connect with yesterday's clips. The resulting structure looks reasonable in my opinion, although the gap between them seems somewhat awkward. However, this does allow you to adjust their relative angles which is good when deciding how to display these items together and the consistent colour scheme between this window and the fireplace is appealing.
Overall - 3.5 - I appreciate the concept and colour scheme of this model, although its execution leaves something to be desired.
50 likes
21 comments on this article
Oh, now I know what is! When I opened it this morning I was deeply confused.
Was confused of what it was until i remebered the clip on yesterdays item. Thought it was a decorated window. In the end it was, but make more sence with the other. I assume there wiil be one more thing for this condtruction
My kids built it today and asked me what it was. I told them they would have to wait for the daily Brickset review as I also had absolutely no clue what it was supposed to be.
Is that supposed to be a glass of water then?
That part confuses me the most.
My daughter thought it was a sleigh especially due to the orientation of the instructions. But once it was built she was unsure. We came here for verification that it did indeed clip to yesterday’s fireplace.
Subject identification aside, I like the concept of various builds joining up in the Advent Calendars. I think I'd like to see them play with this (and refine this) more in the future.
This might be particularly effective with the Star Wars calendars - although 2020 has the Holiday Special to unite this year's calendar, the SW theme has 11 movies and a number of TV series to work with, often resulting in a random collection of fun items. Having some decorated Death Star or Naboo Palace walls that connect up would be a fun way to make these calendars more cohesive.
@AustinPowers said:
"My kids built it today and asked me what it was. I told them they would have to wait for the daily Brickset review as I also had absolutely no clue what it was supposed to be. "
Watch out @capnRex101, I'm inspired to refer other difficult questions as well: "I'm not sure where Lego babies come from, go ask Brickset."
Thought it might be part of the Prefects Bathroom with the blue piece running water until looking here .
@Jelippo:
If you've ever been to a fancy party, any flat surface tends to collect used glasses, especially windowsills. Catering companies started placing small tables that are really tall around event spaces to attract those glasses so they'd be easier to locate and bus.
@unslipped:
It works really well for the HPAC because the school years always encompass Christmas in some way, even if the movies don't always show it. For SW, if they'd started out by focusing on a single movie, there would have only been one year out of the first six that included anything wintery, while at least three would have featured desert, and one might have included a volcano. If you try to make multi-day builds, you'd end up with a lot of spacecraft that have a clear weak point where a Technic pin has to be incorporated to connect the two halves.
We were very confused. Thought it was Dumbledore’s grave for a minute!
@ChrisW81 said:
"We were very confused. Thought it was Dumbledore’s grave for a minute!"
I didn't want to say it out loud, but that was my first impression too.
I think the problem is the horizontal orientation of the instruction. I had absolutely zero clue this was supposed to connect to the other build. It totally looked like an open grave to me. Didn't want to frighten my kids so didn’t say anything.
my daughter tought it was a photo booth. where you can have a photo taken from you and your date to the christmas party.
So harry potter and cho chang are posing in front of the booth in our setup
@AustinPowers:
Of course, anyone who looks ahead a day or two, fully researches the calendars from the day they're first revealed, or accidentally stumbled across any spoilers would know exactly how this will play out, but even without any advance knowledge, it's easy to draw some conclusions just from what we've seen so far.
A good rule of thumb for Advent Calendar builds is that they don't have the luxury of wasted parts. If there's an unused clip on one build, and it's not clearly intended as a decorative element (like last year's Slytherin and Hufflepuff presents, which used clip plates as bows on their ribbons), there's something that will attach to it on a different day. This is in sharp contrast to regular sets, where many castle sets had extra clips spread around the interior so there were plenty of places to stash your sword or bow when you get sick of hauling them around all the time.
Since the only things we've seen so far that can connect to yesterday's clips would basically turn the fireplace into an after-the-fact wand rack (unless you flip the Durmstrang ship on its side and clip the yard), it's a safe bet that this is the center of three pieces. Of course, now there are twin bars on this window, so it's hard to say which component is the center, or if there might even be more than three pieces to this build.
I created an account so that I could tell all of you how much I enjoy the commentary on this page. I too find myself here every day to identify what I have built. All of you have made this miserable year much better, and I thank you for that. Keep up the good work!
So glad it’s not just me that was utterly confused with this one.
@ChrisW81 said:
"We were very confused. Thought it was Dumbledore’s grave for a minute!"
Well, Lego has done a couple of graveyard sets, but I don't think they'd go there in an Advent Calendar...
@TheOtherMike:
That was actually a suggestion that popped up for how to work all eight movies (or at least all seven years) into the HPAC.
PurpleDave said: "...many castle sets had extra clips spread around the interior so there were plenty of places to stash your sword or bow when you get sick of hauling them around all the time."
I always thought it was because Lego designers suffered from unounophobia (the irrational fear of 1x1 bricks), possibly due to long-term exposure to ABS vapours. They'd go to any length to avoid 1x1s, like clips, bars, round bricks or nonsensical decorative details. An utter nuisance, as a kid I remember frequently "decapitating" clips as I rarely used them but always was short on 1x1 plates.
@axeleng:
The only clips I remember my brother and I "clipping" were those that had already broken. Most of those were probably the Type 2 1x1 plate w/ vertical clip, as even the improved clip design still wasn't robust enough. But no, if you looked at the full array of images on many old Castle sets, they showed stuff attached to clips that are left empty in the official instructions. For whatever reason, they've shifted over to the point where clips are pretty much never used unless they serve a specific purpose. Usually you'll attach something to them in the course of the build, but on rare occasions they will serve a decorative purpose. It's been a long time since I remember building a set where there's a clip sticking out of the middle of a wall that doesn't have anything attached to it.
Thankfully your review has let me know what this is supposed to be . . .
We were confused too but after turning it in every direction decided on window. Didn't twig about the clips thought as my son built the fireplace and me this one, I didn't remember it, just thought the bars were decoration :) thanks for the review again!