Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 24

A different style Santa, more like Father Christmas or like the Dumbledore in the most recent Great Hall set would have been ideal.

The HP Advent is all around a great calendar. Though, as some indicated, they still kind of missed the mark on Day 24. Last year, we got Dumbledore on Day 23 and a chest of items and the owl on Day 24. Switching them would probably have been better. I also think that switching Day 23 and Day 24 around this year would also have worked better.

It puzzles me that this gift was saved until the last day. It’s not even that useful as it’s in no particular scale that’s of use.
Other than that this calendar has been mostly excellent. The best builds have been those that can come together to make a larger scene, like the Yule Ball or Common Room

This calendar had some great items and figures. I would have preferred some other than Harry, Ron, and Hermione since the same minifigures came in the Clock Tower from a couple of years ago.

But nothing as surprising as the Hogwarts Architect from last year's calendar. It would have been nice to have a big surprise like that for the last day or two.

While I have thoroughly enjoyed the HP calendar, I find it weird that Cedric and Krum weren't included to partner up Cho and Hermione. I'd have gladly sacrificed the Piano and Music stand / mic to accommodate them, because surely that should have had Prof. Flitwick with them as well....anyway, minor gripes aside, bring on 2021 version

This calendar was excellent again this year, but I enjoyed last year's a little more. LEGO really nailed it both times in terms of providing something holiday-related that also fills out your sets but could be playable all by itself if gifted to someone with no other HP LEGO. My favorite advent calendar this year, for the second year in a row. (I do think the 24th should have had a better gift!)

A much more even experience than 2019, without the same absolute highs (the chess set and the train), or the lows (the flags and days of food bags). Still a quality calendar, and definitely the one I'm most likely to buy the 2021 edition of, unless SW or City really come out swinging.

They are different, but I like both.

The common perception is that last year everything fit into a cohesive display together, but the Hogwarts Express and the chess board were two different, smaller scales. This year the same holds true, but we started off with nano-scale Hogwarts Castle and micro-scale Durmstrang ship and Beauxbatons carriage, and ended with a larger scale Triwizard Cup. Considering this is the third TWC they’ve produced, and they came up with a fresh take on it, I can forgive the scale issues.

Overall a pretty great calendar this year, but this would be the very definition of not sticking the landing. A very weird choice for Christmas Eve.

I enjoyed this one more, however while I love the three schools mini builds, they don't fit into the theme as well as they could.
Personally I would have loved to get different characters instead of the same ones as in the Clock Tower set, but they are needed in this set. I would happily sacrifice the two windows for Roger Davies and Karkaroff.

So glad my boys got the SW calendar this year. So much of this they already have from last year’s HP calendar or the clock tower set.

@Daniel8 said:
"Thanks for the daily review Capnrex101!

Also, @Huw I haven't quite got a response yet for the suggestions. If I'm doing anything wrong, sorry because I'm new here."

I doubt your doing anything wrong. You need people to back that idea for it to be put in place and sometimes good ideas can be buried as more get added. Also, Huw said he wouldn’t make site changes until the festive period is over, where there is a lot more traffic on the site.

Don’t worry, you just need to be patient and wait for it to be noticed.

Edit: after looking at your suggestions, which are good ones, it appears that they have been asked before several times, so when posting in the future, make sure that you aren’t repeating an idea.

Neat cup.

Thank you for the daily recaps and reviews. More than once I had to look up what it was I had just built:) I enjoyed both last year's and this year's calendars and I'm guessing next years will be fun, too. My favourite this year is the gramophone! Enjoy your Christmas!

Meh. The Cup that came with Cedric Diggory in HP minifigs series 1 is much better.

There was potential for this calendar due to the Yule Ball theme but much of the builds were goofy (old-timey record player) or out of place (wrapped-up broom). If you got the Hogwarts clock tower then you pretty much got all the minifigs and they aren't meant to be army builders like minifigs from the SWACs. Glad I got mine on clearance. At least the kids had fun opening the calendar each day....

I opened day 23 and 24 today. After some highs, I kinda feel like it went out like a wet fart.

@MandalorianCandidate :
Aside from the quartet of presents, everything in this HPAC corresponds to something seen on film. The gramophone specifically appears during the scene where McGonagall is teaching the students ballroom dancing. The broom was likely inspired by one of the two scenes when Harry receives brooms in the films. In HP1, shortly after the troll scene, he gets a Nimbus 2000 delivered as a parcel, and HP3 ends with the other students revealing that they already unwrapped his Firebolt before he got there. But in both cases, the brooms were wrapped, even if it was only brown craft paper. However, since the House presents in either HPAC don’t seem to be directly based on the film, the broom doesn’t have to match one that Harry received. It could be any broom that was gifted to, or from, any other Gryffindor student.

And half of the minifigs are unique to this year’s HPAC, with two of them being the first minifigs for those characters.

Why no picture of the pieces displayed on the box/board? I’d have liked to see how you set it up because my display is a rather underwhelming display of scattered pieces with little playability. We picked this up on discount after several days of watching Brickset unveil nice builds, but when I started setting things in the mat it just wasn’t making a good display to me personally. My oldest and I enjoyed the calendar, I don’t regret it at all, but I was hoping for a better overall display in the end.

Overall very pleased with this calendar. HP wins as my favorite for the second year in a row.
Ditto the thoughts that the gifts should have been saved for the 24th. While the music stand & microphone were interesting I consider them to be this years version of the house banners from last year. Tri-Wizard Cup was an interesting build but falls flat as the final gift this year. It's necessary to the theme of this calendar but doesn't give a big Wow as the final day's build. I know a lot of people didn't like the food table but I think it makes a really nice display when put together with other parts of the Yule Ball. I don't know what is my favorite part of this one yet but I plan to try to make sofas for each house if I can find the parts in appropriate colors.
City used to be my favorite of the Calendars with it's festive builds that could be incorporated into any holiday display but they've been pretty boring and mediocre the past few years. City I didn't even bother with as nothing in it appealed to me and it was severely lacking in holiday themed builds.
SW is hit & miss although this year's was definitely decent. I also opened last year's SW one and other than the minifigs I had to look up what exactly it was that I was building on several days.
Friends had some nice Christmasy builds a bit reminiscent of past City calendars and a definite improvement over last year to me.

@karrit:
The problem with the cup is that it was the big prize (along with fame). Putting it earlier in the spread makes it seem lesser.

For the sofas, is that supposed to be a Gryffindor sofa, or is that just how it turned out with the colors that were available to include in the set? I don’t really remember there being blue, green, or yellow sofas, so this might be based on a brown sofa with dark-red being an easier color to source.

@PurpleDave:
I don't know if the sofa is specific to the Gryffindor Common room but when I first saw it I thought about trying to make some for each house. It just looks comfy. I'll have to watch the movies again. I know there is a scene in the Slytherin Common room during the whole Polyjuice incident but I don't remember what the sofa Malfoy is sitting on looks like but I think it might have been longer. I can't remember if the brief glimpses of the Ravenclaw common room during Helena's scenes showed any furniture. I don't believe we ever saw Hufflepuff's rooms at all so it would be poetic license. I just figured it's a simple enough build to replicate for each house.

@karrit:
What I remember about the Slytherin common room, and what I can find evidence of, vary considerably. What I remember probably borrows more from the Chamber of Secrets than anything else, because I'm picturing a room that's either tiled or cut stone, and the only furnishings are a pair of sofas that face away from the entrance. If you look up pictures of the actual set, the sofas are still the same black leather (with dark-green pillows), but they're facing each other, and the room is completely different.

Anyways, I did actually look up info on the four common rooms recently, and besides mangling my recollection of Slytherin, I learned that the story never moves into the Hufflepuff common room, and the films skipped the scene where Luna gets Harry into the Ravenclaw common room. So if you only go by the films, only two of them were ever seen. In order to flesh out the series, you'd have to find a textual description, or a visual source other than the films. I'd actually suggest that the perfect reference for your purposes is the LEGO Harry Potter video games. The series is split into Years 1-4 and Years 5-7, and at least one of those two games allows you to locate, access, and explore all four House common rooms.

To me, the Patil twins were absolutely the highlight of this advent calendar; more student characters who haven't been seen in Lego form before are always a win in my book! I do particularly like the design of the Goblet of Fire model, too ^^

Great calendar.
Great reviews.
Merry Christmas everyone :-)