Harry Potter Advent Calendar - Day 22
Posted by CapnRex101,
We have reached Hogwarts somewhat quicker than I had envisaged, creating surprisingly few options during the last three days Nevertheless, I hope to be impressed.
Let's find out...
Before entering the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony, Harry Potter encounters Draco Malfoy. This minifigure is therefore an appropriate addition to the Advent Calendar and looks excellent, wearing the same Hogwarts robe as Ron and Hermione from previous days. The metallic gold Hogwarts Crest on Draco's tie is particularly effective and corresponds with the source material.
The double-sided head was introduced for Draco Malfoy during 2018 and looks splendid, with both expressions conveying the character's unpleasant personality. Moreover, this blonde hair piece appears reasonably faithful to the onscreen student, again matching his other minifigure appearances from recent years.
Draco wields a dark brown wand, approximating the colour of his hawthorn wand onscreen. Three additional wands are also supplied, which are certainly welcome.
Overall - 4.0 - Such repetition of the same uniform could be considered disappointing, but I am pleased to receive a third student in suitable dress for his arrival at Hogwarts!
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8 comments on this article
It's the young Julian Sands!
I’m glad we are receiving three of the same torso. Now that’s fewer I’ll have to buy later for my Hogwarts moc.
I do think the hair is a bit bright, but I don’t think Lego would make the appropriate color to match..would plain tan look better?
And extra wands are welcome? If you’ve bought all of the sets like I have, I am swimming in wands. Almost as bad as brick separators.
@Sethro3 said:
"I’m glad we are receiving three of the same torso. Now that’s fewer I’ll have to buy later for my Hogwarts moc.
I do think the hair is a bit bright, but I don’t think Lego would make the appropriate color to match..would plain tan look better?
And extra wands are welcome? If you’ve bought all of the sets like I have, I am swimming in wands. Almost as bad as brick separators."
Nah wands are amazing pieces for detailing!
This minifigure would have been much better earlier in the calendar - as it is, it's backloaded with three similar minifigures over five days! He would have worked better IMO earlier in the calendar. In the book, Harry first meets Draco in Madam Malkins getting these very robes sized to him. The interaction between the two was largely positive other than the fact Harry didn't like Malfoy joking at the expense of Hufflepuff. Draco asked Harry which house he hoped to be sorted into, and said that he'd rather be a muggle than be sorted into Hufflepuff.
I feel like this was an important scene for Draco's character, and his initial desire to be Harry's friend. In hindsight I feel like the movies missed too many scenes that were key to humanizing the villians, whether it being the entire series starting from Vernon Dursleys's point of view, or some of the numerous memories viewed in the pensive revealing that Voldemort was a child by rape.
TLDR: It would've been cool to get Draco earlier to prevent this sudden deluge of minifigs and as a nod to the book.
@Sethro3 said:
"I’m glad we are receiving three of the same torso. Now that’s fewer I’ll have to buy later for my Hogwarts moc.
I do think the hair is a bit bright, but I don’t think Lego would make the appropriate color to match..would plain tan look better?
And extra wands are welcome? If you’ve bought all of the sets like I have, I am swimming in wands. Almost as bad as brick separators."
I have a special bag for extra wands, and always check before removing one from spure... I still miss all 2021 sets and the amount of wands is getting crazy X"D
Tho I probably can arm all the minifigs I have for big wizard battle (pirates and indians and cops and ninjas with wands... if only I had place X"D)
I’m going to say that they mixed up the order of Days 21-22, because Draco is encountered outside the Great Hall, and the table full of food only after they’ve all been Sorted. But I assume this was done to spread out the minifigs just a bit.
Also, this is the last non-spoiler day for HPAC 2021.
@Sethro3:
Many people use the intact wand sprues for architectural detail. The old style with the double-J sprue, is probably very expensive now due to how quickly they updated the mold. The new one is fragile enough that a steady supply of extras is needed if people want to keep building with them. But having parted out ten extra copies of HPAC 2019, I feel where you’re coming from. I have an impressive enough pile of leftover wands just from that set, and they only gave each minifig one sprue in that year.
@jkb said:
"It's the young Julian Sands!"
Funny AND true. He lived near me many, many years ago and it does look like him, both faceprints. Best laugh today ...
Having six unique minifigures in the calendar is great news for me as a collector and this is the first year I have bought one (although I managed to get the 2020 at the same time). Having recently started collecting Harry Potter sets and figures I like them and would say, at present, are more enjoyable then the Superhero or Star Wars collection I have (which to be fair have few buildings).