Book magic!

Books can be truly magical, transporting the reader in time and space to another world, another time – with the readers imagination filling in the blanks. To me, the Harry Potter books, definitely belongs in that category. It therefore felt like a good idea to turn the micro-scale builds from the 2020 advent calendar into a book scene. Here’s what I did…

The scene

While very different, some of my favourite models in the 2020 LEGO Harry Potter advent calendar were the three micro-scale builds:

• 2 December – Hogwarts Castle
• 3 December – Durmstrang Ship
• 4 December – Beauxbatons Carriage

Back then, I combined them into a single scene with the two visiting wizarding schools arriving at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament. As seen below, this included a few blue plates as water, and a simple rock structure to lift Hogwarts, so it could better be seen behind the ship and flying carriage.

But what about the book?

In recent years, LEGO has published a number of brick built books, including numerous Harry Potter themed ones. I’ve reviewed all of those in the posts listed below.

• Hogwarts Moments:
  • Gryffindor – Transfiguration Class
  • Slytherin – Potions Class
  • Hufflepuff – Herbology Class
  • Ravenclaw – Charms Class
• Monster book of Monsters

But the idea to turn the micro-scale scene into a book MOC came from looking at another LEGO book set: The H.C. Andersen – LEGO Creative Storybook (40291), which was a GWP (gift with purchase) back a while ago, but is still available as a store exclusive from the LEGO Store in Copenhagen, Denmark.

So basically, I built a “book frame” around the scene I had, with the three micro-scale builds adding a 3D pop-up effect. While I didn’t have instructions available when first posted, these have now been added (see this post).

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The initial version had the book sides lying loose on top, but I’ve subsequently added some hinges underneath to make it all hang together. That is easier if you move it around, but optional, if you only have it for display at home.

Overall, this build is not too part intensive, and with plenty of scope to adapting the concept to the bricks you may have available yourself. And it is easy to change the scene to any other smaller MOC (ideally 10 x 14 studs) you have built, whether micro-scale or minifigure scale.

Looking forward, I’ve got a review coming up of one of the 2018 sets, which I’ve never got around to build back then. I’ve also got a few posts about modifying sets – and another building from my Diagon Alley MOC to present. Busy times ahead – so stay tuned.

Till then, Build the Magic!