REVIEW: Advent calendar 1 December 2022

Finally, the calendar now shows 1 December and I can therefore, after months of suspense, open the first door of the advent calendar. What is behind the door? And what’s the overall theme of the calendar? Read on as we start the 2022 Harry Potter advent calendar review…

Before, I get started, as the blog has readers from New Zealand to Hawaii, spanning pretty much all time zones, I will as previous years keep the title photo without any spoilers – just open the link when you’re ready to see what the calendar had to offer each particular day. It may be a late post for those in New Zealand, and very early one for any in Hawaii (maybe even posted before the day has arrived there).

LEGO Advent calendars

In 2019 we got the first LEGO Harry Potter advent calendar, with the models centred around Harry’s first Christmas at Hogwarts. We got some nice models, including Harry and Ron with the knitted sweaters they got from Molly Weasley. Last year – in 2020 – we moved forward to the forth year, with the Yule ball being the main storyline. While some overlap in figures, that calendar was a good supplement to the Clocktower set, which also had the Yule ball as theme.

In 2021, we returned Harry’s first year at Hogwarts – more specifically following Harry’s Journey to Hogwarts. So it wasn’t particular focused on Christmas as such. But it did include a little game, though I’m not sure it could keep the attention for long (though I did publish a set of house rules to make it more interesting).

This year, I had been hoping for Christmas at the Burrow as in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But the box clearly tells otherwise. Rather, it seems to be about micro-scale models – like a photo-album with pictures from the various movies. Having just finished the 2018 Hogwarts Castle, micro-scale is nice continuation for me, but I would imagine many had hoped for most models to be minifigure scale.

Turning over the box, we can see more of the game board, but to be honest, I’ve no idea what it is like. A QR code (and text written in multiple languages at the bottom of the lid, when opened, links to the game instructions. This is great, as no instructions were provided last time.

I’ll leave those for another day, as I’m very keen to see what’s behind door number 1.

1 December model

My expectation was to have Harry Potter looking at me from behind the door. He has often been the first model we got, but not this year. Instead we got a good sized bag – really good sized.

Counting the bricks carefully, I got to 35 bricks (two of which turned out to be spares). This is a lot for an advent calendar model! With so many bricks and just a very small instruction on the back of the door to show how to build it, it can get tricky. Below, I’ve shown how to build it step by step for those who might struggle making sense of the instructions.

Say hello to Ollivanders’ wand shop at Diagon Alley. That was one of the first places Harry visited in the first movie.

We’ve seen it a couple of times in minifigure scale, most lately in the 2020 Diagon Alley Set. The photo below is from my review of that amazing set.

Summary

So is it a good start? I will award today’s model 4.5 out of five house points. It is a nice looking model, with a fantastic piece count – and thus a good start of December. Maybe it should have been a five? It is hard to score the first model, when you don’t have any other models to compare with.

What will come on 2 December? Our first minifigure – or another micro-scale model? And will we once again see a model from the first movie? Check back tomorrow to see on the 2022 Advent Calendar page.

Till then, Build the Magic!