REVIEW: Advent calendar 7 December 2022

We are now a week into the 2022 advent calendar and some patterns emerge. From the symbols on the box, we should be starting on the third movie today. I wonder what model or minifigure we’ll get to represent that. Read on to see what we got…

The symbols on the doors show that today we will get the last of the three Chamber of Secrets models and tomorrow we’ll continue with the third movie.

7 December model

Behind door number 7, we got a moderately sized bag with parts. It is clear that we are back to building micro-scale. I sense a trend – two micro-scale buildings followed by a minifigure for each movie. Will be interesting to see if that holds throughout the calendar.

Today’s model is the Knight bus, standing on a road next to a light post. A great little model – and well associated with the third movie. It is built from 21 piecse, with another 5 spares, for a total of 26 pieces today. This is the second highest piece count to date.

It is as expected, from the symbol on the door, built on a bright orange 2×4 base. Interestingly, that is made two from 1×4 plates. I guess they didn’t have the 2×4 plates in production this year.

Below, I have as usual added step by step photos of how to build it, should any find the instructions hard to read. The contrast isn’t great with the black colours, unfortunately. Click on the photos to enlarge, which may help.

The Knight bus is not uncommon to LEGO Harry Potter collectors, with three minifigure scale versions released over the years; the most recent one in 2019. Below are some facts about the Knight bus, based on my review of the 2019 set.

The Knight Bus is a purple triple-decker bus that assists stranded wizards or witches through public transportation. It operates at a very fast speed and through magic it will be invisible to muggles and make obstacles jump out of its way, and can also fit through deceptively small spaces.

As for the name, JK Rowling herself has said:

“The Knight Bus was so-named because, firstly, knight is a homonym of night, and there are night buses running all over Britain after normal transport stops. Secondly, ‘knight’ has the connotation of coming to the rescue, of protection, and this seemed appropriate for a vehicle that is often the conveyance of last resort.“JK Rowling

Another interesting fact is that JK Rowling named the driver and the conductor of the Knight Bus in in the books after her two grandfathers, Ernest and Stanley. As we shall see, both appear as minifigures in this set.

Below you can seen the set 75957 – The Knight Bus from 2019 looked like. The micro-scale version captures the proportions rather well.

Summary

I think it is a great pick of model by the designers, as the Knight bus is perfectly associated with the third movie. The bus itself is rather simple, but well proportioned, and I really like it is on a landscape (roadside with lamp post). Overall, that makes it one of my favourites to date. It also has a very decent piece count (next highest to date), so I’ll give it a high(ish) score of 4.5 out of 5 house points.

That was a good start to the Prisoner of Azkaban. Wonder what will come next? The clock tower? Or maybe Hagrid’s Hut? We will soon find out. Be sure to check back on the 2022 Advent Calendar page tomorrow to see what we got.

Till then, Build the Magic!