REVIEW: Advent calendar 1 December 2023

Finally, the clock ticked over to 1 December (in my part of the world) and I can therefore, after months of anticipation, open the first door of the advent calendar. Has it been worth the wait? And how does it differ from previous years’ calendars? Read on as we start the 2023 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).

History of LEGO Harry Potter 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. The following year – in 2020 – we moved forward to the forth year at Hogwarts, with the Yule ball being the main storyline. While some overlap in figures, that calendar was a really good supplement to the Clocktower set, which also had the Yule ball as an overall 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).

2022 was different, with all models (apart from minifigures) being micro-scale models. There was minifigure and two such microscale models for each moving making up the 24 models. They presented like a photo-album with pictures from the various movies, but also functioned as a game (though to be honest, I never tried it).

Now it is 2023, and we got a new advent calendar. Have have for a number of years been hoping for Christmas at the Burrow as in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but as the box shows, we are going to Hogsmeade in winter time this year, which is a really good theme as well, and links well to the Hogsmeade Village Visit set a few years back, last year’s Shrieking Shack and this year’s Hogwarts Express with Hogsmeade station.

As usual, when opening the flap to reveal the 24 doors, you get a scenery to set up the models on. I’m looking forward to populating this during December. Let’s get started right here and right now…

1 December model

In both 2019 and 2020 we got Harry Potter on 1 December. So the last couple of years I had expected something similar, but both in 2021 and 2022 we did get something else. So this year I was curious in terms of what could be waiting behind the first door.

Guess what, it was Harry Potter!

In 2020, we got some nice accessories with the model, but this year it is “just” a minifigure with a set of wands.

Here you can see what the minifigure looks like from both front and back. Both torso and head pieces are dual-printed, with back printing on the torso (fairly basic though) and two different facial expressions for the head.

Initially, I thought it was a strange mix with the dark red hood when the jacket was blue. I thought the outfit was from the snowball fight scene in front of the Shrieking Shack in The Prisoner of Azkaban and the photo below that I found seemed to support this, though it was hard to see the colour of the hoodie Harry is wearing under the jacket.

Luckily I found a studio photo with the outfit and it confirms the dark red colour is a good match for the movie scene (dark purple might have worked even better).

Summary

So is it a good start? I will award today’s model 3.5 out of five house points. It is a pretty good minifigure. Mostly basic figure parts and accessories, but pulled up from an average score due to the good fit with the movie and the rather rare hood piece being included. I was considering giving it a four. It is always hard to score the first model, when you don’t have any other models to compare with.

What will come on 2 December? A minifigure-scaled model for Harry to interact with? Or will we see a micro-scale model as we got heaps of last year? Check back tomorrow to see on the 2023 Advent Calendar page.

Till then, Build the Magic!