REVIEW: Advent calendar 2 December 2024

Yesterday’s model was a good start. Normally, after a minifigure, we would get something different for another day or two. But what will it be today? And how will today’s model score on my famous “house points” scale? Read on to see…

Opening the second door did as expected reveal no minifigure – but rather a bag of parts.

With 15 parts (one of which is a spare, i.e. not used) it is a decent amount for a daily model, though most parts are pretty small.

For those who haven’t had an Advent Calendar before, the instructions for the daily build is at the back of the door.

The instructions can at times be difficult to follow and I’ll often show multiple steps here on the blog to help guide how it is built. It isn’t really needed today, but I’ve shown it below as an example.

Today’s model sits on the stand we built yesterday and represents a statue of a gryffin (I think). It is a nice addition to the Great Hall, which we’re decorating in this year’s advent calendar.

But what is a griffin?

A griffin is a mythical creature that is half-eagle and half-lion. They have the head, wings, and front talons of an eagle, and the body, hind legs, and tail of a lion. They may have a tawny lion coat, spotted fur, or colorful feathers. Some griffins are depicted with wings, while others are not.

Google’s Gemini AI summary

Putting the statue on the stand, I realise the printed tile on the stand has Gryffindor’s mascot animal the lion (and in a rather Chinese inspired design), so maybe the statue is a lion too, but with a back plate for decorative purposes? Either will work I guess. Maybe without the back plate it would look too much like a koala bear or gummi bear (which it totally does).

I didn’t quite like how high the “wings” were sitting on the official version, so I’ve placed mine slightly lower as per below (also used on the photo above with the statue on the stand). Again, a minor issue, and as it is LEGO, you can rebuild it as you want.

The drawback of lowering the wings is the exposed stud you can see from the back, though depending on how you place the statue, that may not be visible.

Summary

Another good day. I like the combined model of the stand and statue. I guess we’ll see more of those in the coming days. It has a decent part count, but rather small parts and no particularly interesting or rare parts. But as noted, I do like the concept of this statue, and for something that scale, it does have a decent level of detail to it.

So mainly due to the concept, I will award it a score slightly above average, with 3.5 out of five house points.

So what will we get on 3 December? Is it too soon for another minifigure for Harry to interact with? Or maybe something to put on the Gryffindor table? Check back tomorrow to see what we got on the 2024 Advent Calendar page.

Till then, Build the Magic!