REVIEW: Advent calendar 17 December 2024

Yesterday, we got our fifth minifigure in this year’s advent calendar, so that probably rules out another one today. I wonder what we in that case will be getting instead? Another Christmas related model maybe as we close in on Christmas day? Read on to see what we got…

As expected, no minifigure today – but the usual bag of parts. In the bag, we find 19 pieces, of which two are spares, which will make it one of the biggest days so far in terms of part count.

From the parts, we can build a Hogwarts Express train on a round base, representing a model train built to run around a Christmas tree, which is a relatively common Christmas decoration in many homes.

Apart from the green base, the train consists of the steam engine and two carriages.

With the colours, it is easily recognisable, but somehow think it could have been improved maybe having black roofs for the carriages and having the small black tile on the steam engine being at the back to represent the roof there

Below, I’ve illustrated an alternative version, with the bricks in front those I’ve used to substitute some of those used in today’s model. I think that is better, and uses just one more part (though slightly bigger ones). I may however be biased in my assessment…

Summary

So, I’m a bit torn today. It is a really nice idea, and a good part count, but I do feel (as noted above) that the design could have be better. So overall, the score will be just above average, with 3.5 out of five house points.

I checked with the tree we got earlier (4 Dec), and that doesn’t fit on the base, being too small. Maybe we’ll get a bigger one tomorrow? If we get smaller trees early on in the advent calendar, we often get a larger one towards the end. Be sure to check back tomorrow on the 2024 Advent Calendar page to see what we got.

Till then, Build the Magic!