For a little Harry Potter fan who’s also a massive Lego fan aged 3&3/4 today was long awaited. He knew that like last year his advent Calendar this year was Lego Harry Potter. He also remembered that Harry was inside number 1 last time and wondered if this would be the same this year. So you can imagine that when he opened the first window and pulled out the little bag how excited he was and at first all he wanted to know was what exactly he had got. It was only then we spotted that the picture on the reverse of the first window showed Harry but what he had received was the gramophone. He reckons the Elves have been playing tricks and they mixed it up and Harry is hiding behind a different number. I hope for his sake Harry is just hiding and not missing because we won’t know until Christmas Eve. In the meantime he’ll add the gramophone to his Hogwarts Great Hall, Whomping Willow, Quidditch, Graveyard, lake, forbidden forest, night bus and privet drive and room of requirement sets and await Santa and his birthday adding The Burrows, Astronomy Tower, Clock Tower and Hagrids Hut. Saving has started for the Four classrooms coming in 2021.

Loved the Goblet of Fire theme and it pairs nicely with the Clock Tower build (75948). That is a plus and a minus.

First, let's review as a standalone

Minifigures: a lot of figures. You have the main three: Harry, Hermione and Ron. Good to get them here in their Yule Ball outfits - so you don't have to purchase a more expensive set to get them. However, we always get Harry, Ron and Hermione and these are duplicate figures. So two sides of the coin.

The Patel Twins were Harry and Ron's dates, so great to get them here and in their complementary outfits reversed from each other. Always great when you get a new minifigure. Cho Chang is a nice addition in her Yule Ball outfit. Wish the printing on her gown went to the back around the bottom.

Unfortunately, if this is the only HP set someone gets, it is incomplete for minifigures. It has the Yule Ball, but missing the champions. They are found in the aforementioned Clock Tower set. Cho may have been Harry's wish date, but she pairs with Cedric, who is missing here. Hermione is missing Viktor. And, of course Fleur only appears in the other set. Her escort, Roger Davies never gets a mention and is absent from both. So to have an almost complete play, you must get the much more expensive Clock Tower set. Yes, I have it and yes, will be pairing, but not everyone has that option.

The minifigures moved ithe advent from a 3 to a 4 for me. I've noticed that a lot of reviewers did not understand the differences in the twins. I did appreciate the reversal of their outfits, but wish there was printing all the way around as well on all of the gowns.

Sets

Tri-Wizard: having been a Star Wars Advent calendar fan for many years, the little builds are always fun to get. The Hogwarts castle, Durmstrang ship, Beauxbaton ship, Goblet of Fire and Tri-Wizard Cup are fun builds. The only one I really didn't like was the Tri-Wizard cup. Wish it could have been 3 sided somehow. And then the Gryffindor couch was kind of strange, but Harry did sit on it with the egg. Getting the Tri-Wizard cup as the final day was kind of a let down - maybe because it didn't quite translate to the mini build.

Yule Ball: the program that came with Harry was beautifully printed and such a unique piece. Liked the piano, music stand and microphone (although there is a microphone piece that could have been used), the gramophone (it is a dance after all), and the winter decorations. The two-sided table build was great as well. The Christmas trees were meh, but are usually part of a LEGO advent calendar (a la Friends and City). They at least match the theme.

Christmas decorations: the house colored presents were a throwback to last year's advent calendar and there are usually presents in a LEGO advent calendar. The wrapped Firebolt was great, although the wrong movie tie in. It can certainly be playable on its own with the bigger sets.

The fireplace and attachments are strange and seem out of place. Are they supposed to go with the couch and be part of the Gryffindor common room? They are nice, festive builds, but the illustrations on the calendar doors show them as lying down.

That leads me to a suggestion:

Usually on your webiste there is a listing by day of what you get. I think that would tremendously help out with the explanation. For example, the gramophone goes on the table - that's a 2 day build. The fireplace and attachments could benefit from a named/description list.

Playability

This certainly has a lot of elements along specific themes. However, as a standalone, there is not a complete scene that can be done other than when Harry and Ron are sitting by the table with the twins. For people who get just this, I can understand a level of disappointment - it is like an accessory pack to the other sets that have come out.

Overall, I am very happy with what we have and it will pair nicely with my other sets.

Hope there is a calendar next year. Interested to see what it will be.

Final note on the price: almost immediately after I bought this at the LEGO store (LOVE the staff at my local store!), I found this for $10 less at Wal-Mart.

The theme of this advent calendar was really cohesive and included lots of great Yule Ball and Gryffindor common room details from The Goblet of Fire. I feel like this set would be a good (cheaper) stand-in for the Clock Tower for the Yule Ball play or display value. You get Harry, Ron, and their dates (yes, those two girls wearing pink and orange are supposed to look similar, you're not getting duplicates) plus Hermione and Cho.

I really enjoyed the "backdrop" three-day build of the fireplace and two frames to go on each side, the addition of the chocolate frog was very cute. My husband and I are both big Potter and Lego fans and we got a kick out of rearranging the scene as we got more builds. The micro builds representing the three schools and other aspects of the Triwizard tournament are neat. All in all, a fun way to get a bit of Lego each day and have a themed scene to arrange at the end!

Where to begin. I got gifted this for the Christmas season and I am extremely dissapointed and confused. I feel bad for my family who wasted their money on this purchase.

First. The contents of each day's plastic bag do not match what is displayed on the instructions (see photo attached in review). Secondly, the contents of each bag do not have all the correct parts. So in the rare case that you do happen to find the instructions on a following day for a previous day's lego pieces, you still cannot put it together because the pieces do not all match. Thus meaning several mistakes were made in the packaging of this calendar. I'd love to return and replace this but it was a gift and we are already a week into the month of December, so it is a waste now. Purchased at Target....

I strongly advise Lego to figure out why their quality control is poor.