This was my first Lego advent calendar and it was an awful experience. I was so disappointed in the first five days, that I just did the entire thing today. There were a few cute abstract micro builds (dementors at the lake, the Whomping Willow/Ford Anglia scene, dragon escaping Gringotts, the Knight Bus), but most were not iconic moments or were completely confusing as to what they were (one of the builds was possibly a Triwizard Cup or the cauldron that Voldemort was reanimated in, I think and don't get me started on the Order of the Phoenix builds). The minifigures were bland (why is Harry ALWAYS the same?!), too. I liked the Sword of Gryffindor, Azkaban prisoner tile and "Harry Potter" entry paper name tile with the goblet of fire. I wish that there had been microfigures, like the Dementors, with other builds, such as Sirius Black in dog form with the Knight Bus or maybe a goblin with Gringott's. As an aside, I love the multiple shades of purple in the Slughorn build, but does he count as a minifigure or a microbuild? I will likely never get a Lego advent calendar again. Even the game that comes with it is lame.

An advent Calendar is something you display while counting down the days till Christmas. This Harry Potter Advent calendar is the most BORING, NON-Holiday Calendar I have ever gotten. The packaging makes it seem like it's going to be festive, but it's not. It's an eyesore to display. Once you open the box up to display the calendar it is a boring CG picture of a desk in front of a window, with colored dots and a piece of lego to indicate the doors. Same dot, same lego for every door, just different colors. And not even holiday colors. Or harry potter colors. Just random mud colors. This should be sold as "Generic Box with 24 mundane doors that open and contain Harry Potter themed Legos." Also, the box is flimsy. Even if the Lego pieces inside are nice, I would never buy this again and do NOT recommend.

This calendar was a good calendar, but it was hard to tell what some of the builds were. For example, on day 13, I got the Room of Requirement, and the build was vague and hard to distinguish. Also, I think that the Triwizard Cup from day 11 could have been done better. Other than these few things, the figure selection is great, although the Harry figure is a bit overused. Some of the microbuilds were great inclusions, like the Whomping Willow from day 4, the mini Hogwarts Express from day 23, and the Weasly’s house, the Burrow, from day 20. The inclusion of the game built into the calendar is a nice thing, but takes away from of the festiveness we could have gotten in the builds, instead of there being just three things per movie, 2 items/scenes and 1 minifigure. Overall, this was a pleasant calendar, and I think Lego did a good job this year round.

I got this at a discount price tbh or I wouldn't get any overpriced Advent Calendar sets. Basically, this Advent Calendar is a summary of all eight Harry Potter movies. Seven minifigures (or eight, if you want to include Slughorn Couch) are there to remind you how amazing the story is if the writer spent enough time crafting her own work than commenting on social issues that ruined her own reputation. I think some builds are confusing because the box design only allows each compartment to have a one-step instruction. Somehow, I felt a sense of accomplishment after finishing it... 7/10