Outside, it gets dark earlier, the rain is drumming against the window and there is a pot of tea on the table. For many of you, these are exactly the weeks when the best crafting season of the year begins. For this, we have two kits in our range that fit this feeling perfectly and that you don’t have to build alone in your hobby room in the basement, but together with your partner and your children at the kitchen table:
the Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle and the
Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Express.
Both models are so-called book nooks. These are small dioramas that slide onto the shelf between your novels just like a book, opening an illuminated view into another world. Anyone who walks past the shelf in the evening suddenly sees warm light between the book spines and looks down a narrow alley straight into Hogwarts or onto Platform 9 ¾.
In this post, we show you what makes the two sets special, which scenes you will recreate and why they are so well suited as a family project.
Why Hogwarts is such a good fit right now
Hardly any story feels as much like autumn and winter as Harry Potter. The fire crackling in the Gryffindor common room, candles floating above the tables of the Great Hall and the first snow on the grounds around the castle are firmly part of the picture we all have in our heads. With the two book nooks, you bring this cosy atmosphere into your living room, and not as ready-made decoration, but as something you have built with your own hands.
On top of that, there is an occasion that many families have been eagerly awaiting for a long time. On 25 December 2026, the new Harry Potter series launches on HBO Max, with its first season telling the story of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”. Dominic McLaughlin plays Harry, Arabella Stanton takes on the role of Hermione and Alastair Stout can be seen as Ron. For children who are discovering the story for the very first time, this is a big moment. For you parents, who may have grown up with the books yourselves, it is a wonderful opportunity to experience this world together once again, along with new scenes that did not appear in the books in this way. For example, the moment when Ron receives his Hogwarts letter.
The weeks leading up to Christmas are therefore ideal for getting into the mood for the series launch together. In the evenings, you can read a chapter from the first book aloud, and at the weekend you can complete a few build stages. By the time the first episode airs, Hogwarts and the Express will already be glowing on the shelf next to the TV.
The Hogwarts Castle: a window into the school of witchcraft and wizardry
In the stories, Hogwarts Castle is far more than a building. It is the place where Harry finds a home for the first time, with moving staircases, forbidden corridors and four houses that every child can name instantly. Our book nook captures exactly this feeling. The architecture is based on the depiction from the films that has shaped generations of fans, and condenses the castle into a nook 23 centimetres tall.
The appeal lies in the sense of depth. As with every good book nook, the façades and towers are layered one behind the other, so that when you look into the nook, you feel as if you are gazing through a narrow passageway into the vastness of the castle. The walls, window arches and roofs are already printed onto the wood in colour. This means you don’t have to paint anything and can concentrate fully on slotting the parts together. This is a big advantage for children in particular, because the result looks finished and coherent from the very first build stage.
The best moment comes right at the end. As soon as you switch on the LED lighting, the corridors appear in a warm glow, as if torches were burning there. The light falls from the windows and brings the scene to life, as if Harry, Ron and Hermione had just turned the next corner. Be sure to try it out in a darkened room, because only then does the castle unfold its full effect. Children love pressing the switch one more time before bedtime and taking a peek into the school of witchcraft and wizardry.
The Castle also offers plenty of material for storytelling. While you build it up tower by tower, you can talk with your children about where Gryffindor Tower is, where the Great Hall can be found and which secret passages Fred and George knew about. In this way, the kit almost incidentally becomes a little journey through the story. The Hogwarts Castle will be released in mid-November 2026 and can already be pre-ordered from us.
The Hogwarts Express: departure from Platform 9 ¾
Every adventure begins with a train journey. At 11 o’clock on 1 September, the Hogwarts Express leaves the hidden Platform 9 ¾ at London’s King’s Cross station and takes the young witches and wizards to the Scottish Highlands. For Harry, this journey is the moment when his old life ends and his new one begins. He meets Ron in the compartment, buys sweets from the trolley for the first time and meets Hermione, who is looking for Neville’s toad. Hardly any scene from the first book stays in children’s memories quite like this one.
Our book nook captures precisely the moment before departure. The scarlet steam locomotive stands at the platform, waiting for the pupils. Above it stretch the brick arches of the station, which give the scene its characteristic atmosphere and at the same time frame the sense of depth. At 23 centimetres tall and 11 centimetres wide, the diorama fits perfectly between two books, and the bold red of the locomotive makes a striking statement on the shelf.
Here, too, the integrated LED lighting creates that special effect. The warm light bathes the platform and locomotive in a mysterious atmosphere that is perfect for cosy reading evenings. If you have just read aloud the chapter about the first train journey, you can then switch on the light and look at the scene together with the children. The wooden parts are precisely laser-cut and already printed, so the brick texture of the arches and the details of the locomotive stand out without brush or paint.
With 238 individual parts, the Express offers a relaxing but not too easy challenge. The Hogwarts Express is already in stock with us, and you can pre-order the Hogwarts Castle right now. Side by side on the shelf, the two models tell the story of the journey from the platform to the castle.
How to turn the build into a family evening
You are experienced modellers and know your way around glue, brushes and airbrushes. With the Tiny Adventures, you can safely leave all of that in the cupboard. The precise slot-together system ensures that the parts fit together neatly, even if someone at the table has never held a kit in their hands before. That is exactly what makes the book nooks an ideal joint project in which you don’t build ahead on your own while the others watch.
Our age recommendation is 14 years. With teenagers, you can therefore build as equals and simply divide the build stages between you. Younger children can still join in under your guidance, for example by picking out the parts according to the instructions, checking that everything sits correctly, or inserting the batteries at the end and being the first to flip the light switch. Removing small parts and fixing delicate details are best left to you.
Plan a few short building evenings instead of doing everything in one go. This keeps the anticipation alive and every evening ends with visible progress. Lay out a light-coloured work surface so that small wooden parts don’t get lost, and keep some wood glue to hand. You will need it for the permanent hold of a few small details, but it is not included with the kit. Also not included are the two AAA batteries for the lighting, which you should ideally get before the first building evening.
A nice side effect: the warm natural material of wood feels completely different from plastic. Children love to pick up the parts, smell the freshly laser-cut wood and quickly develop a feel for how a three-dimensional image emerges from flat boards. For you as modellers, it is a relaxing change of pace between two big projects.
Magic that you build together
The two Harry Potter book nooks combine everything that makes autumn so special: cosy evenings, time together and a story that thrills young and old alike. The Hogwarts Express tells of setting off and of the excitement about the first school year, the Hogwarts Castle of arriving at a place that feels like home. Together, they create a small stage for exactly the story that will be back on screens in the new series from 25 December.
So if you are looking for a project for the coming weeks that brings not just you but the whole family to the table, then get the Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Express and pre-order the Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle at the same time. We wish you lots of fun building and magical evenings in front of your shelf.
Technical data of the kits
Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Express
- Individual parts: 238
- Dimensions: 23 cm high, 11 cm wide
- Age recommendation: 14 years
- Material: laser-cut, printed wood
- Lighting: LED with battery box
- Also required: wood glue, 2 AAA batteries (LR03)
Tiny Adventures Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle
- Dimensions: 23 cm high
- Age recommendation: 14 years
- Material: laser-cut, printed wood
- Lighting: LED with battery box
- Also required: wood glue, 2 AAA batteries
Each kit includes the printed wooden kit, the LED lighting with battery box and illustrated assembly instructions.