17 replies to this topic

[WhiteFang]

Hello all Eurobricks members,

I will be presenting my first review on one of the Harry Potter's set. Firstly, I must emphasize that I am not a very big Harry Potter fan or owned many Harry Potter sets. For this review, I will be highlighting what is the beauty of this small little set, and the reasons to own multiple sets of it. Comments and critics are strongly welcomed.  


This set is featured in the Harry Potter movie, Prisoner of Azkaban.


This set is orignally released in 2004, align with the Harry Potter's movie. This was actually one of the movie scene where Buckbeak the griffin is appeared in the movie. The group of students are supposed to be having up close and personal with him. However, Draco decided to disturb our lovely Buckbeak. Enough of this movie synopsis, I am sure fans of Harry Potter will know this better.


Box art



Featured mini-fig/creature



Background scene


The scene is a simple garden, which had a very good mixture of spare parts for your MOCs building. On its own, there is nothing outstanding about this set, except for the griffin. You can buy multiple sets for the griffin alone and for Draco mini-fig. Well, you don't need lots of Draco. But for Castle lovers, black cap are exceptionally useful, at least from my view. Now, I will point out the following why this sets is so great for other reasons.  


Hidden cover


Note that, this is the only mechanism which you can find in this set. It looks rather simple but quite useful. There are some little things hide in it too.


Greens, Foilage and Brown parts



Needless to say much, it offer 3 foilage, a green plant, 3 brown slopes, 2 ideal bricks and 1x1 brown brick for building a tree. Great for jungle building, forest building and etc. I am sure there are many builders will look out for these.  


Interesting parts


It comes with a wizard book, owl, 2 printed tiles with a spider and stone prints on it. The far right, seriously I don't find any good use for it. Can any EB members enlighten me on that gray thing on the right?  


Grey parts


It comes with a good 10 x 4 green plate. Useful for adding as a platform. Some more grey slopes for your MOCs.


There you have it, Draco encounter with Buckbeak comparing with Deep Forest Ambush



As you may remembered recently, there was an impulse set competition. One of my entries, which is under the History theme. The Deep Forest Ambush was firstly inspired by this set, and made an improvement out of it. Look at the improved tree compared with the orignal.  


Summary review
Playability: 4/10 (Not much to play with, except swooshing around the Griffin)
Design: 5/10 (Too simple and its defintely not related with the movie scene)
Parts: 10/10 (Great for parts, explained by the review. A great deal of green and brown parts)
Price: 9/10 (An inexpensive set based on the 2004 pricing)
Overall: 7/10 (A must have for all Harry Potter fans and collectors whom needs a great use of green and brown parts)

Hope everyone of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine.  
More pictures can be found in My Brickshelf (When moderated)

Let the Potter magic begans!  

Edited by WhiteFang, 09 June 2008 - 02:45 PM.

[Shadows]

A very nice little review of a pretty nice little set that I wish I'd bought between 1 and 10 of. Just for the griffin. Oh well.

Your review has shown me that it's useful for more than just that, so maybe I'll try to pick one up someday. Can't have too many black capes, books, or printed things. Speaking of which:

WhiteFang, on Jun 9 2008, 09:41 AM, said:

Interesting parts


It comes with a wizard book, owl, 2 printed tiles with a spider and stone prints on it. The far right, seriously I don't find any good use for it. Can any EB members enlighten me on that gray thing on the right?  

The gray thing is technically a plume, like any castle plume, except in this case it's a feather (presumably from the griffin), and made from the mold to the old Indian feathers in the Wild West sets. It's a case of an old part coming back for a slightly new use, in a new colour.

Beyond that, the "stone print" tile is a bundle or rolled up blanket or package, depending on where it's used. I don't think it's ever meant to be a stone. It was used as a rolled up pack on the back of the Star Wars speederbikes, for example.

Nice pics, plenty of useful information. I'd give this review an A+

Thanks for doing it!

[badboytje88]

I own about 6 copies of this set!  

[Shoc]

This is one of the few sets I've bought more than one (2!) of. It has a really good selection of pieces, and your review really does it justice, WhiteFang.  

Multiple Hippogriff/Griffins On!

Edited by Shoc, 11 June 2008 - 05:58 PM.

[Matn]

Thanks for the review, you made me very jealous... I want it also in multiple... But I don't own any of it. Oh, well for later then...

[Asuka]

Thanks for that nice review of a really interesting and pretty cool set. At least, a Griffin, I guess, is pretty close to
an unicorn or a dragon, huh?  

[Svelte]

Thanks for the nice review - it was one of the first ones I got when emerging from my dark ages   .

I bought two of these, just for Buckbeack - I thought he would make a good statue in a Persian temple type MOC.

I also liked the minifig head pumpkin and plant part in bright green - both new pieces to me at the time. All in all, it was a good castle or forest building set with a nice selection of pieces for rocks, grass, plants and trees.

The dark bley plume piece also now appears in the 10185 Green Grocer set as detailing on the roof of the turret.

[WhiteFang]

Guys, thanks for your kind comments! I am glad that you have enjoyed this review.  
For this set, I think I bought about 7 to 8 sets, all for the griffins. It's used for my griffin riders in my Castle collection. Now, the green and brown parts come in very handy for Castle MOCs too.

imperialshadows, on Jun 9 2008, 11:13 PM, said:

A very nice little review of a pretty nice little set that I wish I'd bought between 1 and 10 of. Just for the griffin. Oh well.

Your review has shown me that it's useful for more than just that, so maybe I'll try to pick one up someday. Can't have too many black capes, books, or printed things. Speaking of which:

The gray thing is technically a plume, like any castle plume, except in this case it's a feather (presumably from the griffin), and made from the mold to the old Indian feathers in the Wild West sets. It's a case of an old part coming back for a slightly new use, in a new colour.

Beyond that, the "stone print" tile is a bundle or rolled up blanket or package, depending on where it's used. I don't think it's ever meant to be a stone. It was used as a rolled up pack on the back of the Star Wars speederbikes, for example.

Nice pics, plenty of useful information. I'd give this review an A+

Thanks for doing it!

I am very happy that you enjoyed and find my review useful.  

Thanks for enlighten me. Now, I know where is the origin of that gray plume. I wonder if I can use it to match with my castle knights as its plume. In addition, I mistook the rolled up pack as the stone print tile. Why didn't I think of it? I must have overlook it, and used it as a stone tile instead. Nevertheless, I am glad you have give me some good insights on the parts that I am not familar with.  

svelte_corps, on Jun 10 2008, 10:49 AM, said:

Thanks for the nice review - it was one of the first ones I got when emerging from my dark ages   .

I bought two of these, just for Buckbeack - I thought he would make a good statue in a Persian temple type MOC.

I also liked the minifig head pumpkin and plant part in bright green - both new pieces to me at the time. All in all, it was a good castle or forest building set with a nice selection of pieces for rocks, grass, plants and trees.

The dark bley plume piece also now appears in the 10185 Green Grocer set as detailing on the roof of the turret.

I never thought of using Buckbeak as a statue for worship. I find this concept very interesting.

Yes, I agreed that this set offers new parts at that time. Personally, I pretty like the green plant. Good for any kind of terrain settings. I did not realise that the dark bley plume piece appear in the Green Grocer. Thanks for pointing out.  

Edited by WhiteFang, 10 June 2008 - 03:39 AM.

[JimButcher]

great review. nice set for plants, huh? too bad i didnt get thus set... but luckily my neighbor did! that griffin is nice for castle MOCs, and that orange head (pumpkin, i know) seems rare to me. not much else to say...

[Mr Spielbrick]

Ohhh great idea to review the "old" Potter sets! Especially the line from Prisoner of Azkaban... I was in my Dark Ages then. Luckily I was able to catch up on the missed figs with one internet order.

This Draco is the best TLC has made, if you ask me. The new one (also doubling for Belloq and "guards" in the Indy line) doesn't look quite as hautain as this one. Buckbeak looks cool. Looks like his neck/head can be moved, right? Rather similar to LEGO horses. Well designed.

The orange brick doesn't have a pumpkin face on it, right? Unlike the one from Philosopher's Stone in the set with the troll.

I'm looking forward to more reviews by you, sir WhiteFang! Good work  

[Belloq]

Mr Spielbrick, on Jun 11 2008, 04:28 PM, said:

Ohhh great idea to review the "old" Potter sets! Especially the line from Prisoner of Azkaban... I was in my Dark Ages then. Luckily I was able to catch up on the missed figs with one internet order.

This Draco is the best TLC has made, if you ask me. The new one (also doubling for Belloq and "guards" in the Indy line) doesn't look quite as hautain as this one. Buckbeak looks cool. Looks like his neck/head can be moved, right? Rather similar to LEGO horses. Well designed.

The orange brick doesn't have a pumpkin face on it, right? Unlike the one from Philosopher's Stone in the set with the troll.

I'm looking forward to more reviews by you, sir WhiteFang! Good work  

No printed face on the pumpkin since the event didn't happen on or near Halloween, unlike the whole troll situation
I also agree that this Draco is the best one, the new one looks too much like  a Draco from the oldr films, when he smirked a lot more, but, since very character got a redesign...They had to "tune him up" even if it meant changigng him for the worse

[WhiteFang]

Guys, thanks for your comments!  
Glad you find this review useful! And be sure to watch out for more old sets reviews.  

Mr Spielbrick, on Jun 12 2008, 12:28 AM, said:

This Draco is the best TLC has made, if you ask me. The new one (also doubling for Belloq and "guards" in the Indy line) doesn't look quite as hautain as this one. Buckbeak looks cool. Looks like his neck/head can be moved, right? Rather similar to LEGO horses. Well designed.

Mr Spielbrick, thanks for pointing out some important highlights for the review. I have overlooked it earlier.  

I strongly agreed with you, that this Draco is the best TLC made. I pretty like the face compared to others. Furthermore, I used my multiple Dracos, for my castle armor guards instead. One could not have too many Dracos.  

Buckbeak design is well made. The head can be moved upwards and downwards. The mechanism is similar to the horse design. In addition, Buckbeak wings can be removed. Similar to the typical green or black dragon wings that we used to see in the past. Well, the main reason for me to buy this set was in fact Buckbeak. You don't often find a griffin lying around except in Harry Potter sets.  

Mr Spielbrick, on Jun 12 2008, 12:28 AM, said:

The orange brick doesn't have a pumpkin face on it, right? Unlike the one from Philosopher's Stone in the set with the troll.

Sorry to said, there is no print on that pumpkin face. It's pure orange.  

[BearHeart]

I bought about 5 or 6 of these sets when they were on sale in mid- 2006. I still have a few of them laying around unopened. I think I payed like under $5 for each and thats a great deal for all the variety of neat parts you get with this set.

[Wout]

nice review.

I like the treemaking pieces the most of this not very expensive set. The Buckbeak fig is very nice and can bow his head like the horses. I was annoyed to get another Draco without some other not made figs (Pansy Parkinson for example).
About the dark bley feathers; In the second version of Hogwarts there were several of these feathers put in little 1x1 cones like it was a feather to write with it.

I bought 2 sets of these and when they were for sale I just bought +/- 6 more of it. Only annoying that I had then even a bigger army of Draco's.

[Tom_castlefan]

I see a lot of good reviews on this site, but this one is superb!

Good job.

Tom

[Sandy]

I'm looking forward to getting this set, as well. The Hippogriff will become the valiant steed to my princess minifig for her comic adventures.

I'm really annoyed that the Harry Potter sets were released during my "dark age". I so would've wanted all of them.

[Flobnomdob]

Yay! The Monster Book of Monsters! Now I want this!

I also love the Buckbeak figure! It looks very realistic for a LEGO version of something, usually they are much worse (Look at the goblins, for example)

[Ruslik]

Very cool review !