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Set Number: 4866
Name: The Knight Bus
Theme: Harry Potter
Release Date: June 2011
Pieces: 257
Minifigs: 3 (And a head)
Price: $34.99 USD £29.49 GBP
S@H description:
Harry Potter and his owl Hedwig need a lift back to Hogwarts, but as the purple, triple-decker Knight Bus screeches to a halt beside them, are they ready for the bumpiest journey in the wizarding world? Set includes Stan Shunpike, Ernie Prang and the shrunken head. Rebuilds into a London bus or regular bus. Hold on tight when you ride the Knight Bus!
The Box
This time, the box is slightly larger, has the same delightful red patterns and serious looking trio. But this time, it has a bus!! Who would have thought? It’s a wonderful image showing the bus tearing through the streets of London!
Here, on the back of the box, again we have the parchment which is present throughout the line and a picture of the complete set. You can get a good look at the characters on the back of the box and it also shows you the moving bed feature. Yes! The bed really does go backwards and forwards. More on that later! Oh, and don’t forget the push tabs, there’s two of them!
This image on the back of the box introduces us to the modular nature of the set. You can put the top on the bottom, or even put the bottom on the middle if that’s the way you like your buses. Its like automobile … Lego. One thing to note is that the roof doesn't actually come in one piece.
The front of the instruction book, showing a brand new and completely different image of the bus speeding through the streets of…. Wait a minute!
The DSS. Only two very small ones fortunately.
A page from the instructions. You too could own your very own bus!
Here are the last things within that wonderful cardboard box. Those plastic bags full of plastic people with their plastic dreams and plastic bricks. Three of them, reasonably large.
The Figures.
Here be the figures contained within this bountiful set! Firstly, a Harry Potter. Wow, I didn’t expect that. Another for the Radcliffe shrine. Today he is wearing his eye catching casual wear with front and back printing, what a guy. Secondly, we have Ernie Prang. The bus driver with glasses thicker than his sandwiches, although that doesn’t quite come across in the Lego version. The torso is excellent with front and back printing and the face is very decent. Perfect for old people MOCs, especially with that hair and the fact the torso doesn't have skin printing, so it could be yellow or fleshy. Thirdly, and here is where I have an issue. Stan Shunpike. The torso is lovely all by itself with great front and back printing, however I don’ink it looks grubby enough. The face also looks too old for the character and not nearly pimply enough. I don’t own the old Knight Bus, but I have done my research and actually prefer his old head. Here is a comparison for the lazy!
The older one looks much younger, and I think the hair really works well. But I digress, this is a personal opinion and therefore it is the only one that matters! :D
Here we have the last little star of the set. The shrunken head, printed on a 1x1 cylinder, something which Lego seem to have taken a liking to of late. Its sand green (excuse the photo) and looks like a… shrunken head I suppose. Slightly intoxicated if I don’t say so myself.
The Parts
This is probably the most interesting part of the set. I knew there would be plenty of purple, but I was really surprised with how much there actually was. There aren’t a lot of big hard to use bricks either. If you want purple, you need this set.
Here you see ALL the purple pieces in the set laid out. You have lots of useful smaller bricks and plates, even some tiles. But you also get eighteen purple 3x4 train windows. Unfortunately, you’ll note that the 3x2 windows are not from the train theme, but are instead house windows, unlike the previous Knight Bus.
Here are the more specialised parts included in the set. We have 3 excellent trans clear windows, including a squared one, 6 of those new black 1x4 tiles with studs (Or whatever you’d like to call them!), a treasure chest, printed Hedwig and a nice surprise for me were the two printed sock tiles to go in the chest.
The Build
I actually quite enjoyed building this one and it uses some nice techniques for the front and rear, otherwise its mostly just stacking purple bricks. Take a look!
Lets pause for a moment and take a look at the bed. Yes, that is a bed, a quite simple one at that. But it does the job and slides around inside thanks to the smooth tiles underneath. Hooray for flat slidey beds! And on we go.
The last image shows how the delightful chandelier attaches to the bus. It hangs there so it can swing around as a play feature, and boy does it swing. I've nearly taken Hedwigs head off about fifty times, and I still havn't realised I can move him!
The leftovers. Not many, but reasonable for a set this size and all the usual duplicates.
Parting shots.
This shot above shows something that I think gives this set a massive one up on its predecessor. The wheels on this set are more accurate in placement thus the back of the bus ends up looking much better in regards to reality with an open back entrance which Stan can hang off.
One final shot showing the multipart roof and the chandeliers swinging mechanism. Oh and Stan. Hey Stan, you look a bit worse for wear. Have you tried anti aging cream? Maybe you should.
Ratings
Design: 8/10 - I adore the design and parts chosen are amazing. It creates a pretty decent representation of the bus within the price range.
Build: 8/10 - A few fancy moments but lots of brick stacking.
Minifigs: 8/10 - Two brand new figures with excellent printing although Stan could use a facelift. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is the cheapest set in which to get casual Harry.
Playability: 8/10 - I love it and the little shakeabout features inside. I think that maybe the reason TLG decided to make the Knight Bus again is because theres is very little in the way of swoosh and vehicle play in the Harry Potter universe. Plus they wanted to print something on a round brick. It rolls like a dream by the way!
Parts: 9/10 - Purple, and socks. That is all.
Price: 8/10 - Initially, I was sceptical about £30 for this bus, but after building it, I love it to bits. All those bricks in a rare colour and two new minifigures make it definitely worth it. Oh, and socks.
Overall: 8/10 - An awesome set, definitely better than its predecessor in my eyes with much more accuracy and playability with the minifigures involved.
And, as last time, a comic to finish off!
Take care and thanks for reading!
Edited by Catanas, 08 March 2013 - 04:24 PM.
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Great set, nice supply of purple, plus the play features are rather imaginative 
