[MOC] The Hogwarts Founders' Wizard Cards Challenge

[uPawelek]

“Now, Hogwarts is full of secrets, Harry, so search behind every door. But keep in mind, not all secrets are rewarding.”

Join me in celebration of the Harry Potter PC games 20th Anniversary! 
Nostalgic journey awaits! Let’s experience together the most memorable aspects of Harry Potter games once more.
•    Cast Flipendo, Alohomora, Lumos, Rictusempra, Diffindo, Skurge and Spongify to unravel hidden secrets and collect all four Hogwarts Founders Wizard Cards.
•    Face well-known magical creatures: Giant Orange Snails, Fire Crab, Acromantula, Gnome and Pixie.
•    Knock over cauldrons and shake standing armours to collect Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.
•    Brew Wiggenweld potion or catch some Chocolate frogs and replenish your stamina.

Expand your Hogwarts castle:
•    Combine this 2140pcs set with LEGO Harry Potter 20th Anniversary line from June 2021 to make your Hogwarts even bigger!
•    Display your Wizard Cards collection in the Gallery Corridor.




PC games were a huge part of my Harry Potter experience and even as an adult I’m coming back to them from time to time. Since LEGO has restarted Harry Potter Theme in 2018 I was very excited about it but I also felt like something is missing. It took me some time but finally I’ve realized it – there are no platform elements, spell activated objects or secrets included, which we know so well from Harry Potter games. It is understandable since the sets are based mainly on the movies but the wave from 2001 had some secretes implemented. From the day I saw first leaks about 20th Anniversary wave and LEGO Wizard Cards I had this this small spark of hope in the back of my mind that not only will we be getting awesome looking designs and amazing Minifigures but also that magic is coming back to the theme. Unfortunately that was not the case. So I bought all the new sets, bricklinked missing Wizard Cards and slowly started to look for an idea how to display them properly. I saw some very good builds but none of them felt right (16x16 plate from the GWP set disappointed me greatly). And one evening it clicked – angled corridor with cards displayed on the wall as in the Gold Wizard Card Challenge from the second Harry Potter PC game. But the corridor itself was not enough for me. Ideas started rolling in my head and by the next morning I had this complex vision which took me 9 weeks to materialize. When the build was ready I decided to prepare a part list and an  instruction (another 3 weeks) because I’m sure there are more people who are feeling that something is missing in their collection the same way I did. And that’s how we got here

Below you can find a little more detailed description of different parts of the build.

First off all – my creation is heavily based on the Chamber of Secrets PC game. Even though the first one takes this special place in my heart (hence the quote from the begging of the Philosopher’s Stone) the second game is more complex. It has open exploration, more mechanics, spells, magical creatures, Wizard Cards and secrets and it felt like the right direction to go with.
I really wanted to stick to the footprint dictated by the Gallery Corridor so the build is somehow squeezed but I believe I was able to include all the most important parts of the game. Besides corridor there are also roofs, dungeons and tower levels each with its own building style.

Let’s talk spells, you’ll find here:
•    movable Flipendo plates, cauldrons to knock over and standing armours to shake (beans!),
•    bouncing Spongify carpet hidden under moving floor,
•    magical creatures to cast Rictusempra at,
•    removable vines and spider’s web to cut through with Diffindo,
•    removable ectoplasm spots to get rid of with Skurge,
•    Gargoyle to activate Lumos which illuminates enchanted, removable wall and reveals a hidden room,
•    and last but not least a chest and stone door to open with Alohomora.

There are also few non-spells related mechanics:
•    flying stone blocks which take you to the dungeons hidden entrance,
•    Gnome hole with jars containing Flobberworm mucous and Wggentree bark on the top which will be knocked over when the Gnome is thrown to the hole,
•    lift in dungeons that goes all the way up to the tower top,
•    trap door under the last Wizard Card to come back to the roof level.

From the magical creatures I believe the two most interesting ones are brick built Giant Orange Snails which leave slime trails and Fire Crab that shoots hot flames out of, well… at you ;) I’m super proud of them both – it was quite a challenge to keep proper scale and not lose to many details. You will also have to deal with Acromantula, Gnome and Pixie. I was not able to brick build Gnome which would look good and fit into a Gnome hole without making them both Minifigure size so I decided to go with the Sewer Baby. It’s face expression is full of mischief and after one look at it I had no doubt it’s after my beans! I think it works perfectly :D
In the dungeons you will stumble upon a cauldron which you can use to brew Wiggenweld potion using ingredients obtained after defeating the Gnome. If you look hard enough you will also find some Chocolate frogs ;)
There are twelve Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans to collect: six from the cauldrons and six to shake out from standing armours. There are two hidden rock blocks that can be easily removed and behind them you will find holes through which you can drop beans in front the standing armours. 

From the design perspective I think it is worth to mention few things.
•    Overall bulkiness of the build – I wanted to achieve this early 2000s 3D games look so there is not much curved lines here. 
•    Stained glass windows – they represent colours of each house and combined Hogwarts crest colours. I included them to highlight the main motive, the Hogwarts Founders.
•    Candelabras and torches – they are very simple builds but I feel that they nicely represent the in-game models.
•    Gargoyle – was tricky to build and it is not easy to angle its wings properly to fit in 3 by 5 space but I think I did a good job there.
•    The floor patterns – the one in the dungeons is inspired by in-game floors. Also the rug in Gallery Corridor looks very similar to the one from the corridor in the game.
•    Stickers – to create them I used assets from the game and adjusted their sizes. The one on the rock which is blocking the lift it’s not easy to see but it’s visible through window in the lift which I think is a nice touch because you need to find it and activate it for the lift to go up.

There are two things I had to compromise on. Since this build is directed more to adult builders than children I decided to prioritize slim design over playability.
Due to tight build on the top of the tower you’ll need to use some extra force to make the lift go all the way up. This means it will not go down by itself and you’ll need to stick your finger in few different places before you will be able to put it back in place.
The flying stone blocks are aligning themselves very nicely when spinning but if you put a Minifigure on the top they will roll over. Even expanding the blocks build to 2 by 4 and using a lot small pieces below the connection point to improve the weight distribution didn’t help so I went with proportions that in my opinion look best.

So that’s it 

Here you'll find excel and bricklink part lists for price check, stickers sheet, sample of the building instruction and few more photos. If you would like to purchase full building instruction you can do it here.

Cheers!
 

Edited April 20, 2022 by uPawelek
Links

[BrickMatit]

"However" continued Dumbledor "in recognition of Mr. @uPawelek pure brickbuilding ability and outstanding love for Harry Potter PC game, I award his House sixty points".

It's really difficult to find something to comment your building, while staying astonished in front of the screen. Wow! 

11 hours ago, uPawelek said:

PC games were a huge part of my Harry Potter experience and even as an adult I’m coming back to them from time to time.

How can I not quote you! Basically you've just described me! I'm still strongly tied to Harry Potter PC games, mainly PS and CoS (and in my opinion CoS is one of the highest point in HP PC series, with HP Lego videogames). They remind me the joy of the childhood and the welcoming, somehow positevely nostalgic, feeling of returning to Hogwarts. And occasionally I decide to play them again.

Said that, nothing in your description and in your building sounds really new to me, starting from the Dumbledore quote you put at the beginning of your message 

Fantastic! Really fantastic! More than fantastic what you managed to build and how you did it! In my opinion you perfectly managed to faithfully transport in LEGO form the magic, the atmospheres, the spells, the architectures, the creatures, the scenes of the game.

It's so difficult, for me, saying what I like most from your MOC. I think that Giant Orange Snails, Fire Crab and Gargoyle are simply perfect.

Really simple, on the contrary, revealing what I don't appreciate: nothing 

I fear I've used fantastic a lot of times in my message...

... oh, well, anyway...

Fantastic!

 

[uPawelek]

48 minutes ago, BrickMatit said:

"However" continued Dumbledor "in recognition of Mr. @uPawelek pure brickbuilding ability and outstanding love for Harry Potter PC game, I award his House sixty points".

 @BrickMatit thank you so much for your kind words! Your opinion as a fellow HP PC games enthusiast is especially dear to me  I'm really glad you like the brick built creatures and Gargoyle. I started working on them early on since I assumed they will be the most challenging parts of the build and I was right ^^' They were literally the last three designs I finished before I deiced the set is ready