REVIEW: 71043 Hogwarts™ Castle

[VBBN]

 

Name: 71043: Hogwarts Castle
Theme: Wizarding World
Year: 2018
Pieces: 6020
Price: £349.99 / $399.99 / 399.99€
Resources: Bricklink, Brickset, Lego

Quote

Make the magic come alive at the LEGO® Harry Potter™ 71043 Hogwarts™ Castle! This highly detailed LEGO Harry Potter collectible has over 6,000 pieces and offers a rewarding build experience. It comes packed with highlights from the Harry Potter series, where you will discover towers, turrets, chambers, classrooms, creatures, the Whomping Willow™ and Hagrid´s hut, plus many more iconic features. And with 4 minifigures, 27 microfigures featuring students, professors and statues, plus 5 Dementors, this advanced building set makes the perfect Harry Potter gift.

*Set was graciously provided by LEGO for our review. Please be assured that the opinions in this review are my own and do not reflect those of LEGO.  

Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the highly anticipated Hogwarts Castle. This set was one shrouded in rumors and mystery- would it combine with the earlier minifigure scaled sets? Would it be micro scale? Would it even be Hogwarts? When LEGO showcased this beast - The second largest set parts count wise as of the time of this writing, only beaten by the UCS Milenium Falcon 2.0), and largest nanoscale set as a result -  I knew we’d be in for a treat with this one. So is this set worth picking up? I might have spoiled my answer a bit there, but read on to find out!

Box

Front

First, please do note that this box was sent to me from Denmark and so the packaging here is the Euro variant that will have less information that the one released in North America. The box art here utilizes the same striking blue backdrop as the minifigure scaled sets, however this time around they did not place the banner at the top featuring any Harry Potter characters. Size wise, as you might expect this is both huge and heavy. In fact, the box is the exact same size as the one for the Creator Expert Roller Coaster, and also much heavier. 

Rear

From here you can see the sets many details highlighted, but don’t look to closely now, we will get to those in due time.

Instructions

I was hoping this set might get the treatment of the Falcon’s spiral-bound instructions, considering this set is larger than he original falcon in terms of parts count, but alas we get 4 standard manuals  there’s a bit of information in here about the design of the set.

A word about the contents of this set since this is the best place to put it, and as you may know by now he focus of my reviews lies more in the finished model rather than the parts selection- this set comes packaged with 38 bags of parts, each one labeled with a unique number  so at no point will you be using more than 1 bag. For a set with so many tiny pieces, this is certainly a welcome strategy.

Sticker Sheets

As a man who A) has a “paint by stickers book” in his house, B) Ordered and applied reprolabels for Transformers Generations Metroplex and C) Used to adore Exo-Force, it takes a lot for a sticker sheet to scare me away. This set however does bring back the need for the term “Dreaded Sticker Sheet” because there’s a lot to be seen here. Don’t get me wrong, these all look absolutely fantastic, and if it was down to the choice of stickers or omitting all of these details I will gladly pick stickers   . But be warned, you will want to have tweezers at the ready.

Hogwarts House Founder Minifigures

Front

As you might expect, being the equivalent of a "UCS" set and also being microscale, this set comes with a selection of Minifigures mounted on their own display stand. And, to continue the theme of the Wizarding World sets, they look stunning; We get the four founders of the Hogwarts Houses; Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazaar Slytherin, and Rowena Ravenclaw. You slowly build up these figures over the course of the build, getting one every few bags. 

Alternate Faces

Rowena and Helga feature alternate faces. I'm not sure if this was a mistake or not (with my history of review sets, I always get strange happenings), but you do get a second copy of Godric's beard.

 

Rear

As expected, they all feature some lovely back printing.

Nanofigures

1

Since this set is microscale, the focus of course is on utilizing nanofigs- and man, it comes with a lot. Here we have Voldemort, Filch, Snape, McGonogall, Dumbledore, Bellatrix, Lupin, and Umbridge. They all feature an impressive amount of printing at this scale. They aren't perfect, sure, but for figures this small I think lego has outdone themselves here. 

2

In the way of known students, we have Draco, Hermoine (Well, I think this one is supposed to be her, anyway...), Harry, and Ron. Also we get three unprinted figures, meant to represent Black and White Chess Pieces and the Hogwarts Architect. In this set, you get two of each of these unprinted figures, though the build only calls for one of each, so you get some spares for your collection.

3

Since this is Hogwarts, you needs students to fill the halls! As a result, you get 3 students from each house. 

Dementors

You also get 5 Dementors, which are black molded versions of the Emperor Palpatine microfig.

Magical Boats

We begin the build of the set with some small little boats. They are very simple yet quite smart in their design, and feature a blue piece to imitate “water” being separated by the boat, though to be honest if this element was in a trans shade of plastic the effect would be much improved. It’s also a little difficult to get any more than one Microfigure into these boats, as all of the studs are unusable due to the horizontal window frame  

Aragog and Hagrids Hut

Rear

Hagrids Hut is a construction you build at about the midpoint of the build. I had totally forgotten this was in the set, and while I was building it I had no idea what I was constructing, but it was instantly recognizable when done. Even for a small structure like this they did a wonderful job of capturing some key details. When I first placed the spider down my thought was “well that’s out of scale” and then it hit me that this was Aragog, and I have never appreciated a spider mold more than I did with this.

Hungarian Horntail

Rear

Another little build you get to put together is the Hungarian Horntail. I must say I am surprised that no stickers were used on this model- it’s surpsijngly articulate, able to bend at the head, move at the wings in two places, the legs, and two joints in the rear body. A small brown stud with “nipple” is included to mount his foot to a stud, though really I wish they had just given two of these.

Whomping Willow

Movement

No, this isn't the Whomping Willow I review just a few weeks ago- this one is tiny, and just as cool in it's own way. Not only does it look surprisingly good for it's small size, but can also spin, has moving "arms", and even comes with a nano-Ford Anglia.

The Build

Beginning Steps

You begin the build of this set just as you would begin your journey to Hogwarts- at the entrance. It’s a simple start, though even here you start to notice the detail of this set, as there is a sticker placed inside of here that you otherwise will hardly ever see. 

Framework for Section 1

Unlike the minifigure scale Great Hall set, this set properly builds up a rocky cliff-face meant to separate Hogwarts from the water. Basically you connect some technic beams, slap some BURPs on, and cover them with a variety of slope pieces to make them look pretty. It’s used to good effect, though I will say this is the first set where I’ve reslly had to check what parts are needed for each step as I kept missing parts. Some variation is added to the build for the tower later on, and we can also see the Chamber of Secrets being constructed.

Great Hall

The first major building we complete in this set is the Great Hall. We will take a look at the detail of this later on.

Tower wall

One of the only truly repetitive constructions in this set are the walls that make up the largest tower . Construction of these walls takes up 3 of the sets 38 bags.

Tower Construction

It was cool to see them come together, however- these pieces cover up the same pre-fab round elements used in the minifigure Great Hall set. Do note that in the picture above I still had one section to go, hence the gap to the left of the Tower.

Dumbledore Office

Youll get to see the completed Tower soon, but here’s a look at the inner workings of that top part  

First Half Complete

Front

The first half is mainly comprised of the Great Hall and Dumbledore's Tower. 

Profile 1

Here we can see the technic beams which eventually will connect to the second half.

Rear

 

Profile 2

Second Half Beginning

The second half of Hogwarts starts off very similar to the first, again we start with a Technic Frame...

More Foundation

Similar again to the first half, we utilize BURPs and build up the rest of the foundation. We'll take a look at those little details in there later.

Buildings

Moving forward we start on the next two sections of building. Again there is a wide variety of building techniques used here, the build is so compact and uses so many parts to achieve such little details.

Bridge

Next comes this little bridge section. This was a rather satisfying section, as it all connects together so seamlessly in the end.

 

Almost Done

We add the bridge to the second half, and continue building. As you can see and likely would expect, some structural elements use brighter colors, but unlike in a large Technic set, I really don't feel that was needed here, especially considering how many numbered bags there are.

 

Second Half Done

Front

Add on a few more grey towers and we are done! 

Rear

Again, there's a lot of little rooms here, all of which we will take a look at.

Finished Set

Front

The most satisfying part of this build is getting to merge these two halves together into a simply amazing representation of Hogwarts. Its stunning, from the proportions to the details they've managed to fit in. While this set is second only to the UCS Falcon in part count, it's not nearly as large, I mean even the Creator Exper Roller Coaster outsizes it- but it's still a big set, and an extremely heavy, dense, and detailed one at that. 

Rear

When we spin this around to the rear, that's where people's opinions on this set get divided. Many are happy with this, while others would have preferred for this set to simply remain a Hogwarts model, and thus be completed on the backside. Me personally, I prefer what they've done here. A completed build would add more repetitiveness, and I will never really see the back of this; but at the same time, I have all of these really cool little sections to look at when I want to, which creatively use elements to bring this to a nanoscale.

Courtyard

Now it's time to start looking at the details of this beast. Starting off we have this courtyard; Do take note of the uniquely printed windows, you'll be getting a lot of those here. 

Entrance

Here we have the entrance to the Great Hall, which features opening doors and that Architect statue.

Stained Glass

The stained glass effect used here is great, allowing for plenty of light to shine through to light up the multitude of colors.

Odd Detail

I'm not really sure why this section has these exposed studs... anyone?

Roof

Here we can see some of the neat effects of SNOT being utilized- also a fun detail is the clear mounts for the Dementors to fly above Hogwarts.

Tower

As mentioned earlier, the Horntail can connect to the rooftop here.

Chamber of Secrets

One of my favorite rooms is the Chamber of Secrets, which uses the Nagani mold that came with the Voldemort Minifigure, and flips the scale to become the Basilisk here. I love that even a little black tile is included to represent Tom Riddle's notebook

Door

Stairs

The rotating staircases are a signature element of Hogwarts so it was cool to see them here (and yet they can move left to right.) You get two different sections, each one with an arrangement of different photos... but if I'm being honest, this is one of my least favorite parts of the set, I just don't think they look all that great, perhaps it's the narrow shape of the tower throwing me off here.

Moaning Myrtle Bathroom

Above the staircases sets this bathroom here.

Dumbledores Office

Something to mention is that the placement of these rooms isn't really very accurate nor to-scale, but that's to be expected. Dumbledore's office is filled with little details, even having the sorting hat and Phoenix on the walls in sticker form.

Gargoyle Statue

It's a bit of an off place for it, but you also build up the Gargoyle statue,

Great Hall

The Great Hall goes to show that at the smaller scale, this can still have even more detail than the larger variation of this model that was just released. I love the look of the windows even from here, all four flags hanging at once, and..and....is Voldemort trying to have lunch with the kids?

Bridge

 

Entrance

Heading over to the right side of the castle, we once again see that stained glass put to work.

Walkway

Tower Detail

It's quite a task to achieve some of these shapes, but they did a great job here.

Turret Detail

Again there are so many ways to build up a turret, but this set has a highly detailed and compact way of doing so. This creates a much better look than using some larger prefab parts.

Flying Keys

Flying keys utilize some clear-backed stickers (and if we ever see a microscope quidditch field, I could imagine that utilizing a similar technic for the snitch, bludgers, etc.) and also a brown paintbrush to imitate a broomstick.

Chess Board

We get the large scale chessboard, which of course brings in the white and black nano figures from before.

Chamber Of Secrets Message

Defense against the Dark Arts Classroom

Again I love the ways that they took regular elements and used them in this microscale sort of way, first the broomstick and now these magnifying glasses.

Umbridge Office

The one room that really jumps out is Umbridge's office. I like the plates on the wall, and do note it's a little tough to get her in her seat, but this area is a little too loud and not quite as polished as some of the other areas.

Mirror of Erised

A small sticker and a golden plate create this Mirror, and even a red stud is places on the ground to imitate the Sorcerers stone.

Common Room

Some nice little couch builds are used here, simple but effective

 

Library

Potions Classroom

Here's another room I don't love so much, I find the sticker to be very jarring when compared to the oversized cauldron and potion bottle behind the figures.

Storeroom

A note about the details

Here's the thing about this set; it has a lot of detail. So much, in fact, that I'm still finding little details as I look at this thing, and I build it! (Case in point, I just realized while writing this review that the red stud was the Sorcerers stone.) And while I could show you every little detail of this set in this review, I consider this like a good movie; build the set yourself, m and you'll find that there are even more little details that I haven't shown off here or talked about. 

Conclusion

 

How do I even bring to give my thoughts on a $400 set, the second-largest parts count set, at that? It's important that you know what to expect with this set- it's a very, very expensive Architecture set, modeled after Hogwarts, with some extra attention paid to the interior. That's really what it is, It offers that same level of interesting build technique and produces a great looking final model. It's got a ton of nano-figures, some very nice exclusive mini figures, a mind-boggling variety of parts, and offers you a build that's both exhausting but also engaging throughout the whole model. If you want a Hogwarts set, this is it. It will not get better than this, plain as that. I'm sure we will see more Hogwarts sections to be added to the Great Hall in future minifigure-scaled sets, but already that pales in comparison to the accuracy this set has.

Do I recommend it? At $400, there are quite a number of choices for you, but as far as large sets go I think this is a great value at only $400 for a 6020 piece set, part of a license, no less. It does what it needs to do, and even if you don't like the rooms on the back, I think the front view of this set really sells itself. It's an experience to build, and there is something to be said about the detail in this. I own the Creator Expert Coaster, and that set came close in price to this monster, but the build experience was absolutely nothing compared to this- for Harry Potter fans, this is a dividing set. You could get all of the mini figure scaled sets in wave 1 with $30 to spare, or get this set. Me? I'd go with this set, easy. And for people who aren't fans of Harry Potter, I think this set offers a fun build, not only due to it's complexity but also thanks to the constant game of guessing "What is this representing in this nano-scaled world?" I know at $400 this set will be out of reach for many, and for many others you've already secured it. But if you have the means, I say go for this one, make this your $400 Lego set purchase, or prioritize this over getting all of Wave 1.

But man, I really hope we see some more Microscaled additions in the future...I'd love a micro Hogwarts Express and Quidditch Field.

[VBBN]

Dear Eurobricks, this review is now live for your viewing!

[Robert8]

Thanks for the review

The set is piece of art. That's for sure

Some quick thoughts:

1. Until the reveal of this sets I never knew a hooded microfigure even existed. I think they need a generic "female" microfigure with long hair. Because some of these just don't work for me. Like Hermione or Bellatrix. The Moaning Myrtle sticker having hair is almost an admission of this

2. The "The Chambers of the Secrets has been opened...." lettering is supposed to be blood. Is it black or dark red here? I can't really tell

3. The Chambers of the Secrets is also my favorite room

4. I love minifigures, so of course the founders are the best part of the set. Simpsons and Disney D2C sets got a new mold. It's a shame we didn't get one here because Ravenclaw diadem totally needed to be molded. So, far all the Horrocruxes exist as molds, except the diadem and the ring. That would have enhanced the playability because of the "collect the horrocruxes" plot from the last books. Also, it would fit as the diadem was the only Horrocrux hidden at Hogwarts. Some special printing in Gryffindor's sword would have been appreciated was well

5. Is Ravenclaw the only founder not represented as a sticker? I can see the other 3 but not her. It's a shame they didn't include Snape and Dumbledore's portraits in the Headmaster office. I guess that would have been "spoilers" lol

 

[Bbafett]

How are you going to display it now built?  On a big table?  Or did you find a big shelf that can hold this thing?  Curious b/c wife and I want to pick this up but can't find something to display it easily on.

[Borex]

Thanks for the review. Set looks really cool and fun to build (minus the stickers).

[Graupensuppe]

I was originally hoping for less bedrock and more castle (astronomy tower, bell towers...), but the set looks great as it is. Especially the Great Hall and Grand Staircase Tower are infinitely better than the ones in 75954.

The only thing I don't like at all is the inclusion of microfigures and micro-scale interiors. I'm already thinking about which pieces of furniture to remove or modify to make the rooms suitable for minifigures. But it probably won't be too hard, most of the rooms seem to be just high enough.

Definitely an "outstanding" set!

[paupadros]

Just a couple doubts about this set. Hope you'll help!

On 8/16/2018 at 4:31 AM, VBBN said:

Bridge

Next comes this little bridge section. This was a rather satisfying section, as it all connects together so seamlessly in the end.

 

Almost Done

 

Jang said the bridge had some tension on the bricks that might be an issue. What do you think?

And about the set overall. I saw it on both Lego shops in Hamburg and Berlin and just found it small. It didn't give me the sensation of grandness at all. Maybe because it was behind a glass box, hey could be that, but I felt like I was looking at a 2000 piece set. Assembly Square (on display close to it) felt so much bigger in comparison. Maybe it's the rockface which makes it not look as imponent as it should. Plus, I'm really really missing water around it, at least on the façade side. It just doesn't do it for me.

I really like the angling they've achieved and prefer it with the interiorwork done. I see it as Disney Castle's smaller and more sophisticated companion.

On 8/16/2018 at 4:31 AM, VBBN said:

Odd Detail

I'm not really sure why this section has these exposed studs... anyone?

No clue at all, unless it has to do with giving us some of the new 1x1 bracket pieces, I don't know what it could be.

Another thing that bugs me is that they did two amazing new moulds for the arches: a centre and a corner one, but not one with a single half a stud protrusion to cap off nicely a row of arches without the need to turn the corner. This same picture shows what Justin had to do due to this missing piece. I mean, it's a bit stupid of an omission. That said I won't be buying the set, as big of a Potter fan I am but I really enjoyed reading through the review. Somehow, it doesn't feel particularly magical to me.

Pau

PD: I agree, add-ons like the quidditch field would be great

[Ferder]

1 hour ago, Graupensuppe said:

The only thing I don't like at all is the inclusion of microfigures and micro-scale interiors. I'm already thinking about which pieces of furniture to remove or modify to make the rooms suitable for minifigures. But it probably won't be too hard, most of the rooms seem to be just high enough.

Definitely an "outstanding" set!

I'm curious to see people's attempts to Mod the set for Minifigs. I wish the reviewer had included a couple shots showing the scale of Minifigs inside or outside the set. I know they probably look humongous but it would still be interesting to see, especially given that the figure scale was the biggest source of debate over the set. 

[ETELENZOS92]

24 minutes ago, Ferder said:

''

 

2 hours ago, Graupensuppe said:

''

LEGO Hogwarts Castle by Brickfinder Brickfinder, en Flickr

It's not an interior but.. you can see something 

And I think that there are enought space at least in the bottom for make big spaces as you can see in this photos;

LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71023) by Brickfinder Brickfinder, en Flickr

LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71023) by Brickfinder Brickfinder, en Flickr

LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle (71023) by Brickfinder Brickfinder, en Flickr

[VBBN]

10 hours ago, Robert8 said:

Thanks for the review

The set is piece of art. That's for sure

Some quick thoughts:

2. The "The Chambers of the Secrets has been opened...." lettering is supposed to be blood. Is it black or dark red here? I can't really tell

 

Yep it's dark red!

10 hours ago, Bbafett said:

How are you going to display it now built?  On a big table?  Or did you find a big shelf that can hold this thing?  Curious b/c wife and I want to pick this up but can't find something to display it easily on.

To be honest we are likely only going to bring this set out for display around Halloween time as IMO this is a great display piece for that time of year. But to get to your question, at the moment it's a centerpiece on our kitchen table because yeah none of my shelves can fit this thing . The main issue really is the height for me.

6 hours ago, paupadros said:

Just a couple doubts about this set. Hope you'll help!

Jang said the bridge had some tension on the bricks that might be an issue. What do you think?

Another thing that bugs me is that they did two amazing new moulds for the arches: a centre and a corner one, but not one with a single half a stud protrusion to cap off nicely a row of arches without the need to turn the corner. This same picture shows what Justin had to do due to this missing piece. I mean, it's a bit stupid of an omission. That said I won't be buying the set, as big of a Potter fan I am but I really enjoyed reading through the review. Somehow, it doesn't feel particularly magical to me.

I personally didn't really notice the issues that he was having when I was placing this in. It was a little tricky, but that's mainly because you are lining up a bunch of hinges- if anything, my main concern would be the actual vertical pressure on the hinge plates themselves, rather than any horizontal stress this might be causing.

And definitely agreed on the arches, I'm not too in the loop with every new and recolored piece so I didn't even realize these were completely new to this set, I do wish they had introduced such a piece (because you know in the future they will, they might as well have just done it here.)

5 hours ago, Ferder said:

I'm curious to see people's attempts to Mod the set for Minifigs. I wish the reviewer had included a couple shots showing the scale of Minifigs inside or outside the set. I know they probably look humongous but it would still be interesting to see, especially given that the figure scale was the biggest source of debate over the set. 

 

7 hours ago, Graupensuppe said:

The only thing I don't like at all is the inclusion of microfigures and micro-scale interiors. I'm already thinking about which pieces of furniture to remove or modify to make the rooms suitable for minifigures. But it probably won't be too hard, most of the rooms seem to be just high enough.

Definitely an "outstanding" set!

Here's a few shots of Rowena wandering around, nothing fancy just snapped these on my phone-

 

[Ferder]

Thanks for the new pics, VBBN! Yup, she sure looks like a giantess in those pics. Although the Viaduct Entrace is a large enough building that it almost works for her scale. 

[Lord Insanity]

First off excellent review.  The additional shots with a mini-fig were going to be my only request.  Thanks for those as well.

The set is sort of a confusing mess to me.  I mean it is detailed and what is present is really well done.  But the scale is just weird.  Its a little to small to be mini-fig compatible.  (What I like to call classic town/space/castle "go-cart" scale.  Where a typical car has one seat.)  It is also too big such that we are missing half the castle.  At least with the system scale Great Hall set you aren't looking for the rest of the castle.  With this set I was and it is painfully obvious part of the castle is missing.

To add insult to injury they put the four founders as mini-figs in the set as exclusives.  So the only way to get four awesome mini-figs it to buy a non-mini-fig compatible set.  Yeah that sort of thing should never happen.  This isn't quite as bad as comic-con exclusive figures but with a $400 price point it is close. (X-men's Dark Phoenix and such still annoy me.)

I am glad that most people seem to love this set.  I think the designer did a wonderful job with the restrictions of the design.  I just don't understand the company decision to make it this way at all.

[Clone OPatra]

13 hours ago, paupadros said:

And about the set overall. I saw it on both Lego shops in Hamburg and Berlin and just found it small. It didn't give me the sensation of grandness at all. Maybe because it was behind a glass box, hey could be that, but I felt like I was looking at a 2000 piece set. Assembly Square (on display close to it) felt so much bigger in comparison. Maybe it's the rockface which makes it not look as imponent as it should. Plus, I'm really really missing water around it, at least on the façade side. It just doesn't do it for me.

While I haven't seen the set yet in the brick so I know my.opinion isn't fully informed, I share this sentiment. It doesn't look big or impressive enough to me from the photos once I take note of the cheese slopes.

3 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

The set is sort of a confusing mess to me.  I mean it is detailed and what is present is really well done.  But the scale is just weird.  Its a little to small to be mini-fig compatible.  (What I like to call classic town/space/castle "go-cart" scale.  Where a typical car has one seat.)  It is also too big such that we are missing half the castle.  At least with the system scale Great Hall set you aren't looking for the rest of the castle.  With this set I was and it is painfully obvious part of the castle is missing. 

I find the scale and choices weird too, and I don't think the idea to make it doll-house style scaled to microfigs has been very successful. They've gone for accurate proportions on the outside, but the interior is still completely out of scale because the real castle is of course gigantic. Not only that, but as I've seen highlighted in a variety  or reviews even the interior scenes don't have a consistent scale because you have these minibuilds that are preposterously huge next to the microfigs and also stickers which are  technically scaled to microfigs.

Of course this isn't the first time  LEGO has done this mix - they hid a minifig scale scene in the Super Star Destroyer and the microfig room in the Helicarrier, but those sets still had fully formed exteriors. This one is missing huge portions of the castle and lots of parts have been diverted to the whacky out-of-scale interior. Given that the interior isn't scaled properly anyway, I think they should've either done full minifig-size little scenes, or committed to it being a totally Architecture-style set that was correct and enclosed from all angles.

But anyway, I don't buy sets this large/expensive anyhow, so what am I one about?

Great review Veebs!

[SuperChris]

I love this set. Thank you for the review, I’ll be picking up one near the end of the year.

Couple of questions;

How do you plan to store/ display the set?

How many bags? I like to build my sets a bag a day until completetion! 

[Cylo]

The one thing missing though is Hagrid

[Heppy9]

2 hours ago, SuperChris said:

I love this set. Thank you for the review, I’ll be picking up one near the end of the year.

Couple of questions;

How do you plan to store/ display the set?

How many bags? I like to build my sets a bag a day until completetion! 

I think there are 37 bags and s couple of bags of BURPS and plates ?

[x105Black]

Nice review.  I like all of the pictures.

As far as the poll goes... Microscale = Poor.

I do kind of like the minifigures, though.

[MAB]

I don't mind the microscale too much, if it was a display set. But they have made this part display, part play, with the open sides / backs. As a play set, the nanofigs / trophy-figs don't really work. As a display set of the location, it looks good from one angle but not from others as the buildings are cut open. So to me, it is neither a play set or a display set but some strange combination.

[Roebuck]

Thanks for the review 

A lot of people were disappointed when it leaked that is was micro-scale, myself included.. It has grown on me as a display piece, it is a really good looking set from the front, the back I do not find so interesting since it is micro-fig details with a huge amount of stickers.. Unlike you I really hope this is the only microfig-scale set we get in the HP line  I am only interested in system-scale sets, but since I love HP/FB I will probably buy this set..

I wonder what would make us most happy:

1. The microfig-scale display set we got
2. Something like the new 75222 Betrayal at Cloud City in system scale with plenty of minifigs  

[LegoFjotten]

Thanks for the review!

I pretty much agree with @Roebuck on this one, it looks good, but the nanofigs & interiors aren't that interesting to me - I love minifigures. I think the designer did a great job with the interiors considering the scale, but at the end of the day microscale is more about nice piece usage than interesting techniques. Still, looking at the bigger picture I think this is an outstanding set even if it isn't exactly what I wanted. I understand the decision to make it microscale, and the desire to have a go at nanofig interiors. The fact that it has an open back doesn't bother me at all, closed back would just mean more pieces & higher price, or less of the castle.

Personally I would prefer something like the previous Diagon Alley (just double the piece count, add some more minifigs), or my favourite for a large D2C set - the Burrow. I will probably get this set too, but I'm not rushing out to get it.

In short: I'm glad they made this set, kudos to the designer - great job, and I hope the next D2C is system scale. 

[MAB]

2 hours ago, LegoFjotten said:

The fact that it has an open back doesn't bother me at all, closed back would just mean more pieces & higher price, or less of the castle.
 

 

More pieces may not be necessary to have a closed back, since if it is closed then you don't need interiors. Despite there being close to 100 stickers in the set to make the interior look good, there are still a lot of small parts necessary for the interior that would not be needed if it was more of a closed architecture set.

[StarfuryT]

This set looks absolutely outstanding, especially in light of the cloud city slap in the face that Lego just delivered. I'm now actually considering picking this up.

Edited August 21, 2018 by StarfuryT

[LegoFjotten]

26 minutes ago, MAB said:

More pieces may not be necessary to have a closed back, since if it is closed then you don't need interiors. Despite there being close to 100 stickers in the set to make the interior look good, there are still a lot of small parts necessary for the interior that would not be needed if it was more of a closed architecture set.

Those (mostly) small pieces are nowhere near enough to make a closed back.

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

Not a fan of nanofigs, but you could have never represented the incredible size with minifigscale. How would any of you have done the yard or the bridge? The minifigscale great hall has a yard as large as my balcony. For a UCS set this would be ridicolous. I'd like to modify it, but how? If you make it taller, it will get awkward in proportions with the great hall.

the set we got looks incredible, instead of just being a plaset. Maybe we'll get a Death Star type Hogwarts at some point as well. But I prefer the gigantic looks of this one.
 

39 minutes ago, LegoFjotten said:

Those (mostly) small pieces are nowhere near enough to make a closed back.

I don't even get why the back should be closed. Since many buildings behind the ones represented are missing, it wouldn't even make sense to me in the first place.
 

[LegoSims20]

Thanks for your review and pics. I've decided to cancel my order but I may end up buying it one day. I just hope the Myrtle scene becomes a minifig set because that sticker is adorable!