[REVIEW] 40412 Hagrid & Buckbeak (Brickheadz GWP)

[Clone OPatra]

LEGO Harry Potter fever is in full swing with a new Minifigure series and massive Exclusive set, so it's time for another Harry Potter Gift with Purchase. But is it a gift you'll treasure, or toss straight in the parts bin?

40412 Hagrid & Buckbeak | 2020 | 270 Pieces

FREE Gift with Purchase of Harry Potter sets September 2020

Worth USD $20 | GBP 18 | EUR 19.50 (variable) | CAD 25 | AUS$ 30 according to LEGO.com

This set was kindly provided by LEGO but all opinions are my own.

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BOX

I won't dwell much on the packaging but to say a couple of things. First, the box clearly brands it as part of the Brickheadz line, so if you're a Brickheadz completist you'll need to either spend the money to hit the threshold now or buy this on the secondary market. Second, the box and official images really make Buckbeak's middle plumes look like they're very light bluish gray rather than white, though that colour was only mostly in use from 2004-2006. Just odd that they don't look white.

Also not that this matters at all but the side design looks oddly choppy with the white text in such a stark black box pasted over top the lovely brick background. I already tossed out my other Harry Potter boxes from this wave though, so I don't know if that's across the whole line.

BUILD & PARTS

I gather this goes for all dual-pack Brickheadz but it's really nice to see two separate instruction booklets in a set like this so two people can enjoy building it together. LEGO has gotten very good at splitting things up like this to make it a communal experience.

The build technically starts with Hagrid so here are the parts. There's nothing particularly exciting about them, and unlike literally every other Licensed Brickhead this one contains no unique printed parts. I checked. Also of note is that the previous Harry Potter Gift with Purchase, Micro Diagon Alley, did come with an exclusive printed part (repeated 6 times) and a minifigure with two exclusive prints.

Hagrid has a McDonalds coloured drum in his middle. Maybe he forayed out into the Muggle world for a Big Mac recently.

But it's not Hagrid at all! It's a faceless robot come to kill!

There is a bit of nice offset work for the side of his hair/beard, like we've come to expect from hairy Brickheadz.

Buckbeak also doesn't contain any parts of great note, but here they are.

I haven't included build pictures for Buckbeak because you can really see everything that goes into him from looking at the final model. You build the body, then the head, then put the body on the head.

FINISHED BRICKHEADZ

Here we are, Hagrid and Buckbeak. To be honest, they look pretty bland. Hagrid's belt buckle stands out as about the only nice detail, but he really needs a printed piece above that to convey his layered shirts. He also has way too much forehead showing for Hagrid, who has really very little skin showing on his face due to his massive shaggy hair and beard.

It'd be ludicrous to knock the set for being blocky when it's literally supposed to be blocky, but Buckbeak looks just so square and plain around his head with the plumage abruptly stopping after the front, when in reality Buckbeak has spiky plumes on his whole head. His back legs also look wrong being just grey squares. I know most Brickheadz have plain rectangular feet, but these could have really used something even as simple as being a stack of plates with dark gray on the bottom for the hooves.

The use of 2x4 tiles for Hagrid's long coat is nice, but here it's again really glaring how plain Buckbeak's head is. The tail and wings are alright though.

Design-wise I did find it odd that LEGO picked a completely different colour scheme for Hagrid than his minifigure form based on nearly the same outfit - possible a different colour coat from different movie scense. I suspect it's because not all of the pieces would have already been available in those colours, and there are obviously no "new" pieces with either colour changes or prints in this set.

The side of the box thankfully provides a "real-life" picture of Hagrid & Buckbeak, so I don't even have to source them from the internet. This helps illustrate the primary issue I have with the set: being unrecognisable. Do these models convey the characters? I have to say: not really.

The litmus test for any Brickhead is that it has to be recognisable as what it is. When you abstract a character into a form like this, it could be a challenge to keep it recognisable - a critique I've seen leveled at Funko Pops, for example. However, until now, I'd say LEGO has always managed it. I say "until now" because these really only barely look like themselves, especially individually. If you saw Hagrid on his own you might be able to tell it's Hagrid just because of his pink umbrella coupled with a lantern as accessories. Buckbeak on his own looks like an awkward pigeon maybe, but if he's with Hagrid you could figure out what he's supposed to be because it's a big bird-y thing with Hagrid. Hagrid's actual design just looks like a guy with black hair in a coat, not particularly Hagrid-y, especially because his hair doesn't even look all that shaggy and all-encompassing and his torso is completely plain.

These need prints like every other Brickhead. Movie Hagrid has big brass buttons and a bright red shirt - both missing. Buckbeak has bright yellow eyes, and a normal retail Brickhead version would surely have that just like the previous ones that have had different eye colours. Ultimately without those appropriate parts, these two feel scraped together from what was already available, and look bland and nearly unrecognisable as a result.

All that said, the Buckbeak Funko Pop looks like nightmare fuel.

MOD

One of Hagrid's most glaring issues is his massive exposed forehead. Here's a simple MOD swapping the 2x4 tan tile for a 1x4 tan tile and 1x4 black plate. I think it's a little better, but his hair still lacks an overall feeling of volume which would need to be conveyed by over-exaggerating its thickness.

CONCLUSION & RATINGS

This set being a free gift, you might say I've been too harsh on it. I'd counter by saying that LEGO can do awesome free gifts that are much much better. The Micro Diagon Alley GWP from 2018 is case in point. That one felt like a lot of care was put into it to make it a premium gift, with pleasing designs, printed parts and all.

Hagrid & Buckbeak feel either like someone had to scrape something together quick from whatever parts were readily available in the warehouse, OR like a draft Brickheadz model already lying around that would've had some extra resources put into it had it been released to normal retail, but as it wasn't, no (necessary) printed parts or colour changes were done. Either way, Hagrid wasn't going to be as good as this MOC (also obviously done from only available parts, since it's a MOC):

 

Parts: 4/10 - Utilitarian and nothing exceptional.

Build: 5/10 - Good offset techniques on Hagrid, but otherwise pretty dull even for a Brickhead.

Design: 2/10 - Like I've already explained, borderline unrecognisable, and sorely lacking necessary details. The couple of points are for aspects of Hagrid's beard/hair and the overcoat, which is very simple but effective.

Total: 3.6/10 - This might be the lowest score I've ever given a set. It's unfortunately really unsuccessful.

I opened this review by asking whether you'd want to treasure this gift or throw it to spare parts. Bottom line: spare parts bin it is.

[JintaiZ]

Great review! However, I feel like you should include value of money (10/10 of course)

[makoy]

This being "utilitarian" parts pack is  not that bad, really. Of course, no one would stop you to score this below 5 out of 10... as I think that's about the average score of average Brickheadz IMHO (and that's the reason I don't review them). 

Well, if you do score the value for money, as also mentioned above, it would jump to around 5.

Regardless, this sounds fare based on having no printed parts whatsoever. 

[LIVEnannino]

Great review! and the MOD paragraph it's very good, i think that with the mod it looks more like Hagrid too.

[Pirean_Grammaticul]

yknow it does have its faults, but it's kinda cool that hagrid is all built from existing parts instead of cheating out like most brickheadz honestly. Maybe they could've done what they do with mandalorian heads on the body?

Also, neat that you're doing HP reviews again; can we expect any other reviews for sets from the last 2 years?

[Dragunov2]

Great review, but another negative thing, he is way too small comparing with my other Brickhead figures

Possible to use the T-Rex eyes from T Rex rampage?

Edited September 3, 2020 by Dragunov2

[WhiteFang]

Thanks Clonie for this fine review. It give a prettty good blocky insight on this exclusive GWP. It may not entice to most people other than Brickheadz fans especially since there is a numbering to it for those who are dying to complete the series. Despite of some design flaws, I still feel it is a good design to some extent as I can still easily recognise the iconic characters.  

So, it is not that bad.  

[Modal]

Wow didn’t expect such a negative review. I’m not really into Brickheadz but I personally kind of like this one 

[sunhuntin]

Didn't Hedwig Brickheadz have yellow eyes? Could possibly do a swap and see if that makes Buckbeak look better?

Edited September 5, 2020 by sunhuntin

[Dragunov2]

 

I prefer this eyes:

Compared to the real one:

Edited September 6, 2020 by Dragunov2

[jimmynick]

I get your point about the lack of exclusive printed parts (I'm thinking back to my Ron & Richard Harris Dumbledore BrickHeadz), but I don't think that makes the builds any less recognizable. Hagrid's hair on the sides, too, looks better than you give it credit for. I know the proof is in the build and I'm absolutely not going to buy enough to get the gift with purchase, but I wouldn't be upset to get one if I were to splurge on HP sets.