[REVIEW] 76389 Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets

[Clone OPatra]

Thanks to LEGO, we have four of the new for June 2021 Harry Potter sets, and I have the pleasure of reviewing them. Without further ado, let's kick off with the biggest and most intriguing...

76389 Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets | 2021 | 1176 Pieces | 10 + 1 Minifigures

USD $130 | GBP 130 | EUR 140 (variable) | CAD 170 | AUS$ 230

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LEGO has departed from the style of Hogwarts sets it produced from 2018 through 2020, which prioritised reproducing recognisable sections of Hogwarts from the film. The new June 2021 Hogwarts represents a soft reboot, prioritising modularity and interior spaces, while the exterior harkens back to the very first type of Hogwarts sets released for the first two films in 2001 and 2002.

Fan chatter has certainly been mixed, but I'm going in with an open mind. Will this set succeed? And, will it still combine with the older ones if you have them? Join me to find out.

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THE BUILD & PARTS

Bag 1

Bag 1 kicks off with one of the best minifigures in a set of good minifigures, as well as the new and exciting Basilisk. The actual Hogwarts section is nothing to write home about.

The Basilisk looks fantastic, making great use of the already-existing lower jaw with a brand new head. While it feels a touch small, the shaping and mean-ness are there - an improvement on the fun original one, and the "one" from the 2018 Great Hall doesn't even bear mentioning. It's also great to get the CMF Sword of Gryffindor.

Bag 2

Bag 2 includes yet more new goodies, in the form of the Cornish Pixies and the new candlesticks piece which will be used for Beauty and the Beast's Lumiere later. Note the first of many, many frogs included in this set. Though it's not visible in this pic, Bag 2 also contains a brick 1x2 with two studs on the side in light flesh/nougat. That colour is starting to be used more outside of minifigures, but still a surprise, and the only one of them in the set.

I had to whip out the macro lens for a glam shot of those Pixies. The shine down the middle and go translucent at the edges - glorious!

Bag 3

Bag 3 contains those lovely rounded bay windows that fit the old square grills. I didn't mention yet that the random chocolate frog card (tiles) are sprinkled throughout the build rather than being in a single bag.

Bag 4

Bag 4 builds up the Great Hall. Nothing extraordinary here, though the spread-wing owl in pearl gold is a fun part.

This Dumbledore represents another example of recent CMF prints being reused in sets, as the face is the same one that was previously exclusive to the CMF2 Dumbledore.

Bag 5

In addition to glow-in-the-dark Nearly Headless Nick in Bag 5, there's also an unprinted glow-in-the-dark head that goes under the newish fishbowl helmet piece (used for Mysterio, for example). There's also the printed trans head containing some sort of potion ingredient, but the writing on it is unreadable even in person.

Nick's prints are nearly an identical colour-swap of the version included in the 2018 Great Hall, besides his reverse, considerably more shocked face - he's been petrified!

He glows quite nicely, though the fact that his hands to not glow becomes quite noticeable. (We haven't gotten to the g-i-t-d 1x1 round tiles yet.)

 

Bag 6

Bag 6 takes us down to the Chamber of Secrets level at last and changes up the colour palette considerably.

Tom Riddle's diary comes in Bag 6, though it's unfortunately a sticker. Oddly, they have you put the sticker on in such a way that it puts the gold edges on a different side to the printed one. I've looked it up, and the stickered way is more correct, I think because his name is actually written on the back of the diary. So, the printed one has the gold correctly in relation to the name, but incorrectly in relation to the spine.

Bag 7

Bag 7 builds the wonderful Chamber Entrance, and includes the fantastic new owl print/colour. This is where the g-i-t-d 1x1 round tiles appear, as owl droppings I suppose? More on that later.

Bag 8

Bag 8 contains more of the dark colour scheme from Bag 6, primarily building up the Salazar Slytherin statue. Bag 8 is the first bag of the entire set that does not make a self-contained build. All previous bags make a whole section or module within each bag.

Bag 9

Finally we come to the final bag, which completes the Chamber of Secrets... and the Great Hall, with an extra table. I was wondering where those cereal boxes had gone! The most exciting thing would have to be the recoloured Ninjago snake heads a spooky statues.

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THE MINIFIGURES

I wouldn't go so far as saying that Minifigures can make or break a set, but they certainly play an important role, and for a franchise that's all about the characters, it's important to have a full complement of them in the big sets especially.

Thankfully, much like the 2018 Great Hall, this set delivers the goods. It also feels like the Minifigure choices were deliberately made to work with what had come before without too much overlap. If you have previous Hogwarts sets, you're not going to get too many character repeats, and most of the ones that are repeats have new and very reusable robes.

The Kids

For students we have, from left to right, Luna, Ginny, Harry, Colin Creevey, and Justin Finch-Fletchley (token Hufflepuff with a little screen time). These new robes look fantastic and beautifully complement the previous jumper ones, and it's fantastic to get three out of four houses. It might've been even more fantastic to get all four, but three Slytherin ones come in the smallest (and very good) set of the wave, so they're easily obtainable.

The only new head here, though, is Colin's and there have been grumblings both about Luna and Ginny sharing the same face and Luna being in this set at all. I agree with the former - Ginny is important in this film and merited a unique set of prints I feel, with appropriate eyebrow colouring. As for the latter, canonically Luna would've been at Hogwarts during the events of CoS, and her hairpiece is still unique to her and rarer, so I'm fine with it. Swap her hair and/or face if you mind.

They all have very slightly different prints for the way their hoods fall.

The Adults

The adults in this set also look fantastic, with heaps of new prints throughout. 20th Anniversary Goldemort looks fun as a memento, and it's cool LEGO is doing both golden figures and collectible chocolate frog cards in these. While Dumbledore's bright outfit draws the eye, the standout for me is Professor Sinistra - a truly left-field inclusion, but a tremendously good minifigure with her detailed outfit, reuse of McGonagall's hat-hair, and a reddish brown head with two excellent prints including Dumbledore-stlye glasses.

I'm embarrassed to say that I can't quite put my finger on the colour of Lockhart's body and legs. I'm a lifelong LEGO devotee but they finally make too many colours for me to keep up! Since Diagon Alley, I've not been a huge fan of the hair choice for him, but it's ok. I tried his original one and didn't love that with this face print.

The one outlier as having something really wrong is Tom Riddle. The choice to have light grey legs with black printing looks so 2010. If they're going to go this colour route, they needed dual-moulded legs, or black legs like the version in a recent book would have been preferable.

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THE GRAND TOUR

Here's the exterior all put together as per the instructions (of course the modules can be re-arranged, but that's for another article). It looks LEGO Hogwarts-y in the way that all LEGO Hogwartses did pre-2018 - not actually replicating anything from the films (besides the Great Hall sort of), but sticking to an aesthetic that they created in 2001 and pretty much stuck to for a decade culminating in 2011. This set specifically matches the outline of the very first complete Hogwarts, 4709 (click for my scathing review of that one!).

In a vacuum, it looks good; the colour scheme works as a whole, what details there are are created with bricks and not stickers, and overall it has significant bulk to it.

Now let's go through in detail from top to bottom.

The Astronomy Lookout

I chose not to use the word "tower" just so we wouldn't confuse ourselves here. The best detail here is the sticker, showing a constelation that looks like Toa Tahu's original mask - a great easter egg. The roof removes somewhat easily so would-be astronomers can astronomise. This feature also appeared exactly in the original 4709.

Lockhart's Office

The next level down is comprised of two 8x8 modules, one that simply creates a balcony with a broom and clear stand to pose a flying figure (though I've put Nick there), and Lockhart's sticker room, I mean, office. All of the graphics look lovely, and small stickers like these that aren't absolutely integral to the look of a set don't bother me too much. Am I making a pointed reference to the new Hogsmeade set? Stay tuned.

A key test of LEGO interiors involves the amount of space left available to pose and play with minifigures. Offices in both the 2019 Clock Tower and 2020 Astronomy Tower failed this sets abysmally; this office does a bit better. There's not a ton of space, but enough that it doesn't feel ridiculous. Can someone else explain the extra set of hair to me, though? Is it something I missed in the film? Also note the chocolate frog hiding behind Lockhart.

Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom

The next stop down is the DADA classroom, which contains plentiful details: the Pixies, the new candlesticks, the lovely sticker painting, and more. 

This classroom really exhibits the strength of the new modular system: at 16x across and 8x deep, that's a total usable space of 14x7, which leaves plenty of room for details and lots of figures without it feeling cramped. 8x tall for a classroom also conveys the grand scale and high ceilings of Hogwarts, and makes the room accessible for fingers. 

The Clock Tower also had a DADA classroom, which I personally liked, but while that one had 16x across of usable space, it only had 5x deep, and 4 in some places, making it much less playable. It's simple maths really.

The Great Hall

I wanted to touch on the exterior here for a couple of reasons. First, how Great Hall-like is this really. It's certainly not very "great" in scale, being so short. It kind of captures the look of the Great Hall, but not that obviously, which is why it actually could work with the previous one, which had proportion issues but felt much more recognisable.

Second, the way the designer has tried to transition between round bricks and the window in the centre tower is ugly. That's all.

Where the module system really shined for the DADA classroom, it backfires somewhat for the Great Hall. Confined to this limited space, it doesn't feel very great at all. What details there are are nice, including the owl podium and some stuff in the rafters (also harking back to 4709), but it certainly doesn't convey the large, magical feeling of the place. It's better than the pitiful Great Hall interior in 4709 no doubt, but falls far short of 2018's Great Hall and even 2010's 4842 (another one I reviewed, what a coincidence!).

One of very few "play features" in the set is the hidden Sorting Hat, which comically rests on a poop piece. Lift the flag and reveal the sorting hat - yay! I think this is the only Great Hall without the flag-swapping between houses gimmick.

Populated with minifigures, you can see how comparatively cramped it is. There are two tables, but only one bench, so figures on the outer side have to stand on the ground. Just two spaces for teachers is also pretty sad - Ginny is sad about it anyway.

Of course, this particular Great Hall doubles as the setup for the Dueling Club match, and in that scenario that space is less noticeable. The function works well - it's a simple lever, what is there to go wrong? Here they have Harry wipe the sneer right off of Justin's face.

The Chamber of Secrets Entrance

This might just be the most accurate-looking part of the entire set - simple, but what a good door! There's room for a minifigure to stand within.

The back has those glow-in-the-dark parts, which, given their placement, I assume are owl droppings? Odd, but glowy parts are always nice.

The Chamber of Secrets Slide

Here we have half a play feature. Half because, while you can drop figures down the slide, it really works in tandem with the Polyjuice Potion Mistake set. Good sales tactic! Note the white skele-frog, which is behind and underneath the slide.

Despite the slide taking up room, this segment still passes the "room for minifigures" test. Even Colin is getting in on the action.

The Chamber of Secrets Slytherin Statue

And now the final part of the set to explore: the iconic gigantic statue of Salazar Slytherin's head! It looks really, really good. Applying the stickers was nerve-racking, because if they were misaligned it would've really thrown off the look. Fortunately I did ok, but this is a case where prints would've been far preferable because these could make or break it. All of the rounded shaping is excellently done with parts, though.

A drawback of this section is that, as built, the snake statues on either side get in the way of using any of the interior space. The space is there, but the build locks it away. Of course, you can remove the snake statues, which is just fine, but given that the action happens in front of the Slytherin head in the scene, ultimately your "Chamber of Secrets" will be your own floor/surface, with the LEGO parts set up as the backdrop. To my taste, that's a shame. I prefer when LEGO scenes can be re-enacted on the actual LEGO, and not on in front/to the side of it.

This section also has a play feature of sorts: the lower jaw of the mouth slides out, allowing you to then slide the Basilisk through. It's all very manual, and the interior of the mouth serves no purpose, which I think is a bit of a shame. Would have been nice to see something hidden in there, like an old textbook or set of tattered robes or something.

Voldemort is about to say "looks like that young lad is in trouble... but that's none of my business" (if you get the meme, good on you).

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A WORD ON PLAYABILITY

Throughout the review I indirectly touched on the fact that there's not much in the way of "play features". In that regard this set shares a choice with the previous ones from 2018-2020, emphasizing doll-house style playability over LEGO action playability. There's plenty of space to play out scenarios with the minifigures, but besides the hidden Sorting Hat, the Dueling Club table and the mouth the manually slide out of Slytherin, there's nothing in the way of functions.

Gone are the days of trap doors aplenty, yanking chains, spinning furnaces. Now, I derided most of these for various reasons in my review of 4709, but what I did say is that they felt magical. The wonder and whimsy of the Harry Potter stories is all about the magic, and in the films you certainly feel that when things are floating by themselves through the air, or someone flicks their wand and causes something to happen.

LEGO has the ability to capture that through action features, and given that these new sets prioritise interior play over exterior look, these would have been a good place to reintroduce some of that LEGO Harry Potter magic.

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DISPLAYING HOGWARTS

Many people want to know: how does this new, green-roofed Hogwarts look with the ones from previous years? Unfortunately my new display cabinet is a bit cramped, but in my assessment, they display together just fine. My displaying ethos is one of "mushing it all together", and I did these two setups quick and dirty; lots of clever people here on Eurobricks have come up with more elegant solutions in the Harry Potter discussion thread. However, if you don't care about the accurate placement of buildings and simply want to know if the aesthetics work, this is for you:

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FINAL THOUGHTS & RATING

It's difficult to talk about value until the end. As a whole, this set has a lot of different parts to it, hitting many of the key memorable scenes at Hogwarts from Chamber of Secrets: Lockhart's manic classes, the Dueling Club, and of course the Chamber of Secrets itself. The spaces have lots of details, and mostly enough room for play, though the Great Hall feels a bit sad in scale for meal scenes, and the Chamber leaves a bit to be desired.

The overall scale feels large; the modular system uses good economy of larger parts to build up a large castle, while not feeling under-detailed from the outside. It's simpler than the 2018-2020 sets, but still more detailed than the ones from 2011 and before. The tower part is as tall as the Astronomy Tower, with more room inside, while the Great Hall section feels comparable to the Clock Tower in size, being shorter but deeper. 2010's 4842 was the same price as this, with more parts, but less good playable space.

The minifigures, bar Tom Riddle, are fantastic, and pair well with previous ones, if you have them. Looking at this set alone, there are enough figures to play out lots of scenarios, and the most important figures for the Chamber of Secrets itself. Of course, some are missing if we're going for accuracy - you need Draco for the Dueling Club and Neville for the Pixie scene - conveniently both available in the upcoming Quidditch practice set!!

On the parts side, in the majority of parts there's nothing revolutionary, but the new creatures are amazing and I doubt they're going to be cheap on Bricklink.

All in all, by itself this set offers quite the package, at what feels like a tolerable (US) price. I personally still prefer the look of the 2018-20 sets that went for exterior accuracy, and those are the ones I will continue to display, while I might create a second display with these new ones. However, as Hogwarts LEGO set its appeal is undeniable, and for collectors it offers enough that you probably don't want to miss.

Dare I say it's the best "complete" standalone Hogwarts set yet?

Minifigures: 9/10 - a point docked for bad Riddle legs and duplicate little girl faces.

Pieces: 9/10 - there's a lot of them, and some good new and glow-in-the-dark stuff. If you like the colour scheme it could be a worthwhile parts pack, as there aren't a ton of large parts besides the flooring and a few LURPs.

Design: 7/10 - The exterior is consistently fine (besides the ugly central Great Hall tower) though not wow, and the interior has some truly great spaces and some slight let downs.

Playability: 5/10 - Again hard to rate. The fact that there's usable space makes this play-able, but it's a missed opportunity for some real play features.

Price: 10/10 - I think it's right, what can I say? For the volume of it, the size of the finished model, and the new stuff and minifigures, expecting a lower RRP would be naive. Inflation hasn't even gotten the better of it, because the 2010 one was the same price and this one feels larger.

Overall: 8/10 - Where I come from that's a solid B - a not perfect but still very solid score. That sums it up. I expected to like this set a lot less, but in actuality it has a lot to offer.

Next up, a very good boy?

[Ecclesiastes]

The new candle piece has a lot of potential! The set is a nice parts pack for the right price when on sale. The minifigs are great though, especially Nick and Dumbledore!

[mark1991t]

1 hour ago, Clone OPatra said:

Can someone else explain the extra set of hair to me, though? Is it something I missed in the film?

 Bottom left of the screen ;)

Edited May 15, 2021 by mark1991t

[MKJoshA]

Fantastic review! I don't build Harry Potter stuff, but I've been buying a lot of the new sets as parts packs. This is a great parts pack and I just have to decide how many I'm willing to buy!

[jimmynick]

Thanks for the review - been looking forward to these sets. I think the idea of taking us back to the modular castle of 2001/2002 is a great idea, especially since the quality of the builds in LEGO sets has improved so dramatically during the last 20 years.

Re: Lockhart, there's a wig on his desk in the movie:

[krimimimi]

Thanks! Great review.

I think the trick for me will be to stop trying to see the Great Hall section as the Great Hall (and just use the 2018 version instead), and just treat it as another classroom, and then the small dimensions are less of an issue. With the vaulted ceiling, it would even make a nice DADA classroom complete with hanging skeleton. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

Great review!  I think the colour of Lockhart’s outfit is nougat (the colour used for Cho’s head for instance) 

[BrickMatit]

Good review!

From what I've seen and read till now, I suppose my opinion will be more or less the same of you.

What I like less are the plates with grill used instead of standard plates (I imagine for reducing costs) and Tom Riddle (I really prefer the one in the book).

[Darth Shadowthrone]

Great review! It’s really reassuring seeing how much playable space some of those interior rooms have 

[Clone OPatra]

On 5/16/2021 at 3:04 AM, mark1991t said:

 Bottom left of the screen ;)

 

On 5/16/2021 at 3:42 AM, jimmynick said:

Re: Lockhart, there's a wig on his desk in the movie:

Thanks both of you! That wig is definitely a detail I missed.

On 5/16/2021 at 4:09 AM, krimimimi said:

I think the trick for me will be to stop trying to see the Great Hall section as the Great Hall (and just use the 2018 version instead), and just treat it as another classroom, and then the small dimensions are less of an issue.

Thanks! I think you can stop seeing this Great Hall as THE Great Hall quite easily. The exterior's details are simplified enough that it works as something else.

On 5/16/2021 at 5:00 AM, BrickBob Studpants said:

I think the colour of Lockhart’s outfit is nougat (the colour used for Cho’s head for instance) 

Thank you! I tried Cho's head on Lockhart's body to check this, and the colours either don't match perfectly or my eyes are playing tricks. Cho's head and hands are ever-so-slightly darker. Now, I only have CMF1 Cho, so it could be down to the different production location making the colour ever so slightly different? I'm not sure.

On 5/16/2021 at 7:24 AM, BrickMatit said:

Good review!

What I like less are the plates with grill used instead of standard plates (I imagine for reducing costs) and Tom Riddle (I really prefer the one in the book).

Thank you! Having played around with the sets more, I've found that the grill pieces used are actually beneficial for posing minifigures with short legs. You're much more limited in how you can pose them on regular plates.

On 5/16/2021 at 6:33 PM, Darth Shadowthrone said:

Great review! It’s really reassuring seeing how much playable space some of those interior rooms have 

Thank you! Yes indeed, the amount of usable space is a big plus of this new system.

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the review. It looks neat overall. I will prefer 2018-2020 versions, like so many others, but this seems to work okay. I like the idea of using it as a generic classroom or something else (if you wanted to connect them).

The figures look great. I will definitely like picking them up, and the new creatures too.

I think the Slytherin head in the Chamber looks good, but I'd want a larger scale version to truly appreciate the Chamber. 

I will get it, but I'm torn if I'll consider building it vs parting it out. I've been wanting to do a larger scale Hogwarts, but I feel so many probably do it, it won't be unique anymore.

[electricwave]

great post,thanks for sharing :)

[Vindicare]

I’ve seen that movie countless times....and I’ve never noticed the hairpiece. Wow. 

What is the brown book though? I can’t place it. 

Oh, and Lockhart’s suit color is nougat. It’s  not a color I have many of, but it was used a lot in 2020’s Luke’s Land speeder. I was thrown off when I saw the color in that set.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Vindicare