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Clone OPatra

Review: 4762 Rescue from the Merpeople

4762 Rescue from the Merpeople  

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I know I said that I was going to compare some bridges at the end of my last review, but the movie version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is coming out in just three days, and I was so excited I decided to make an Academy standard review of…

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Set Title: Rescue from the Merpeople

Set #: 4762

Theme: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Pieces: 175

Minifigures: 5

Year of Release: 2005

Price at Release: USD $20

Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Peeron

INTRODUCTION

Around the time that the Goblet of Fire sets came out I got the Graveyard Duel, 4766. Who wouldn't really? That set had 548 pieces, four mostly new minifigures, and four skeletons (even though you wouldn't know about the fourth one without getting the set), one of which was black, all for 30 bucks. That was some deal. This set, 4762, on the other hand, looked a bit small, and the model didn't look great. I put it off for some time, but I kept seeing it in my local Borders. Finally I got a Borders gift card from somebody, so I went and bought this set. It turned out to be a good decision.

BOX and INSTRUCTIONS

I no longer have the original box, but as you can see from the Bricklink photo it was quite tall for some reason, and I do vaguely remember that. On the back was probably a picture of the alternate model, among other things, which I will show you a picture of in the instructions. I do like the art on this box, especially the light shining into the water. The only odd thing is that the merman is looking away from Harry, instead of confronting him.

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Mirroring the tall box, the instructions are also quite tall themselves. The instructions are probably tall this way so that steps of the tall structure can be shown without cutting anything off. Look at those nice minifigures and all that medium blue!

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A random page. It has a nice parchment-like background and good color distinction.

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Now, here's what you've been waiting one second for, the alternate model! Boy I wish LEGO still had alternate model inspirations. This one is so wacky, it shows some kind of cooking show with the merman as the instructor and the kids as contestants. That's what it looks like to me, anyway.

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PARTS

I show you here the parts, minus the minifigures and sea life. They are in a ziplock bag because I have started to deconstruct some of my sets and put them in bags for easier storage, but I decided to review this one. What you can hopefully see is a nice amount of regular kinds of medium blue bricks, some dark blue, a few trans blue, regular blue, green, several dark green, and a few brown and bley pieces. It is really a great mix of stunning colors, and all of that medium and dark blue is a big draw of this set. Sure, it's no Volkswagen Beetle, but that hadn't come out yet!

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All of the pieces are interesting to me because of their wonderful colors, but none of them are rare or printed pieces that you don't usually find other places. There are some trans-green flames and seaweed, which are nice.

The rarest of the pieces would have to be the sea creatures. The octopus isn't rare, but the scorpion rarely comes in red, the crab is usually a Belville piece, and there are only two sets that feature that trans-light blue "jellyfish" hat.

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MINIFIGURES

Besides the pieces in their wonderful array of colors, this set also includes five awesome minfigures that were exclusive in these variations to this set at the time. I say "in these variations" because sure, we all know there were a million Rons, Hermiones, and Harrys, but not with these faces and in a swimsuit. From left to right, we have tournament swimsuit Harry, Hermione, Ron, Smiwsuit Viktor Krum with his hair on, and a completely exclusive merman. The merman is absolutely fabulous! Ron and Hermione also came in a Target Exclusive Durmstrang Ship with bonus minifigures, but I don't count them as really coming in that set.

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Here are the kids in their different variations. Harry's head turns around to reveal his Gillyweed gills and he sprouts some flippers, Ron and Hermione fall asleep so that they can be rescued, and Viktor morphs a shark head.

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Oh, and Harry has some back printing with his name, a nice touch.

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Viktor fits right in with other morph headed minifigures like the werewolf and the teddy bear.

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With his medium blue staff, exclusive to this set in that color, the Merman fits right in with the Emperor's Guard.

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Here's a comparison between the original Ron and Hermione and the new lovebirds. I think it's quite fitting that LEGO gave all of the main trio new faces to go along with how much the actors have grown up. You can see the growth in the minifigures.

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And how well do these minifigures match up against their real life counterparts? Let's take a look.

Here is Hermione and Hermione. I think LEGO really captured the eybrows and the mouth, but I'm not so sure about the eyes. I also don't know why LEGO stuck with the old Hermione mop of hair because the movie designers certainly did not. The alternative hair they gave her in the sole Order of the Phoenix set works much better for the older Hermione.

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I think they captured both Ron's and Harry's faces nicely, but I really don't understand LEGO's hair choices. I mean, I absolutely hated the characters' hairdos in the movie, even Neville had a long mop! What was that about? Just because they turned fourteen doesn't mean they decided to look like hippies! Still, I wonder why LEGO did not feel like matching the silly 'dos in their minifigures. Ron's hair is a darker color, though.

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BUILD

Let's put those wonderful pieces together! The build is broken into three sections: the boat, the little scorpion shooter, and the main thingy. Descriptive, eh?

Boat

We start with the boat. After 3 steps, we've put together four little pieces.

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After 7 steps, we're done. That's one flat looking, shallow boat, isn't it?

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To me, this boat was thrown in more as a set piece then something to actually play with. You can throw some guys on it if you want, though.

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Little Scorpion Shooter

After 4 steps, we're here. We already have four different blues: medium, regular, dark, and trans!

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At 7 steps, it's built up a little more to create a cave for the red scorpion.

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At 10 steps, it's done, with some nice trans-green seaweed to top it off.

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Main Thingy

Now we start on the Main Thingy, which consists of two blue plates hinged together, and of course some stuff on top of them.

At 3 steps, you can already see the hinge and glorious medium blue. I just can't go on enough about that medium blue can I?

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At 7 steps, the other plate has been attached and the mechanism to shoot Ron and Hermione has already been installed. Do you see the blue tiles sticking up behind all the dark blue? That's part of the mechanism, which I will explain more later.

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At 10 steps the other plate has started to get some pieces on it, and another holed plate has been attached to the right side.

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At 13 steps the peg has been built that will allow you to shoot Ron and Hermy into the air. It's even got some seaweed on it! On the other side, some medium blue steps are going up.

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During step 15 you make this little box that contains two knives. I guess LEGO wanted to put in some knives because Harry uses one in the movie to cut Ron and Fleur's sister free. For some reason, they didn't just want to give Harry the knife to hold, so they made this little box and put a cute crab on top to guard it. I still don't know why the whole box is removable.

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At step 16 the box has slid in and Ron and Hermy have been attached on pegs along with some green walls. It is a rare occurrence that you put the minifigures in the model in any step but the last one.

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At 19 steps the thing has been built up and some more seaweed has been added. The only thing that hasn't been added is the jellyfish.

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And that's the build! It's a fun build with no repetition and different things going on, and it's also pretty quick. You've got to love all the shades of blue going into the model!

SET

Since we just built it, let's look at what we get from several angles. Here it is from the front with all the minifigures. It strikes a nice underwater scene, and the structure above Ron and Hermy is actually a lot like it is in the movie, but I couldn't find a picture of it. It has been condensed a bit, and Ron and Hermy are not suspended in the water, but the shape is still very similar.

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In this straighter view you can perhaps better see the structure that Ron and Hermione are standing on. This is the only set to contain the dark green doorframe, and I'm sure it would be useful in a variety of forest MOCs or underwater building MOCs.

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From the left side you can see the side of the red creature's cave. You can also see the pin behind it, which is for shooting it out, as I will show in the Play Features section.

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Here you can see the side of the steps leading up to the little box that contains the knives. I really like how LEGO used the four kinds of blue on this part; of course they didn't have to, but they did! The octopus thing is also a nice touch.

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From the back of the model you can see the hinge at the bottom that is used to launch Ron and Hermione. I will attempt to explain this in greater detail in the Play Features section.

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That's really all there is to see of the model. It really looks lovely with all of the different underwater colors combined, and the designers did a good job making it look somewhat like the movie. I thought it would look puny, but it doesn't in reality.

PLAY FEATURES

Here it is, the section where I attempt to show the two special play features that LEGO threw in to make things exciting..

Firstly, you can shoot the red scorpion out of his cave to attack Harry. How well does it work? Will it eat him? Let's see…

Well, my aim isn't great, but it works. This play feature gets a PASS.

Secondly, you can help Ron and Hermione get to safety by rocketing them into the air. If Harry isn't having too much success with the knife, I guess this is his alternative. So, will he be able to shoot them to safety? Let's find out…

Yay! They sort of made it! It isn't easy to do this (I made a first attempt video which failed) because sometimes they just get caught instead of shooting up (that phrase could really apply to something else), but if it does work, it works well. I'll give this a PASS too.

If you were wondering how the mechanism works, here is a side view that better shows it. Ron and Hermione are on pegs. Those pegs go through a holed-plate and rest on some tiles that are on a hinge. Then there is a pin at the back that also goes through a holed plate onto the top of the hinged plates. When you press the pin down hard, the minifigures are forced up. Any questions?

FUN

Of course it's fun to shoot Ron and Hermione into the air and send around the little scorpion, but what else can you do? Of course, you can reenact the scene the way it was in the movie. Here are Krum and Harry saving their friends. Blue tones added to make it look underwater.

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And what's even more fun than just playing with two sets? Adding another underwater set for even more fun. The merman didn't seem to like it though. (Read my review of the sub here)

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Those are just my suggestions, of course you can play with it however you want! Or you can just leave it out to get dusty for three odd years like I did.

CONCLUSION

This is really a great set. The minifigures are all superb and almost exclusive to this set. This is the only place to get the shark head, which I'm sure you could use in some interesting vignettes, and it's the only place to get the merman with his "punk red" hair. I suppose you could complain that LEGO didn't include Cho, Cedric, Fleur's sister, and even Fleur (who wasn't there), but LEGO was never going to put nine minifigures in a $20 set, and I think they made the right choices. 4767, on the other hand, could have done with a Cedric. When it comes to the pieces, this set is absolutely fabulous! Sure, it's a teeny bit above the price per piece of 10 cents, but it's close and all of the pieces are in interesting colors. The model itself is also pretty good, and there's a few things you can do with it. The play features also work well enough, which adds to the fun.

RATINGS

Minifigures: 10/10 - The only slight problem is the hair on Ron and Harry, but that can't outweigh the awesomeness of everything else.

Parts: 10/10 - Really, what could be wrong with a handful of medium blue, some dark blue, dark green…

Build: 10/10 - Nonrepetetive, and plenty of interesting things to build.

Price: 10/10 - I think $20 for 5 exclusive minifigures and an assortment of great colors is a perfect price (but still not as good as Graveyard Duel, of course).

Playability: 8.5/10 - Besides the features, there really isn't a whole lot to do, but the play features are enough I suppose.

Overall: 9.7/10 - A calculated average says this set rocks! The going rate on Bricklink seems to be in the 40s range, but if you can find it cheaper than that it's definitely worth picking up!

Until next time!

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Thanks for this great review. The pictures are excellent and the videos are a nice way of showing the various playing functions. I always liked the way Hermoine and Ron pop up. The shark head is also great. A shame LEGO didn't include the other characters in this scene... I was actually about to review it myself, but I couldn't have done it better (and I'm using some of its pieces).

The fourth LEGO Harry Potter line was awesome. Of course, only four sets were released, but they were magnificent. It was a sad choice of LEGO only to release four sets because the design of the sets were great, so if they did other scenes, who know how good they would've looked! I didn't buy any of them in the store, I don't know why, but I feel stupid because of it. The only set I now have to get of the fourth movie is the one with the Hungarian Horntail.

Edited by Matn

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This is a good set IMO, but the rating is too high, but otherwise a great review. Kudos for the videos :thumbup: I like the Cooking Show alternate model. It looks like the merman is cooking a scorpion, or it is a courtroom and the merman is using the scorpion as a hammer :tongue:

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Nice review, it's one of the very few HP sets I regret missing...

As for the knife, from what I've seen on other pics, I think they're supposed to be the other way around in the cone pieces so that they make some sort of spiky surprise trap either for HP or the octopus that seems to be sitting on some sort of ramp...

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I love this set, I got it for 20% off! Woohoo! The only reason I bought it was for the minifigures, and some of the odd colored things. Love this set, and since it came out I wish we would have an Atlantis theme or sub theme to Adventures or Pirates.

Edited by The Green Brick Giant

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What a brilliant review, this is one of the HP sets I don't have (yet?) I know of somewhere it is available for AU$59.99... do you think with all the HP inflation over the years that is too much? Christmas is coming. Hehe!

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As for the knife, from what I've seen on other pics, I think they're supposed to be the other way around in the cone pieces so that they make some sort of spiky surprise trap either for HP or the octopus that seems to be sitting on some sort of ramp...

True, in the boxart and instructions cover it is like that, but inside the instructions it is like this…

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@Cutlass, AU $60 is around USD $46, which I would say is a wee tad high for this set, but then again I'm pretty cheap and don't like buying expensive stuff. It's not the worst possible price, and I do think the set is wonderful, but if I hadn't gotten it new I probably wouldn't pay around $46 for it, but again, that's the way I am. That's really all the advice I can give. It also depends what you want. Wuickly checking Bricklink, it looks like you could get all of the minifigures for less than AU $60, but if you also want the parts, then that's something else. All in all, AU $60 is not a terrible price, and I don't think you'll be able to do much better, but it also depends on how much you want to spend.

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@Cutlass, AU $60 is around USD $46, which I would say is a wee tad high for this set, but then again I'm pretty cheap and don't like buying expensive stuff. It's not the worst possible price, and I do think the set is wonderful, but if I hadn't gotten it new I probably wouldn't pay around $46 for it, but again, that's the way I am. That's really all the advice I can give. It also depends what you want. Wuickly checking Bricklink, it looks like you could get all of the minifigures for less than AU $60, but if you also want the parts, then that's something else. All in all, AU $60 is not a terrible price, and I don't think you'll be able to do much better, but it also depends on how much you want to spend.

This set was originally $AUD39.99 on its release. CutlassIz, if you can get it for $60 from Toycorner I would do so - you won't find it cheaper on ebay or bricklink.

Thanks for the review, Clone O'Patra! I only bought this set MISB late last year when I was going through a HP completist phase and picking up stuff I'd missed earlier. I wish I'd bought it sooner! It's a great set, with amazing figs.

Really, even though it's only 4 years old, it already feels like a whole other era in terms of Lego's production history. There's so many rare pieces in beautiful colours - medium blue, dark blue, trans green flames, the dark green wall section... too many to list! And new moulds too such as the shark head and merperson.. alternate hairpiece for Viktor... sealife... it goes on! Often people only look at set in terms of piece count, but I think we're really missing out when such a stunning assortment of bricks would never make it onto shelves as a set today.

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This set was originally $AUD39.99 on its release. CutlassIz, if you can get it for $60 from Toycorner I would do so - you won't find it cheaper on ebay or bricklink.

Ah good, I knew Svelte would come along to give some Aussie price advice (it's a rhyme)! I hope that helps more than my advice did.

(But why does your name keep changing, Svelte?)

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This set was originally $AUD39.99 on its release. CutlassIz, if you can get it for $60 from Toycorner I would do so - you won't find it cheaper on ebay or bricklink.

I must've gotten lucky, then, because I bought it for 32$ from Ebay just the other week - and it was the "Buy Now"-price, even. :wink:

This is a wonderful set with many rare and unique parts, and I'm really excited to own it. Now my Brickbeard's Bounty's mermaid has a partner - a butt-ugly one, but a partner nevertheless. :tongue:

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I must've gotten lucky, then, because I bought it for 32$ from Ebay just the other week - and it was the "Buy Now"-price, even. :wink:

HP prices seem to fluctuate, and bargains can be had, but when you're in Australia you have to factor in international shipping :sceptic:

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Thanks for sharing this interesting Harry Potter review. This was one of the last few sets that ever appeared in retail shops, that have followed the Harry Potter movies. I never thought this set was so great, especially the exclusive Merman and loads of other Harry Potter minifigs. I always thought this small set was kind of overpriced, but looking at your review, it sure have lots of interesting parts that are very nice to have, with tons of useful parts such as the bricks. :wink:

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This is one of the sets that I most regret not ever getting. It has loads of great figs and pieces in rare colors and was actually quite affordable. However, $20 seemed a bit much for this set at the time, so I waited for the price to go down, but it never did, and suddenly the set disappeared from the market. :sad:

You are lucky to have it and did a great job on the review. :thumbup:

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Great review I like the fact that you added videos of the play features most people wouldn't take the time to do that! :cry_happy:

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Thank you all for your kind comments about my review. I encourage all of you to join the Reviewers' Academy to learn how to make reviews just like I do and impress everybody else! I started out just like all of you and really learned how to become a much better reviewer. If you like the review, then take the time to join and become an Academy Teacher!

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I rated it "Above average". This is a set I'd like to own, too bad its price has gone far too high! (damn dark years!)

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Thanks for this great review!

I voted "excellent", because this set seems to be the "ambush in Cairo" set for the Harry Potter line. :sweet:

I wished I had bought it when it was still available.

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Excellent!

It brings back memeries...! :tongue: . Nice comparions and step-by-step photos, I WANT THIS SET RIGHT NOW!

I look forward to your future reviews :wink: .

Edited by sologuy369

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The alternate model is better.

Huh, seems like a very negative and short response to be used for bumping an old thread, but I guess I'm happy you did becasue this set looks great. I completely missed the HP line all together especially the flesh sets, which I love. I think for the price this is a great deal because you get so many great fig's for a decent price.

Smashing review Clonie!!

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Smashing review Clonie!!

Thanks! I don't think there's ever a problem with bumping reviews, since reviews are there for members to discuss their opinions of sets, and their opinions always exist. If somebody missed a review when it was posted, or they're a newer member, there's no problem with them adding their opinion (whatever it may be) to an older review.

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This set is awesome! The figs are great (Merperson and Victor Krum!) and this set also offers some useful pieces and colors. This set looks some what like the movie, which is great. :classic: But why does it come with the rowboat??? :hmpf_bad:

P.S. Great review Clone O'Patra.

Edited by The Lego Man!

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