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A list (with links) of all the Harry Potter lego content that's been active on eurobricks within the last two years. Premise: there's a lot of Harry Potter content strewn about the "licensed themes" forum, but too much of it goes unseen by too many who'd probably be interested in the material. Far from everyone uses tags on their posts, those tags aren't normed, and many of the titles of the posts don't necessarily lead to them being found in your typical forum search for HP material. Further premises: we'd have even more material here if there were more "reward" (positive feedback) for posting here; too often those posts languish, largely uncommented, and there's no system for otherwise liking or upvoting the contribution, which in combination can be demoralising. We'd also have happier users if they had an easier time finding the content they like. It sounds almost like a match made in heaven... What I'm trying to do about that... Well, in the absence of subforums, I'm attempting to create a somewhat sorted and curated list of the HP content. I've worked my way through over an eighth of the forum scouring for HP material, indexing whatever was last commented on within the past two years, and I think I got most of what was there. (If I missed something, please let me know. If this is an acceptable format (fingers crossed it's allowed as it was a *lot* of work... lol), I'll eventually work my way through the rest and then start tidying this entry. (The quality of the curation will improve as I add more content to link to.) Ideally I'll also add a listing of the MOCs from the MOC Megapost, otherwise folks like our @Micmac and a few others will go seriously underrepresented, which won't do at all. Table Of Contents of the Categories Below Very active Harry Potter threads (comparatively, lots of replies, particularly recent ones) Older / Inactive / Locked (but possibly of interest due to volume) [placeholder] Recent Additions things added in the last month (Coming Soon) MOCs / SECs / MODs The Wizarding World - Hogsmeade The Wizarding World - Diagon Alley Hogwarts 2018/20 Hogwarts System Scale Set Arrangements Specific Scenes Misc Items / Locations Art Nanoscale Misc Minifigs Things / Creatures Brickheadz - official, MOCs / SECs / MODs Reviews News Misc HP lego stuff Prolific Eurobricks' Designers' MOCs and MODs from the MOC Mega-thread: Bugbot20082 Metanoios Micmac part 1 - Hogwarts Locations, Diagon Alley Micmac part 2 - other locations, creatures and minifigs Seaber Whovastron

The Platform 9 and 3 quarters that comes with 75955 Hogwarts Express is rather small and limited. It pales in comparison to the real King's Cross terminal. I have extended the length of the platforms, raised the bridge enough to enable most locomotives and rolling stock to pass under it (double stack intermodal and auto rack don't fit.) The pièce de résistance is the overhead covering. I know it doesn't fully capture the look of the station, but I feel that within the size constrains of my layout and budget, it gives a far better feel. With the top removed. [/url] Gandalf blocks the bridge over track nine, crying, "You shall NOT pass!" Rolling his eyes, Dumbledore sighs. "That joke gets older every time you do it." "I know, but it's my best line," protests Gandalf, allowing Dumbledore to cross.

Hey, I'm pretty new and have recently made a few purchases of the new Harry Potter sets. I got 10 of the new Chocolate Frog Tiles but unfortunately got doubles of Newt Scamander and Gold Dumbledore, I was just wondering what people are thinking of doing with their doubles; Keep them? MOCs? Sell them on another site like Brick Link? Nice to meet you all btw :)

A wild non-Hogwarts set has appeared in the June 2021 lineup. Let's take a look! 76388 Hogsmeade Village Visit | 2021 | 851 Pieces | 6 + 1 Minifigures USD $80 | GBP 70 | EUR 80 (variable) | CAD 120 | AUS$ 130 __________________________ Thanks once again to LEGO for providing these four Harry Potter sets for review. Check out my Hogwarts reviews if you haven't already: 76386, 76387, 76389 and combining them all. When images for the June 2021 Harry Potter wave came out, one set stood apart for NOT being a departure from the standards maintained for this rebooted theme since 2018. 76388 looks to contain two highly detailed buildings in a location that has never been done apart from a small Honeydukes included as a side build in 2004's 4756 Shrieking Shack. There are unique characters in screen-accurate outfits, and details aplenty. Is 76388 Hogsmeade Village Visit as good as it looks? __________________________ THE BUILD & PARTS The build for this set feels more in line with the majority of this line prior to this year, with lots of fiddly bits added for detailing, and such things as the angled roofs which satisfyingly fall into place with each other once they are all added. The buildings still make use of a few larger parts, but the build progresses more slowly and intricately than this year's Hogwarts sets. One of the best aspects of the build is that two instruction manuals are included, one for each building, making this set ideal to split and build alongside a partner or friend or family member. Here are the excellent spare parts, which include an unprinted white bowl, still-rare 1x1 stud with bar attachment in black, that printed 1x1 tile with a heart previously found in four Friends sets, the 1x1 with red swirl (not rare but mostly used in Friends), and cherries in red and magenta - always nice to have. In my reviews I actually haven't touched much on the Chocolate Frog cards. They're a nice little bonus but don't excite me personally. I hope they don't excite you too much either, because they are nearly impossible to collect without resorting to Bricklink (once they become widely available). In this set, I got duplicate McGonagalls. __________________________ THE MINIFIGURES The particular Hogsmeade Village Visit being depicted in this set comes from Prison of Azkaban, and minifigures have thus been chosen somewhat appropriately. The Students For Hogwarts students we get Harry and Dean Thomas in civvies, plus Goldenron. I always appreciate getting students other than Ron and Hermione, though they visited Hogsmeade at the same time, and Dean gets a lovely exclusive head and very repurpose-able torso. Harry has all re-used parts which aren't completely accurate, but not too bad really. Dean was barely glimpsed in this outfit in the film, if at all, but again he's so nicely done that that doesn't bother me. He was seen in Honeydukes, so he's a good choice as he can be browsing there while Harry is taking care of business in the Three Broomsticks. Dean's other face bears striking resemblance to his previous LEGO appearance, in the first Wizarding World CMF series. The only difference is the lack of cheek lines. Oddly, this is the second time in this theme that LEGO has changed a character's hair colour from dark brown to black: first with Madame Maxime, and now with Dean. The Adults For adults, we get Madame Rosmerta, the landlady of the Three Broomsticks; McGonagall in the outfit she wore when Harry eavesdrops on her, Madame Rosmerta and Minister of Magic Fudge discussing Sirius Black at the Three Broomsticks; and the Flumes, who run Honeydukes. All of these figures have outstanding details, though Fudge truly is missing to complete that scene. All four of these include brand new body prints that closely match their on-screen appearances. All four hair and hat pieces are recolours so far exclusive to this set, and Mr Flume gets a new double-sided head. The reused Mantis head works better for Rosmerta than it did for Bellatrix, and though Mrs Flume reuses the Helga Hufflepuff print which has already been reused for Mrs Weasley, I'd care more about Mrs Weasley getting an exclusive print than Mrs Flume. I'm happy as well for a repeat of this McGonagall face from her Hogwarts Moments book set, as those weren't everyone's cup of tea. All of them have delightful back of torso prints, McGonagall especially. You'll see lots of accessories within the builds, but Madame Rosmerta also gets a hammer - maybe to ward off unruly customers? Only the students and McGonagall get wands, which I haven't bothered to show. The acid pops head is much more enticing, and two are included. __________________________ HONEYDUKES Both of the builds included are obviously going to have details reduced from their on-screen appearances, and some incorrect proportions - it's a LEGO set after all. That fact alone doesn't bother me, and I will judge them both on their own merits and their success at capturing the essence of the source material. Exterior Honeydukes looks quaint and charming from the outside, with good asymmetrical detailing ranging from the mismatched chimneys to the snow on the roof to minor details like the placement of 1x1 grey tiles for added texture. The asymmetry continues on either side as stickered brick details and more 1x1 grey tiles are placed in different positions. The roof angles come together quite well too, forming somewhat complex shaping. There's an elephant in the room detracting from the exterior of the model, though, and not the cool new moulded elephant from the City line. It's the stickers. I don't mind stickered detail. They're not going to print things like 2x2 tiles all the time, or stickers like those used for minor brick detailing on the side of the building, and that's just fine. Honeydukes, however, is 100% reliant on the stickers. Without them, you'd have no lattice on the windows, and no pink at all. If you screw up their placement, the thing is doomed. And, even if you DON'T screw up the placement, you could very easily have trapped finger prints and air bubbles in your massive windows, like I have. I tried to be as careful as I could, and my alignment is ok, but the result is still very hazy and looks even worse in person. Interior The vibrant ground floor candy store and storage room above comprise the interior of Honeydukes. Let's take a closer look. The ground floor is filled with a variety of sweets along the walls and bigger displays of chocolate fondue and a glittery opalescent ball in the windows. It also has a removable sort of aquarium stickered on both sides that can be placed in the centre. I thought I knew the Harry Potter franchise well, but my knowledge has failed me again with this one! Both sides have further stickered details on the wall panels, which are easy to apply and create a fine illusion of a more packed store. The cash register area also has a few pleasing details such as the white bowl for weighing, and a couple of stickers. In my Chamber of Secrets review I wrote about the "usable space" test, and I'm happy to report that Honeydukes has plenty of usable space for posing figures. The 2x2 jumper plates were a good choice, and Honeydukes is surely often packed with candy-hungry students anyway. The upstairs simply has fireplaces on both sides. a Honeydukes storage box, a bucket and pot, and some more old bits and bobs stowed in the rafters. It too has enough room for a couple of figures, and would have more with the box removed. All in all, Honeydukes has great exterior shaping and detailing, and the interior offers lots of sweets in eye-catching colours with space to pose figures, but the massive, integral stickers are an equally massive pain. __________________________ THE THREE BROOMSTICKS In the films, The Three Broomsticks looks rather gnarly and has lots of odd angles, all of which have been straightened up for this set. Some people might wish that this location got the D2C treatment so that it could be reproduced more faithfully, but I think having varied locations at more reasonable and accessible price points is better. Exterior This building provides excellent contrast against Honeydukes, with a completely different style. There's still lovely asymmetry to be found, and sloped roofs intersected by windows, resulting in a building that looks eye-catching despite its muted colour scheme and not at all boxy, as one might expect a LEGO set to be. Stickers provide minor details on the front and sides, and are easy enough to apply. Once again, even stickers aside the build feels complex with lots of good detailing and a distinct look. Interior The ground floor, while fairly small, displays the pub portion of the Three Broomsticks, with a combination of brick-built and stickered detail. The stickered shrunken heads and painting are nice touches, while the high bar looks good with a slightly raised area for Madame Rosmerta behind it. Like Honeydukes, both side walls utilise stickers for extra depth and detail, and I'm fine with that. There's obviously not a tremendous amount of seating provided, though The Three Broomsticks feels like a communal enough place that separate parties could sit at the same table, like I've done here. There's also enough floor space for a few other customers, and for Madame Rosmerta herself. I also can't forget to mention the butterbeer mugs, appropriately making their next appearance after the second CMF series. Love as many of those as I can get, and the 1x1 white studs make excellent head on the beer! Upstairs contains a private room, presumably the one where Harry overhears Rosmerta, McGonagall and Fudge. There's a large, roaring fireplace in the centre with holly and a cup above, and a comfy arm-chair to one side with a sticker behind it. The other side has a small chest of drawers and stool, and a sticker that's quite difficult to see. I've boosted the brightness on the second photo so that you can see it's a Hogwarts skyline. This room also contains plenty of open space for staging figures. Madame Rosmerta isn't happy about that. __________________________ SET DRESSINGS In addition to the two buildings, the set also contains three small side builds to set the Hogsmeade scene: a lamppost, a bench, and a sign-board. All are simply but well designed. The signboard has stickers for both sides, with a more enraged Sirius on the reverse. __________________________ FINAL THOUGHTS & RATING All in all, 76388 Hogsmeade Village Visit meets and exceeds my personal expectations. It continues the high level of detail expected for the Harry Potter theme since 2018, with two intricate, visually varied models that complement each other and create a lovely little slice of Hogsmeade along with the snowy side builds. Parts-wise, it includes a wealth of useful parts in dark tan, including arches appearing in that colour for the first time, and the large rounded trans-clear pieces used for Honeydukes windows could be useful without their bothersome stickers. There's also the exclusive acid pops head, butterbeer mugs, and minifigure-scale candy aplenty. On the minifigure front, getting three unique characters is always delightful, while McGonagall and Dean provide excellent new prints. Even if you don't care for the characters, they have useful and not terribly specific prints, as well as some hair and hat pieces in exclusive colours. There's just one thing about the design that detracts from this set, and it's the massive bloody stickers on Honeydukes. Even though they're bad, I wouldn't go so far as to say they ruin the set. If displaying is your aim, from a distance the stickered windows have the desired effect, but up closer at all and they look subpar. They really needed to be prints to alleviate their issues. One other pretty minor gripe I got thinking about is the lack of animals. An owl, mouse, rat, frog or two or three etc would've been great and felt very Harry Potter-y. Minifigures: 9.8/10 - Harry is bland and somewhat inaccurate, and Fudge should've been included to complete the scene, but really these minifigures are fantastic. Pieces: 9.6/10 - Good variety including some exclusive recolours and prints, as well as thankfully two butterbeer mugs and plenty of accessories in Honeydukes. Lacking animals, though!  Design: 7/10 - It's only fair to knock this down because of the Honeydukes windows, which play a prominent role in the set. Every other design choice is good, though. Playability: 8/10 - Unlike Hogwarts, which is itself a magical building and thus should have more play features built in, these two shops are shops, so playability will all come down to using them like doll-houses and enacting scenarios. There's mostly enough space for that, though the seating area in the pub and the upstairs of Honeydukes are limiting. Price: 10/10 - I haven't touched on price until now, but it feels like a fine USD price for the volume of stuff and level of detail, as well as all of the well-done minifigures and accessories. Overall: 8.9/10 - This is a very strong score, though not perfect, for a very strong though not perfect set. Given all of the well-done design choices, I wouldn't want to ding it too badly because of the Honeydukes windows, though they are a real shame. Still, I heartily recommend this set for either what it is or as a parts pack. Though I ended up liking the new Hogwarts sets more than I expected to, more of this please LEGO! __________________ This concludes my reviews of new 2021 Harry Potter sets for now. I hope I provided some useful insights for you, and let me know if there's anything you'd like to see with any of these sets that I haven't already covered. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the sets and/or my reviews, and also let me know if you'd like me to cover any of the other sets once they're available for purchase. I'll definitely be getting the chess one!

Fun with Modular Hogwarts __________________________ Thanks once again to LEGO for providing sets 76386 through 76389 to Eurobricks for review. Stay tuned for my review of Hogsmeade after this article. Now that I've covered 76386 Hogwarts: Polyjuice Potion Mistake, 76387 Hogwarts: Fluffy Encounter, and 76389 Hogwarts: Chamber of Secrets in separate reviews, it's time to play around with combining them together. They're designed to be swapped, stacked, and re-arranged after all! Therefore I wanted to push the new modular system to its limits and share the results with you. __________________________ THE MODULES Broken down into their modular parts, these three Hogwarts sets contain a total of 15 modules: 2 8x24 modules, 4 8x16 modules, 3 8x8 modules, and 5 8x8 roof modules, and 1 8x16 roof module. 76395 Hogwarts: First Flying Lesson, which wasn't provided for review, will add an additional 2 8x8 modules and 2 8x8 roof modules, plus a 10x4 connector module which is less usable in the system so can be discounted. Now, looking at all of these modules, there are logical ways to combine them and less logical ways - I will show you some of each! They do provide a good amount of variety to start with, as all of them have different exteriors and even the conical roof bits have slightly different builds. __________________________ A STANDARD CONFIGURATION Here's a configuration similar to what's suggested on the box. The play feature sections are aligned so that they work: namely, the trapdoor from the Forbidden Corridor is placed over the Devil's Snare, and the bathroom from Polyjuice Potion is placed over the Chamber of Secrets slide. The Great Hall is kept as it comes in its set, and there's a reasonable amount of verticality without going overboard. Personally, the DADA classroom with all the windows being on the same level as the rocky parts looks a bit strange and not ideal, but it's necessary in this configuration to make the play features align. The inside will always make a bit less sense, as there are no doors provided between rooms and things like bathrooms, classrooms, and corridors will abut indiscriminately. I don't think this will bother most children terribly much, though it might have bothered me as a child since I liked things to somewhat mirror real-world situations. There's a good variety of spaces in which to play and stage scenes in these three sets alone: a bathroom, a place for eating, a place for learning, a blank-slate hallway for confrontations or whatever else you'd like, an office, and a few others. Indeed the components of 76387 Fluffy Encounter are elevated by being combined with the other sets, though that doesn't excuse the fact that they're of so little use in their own set. Populated with figures as I've done here, Hogwarts becomes quite lively quite quickly. But enough of the standard configuration. __________________________ THE TWO TOWERS Many people want to know if they can combine the Great Hall with previous Hogwarts sets and forget that it's the Great Hall. You not only can, but you can quite easily. The Great Hall is designed with the same modularity as all the other modules, and once you've shaken up the arrangement, it looks like just another Hogwarts segment. Now I have kept only the rocky bits on ground level. (Note I had two roof bits leftover in this configuration.) On the interior this configuration makes a bit more logical sense. If I swapped the towers around, there'd be a classroom and a bathroom with a corridor in between, and the eating area off on its own level with some balconies adjoining. The play feature sections are also still where they need to be. __________________________ THE THREE TOWERS This configuration doesn't look so good with all the 8x16 modules all stacked up, but hey, it's a thing you can do. It also demonstrates different possibilities with the Great Hall's roof to make it less Great Hall like. The interior is a jumble now. __________________________ THE VERTICAL DOLL'S HOUSE Howabout smushing it all together for one solid slab of Hogwarts? It's a look but I wouldn't say it's a vibe. This configuration begins to demonstrate that the rocky modules don't have to be on ground level, but more of that to come. This one also actually reverts to keeping the play feature sections where they need to be to function, but once again the room placement makes little sense overall. Looks like McGonagall has some explaining to do down in the dungeon. __________________________ FARTHER AFIELD Time to throw inhibitions out the window and mix it up. Here's one I'm calling "The 39 Steps": And if you didn't believe me yet that the Chamber of Secrets modules function just like all the rest, now you will: __________________________ ASTRONOMY TIME If you have 2020's 75969 Hogwarts Astronomy Tower, did you ever notice that the tower itself is a semi-removal 8x8 module? It certainly struck me as odd when building it, because none of the previous Hogwarts sets did that. It doesn't work seamlessly in this system because the upper half has overhanging pieces, but it can be placed on top of an 8x8 module just fine with nothing to either side. The lower half doesn't share the same type of base or orientation of pin holes, but it can receive 8x8 modules. Now there's even more varied space in which to play. __________________________ CONCLUSIONS Playing around with the new modular Hogwarts system has been enormously fun and satisfying. While a little care is needed, the modules disconnect from each other and reconnect to each other smoothly and easily, and once connected they feel very stable. You can be confident moving them around without a resulting floor littered with bricks and tears. There are perhaps not an abundance of configurations that look great from the outside, but it's not too limited either. Playing around for an hour for this article, I came up with several passable solutions. My particular favourite would be what I called "The Two Towers", as it looks nice from the outside and has a logical layout inside, in my opinion. I'd be remiss not to briefly mention the comparison between this system and the original modular system found across the 2001 and 2002 Hogwarts sets. I have plenty of those (including two copies of the Dueling Club for some reason), and let me tell you, you certainly would NOT want to move that Hogwarts around without detaching all of the modules. Also, most of those besides arguably 4709 Hogwarts Castle itself only had one favourable side, while these sets work from the exterior and interior. This revamped system is a true elevation of the concept: lots of varied spaces and details, strong modular connections, and all in all a host of possibilities. Looking at these three sets together does not change my opinion of each one by itself. Sets should always provide a self-contained experience, that can be heightened by combining with other sets to be sure, but not take for granted that that combination will happen. 76386 Polyjuice Potion Mistake and 76389 Chamber of Secrets are both good in their own right, while 76387 really exists only for Fluffy and to lie in wait to be combined with the others. That said, all together, they do make a rewarding experience. __________________________ What do you think? How are you planning to arrange these sets? Do you have another arrangement you'd like me to try? Let me know in the comments!

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 __________________________ 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. __________________________ 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. __________________________ 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. __________________________ 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). __________________________ 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. __________________________ 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: __________________________ 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?

Hello, I had this idea for some time and I finally got around to make it real. So here is the "Flying Mystery Machine". Here is a picture of the crew. As you can see they can all fit in the vehicle. A last picture of the underside the "roof". The bodies of the main crew is from Nexo Knights, I was trying to give them a spacesuit look. Scooby Doo uses a Friend's body, I was trying to give him a Hong Kong Phooey vibe. As for Velma's head it is from two Harry Potter's characters, one of the professor heads (the one that reads tea leaves, I don't remember her name) the hair/hat is Tina (I think) from fantastic beasts and where to find them. (I mostly had to do that because I am guessing like most of us, we don't have an official Velma.) For Fred, Daphne, and Shaggy, the heads' and hairs' I have the official figures from the Mystery Machine, Shaggy's Biplane and the boat from the lighthouse set's, witch the "Flying Mystery Machine" is made from. And yes, I got the idea from Spaceballs, like the Winnebago from the movie.

With the release of official pictures for the June 2021 Harry Potter lineup unveiling a new modular system for Hogwarts, a question on everyone's mind has been: how well can these new Hogwarts sets be combined with the ones from the previous three years? Well, Eurobricks member @Textorix has whipped them up in Stud.io and shared his findings in our Harry Potter discussion topic. He presents several variants, including with and without the rocky Chamber of Secrets. Click through to see all of Textorix' images combining the Hogwarts sets, and join the discussion! The findings are pretty conclusive. Can they be combined well? Yes!

A while ago i bought the Whomping Willow set as an effort to complete my Hogwarts Collection. A lot can be done better and more detailed on this set, but for now i decided to just give the car a little rework. I know the car was designed by Lego for durability and playability but i really didn´t like that odd roof. So i decided to take matters (and bricks) into my own hands and redesign the car: 20210228_172918 20210228_172819 20210228_172853 As you can see, i incorporated a lot of slightly mismatching colors into the car since the one in the movie isn´t exactly brand new...to describe it politely. The car has dings, dents, and spotty paint. I also tried to detail the interior a bit. It still might not fit 4 minifigs, but at least 2 can be seated and some luggage can be put behind the seats...and yes, the back rests can be adjusted. 20210228_163455 As you know, the car gets quite a beating from the Whomping Willow after it crashes into the tree, so i decided to "demolish" it. 20210228_163132 20210228_163005 20210228_162937 I hope you guys like my version. Comments are apprechiated.

Happy New Year all! I have started this as a new topic as I hope to post video and photo updates on my latest MOC, my Hogwarts Castle. Here is the first video I have created about it which is a general overview - any comments or suggestions are much appreciated and I will try and get back to everyone. Thank you!

Hello everybody! As 2020 is coming to an end, I wanted to share my favourite MOC from this year with you. It's Harry's first journey to Hogwarts as a triptych, with each scene built into a RIBBA-frame (often used to display minifigures). Journey to Hogwarts Triptych by Aldar Beedo, auf Flickr The first scene shows Harry's 11th birthday, when he is visited by Hagrid who tells him that he is a wizard and that he will go to Hogwarts: Journey to Hogwarts Triptych by Aldar Beedo, auf Flickr The second scene shows platform 9 3/4 where Harry and Ron pass the barrier to gat to their train to Hogwarts: Journey to Hogwarts Triptych by Aldar Beedo, auf Flickr The third and last frame shows the first years students' boatride to Hogwarts: Journey to Hogwarts Triptych by Aldar Beedo, auf Flickr My favourite part was to recreate the Harry Potter logo with bricks as accurately as possible: Journey to Hogwarts Triptych by Aldar Beedo, auf Flickr I'm looking forward to your feedback! :)

These are based on their appearance in the WB Studio Tour London. The rooflines are based on the Wrebbit 3D Puzzles for some variety. ______________________________ IG: @Wildcards.Toyroom

As a follow-up to my Honeydukes MOC, I designed Hogsmeade's The Three Broomsticks in the style of the Winter Village series! The technique for the roofs came from the Gingerbread House set since I knew that is an exceptionally sturdy design. Anyone who may be interested in the instructions can find them here and on Rebrickable.

Hello everybody, parallel to my train "LMS Class 5 The Jacobite" I also built a famous railway bridge in Scotland. Ok, not the" Firth of Forth Railroad Bridge "... And not the bridge over the Tay ... It should of course be a bridge that the train "The Jacobite" actually crosses. I myself was there in 2005 and was able to photograph the bridge "The Glenfinnan Viaduct" with the train "The Jacobite" and I was a fan of Scotland, the bridge, "The Jacobite" and of course whiskey for a long time. The "Glenfinnan Viaduct" was built in 1897/1898 and has a curved track design as a special feature. Of course, this doesn't make it easier to recreate it with Lego bricks. The next problem is size. The Lego R40 curve is too narrow for most of my trains and the bridge wouldn't really work either. Then it would only be 4 curves long and only one locomotive would fit on it. So I used the R104 curve from Trixbrix as the rail. This means that the bridge has 8 curve segments and 1 Lego straight at the beginning and end. The arc describes a 90 ° curve. In order to be able to show the bridge at exhibitions and to integrate it into routes, it had to be built transportable. A modular construction was unfortunately not really possible for me, only the area with "The Glenfinnan Monument" is modular. I transport the bridge itself in a specially made wooden box and this box also serves as a height-adjustable table at exhibitions. For the Lego implementation I first tried to build an arch from Lego bricks. Then the pillars down, then the foundations, then the landscape. Just like you build a bridge: from top to bottom ;-) There was no digital planning, the model was created through trial and error, various new buildings and many stone orders. My children's Lego Duplo bricks that are no longer used are built into the substructure and covered with a Lego 2x4 wall. Construction began after Christmas and dragged on until summer. In August 2020 the time had finally come. Despite the Corona crisis, it was possible that a meeting of Lego railway fans could be held in Schkeuditz near Leipzig, Germany. And I was there ;-) There were hygiene requirements and no visitors were allowed, so that only we Lego train fans had 4 days to play with. A huge track was built and my bridge was integrated at the beginning of a single-track branch line. At home in the living room my bridge looked huge, on site in Schkeuditz it was rather tiny and there were concerns that not all models would fit ... But it worked for most models, even an ICE could pass. Only a huge American diesel locomotive got stuck. But it was just a branch line ... But what is a bridge without a train? The railway line between Fort William and Mallaig is still in operation and in summer the steam train "The Jacobite" runs as a tourist attraction over this railway line with the famous bridge. I had shown the train "The Jacobite" of an LMS Class 5 locomotive and 6 classic British passenger cars of the BR Mk. I series here at Eurobricks. And hasn't the bridge become even better known through a series of fantasy films? Many may only know the bridge from the Harry Potter films. And so it made sense to change my design of the LMS Class 5 to a Hogwarts Express train. I hadn't seen any of the films until last year. My first impression of the Hogwarts Express comes from the book title of the jewelry edition from the first volume. This is how a Hogwarts Express had to look to me. Later on in the films I was disappointed: the locomotive looks way too good and has nothing at all like a magic train. So it was clear: "my" Hogwarts Express should look something like on the book title: I hope I was able to entertain you a bit and you had fun reading and looking at the pictures. Enjoy, Thomas

I'm a big fan of the Winter Village series, so I decided to try creating Hogsmeade's famous sweet shop, Honeydukes, in the same style! Let me know what you think! Anyone who may be interested in the instructions can find them here and on Rebrickable. In addition to high quality PDF instructions, you will also receive three PNG files for the Honeydukes Logo and Font, which can be used to create your own custom stickers or custom printed tiles (from sites such as Bricksanity).

This was my entry for the latest LEGO Ideas Harry Potter competition, which won runner up. In this entry, I have recreated a diorama of Hogwarts and the grounds, and filled it with many of Harry's memories. This model was a lot of fun to make, especially because it is built in 3 different scales. One of the big challenges building the model was the angle the castle is place at; but I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! You can probably see that the features of the Hogwarts grounds are not place correctly - but I have used a bit of artistic license to make a great diorama, with all Harry's memories. Some cool features of the model to look out for: Helmets for roof tops A wing for smoke A frog for the dragons head Thanks for reading! What do you think of the moc?

Hogwarts-microscale-perspective by Hugo, sur Flickr _________________________ New Moc based on the Harry Potter Universe ----------------------------------------- Harry, Ron and Hermione come back to Hogwarts for a new year. They took the Hogwarts Carriage at Hogsmeade. It is pulled by Thestrals, skeletal winged horses that only people who have seen death can see. ------------------------------------------ I tried something new in this new creation: the perspective (and microscale): the carriage is getting smaller and smaller on the scene. To the left, the trees are following the perspective and are getting smaller and smaller . To the right, the trees are on the first plan, so they can't be on the scale of perspective. At the center, i built a microscale Hogwarts. ------------------------------------------ The perspective give me the possibilty to build a landscape without using billion of bricks. It was the first time that I had used perspective and microscale. It's up to you to tell me if it's successful. I still have to improve myself on it to produce new creations ------------------------------------------ See you soon for a next creation uruk/hugo

Hello everyone!! I hope I'm right in making this a new topic - and that it should be in train tech and not in licensed. I've been working for a while on my own Hogwarts Express MOC. I know I'm not the first person to do this and I bow before many people who've done superb jobs - but here's my take on it! I've linked the two YouTube videos I've made about the locomotive and the carriage so feel free to have a watch. Or if not, there are a few photos which show what I've made. I'm very happy to answer any questions, as well as pointing people in the direction of my inspirations if they're looking for some themselves. Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr Lego Hogwarts Express Moc by Will Norris, on Flickr

I decided to remake 2 sets from the 2004 Harry Potter line for the Prisoner of Azkaban as modern-day sets. 4750 Draco's Encounter should have Buckbeak as well but neither of the Buckbeak figures are on Studio and even though I kept the figure selection the same, I would also add Lupin to 4751 Harry and the Marauder's Map and maybe Hagrid to 4750. I might upload the instructions to the bricklink gallery as I think all of these parts are in existing colours except the flower piece used on the lock in the 4751 remake - not sure how to replace that. Hope you like these, both were very quick builds so I'll probably make a few more like this (maybe 4752 Sirius Black's Escape next, after that I might do some of the earlier sets)

Just something fun I whipped up today. I'd had the notion for a while, I was just waiting for the right head to come along. Thank you HP CMF Series 2 Dumbledore! :) The maestro... And posing with some of his most famous musical inspirations... One could perhaps wish for a better black tuxedo jacket with black bow tie. (If I weren't hoping to keep it "purist," Citizen Brick makes a decent one.) But this fits the bill!

"River, DA calling. We have a new weather report, lightning has struck. I repeat, lightning has struck!" - Nigel Wolpert Lightning has struck! by 0937 Superfan, on Flickr More details on the LEGO Ideas Topic or my Instagram . The last return to Hogwarts in Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows - part II is without doubt the best of the all returns to the school and my favorite one. Despite this scene has the coolest “war code” message ever, warning every student that Harry has came back to the school of wizardry, it also happens in one of the most important places of all the saga - ” If you have to ask, you’ll never know. If you know, you need only to ask.” The Room of Requirement was every time the place where Harry had the opportunity to change his game against the dark magic of “we know who”. The place where the Dumbledore’s Army was born and where most of the wizard friends of Harry train them selfs to be better with magic. The place where all of his friends waited for him - The Chosen One…to regroup for the last fight! This project is my unique entry to the contest “Head back to Hogwarts™” on LEGO® Ideas page. “I repeat, lightning has struck!”… over, and go check it out!

Hi This page is for you to post images of your custom minifigures it does not have to be a full series it just has to be either pictures of your customs or discussing others. Have fun

75978 is one of the biggest ever sets made from legos in the world and in the U.S.A. What do you think? Is it worth it for 5544 pieces at the price of $399.99. It is a huge set and one of the biggest ever but is it worth it for that price? You can tell us in the comments and also discuss if Harry Potter is more important to the Lego company than Star Wars is. Star Wars is more important but Harry Potter is also important.

Hello fellow muggles! It's September, which means it's back to school for the students at Hogwarts. And what better place to get all your wizarding school supplies than in Diagon Alley? I've been a Harry Potter fan ever since the first book was published and this magical shopping street has a special place in my heart as Harry's first trip there with Hagrid was the first time we ever got a glimpse of the wizarding world. Some parts of the alley have already been adapted into Lego over the years, but never at such a large scale, so does this set finally do Diagon Alley justice? Let's go "through the bricks" as LEGO puts it and find out! Set Number: 75978 Name: Diagon Alley Theme: Harry Potter Release Date: September 1, 2020 Pieces: 5544 Minifigs: 14 Price: £369.99 / $399.99 / €399.99. Links: S@H Brickset Bricklink S@H description: The Box The box of this set is huge! It's the same size as that of the Ghostbusters HQ. Since this is a European box, it only has the set number and name on the front along with the age suggestion which is 16+. Fortunately, even though this is aimed at adults, it doesn't have that boring, depressing black background as many of the other recent AFOL-oriented sets do. Instead, it has the same dark blue color as all the other HP sets and features a vibrantly colorful view of Diagon Alley under a partially cloudy sky on the front. There is also a minifig lineup. the Wizarding World logo, and a profile view of the back of the set showing off its impressive length. On the back of the box, there is a profile view of the front of the set and another view of the back of the shops with the four modules separated along with names for each of the shops. Above each module is a close up of the interiors that recreate scenes from the books/movies: Harry getting his first wand at Olivander's, Draco getting the Nimbus 2001 from his father, Harry and the Weasleys attending Lockhart's book signing, and Hermione and Ginny eyeing the love potions at the Weasley's shop. All of these scenes are very charming (no pun intended), although that last one is a bit odd since it's from Half-Blood Prince and the girls look way too young to be looking at love potions. There are four more close up scenes on top of the box. I especially like the first two as they recreate the scene from Chamber of Secrets where Hagrid guides Harry out of Knockturn Alley and they meet up with Hermione who fixes Harry's glasses. The other two scenes which show Ron getting ice cream with Harry and shopping at Scribbulus with Hermione weren't shown in the movies but are things that happened in the books and look very nice as well. There is also another minifig lineup. Hedwig is the figure that is highlighted to be at 1:1 scale, although all of them seem to be 1:1 scale to me. The long bottom () just shows some choking Hazard warnings. The sides are nearly identical as they both feature a smaller version of the front box art. There is a Lego Life ad on side, and name translations of Diagon Alley and Daily Prophet Photographer on the other. I assume all the other names are pretty much the same in every language. Contents Inside the box there is another box and a bunch of bags numbered 9-20. There are two bags for each number, a large one with a stripe and a smaller one without. Excuse me if I don't lay them all out for you since that would probably cover my entire floor. Inside the white box there are 4 dark bluish gray 16x32 baseplates, a bag of large plates, a bag with the instructions and stickers, and the rest of the bags numbers 1-8. Again, each number has two bags, except for number 6 which has 3, meaning that there are over 41 bags of parts in total in this set! And... wait... Is that a secret bonus set for number 21?! How exciting! What could it be? Stick around until the end of the review to find out! Unfortunately, this set comes with a ton of stickers, four fairly large sheets of them to be exact, each labeled with an A, B, C, or D to correlate with one of the modules/instruction booklets. Even the book covers which are normally printed get stickers here and several of the stickers are shop signs that are broken up into up to 4 separate stickers. I'm pretty sure this is what many AFOLs' boggart looks like. The only new printed pieces in the set are 1x6x5 panels and 1x2x5 bricks with window frames printed on them which look quite nice and should be very useful for MOCs. Other printed pieces include the Daily Prophet tile that has appeared in many sets before as well as the 1x2 danger stripes tile, the 1x2 Wingardium Leviosa tile (pardon me, "Levi-o-sa"), and the 2x2 window glass covered in newspapers from the Stranger Things set which are not pictured here. We get one brand new mold in this set, the wand box, of which there are 10 included, all in dark brown. It's 1x3x2/3 large and has similar features as the 2x2x2 crate. It uses 1x3 tiles as the lid and just like the crate it can be stacked to create an interesting pattern. We also get several new recolors such as two of the new ice cream glass that Ginny comes with in the latest CMFs in trans. orange. This set comes with not one, not two, but three new colors for the door with window: dark green, dark red, and light yellow. We also get our first dark brown broom along with other parts in new or rare colors. There are also some pieces that haven't appeared in an unprinted form before such as the 2x4 rounded tile from Super Mario in tan, the 2x2 triangle tile in sand green, a Ninjago skull, and Minecraft baby zombie heads. That's the benefit of having stickers instead of prints I suppose. There are 4 instruction books, one for each module. They have a higher quality cover than normal instructions and each one has a little blurb about the shops you're about to build at the beginning which is a nice touch. The inventory is listed at the end of the second book which is kind of random. The instructions are easy enough to follow, although it was a bit tough for my shortsighted eyes to distinguish between all the dark reds, browns, blacks, blues, greens, and tans at times. That's not unusual for instructions these days though. Towards the end of the final instructions book there is a full page dedicated to the team that worked on this set and a few words from the model and graphic designers which provides a great glimpse into the development process of a set like this. On the back of the last booklet, there is an ad for the rest of the summer wave with a text bubble saying that these sets have "limited availability", so if you're interested in any of them, I'd pick them up while you can, especially if you're in the States. Minifigures There are over 14 minifigs in this set. Let's begin with the most obvious ones, the main trio Harry, Hermione and Ron as seen in Years 1-2. As you can see in the "magically" moving picture below, they all come with a new torso that shows closed school cloaks with a Gryffindor crest on them. Hermione and Ron come with the same head as they do in other sets and look just as adorable and screen-accurate as ever. Harry on the other hand comes with a new head that has a delightful smile on one side and worried expression with dirt on his face and cracks in his glasses on the other as he had during the Knockturn Alley scene in Chamber of Secrets. The new torso has a hood printed on its back which is a nice touch. Here are some screenshots from Chamber of Secrets for comparison. It's clear that these torsos were designed specifically for the Diagon Alley scene in that movie since they have casual clothes on under their cloaks instead of shirts, sweaters, and ties as seen in the rest of the scenes at Hogwarts. Besides Ron, we get four more Weasleys: Molly, Fred, George, and Ginny. The only ones missing in this set from the Diagon Alley scene in CoS are Arthur and Percy Weasley which is a shame, but we already got half the family, so I guess it's alright. Molly comes with young Qi'ra's hairpiece in dark orange along with a new dark brown jacket torso and unprinted skirt. Her head is the same as that used for Helga Hufflepuff in the UCS Hogwarts set (Maybe she's related to Helga Hufflepuff? Probably not, but I'm sure there's a fan theory like that out there.). It works quite well for her. It has a smile on side and a determined grin on the other which would be perfect for a recreation of the "Not my daughter, you bitch" scene. The twins come with the same heads as in the CMFs, but with the shorter hair that they had in Half-Blood Prince. Their torsos are new and have different colors for the vest, shirt, and tie for each twin just like they had in the movie. It's nice to see these three characters finally getting some more love from Lego. Both Molly and the twins have back printing: A hood for Molly and some buttons for the twins. Here is a comparison with the previous versions that we got of these characters. The Qi'ra hair is perhaps not perfect for Molly as her hair needs to be curlier, but it's certainly much better than the old Hermione hair that they used on the figure from 2010. The Fred and George figs that we got back then were pretty close to the ones we get here, although in the old Diagon Alley set they were literally the same fig, so it's nice to see that they gave them some individuality this time around. Like the trio, the outfits are specific to scenes in Diagon Alley. Molly's is from Chamber of Secrets and the twins' are from Half-Blood Prince and they look very accurate. Aside from the Weasley twins, we get three more characters that work in Diagon Alley: Garrick Ollivander, Florean Fortescue, and Bozo the Daily Prophet Photographer. They all come with brand new torso and head designs. While Ollivander and Fortescue use the Doc Brown hair in gray and dark brown respectively, Bozo has a recolor of the S14 Whacky Witch's hat/hair which works surprisingly well for him. He comes with a clever little build for his old-timey camera. All three have nice back printing as well. Here you can also get a better look at Bozo's alternate face. The Ollivander in this set is not much different from the one that came in the GWP Micro Diagon Alley from just 2 years ago. The only real difference aside from facial expressions is the torso which has a slightly different printing and is cast in dark red. It's nice that they went the extra step to make him different and didn't just include the same fig. Comparing both figs to Ollivander's appearance in the films, the brown jacket actually looks more accurate, but it's not a big deal. He looks pretty spot on otherwise and so do the other two Diagon Alley workers. Don't worry, I didn't forget about Ginny! Here she is along with the Malfoys. Unfortunately, the set doesn't include Tom Riddle's diary to recreate the scene where Mr. Malfoy slips it into her cauldron, but I suppose that would render Moaning Myrtle's accessory from the CMFs nonexclusive. Her head and hair are the same as those of Maisie Lockwood from Jurassic World and the same head as Susan Bones from the Great Hall set, but they work well enough for her. Her torso on the other hand is new with a dark pink cloak print. Draco Malfoy has the same head as in the Great Hall set, but comes with a new torso that is similar to that of the trio, but with a Slytherin crest and a shirt collar and tie showing under the cloak. His father Lucius comes with a blond version of the Dumbledore/centaur hair and some nice new torso and leg printing. Like the other figs, they all have back printing which is always appreciated. While Draco and Ginny have double-sided heads, Lucius does not. I really like Ginny's adorable sad face. The last version of Lucius that we got was already pretty close to perfection, but the new hairpiece, shorter cane, and more detailed torso and leg printing do make him even better. The only thing that I don't like on the new figure is the face. It works well enough for him, but it's just a generic head that appears on dozens of other figs. The personalized snooty face on the old fig suits him much better, not to mention that it also came with a Death Eater mask on the other side, and I also like how he looked with a cape. The new fig with the old face and maybe a cape would make the perfect Lucius fig. I'm not sure why they gave Draco a shirt collar and tie as he didn't have those during the Flourish & Blotts scene. They could have easily reused the design of the Gryffindor torso and just switched out the crest. Oh well. Ginny is the least movie-accurate out of the three as her hair looked very different and her cloak looked more dark red to me than dark pink. That's not to say that the fig we got looks bad though, in the contrary. Since this set seems to be mainly based on the Diagon Alley scene in Chamber of Secrets, the inclusion of Gilderoy Lockhart was as he would say "pfffretty obvious" and I was excited to finally get an updated version of him as it has been 18 years since we got a minifig of him. Unfortunately, the fig we got in this set turned out to be a pretty big disappointment. The new face print and Chris Pratt hair that they chose for him don't really capture Kenneth Branagh's brilliant portrayal of the character very well at all. I do kinda like the cartoony embarrassed alternate expression that he comes with for when one of his spells inevitably goes wrong. We also get Hagrid in this set and he is the same as in the Great Hall and Hagrid's Hut set which is fine since that is accurate to the Diagon Alley scenes he appears in. Lockhart comes with a cape that is lilac on one side and dark yellow on the other. If you take it off, you can see that he has some detailed back printing. Honestly, I liked the old version of Lockhart much better. His hairpiece and smarmy grin represented the character much better in my opinion. Here is a picture of both versions along with a shaved Hagrid so that you can see his face. Still no alternate face for him sadly. The oddest thing about Lockhart isn't actually his face or hair, it's his outfit. It doesn't match any of the ones that he wore in the movie. The one he wore during the Flourish & Blotts scene that this is supposed to be based on was blue. The color that we got looks closer to that of the pinkish outfit that he wears a lot during the rest of the movie, but it's lilac. This would probably make Lockhart happy as that is his favorite color, but to me it's just confusing. Is it meant to be some kind of amalgamation of the two? Who knows. Hagrid on the other hand looks... like Hagrid. Nothing to complain about there. While they aren't really characters, we do get two more minifigs: Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Quidditch player mannequins! It's exciting to finally get Quidditch uniforms for these two houses which don't get nearly enough love, although it's a shame that they don't come with capes. We also get a new tan owl with a cute sleepy face and the new Hedwig figure with the spread wings that appears in a few of the other summer sets. I don't think it's actually meant to be Hedwig in this set, I think it's just one of Daily Prophet's delivery owls, but let's be honest, we're all just going to use it as Hedwig anyway. The uniforms match the design of the Gryffindor and Slytherin ones that we got recently, and just like those they have hoods printed on the back. There is only one of each of these torsos included in the set, so it will be difficult to assemble entire teams with these. Hopefully they will appear in a cheaper set down the line, perhaps a Quidditch player minifigure pack like the recent Hogwarts students one. The Build I'm not going to show you all the stages of the build because otherwise we would be here all day and I don't think any of you have time turners to make up for that lost time. So, let's just quickly take a look at just a few points of the build. As mentioned before, the build is broken up into four modules. It starts with the shops on the left and progresses down to the right. The first module you build includes Ollivanders and Scribbulus Writing Implements. I really like how the cobblestone street is made out of various random round plates and tiles. This is what the build looks like after bags 1 and 2. The next section is the one with Quality Quidditch Supplies and the Daily Prophet. Below you can see what the store looks like after bags #6, right before you add the storefront which is only attached by two Technic pins at the top to give it a slight forward-leaning angle, a very interesting technique which I've never seen on a building like this before. The third module includes Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor and Flourish & Blotts. I like how they achieve a wavy look for the roof of Fortescue's using alternating sizes of slopes and the brick-built SNOT awning is pretty nifty too. I also love the intricate SNOT work and little dragon statues made out of flippers and Ninjago sword hilts on the exterior of the bookstore. This is where we're at after bags #12: Lastly, you build the largest and most colorful module using 12 bags of parts, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with the Knockturn Alley entrance. There are lots of interesting techniques here and the SNOT work on the window frames is more complex than you might expect. In fact, there are clever SNOT techniques all throughout the set. Trying to align all the stickers on the shop signs is a PITA though. Here is the shop after bags #16: Feathers and fangs, branches and claws, burned sausage and cheese. No, these are not the ingredients for a strange magic potion, they are just some of the literally hundreds of spare parts left over after the build. In addition to the usual bits and bops, there are also a couple of extra wands and some black lipstick which should make the goth minifigs in you Lego town happy. Well, as happy as goths get anyway. I'm not sure if I should keep the sprue from the wands. Do you keep the sprue? Let me know in the comments. The Completed Set Welcome, reader, to Diagon Alley! 5544 parts and several build hours later, the alley is finally finished, and it looks very impressive! When combined, the four modules form one side of the alley. The whole alley is 128 studs long, 16 studs deep, and about as high as an average modular building. At first, I thought Lego had just taken random shops and placed them next to each other, but as I was rewatching all the movies while building this set, I payed close attention to the layout of Diagon Alley in the films and I was happy to see that Lego's recreation of the movie set is actually quite accurate to how it appears in the first two movies. In the following screenshot, you can see Ollivanders in the back with Scribbulus next to it and Quality Quidditch Supplies with the Daily Prophet entrance in the foreground. It all looks just like the Lego version, except for the DP entrance which is a bit more simplistic. Here is a picture of the ice cream parlor and bookstore from one of the extra features on the Chamber of Secrets DVD. When you compare the Lego version to this, it looks very accurate as well. The reason why the Daily Prophet entrance looks different is because it seems to be based on its appearance in The Half-Blood Prince. I'm not sure why, but the filmmakers changed the design of Diagon Alley for that movie. As you can see below, Scribbulus was now to the left of Ollivanders instead of the right and the Knockturn Alley entrance is to the left of Scribbulus instead of to the right of Flourish & Blotts which got a complete redesign, while QQS was taken out completely. This movie is where they added Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes to the alley as you can see in the back. TLDR: Lego's version of Diagon Alley is a mix between its appearance in Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince. I like that as it combines both versions of the alley that we have seen into one cohesive model. As you can also see in this image, all the buildings should actually have four stories, not just 2 or 3, but it's understandable why Lego reduced their size. However, if you don't like how it looks in the movies, you can mix and match the shops as you please thanks to the shops being built on separate modules and only connected via a single Technic pin. You can even split the alley in half and put the halves in front of each other as I have done for the title image at the beginning of the review to form a full street, although that makes it hard to see the beautiful facades. Here is one example of a rearranged alley: Sadly, I don't have the previous Diagon Alley set that was released, so I can't compare them, but I do have 4723 Diagon Alley Shops, the first Diagon Alley set that was released in the very first wave of Lego Harry Potter way back in 2001. It was a small, overly colorful set with two 8x8 vignettes that looked like they were cobbled together out of leftover parts from Belville and obviously it's nothing compared to this year's Diagon Alley set. Lego Harry Potter sets sure have come a long way since then. Although I have to admit that I actually quite liked that set. I still remember my mom buying it for me at a bookstore back in the day and I think it captures the spirit of Diagon Alley quite well in such a small space rather than the actual look of it in the movies: A whimsical couple of little shops with a wide array of witch and wizard items. Keep in mind, the set designers back then had nothing to go off of than the books and maybe some concept art for the first movie. It was a neat parts pack and a cheap way to get Hermione in casual clothes. Let's take a closer look at the individual shops, starting with Ollivanders and Scribbulus. The exterior looks nice and detailed with all the hanging signs, candle lamp, and textured bricks. The bay windows on Ollivander's shop have trans. yellaw glass panes giving the shop a cozy glow. It's not really accurate to the films, but it's a nice effect all the same. All the modules are open-backed for easy view and access to the interior. On the roof of Scribbulus Writing Implements is a chimney with trans. clear rod stuck on it which holds the flying owl. From there, there are steps leading up to the roof of Ollivanders which has its own pair of chimneys - one of them is short and offset, the other is long and crooked, giving it a nice whimsical touch. On the back of the building, there are stairs sticking out that lead from the ground floor of Ollivanders up to the upper floor. I guess you're just supposed to imagine that the shops continue past the baseplate towards the back. Inside Ollivander's shop, there is a desk with a cash register, some paper, and a quil. Each display window has a single wand on display as described in the books, and behind the desk there are shelves full of fake wand boxes made out of various plates and tiles. However, there is one 1-brick high gap on one of the shelves which holds a real wand box that you can pull out which is pretty neat. The layout of the interior is inaccurate, though, as the desk should be facing the entrance door and the stairs should be on the right and going up towards the back, but there is a reason for why it is like this which we will talk about later. Under the stairs, there is another pile of wand boxes, both real and fake ones. Inside Scribbulus Writing Implements, there is a table with a paper, a quill, and a lamp as well as shelves full of more quills, scrolls, and ink bottles. The scrolls are cleverly built out out of tan cones and ice cream cones while the quills are represented by plumes of different shapes and colors. The display window features an open scroll and a few more quills. This should make all you Pirates and Castle fans happy as this set comes with 7 white and 5 red single feather plumes as well as 2 dark red and 1 blue triple feather plumes, plus at least one spare for each. What I don't like about this store is that the grate under the display window is open towards the street instead of being covered up like in Ollivanders and there is a 1-brick high drop behind the door. Adding some tiles to serve as steps like in Ollivanders and other stores would have been as easy fix. Going up the stairs, there is what I assume is Ollivander's wand making workshop. It has a swiveling chair, a desk with a candle and a wand, a ladder, and more shelves full of fake wand boxes. Like on the shelves on the ground floor, there is one space for a real wand box. There are more wand boxes in one of the windows and a lamp in the other. The use of a hinge brick for an open drawer on the desk is not a new technique, but still pretty clever. All of these details give the workshop a nice cluttered feel. On the other side, above the Scribbulus shop, there is a small living room for whoever runs that shop. It features a fireplace and a small cabinet with a skull and a potion bottle on it. The potion has the same design as those Minecraft oddly enough. There is also neat, old-looking couch with a carpet in front of it, both of which have been placed DiagonAlley across the room. Get it? Let's move on to Harry and Ron's favorite store, Quality Quidditch Supplies. As mentioned before, I like how they recreated the forward-leaning storefront and the printed window bricks look great on it. I also like how they built the mobile with the quaffles and Golden Snitch hanging in front of the door, although they are missing the three Quaffles hanging from the banner above the awning. It's also nice to see the small window panes covered in newspapers from the Stranger Things set reused at the top of the building. The pink color of the upper floors seems a bit bright, but the dark red, sand green, and tan color scheme for the ground floor looks great. You may recall the press release for this set referring to the Daily Prophet section as an "entrance" rather than an office. That's because that is literally all it is - a big empty entrance way. There is only a box of newspapers (all of which are fake except for the one in front) and a spiderweb. It looks very boring and makes that whole quarter of the building feel pretty pointless. I think they could have put a printing press, a desk for developing photos/stories, or many other more interesting things here. And like with Scribbulus, there is a 1-brick high drop after the door which could be easily fixed. The QQS section of the building looks pretty good though. On the left side of the store, there is a display window with the Hufflepuff uniform and a broom as well as a rack with some Beater bats, including an extra thick one. To the right, there are shelves with the Nimbus 2000 displayed on top and with what I assume are meant to represent folded uniforms. Based on the colors, I'm guessing these are uniforms for each of the Hogwarts houses, although it's odd that they chose to represent Ravenclaw with dark gray plates instead of dark blue ones. For what it's worth, they tried to add some detail to the Daily Prophet entrance with a big sticker showing various newspaper headlines and a Sirius Black wanted poster hung on the wall. There are references to Voldemort's return, so this part of the alley must take place during Years 6-7. It's kind of odd how chronologically all over the map this set is. There is another "Have you seen this wizard" poster on the other side of the wall. On the second floor, there are more shelves with uniform plates, a box with another black bat and two Quaffles, the Ravenclaw uniform, and a broom display with a sign inviting customers to "feel free to test-fly any of our brooms". It's a bit odd that they don't seem to sell any Bludgers or Snitches. Maybe they're out of stock. Above this floor there is an attic which seems to belong to the Daily Prophet as it has boxes and stacks of newspapers. It's almost as pointless as the the entrance, but the addition of a rat with a literal cheese-slope is a cute detail. There is a hatch on the left of the attic that provides access to the roof where there are more newspapers on the floor. There are a total of 6 of these printed "The Boy Who Lived" newspaper tiles in this set. It would have been nice to at least get a new newspaper print, but oh well. Next is the store that many of the minifigs included in this set are centered around, Flourish and Blotts, along with Fortescue's ice cream parlor. Again, I really like the detailed exterior of the bookstore with its different shades of green, especially the boxes full of brick-built books to the sides of the entrance. Fortescue's also has some nice details such as the table and chairs in front of the parlor with miniature versions of them sitting on top of the roof. The chairs use fangs as the feet which is an interesting technique that I wouldn't expect in an official set. Now THIS is a bookstore! If you were disappointed by how small and bare the bookstore in the latest modular building turned out to be, this set will likely scratch your bookstore itch. All the dark colors give it an old bookstore feel and there are shelves and piles full of books on each floor. Plus, the open back makes it much easier to access the interior than in the aforementioned modular building. Like in Ollivanders, there are stairs sticking out of the back that lead up to the balcony above, and like with Ollivanders, this is actually inaccurate as the stairs should be going up towards the back, but since the back doesn't exist, this is understandable. To the left of the stairs, there is a large bookcase with various brick-built books in different colors and sizes and a precariously stacked pile of books that uses one of the trans. clear crooked minifigure stands from the DC CMFs to hold the top book at an angle. I love the use of the 1x1 "bump" brick as I like to call it as book spines. It's a shame that they didn't make the shelves like in Ollivanders where there could be a space to put a real book piece among the fake brick-built ones. As it is, you can't take any of the "books" off the shelf. I like how the bookcase looks, though, with the grill tiles adding some nice detail. I just don't like how mixed the colors are on the side. I wish they would have stuck with just brown parts there. Fortescue's interior also has some shelves along with a counter. The shelves hold glasses for serving ice cream, including the new wide glass. Unfortunately, the tall glasses are nearly impossible to remove as they are tightly stuck between the shelves. The glass dome on the counter on the other hand is easily removable as it only rests on a lipstick piece. There's not much under the stairs aside from a window display advertising Lockhart's new book. I wish they would have added some more books here like there are in the movie, but I do like that column next to it with the nice sand green details. On the right wall of Fortescue's, there is the list of daily suggestions as seen in the movies, complete with the misspelling of "Fortescue's" as "Fortesques" (yes, that was actually in the movie). Today's suggestions are chocolate with peanut butter , black beer & raisin , and bat juice and earwig. On the balcony of the bookstore, there is another bookcase with another pile of books. Inside the bay window, there is a lamp and a book rest with a generic brown book with the levitation charm tile. Above Fortescue's, there is cozy little living room where good old Florean sit in a completely SNOT armchair and sip on some tea. There is also a tall lamp, although it doesn't have anything to represent a light bulb inside which is kind of odd. A simple trans.-clear or -yellow stud would have done the trick. Since the building doesn't include the back of the store where Lockhart's book signing actually takes place, they included the desk where he does the signing as a separate little build. It's simple but fine looking desk with a mat, a quill, and a stack of black books next to it which I believe are meant to represent copies of Lockhart's book "Magical Me". Having the books attached to the desk wouldn't be a problem, except it's very obvious when you look at it from the back since the leg on the other side of the table is black instead of tan. Yet another minor odd design choice that could have easily been fixed. Last but not least, we have Weasleys' Wizard Weezes. The twins' joke shop really stands out among the other stores, not only because of its size, but also because of its color. The orange and lavender facade really pops and the giant Weasley statue is certainly an eye-catcher as well. It all looks very polished, except for the Technic holes on top of the bay windows which I wish they could have covered up somehow. Also, that gray 3x3 plate on the roof looks out of place and I wish they would have used a lavender plate instead. There are some nice details such as that orange/purple paper spinny thingy (anyone know what it's called?) which can technically spin as it is mounted on the bars of robot claw pieces, but I wouldn't recommend it since there is some resistance and each of the slope pieces is mounted on just one stud, so they can break off, or worse... get misaligned. The Knockturn Alley entrance gets kind of lost next to the WWW, but it looks good for what it is. The slanted window and street sign give it a nice creepy, wonky look. There is a dark gray lever behind the top of the corner of the building which when moved back and forth makes the giant Weasley twin lift its top hat using a gray Technic liftarm behind the statue's head. It's a simple mechanism and it doesn't move as much as in the movie (and there certainly isn't a magically appearing/disappearing rabbit either), but I appreciate that they included at least one play feature in this giant playset. There is nothing in the instructions on how one could motorize this feature, but I'm sure someone will figure it out. Normally, there should be a window behind the head, but they probably made it a solid wall to hide the mechanism, meaning that they had to sacrifice accuracy for playability, which is perhaps why there aren't any other play features in this set. If you thought the exterior looked colorful, wait until you see the inside! The interior is bursting with all shades of orange, purple, pink, and green and I love it. There are so many shelves and piles of various little packages and objects that it really feels filled to the brim with fun magic products! It looks so fun and whimsical, just the type of feeling you expect from a magical joke shop. On the side of the building there are stickers advertising some of their products such as Jinx-off. This is easily my favorite of the shops in terms of interior detail. This building comes with a separate build for the love potion fountain, but there is enough space to put it next to the register as you can see here. The ground floor has the striped cash register, shelves with various jars and boxes, and a pile of boxes under the stairs, including one with a Dancing Doxy. On the second floor, there is a pot of lollipops, a pile of Fred Weasley's Basic Blaze Boxes, and a few more shelves with a golden goblet, a blue crystal, and various little packages. I really like the stairs here with the randomly colored banister and the balloons hanging on the side. On the third floor, there are a few more boxes with the WWW branding, a geode, some dark blue trophies, and other little packages. This wide variety of products seems really fun, but you get a little disappointed once you realize that just like the books in Flourish & Blotts or the ice cream glasses in Fortescue's, many of these objects are stuck on the shelves and you can't take them off to play with them, so there's actually not much to do in this whole big shop. As you may have noticed, Each module has Technic connection on both the side and the back. This is so that you can connect them back to back to form a full modular building. In order to be able to do that, you can swing the stairs in Ollivanders and the balloons on WWW inward and lift up the stairs in F&B. Once connected, this is how they look. The different modules combine to form a modular building fairly well and the roofs line up seamlessly. If nothing else, it's a more space efficient way to store/display the set. Here they are between two modulars. Aside from the different style of sidewalk, they fit into a modular city pretty well. It doesn't take much imagination to pretend that these are regular muggle stores in an old English district of your town. Of course, WWW sticks out a bit due to its wacky colors, but it makes sense if you think of it as a toy store. It's pretty cool that the set designer has included this option. That's all there is to say about Diagon Alley. Did we forget anything? Oh yes, the mystery box! For those of you who want to know what's inside, click below to open the spoiler section. Anyone who doesn't want the surprise spoiled and wants to find out for themselves, continue to the ratings. Ratings Design: 5/5 - This set looks fantastic! There are so many little details and aside from some small inaccuracies and minor odd design choices, it looks just like the Diagon Alley in the movies. Build: 5/5 - The build is long and fairly complex with many interesting techniques. It starts with the smallest, darkest module and ramps up to the largest, most colorful one, giving you the sense that the build gets progressively more challenging and fun as you go. The surprise build at the end is the cherry on the cake! Minifigs: 4/5 - There is a decent amount of figs included and they all look pretty good except for Lockhart who really could have been better. Playability: 2/5 - It's a big doll house, but a lot of the objects are stuck in place. You can lift a hat and... that's about it. Parts: 4/5 - There is a wide assortment of colors with several new recolors and a new wand box mold. I just wish more of the parts would have been printed. Price: 5/5 - $400 may be a lot to drop on a Lego set, but it's a very fair price for what you get, especially considering other licensed sets of this size. Overall: 4/5 - I had a magical time building this set while rewatching all the movies and the end result looks amazing. It's a great combination of scenes from different movies to give you a timeless recreation of this iconic location from the world of Harry Potter. The fact that you can easily integrate it with the modular buildings is a nice option and finding the secret bonus set inside was a very peasant surprise. However, it's clearly designed to be more a display piece than a playset which is disappointing, even for an adult-oriented set. AFOLs want to play with their plastic wizards too dangit! Also, many have been saying that they should have sold each module separately which is understandable since the $400 price tag is hard to justify for many, especially during these rough times, but I think the idea was to have a modular Diagon Alley out of the box where the main feature of the set is the ability to rearrange and display it the way you want and it's a fair price for 5544 pieces. I don't think you would have the full Diagon Alley experience otherwise, so I understand why they did it this way. If you do have the money for it, I can definitely recommend it, not only for Harry Potter fans, but also Modular fans and fans of detailed Lego builds in general. I hope Lego will make more sets like this, such as a Hogsmead in the same style! I could also see them doing add-on sets to this such as Gringotts. This modular style also lends itself to builders designing their own modules to add to the Alley. I can't wait to see what people come up with. With that, I would like to thank you for reading through this long review and give a big thank you to Lego for sending me this set for review. I hope you enjoyed it. Please don't forget to rate the set using the poll above let me know what you think of it in the comments! I look forward to your responses. To finish off, here is a potential situation that you will run into when you try to play with this set:

Here is my review on 75980 Attack on The Burrow: THE GOOD: The Burrow itself is excellent, love some of the techniques they used to make it nice Lots of interesting small exterior details and furnitures builds 2 Owls and 1 pig (Great to see the pig return and utilised) 8 minifigures and most of them are great and I love Bellatrix's hair piece THE NOT SO GOOD: Harry Potter minifig is a bit dull compared to the other minifigures included The fire build kinda just there to make the set name legit but not really significant even though it's nice to get more flame pieces. Overall, I think this is an excellent set. Harry Potter line has been very consistent in the past 2 years. This is one of the best buildings from this theme. I don't have the previous version so I can't really compare but I really like the exterior design of this set. I think it's a smart design, given it's a doll house type build but it still look like a complete 3 dimensional building because of the way they designed it. The Burrow itself has so much cramped inside and so many things to discover. Also it's very nice to see 8 minifigures with some exciting hair pieces. I'm very happy with the end results and would totally recommend this set to everyone!