Search the Community

Please to share with you a castle MOC I made that is draws some inspiration from Hogwarts. The build started with a technic mechanism to make the griffin topped stairwell appear and rise (see animated gif). The height of the castle was a result of trying to hide the mechanism which ended up being far larger than I had first thought it would be. The raised gallery on the side was added to balance asymmetry of the Headmaster's towers on the right. This is my largest build to date, but I think I'll stick to more manageable sized builds that can fit on my desk in the future. Finally, I've included my IG profile that has more videos/photos https://www.instagram.com/gilderoy_blockhart/ Front view by Alex Lam, on Flickr Side View by Alex Lam, on Flickr Arcade by Alex Lam, on Flickr Technic stairwell mechanism by Alex Lam, on Flickr Griffin stairwell animated gif by Alex Lam, on Flickr Dumbledore's fold out office by Alex Lam, on Flickr

Happy to share with you some vignettes that I built from the Harry Potter movies. Here are two scenes from Dumbledore's office featuring his Pensieve and Memory Cabinet. Hope you enjoy ! There are more HP builds on my instagram Pensieve 1 by Alex Lam, on Flickr "What you are looking at are memories. In this case containing to one individual. This is perhaps the most important memory I've collected. I'd like you to see it." Pensieve 3 by Alex Lam, on Flickr Pensieve 2 by Alex Lam, on Flickr “I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind. At these times, I use the Pensieve." Pensieve 4 by Alex Lam, on Flickr Pensieve 5 by Alex Lam, on Flickr

Greetings, Here's a second addition to our modular Hogsmeade MOC. It's an interpretation of Zonko's Joke shop based on theme park photos and my imagination. The downstairs is the joke shop while they've expanded into Cosplay outfits on the second floor. The tall building next door is a take on what an Owlery might look like.. that will be covered in a different post. Apologies about the overexposure in some of the photos. Having difficulty learning how to photograph interiors at that time. Enjoy ! IG @gilderoy_blockhart https://www.instagram.com/gilderoy_blockhart/ A quiet morning at Zonko's Joke Shop and Owl Post by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr Evening falls on Zonko's Joke Shop and Owl Post by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr "Why is it always me?" says Neville Longbottom by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr zonkos-06 by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr zonkos-05a by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr zonkos-08 by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr Modular Interior by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr Ground floor sells jokes, tricks, pranks and balloons. by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr Zonko has expanded his business to include costumes on the second floor. by Gilderoy Blockhart, on Flickr

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

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?

"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!

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:

A thread in the style of the popular star wars thread to discuss possible sets, minifigures and concepts for future Lego Harry Potter waves. For all Lego Harry Potter theme discussion that does not fit into the current annual harry potter discussion thread. My reposted wishlist for 2021 Earlier Releases/ June Wave: Hogwarts Battle- Small section of Hogwarts based off of DH2 ( similar to the Room of Requirement) Minifigures: Molly, Ginny, Bellatrix, Death Eater. £20 Malfoy Manor- Small section of the Malfoy manor dining hall from DH1 Minifigures: Harry, Draco,Ron, Lucius, Narcissa. £25 The Tent- Medium-sized tent build, small pond build with Gryffindor's Sword, New doe patronus piece. Minifigures: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Scabior, snatcher £35 Shell Cottage- House build similar to privet drive set from this year. Minifigures: Harry, Luna, Hermione, Bill, Fleur, Ollivander £50 Ukrainian Iron Belly Escape- (Attaches to this year's gringotts build in the D2C) Section of Gringotts that includes a cart track, The Lestrange vault, Miscellaneous Vault, Large Ukrainian Iron Belly build Minifigures: Harry, Ron, Hermione, (All in disguises), Griphook, Bogrod, Gringotts guard. £65 The Battle of Hogwarts- Large hogwarts playset with lots of exploding functions but still looks good on its own, Section of the courtyard, Boat house. Minifigures: Harry, Hermione, Ron, Neville, Voldemort, Snape, mcgonnagal, Death eater (x2), Dementor, Hagrid, The Grey lady. £100 Later releases/ August wave: Fiendfyre Rescue-(attaches to Room of Requirement set) Builds for the piles of hidden objects, builds for the fiendfyre. Minifigures: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Blaise, crabbe £35 Escape from the Ministry- Builds for the court, entrance hall, and lift. Minifigures: Harry, Ron, Hermione (disguises), Umbridge, Yaxley, Mary Cattermole £50 Death Eater Battle Pack-Small build for some hogwarts terrain. Minifigures: Death Eater (x3) Dementor. £13

Here is my heavy MOD of 2020 set 75968, 4 Privet Drive. The car is a dark blue version of the Anglia in 2018's Hogwarts Whomping Willow set (75953), and fits inside the added garage. Here is the front of the house. I added a visible chimney flue, as I didn't like how the set kept the one hidden inside the wall. The rear of the building features a greenhouse and back door to both the house and garage. The greenhouse folds up and open to get at the inside of it, which at this point holds only a telephone. On the lower floor of the inside is the living room (with record player, couch, and fireplace), kitchen and dining area (stove, sink, table and two chairs). The upper floor features a lamp on a table and a bed. This 1962 Ford Anglia 105E is based off set 75953 (Hogwarts Whomping Willow), but in dark blue. (and no, it does not fly!) The rear trunk opens slightly. Two of this part are missing in dark bluish gray, and four of this part are missing in dark blue to finish the car. The LDD file is available at Bricksafe here. Any thought, comments, complaints or suggestions?

Here's my "last-minute-ish" entry for the ongoing Harry Potter Microscale Contest at TBB. I tried to challenge the concept of microbuilds, where most people would go for small intriguing details brought to life by creative part usage, I wanted to up the scale so that not only can I end up with something massive, but it also allows me to have a little bit of everything in the build: big movements like the crooked facade, small details like the desks for the goblins, and also an animal build - my favourite Ukrainian Ironbelly.Hope you enjoy it! Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son Gringotts Wizarding Bank (2018) by city son

Admit it,we all were filled with joy when the news droped that 2018 will see new "Wizarding World/Harry Potter" sets. One set that caught my attention was that amazing black coach from the second "Fantastic Beasts..." movie with the introduction of a new mold for the Thestral,those creepy and cool horses with bat wings. Lego did a nice job,but i thought the Thestral could need a bit more articulation for the wings.Usually,they only move up and down,which looks okay and fits when dragging a victorian era coach through the air... IMG_20180906_230841 IMG_20180906_230826 But what if you want to have the Thestral in a MOC or just want to depict a wild Thestral?They don´t always run around with heir wings spread out left and right... How about folding them to the back IMG_20180906_231207 Or unfold them at an angle? IMG_20180906_230900 With the use of 5 additional bricks,you can do this as well... IMG_20180906_231011 IMG_20180906_231016 IMG_20180906_231049 I hope you like this neat little modification.

This is a small model that I created to display the Harry Potter CMFs. It I looks pretty good in my opinion. Tell me what you think below.

Long-time member, sometime speaker. I thought it was time to get more active in the AFOL community, so I've started a YouTube channel. The first batch of videos will consist of my reviews of the new Harry Potter sets and Collectable Minifigure Series. Please find the first video, a review of the polybag 30407: Harry's Journey to Hogwarts, below. I'll add more reviews as I make them. Apologies for the varying picture quality. It's my first try! And I'm thinking: I should probably include more close-ups of the actual LEGO next time... Still, I hope this proves useful and/or entertaining to you. Thanks!