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Oh dear! I can't believe I am reviewing a set with a new creature mould again. Quick disclaimer: this is my very first Harry Potter set, excluding the CMF series. Therefore, I can't make a direct comparison with the older minifigures as I don't have any. Now that it's out of the way, think of your happiest memory. With all your might, focus on a single, very happy memory. Ready? This is my 24th Eurobricks RA review, set number 75945 - Expectoooo... Patronum!!! Overview Name: 75945 Expecto Patronum Theme: LEGO System / Harry Potter Year: 2019 (2H) Pieces: 80 Minifigures: 4 Price: USD 19.99 / EUR 19.99 / GBP 19.99 Introduction This set is based on a very iconic scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry saved his future self and godfather from Dementors using a defensive charm called Expecto Patronum. The back-end time travel that took place towards the end of the movie is one of my favourite sequence in the entire HP series, save the final battle of Harry and Voldemort. I rewatched the movie late last year and it only cemented my opinion that Prisoner of Azkaban is one of the best directed movie in the franchise. Enough about the movie. Let's talk about the LEGO set. Front panel The front panel shows the roster of minifigures at the left corner. Something that sticks out immediately is the abundant glow effect especially on the stag. Back Panel At the back, the usual action features are illustrated. There is nothing much happening there except the radar dish being shot at the Dementor. More about the play features later. Content of the box These are the immediate contents from unboxing. There is 1 small instruction booklet, 3 plastic bags containing bricks, 1 plastic bag containing the stag and 1 paper box with the capes. And here are all the parts unpacked. I am happy to report there is no stickers! Minifigures Just like what I did with my previous review, I will focus on the minifigures (and creature) first because this is the most important aspect of the set, at least for me. The stag is included in the line up for scale comparison purpose only. Front view with hairpiece/headgear and armours Everything is new to me in LEGO Harry Potter theme so I have no preconceived notion what has changed or what has improved. All the direct comparison that I can make is between this set and the HP movies. However, looking at the pictures of previous Sirius Black, all I can say is that it is a huge improvement over the old one. The re-coloured Luke Skywalker hair looks good in dark brown and it fits the gritty character design very well. Harry Potter sports a new torso and he uses the dark tan medium legs that is first paired on Justin minifigure in set 75810 The Upside Down (Stranger Things). Harry Potter in this set is a decent minifigure. I can't complain about this protagonist. Moving on, there are 2 Dementors included in this set. It is exactly the same one in set # 75955 Hogwarts Express that was released last year. Interesting enough, if you look at the average selling price of these blind dark hooded creatures in Bricklink, 2-3 of these is already worth this new Expecto Patronus set. Crazy, right? How could 2 of these minifigures be worth the entire set? One could hope that as more set 75945 is parted out that the average price of these minifigures would go down. But that's not my point. My point is, if you have been wanting to get the new Dementors, this set will give you so much more value than buying the minifigures in the secondary market. Think about that again. Back view with hairpiece/headgear and armours The back printing for the human characters are very minimal but this is not problem for me. The Dementors use the tried and tested cape with tattered edges. For someone who didn't own the older Dementor minifigures, I think they are just fine. Do I like a better cape like previous Dementors? Yes, but I will not trade the marbled black ghost lower body part because they look terrific on these ghostly minifigures. Front view without hairpieces/headgears and cape Without the cloak and cape, we can see more details of the Dementor. One could say that the Dementor's face is nothing but a ... hole... A black face with a hole. A hole? They don't have eyes because they're blind. So that's just their mouth sucking all the happiness of their target. Whatever. That's the new Dementor minifigure for you. Back view without hairpieces/headgears and cape Sirius and Harry has dual face print. I always expect major characters to have dual face print so I am very glad that TLG didn't cheap out on these two. There is no alternate face for the Dementor because it will be covered by the cloak, always. It has no back printing also because the capes will cover the back anyway. Totally fine. Corporeal Patronus As the only defence against Dementors, Expecto Patronus has to be one of the most famous spell in Harry Potter. It has 2 forms: non-corporeal and corporeal. The set is all about Harry's Corporeal Patronus which takes form of a stag. In the books, Corporeal Patronus is supposed to be silvery in colour. In the movie and games adaptations, the Corporeal Patronus appears to be predominantly bluish so when I saw the first picture of the stag in glittery transparent light blue, I am not surprised at all. I think people remember what they see in the movie so I am not going to complain or argue that it should have been just transparent with glitters. I almost forget -- the stag's horns are made of softer material, likely done to prevent injuries. It does not have glitters unlike the rest of the stag's body. Comparing the stag with other 4-legged animals Next to the City feline mould and NINJAGO wolf, the stag is taller. There is no leg or hind legs articulation likely because it makes the production of these special moulds cheaper and easier. Unlike the recent animal moulds though, the deer/stag mould follows the same design approach of LEGO cows as it has a space for bricks and a plate in the middle of its body so that you can fit a saddle or a yoke for a cart. I can see this mould being re-used for Santa's reindeer but that's purely my speculation. Stag top view Build All parts laid down before building There are lots of good parts included in this set and the build is not shabby, too. Forbidden Forest Trees The trees are not identical but it is using the same trunk and base. They are not as big as I wanted but knowing this is a relatively cheap set, I cannot complain. I am even thankful that we get 2 trees instead of 1. At the back, all you see are anti-studs so it is not pleasant to look at. I think the intention of the designer is to always face the beautiful side of the trees to make the build simple and less bulky. If you put the trees back to back, it could make a good stubby medium-sized tree. It's possible -- but I don't want to go in details because you need to do some modifications. Sexy back... NOT! These side of the tree is not camera friendly... but it's okay for the price. Tree deconstructed The build of this tree is simple and efficient because it is using the relatively new part (#41682) Tile Special 2x2 with 1x2 Vertical Plate to erect the trees upright. Glad that this part exists now. It's definitely going to make more interesting stud not on top building techniques. Completed build The completed build is small but effective because the trees add a lot of depth to the scene. My only gripe is that the lake shore is very small, and the "Great Lake" isn't great at all. TLG is really banking on kid's imaginative play to make this work. "I'm so sorry Sirius, there's not enough space for us to re-enact the scene properly" Parts I like the all brown and green parts included. These parts can be easily used for other purposes and if you buy these set in bulk, you can keep all the parts to make a bigger forest. I hope smaller sets can be like this set -- the parts are really useful and the minifigures are very desirable. Not many sets fall in that category. Excluding minifigure parts, the new mould in this set is none other than the stag in transparent light blue with glitters. The other parts that were re-coloured in transparent light blue with glitters are: 1x2 brick and a dish 4 x 4 inverted (radar) with open stud. The tattered cape included in the set comes in just 1 small paper packaging with numbered "6270340" -- don't panic if you see only one of this paper packaging because there 2 capes inside. 2 capes in 1 packaging Extra parts For reference, here are the extra parts. Note that I didn't use the wand from this set because I have a spare dark brown wand lying around somewhere. Conclusion It's not hard to land a good score for this set because a lot of the pros outweighs the cons. See below: Pros: New stag creature mould is exclusive in this set New Sirius Black is also exclusive in this set Two Dementors are included - an excellent way to get more of these ghostly creature easily The parts used on trees are very useful for MOCs Cons: Very little studded area to put the characters on the lake shore which makes the plates almost useless. Beside, there are only 8 studs of "lake" included. The trees are only meant to face forward as all you see at the back are the anti-studs If you bought all the sets in this HP wave, you'll end up having 3 identical Harry Potter minifigs. Great if you like to make an army of Harry Potter.. So, to wrap things up -- Review summary Playability: 7/10 - the stud shooter seems to be forced just to add additional play feature. As advertised, there are endless magical possibilities with 4 minifigures included -- but it's mostly for role-playing the minifigures only. Design / Building Experience: 8/10 - The trees efficiently use the bracket part but the tiny space on the shore is so little that if the designers just get rid of the plates they could have reduced the cost or allocated more parts on the trees. Minifigures: 10/10 - Sirius Black is my favourite minifigure in this set but one cannot deny that the inclusion of 2 Dementors make this line up perfect. Price / Value for money: 10/10 - Excellent minifigures, exclusive creature and very useful parts included in the set give this set tremendous value Overall: 8.75/10 - A little set every Harry Potter fan should get. Excellent value, great parts and excellent minifigures all in one set. EXPECTO PATRONUS!
