Clone OPatra

You can tell based on the wand colours

One person made a mistake, one person left a correction, it's everybody continuing to discuss it back and forth that's the problem! Just let it go now and get back to LEGO!

Oh yeah, now that I look at it, stuff definitely is missing. There's also a misprint on every single Chocolate Frog page. As you can see in my image above: they use the Ollivander image for Ollivander and Rowena Ravenclaw.

Join us over the next few days for very deep dives into four of the new Harry Potter sets, starting with the big one: 76389 Hogwarts: Chamber of Secrets! Are you happy about the direction LEGO is taking with Hogwarts? Do you think the sets are worth it? You can read my thoughts and share your own. Click here or the image below to read my review.

Here are the chocolate frog cards I got, only 8 unique: Yes the Fluffy heads are hollow so this had to be done! By US pricing I don't think the Chamber of Secrets is overpriced, but that's my only real frame of reference. The US price for it is the same as 2010's 4842, and I think this is the better set. The EUR price looks to be 10 higher.

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?

Intriguing indeed. I wonder where these rumblings come from. That said, people shouldn't have to wait too long for this.

I was referring to the use of the pre-existing Mandalorian helmet for Din Djarin in general. Its moulded shape is not 100% accurate to him - he's got those little points at the bottom of the front, for example - but its overall shape and look match well enough that it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Nothing about it is glaringly wrong. They should do more accurate printing like you've said, though.

One of mine had a duplicate within a set. They are spread across different bags within each set so perhaps they are well and truly random. I also didn't get a huge percentage of the 16 and a fair number of duplicates across the four sets. It's in the back of the instructions in the sets. A photo can currently be found on #legoleaks.

Good spot. Rare and works perfectly well in this situation in any case.

18+ black box sets always show the piece count regardless of region My thoughts: LEGO JEFF BRIDGES!! Nuff Said. Ok in more seriousness, the Iron Monger is comically large but it still looks good and fun. And Obadiah Stane is perfect. The Dragon Flyer looks superb and has a perfect complement of minifigures. The 4+ set is a good way to get that Cap in all his glory. It's 4+ but it's no worse than previous non 4+ sets that included a bike and a turret. The Final Battle is fine. Everything included is appropriate and the two primary builds are well done, though the compound is a boring design in universe so it obviously doesn't stun in LEGO form. It still looks like they did their best on it, though. The main hero trio are necessary inclusions, but it's a shame they doubled up on Black Panther when there are so many characters in the final battle to choose from. Scarlett Witch is let down by bad designs, like we've already seen. I'm eagerly awaiting that New Asgard set whenever we'll see it, as a house build is more up my alley than these, but overall I like what I see.

It's been done in green so I don't think so. It's a dual-moulded part though, so they probably just couldn't in their budget calculations.

I'm glad for you and anyone else that likes them. For my taste, I'm not looking for intricately perfect replicas, but overall shaping matters. Mando's helmet isn't perfect for instance, but it's fine. It's got the right overall shape and nothing glaringly wrong. P2 helmets for the Bad Batch are out and out wrong. The helmet has the top ridge and the Bad Batch don't. It's the same level of wrongness as the P1 Clone Pilots using the standard P1 helmet, except the difference here is that these are actual important characters who we are going to spend a lot of time with in this show. I agree with you @T21Typhoon. It seems like waves for new films get a lot of budget for new parts, while waves for shows and other things do not.

From Jang's review:

The previous few years of Hogwarts sets prioritised matching on-screen architecture, so have more complex or intriguing builds as a result. This year's Hogwarts sets prioritise the modular system made out of very squared-off modules and the interior space, as well as being a throwback to 2001's pretty straightforward sets, so have less interesting builds as a result, in my opinion. That's not necessarily a negative, though. As part of my review I will be looking at how the new Hogwarts pairs with the 2018-2020 ones in a display setting without any modification.

Just watching the two Bad Batch episodes so far and dwelling on it, it's a real shame LEGO didn't make a second new helmet mould to use for Hunter, Crosshair and Echo. While all of their helmets in the show are slightly different, they are all similar enough to each other - and all lacking the top ridge of the regular P2 Clones that LEGO has used for them. I still like the set itself and the fact that they've included all of the figures, but those three helmets really are wrong - and it's a let down IMO. It's not necessarily LEGO's fault on this 100%, but just comparing them to the Knights of Ren for a second and what do we have: on the one hand, extremely accurate and unique figures for the most throwaway characters, and on the other hand inaccurate "good enough is good enough" figures for five characters with an actual story.

The amount of chocolate frogs at first had me perplexed, but given one of the special Anniversary items of this wave is the Chocolate Frog cards, it grew on me as the build went on that this Hogwarts is simply overrun with them. The hidden white frog is what really put a smile on my face.

I don't want to spoil the review! The build was good. Straight-forward. Nothing very surprising or intriguing but the frogs hidden everywhere were a nice touch - including a couple I hadn't noticed in official pictures. The best thing was seeing the new parts like the fantastic Pixies and the candlesticks!

It will be interesting to see once the review embargo is lifted how the chocolate frog tile distribution goes. Specifically, I wonder if they are truly "random" and more than one of the same tile could appear in a set, or not. So far I've only built Eurobricks' review copy of the Chamber of Secrets, and the tiles were all different.

I love how many people in the comments on Brickset are saying "my wife loves Friends", "my wife loves the Central Perk", "I loved building the first one together with my wife, so we'll get this".... And I myself came here to say my wife loves Friends and the Central Perk so I'll definitely have to get her this! I'm so glad they did a new, unique face for Rachel this time. That figure is so good all round. It feels less dense than the Central Perk but that's ok. So many details to pore over.

Guilty of driving around to several Gamestops back then and getting two or three Silver Centurions. One of them had a whole box of Iron Patriot polybags sitting around and gave me three of those, and another had one of the DC promo figures and gave me that. That was a good LEGO day. Not guilty of selling any of them, though.

If you like the build and the Disney property, how is the presence of four minidolls a deal-breaker? I'm honestly curious. The two main figures are already available as wonderfully done minifigures, so we're really only missing an official Kristof. Olaf wouldn't be that much different if he was in a minifigure set than the way he is now - though the latest versions have minidoll arms, he still doesn't scream "minidoll" to me.

Well, the first pic is out there, and it looks.... awesome! I honestly don't see how, if anyone is genuinely interested in the ice palace, that interest would completely evaporate just because the four figures are minidolls and not minifigures.

When it's just a matter of of release date differences, nobody truly gets the shaft. So you have to wait a couple of months extra, oh well. In the US the sets are guaranteed to be widely available, you start out with the lowest comparative RRP in the world, and there are pretty much guaranteed sales to drop that even lower. Try living in Australia where a release date is meaningless and it's a guessing game anyway, even LEGO.com is routinely out of stock of any desirable set, and sales usually at best bring the price down to slightly above full US retail price. You get used to it, but the point is, release date differences is one of the most annoying things to hear complaints about because it all works out in the wash!

Reviews will start this weekend if all of the outlets getting sets from the LEGO Ambassador Network follow the rules. Including reviews right here on EB!