Review:75953 by SPIRIT

BS01 Reviews

75953 Hogwarts™ Whomping Willow™

Review: 75953 Hogwarts™ Whomping Willow™

We're back with another Lego Harry Potter review. While the Whomping Willow might not be the most important location in the Harry Potter series, it certainly plays an important role in two of the books. Does this set capture the magic of the series or does it just leave you thinking "whomp, whomp"? Let's find out!

Well right off the bat, "Whomping Willow" is just a woefully inadequate description of everything this set has. It's got the flying car, the Gryffindor Common Room, Snape's office, Potions class, and that weird little archway the car drives through in the movie. It's got everything! It's got little lanterns on the wall, towers and turrets everywhere. It has a very Hogwartsy aesthetic.

One thing I might fault it on is appearing a little flimsy. I get that this is a smaller set, but especially compared to the Great Hall, it doesn't have nearly as much weight, which is a real shame because it's got these wonderful ramparts that would be so fun to re-enact the siege of Hogwarts with. You just have to really suspend your disbelief (also there's a giant honking hole in the wall, but one problem at a time).

I do especially like that they've designed this set to not only be modular but to also be compatible with the Great Hall set, so you can mix and match the castle into any configuration you want. It's reminiscent of what they tried to do back in 2001/2002 with different sets being able to be stacked together to form a larger overall Hogwarts. This system seems a little more manageable, especially thanks to our old friends the friction pins. I only wish there were more sets you could add to this.

Similar to the Great Hall set, there are just so many bits and pieces and rooms and compartments all over the place. There are definitely a lot of possibilities for stories to act out or things for the characters to do. Unfortunately due to this being a smaller set, some of the rooms end up being teeny tiny. (That's the entire Gryffindor Common Room, for instance). The beds are interesting, something I haven't seen before. They're designed to come out easily and lock the minifigures in place so they don't fall out of bed. I wouldn't call them perfect beds, but I've certainly seen much worse. It's also missing a portrait of the Fat Lady. I know, it's a smaller set, but I feel like that wouldn't have been too hard to add.

"You were seen by no less than seven Muggles!"
"I think you mean 'fewer', sir."
"Enjoy fewer house points, Mr. Potter."

Snape's office is one of my favourite areas in this castle. It looks exactly like it does in the movie and they've even done things like add a special Daily Prophet piece to let you act out the whole scene. There's also just random stuff all over the place, making the possibilities for the stories you can act out virtually endless.

The set's eponymous Whomping Willow is such an interesting build. The mechanism to make it spin is quite smooth, but I feel like you have to suspend your disbelief a bit to believe that it looks like a tree. It does look quite good with the Ford Anglia in it, but it seems too bare without it. Plus its leaves keep falling off. I'd have been fine with no leaves rather than leaves that you have to stick back on every five seconds (although at this rate it may become "no leaves" soon enough). It does have a little tunnel under it, which I thought was a nice touch. It's just a little weird looking, but then it is a magical tree so I'm not really sure what I expected.

"Take my hand! Hold on!"
"I'm trying! Minifig hands don't connect to each other!"

The Ford Anglia in this set is pretty great. The roof comes off pretty easily, making it easy to put the characters in, but it's only designed to be a one-seater car. Sure, you could probably get Harry to stand behind Ron, but that's not really how cars work. Otherwise it has working doors and a trunk with... trunks in it... okay, now I see why British people call it a "boot". The side mirrors seem a little lacking, but I'm sure you've got the extra transparent studs lying around to remedy the situation if you so choose. It also drives pretty well, certainly a lot better than other Lego cars I've seen throughout the years. The colour is absolutely spot-on. This car is one of the high points of the set.

Moving, lastly, to the minifigures. Filch and Snape are both pretty great. There aren't too many balding hair pieces out there, so this might be your chance to get one, and I do like that they just gave Snape the same skin colour as everyone else rather than experiment with glow in the dark plastic like they did in 2001. Mrs. Norris is conspicuously absent from this set, particularly given that this is the only opportunity to get Filch.

Harry and Ron's new outfits are a nice touch, it certainly makes it less weird to have doubles of them. Then you have Hermione who A) Wasn't in this scene, and B) Is just wearing her school uniform. I'd have thought that in making this set compatible with the Great Hall that they could've given this Hermione something to distinguish her from the other Hermione... or even just include a different character since, as I said before, she doesn't really have much to do with the Whomping Willow.

And then there's... Seamus Finnigan, who is so bland and nondescript, that he could literally be any Gryffindor student. You could've given him a little camera and called him Colin Creevey. Heck, you could've even given him the option to be all blown up when his "water into rum" spell backfired. Instead we just get a very bland character. I mean, it's not as bad as Susan Bones, but if you look at the characters who are not included in the blind bags or the other sets of 2018, I'd say that Seamus Finnigan is incredibly low on my list of characters to include.

The Brass Tacks

Did we like this set? Yes	What We Liked: Compatible with the Great Hall set Whomping Willow mechanism is very smooth *The Ford Anglia is fantastic
	What We Didn't Like: No new outfit for Hermione Feels a little small and flimsy *The leaves keep falling off the Whomping Willow
	Other Comments: This set does a lot with a little. It has some really cool elements and the Whomping Willow spinning the Ford Anglia is just so satisfying. It's a shame that the set designers weren't given a bit more to work with, but I think they did an admirable job nonetheless. I give this set an E for Exceeds Expectations.