Review:75954 by SPIRIT

BS01 Reviews

75954 Hogwarts™ Great Hall

Review: 71043 Hogwarts™ Castle

I'll bet you're wondering why a website known for Bionicle storyline is reviewing a Harry Potter Lego set. Well do you see any new Bionicle sets out there?! Look, Harry Potter has a complex storyline too, and they're releasing another movie pretty soon, AND WE DON'T HAVE TO JUSTIFY OUR ACTIONS TO YOU PEOPLE!

Anyway uh, Lego released another set called "Hogwarts Castle" back in 2001 and 17 years later here's its successor. How far has Lego come in the last 17 years? Let's find out!

Doesn't this look like so much fun? There are all sorts of hidden compartments and secret areas to check out all over the place. Best of all, it looks just like it does in the movies! They even included a boat to re-enact the scene where they cross the lake. Oddly enough, the box specifies that this boat does not float. Well, this intrepid reporter tested it out and the boat DOES, in fact, float. You may now rest easy.

I mean, it just looks like Hogwarts! What more can I say? It does have these weird ski pole things on the peaks of the roof that seem a little out of place, but in re-watching the movies that's actually how the castle looks, so bravo to Lego for catching that. It is weird that they included a giant snake that I'm assuming is the basilisk. The set does seem to be geared more towards Harry's first year with the inclusion of Quirrell and the Mirror of Erised, but then it also has Fawkes, so what do I know?

Speaking of Fawkes, he's uh... seen better days? They do have the part mould for a phoenix from the 2002 Chamber of Secrets set, but I guess they weren't interested in using it because you get to build Fawkes from scratch in this one. He's pretty fragile and is pretty quick to explode into a million pieces if you don't handle him right. Also, annoyingly, he can't sit on anyone's hand just due to the way he's constructed. He seems like a bit of an afterthought, honestly.

And weirdly Fawkes lives behind the Mirror of Erised, which... I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I really like that they included "mirrors" for Harry, Ron, Quirrell, and Dumbledore, but otherwise the design is a little lazy. Unlike the 2001 Mirror of Erised, there's no rotating mechanism to reveal the Philosopher's Stone -- heck, there isn't even a Philosopher's Stone in this set! I mean, yes, there are gems and you could pretend one of them is the Philosopher's Stone, but still!

I will say, though, that the Sorting Hat is spot-on. They broke out a new part mould for that one and it was totally worth it. This whole portion of the castle is filled with little potions, trinkets, and treasures. I just love it!

The actual Great Hall itself is also pretty great. They've got benches for the characters to sit at, various Lego foods and dishware, they've even got the floating candles! It's easily the most iconic set in the entire series and they did such an amazing job of turning it into Lego. They've even got the house banners and the house cup hiding in the back there. It is truly an impressive attention to detail.

The minifigures in this one are all pretty great. They've changed things up a bit from the original set line by giving everyone realistic skin colours and adding a special wand piece that's much more proportional to the characters. The students also have the shorter legs to differentiate them from the adults. Hagrid wins the award for "most improved" from the original set line. He actually looks like a larger minifigure rather than some misplaced Jack Stone character. They've even got Nearly Headless Nick here too. It is odd that they didn't give him the wispy Dementor legs to make him seem more ghost-like or have something to make him appear nearly headless, but it was nice that he finally got his time to shine. There's even a little Scabbers and Hedwig.

I especially love what they've done with the trio; they're all very recognizable as their characters. Hermione is just adorable! And they even designed Harry's hair to leave a gap to display his scar. IT'S JUST SO PERFECT! Except...

There's one major issue I have with this set.

One thing that sours what would've been an otherwise perfect set.

When I first saw the box for the set, I assumed it included Ginny. Makes sense, after all. What with the Chamber of Secrets elements, why wouldn't you include the very character who opened the Chamber of Secrets? Heck, she eventually joins Dumbledore's army, helps Harry infiltrate the Ministry of Magic, and then is mother to Harry's three children. So of course they included her.

Oh, no, wait. It's Susan Bones.

That vitally important character Susan Bones.

Susan Bones, the saviour of mankind.

SUSAN.

FREAKING.

BONES.

SUSAN BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONES

WHY IS SUSAN BONES IN THIS SET?! Susan Bones is easily one of the most worthless characters in the series. Her main claim to fame is that her family keeps getting murdered. I mean, sure, she was portrayed by Chris Columbus's daughter in his movies, but REALLY?! SUSAN BONES?!

Oh and I checked the minifig blind bags. You can't get Ginny Weasley ANYWHERE! You can get Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan (I'm not even going to get into that right now), but no Ginny Weasley. BUT THANK GOODNESS THEY INCLUDED SUSAN BONES!

Now, devil's advocate, maybe they wanted more Hufflepuff representation. Sure, let's go with that. Maybe they wanted another female character. Also admirable. What about Hannah Abbot? She at least does something! Which is be mean to Harry and then get married to Neville Longbottom (also conspicuously absent from this set)... which, admittedly is not a lot, but it's a lot more than Susan Bones.

I mean, if you're really desperate to include Ginny in your set, you can always get another set that includes a Gryffindor body and swap her head onto it. Red hair + freckles + Gryffindor uniform = instant Ginny Weasley. It's just really weird that such an iconic character has no representation in Lego form. Maybe she will if they do another wave of Harry Potter sets, but until then, #JusticeForLegoGinny

A further thing to note is that all the characters have dual expressions on their heads. Usually one is happy and the other is scared or upset. Obviously in the case of Quirrell, there's Lord Voldemort himself (who weirdly looks exactly how I feel about Susan bones). Of note, Dumbledore has a dual expression as well, even though his beard completely obscures it. It's also such a subtle difference between the two faces that it's a true mystery why they decided to include it at all. I think the dual expressions are a great inclusion in these sets as it's just such a nice level of detail.

The Brass Tacks

Did we like this set? Yes	What We Liked: Looks just like the real thing So many secret compartments and things to do *The students are all super cute!
	What We Didn't Like: No Philosopher's Stone Fawkes is too fragile* *SUSAN BONES
	Other Comments: This set was just everything anyone could want in a Lego Harry Potter set. It definitely improves upon the design of the 2001 version and gives you something entirely new. Also, unlike that really expensive Hogwarts set that was also released this year, this one is actually playable! You can act out like a million stories and relive the magic over and over. I give this set an O for Outstanding!