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LEGO Harry Potter sets overview & thoughts

by Thita (admin) on July 7, 2018

As we briefly discussed at the beginning of the month (see: July 2018 – New LEGO Sets & Promotions), the first wave of the new LEGO Harry Potter sets are now available. This includes five regular sets, and three LEGO BrickHeadz sets. I know many of our readers already purchased the sets, or anxious to get them as soon as possible, so today we will take a look at all of the new sets in more detail. 🙂

➡ #75950 LEGO HARRY POTTER ARAGOG’S LAIR: The #75950 LEGO Harry Potter Aragog’s Lair is the smallest of the 2018 LEGO Harry Potter sets, but it still includes many of the new pieces introduced with the collection. The set itself is pretty simple; it features Aragog and his colony of spiders, plus a buildable tree with web shooting function. The two minifigures are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, with nicely printed and generic enough torsos to be reused in other settings. And, take a look at the pieces! Spiders in two new colors, new wands, a candle (new base and flame), new lantern, and more! The brick-built Aragog is very poseable, and includes four (plus one extra) new printed eye pieces. The play-feature of shooting a small spiderweb from the base of the tree (small round printed dish) is very basic, but at least it gives us another interesting printed piece. Even if you don’t care for Harry Potter, this set is a great source of interesting parts! 157 pieces. Price: $14.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #75953 LEGO HARRY POTTER WHOMPING WILLOW: This is one of the largest sets in the new LEGO Harry Potter line, and it can be combined with the #75954 LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Great Hall for a larger layout. The buildings are reminiscent of medieval castles and churches, so the buildings can serve other purposes even outside of the Harry Potter universe. Lots of the minifig accessories and other new parts are included, so make sure you check out the video-review below. Here is the official description: Help Harry and Ron race to Hogwarts in this action-packed LEGO Harry Potter set, as seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Fly the Ford Anglia into the spinning branches of the Whomping Willow, then help the young wizards escape to join Hermione at Hogwarts, featuring a dormitory, potions classroom, Professor Snape’s office and an owlery. Includes 6 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Seamus Finnigan, Argus Filch, and Severus Snape, plus a Hedwig owl figure. Whomping Willow measures over 7” (18cm) high, 7” (20cm) wide and 7” (20cm) deep. Flying Ford Anglia measures over 1” (5cm) high, 4” (11cm) long and 2” (6cm) wide. Hogwarts castle section measures over 10” (27cm) high, 13” (35cm) wide and 3” (8cm) deep. 753 pieces. Price: $69.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #75954 LEGO HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS GREAT HALL: This is the largest set in the new LEGO Harry Potter line, just brushing the $100 threshold, and as mentioned above, it can be combined with the #75953 LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Whomping Willow to create a larger layout. So many new and re-colored pieces here! Notice the small double slopes and pyramid slopes on the roof in tan, a large number of tan spearheads, and the new rectangular lattice windows! There is a lot to see in all the little rooms, so make sure you watch the video-review below. Here is the official description: Build and recreate a magical fantasy realm from the Harry Potter movies with this detailed LEGO Harry Potter building kit, featuring a fireplace, benches, tables and reversible house banners, plus the Grand Staircase tower with a spiral staircase, potions room, treasure room, sorting hat, Mirror of Erised and lots of magical artifact accessory elements. Includes 10 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Susan Bones, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell with dual Lord Voldemort face, Hagrid, Albus Dumbledore, and Nearly Headless Nick, plus buildable Basilisk and Fawkes creatures, and Hedwig and Scabbers figures. Hogwarts™ Great Hall measures over 14” (37cm) high, 11” (30cm) wide and 7” (18cm) deep. 878 pieces. Price: $99.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #75955 LEGO HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS EXPRESS: This was one of the most anticipated sets in the new LEGO Harry Potter line, with the fourth LEGO version of the iconic Hogwarts Express. It’s always interesting to see re-releases like this, and take the time to study all the new parts and techniques. The train itself includes a carriage with 4 seats, removable side panel and roof, plus the Trolley Witch with sweets trolley. While the set comes with both stickers and printed pieces, it’s great to see that the most essential engine decorations are printed! And, the clever way to lock/unlock the small front wheels of the engine is genius! The set also includes a railway bridge with a clock and steps leading to Platform 9¾, moving brick wall entrance, ‘Wanted’ poster and Daily Prophet newspapers. Unfortunately, the train is not set up for motorization right out of the box, however I’m sure LEGO fans will figure out a way to add LEGO Power Functions components. Includes 5 minifigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Remus Lupin, and the Trolley Witch, plus Dementor and Scabbers figures. Platform measures over 5” (13cm) high, 12” (31cm) wide and 6” (17cm) deep. Hogwarts Express measures over 3” (9cm) high, 18” (46cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide. 801 pieces. Price: $79.99 – BUY HERE

➡ #75956 LEGO HARRY POTTER QUIDDITCH MATCH: The last of the new LEGO Harry Potter sets, the #75956 LEGO Harry Potter Quidditch Match is set up with play in mind. The Gryffindor house tower features an opening hatch, the Slytherin house tower includes a pop-up fire spell function, the Ravenclaw house tower comes with a removable megaphone element, and the Hufflepuff house tower includes a scoreboard. There is also a base with 3 goalposts and rings, moving Keeper function and Bludger stud shooter. You can use the broom’s mounted shooting function to shoot the Quaffle through the rings and recreate the famous Quidditch games, or make up your own fun challenges. If you would like to see the play-features in action, check the video-review below. Includes 6 minifigures: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Severus Snape, Oliver Wood, Lucian Bole, and Marcus Flint. Each tower measures over 7” (18cm) high, 1” (4cm) wide and 1” (4cm) deep. 500 pieces. Price: $39.99 – BUY HERE

You can use the dropdown menu in the upper left corner of the video-player below to select the review you would like to watch, or just let them play one after the other.

In addition to the regular LEGO Harry Potter sets, there are also three LEGO BrickHeadz Harry Potter packs: the #41615 LEGO BrickHeadz Harry Potter & Hedwig double pack, the #41616 LEGO BrickHeadz Harry Potter Hermione Granger, and the #41621 LEGO BrickHeadz Harry Potter Ron Weasley & Albus Dumbledore double pack. Dumbledore comes with some really nice printed pieces, and the other characters look good too. You can find them at the LEGO Harry Potter section of the Online LEGO Shop.

In summary, it is super exciting to see the re-release of some of the LEGO Harry Potter favorites with updated designs and pieces. The sets are fairly priced, and none of them are too big or expensive. Besides being tastefully designed Harry Potter sets, the large number of new pieces are neutral color-schemes also makes these great part-packs for other applications. Also, it is worth mentioning that there is a LEGO Harry Potter Collectible Minifigure Series coming soon (already confirmed – see image below), as well as a large LEGO Harry Potter Microscale Hogwarts Castle (not yet confirmed).

Please note that most of the new LEGO Harry Potter sets are shown as backordered at the time of this writing, but there is no need to panic. You can still order the sets, there will be just a bit of delay in delivery. To see all the sets, visit the LEGO Harry Potter section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the new LEGO Harry Potter sets? Do you have any of the previous releases? How do you think the new sets compare to the old ones? And which one is your favorite so far? Did you get any of them already? Feel free to share your thoughts and own reviews in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related post:

July 2018 – New LEGO Sets & Promotions

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A new look for LEGO Ideas, contests & more!

by Thita (admin) on July 6, 2018

in Other News & Updates

There has been some interesting developments at the LEGO Ideas platform, including a brand new look and new features for the website. The LEGO Ideas team has been working hard in the past couple of years to make the LEGO Ideas platform not just a place to share ideas for future LEGO sets, but also the crowd-sourcing and co-creation hub for teen and adult LEGO fans. You can find below a list of all the updates and changes. 🙂

One of the most obvious changes is the look of the LEGO Ideas website, with a completely redesigned homepage and navigation and improved mobile experience.

Another major change is that the LEGO Ideas sister site, LEGO Rebrick, will close in September, and all future contests for teen and adult LEGO fans will be hosted on the LEGO Ideas platform moving forward. The LEGO Ideas team believes that by combining product ideas and contests under one platform and brand, they can offer LEGO fans more and better opportunities to share their ideas and connect with the LEGO Group.

There is now a news feed that shows you top items according to a score by default. You can also toggle the feed to show the most recent items first by selecting New in the Sort By box underneath the left menu on any news feed page. The redesigned navigation menus also make contests more visible.

LEGO Ideas projects are now called product ideas. The Product Idea Guidelines and Terms of Service have been updated. Most notably, now all product ideas must be submitted on your own behalf and not on behalf of an employer or client. Another addition is that if your product idea achieves 10,000 votes and goes under review, but is not approved, you will receive a consolation prize including up to three LEGO products totaling $500 USD in combined value (subject to availability).

Below the Product Ideas header and Contests header in the left-hand navigation bar, there is also the Discover header, which lets you search product ideas, contests, contest entries, and blog posts. I actually like this navigation method the best, as the others don’t give such a good overview.

As mentioned above, LEGO Ideas contests will replace LEGO Rebrick contests at the end of summer. This means that LEGO Rebrick will run contests over the summer, and transition to LEGO Ideas on September 1st. If you entered any LEGO Rebrick contests, you’ll want to save your data before the site goes offline. The LEGO Ideas team will send a couple reminders as September 1st approaches.

Another change is the removal of Clutch Power Points. Until now, LEGO Ideas members could earn Clutch Power Points for doing certain things on the site like earning followers or receiving likes for comments. While this was a way to rank active members, the cumulative nature meant newer members couldn’t easily break into the rankings. The LEGO Ideas team prefers all members to be on equal footing, with the focus being on great submissions. LEGO Ideas badges, however, will remain.

Due to new data protection laws, if you’re between 13-15 years old you will need to submit your parent or guardian’s consent to allow you to continue using LEGO Ideas. If you have active product ideas or contest entries, these are de-activated until you submit your parents’ consent. You can read more on this at the Help and FAQ section.

While these are all the changes for now, there will be more updates coming during the rest of they year. There are plans to improve the look and feel of the contests section, along with other design enhancements across the site. You can read more about all the changes at this LEGO Ideas blog post. I also recommend reading the comments, as some of the new features don’t seem to work that well and members are giving insightful feedback.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of the new homepage which now looks more like a blog than an official LEGO website, although it does look better on mobile, as the projects are below each other rather than on a grid. On a larger screen, I found the Discover tab to be the most useful, as it lists projects in the way the old website used to. However, I do like that the LEGO Ideas and LEGO Rebrick platforms are merged together. They were both catering to teen and adult LEGO fans, so the consolidation and streamlining makes sense.

Also, since we are talking about LEGO Ideas, I thought to also include the last LEGO Ideas Review Results. We have briefly discussed this before, and most of you already know that the LEGO Ideas Pop-Up Book is going to be the next LEGO Ideas set. I’m really looking forward to it!

It will take a bit to get used to the updated LEGO Ideas platform, but that’s a good incentive to visit the site, find some projects that you like, and support them with your vote. And, you can also take a look at previously approved projects at the LEGO Ideas section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? How do you like the changes at the LEGO Ideas platform? Did you run into any issues navigating the site? Feel free to share your thoughts and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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LEGO Harry Potter sets overview & thoughts

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