General Harry Potter Discussion

wardm

HugeBlueBrick said:

I'm not convinced that #75966 can be linked in the same way as the others. Those four big sets have what looks like internal and external sides. #75966 is internal on both sides, corridor and Room. It looks to me as if the technic pins are not spaced the same. I await the set's release to be proved wrong.

You’re right that they are both internal walls in that set, but the new Astronomy Tower set does seem to have technic pin holes that point inward (under the tower part, where there’s just an empty hallway), so I guess the Room of Requirement would fit perfectly there.

Brainslugged

I'm a little concerned about what they're serving up at the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower:

Glacierfalls265

Maybe they're supposed to be the Dragon hors d'oeuvres that Cormac McLaggen ate and then regurgitated all over Snape's shoes?

autolycus

Looks like a chocolate fountain and cupcakes or pastries covered in chocolate.

chrisjfinlay

wardm said:

chrisjfinlay said:

Bit of a newbie here, have recently finished building the castle (71043) with my fiancée. I noticed a few comments about kits that attach on to the castle - how can I tell which ones these are?

@chrisjfinlay there‘s nothing to attach to the large micro scale Hogwarts. Only the smaller minifig scale sets can be linked together: 
#75954 #75953 #75948 and the new sets #75969 and #75966 can all be linked together using technic pins. You can arrange them how you want.

ah, I see - thanks

wardm

Does anyone know the reasoning behind The Burrow not being available for pre-order? 

bpk2300

wardm said:

Does anyone know the reasoning behind The Burrow not being available for pre-order? 

Hmm, not sure, but none of the new sets are available for pre-order here in the US.

SumoLego

560Heliport said:

Could the actors have declined to allow their likenesses to be licensed?

Nope.  Unless they want to turn down their royalty checks.

klinton

RainingBoroSi02 said:

Is the Great Hall #75954 discontinued now? Timing seems plausible. [email protected] availability listed as ending 4/17/20 (USA).

No, it's def still available. When I ordered it earlier this week, Lego provided a ship date of 'by May 29' for it, while Hogwarts Express and the Quidditch pitch still showed as a 60 day wait on the order (I'd imagine they've still got stock of the Hall tucked away somewhere, while the other two are waiting on another production run). I don't know about the other sets? I've managed to acquire most of the theme (but for those three and the big D2C set) via other retailers.

So, yeah, I'm really late to the Harry Potter party. I've only just watched the films for the first time within the past couple of weeks at the insistance of a friend. I've just begun the books today. Quarantine brings out strange things, apparently. I'm not sure if I'm genuinely enjoying it, or if I'm just so determined to jump into building a modular Lego castle (after having drooled over the sets for a couple of years now) that I've convinced myself I love it. The inability to buy any of the larger sets on my wanted list due to Lego's stock shortage finally made a Potterhead out of me, hahaha. I do love little Dobby though. My biggest complaint about the films would be his lack of screen time.

The only set I'm not loving so far is the Knight Bus. I mean, it's fine enough for a Lego vehicle, but I've built such extraordinary busses recently with #70828 and #70423 that it just feels... inadequate. I do like that they included all of the vehicle's notable quirks though. It does scale well with the Anglia, which is nice.

I've just recieved the advent calendar (with the same order I placed for the books, hahaha), and I'm realizing that it's literally just an accessory pack for the Clocktower. The little fireplace build helps fill out the otherwise sparse foyer. The little trees, presents, toys, and snowman all add extra flair to the Yule Ball decor. The Founder statue is the only reason I really wanted the set, but all of the extra bits have been surprisingly useful. Even the flags and food bits will be useful when I recieve the Quidditch pitch and the Great Hall.

I think my favorite set so far (well, outside of Newt's Case, which I bought a couple of years ago and freaking adore), has been Hagrid's hut. It's quite literally the flimsiest Lego structure I've ever built (breathing on it will cause random bits to fall off), but it's just so bloody cute. The pumpkin patch is pretty much my favorite Lego 'thing' at the moment.

I really like how they switched up the connections between castle segments with the Clocktower. That was the first one I built, so when I went to build the Whomping Willow set it was a bit annoying that the dual pins kept everything so ridigid. I switched them out for the blue pins straight away.

I think that's it for my gushing. For now. :p

karrit

I love the HP sets.  The only one besides the expensive Hogwarts Castle that I don't have yet is the Knight Bus.  I'll probably end up getting it from Target but was hoping for a little bit better deal than the current $32.49 and additional Redcard 5% discount.  I think the Hogwarts Castle itself is an awesome building but I don't care for the micro builds of things like the Boats, Hagrid's Hut & Whomping Willow that it comes with.  They just don't compare with the Minifig scale Whomping Willow & Hagrid's Hut sets and the rowboat that comes with the Great Hall.  I bought an extra of the Advent Calendar just so I could have more of the furnishings & foodstuffs for the Great Hall.  I'm really looking forward to the next wave and can't wait to see what they come up with for this years Advent Calendar.

J0rgen

@klinton There's more Dobby in the books :) I think reading the books will make you a complete Potterhead, so enjoy!

klinton

J0rgen said:

@klinton There's more Dobby in the books :) I think reading the books will make you a complete Potterhead, so enjoy!

Aye, so I've been told! That was actually what sold me on checking out the books. My friend was all "he has a girlfriend in the books" after I complained to her when he'd died. So I've started reading for more Dobby stories, hahaha.

autolycus

Uggg... Great that the "Hogwarts Students" is a minifig set, but... Did they really have to include Harry and Draco?! I believe Harry is available in every single set on the market right now except two (Beauxbatons Carriage and Hogwarts Castle)

If I'm searching correctly (big IF): Since the return of this line, there are already 11 different Harry minifigs, not including the statue nanofigure from Hogwarts Castle. 2 of those are the CMF from Series 1. The other 9 are used in a total of 14 (!!) different sets, including a polybag and several affordable small sets. People really didn't need another way to get Harry. We needed a way to get a different character!

J0rgen

The minifig set is all about the torsos. If you don't have a Harry, this is a great relatively cheap way to get him, and if you do have him, just stick another face on him to create whatever student you'd prefer.

autolycus

J0rgen said:

The minifig set is all about the torsos. If you don't have a Harry, this is a great relatively cheap way to get him, and if you do have him, just stick another face on him to create whatever student you'd prefer.

Fair enough, but I'm far too lazy and un-creative to figure out how make other specific students (this was meant to sound overly flippant). Maybe this will be the time I start trying to figure out what heads and hair exist... Or maybe someone will come up with a definitive guide of how to make HP students with this set. If one is created and the heads and hair aren't too hard (or $) to get, maybe I'll buy a few of this pack and load up the Great Hall.

wardm

It’s nice that we finally get a cheaper way to get more hufflepuff (and ravenclaw) characters! With cho’s face you could easily make the Patil twins (one for Ravenclaw and one for Gryffindor) but I might use the high long pony tail hairpiece for those two..

LuLego

J0rgen said:

The minifig set is all about the torsos. If you don't have a Harry, this is a great relatively cheap way to get him, and if you do have him, just stick another face on him to create whatever student you'd prefer.

Agreed - an excellent (relatively cheap) way to build an army! 

ersi

Just wanted to share my HP minifigure collection, just few empty spaces but most of them are already ordered :) cannot wait to have all of them.

HugeBlueBrick

LuLego said:

J0rgen said:

The minifig set is all about the torsos. If you don't have a Harry, this is a great relatively cheap way to get him, and if you do have him, just stick another face on him to create whatever student you'd prefer.

Agreed - an excellent (relatively cheap) way to build an army! 

Dumbledore's Army!

gmonkey76

autolycus said:

Uggg... Great that the "Hogwarts Students" is a minifig set, but... Did they really have to include Harry and Draco?! I believe Harry is available in every single set on the market right now except two (Beauxbatons Carriage and Hogwarts Castle)

Don't forget Harry Potter is the Batman for LEGO in sets. He has to be in almost everyone.

klinton

Why does nobody ever assemble the Founder statue quite correctly? I checked out a youtube video when I was curious about the calendar's contents, and again here in ersi's photos... both times he was just kind of mangled together. He's not lifting free weights nor carrying a purse. He's clutching a scroll and holding out a model of the Great Hall:

He should look like this:

wardm

^I assambled mine like that! 

CCC

autolycus said:

J0rgen said:

The minifig set is all about the torsos. If you don't have a Harry, this is a great relatively cheap way to get him, and if you do have him, just stick another face on him to create whatever student you'd prefer.

 Or maybe someone will come up with a definitive guide of how to make HP students with this set. If one is created and the heads and hair aren't too hard (or $) to get, maybe I'll buy a few of this pack and load up the Great Hall.

Here is my guide: buy some fleshie (light nougat on BL) heads and lots of random generic hair pieces. For every three light nougat heads, you will need one nougat head if you want to match the hands. Attach these instead of the ones that come with the set. You will also need to pull out the hands of the Ravenclaw torso and replace with fleshies, unless you want all of that house to have darker skin. You could also buy reddish brown heads if you want even darker skin characters but you will also need to buy extra pairs of hands too in that case.

To me the downside of having Harry is not that it is another Harry as much as that the head is too recognizable. Whereas the other heads are generic enough to slap another hairpiece on and they look like a different character. For example, getting loads of Ron Weasley wouldn't be as bad, as his head is more generic and re-usable.

It is good that the torsos have been done both gender neutral and no skin printed on them. This way you can use any flesh colour, including yellow, with any torso.

CCC

klinton said:

Why does nobody ever assemble the Founder statue quite correctly? I checked out a youtube video when I was curious about the calendar's contents, and again here in ersi's photos... 

Isn't that down to being in a frame behind glass, it limits the poses you can create.

milamber

CCC said:

To me the downside of having Harry is not that it is another Harry as much as that the head is too recognizable. Whereas the other heads are generic enough to slap another hairpiece on and they look like a different character. For example, getting loads of Ron Weasley wouldn't be as bad, as his head is more generic and re-usable.

It is good that the torsos have been done both gender neutral and no skin printed on them. This way you can use any flesh colour, including yellow, with any torso.

Yes, this. I have about 60 students in my Great Hall, many of whom are Ron, Draco and Hermione with different hair and, occasionally, torsos. Do that with Harry and it just looks like a lot of clones.

J0rgen

Use your spare Harry heads for clone troopers with helmets and create an army of generic Angry Hogwarts Students ;)

im2cre8iv

I’m planning to use all my extra Harry figs to recreate the “Seven Harrys” scene. Or maybe a polyjuice mixup at Hogwarts!

snowhitie

J0rgen said:

Use your spare Harry heads for clone troopers with helmets and create an army of generic Angry Hogwarts Students ;)

I've done that :) There's a clone trooper head on one of my students... Really need to get down to order some more fleshie heads, have been thinking of snooping some from my CMF footballers, but that seems to be a bit of a waste too.

im2cre8iv said:

I’m planning to use all my extra Harry figs to recreate the “Seven Harrys” scene. Or maybe a polyjuice mixup at Hogwarts!

Now the 7 Harry's scene is a good idea! Not thought about that.

And @klinton glad you are gushing about HP and not annoyed at me!

J0rgen

I actually thought about how LEGO might have intended for people to be able to create the Seven Harrys back in the 2010-11 wave, when it was really bad and we only got two different torsos for Harry, and he was in every set. There were a few repeated characters at that time that actually apoeared in scenes where there was more than one of them: Harry in Deathly Hallows pt. 1, Jack Sparrow in At World's End and Loki in The Avengers. I don't really think that was the idea behind it, but it was a fun thought, and something canonical to do with all your spares.

If you want to create the Seven Potters true to the film, you need seven of the commonplace grey hoodie with red shirt that Harry is wearing in the Order of the Phoenix sets, with an equal amount of Harry heads with short hair.

snowhitie

J0rgen said:

If you want to create the Seven Potters true to the film, you need seven of the commonplace grey hoodie with red shirt that Harry is wearing in the Order of the Phoenix sets, with an equal amount of Harry heads with short hair.

Unless you recreate the scene where they all change and are still wearing the clothes from the people that change into them!

Put in an order on amazon.de for a couple of the sets, they are 20% -25% off with pre order price guarantee, and I've been buying so little to have the budget (plus have a 'get yourself a HP set coupon' from mother's day) so I went for it!

Odeinoichus

Or you could just make a giant turntable display with scenes from every film recreated. I don't know, complaining about too many Harry's seems silly, I mean, look at all the Luke, Han, Vader, Batman, Iron Man, Spider-Man etc. etc. people own. Why get so bent out of shape about the Minifigures?

It's LEGO it doesn't have to be accurate. Hogwarts could be an entire school of just Harry, Ron and Hermione because of some Time Turner incident and Dumbledore has no idea how to fix it since all the Time Turners broke and Doc Brown isn't around to tell him where he went wrong giving a child a time machine. ;)

Blockwork_Orange

I can't help but notice the irony of people complaining about there being a HARRY POTTER figure in a HARRY POTTER set.

wardm

Most kids won’t get a full range of LEGO sets... I know I didn’t when I was a kid. Me and my brother got the first large Hogwarts Castle set and that was the only one of the entire wave! 

So to include Harry in most sets is also a way for giving the opportunity to most kids that get a LEGO set as a present to get a Harry figure. 

wardm

Saw this on lego leaks instagram, it’s apparently from someone’s youtube video, so sorry that I don’t know who to credit...

This is the way that LEGO would configure the castle themselve, but I feel like the newest set needs something so its front faces the doors of the Great Hall set kinda. I’m going to modify mine so it’ll have a corner that’ll give it a more appropriate angle. 

What do you guys think?

nerick906

Have you guys seen the photo of the HP series 2 minifigures packet?

some exciting characters coming again :) 
Can I post it?

wardm

@nerick906 It’s a leak, so I wouldn’t post it! I’m really excited for the ones that have been revealed already and looking forward to see which other figures will be included! 

wardm

I pre-ordered them online through a lego reseller webshop and got them early! It initially said they would be shipped the first of june...

autolycus

Boxes look great in real life! Now I just need to catch up on last year's sets (from all the themes I buy!!) and then maybe I can get these, probably next year!

klinton

Random question: does anyone know if someone has done a part inventory for some of the builds in the 'Harry Potter Build Your Own Adventure' book ( #ISBN024136373X )? I'd found at one point inventories for another book in the series several years ago, and I'm a bit keen on building the Fluffy model on page 58. Any help would be most appreciated! :)

snowhitie

klinton said:

Random question: does anyone know if someone has done a part inventory for some of the builds in the 'Harry Potter Build Your Own Adventure' book ( #ISBN024136373X )? I'd found at one point inventories for another book in the series several years ago, and I'm a bit keen on building the Fluffy model on page 58. Any help would be most appreciated! :)

I've not seen any inventories, but there's someone who talked about that model on youtube:
Maybe that can help to try and see the parts?

klinton

Ooh! I like some of his modifications, @snowhitie! Thanks for sharing that. :)

I was debating getting the original set with the Fluffy figure until the book arrived this week. Now I'm just full in love with this build. I'll have to sit down and manually compile a parts list.

snowhitie

You are very welcome @klinton, made me rememeber I was going to try and make a fluffy at one point too.
Waiting for my sets from the new wave for now and hopefully be getting back to MOC-ing and MOD-ing soon too.

klinton

I'm still catching up on the first two waves, hahaha. Almost there now. The new wave doesn't come out here until August. I'm exited for the Astronomy tower! :)

J0rgen

@klinton Sounds like you have become a Potterhead :) How's the reading going?

klinton

I'm on page 247 of 'Prisoner of Azkaban', @J0rgen . The differences between the films and the books are fun. Nick's "Death Day" party has been my favorite bit so far. There's still not enough Dobby though. ;)

I recieved the three library books as well this past week, and I think I'll take a break from the main series and read 'Quidditch Through the Ages' after I finish Azkaban. They look to be quick reads, so I'll try and intersperse them between the main books as they come up in the story.

I really just want to read 'The Cursed Child' and see what happens next, but I'm determined to read through the books first before reading the play. So, only about 4000 pages to go, hahaha.

snowhitie

@klinton good idea to intersperse the little books, they are fun. I'm so envious of you for discovering the whole story :) Especially later on the books, there's so many charachter developments and whole plot lines that are missing from the films. This is not a complaint, there's no way they could have filmed and made everything and I think the films did a great job of evoking the atmosphere of the book and (mostly) staying true to the charachters.

The Cursed Child is an odd one, obiously if you have seen the films you know what happens anyway so I guess you could read that one in between. It's really written as a play so reads quite quickly, but you've got to use a lot of imagination to sort of get a real story vibe. So you might be let down after the fun proze of the last book if you then read that one. difficult one, not sure I would advise keeping it for last or not really.

benbacardi

I wouldn't keep it for last, I was disappointed. It didn't feel like it properly fit in the universe, nor did it feel like it was actually properly written by J. K. Rowling.

Like @snowhitie, I too am jealous of you discovering it all for the first time! I wish I could. I re-read all the books every couple of years. 

KungFuKenny

klinton said:

I'm on page 247 of 'Prisoner of Azkaban', @J0rgen . The differences between the films and the books are fun. Nick's "Death Day" party has been my favorite bit so far. There's still not enough Dobby though. ;)

I recieved the three library books as well this past week, and I think I'll take a break from the main series and read 'Quidditch Through the Ages' after I finish Azkaban. They look to be quick reads, so I'll try and intersperse them between the main books as they come up in the story.

I really just want to read 'The Cursed Child' and see what happens next, but I'm determined to read through the books first before reading the play. So, only about 4000 pages to go, hahaha.

When I first started reading HP, JKR had only written the first 3 books... it was agony waiting 2 years or more between books, especially the last couple!  

I’ll echo what others have said- The Cursed Child isn’t really even in the same class as the others in my opinion.  

Once you are done you can dive into HP fan fiction... much of it is dreadful, but there are some that really shine and are really almost on par with the original novels.  “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is one of my favorites is a bit of a departure but well written and funny ... http://www.hpmor.com/

klinton

snowhitie said:

The Cursed Child is an odd one, obiously if you have seen the films you know what happens anyway so I guess you could read that one in between. It's really written as a play so reads quite quickly, but you've got to use a lot of imagination to sort of get a real story vibe. So you might be let down after the fun proze of the last book if you then read that one. difficult one, not sure I would advise keeping it for last or not really.

I actually find her writing to very sparse, tbh. She has a knack for realizing characters and stringing together tight plotlines, but the books are almost completely devoid of descriptives. You have the barest bones of what something or someone might look like, but every word they utter and every action they take is of consequence to the narrative. Nothing is done idly. I've grown up adoring writers like Rice, King, and Barker though, so I'm more accustomed to pages just dripping with purple. This isn't a good or bad thing. It's just very different from what I might ordinarily read. I rely heavily on what I saw on screen to flesh out the scenes (even when it's contradictory, as with the Dursleys).

As long as the dialogue remains tight, I'm certain I'll enjoy the play as well. :)

KungFuKenny said:

Once you are done you can dive into HP fan fiction... much of it is dreadful, but there are some that really shine and are really almost on par with the original novels.  “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality” is one of my favorites is a bit of a departure but well written and funny ... http://www.hpmor.com/

That will never happen, hahaha. I've a violent aversion to 'fan fiction'. The presumption of entitlement involved in usurping someone's creation and attempting to bend it to your own desires just annoys me. Just enjoy the little universe for what it is rather than wishing it were something else. That, and from all reports, 99.9999% of it is just smut written by very lonely basement dwellers. I've no interest in stumbling across someone's bizarre fetishes in order to get a Potter fix. I'm all about the official 'canon'. :p

snowhitie

And the post-man + the UPS man brought these today!



Promised to wait till tomorrow after school to build together with my son. He's decided on the devision, I can have Astronomy and Requirement Room, he will build the other two. Fun fun fun!