Yesterday, news that LEGO Harry Potter is coming back took the world by storm. Today we got our first in-person look at 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall at the New York Toy Fair and here are our first impressions. The set includes 878 pieces and will retail for $100 starting in August.
As you’ll see in the photos and video, the set includes numerous prototype parts. As LEGO has done in years past, very early LEGO set prototypes include 3D-printed parts as placeholders for the planned new molds.
Hogwarts Castle
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a sprawling location hidden somewhere in the British countryside. For this LEGO set, the castle is represented mainly by the Great Hall and the Headmaster’s Tower.
New Harry Potter minifigures
Each of the new Harry Potter minifigures has been redesigned, including Harry himself, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Susan Bones, Professor McGonagall, Professor Quirrell (with dual Lord Voldemort face), Hagrid, Albus Dumbledore, and Nearly Headless Nick.
Professor McGonagall’s skirt piece uses a new, curved slope that is the proper height for minifigures, versus the older (existing) slope piece pressed into service with 1980’s era LEGO Castle princesses.
With Quirrel and Scabbars (Peter Pettigrew in animagus rat form) part of the assortment of characters in the set, it’s clear that this LEGO set depicts Harry Potter’s early years at Hogwarts. When the very first Harry Potter set was released in 2001, LEGO had not yet produced “shorty” legs, which were released the next year with the first LEGO Star Wars ewoks. Having set the precedent with the first sets, LEGO was thus committed to depicting the young children of the Harry Potter universe at adult height. With what is effectively a reboot rather than a continuation of the Harry Potter LEGO theme, it’s interesting to see that LEGO has chosen to give the children short legs this time around.
Hagrid the half-giant gamekeeper is also built from completely new molds, with a unique great coat torso that attaches to short legs. Hagrid’s hair and beard piece is also new, and he carries a new lantern accessory.
Speaking of accessories, the wizards and witches of the Harry Potter world no longer need to wave wooden lightsaber blades around in order to effect spells. The new wand piece appears to come in several colors, including the expected brown and black.
The Sorting Hat also gets a new mold, compared to the standard wizard’s hat with printed details previously.
Buildable creatures include the Basilisk and Fawkes the phoenix, plus new Hedwig and Scabbers figures.
New parts
The new parts include arches, magic wands (no more waving around a wooden lightsaber blade!), lantern, cones, the Sorting Hat, several different animals, 1×1 “double cheese” rooftop pieces, and many more. Check out the gallery of photos below to see all the new LEGO parts in this upcoming set. What’s your favorite new part?
Important: As we mentioned earlier, many of the planned new parts are at the 3D-printed prototype stage. Let’s not start bemoaning the precipitous decline in LEGO’s manufacturing quality based on these photos of pre-production prototypes.
Check out the rest of our Toy Fair New York 2018 coverage: