LEGO Harry Potter BrickHeadz: 41616 Hermione Granger / 41621 Ron Weasley and Albus Dumbledore [Review]

As LEGO continues to paint every conceivable theme with a BrickHeadz brush, we can expect to see BrickHeadz from most of their licensed properties, and the Wizarding World is the latest to succumb to the block-headed wave of brick-built figures. A few weeks ago, we took a look at the first set in the series, 41615 Harry Potter & Hedwig. Today we’re turning to the other two sets based on the classic Harry Potter films, 41616 Hermoine Granger and 41621 Ron Weasley & Albus Dumbledore. They retail for $9.99 and $19.99 USD, respectively. Hermione includes 127 pieces, while the two-pack includes 245 pieces. They are available now in the USA and will be available elsewhere beginning Aug. 1.

The build and parts

The layout of the two sets will be familiar to anyone who’s built any of the 60 previous characters, and there aren’t any surprises at this stage: two unnumbered bags and a loose plate for the stand in the single character box, and two numbered bags with separate instruction manuals in the two-pack. Each of the characters in the two-pack are packaged separately, so it’s possible to build one character without opening the other.

With the exception of a few highly unique characters like Hedwig, most BrickHeadz are very formulaic in construction. Far from being a detriment, though, that similarity is what makes BrickHeadz so charming–not to mention it allows cool sets like Go Brick Me so anyone can customize their own. All BrickHeadz feature a “brain” brick, but Chris Perron, the primary LEGO designer for this theme (along with designers Marcos Bessa and Bjarke Madsen) has taken the opportunity to supply a few cool colors hidden within the structure, namely teal plates and dark red and sand green bricks.

Dumbledore, with his long white beard and ornate robes, departs a little from the typical BrickHeadz structure, having a plate attached to his chest to hold all the printed tiles, along with a beard made of upside down slopes, attached with 2×2 bracket plates on his chin.

And speaking of printed tiles, the two-pack set is absolutely loaded. LEGO graphic designer Andre Sang-Tae Stenbryggen designed a marvelous selection of detailed tiles to decorate Dumbledore’s robes, and the set isn’t stingy with them, providing seven 1×4 tiles and six 1×2 tiles for the robes alone. The other notable inclusion here are the clear 1×2 tiles printed with BrickHeadz eyes, the second new eye style in the Harry Potter BrickHeadz series, following Hedwig’s yellow eyes. Ron includes two 1×3 Gryffindor scarf tiles, identical to the one used on Harry, along with a 1×2 brick printed with his tie and sweater collar.

Hermione includes a 1×2 brick printed with the same sweater pattern as Ron’s, and a pair of 1×4 bricks with skirt pleats. It’s nearly the same pattern used for Thanos’ chin, though appeared on a tile rather than a brick. Hermione, ever the model student, also carries a page from a textbook demonstrating wand technique with the Wingardium Leviosa spell. As usual, both sets include a spare standard BrickHeadz eye tile.

The rest of the parts in each set are fairly typical, though they make great parts packs for specific colors. Since the cartoonish proportions of BrickHeadz mean that about half the figure’s height is devoted to the head, it’s no surprise that hair color dominates the color palette for the parts. Hermione offers a great selection of brown elements, including 17 brown 1×1 quarter circle tiles.

Ron’s dark orange hair offers a good assortment of curved slopes, plates, and is one of the first two sets to include the 1×1 quarter circle tiles in that color (the other being the BrickHeadz Anna from Frozen).

Dumbledore is a bit more of a mixed back, with no single color dominating, though there is a decent variety of elements in dark brown, white, and dark red.

The completed figures

As with the other newly released Harry Potter sets, these are set in the early years of the students’ time at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is based on the Richard Harris film version, just like the minifigure in the Great Hall set we just reviewed, though his aged hair is white here rather than light grey.

Hermione feels a little plain, though it’s hard to see how she could have been designed more distinctly, except perhaps to make her hair more frizzy. She carries a dark brown wand and a brown book with the printed tile.

Ron wears his black Hogwarts robes and a long Gryffindor scarf that falls down each side of the robes, with an alternating bright orange and dark red pattern encircling his neck. Like Harry and Dumbledore, the robes have frilled cuffs made with the new 1×1 brackets–black for Harry and Ron, and brown for Dumbledore. Ron’s hair is mostly smooth, made with curved slopes, and he carries the same dark brown wand as Hermione.

Dumbledore is the real standout figure, with the multitude of printed tiles (15 total) lending him remarkable detail. His white hair cascades down his back and shoulders, and the tiny point on the back of his dark red cap is a fantastic detail that’s easily overlooked. Dumbledore carries a dark tan wand, which is amazingly a new color of this common element, and yet another reason to love the jovial old wizard.

Together with Harry, the three Hogwarts novices demonstrate the varying ways to wear their student’s uniforms: full robes, open robes, or sweater only.

Conclusion and recommendation

No doubt we’ll be seeing more Harry Potter BrickHeadz in the future (not to mention the likelihood of Fantastic Beasts characters), but the five characters contained in the first three sets make a great start to a BrickHeadz-sized Hogwarts. They’re excellent sculpts for this quick-fire line of collectible figures, with Dumbledore and Hedwig being the standouts. If you’re a Harry Potter fan, you definitely won’t want to miss these adorable figures, even if you don’t collect other BrickHeadz. Both sets are available now in the USA, and will be available Aug. 1 elsewhere.

41616 Hermione Granger has 127 pieces and retails for $9.99 You can support The Brothers Brick by purchasing them through these retailers:
LEGO Shop Online (USA | UK), eBayBricklinkAmazon

41621 Ron Weasley & Albus Dumbledore has 245 pieces and retails for $19.99 You can support The Brothers Brick by purchasing them through these retailers:
LEGO Shop Online (USA | UK | CAN), eBayBricklink


Check out our other reviews of the 2018 Wizarding World sets:
LEGO Harry Potter 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall
LEGO Harry Potter 75956 Quidditch Match
LEGO Harry Potter BrickHeadz 41615 Harry Potter & Hedwig

View all the images from this review below.

3 comments on “LEGO Harry Potter BrickHeadz: 41616 Hermione Granger / 41621 Ron Weasley and Albus Dumbledore [Review]

  1. David

    They are available now in the Lego store in Glasgow, I got all the Harry potter ones today along with the Ghostbusters brickheadz. Also the instructions for Hermione say it’s number 61 but 61 is actually Dumbledore

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