LEGO’s 2023 Harry Potter line so far has just one entry in the ongoing modular Hogwarts Castle line: 76413 Hogwarts: Room of Requirement. Surprisingly given that the Deathly Hallows spans two complete movies, this is only the fourth set that LEGO has based on that material. There was a previous set covering the room — 75966: Hogwarts Room of Requirement — but that version, in addition to being much smaller, was based on Order of the Phoenix. Here’s our review of the set, which contains 587 pieces and 5 minifigures, and is available March 1st for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99.

This set is based on a license The LEGO Group has with the Warner Brothers films, not J.K. Rowling directly. The transphobic views expressed by Rowling do not reflect the values of The Brothers Brick or, indeed, those of The LEGO Group. The magical world Rowling created, in which many who felt a bit different could see themselves, meant a great deal to so many people, including those that Rowling now demeans. TBB affirms each individual LEGO fan’s choice to claim a piece of the world for themselves, or to reject it entirely.

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The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

The box and contents

The medium-size, vertical format box shows the included characters and a stylized version of the set on the front, and demonstrates some of the alternate play options on the back. Interestingly this option of taking apart the Fiendfyre to pose it as though it’s winding through many parts of the Room at once is not pointed out anywhere else, including at the back of the instruction manual.

Inside is the manual, a somewhat rumpled but ultimately undamaged sticker sheet, and four numbered bags. Pieces seem pretty evenly distributed between the bags, and there are no loose pieces.

The build

The building process starts and finishes with several small to medium tower/turret areas which conform to the style of the modular Hogwarts Castle and which could fit in to any part of it without looking out of place or really very noticeable at all. The 3×3 curved fences are new in dark tan, having previously appeared in pearl gold and dark azure. Neither I or my 14yo assistant know why there is a sink here, or what the book or scroll is. If they relate to the Deathly Hallows movie scenes that the set is based on, we’re missing it.

The Room of Requirement is the main portion of the build. This is a difficult scene to capture, so the set is all about choices – what to include, how to compress it down to a reasonable size and number of pieces. The Room’s door is usually concealed, and a decent number of pieces are devoted to cleverly sliding panels that hide the doorway. The window detail above is lovely and does echo some of the movie design. However, the dark gray and sand green pieces feel out of place, or maybe intended to make this modular portion blend with the Chamber of Secrets? In the Deathly Hallows, the entrance to the Room of Requirement is not deep underground; it’s just in a corridor. That said it’s very nice rock work, with a mix of colors and pairs slopes with inverted slopes. It just doesn’t seem grounded in the source material.

When opened, the panels reveal an ornate door with one of the downsides of this set: four stickers per door panel, two on each side. Eight total. All of them opportunities for things to be ever so slightly but painfully visibly misaligned. In the movie scene, we get a glimpse of a door pattern fading away; if the texture was important then a brick-built solution offers lots of texture opportunities and just as much detail. Otherwise we’d just as soon do without.

From the other side, an ornate archway surrounding the door looks perhaps even a closer match for the movie scene’s exterior door. Inside there are some lamps, lots of connection points for the Fiendfyre or other modules, studs to pose the piles of things on, a Cornish Pixie sticker, and inexplicably some glass display cases where the glass is a load-bearing element of a larger column. The Room of Requirement is somewhat famously an absolute mess and heap of random stuff, and did not contain anything displayed in cases – load bearing or not.

Before the final tower bits, we get a Cornish Pixie figure, the Fiendfyre build, and a cursory sketch of the chaos and haphazard pile-of-all-kinds-of-stuff that makes up the vast majority of the Room. Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem is represented nicely enough by a flat silver crown element. This element is common in pearl gold, and has appeared in an assortment of other mostly transparent colors, but only ever appeared in silver in 2012’s Minfigures Series 7 Bride!

The modular Hogwarts builds have kept a consistent and reasonably varied system of options, and the ability to split up the Fiendfyre increases those options even more for this set. It does feel a little odd that you have to remove several pieces in order to open up the wings on the main Room build. It’s also not quite clear what the trans-clear antenna are for. They might just be for stability, but I guessed they could also be for posing characters flying as they try to escape the inferno. If so, the spacing is a little too tight to have anyone really zooming around, but you can get a minifigure to hover like Blaise is below.

The minifigures

There have been a zillion versions of Harry Potter – ok, 63 catalogued by Brickset so far – but of course he was going to be in this set. A limited minifigure budget means it’s a coin flip between Ron and Hermione for the second protagonist, and Hermione wins out. You should basically always listen to Hermione, so fair enough. This version appears to be new, though the torso has some similarities to the Dimensions version; it matches her attire from the movie well. Harry is also new, with a dark tan jacket over his hoodie that also matches the movie outfit very nicely. The unprinted legs are unexciting but fine.

The bad guys get a coin flip on who’s left out also, and Blaise Zabini wins out over Gregory Goyle to accompany his sulkiness Draco. Given that there has been a Goyle minifigure previously, and also Goyle dies in this scene, we’ll take it! Blaise, having never previously appeared but who gets two different minifigures in this wave of sets, has a generic Hogwarts sweater with Slytherin tie, what appears to be a new head print, and appropriate short black hair. Draco also has a new head print. His torso is not new, but it only previously appeared in the much, much more expensive Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition. The silver serpent pin is a very welcome inclusion.

Finally, we have the Grey Lady, Helena Ravenclaw. She doesn’t appear in the Room exactly, but she is integral to Harry figuring out where the diadem is, and is a completely new character in LEGO form. The long grey hairpiece is new and has a lovely texture.

Conclusion and recommendation

This is a solid, but not exceptional, set. If you are a completionist, the unique Harry and Hermione minifigures, along with the completely new Blaise and the Grey Lady, are more than enough. If you are just starting out, or have a handful of Harry Potter sets, and the characters or scene appeals to you? Go for it – five minifigures and almost 600 pieces makes this a solid value. But if you already have a decent collection, you may well skip this one – the unique minifigures are nice, but none of them seem unmissable on their own. The scenery is fine, but also not exceptional – there are nice pieces, there are some nice bits of the build. Really, you would be hard pressed to demand more of a $50 set – but likewise, most people don’t need every $50 set. And that’s ok.

76413 Hogwarts: Room of Requirement contains 587 pieces and 5 minifigures. It is available starting March 1 from the LEGO Shop and worldwide for US $49.99 | CAN $64.99 | UK £44.99 or from Amazon. It may also be available from third-party sellers on eBay.

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The LEGO Group sent The Brothers Brick an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

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