TL;DR:
- Original Price: $29.99
- Pieces: 257
- Minifigure(s): Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger (both with medium legs), Professor Mad-Eye Moody (with Barty Crouch Jr. face on back), Alastor Moody nanofig
- Sticker Sheet: Yes
- Pros: creative build and good look
- Cons: expensive and the figures don't fit inside when closed
Assembly:
Bag #1 - Neville Longbottom, Hermione Granger, Book cover
Bag #2 - Professor Moody, Interior
- Interesting Steps:
- Step 48 uses a tile piece at the top of the lower wall, which makes it easier to place the upper wall in the spine (using the brown 1x2 and 2x2 SNOT pieces); if a regular tile were on top, it would put stress on the whole build, or require that the wall be placed in a single piece.
- Interesting Techniques:
- This was another set that I got used, hence the lack of box or bag photos. As before, disassembling everything and arranging it by color on a Dollar Tree tray was instrumental in making sense of the mess (as shown in the photo at the top)
- The way the cover and spine are constructed (with the 4x4 grey tiles alternating left and right and a single 2x16 plate running down its middle, anchored with 2x2 and 1x4 slopes) results in a very strong build, well-suited for much opening and closing and the addition and repositioning of interior elements.
- At first, the upsidedown chalkboard seemed a bit strange—it wasn't until the end of the instructions (page 81) that it's made clear why it's built that way: to better fit in its storage position. The architectural corbels also make nice furniture feet when upended this way.
- Interesting Pieces:
- Modified 4x4 grey tile with studs on edges and 2 clips and modified 10x16 black tile with studs on edges and bar handles, instrumental in the construction of the book's shape
- The chest with mini-Moody is a cute nod to the trunk in the book and movie (where the real Alistair is kept so Barty Jr. can extract as much hair as is needed for his continued polyjuice potion usage) without being quite so elaborately-layered as the real thing. It might have been neat to have some way of showing it's layered look, but I can't really think of anything, short of dropping two 1x3 tiles in on either side, which would probably be more confusing than evocative.
- Pain Points:
- The figures don't fit inside when book is closed. This is why there are 2x2 tiles with one stud in the center along the top, to serve as a way to display them. It would be nice if there were some way to tuck them inside, to keep everything tidy and self-contained (and a little more dust-free).
- The purpose of the round 1x2 dark tan plates with the two 1x1 round bar-and-pin-holder tiles on the back cover is at first confusing: when you have multiple books, you can link them up (I only found this out in a promotional image on an old Lego posting about their then-new line) front-to-back, forming a little circle of "open books" to make a sort of playhouse in the round. It's a cute enough idea, but without anything in the actual instructions, it's a missed opportunity.
- My Modifications:
- Building on the pain points above (pun intended), I can see great possibilities with these designs. I haven't yet, but I plan to use this and similar sets as templates to create an even-more flexible playset—like a mobile scenery studio with which to set up various different scenes. For example:
- replacing the "roof" piece with several 4x8 or 4x6 plates, layered with 2x2 tiles with and without studs to serve as floor elements that could be un-stacked and spread out to form a proper base for the scene
- then the swing-out scenery portions could be raised up by a 2 plate height to accommodate them those floor plates
- studying the various designs (there appear to be six different books total) would also help give an idea for the possibilities, and I'd be able to mix and match different setups
- having more than one of these sets could also add further flexibility, having one for wall pieces and one for accessories and figures
This was a fun build, and it's a great concept. I've always loved Micro Machines and Transformers toys since I was a kid—I even had a Mighty Max set, and may have borrowed my sibling's Polly Pockets too—and the idea of a thing that's actually another thing is so appealing. Bonus points for the thing having a scene within it, that can be expanded and shifted to add further play value. The price on this is a bit high, however (likely due primarily to the inclusion of three minifigs, not to mention the fact that it's all a licensed IP); apart from those minifigs, the hardest parts to obtain—if one wanted to build one from scratch from their own collection—are the same tiles that make the book shape possible.
As mentioned above, there's a lot of opportunity for play, and a lot of possibility for making your own modifications (this Idea for a book to collect the various brick colors being a great example). It also looks quite nice both in its closed and open states. Even though there are quite a few stickers, they look good too, and do a lot to enhance the otherwise-flat tiles necessary for such a tight build. A lot of interesting techniques were used in putting this together, and layering texture with compactness. It makes for a good standalone set, and a good addition to a collection (especially if one doesn't have the funds or space for a full Hogwarts castle.
Score (out of 5 🧱):
- Price: 🧱🧱🧱
- Process: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Presentation: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Play: 🧱🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Pieces: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
- Total: 🧱🧱🧱🧱
Lego Instructions: here
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