VBBN

Molten man looks fantastic, I love all of the street details (like street signs, traffic lights etc) especially. I wonder if it's possible if there is an alternate face or hairpiece for Mysterio hidden in any of those set's inventories.. I think there is always potential for the older films to be revisited if the MCU's steam slows down. Wizarding World, for example, has revisited these older films with great success.

And yeah, my predictions for the core three are as follows; 1) Tony gets married to pepper. That way, he is still in-universe, but he goes off to start a family and doesn't want to avenge anymore. I also anticipate this to be how the movie ends, since they would end this saga where it started- with Tony. 2) Thor will go off to rebuild Asgard and his people. It was already confirmed that there were survivors from the Asgard ship, and it's the best way to again, keep him in-universe but also give him purpose for not being around. 3) Cap will die. I would honestly be 100% shocked if he doesn't. Of the core three, he is the least likely actor to return since he wants to move on to directing. He has possible replacements (Bucky has like 4 movies still.) Plus, if anyone is going to go down heroically, it's Cap. (also he has been very front and center in most marketing materials compared to usual, getting shots of his own while most other characters share shots, and just look at this movie's trailers compared to Infinity War.)

True, that also brings up a different point that Lego's overall portfolio definitely leans more on licensed themes now than ever before. Yes in-house themes like City and Ninjago exist, but where licensed themes lie, we don't really have in-house themes to match. Star Wars is a powerhouse and we never really get original space themes, Speed Champions has taken out Racers, and to your point- Many of Technic's flagship sets are now massive licensed vehicles with less functionality than many other similarly priced (or cheaper) sets, whereas previously they focused on more original vehicles and we saw them branch out to things like Spybotics, Slizers and Bionicle in a way. Creator even touches the licenses now by offering the licensed car each year, but I think of any line that's the one that could and does offer the biggest variety already. It's not necessarily that constraction is dead, it's that Lego is far, far more selective with their in house themes. The early 2000s were a period of weird shit because Lego was experimenting. They still do that today, but we see it in the form of one-and-done licenses, IDEAS sets, etc. I'm not saying they are cutting them completely, we've had some interesting stuff like Chima, Nexo Knights, and now the upcoming Hidden Side, but it's definitely a much different portfolio than before.

We are in an age where many of Lego's themes are inclusive of things that used to be their own thing. Take mechs for example- Lego's first major attempt at getting System based mechs out there was Exo Force, a line entirely dedicated to that concept. IMO, we will never see a one-for-one replacement for that line, because now mechs are everywhere. Marvel, DC, Ninjago, Overwatch, TLM2, etc. There are a few companies that tried buildable action figures- Mega Construx tried with Halo buildable figures, Hasbro tried with Construct bots, etc- I think the market out there just isn't big enough for these things now. Now, we have things like those mechs I mentioned above, we have large dragons in Ninjago, Mega has buildable Pokemon and ultra poseable/realistic minifigures... builds that are more compatible with the standard Lego system and existing themes. Lego has tried a lot of different avenues, from doing theme specific buildable figures like Star Wars and Chima, to the more story driven Bionicle, and less so Hero Factory. There was a time when Bionicle was Lego's story and media giant- and I think now, Ninjago carries that torch. It's one of, if not the, most successful in-house story driven brands LEGO has. In 2018, it continued to be in their top 5 selling themes. It follows in that standard "Hero for each element" style, and even sells these minifigures in individual packs with the spinners and whatnot. With that in mind, I feel like Lego is moving past the need to create figures with the CCBS system. Technic exists in it's own right because of sales, and continues to be a massive driver of functions and structure in system sets. I wouldn't count out the possibility of ever seeing dedicated buildable figures lines again, especially ones that utilize the Mixels system- but I have a feeling much of what we consider traditional constraction is not going to continue, because Lego finally found a ball-and-socket system that is more compatible with system, something that is better able to enhance other lines. TLDR, I think CCBS is dead (except for the odd use of a large ball joint here and there), but constraction lives on in a way through LEGO's current day system themes.

Really happy they are keeping spoilers to a minimum with these trailers. Like, I want to see the trailers to satisfy my hype train craving, but I also want to be surprised going into the film. Also, saw Captain marvel this past weekend and loved it. A bit slow in the middle, but I am completely fine with how OP she is- it's something I figured we would start to see more as the MCU moves into it's next evolution. I liked it so much, in fact, that I'm actually considering the Hot Toys Captain Marvel now, though I did tell myself next would be Iron Man... (meanwhile my fiancee' says "why not both?" I'm glad she's supportive, but maybe too supportive )

I emailed LEGO support and they replied that the date for the mini figure pack is was pushed to the 8-10th, so that should confirm that.

Yeah I’ve always been annoyed by this arguement Bionicle shared some compatibility with Lego due to originally being Technic based, (in fact G1 was more compatible than When Hero Factory 2.0 first came around) but it never needed to. It wasnt a Lego System theme, it was Bionicle, it’s own brand, just released under the Lego name. Most consumer products you buy are made by the same 5 companies (so when you go to a store and see 6 different brands of laundry detergent, guess what, it’s the same company.) Ralph Lauren, Georgio Armani, Diesel? All ultimately made by the people that make baby food and hot pockets. And when I tell you those three designer clothing brands, certainly you don’t think “yep that’s Nestle quality right there” even though they are all made by Nestle. Yes, Bionicle was marketed alongside those other brands, being put on the same store shelves and in the same catalog, but that Lego logo was always small and insignificant compared to the massive BIONICLE text Point being, LEGO is more than a 2x2 brick, it’s a brand that is allowed to expand its category of building toys, just as its allowed to make watches, clocks, and T-shirt’s. It’s primary business is the studded brick system, but that is not what determines what true Lego is. Maybe it did a long time ago, but not anymore.

Nick Vaas (Brickthing on here) used to be the old Action Figure Mod before me before becoming a designer at LEGO, I know he was the primary designer of Ninjago City and am pretty sure he worked on this one too, I have a feeling he influenced those Bionicle sticker choices- and the Galidor ones in Ninjago City Thanks everyone for the comments! I guess I should touch briefly on my thoughts on the stickers, there are a lot but I don’t mind them too much, they blend well with the surrounding colors and for the most part are used on simple pieces.

Hi! A project I've been really keen to start on this year is an Iron Man Hall of Armor & Tony Stark's mansion build. Problem is, I have exactly one iron man related lego item, and that's the Infinity War Hulkbuster set. I need more! I am in need of basically every Iron Man-related figure, including any non-Tony Stark related armors (War Machine, Age of ultron Drones, etc.). The only thing you definitely will not find on this list is the 2012 SDCC figure. For tracking purposes, here's a list of every figure I'm looking for: - Iron Man Mark 6 (from 6867 Loki’s Cosmic Cube Escape, & polybag) - Iron Man Mark 7 (6869 Quinjet Aerial Battle, Loki Juniors set) - Iron Man Mark 17 “Heartbreaker” Suit (76008) - Iron Man Mark 33 “Silver Centurion” Suit (Polybag, promotion for Avengers Videogame preorder) - Iron Man Mark 37 “Hammerhead” Scuba Suit - Iron Man Mark 39 “Gemini” Space Suit (76049 Avenjet Space Mission) - Iron Man Mark 42 (76006 Iron Man: Extremis Sea Port Battle & 76007 Iron Man: Malibu Mansion Attack) - Iron Man Mark 45 (76029 Iron Man vs. Ultron) - Iron Man Mark 46 (76051 Super Hero Airport Battle) - Iron Man Mark 47 (76083 Beware the Vulture) - Iron Man Mark 50 “Bleeding Edge” Armor (76108 The Sanctum Sanctorum Showdown) - Iron Man Mark 50 “Bleeding Edge” Armor (Alternate Form, with wings) (76107 Thanos Ultimate Battle) - Iron Man Mark 51 Invincible Iron Man Suit (76077 Iron Man: Detroit Steel Strikes) - Classic Iron Man Suit — Mighty Micros (Mighty Micros: Iron Man vs. Thanos) - Tony Stark (76007 Iron Man: Malibu Mansion Attack) - War Machine Mark II (76006 Iron Man: Extremis Sea Port Battle) - Iron Patriot Armor (polybag) - War Machine Mark III (76051 Super Hero Airport Battle) - Iron Legionaire (76038 Attack on Avengers Tower) Also looking for this set: - Set 76031 The Hulk Buster Smash (opened is okay, if complete.) Thanks for looking, please let me know if you have any of these for sale!

Not sure if this is where this topic has been discussed, but I heard on Youtube that the Infinity War Bricktober set is coming to the US in March as a free with 75$ purchase at a Lego store sort of deal- is that true? Anyone know where that source of news came from? (And apologies if this has been discussed previously. This is a monster of a forum to search though.) I tried searching online but not no avail. There's not really anything I need for 75$, but I do really want that set as i'm working on a hall of armor and need all the Iron-Man related goodness I can get.

Ninjago City is heralded as one of the most creative and fun to build Lego sets of recent years, but how does it's smaller little brother stack up? Today I review set 70657 Ninjago City Docks, and let you know what it's like to own this set without yet owning it's larger counterpart. Click through to my review to see my thoughts, and share your own!

Name: 70657 Ninjago City DocksTheme: Ninjago (The Ninjago Movie subline)Year: 2018Pieces: 3553Price: $229.99 - $269.99 - £199.99 - €229.99 - €259.99 Resources: Brickset | Bricklink Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Ninjago City Docks! This set was the highly anticipated "sequel" to the fantastic Ninjago City set, meant to be a seamless modular addition to it's predecessor. Today I'll be offering a unique viewpoint on this set- the view of someone who does not yet have (but will be purchasing this year) the Ninjago City itself. Sure, we all know this set looks great with Ninjago City... but how does it stack up on it's own? Is there any reason to buy this if you don't own it's pricier brother? Well, time to find out. As you might have anticipated, this set is absolutely crammed with great parts, great building techniques, and so many details. It's tough to choose what to include in my review but I also wanted to leave you with some surprises whenever you eventually get this set. By the way, this review is made possible thanks to the support of the LEGO team. With that said, all comments are going to be my unbiased thoughts toward this set- but spoiler alert, they are pretty positive thoughts. The Box Let's be honest, the box is something you can easily see in your nearest LEGO store- spoiler alert, it's a large box, with plenty of nice CGI Ninjago goodness going on in the background. Something interesting about this set is that it's the first modular where the "back" of the set is actually the front- the main shot you see above is technically the back, and is not the side you would see when this is connected to Ninjago City (viewed from the front.) Sticker Sheet As far as things like contents go, the most interesting to me was this amazingly diverse sicker sheet. I know our old friend Nick Vaas had some influence here, with that sneaky Mask of Ultimate Power sticker tossed in there. Some of the larger stickers are my favorites, like the Sushi one and the woman beneath it. I also love the Junkbot and Adventures references- there's a little bit of everything here, and tons of clever little details to look at. Sticker Sheet 2 Minifigures Lloyd, Garmadon, Private Puffer First we have some of my favorite minifigures in the set. Lloyd comes with an alternate face and a hairpiece. Private Puffer is a hilarious figure, and I love that new headpiece! I also really enjoyed Garmadon, since I don't usually buy Ninjago set's I haven't experienced the extra-tall design of this guy just yet. Rear Runde, Dareth, Lil' Nelson, Runme, Runje, Mystake Here's what I would refer to as more traditional figures. All decent figures, I think Runje is my personal favorite- that fish rack is great! Only one alternate expression here, on Runme. Back Printing I also really like Dareth and Lil Nelson's outfits. Chan Kong-Sang, Chad, Cole, Betsy w/ baby Here's our last set of figures, the most notable one being Cole in a casual outfit. As someone who is interested in Ninjago City and the Docks and not in regular Ninajgo sets (well, not really giving myself any budget for them,) I do wish these sets gave us access to a wider range of the ninjas. Back printing Alternate faces Everyone in this group has alt faces. Building The Set Base First we start building the base of the docks- there's a lot of 1x2 technic connectors used here for the actual wooden portion of the docks, and a massive quantity of 1x2 tiles used for the water. It's a little tedious, but goes relatively quickly. Scope Here we start building the boat house with a rather large telescope on the top. One thing I really love here is how a BURP is used to form the back wall, but is one of the most well integrated BURPs I've ever seen. Grocery Function Here's a little peak at how the functionality works behind the tipping food crates. Turkey Rotisserie A simple function that adds a lot of life to this little part of the set. Shovel Roof This set has no shortage of unique building techniques, every roof surface is unique in it's own way. This one was on of my favorites, adding a new spin to these timeless shovel pieces. Finished first level Here we have the completed lower level of the Old World. We added on the sculptors workshop and some additional details around the back- but we will look at details more later in this review, trust me. Cartography Room This room is pretty neat using some stickers to decorate the walls with unique map prints. We also have a globe, and a book with a stickered tile inside. It's simple, but there's a good amount of stuff in here for such a small space. Runde & Mystake's house Next we start building one of the larger modules Kitchen I really love the interior they've built here, for such a small space there is an incredible amount of detail. Roofing Next we build up the two different roof sections that will cover Mystake's house. The main piece uses a lot of simple flag and square road sign pieces- this design is good, but can be slightly annoying when you want to remove in in the finished product (you need to grab it at the ends near the frogs, otherwise the flag pieces will flip up.) Connected One thing I'm not so crazy about here is that while the main section lifts off, the angle roof simple hinges into a more vertical position. I get why it was done this way, but it doesn't really provide tremendous access. Dareth's Dojo build Structurally, the dojo is one of my favorite builds due to the unique SNOT technique they used with all of those tan brick pieces. Continuing There's something really satisfying about placing the SNOT sections in and processing to build regularly on top of them. Stairs We decorate with some finishing touches, and work on one of the many staircases you'll see in this set. Tearoom Here we begin the third tier of the docks, with the Tearoom. I really had no idea what this was supposed to be until I looked it up afterwards. I love the use of hinges to look like drawers with room inside of them. Finished walls We add some ladders, finish the wall off with a window, and of course add some detail around back that we will look at later. Arcade module Here we have the other largest module, I believe this one is larger than the house module. We start building an arcade, which also houses two main functions of the set- billboard storage, and a fantastic little vending machine. Arcade Machines We build some fun little arcade machines, one of them rocks the old Junkbot game which takes me back. I'm not sure what that other game is, though personally I hope we see other bizarre games like Backlot Studio and that Alpha team game referenced at some point. Roof The arcade also features a neat roof using those flat plow pieces, and similar to Ninjago City itself we have a balloon construction - this time a pig. Finished Model Boat The only "sub-build" of the set is this small boat, which is a different design than the one we saw in the Ninjago City set. While not quite as interesting of a build as that one, I really like how the end result here looks, it's a great color scheme and a very solid build overall. Features The roof of the boat is on a hinge to allow easy placement of a minifigure. There's also a printed compass piece, and an opening hatch which has two Ninjago "cards" in it (both are stickers.) Rear As I mentioned up near the box pic, this is technically the "back," but is the main part of the set we usually see. The frontmost section is the docks surrounded by water, giving you ample room to take the boat out from the boathouse and move it around. Overall, I think this angle of the set looks pretty good- if you didn't like the aesthetic of Ninjago City, then this likely isn't going to appeal much more to you. It continues the very hectic and detail oriented build, it's a fantastic style that's really unique and certainly sets these sets apart from the regular creator Modulars. Side 1 THe sides of these buildings are meant to be flat and connected to other modulars, so as you would expect there's not much to look at here. Side 2 Again, not much to look at, though this side has a window that would be rendered rather useless once another building is connected. Front Often an under-photographed shot of this set, the proper front still looks really nice, and continues the waterline and stone walkway that wind around the front of the City. Details Crane Now then, let's take a look at the star pieces of this set- the details! First, we have this nice little crane build, which can rotate 360 degrees, and given the standard string setup, the hook can be raised & lowered. Barrels The barrel being hoisted by the crane contains two gems. Additionally, there is a set of three barrels that can be pulled out from the wall just behind the crane with ease, and they contain some cookies/pastries, a can, and a skull. Fishing area Moving on to the other side, we see a fishing setup, as well as a small cavern covered by a fern. The fern can be easily moved, as it's just mounted with a mixel joint. Market Here we have the market with various crates for fruit. As we saw earlier, this is built with a very simply function allowing it to trip the fruit into the water. It's a cool function, though resetting the scene can be a little tedious, especially getting the cherries back in there. Also, the room behind this is empty- you see a bit of the rear of the crates, but other than that there's really no interior to speak of. Rotisserie We also have this very simple rotation mechanism to allow this turkey to spin. A small meat cleaver is just around the corner. Again, a cool function that really doesn't take any fancy mechanisms, though again it's a little tough to reach the gear. Sculptor Here we have a sculptors workshop- I pulled one of the walls off so that you could see the variety of stone creations on the shelves. Left staircase Now we are ready to move to the second level. One thing I love about this set, similar to the newly release Welcome to Apocalypseburg, is that every area has access. Every area where a minifigure could reasonably go has some sort of stars or ladder or path, you don't have to leave anything to imagination here. Both module that you see to the left and right have a neat sliding door concept... By using a printed window piece that resembles a very traditional design. They work great, and definitely set a tone down here. Map Room We saw this earlier, not much has changed after the walls went up. Although, now you can see that additional ship sticker on the wall. House Again, we saw a lot of this earlier, but now we have finished the walls. It's a tough space to get into, but the golden wheel window can be lowered a bit to allow for additional access. Bunk Beds Another example of fun details- the top bunk has a sticker underneath! It also easily drops into place for easy removal when you want to access the bottom bunk. Roof Here's the two roof panels added to the house. The top piece pulls off for access to the kitchen area, while the angled roof can move into a more vertical position. Unlike the structures to either side of it, this one does not continue any further up beyond this point. Dareth's Dojo To the far right, we have the exterior of the Dojo. Again, you can see stairs giving you proper access to this scene. Interior The interior is loaded with detail, from swords on the walls to trophies and a rather large scroll. Since this modular building is made up of smaller sections, rooms like this can be...tough to access. I do wish they had made it easier to maybe remove a wall. Tearoom Next we have the Tearoom, which also features multiple stands full of printed newspapers. The little handcuffs are meant to act like a scale, and again I love the design on the drawers against the back wall. It's a very unique and different interior, but again is tough to access. News rack Here's another look at the balcony on the rear side. Arcade Moving to the opposite side, we have one of my favorite buildings, the arcade. Note the small gunmetal pipe to the left, that will come into play in a moment. Interior Inside we have a counter, as well as the arcade machines we build earlier. It's a slightly bigger interior than some of the other modules in this set, but still tough to access. You can also see where you load drink dans for the vending machine here. Vending Machine The vending machine is pure magic. You insert a bill, and out comes a can. It works extremely fluently, and is easy to reset. Once in a while the can will not roll out and you hae the tip the building to get it out, but no huge deal. The huge deal is that drinks cost $100 in this city. Signs Remember that gunmetal pipe I mentioned earlier? When you push it, it forces a stack of different signs out through two little doors at the front. You can peel back the roof which is made of garage door pieces, and swap out the billboard on the side of the building. Concluding Thoughts and Rating Now let's get to the important question, should you buy this set? If you have Ninjago City, 1000x yes. While I do not yet have said set, there is no denying this set is a beautiful expansion to that set- it connects so seamlessly, and in many ways each set feels incomplete unless you have them together. This set doesn't feel like a sequel, so much as it does "the other half" of Ninjago City. But what if you don't have Ninjago City? This set has a lot to offer- a good selection of minifigures, a variety of fun and creative building techniques, a gloriously diverse inventory of parts, and a very unique final product. The final result looks good, but like I mentioned above, parts of this set feel incomplete. While it has a beautiful dock area, I can't help but feel like certain areas (such as the stairways that wake you to a second level, or the balcony off of the tearoom that is really meant to connect to further sidewalk) are screaming for connection with Ninjago City. Plus, this set isn't exactly a looker from the sides, and I really hope that in time we get further additions to this lineup. With that said, this is a cheaper alternative to Ninjago City, and at just over $200 for 3.5k parts? That is an absolute steal, even considering how small some of these parts are.It has a lot of the elements that make Ninjago City great, and this set has made me want that one all the more. It's a good way to test out this style of set, and I assure you, you will not be disappointed with this set. Something new that I'll be including in my review for 2019 is a review scale. In the past, I've been very inconsistent with what criteria I use to rate a set, and some reviews would have a breakdown of these ratings, some would not. So, time to introduce the VBBN Review Scale! This scale will score sets based on a variety of categories. Design: How well was the set designed? This will take many factors into consideration, from how the set was built structurally and how that affects the final model, and the overall creativity of the final set. Minifigure Selection: This will take factors such as number of figures, the design of the figures, usage of new elements or prints, etc. Parts: Will consider the number of new pieces, number of recolors, the amount of parts you get for the price, and what pieces are actually offered. Build: This one's easy, how fun was the set to build? Price: This will also consider the quantity of pieces, but a stronger factor in this rating is what you get as a finished product for your money. It's kind of an overall ranking measure that takes a lot of the previous ones into consideration. In the screenshot above, you can see how I've rated this set among other reviews I have done for sets in a similar price range ($200+.) Why am I comparing this to things like the Tumbler, and Hogwarts Castle? Those are very different sets, and in the case of the Tumbler or the Batcave, old sets. But these criteria don't really take into account the accuracy to films, or the level of nostalgia they bring you- simply, this scale shows you how Ninjago City Docks stacks up against other sets in a similar price range. And it scores very well. It excels in almost all categories, and regardless of if you collect Ninjago sets or not, it's a set worth getting- and I anticipate Ninjago City will be the only set to surpass this one in the near future. So my overall rating for Ninjago City Docks is 92%. A few notes about the review scale: 1) It is currently a work in progress, I have years of old reviews to dig through and add to this file. 2) When I add those older reviews, I re-evaluate my thoughts on the set. If I liked the minifigure selection at the time, but not now, it will likely receive a lower score. I of course will consider certain factors (like with the Tumbler, could it be done better now? Sure, because newer parts exist that didn't before. That won't affect my rating) 3) This will eventually be available for your viewing online. My plan is to utilize Google Docs or something so that this can be a public list for you to go and have a look at. Thank you all for reading, please let me know what you think of this set!

This is really such a great model- it's a very unique and creative design, with so much to look at.

Here's what I could scrounge together with my limited selection, some sort of horrifying santa-Tahu combination... yeah my "Ideal" santa is apparently constraction, because at this point I would take literally anything in CCBS format.

@Steven the toa of flight please work on properly deeplinking these photos, as Leewan and I have mentioned your photos are not visible, and there isn't really much point to a MOC topic where we can't see what you've built. Please let us know if you need any help in correcting the photos on your previous threads, and please refrain from posting any other MOC threads until you have viewable photos in your post..

Is that your only way to access our website? Even with an iPad, you can upload an image to an image hosting site such as Imgur, Flickr, etc and then use that link to show the MOC on our forums.

Happy Halloween! Eurobricks member The Chosen One has created a creative and fun character to get your right into the spirit, be sure to drop by Mr. Jack O'Lantern this Halloween.

Yep it's dark red! To be honest we are likely only going to bring this set out for display around Halloween time as IMO this is a great display piece for that time of year. But to get to your question, at the moment it's a centerpiece on our kitchen table because yeah none of my shelves can fit this thing . The main issue really is the height for me. I personally didn't really notice the issues that he was having when I was placing this in. It was a little tricky, but that's mainly because you are lining up a bunch of hinges- if anything, my main concern would be the actual vertical pressure on the hinge plates themselves, rather than any horizontal stress this might be causing. And definitely agreed on the arches, I'm not too in the loop with every new and recolored piece so I didn't even realize these were completely new to this set, I do wish they had introduced such a piece (because you know in the future they will, they might as well have just done it here.) Here's a few shots of Rowena wandering around, nothing fancy just snapped these on my phone-

To finish off this crazy few weeks of Wizarding World goodness, I take a look at the Hogwarts Castle, the second largest LEGO set, and quite a stunning looking one at that. Jump to the Licensed Forum to check out the details that have been packed into this set, and be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments and poll!

Dear Eurobricks, this review is now live for your viewing!

Name: 71043: Hogwarts CastleTheme: Wizarding WorldYear: 2018Pieces: 6020Price: £349.99 / $399.99 / 399.99€ Resources: Bricklink, Brickset, Lego *Set was graciously provided by LEGO for our review. Please be assured that the opinions in this review are my own and do not reflect those of LEGO. Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the highly anticipated Hogwarts Castle. This set was one shrouded in rumors and mystery- would it combine with the earlier minifigure scaled sets? Would it be micro scale? Would it even be Hogwarts? When LEGO showcased this beast - The second largest set parts count wise as of the time of this writing, only beaten by the UCS Milenium Falcon 2.0), and largest nanoscale set as a result - I knew we’d be in for a treat with this one. So is this set worth picking up? I might have spoiled my answer a bit there, but read on to find out! Box Front First, please do note that this box was sent to me from Denmark and so the packaging here is the Euro variant that will have less information that the one released in North America. The box art here utilizes the same striking blue backdrop as the minifigure scaled sets, however this time around they did not place the banner at the top featuring any Harry Potter characters. Size wise, as you might expect this is both huge and heavy. In fact, the box is the exact same size as the one for the Creator Expert Roller Coaster, and also much heavier. Rear From here you can see the sets many details highlighted, but don’t look to closely now, we will get to those in due time. Instructions I was hoping this set might get the treatment of the Falcon’s spiral-bound instructions, considering this set is larger than he original falcon in terms of parts count, but alas we get 4 standard manuals there’s a bit of information in here about the design of the set. A word about the contents of this set since this is the best place to put it, and as you may know by now he focus of my reviews lies more in the finished model rather than the parts selection- this set comes packaged with 38 bags of parts, each one labeled with a unique number so at no point will you be using more than 1 bag. For a set with so many tiny pieces, this is certainly a welcome strategy. Sticker Sheets As a man who A) has a “paint by stickers book” in his house, B) Ordered and applied reprolabels for Transformers Generations Metroplex and C) Used to adore Exo-Force, it takes a lot for a sticker sheet to scare me away. This set however does bring back the need for the term “Dreaded Sticker Sheet” because there’s a lot to be seen here. Don’t get me wrong, these all look absolutely fantastic, and if it was down to the choice of stickers or omitting all of these details I will gladly pick stickers . But be warned, you will want to have tweezers at the ready. Hogwarts House Founder Minifigures Front As you might expect, being the equivalent of a "UCS" set and also being microscale, this set comes with a selection of Minifigures mounted on their own display stand. And, to continue the theme of the Wizarding World sets, they look stunning; We get the four founders of the Hogwarts Houses; Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazaar Slytherin, and Rowena Ravenclaw. You slowly build up these figures over the course of the build, getting one every few bags. Alternate Faces Rowena and Helga feature alternate faces. I'm not sure if this was a mistake or not (with my history of review sets, I always get strange happenings), but you do get a second copy of Godric's beard. Rear As expected, they all feature some lovely back printing. Nanofigures 1 Since this set is microscale, the focus of course is on utilizing nanofigs- and man, it comes with a lot. Here we have Voldemort, Filch, Snape, McGonogall, Dumbledore, Bellatrix, Lupin, and Umbridge. They all feature an impressive amount of printing at this scale. They aren't perfect, sure, but for figures this small I think lego has outdone themselves here. 2 In the way of known students, we have Draco, Hermoine (Well, I think this one is supposed to be her, anyway...), Harry, and Ron. Also we get three unprinted figures, meant to represent Black and White Chess Pieces and the Hogwarts Architect. In this set, you get two of each of these unprinted figures, though the build only calls for one of each, so you get some spares for your collection. 3 Since this is Hogwarts, you needs students to fill the halls! As a result, you get 3 students from each house. Dementors You also get 5 Dementors, which are black molded versions of the Emperor Palpatine microfig. Magical Boats We begin the build of the set with some small little boats. They are very simple yet quite smart in their design, and feature a blue piece to imitate “water” being separated by the boat, though to be honest if this element was in a trans shade of plastic the effect would be much improved. It’s also a little difficult to get any more than one Microfigure into these boats, as all of the studs are unusable due to the horizontal window frame Aragog and Hagrids Hut Rear Hagrids Hut is a construction you build at about the midpoint of the build. I had totally forgotten this was in the set, and while I was building it I had no idea what I was constructing, but it was instantly recognizable when done. Even for a small structure like this they did a wonderful job of capturing some key details. When I first placed the spider down my thought was “well that’s out of scale” and then it hit me that this was Aragog, and I have never appreciated a spider mold more than I did with this. Hungarian Horntail Rear Another little build you get to put together is the Hungarian Horntail. I must say I am surprised that no stickers were used on this model- it’s surpsijngly articulate, able to bend at the head, move at the wings in two places, the legs, and two joints in the rear body. A small brown stud with “nipple” is included to mount his foot to a stud, though really I wish they had just given two of these. Whomping Willow Movement No, this isn't the Whomping Willow I review just a few weeks ago- this one is tiny, and just as cool in it's own way. Not only does it look surprisingly good for it's small size, but can also spin, has moving "arms", and even comes with a nano-Ford Anglia. The Build Beginning Steps You begin the build of this set just as you would begin your journey to Hogwarts- at the entrance. It’s a simple start, though even here you start to notice the detail of this set, as there is a sticker placed inside of here that you otherwise will hardly ever see. Framework for Section 1 Unlike the minifigure scale Great Hall set, this set properly builds up a rocky cliff-face meant to separate Hogwarts from the water. Basically you connect some technic beams, slap some BURPs on, and cover them with a variety of slope pieces to make them look pretty. It’s used to good effect, though I will say this is the first set where I’ve reslly had to check what parts are needed for each step as I kept missing parts. Some variation is added to the build for the tower later on, and we can also see the Chamber of Secrets being constructed. Great Hall The first major building we complete in this set is the Great Hall. We will take a look at the detail of this later on. Tower wall One of the only truly repetitive constructions in this set are the walls that make up the largest tower . Construction of these walls takes up 3 of the sets 38 bags. Tower Construction It was cool to see them come together, however- these pieces cover up the same pre-fab round elements used in the minifigure Great Hall set. Do note that in the picture above I still had one section to go, hence the gap to the left of the Tower. Dumbledore Office Youll get to see the completed Tower soon, but here’s a look at the inner workings of that top part First Half Complete Front The first half is mainly comprised of the Great Hall and Dumbledore's Tower. Profile 1 Here we can see the technic beams which eventually will connect to the second half. Rear Profile 2 Second Half Beginning The second half of Hogwarts starts off very similar to the first, again we start with a Technic Frame... More Foundation Similar again to the first half, we utilize BURPs and build up the rest of the foundation. We'll take a look at those little details in there later. Buildings Moving forward we start on the next two sections of building. Again there is a wide variety of building techniques used here, the build is so compact and uses so many parts to achieve such little details. Bridge Next comes this little bridge section. This was a rather satisfying section, as it all connects together so seamlessly in the end. Almost Done We add the bridge to the second half, and continue building. As you can see and likely would expect, some structural elements use brighter colors, but unlike in a large Technic set, I really don't feel that was needed here, especially considering how many numbered bags there are. Second Half Done Front Add on a few more grey towers and we are done! Rear Again, there's a lot of little rooms here, all of which we will take a look at. Finished Set Front The most satisfying part of this build is getting to merge these two halves together into a simply amazing representation of Hogwarts. Its stunning, from the proportions to the details they've managed to fit in. While this set is second only to the UCS Falcon in part count, it's not nearly as large, I mean even the Creator Exper Roller Coaster outsizes it- but it's still a big set, and an extremely heavy, dense, and detailed one at that. Rear When we spin this around to the rear, that's where people's opinions on this set get divided. Many are happy with this, while others would have preferred for this set to simply remain a Hogwarts model, and thus be completed on the backside. Me personally, I prefer what they've done here. A completed build would add more repetitiveness, and I will never really see the back of this; but at the same time, I have all of these really cool little sections to look at when I want to, which creatively use elements to bring this to a nanoscale. Courtyard Now it's time to start looking at the details of this beast. Starting off we have this courtyard; Do take note of the uniquely printed windows, you'll be getting a lot of those here. Entrance Here we have the entrance to the Great Hall, which features opening doors and that Architect statue. Stained Glass The stained glass effect used here is great, allowing for plenty of light to shine through to light up the multitude of colors. Odd Detail I'm not really sure why this section has these exposed studs... anyone? Roof Here we can see some of the neat effects of SNOT being utilized- also a fun detail is the clear mounts for the Dementors to fly above Hogwarts. Tower As mentioned earlier, the Horntail can connect to the rooftop here. Chamber of Secrets One of my favorite rooms is the Chamber of Secrets, which uses the Nagani mold that came with the Voldemort Minifigure, and flips the scale to become the Basilisk here. I love that even a little black tile is included to represent Tom Riddle's notebook Door Stairs The rotating staircases are a signature element of Hogwarts so it was cool to see them here (and yet they can move left to right.) You get two different sections, each one with an arrangement of different photos... but if I'm being honest, this is one of my least favorite parts of the set, I just don't think they look all that great, perhaps it's the narrow shape of the tower throwing me off here. Moaning Myrtle Bathroom Above the staircases sets this bathroom here. Dumbledores Office Something to mention is that the placement of these rooms isn't really very accurate nor to-scale, but that's to be expected. Dumbledore's office is filled with little details, even having the sorting hat and Phoenix on the walls in sticker form. Gargoyle Statue It's a bit of an off place for it, but you also build up the Gargoyle statue, Great Hall The Great Hall goes to show that at the smaller scale, this can still have even more detail than the larger variation of this model that was just released. I love the look of the windows even from here, all four flags hanging at once, and..and....is Voldemort trying to have lunch with the kids? Bridge Entrance Heading over to the right side of the castle, we once again see that stained glass put to work. Walkway Tower Detail It's quite a task to achieve some of these shapes, but they did a great job here. Turret Detail Again there are so many ways to build up a turret, but this set has a highly detailed and compact way of doing so. This creates a much better look than using some larger prefab parts. Flying Keys Flying keys utilize some clear-backed stickers (and if we ever see a microscope quidditch field, I could imagine that utilizing a similar technic for the snitch, bludgers, etc.) and also a brown paintbrush to imitate a broomstick. Chess Board We get the large scale chessboard, which of course brings in the white and black nano figures from before. Chamber Of Secrets Message Defense against the Dark Arts Classroom Again I love the ways that they took regular elements and used them in this microscale sort of way, first the broomstick and now these magnifying glasses. Umbridge Office The one room that really jumps out is Umbridge's office. I like the plates on the wall, and do note it's a little tough to get her in her seat, but this area is a little too loud and not quite as polished as some of the other areas. Mirror of Erised A small sticker and a golden plate create this Mirror, and even a red stud is places on the ground to imitate the Sorcerers stone. Common Room Some nice little couch builds are used here, simple but effective Library Potions Classroom Here's another room I don't love so much, I find the sticker to be very jarring when compared to the oversized cauldron and potion bottle behind the figures. Storeroom A note about the details Here's the thing about this set; it has a lot of detail. So much, in fact, that I'm still finding little details as I look at this thing, and I build it! (Case in point, I just realized while writing this review that the red stud was the Sorcerers stone.) And while I could show you every little detail of this set in this review, I consider this like a good movie; build the set yourself, m and you'll find that there are even more little details that I haven't shown off here or talked about. Conclusion How do I even bring to give my thoughts on a $400 set, the second-largest parts count set, at that? It's important that you know what to expect with this set- it's a very, very expensive Architecture set, modeled after Hogwarts, with some extra attention paid to the interior. That's really what it is, It offers that same level of interesting build technique and produces a great looking final model. It's got a ton of nano-figures, some very nice exclusive mini figures, a mind-boggling variety of parts, and offers you a build that's both exhausting but also engaging throughout the whole model. If you want a Hogwarts set, this is it. It will not get better than this, plain as that. I'm sure we will see more Hogwarts sections to be added to the Great Hall in future minifigure-scaled sets, but already that pales in comparison to the accuracy this set has. Do I recommend it? At $400, there are quite a number of choices for you, but as far as large sets go I think this is a great value at only $400 for a 6020 piece set, part of a license, no less. It does what it needs to do, and even if you don't like the rooms on the back, I think the front view of this set really sells itself. It's an experience to build, and there is something to be said about the detail in this. I own the Creator Expert Coaster, and that set came close in price to this monster, but the build experience was absolutely nothing compared to this- for Harry Potter fans, this is a dividing set. You could get all of the mini figure scaled sets in wave 1 with $30 to spare, or get this set. Me? I'd go with this set, easy. And for people who aren't fans of Harry Potter, I think this set offers a fun build, not only due to it's complexity but also thanks to the constant game of guessing "What is this representing in this nano-scaled world?" I know at $400 this set will be out of reach for many, and for many others you've already secured it. But if you have the means, I say go for this one, make this your $400 Lego set purchase, or prioritize this over getting all of Wave 1. But man, I really hope we see some more Microscaled additions in the future...I'd love a micro Hogwarts Express and Quidditch Field.

Pushing forward with our reviews of the Wizarding World wave 1 sets, we have the two sets based on Fantastic Beasts! Check out my reviews of 75952: Newt's Case of Magical Creatures and 75951: Grindelwald's Escape and let us know what your opinions are on these sets!

This review is now live for your viewing, and makes the end of this 7-set review streak for the first wave of Wizarding World sets! This has been a great collection of sets with so many awesome details, and I'm very excited to see what Lego comes out with next.