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Dear Eurobricks, this review is now live for your viewing

Fixed, thanks for the heads-up!

Another day, another round of Harry Potter craze. Check out the Lego Licensed forum for my reviews of 75953: Hogwarts Whomping Willow and 75954: Hogwarts Great Hall, and be sure to leave your thoughts on these sets!

Dear Eurobricks, this review is now live for your viewing

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

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

This is definitely what I was expecting from the set (micro-scale that is, not compatible with the mainline great Hall/Willow sets as I assumed Lego would just release more parts to in future waves of sets.) This looks like it'll make an absolutely awesome display piece (and much more compact than the minifig scale ones), reminds me of what a proper "architecture" version of hogwarts would look like. Plus it just has so many details, I'm very excited to see where Lego could go with microscale if this sells well. (But man those pictures of the nanofigs are almost meme-worthy..some of those faces...)

LEGO was kind enough to provide us with the new wave of Wizarding World sets to review, and I've started to take a look at this fantastic wave of sets! Be sure to check out my reviews of 75955 Hogwarts Express and 75950 Aragog's Lair, and stay tuned for more to come this week!

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

Dear Eurobricks, This review is now live for your viewing, enjoy!

Set information Name: 75956: Quidditch Match Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 500 Price: $39.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello Everyone and welcome to my review of the Quidditch match! Before we begin I want to thank LEGO for providing these sets for our review and to clarify that all opinions in this review are of course my own. Quidditch is a difficult thing to portray in Lego; Minifigs can't exactly fly, and the Quidditch field is a rather large scene to try to fit into a Lego set. How has Lego tackled this in the past? The good news is, I don't think we can go down from that, so let's see how this new set stacks up! The Box Front The front of the box of course shows us our Harry Potter cast of characters as well a the very nice Quidditch scene. Box art has the advantage of showing our players riding broomsticks in the sky, though the final display won't be quite as dynamic. Rear From here we can see the multitude of features to be found in the set, which we will take a closer look at soon. Minifigures Quidditch Players First we have 2 Gryffindor and 2 Slytherin players:Oliver Wood, Harry Potter, Marcus Flint and Lucian Bole. The figures all look nice, though I do wish we had been given some Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff players, though perhaps in a future wave of Collectible minifigs. Draco is not included here, however there is a Quidditch-themed Draco in the Wizarding World collectible minifigures series 1 to be found. Accessories wise, it is worth noting that new Snitch mold. That is certainly better than the chrome gold 1x1 stud we saw in the yellow-figs years! Rear printing As you might expect, even under the capes we have some nice back printing here. Broomstick issue Lucian's broomstick has this little built to allow you to shoot a quaffle with the stud shooter, adding to the "gaming" element of this set. For some reason the brown clip that I had in my set broke the second I put it on, so I had to replace it with something from my own collection for the purposes of this review- so please note that is should be the brown clip, not black. Snape and Hermoine Next we have Snape and Hermoine (alternate faces can be seen elsewhere in this review.) As per usual with these new sets, the prints here look very nice and there is no questions to who these characters are. Back printing Other Accessories We have a trophy, an extra quaffle, and 6 extra 1x1 black studs which are supposed to be the bludgers. Towers Generic Build Here is a vague idea of how each tower is built, though each has slight variations to allow for their various functions; It's mostly just an arrangement of 1x2 bricks and 1x4 plates. Gryffindor Tower Here we have a Gryffindor tower built in red and yellow. The towers definitely are not nearly as tall as they are in the films, but for the sake of price and giving us four instead of only one like previous sets, it's an understandable compromise. Rear Here we can see a rear shot of the tower, something you may have seen now is that there are a variety of bricks with technic pin-holes laid out around the base. We will see how those come into play later. Top of Stand Each stand can hold a figure up here, but otherwise there isn't much seating space. Gimmick Each tower has it's own sort of gimmick, in the Gryffindor tower's case it's this flag that can be pushed outward. Ravenclaw Tower Ravenclaw is the least gimmick-y of the 4 towers, the only thing truly unique about this one is that there is a megaphone mounted at the top. Rear The back does have some storage for whatever you might want to place in the base of the stand. Slytherin Tower From a first glance, the Slytherin tower looks similar to the Ravenclaw tower as they both feature a similar flag build in the front. Back Spinning it around however we see a gear for a small but simply play feature- also note that again there is some space at the bottom. Gimmick Like in the film, Hermoine can cause a distraction by igniting a small flame in front of Severus. Again it's very simply, but a neat unique touch to make the build seem less monotonous. . Hufflepuff Tower The Hufflepuff tower serves as the scoreboard for the two competing teams. The color scheme is also very striking, and in fact this is the only tower that wasn't represented in some way in the previous Quidditch sets. Rear Flipping around to the back, we can see that in the lower section there is storage for the four different team tiles. Scoring Tiles The "points" are 1x1 round tiles with the silver circle printing on them, a very versatile piece. You can store them in the center compartment (you get 7 in total though you of course only need 6.) Tiles Here we see all 4 teams represented Goals The final element of the set is the scoring hoops which are made using an older thin tire element recolored in gold. Features The first function is a small twisting axle that allows you to rotate a keeper to change which of the three rings he is blocking. This feature works pretty well and once again lends itself to the "gaming" element of this set, which I will touch on soon. Bludger Another stud shooter is mounted down here to fire off bludgers. Mounting towers With those Technic connections I noted earlier, you can plug a tower into each side of the goals and secure it with another beam. Connected Here is the official configuration, which uses the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw towers. Overall Now we get tot he rather lengthy part of this review where I talk about my thoughts on this set- it's certainly a mixed bag. First, I think this set is aimed more at being a "gaming set" than a display model, many of the gimmicks here such as shooting a quaffle and blocking the hoops seems like action features that would warrant two people to fully utilize. Additionally, this set of course does not truly take the massive scale of a Quidditch field into account, there should be a second set of goals and ideally many, any more towers. At $40 for 500 pieces even, this is one of the better deals int he harry Potter range when it comes to quantity of parts to price, however as you will find this build can get monotonous due to the repeating designs of the towers, something that the set is not at fault for but rather the design from the Movie. I think Lego did a good job at putting some gimmicks in here to mix up the build, and I especially appreciate how much more effort was put into making this a proper portion of a Quidditch field than the older sets which only focused on one tower and some small little goals. Would I like to see an expansion set with players from the last two teams and more scoring hoops? Certainly. I think you may also need to pick up some clear pieces to make it look like these guys are flying to really make this a dynamic display piece, and I would perhaps like to see a new Rolanda Hooch in a collectible minifigures series at some point. But for the money, if you are a fan of this harry Potter sport then you really can't go wrong with this set, it's much improved over the older sets and you do get a lot for your money here in terms of what has been built overall. But if you have limited money to spend on this line, I think perhaps there are some other sets in this wave that should be your first priority. (On a side note, with the recent reveal of the Micro-Scale Hogwarts, who would like to see a microscale Quidditch Field?)

Set information Name: 75955: Hogwarts Express Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 801 Price: $79.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello Everyone and welcome to my review of the Hogwarts Express! Before we begin I want to give a very special thank you to LEGO for providing these sets for our reviews! This makes Hogwarts Express #5 (or #, if you count that old polybag...) and what a journey it has been. Take a look below at all of the variations of this iconic train that have been released; So how does the new one stack up? Let's find out. The Box Front We of course see the Wizarding World logo and the harry-Potter specific box art. Do take note that this is the European version of the packaging and thus is lacking some information such as parts count. Back The back of the box showcases the set's features. There is one small feature that is not noted here, I will get to that soon. Minifigures First up we have Ron, Harry and Hermoine with short legs. Harry and Ron feature the same torsos as in Aragog's Lair. They each come with a different color of wand, and each wand comes 2-per-color. (Though Lupin uses Ron's second wand.) Alternate Expressions If you are collecting the Wizarding World sets, you'll likely be amassing many of these three. They all have scared alternative expressions. Back Printing Here are their back printings, I removed Hermoine's hair to showcase the full printing. Dementor, Remus Lupin, Trolley Witch Next up we have some of the more unique figures. First is the Dementor figure, which makes good use of the ghostly leg piece. Lupin looks pretty good, certainly being a minifigure we take some liberties in terms of movie-accuracy here, but a good figure nonetheless. Finally we have the trolley witch, definitely the most unique figure to this set. Alternate Expressions Here we have the alternate expressions for Lupin and the Trolley Witch. The Dementor doesn't have an alternate face, however I did remove the hood to better showcase that headprint. Back Printing The backprinting for Lupin and the Trolley Witch- the Dementor does not have any. Carts Here we have two little builds, a luggage cart for Ron with the Scabbers mold, as well as the trolley for the Trolley Witch, complete with chocolate frog! Station Next we have this little station build which begins with the 9 3/4 platform. The build is pretty straightforward save for one action feature, which we will get to. One complain I have here is the signs for "9" and "10" - they just don't look very accurate to me in their current position. Kings Cross I should mention that other than the newspaper stand, all of the designs on this part of the set are stickers. Gimmick The station does have one gimmick; you can get to platform 9 3/4 by a simple swinging wall. The function is simple enough and doesn't retract from the set, though I do wish there was a bit more room between the stairs and the wall. Platform 9 3/4 Here we have the other side of that wall; again the only non-sticker element here is the Daily Prophet pieces. Other side Here we have the other side of the platform, nothing too exciting here. Crossover This section allows people to walk over where the train would be. A simple build again, though I do like the custom clock ( element.) Combining the modules: We can then combine these together to complete the station. Engine Now we move on to the Engine. I have to say this is the best looking engine of any of the previous iterations of this train that LEGO has created. The shaping is great, the colors are much more accurate and of course, the wheels are finally correct. Worth mentioning is that the center dish and the curved tiles along the sides that read "Hogwarts Express" are printed. Rear As you can see, this one has a boiler room, but unfortunately, no conductor/engineer is included in this set. Why? We have gotten so many iterations of this set, and yet I do not believe any of them have included such a figure. Wheel lock Previously I mentioned that there was a feature that had been glossed over; the front of the engine has a locking mechanism for the "truck." This is great, it allows you to be able to transition this between track play and rolling this thing around on a carpet, which is ideal for kids. Tender Next we have the Tender. it's a simple build and looks pretty good. The main inaccuracy here is that it only has two wheels whereas the real deal has three. Ordinarily this wouldn't be that big of an issue, but as you'll see below, a bit more size wold have done this some good. I do slightly prefer the tender from 10132, however. Opening hatch The top hatch can open. No coal or anything to be seen here, and honestly this thing is basically a storage case. So what's the issue? Well, nothing about this train is set up to allow for a power functions conversion. I don't have a track setup or anything, so for me this isn't a deal-breaker, but for many I can see this as being a major downside. in order to set this train up with power functions, you are definitely going to have to do some extensive modifications to do so. Passenger Car Like all of the previous Hogwarts Expresses, you only get one passenger car. I really wish we had gotten a second for a bump in price; otherwise it'll be costly to get a second set or to try to bricklink one of these. The passenger car does have opening windows which is neat. Something I'm not a fan of is how the back of the car is completely open, since the build is symmetrical. Interior Lego managed to find a great way to allow for easy access inside of the passenger car- a removable roof and a removable wall. This allows plenty of room to stage your figures.. Trolley Though do keep in mind that when you go to put the train wall back on, your scene might not work out, like this scene here. Interior Speaking of the interior, it's not bad- the sand blue is a nice color, and the builds of the seats are good enough, though this of course doesn't have the "cabin style" seats that the real deal had. Oh the limitations of this scale... but hey the Trolley has a nice snug spot to sit! Overall train The overall train is without a doubt the best looking of the 5 different variations so far. I still wish it had some extra length/cars to it to truly blow away the past ones, though. I just realized the tender is backwards, though it's mostly symmetrical which can be easy to miss. Complete set At $80 and 801 pieces, this is yet another set that sits right on the standard PPR ratio. For $80 though, you do get a lot of content- a fairly large train and a station that is far more than just a side build. This is the best looking Hogwarts Express thus far overall, though I do wish even more cars had been added to this to really spice it up. I do wish the set had at least one more figure (engineer), and for many the lack of power function compatibility could be a major deal-breaker. Recommended to Harry Potter fans, less so to hardcore train enthusiasts. (Unless you just really like this train's design or have been itching for more new sets.) What do you think? How does this set stack up to your expectations based on the previous HE sets we have received?

Set information Name: 75954: Hogwarts Great Hall Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 878 Price: $99.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Great Hall! Before we begin I want to thank LEGO for providing these sets for our reviews, and please note that the opinions in this review are of course my own. Now then the Great Hall, a set that was revealed many months ago and has been eagerly awaited. How does this set stack up tot he hype? Let's find out. First, I tried looking up some older harry Potter sets and the one instance of a Great Hall I found was the one in this Hogwarts set below, so take a look at where we are coming from, and see what an improvement this set brings us. The Box Front The box, as you would expect from the most expensive set in this wave, is also the largest. I really love the art here, you can see the great hall with the remainder of Hogwarts looming in the background, all set against a very attractive selection of blue. Rear From here we can see that this set holds many details and treasures to be seen. Minifigures Our first selection of Minifigures is Draco Malfoy, Susan Bones, Ron, Harry, and Hermoine (Who my computer keeps trying to auto-correct to "heroin..."). All of these figures look great and are using short legs and each have the new wand mold. We get the "greay sweater" outfit for three of the houses here, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Griffyndor. What I really like about these torsos is that while you would of course expect the ties underneath to change colors, they even printed different folds in the clothing on them. Alternate Faces Back printing From the back we can again see some color differences between the different houses, and again different folds in the clothing. Second set of figures Next we move on to Hagrid, Professor Quirrell, Dumbledor, Professor McGonagall, and Nearly Headless Nick. As expected with this series, all of these figures look great. Great printing, gear, and a good grouping of characters to be included in this set. A few accessories worth noting, Hagrid has a nice pink umbrella mold, and Dumbledore has a new hairpiece (though not the unique beard that is seen in the collectible minifigures series.) Alternate Faces Technically, Quirrell's is not an "alternate face" but rather Voldemorts face which really should stay on the back of his head, but for sake of showcasing the figure I've turned it around here. Dumbledore simply loses his glasses, but I appreciate the effort they put in for this little difference. Read Printing Here we can see the back printing on these characters; I removed Dumbledore's hair so you can see his back, but also so you have an idea of what his full face print looks like. Yeah it's a little on the odd side.. Hagrid has been left out of these as he does not have back printing nor an alternative face. Smaller Builds We start this set off with some smaller builds including a little boat as well as the Basilisk. This is definitely one of the weaker builds of the set, in comparison to the builds in Newt's case he just feels really incomplete and like Lego built this with limited parts- I do hope to see a better one of these later on in a Tom Riddle specific set. The Great Hall Build Shot Here's a quick shot from the build of the Great Hall. With this round of reviews you may have noticed I'm focusing a bit less on the builds here as while they are of course interesting, part of the fun is not knowing how it's build until you have it in hand, and my focus on the review is how fun the set is when it's said and done. With that said, this set is primarily this one single structure, so how is the build? It's certainly not a Creator Expert modular; the building techniques here are mostly just stacking bricks on top of eachother, the real charm of the build is in the little details that they managed to fit in, such as the small minifigure statues near the front doors. Front The first impression I had of this build is that it really improves upon it's predecessor we mentioned at the start of this review; the Great Hall is much more detailed, and this time around actually includes the gray roof (the green roof of the older HP sets was due to the lighting in concept art making the roof look green, and as a result Lego designed the sets with green and stuck to it..) We see a bit of this green in the skipoles at the peaks of the towers here. Closed side Speaking of the towers, this set has one of the larger towers to it's right, however this tower does not have the three smaller towers coming out of it's left side. It's a small detail, but one that I think is a signature part of Hogwart's silhouette. the previous Hogwarts set had this detail, and the upcoming microscale Hogwarts includes this detail as well. Profile Shot 1 From this shot here we start to see where this set divides people; it's an open-backed building, much like a majority of Lego sets. While I think this set has more depth than most sets and more room than the old Hogwarts set, it definitely makes the tower look a bit awkward. Rear From here we can see that many treasures lie within, which we will take a look at shortly. Profile Shot 2 From this side, we can see the front doors and docking area. While not completely accurate, this again is a marked improvement from the original Great Hall. Docking: We have a small platform to bring this boat up to. The microscale model pulls this off better as there really should be much more vertical terrain beneath the Hall, but I think this is a reasonable compromise and provides a dynamic the original set did not have,. One complaint I have here is that the doc itself as well as the railings aren't built very strongly, and do have a tendency to fall apart a little too easily for my taste when moving the set around. Hall interior The interior of the hall is actually quite impressive; we get 4 tables as well as the head table, two broomsticks on the wall to the left, a fireplace, as well as the "floating" candles and two flags which have the remaining two teams on their flipsides. Moving Stairs I haven;t watched the Harry Potter films in quite some time so I'm not sure what exactly this represents, is this one of the rotating staircases? That's a rather odd way to portray that if that's the case, but an interesting one nonetheless. With the stairs open we can see a pedestal with a yellow frog (again this doesn't jump out at me as anything memorable, anyone able to advise on what this is?), and when we close them there is a broomstick against the wall. Potion Room Following the stairs up we find a room with a variety of potions, cauldrons etc. Sorting Hat Room The next level reveals... the Sorting Hat! (technically you can also use this pedestal for Hedwig or the Phoenix.) This time around the Sorting hat gets his own mold which can indeed fit on a minifigure as with any Lego headgear, and it looks fantastic. Mirror of Erised Next up we have the Mirror of Erised. This mirror can be slotted behind the top turret as you saw previously, which is an odd place for it, but it doesn't really fit anywhere else. The mirror is simple enough, using a variety of stickers to add it's decorations around the farme, and includes 4 different stickers (two black panes of glass are used, with one sticker on each side.) I ave the mirror angled in such a way that you do not see any reflections, but do note that these are chrome stickers. The included reflections are Harry and his Parents, Dumbledore, Professor Quirrell, and Ron as a Quidditch Captain. Fawkes Hidden behind the Mirror is another pedestal, again you can choose what you put up here but the configuration in the instructions is to place Fawkes the Phoenix up here. Fawkes is a simple brick build and looks okay; It's understandable that we did not get a new mold for him, though with the inclusion of the Sorting Hat I wish we had. Overall The Great Hall is the largest set in this first Wizarding World series, and you get a good selection of minifigures, many of which are unique to this set. The build, while enjoyable, doesn't really offer anything that interesting. Additionally, the focus of this set is on creating a nice looking Great Hall; there isn't much in the way of gimmicks here, which I am okay with, but I wish some extra effort had been put in to covering the back like the Ghostbuster HQ set for a slight bump in price or at least completing the large tower. And with that said,t he accuracy of this set isn't really that great either; The Hall it self looks okay for the most part, but the tower looks off to me, as does the little dock they attached. There's also a few sections of the set, such as the dock area, which isn't well constructed and can fall apart very easily. With that said, this set is still a marked improvement over the original Hogwarts components in terms of building techniques and details, and I really hope that LEGO continues to provide more sections of Hogwarts to combine with this and the Whomping Willow to further add some value to this purchase. I think this set is a worthy pickup not only to Harry Potter fans, but has the potential to be a really cool building for those more casual fans with some modifications. It's not perfect, and certainly the microscale one looks closer to what this one should, but it's a marked improvement over the original, and at $100 for the largest set it's definitely not that bad of a deal when compared to some other licensed themes. What are your opinions on this set? Do you plan to pick this up, or are you more excited for the microscale Hogwarts?

Set information Name: 75953: Hogwarts Whomping Willow Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 753 Price: $69.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the Whomping Willow! Before we begin I want to give a huge thank you to LEGO for providing these sets for our reviews, and all of the comments expressed in this review are my own. Most fans of Harry Potter will remember the scene of Harry and Ron crashing the flying Ford Anglia into the Whomping Willow, and it appears this is the first time that this scene was recreated in Lego. Taking a look at the previous two Harry Potter series, I can only find sets with the Ford Anglia, but not the Willow. Let's take a look at those previous versions below; You can definitely tell the time periods that both of those cars were released based on the parts and techniques used at the times; does this set bring this scene to life with a fresh take? Read on to find out The Box Front All of the Wizarding World sets are sure to stand our on store shelves, and this one is no exception with the tan castle section contrasting with the striking blue background. We can see the Whomping Willow itself knocking suitcases and leaves around while Filch and Snape come out to investigate. Back From here we can see the many set features and details, all of which we will get to. Also take not that the castle segment included in this set can be combined with the Great Hall. Minifigures First up we have our students, which includes Harry and Ron in casual clothes, as well as Hermoine and Seamus Finnigan in Gryffindor attire. All figures of course have the shorter legs and include that lovely new wand piece. Reverse Faces Our dynamic trio have terrified expressions, while Seamus simply frowns. I do wish we had gotten a bit more variety to the faces of our trio, as you are going to have a lot of these heads if you are collecting this line. Back Printing Filch and Snape Snape is the same figure that you can find in the Quidditch match set, however Filch is a bit more unique to this set. I love the printing and once again really love that new lantern mold. Reverse Faces While Snape opts for the angry face, FIlch has that creepy smile of "just found a kid that was up to no good." Back Printing Ford Anglia Front This car has come a long way since it's original versions we looked at previously; the shaping here is pretty nice and I do think this is the best version of the car we have seen. Note that the doors have a white stripe printed on them, though it's a very noticeable difference in white. Back It should also be mentioned that the plates are stickers as well. The roof and back window can be removed to offer some room inside. Features First feature is that you can open the trunk and fit two suitcases in there, which is a nice little addition and certainly pulled off well. As I mentioned above, you can remove the roof to get access to...well, a fairly small interior with only a steering wheel, Ron and harry can only really stand behind one another comfortable. if you stagger them so that they look to be side-by-side, they will fall once the roof is placed on as it collides with their heads. From what I remember the original Anglia set allowed them to be seated next to eachother, so this is one area of downgrade. Whomping Willow Next up is the namesake of the set, the Whomping Willow. While I could imagine a $70 solely dedicated to building this unique tree, Lego chose to only use about a third of the budget on it here, and managed to pull off a decent looking end result. A few notable things here are stickers on the trunk of the tree as well as a little hatch at the bottom to go to the shrieking shack. (There is a hole in the base of the tree so you could feasibly build onwards from this, unless Lego has some future plans in motion? Features The Whomping willow is not without it's share of gimmicks. To begin, all four of the upper branches are mounted on balljoints, allowing you to articulate these how you may please. Additionally, the entire top of the tree can be spun around thanks to the small knob you may have seen at the base of the tree. Falling Leaves Once you grab the car with the branches and start spinning it around, you might notice that, just like int he film, leaves fall off like crazy- there are four of those newer stem pieces simply plugged into Technic holes which really doesn't secure them at all, so expect them to go falling out when you so much as look at this thing. (To validate my point, I didn't actually mean for those to be on the ground in this shot, they just fell out for the fourth time and I figured it was best just to let it happen.) Structure Potions Classroom Next we begin the Hogwarts castle section which is built in a variety of modules. First is the Potions classroom- from the front we can see a combination of brick textures as well as stickers are used. Rear The potions classroom is full of small trans bricks and bottles, we also see some ice cauldrons and that new candlestick element. It's a pretty small footprint for the classroom, but you can manage to get 2-4 students around the table. Module 2 The next module is this entrance which has some tracks for a vehicle to ride up on. This is definitely the least interesting of the modules, let's move on. Rear The rear isn't much different, but i will say I do appreciate that the walkway is three studs wide which at least allows you to pose some minifigures up there. Snapes Office Exterior wise, this is basically identical to the classroom. Snapes Office The builds along the back of the wall are pretty similar to the classroom,but here we have a nice table with some printed tiles as well as a fantastic little lamp build. Module 4 The final section takes things vertical Exterior wise there isn;t anything too noteworthy here. Rear We can see the tower has three levels; A potion area, a Gryffindor bedroom, as well as a spot behind the turret for Hedwig and an inkwell. Chem Room I'm not too familiar with that this room should represent, perhaps it is just an expansion to the potions classroom? Gryffindor Bedroom The bedroom is pretty small, though I must say I really like the bed design which works well at holding a small-legged figure in place. Modules combined As you might expect from a series of modules, they can be combined together to form a section of the Hogwarts Castle. This section can then be combined with the Great Hall, a neat feature and one that I hop Lego expands upon by bringing us even more sections of Hogwarts. While the newly revealed microscale castle is a fantastic looking set, I'd certainly love to see a minifig-scaled one developed over many waves of this theme. Rear You can of course mix these up in whichever arrangement you may wish. Completed set $70 gets you a lot in this set; 753 pieces that turn into a variety of different builds and 6 minifigures. It's a set that keeps changing as you build, with a variety of different techniques used and an overall decent set when it's all said and done. I feel like the castle section makes more sense if you have the Great Hall, but is a fun little stage on it's own. It's just a place to display your figures, there isn't much play value to the structure if that is something you care about, though at the same time it's not a super-accurate depiction of Hogwarts and so display wise it loses a few points too. it certainly makes for an impressively sized display, however, and in my opinion looks better than what we've gotten in the past. If anything, I really wish that these sets followed in the Ghostbuster HQ's footsteps and utilized "opening walls" so that we could have complete towers instead of open-backed ones. The willow, while not perfect, makes good use of it's budget and is certainly a well-done first attempt. Of course I'd like to see Ron's house later down the line, but getting the Anglia is a nice addition and provides yest another interesting element to this set. Personally I feel like the true value of this set is only achieved if you have the Great Hall, and really both of these sets compliment eachother. At $70, I think it's a decent value and it doesn't really suffer from the insane licensing costs that we see in some other themes such as Star Wars. Ultimately I look at this set and the Great Hall sets as one and think "Is that a good value for $170?" and tend to say yes. I do feel that this should primarily be purchased if you are a fan of harry Potter; those who are just fans of Lego in general and not necessarily the movies may be disappointed in this set as it doesn't have too much in the way of interesting builds or gimmicks.

Set information Name: 75952: Newt's Case of Magical Creatures Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 694 Price: $49.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello Everyone and welcome to my review of Newt's Case of Magical Creatures! Before we begin i want to once again thank LEGO for providing these sets to us for our reviews, and the opinions expressed in this review are of course my own, whether good or bad. Now then, this lineup of sets isn't called "Wizarding World" for nothing- in addition to Harry Potter, we also get Fantastic Beast's sets! This one in particular focuses on Newt's case that contains a magical world full of creatures, and is one of the more creative sets in this series. So how does this set stack up? Read on to find out. The Box Front The first difference we can see here is that the top lists 'Fantastic Beasts," and of course now has some characters from the film in the upper right corner. Back From here we can see some of the details and gimmicks of the set, there is quite a lot to look at! Minifigures Front The figures included in this set are Queenie and Tina Goldstein, Newt Scamander, and Jacob Kowalski. Considering these figures are currently unique to this set, this is definitely a nice selection and gives you a good start on your collection of Fantastic Beasts characters. It is worth noting that the carrot leaf piece that newt is holding is supposed to be the Bowtruckle. Alternate Faces One thing worth noting is that Jacob's alternate face is meant to be paired with a helmet that is also included in this set. Rear All of these figures have backprinting, as you might expect. Niffler Additionally in this set we get the absolutely adorable little Niffler. Occamy The first magical creature we construct is the Occamy. He uses a primarily Mixel-jointed body and has a very striking colorscheme. While not the most unique of builds, that colorscheme is to die for. His mouth can also open and close. Occamy As you might expect from a snake-like creature, he's a little difficult to stand on his own without a balancing act. Thunderbird The Thunderbird shares th same head piece as the occamy, with a different print. Once again he has some really nice wing pieces with gold painted on, and is overall a pretty nice build. He has lots of articulation in his legs and head and additionally one point in the tail. Here's a look at his back, darkness was kept lower for the sake of being able to see that white. Erumpent The Erumpent is probably my favorite build from this set. He's a very solid build, and while not perfect, is a pretty good representation of the magical Rhino-like creature. Articulation wise, he has rotation at both sets of "shoulders" as well as bending knees, and a balljointed head. Erumpent Rear Case Closed Next we move on to the case itself. This looks pretty good, it has plenty of exterior detailing including some nice golden latches as well as stickers for the "Muggle Worthy" lock and Newt's initials. Case Rear The back is a little messier as we start to see the mechanisms to open this up. Opening the Case Opening the case is a multi-step process. First the lid is opened, and honestly if you wanted you could do this without opening the sides and still have easy access to the inside. Next we fold out the sides, open the roof of the hut, swing out the ladder, and bring the roof pieces down to an angle. Left Side Here we can see a selection of toos, turkey leg, and wash basin Center Inside you'll find some potions, gold, and some nice structural details. Headroom The center hut is pretty small, but it is nice to see that even with the roof in place a figure can stand in here. Right Side Once more we see a variety of items such as gold, a bucket, a little tree formation (the box shows the Bowtruckle fitting on one of those branches) and an egg. Overall Lego chose to make one Fantastic Beast set for each of the two films so far, and for the first film they chose this, Newt's Case; and I think this was the best possible idea they could have had. You not only get a good core selection of figures, but also a fun variety of creatures, accessories, and a clever way of having Newt's Case open up to reveal the world hidden inside it. At 694 pieces and $50, this set is also a good value for your money, and has it's share of fun building techniques to achieve the final designs. Personally, of the first wave of Wizarding World sets this is my favorite, and is highly recommended for anyone that is a fan of Fantastic Beasts.

Set information Name: 75951: Grindelwald's Escape Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 132 Price: $19.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello everyone and welcome to my review of Grindelwald's Escape! Before I begin I want to thank LEGO for providing these sets for our reviews, and the opinions in this review are of course my own. Now then, as per the "Wizarding World" branding on the boxes, the first series of sets includes some from Fantastic Beasts in addition to the larger number of Harry Potter sets. While Newt's case was a set based on the first film, now we see Grendelwald's Escape, a set based on the upcoming Fantastic Beasts sequel. The Box Front We of course see the Fantastic Beasts logo as well as some characters from the film in the upper right, and get to see the set in action. Rear From here we see the set's gimmicks and features Minifigures This set includes two minifigures, Gellert Grindelwald and Seraphina Picquery. Both figures have nice printing and decent likeness to the film, though from the trailers so far it seems like perhaps Grindelwald's hair should have been a bit longer? I'm not really too sure on who Seraphina is, but she does come with a unique purple wand. Rear From the rear we can see that both have back printing, and Gellert has an alternate face. Seraphina also uses the newer "dress" leg piece. Thestral The Thestral is one of the more unique elements to this set and is likely a piece many will want multiples of. The mold looks really nice (and much better than the old Thestrals which would just be the old skeleton horse piece with wings.) One complaint I do have here is that I wish this had some kind of articulation, unfortunately like those old skeleton horses there is none to be seen here. Rear Something to note is that unlike most LEGO Horses, this one has 4 studs on his back instead of the usual 2. Building the Carriage The Carriage is a pretty sturdy build, here we can see the interior being built up. We continue onwards with some doors (oriented in suicide-door style) Completed Rear Half The carriage is built in two parts to allow for the final model to have a point of articulation. The final shaping of this half is really nice, I especially like the ornate details near the seat and rear of the vehicle. Front Half On the front half, we add on the Thestral's wings and create a small mount that connects to the front wheels. Completed Carriage While we don't have too much in the way of source material just yet to compare this model to, I think the overall result looks great and is a surprisingly large build. As mentioned before, thanks to the 2-part build, the front axle can be turned independently from the rest of the carriage. Rear Interior The interior has room for Gindelwald to sit, and can be opened up using the doors and with an easily removable roof. Overall At $20, this set is $5 more expensive than Aragog's Lair but has ~20 less pieces, and that's more than likely due to the Thestral causing a premium on this set. This set looks good and I feel does what it needs to do, of course without knowing too much about this until the film comes out I can only assume. The Thestral looks great and for many will be the primary reason to get this set, but I think the carriage itself is a nice design and could be transitioned well into a non-Wizarding World fan's city. When compared to Aragog's lair (again just because it's the closest in pricepoint,) the set feels more substantial because it does create a fairly large model. Again without seeing the film I am not sure if there is a reason for this, but I really would have liked to have seen a "driver" for this vehicle, someone to sit in that brown seat. (I had a similar complaint about the lack of a conductor/engineer in the Hogwarts Express) but again perhaps there is reason for this. However with that out of the way, this in my opinion is another good addition in the Wizarding World lineup. What are your thoughts on this set?

Set information Name: 75950: Aragog's Lair Theme: Wizarding World Year: 2018 Pieces: 157 Price: $14.99, GBP xx.xx, xx.xx€ Resources: Brickset, BrickLink Hello everyone and welcome to my review of the smallest mainline Harry Potter set in the Wizarding World Wave 1, Aragog's Lair! Before we begin I want to give a very special thank you to LEGO for providing these sets for our reviews. In the old harry Potter lineups, we saw two different variations of Ron's not-favorite giant spider. Let's take a look at those old sets; Oh dear- large Spiders really didn't turn out so well with the Lego techniques back in the day. Has Lego improved since these previous iterations? Let's find out. Box Front The front of the box showcases the Harry Potter as well as the Wizarding World logos. Ron and harry look none too happy to be stuck in a forest full of Spiders Back On the back we see the few functions / play features of the set outlined. Minifigures Ron & Harry Our minifigures in this set are Ron and Harry, two characters you are going to get a lot of variations of if you collect this line. Both are captured with their short legs as well as pull-over outfits. I believe these are some of the best face prints we've gotten for these characters, certainly looking back at the original yellow-toned minifigs in the original HP lineup we have come along way. Alternate Expressions Both have frightened alternate expressions. Rear Both also have back printing, which is to be expected for most minifigures these days. Accessories Accessories wise, there's quite a bit to see here. First there is a very nice little lantern piece which i believe is new- we also have a two-piece candle, featuring a very versatile white candle and the orange flame. Of course it wouldn't be the Wizarding World without wands, and once again if you are collecting these sets (and the collectible minifigure series) you will have tons of spares to update your older HP figures. Each wand comes in a set of two, and we have two different colors here. Something I found neat is how the base of the handle is a small ball joint, which can allow you to point the wands forward. Tree Building Next we begin to build the tree, which starts off in an interesting way to make way for a flick-fire feature. Adding webs We add in some plant life, and of course some webs for the smaller spiders to hang around on. Tree Front From here we can look at the new spider mold, which actually looks very realistic and quite terrifying. We get them in two colors, and in total we are treated to five of them in this set. Now onto the tree, it's a small build but serves it's purpose as a place to arrange these spiders. It features a small flick-fire web (printed piece). Overall I feel that this is an acceptable side-build, it's certainly more fitting than the strange web contraption that the original Aragog set had. Rear Here we can see the back of the flick-fire function. Lego is really putting those new leaves to work here. Flick-fire feature Aragog Build Something that I really appreciate is how much Lego focuses on stability in sets now. Sure you will still have pieces that can easily be knocked off, however animal builds have improved greatly. Aragog is no exception. Front Aragog looks fantastic; the shaping here is great, it perfectly evokes the look of a spider, and absolutely blows the old Aragogs out of the water. as mentioned previously, the stability is also good- nothing is really prone to falling off. Rear Articulation Aragog does feature some articulation; Moving mandibles, his thorax can swing upward, legs can go up and down, and some of his legs are able to rotated forward or back. Like most spider-type creatures, you aren't going to get anything crazy poseability wise, but he looks much more natural and organic than his older precursors. With Smaller Spiders Here's another look at those smaller spiders, which also gives you an idea of his size. Completed Set Now that we see everything in this set, its time to ask, is this set worth $15? At 157 pieces and 14.99, the set is right at the standard PPR ratio. We do get a fair amount of new parts, such as the spiders and minifigure accessories, and with the tree build, the set feels like a good value at this price point, and so I believe it was priced fairly- Should you get it? I guess that depends on how much you like Giant spiders; If you are just a casual Lego fan, the main draw here would be a really nice spider build, especially if you missed out on the LotR Shelob set. As a Harry Potter set, this is great for those of you wanting to increase your list of magically monstrous creatures, and is most certainly worth getting regardless of if you have any previous versions of this 8-legged fellow; I doubt we will see any better versions of this scene, and I feel that my opinions on most of this wave will be "if you are a fan of the series, get it." What are your thoughts on this set?

I have never been so excited for an Ideas set, this looks fantastic. Hefty price tag, but not a surprising one. Absolutely getting this without second thought.

From my experience in owning this set two issues I ran into were; 1) Make sure every axles is free to spin as easily as possible. If you push pieces too tightly together when assembling these technic constructs, resulting in axles have a bit of friction when they try to rotate, it's going to cause major issues in the final mechanism. 2) Does changing the amount of links make any difference? Lego purposely gave an extra amount of links with this set as everyone's set will function differently, some people may need 200 links while others may need 205. I had some issues with both of these and at first it completely messed up the function of the coaster.

I see two possibilities, 1) Some kind of convertible, likely more vintage in age. We haven't had any convertible based off of a real branded car in this lineup yet as far as I know, and it would certainly be a change from the London Bus of last year. 2) The beetle had a beach theme and the Mini had a picnic theme, I'd really love to see a car or perhaps SUV return with the outdoorsy theme, such as with bikes, camping (would have worked well for the VW Bus), kayaks etc.

My fiancee got me into RuPaul's Drag Race somehow, so I was secretly rooting for that one. But absolutely no surprise that the pop-up book won, I'm excited to see what they do with that design!

I haven't been into City in quite some time but I'm really liking the looks of some of these sets. The Hospital breaks free from Lego's latest trend of making "buildings" more of facades with 3 stud deep interiors and has some great details packed in, and I absolutely love the variety to the Capital City, plus that Hotel looks great. (Now I'd really like to see it upscaled to Modular size...perhaps a project for later)