What is your favorite LEGO Harry Potter year?

[Matn]

I thought this was a nice topic after I saw the first (and closed) one. Now with Poll and pictures, like they asked in the first topic (that is closed...). Whoops, I can't see a button to post a poll, guess we'll have to just say it. All those links in this post, my fingers hurt from typing, but it is handy, isn't it?

So, my question to you, Harry Potter or LEGO fan, what is (in your eyes) the best LEGO Harry Potter year? In which year LEGO brought us the nicest looking HP LEGO? Post which set and why.

I like all the years, but I will post and describe why when there are reactions.

2001: Harry Potter and the Philosepher's Stone

4701 - Sorting Hat

4702 - The Final Challenge

4704 - The Room of the Winged Keys

4705 - Snape's Class

4706 - Forbidden Corridor

4707 - Hagrid's Hut

4708 - Hogwarts Express

4709 - Hogwarts Castle

2002: Harry Potter and the Philosepher's Stone

4711 - Flying Lesson

4712 - Troll on the Loose

4714 - Gringott's bank

2002: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

4726 - Quidditch Practice

4727 - Aragog in the Dark Forest

4728 - Escape from Privet Drive

4729 - Dumbledore's Office

4730 - The Chamber of Secrets

4731 - Dobby's Release

4733 - The Dueling Club

4735 - Slytherin

2003: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

4719 - Quality Quidditch Supplies

4720 - Knockturn Alley

2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

4695 - Mini Harry Potter Knight Bus

4750 - Draco's Encounter with Buckbeak

4751 - Harry and the Marauder's Map

4752 - Professor Lupin's Classroom

4753 - Sirius Black's Escape

4754 - Hagrid's Hut

4755 - Knight Bus

4756 - Shrieking Shack

4757 - Hogwart's Castle

4758 - Hogwart's Express

10132 - Motorized Hogwarts Express

2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

4762 - Rescue from the Merpeople

4766 - Graveyard Duel

4767 - Harry and the Hungarian Horntail

4768 - The Durmstrang Ship

2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

5378 - Hogwarts Castle

Edit: I have made a fault in the title, a mod, please delete the 'y' after favorit.

Edited February 24, 2008 by Matn

[The Penguin]

It's definitely 2002: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for me. ) The sets were really wonderful with loads of useful details and exellent minifigures like McGonagall *wub* or Prof. Hooch.... )

[Captain Ka-Boom]

2007 there was only one set! X-D

[Lord Of Pies]

Yes, unfortunately the films have turned to dark and depressing for a child's (mainly :-P ) toy, hence their will be no more HP sets.

[Professor Flitwick]

I'm torn between 2001 philosipher stone and 2002 chamber of secrets for second place.

2004 prisinor of Azakban is probably be first, but those darn EVIL fleshie lower the the great sets.

BTW It's madam Hooch, not professor Hooch, Penguin.

EDIT: 'hence their will be no more HP sets.' what, when was this revealed. Those poor unrealsed figures. :'-( *n* :-X . No Lastrange, No Kreacher, No Molly, No Auther...I could go on with this list all night.

Edited February 24, 2008 by professor flitwick

[Pate-keetongu]

2004, I love shrieking shack and both knight busses. motorizen hogwart's express was clever idea. but I haven't got any of them.

Edited February 25, 2008 by pig

[Dadster]

Chamber of Secrets was prob my fav overall, but if I could only choose 1, it'd be the first original castle set.

[???theriddler???]

2nd

[Matn]

@professor flitwick: yes, it's a shame that there are so much minifigs we didn't saw. I hope there will be more sets in the future. Hope. Batman is darker then Harry Potter (and there are guns in Batman and guns in the new Agents line). Harry Potter is all about magic and cool sets. And they are going to cut the serie off. :-X

My top 7 from the serie:

As first I like to say that I like all the years. Every set is a nice addition to your Harry Potter world, if you have them al and you buy a lot of bulk bricks you could make a nice replica of the world. (What I'm doing now, of the Hogwarts, but I don't have al the sets). Harry Potter was, erhm, is one of the greatest sets in LEGO-history, and I'm pointing at the HP-haters, look what it brought to us! A bunch of new pieces and figs, buildings and castle-items and ( 8-

[Athos]

I liked year one or two, before they went all crappy with the flesh-tones.

Steve

[blueandwhite]

I liked year one or two, before they went all crappy with the flesh-tones.

Steve

And bley.

For me, year's one and two were the best simply for the large quantities of useful castle-related elements. Ihave a ton of the smaller sets (8+ Troll on the Loose) purchased simply for parts. The Prisoner of Azkaban sets are nice but Bley and reddish-brown soured the deal for me.

[Dadster]

I liked year one or two, before they went all crappy with the flesh-tones.

Steve

Yeah - it's just horrible that my yellow Prof Lockehart is standing next to my fleshy Prof Trelawney. I keep thinking about finding new faces for one or the other, but it just gets me down when I try it...

[Ronan Nissen]

2001 brings back so much memories!! :-)

[Dadster]

2001 brings back so much memories!! :-)

Both Good and Bad...

[sovietapc7]

I liked year one or two, before they went all crappy with the flesh-tones.

Steve

You are stupid. The flesh tones are excellent.

[Svelte]

2004 was the best year for me by far. A great huge Hogwarts castle with the motorised clock. A revised and much better Hagrid's Hut with the reintroduction of the angled castle walls and great pieces. A Shreiking Shack with a really nicely designed ghost house and sweet shop. Dementors! Buckbeak! Lots of great stuff. Sure, it's the first year in bley and new flesh tones, but the fresh colours did make the older sets look a little dull.

Unfortunately it seems to be the year that killed the licence, as so much stuff was in clearance for so long that the line was severely truncated and downsized by the next year. I regret not buying more, but I was only a year or two out of my Dark Ages.

2005 has the best set of the line though, with the fantastic Graveyard Duel, which is up there as one of the best sets ever. Fantastic parts selection, rare pieces, nice figs and some clever designs which had more in common with the smaller classic sets of yesteryear than the oversized sets we'd seen in Knights Kingdom or even town (eg the little crypt and the wonderfully designed funeral carriage.)

I think 2007 is probably the worst year. Apart from the fabulous greenhouse and a few great figs and pieces, the one big set released does not have much to reccomend it at all. A definite throwback to a badly designed and not at all detailed Hogwarts.

[SuvieD]

You are stupid. The flesh tones are excellent.

Calling someone names for expressing their opinion is, I promise you, a stupid thing to do. Especially someone who has invested so much time and effort into making this a nice site. I would think you may want to apologize for being rude.

I also agree that the color change ruined the 2004 sets no more obviously than with the horrid racial "flesh" colors. Even on clearance I could not bring myself to buy more than a few HP sets from that year. In fact I have not purchased many sets from any theme with the blatantly stereotypical race colors used to represent actual people. I still think that the greatest mistake LEGO ever made was to change the system minigfigure scale licensed sets to "flesh-toned" colors. LEGO will never get the thousands of dollars I would have spent on HP, Starwars, Batman, and now Indy sets I would have gotten.

The best year for HP for me was 2002. Largest range of sets, prices, figures, and all sorts of brand new for that time pieces that are great. Year one was nice but year two simply had the better sets. Though I would agrue that the best set of the entire line was in year three with the quiditch supply store. What a perfect little set that was.

[Dovchenko]

Goblet of Fire. I only got the Graveyard Duel however I saw the Merpeople set up close as well. Wish I had boughten them, especially with that awesome dragon.

And buddy... if anyone's a little less intelligent than others...

[Tom_castlefan]

I liked the troll and hippogryph pieces, so it's a tie between the related years.

Tom

[Sandy]

I also agree that the color change ruined the 2004 sets no more obviously than with the horrid racial "flesh" colors. Even on clearance I could not bring myself to buy more than a few HP sets from that year. In fact I have not purchased many sets from any theme with the blatantly stereotypical race colors used to represent actual people.

I don't understand how you can consider using people's real skin tone in figurines that represent them "stereotypical" or even racist? That's what those actors look like. I can clearly see how LEGO tried to a sense of realism to the otherwise quite unrealistic minifigs.

Don't get me wrong, the yellow heads is what I grew up to love, but claiming it's the only color they can ever be is somewhat narrow-minded, in my opinion. I got my first flesh-toned minifigheads only this year, and I've already mixed them up with my yellow ones. If not used like normal heads, they can be used to represent a pale, sickly minifig, for example.

As for the topic at hand, I would've loved to have ANY of the HP-sets, but unfortunately I was too narrow-minded back then to buy them, thinking that it would be embarrasing and that sort of crap. Now that I've come back to my senses, I seem to have missed the train (since the few sets that can be found online cost a small fortune). Too bad.

[christopher110]

year 2004 because of

4757 - Hogwart's Castle and 4754 - Hagrid's Hut.

4757 is full of small tricks here and there and one and only one clock tower ....

[The Brick Rat]

I also agree that the color change ruined the 2004 sets no more obviously than with the horrid racial "flesh" colors. Even on clearance I could not bring myself to buy more than a few HP sets from that year. In fact I have not purchased many sets from any theme with the blatantly stereotypical race colors used to represent actual people. I still think that the greatest mistake LEGO ever made was to change the system minigfigure scale licensed sets to "flesh-toned" colors.

"Horrid racial "flesh" colors"? "Blatantly stereotypical race colors"? I must admit I don't understand this attitude (and you're not the first I've heard it from). All the flesh tones do is give an added level of realism to minifigs. I could make a racist MOC using flesh toned figs, but I could also do the same with yellow figs. Among the yellow fig population several races can be found: Asians (Ninja and Adventurer themes), Native Americans (Western theme) and African Americans (non-licensed basketball sets). Yellow or flesh tone, figs are figs; it's what you do with them that determines whether a MOC is racist or not.

I think the real issue is twofold: nostalia and compatability. For most AFoLs figs have always been yellow and such a drastic change is jarring. You'll also meet AFoLs who prefer the classic smilies they grew up with over figs with various facial expressions. Most have made the change however, because there isn't a compatibility issue there. With fig color it is different. Most people dislike mixing the two types of figs (and who can blame them). It all comes down to preference. Neither yellow or fleshy is better or worse than the other.

I remember when I got my first fleshy figs. It was the 2004 Prisoner of Azkaban sets (my favorite HP year - to make this post a little on topic). I thought TLC was nuts to be changing the licensed themes to flesh tones. So the first thing I did was put the minifigs together and...they looked strange. I then built several of the sets on the dining room table until the kids got home. They were excited to see new HP sets and began to play with them. I asked if they noticed anything different. Nothing. When I pointed out the figs were flesh toned, they went and fetched a yellow Harry Potter. When I put the fleshy and the yellow Harrys side by side my opinion changed. The fleshy HP looked normal and the lemon yellow HP looked odd. I didn't voice my opinion to the kids, just let them continue to play. Within minutes the fleshy figs had taken the older HP fig to the hospital wing to be treated for a bad case of "yellow disease".

LEGO will never get the thousands of dollars I would have spent on HP, Starwars, Batman, and now Indy sets I would have gotten.

I've actually have passed up non-licensed sets because the figs were yellow. However, I've probably spent the thousands you didn't on multiples of licensed sets (gotta build up that fleshy population).

...I would agrue that the best set of the entire line was in year three with the quiditch supply store. What a perfect little set that was.

And finally we agree. Even though 2004 is my favorite year. Quality Quidditch Supplies is my favorite HP set. I don't know how many I bought for those sand green slopes and shop windows (among other parts).

[maiq the liar]

2004, definately. lotsa good stuff.

(p.s: there was some wierd fandub of sorcerer's/philosopher's stone. does anyone know what it's called? i can't remember for the life of me...

[Hewman]

Seeing I gave away all my 2001 sets I guess I wasn't too attached to those but I love the year of the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) lego, both my regular and mini knight buses are sensational and I just wish I had the spare funds for a shrieking shack and a motorized Hogwarts Express as well.

Edited July 18, 2008 by hewman

[Captain REX]

None of them. No offence but they were all a pointless waste of time and money.

And thank God that there not continuing the line anymore because once i went to a toy shop and the only setthey had was an order of the pheonix castle. They clog up the shelves to much.