Today we take a very quick look at the contents of the LEGO Harry Potter set. 76443 Hagrid & Harry's Motorcycle Ride, a box of 617 pieces available from LEGO since January 1, 2025 at the public price of €49,99 and logically sold for a little less elsewhere.

I might as well tell you right away, I'm not very enthusiastic about this proposal, even if I welcome the risk-taking, the exercise being complicated. The scale of the whole is a priori determined by the wheels of the motorcycle and the designer tried to build the rest while respecting the proportions of the two characters staged here.

Why not, except that the faces of Hagrid and Harry Potter suffer precisely from the imposed scale and are reduced in one case to a pile of pieces which struggle to embody Hagrid's face and in the other to a simple pad-printed piece which should in principle embody Harry Potter's face.

In both cases, I think it's far too symbolic or confusing to convince. The bias in the construction of Hagrid's head could possibly pass for an exercise in artistic style that everyone would be free to appreciate, but Harry Potter's face is so minimalistic that it detracts from the overall appearance of the product.

On the pad printing side, LEGO could have taken the trouble to pad print the outline of Hagrid's glasses, just to limit the damage and to embellish a face that lacks a little personality and Harry has no mouth. It was almost enough for the young student's face to be more detailed to make the pill easier to swallow.

For the rest, the bike is convincing with its product look that could come from the LEGO Creator universe and the machine offers a few entertaining minutes during its construction. The most assiduous fans may find in this set an exhibition product that pays homage to the saga, but we feel the wringing of the Harry Potter universe until thirst is no longer there, even if it means taking risks by dealing with a franchise in which vehicles, one of the chestnuts of LEGO production, are not legion.

This product stands out at least for its originality, it is already almost an achievement for a range that is starting to go round in circles on the same subjects and we cannot blame LEGO for its desire to renew itself and to try to seduce with new and sometimes surprising proposals outside the classics that must be kept in the catalog like Hogwarts or Diagon Alley.

Was it really necessary to stage Hagrid and Harry in this way with an approach that was both a bit crude but also minimalist? Nothing is less certain. LEGO obviously knew that the product was likely to have trouble finding its audience, the manufacturer for example flooded the "Testers Club"Amazon free boxes to ensure a wave of positive comments and a convincing rating.

If you like this set, patience should allow you to get it at a very competitive price in the coming months. It will inevitably end up in clearance somewhere, that's the fate of these boxes with divisive content that only attract a fraction of the usual clientele, no matter how passionate they are about the universe in question.

Discount -10%

LEGO Harry Potter 76443 Hagrid & Harry's Motorcycle Ride

49.99 € 44.91 €

BUY

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 30th January 2025 at 23:59 pm. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid "I'm participating" or "I'm trying my luck", we suspect that this is the case.

Today we take a very quick look at the contents of the LEGO Harry Potter set. 76453 Malfoy Manor, a box of 1601 pieces available since January 1, 2025 at the public price of €149,99. Speaking of shopping around, it's best not to go around the product offered here too much at the risk of being a little disappointed...

The main construction of the set is indeed a paradox in itself: it offers a rather detailed facade with some nice techniques and a very acceptable rendering for a playset intended for the youngest, the interior of the manor could also almost convince with the necessary furniture and other decorative elements but it is by observing this "manor" from the side that we realize that we must once again be content with a simple cinema set without real depth.

We know that LEGO generally does not hesitate to play on the depth of its constructions to limit the inventory but this example will be a landmark as this mansion is surprisingly fine. It would have been necessary to title this product differently so as not to put the building at the center of the set and make it only a simple element of the promised playability.

The facade is, as I said above, detailed with some interesting architectural finds. It is of a very good level and we find most of the significant attributes seen on the screen, even if everything is often summarized in a rather symbolic way. Inside the places, LEGO makes use of the available space by filling spaces with a very limited surface area and even finds a solution to add some playability elements by extending the playset beyond the walls of the manor.

So we end up with a large room that overflows into the void and two very basic staircases to allow access to it. LEGO sells us these stairs as an access to the cellar of the place with its cells, but this one is actually on the same level as the entrance to the mansion. It's confusing.

Children who will actually play with this playset (who are they?) will probably see in this extension of the space which in principle allows for a bit of fun a solution facilitating the installation of the figurines provided but it is far from the opulent dollhouse. I would like to point out in passing that the recurring joke at LEGO which consists of integrating toilets into almost all the buildings falls flat here in my opinion. These toilets in fact occupy a room which could have been devoted to something else and the available spaces are not really legion in this construction.

For €150, one could legitimately hope for better than this simple façade, certainly inspired but much too thin to embody a manor that gives its name to the product. The independent portal does not save the day even if it allows to give a little depth artificially to the scene.

This place, which still plays an important role in the Harry Potter saga, probably deserved better than this rickety playset without much interest in terms of play, and it is the architecture of the place that should have been highlighted instead of trying to reproduce the different spaces that host scenes seen on screen. No one will really play at knocking down the chandelier, locking Harry and his friends in or questioning Hermione in the main room. I really want to meet these children who will spend a few hours reproducing these scenes after their parents have spent €150.

In my opinion, we should frankly choose between one approach or the other instead of trying to combine the two in a playset ersatz whose only noteworthy feature is its finesse, which smells of saving on parts. LEGO's wringing out of the Harry Potter universe with the desire to flood the shelves with numerous products at least twice a year is also responsible for what we get here.

This product would have required a much larger inventory to resemble the idea that we could have of it, but each wave of sets sees the planned references positioned in their respective price ranges and here it was necessary to stay around €150. At this price and with nine figurines in the box, it is difficult to expect more than what LEGO offers us.

The minifig endowment is indeed quite substantial here with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Luna Lovegood, Lord Voldemort and Dobby. These figurines are well executed and those that benefit from a new torso are graphically very successful. Collectors will have here some new characters to get their hands on, those who even line up the variants of characters seen and reviewed will be in heaven.

Draco, who is the only one to reuse a torso already seen, is here delivered with his parents Lucius and Narcissa, Bellatrix Lestrange benefits from a new torso frankly successful and even allows herself the luxury of being the only one to be equipped with pad-printed legs, Voldemort, Harry, Hermione, Dobby and Luna Lovegood are also new in this form. Many fans will come to the usual inevitable conclusion: with so many minifigures and a majority of them being new, LEGO has necessarily made concessions elsewhere in the product and it is logically the manor that pays the price.

It is not with this box that I will change my mind about the current policy at LEGO which would consist of surrounding a large handful of pretty new figurines with a few pieces because the manufacturer has understood what makes its products sell in mass, the mansion to be built here is ultimately only a luxury setting for the characters sold in this box which nevertheless bears its name without even a mention of the type "Adventures in Malfoy Manor" For example.

We can console ourselves by saying that this is still the first time that the place has benefited from such treatment and that the door is now open to reissues and other more or less opulent interpretations of the building. The architecture of the manor would almost justify an adult version with fewer toilets and more walls, we may be entitled to it one day.

In the meantime, it is the minifig endowment that pulls the product up here despite a facade that seems very successful to me for a simple playset intended for children. Out of the question to spend €150 for that, the product will sooner or later end up being available for much less elsewhere than at LEGO.

Discount -15%

LEGO Harry Potter 76453 Malfoy Manor

149.99 € 127.99 €

BUY

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 23th January 2025 at 23:59 pm. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid "I'm participating" or "I'm trying my luck", we suspect that this is the case.

Today we quickly take a look at the contents of the LEGO Harry Potter set 76444 Diagon Alley: Wizarding Shops, a box of 2750 pieces that has been available since January 1, 2025 at a public price of €199,99. This product is not exclusive to the official online store and LEGO Stores, it is also available from many retailers.

This Diagon Alley with LEGO Architecture sauce will be on familiar ground here, this product takes up the principle and the minimalist scale with many details which are only symbolized by a simple piece.

As is often the case, you have to be very imaginative to see a possible reference to a detail seen on screen, only those who never miss a rerun of the saga on television will probably be able to mention them all. Others will find here a much more compact version of the places with a pure exhibition product that can be displayed with its "real" layout or in a more linear alignment of 90 cm long that will form a pretty colored frieze on a shelf.

This product is also aimed at all those who have no use for the playsets in the range, whether it is the "luxury" version with the sets 75978 Diagon Alley (449,99 €) and 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank Collector's Edition (€429,99) or children's versions via the sets 76422 Diagon Alley Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (94,99 €) and 76439 Ollivanders & Madam Malkin's Dresses (89,99 €).

This set allows you to get rid of the subject for €200 and in an exhaustive manner but by agreeing to skip the minifigs to be satisfied with the nanofigs delivered here. This box does better than the promotional set 40289 Diagon Alley offered from 80 € of purchase in November 2018, a small box which was then content with the bare minimum on an even smaller scale than the proposal available here.

The assembly of the product may seem laborious to those who have never had in their hands a set of the Architecture range. The inventory of 2750 pieces is mainly composed of small elements with the exception of a few plates which serve as a base for the various modules and you have to be very patient and meticulous to obtain something recognizable. There are still a whole bunch of Spare Parts on arrival, so much so that we sometimes wonder if we haven't forgotten to put some elements in place.

LEGO provides five instruction booklets so that the experience can be shared by several people, each assembling their shops before putting the tower together in the desired configuration. There are no stickers in this box, so all the patterned elements are pad printed.

The different shops are well identified throughout the pages of the booklets but in my opinion there are some missing explanations on certain references that would have deserved to be better documented. The assembly will only take place once and it is better to maximize the flavor before resigning yourself to forgetting the construction on the corner of a shelf.

As far as I can tell and being lenient due to the scale of the thing, the street seems pretty complete and faithful to me and the facades are easily recognizable. I'm less enthusiastic about the other side of each of the modules with interiors that are probably full of winks intended for the most assiduous fans but whose finishing often remains very basic. Once again, the scale used does not allow for certain fantasies and you will have to make do if you choose to expose the street by aligning the modules in their "real" configuration.

On the side of the dozen nanofigs provided (microfigures according to LEGO), it is as often in this format very approximate at the level of the pad printing. We can see the glass half empty or half full on this point but I find the result a little disappointing even if we will not zoom in on the different characters who are only there to populate the diorama seen from afar.

We can pretty much recognize Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Lavender Brown, Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, Mr. Borjow, Garrick Ollivander and Madam Malkin but the ink is really smearing in places. You will be allowed to lose one of these figurines, they all come in duplicate in the box.

If you have already fallen for the set 76419 Hogwarts Castle & Grounds (€169,99) because you wanted to have a definitive, compact and still sufficiently detailed version of Hogwarts without playing with it, this new set in the same vein is made for you. It is a good summary of the subject treated with easily identifiable shops and a convincing staging if you present the different modules in their most realistic configuration.

By spending the €200 requested by LEGO, you remove the headache about this iconic street and you can move on without being burdened with playsets with less comprehensive content and more or less finished. The downside: this product does not allow you to obtain any minifigs and it has nothing playable contrary to the promise that LEGO makes in the description of the box. It is really the assembly of the thing that must immerse you in the atmosphere of the universe that you like more than the fact of then exposing a street with its facades facing each other and whose interior spaces with a somewhat approximate finish will remain clearly visible.

As you will have understood, I remain mixed on the proposal: I find it relevant because it deals with the subject in a very applied way but I wonder if the subject in question really deserved this type of treatment with the inevitable compromises and shortcuts that the scale implies. In any case, €200 for that is a bit expensive and don't oppose me with the price per piece to try to find a reasonable side to the price of this box, 80% of the content of this product is only made up of small 1x1 pieces.

This product is fortunately not exclusive to the official store and will soon be available for much less elsewhere than at LEGO. It will then be time to re-evaluate the interest of such a set.

Discount -3%

LEGO Harry Potter 76444 Diagon Alley: Wizarding Shops

199.99 € 194.22 €

BUY

Note: The product shown here, provided by LEGO, is as usual involved. Deadline fixed at 16th January 2025 at 23:59 pm. Just post a comment under the article to participate. Your participation is taken into account regardless of your opinion. Avoid "I'm participating" or "I'm trying my luck", we suspect that this is the case.

Let's go for the availability of a large handful of new LEGO products with references in several licensed ranges, the usual chestnuts of the CITY and Friends ranges as well as some seasonal products. A large part of these new products were already offered for pre-order on the official online store, their availability is therefore effective from today.

As usual, there are a few products temporarily exclusive to the official store, but the majority of these boxes will be available quickly for much less elsewhere. As usual, it is up to you to decide whether to crack without waiting by paying the full price for these sets or whether to be a little patient and wait for the inevitable discounts that will be offered in the weeks and months to come. at Amazon, on FNAC.com, at Cdiscount, at Auchan as well as some other retailers.

WHAT’S NEW IN JANUARY 2025 ON THE LEGO SHOP >>