Review: LEGO Harry Potter 75968 4 Privet Drive

Today we make a quick detour to the Dursley family with the LEGO Harry Potter set 75968 4 Privet Drive, a box of 797 pieces sold 74.99 € which offers a new interpretation of the suburban pavilion already seen in 2002 at LEGO in the set 4728 Escape from Privet Drive.

For those wondering what it's all about here, the 4 Private Drive is the address of the Dursley family pavilion where Harry Potter spent his childhood, confined in a cupboard under the stairs before his uncle moved him upstairs in his cousin Dudley's second bedroom. Please note, this is a reproduction of the "false house" installed in the Leavesden studios and not of the one that actually exists in the town of Bracknell. The LEGO version is therefore entitled to a large fireplace and two windows above the porch.

The house comes together as a Structure of the best vintage with an entertaining alternation between walls and furniture. Those who love to assemble micro-beds and mini-sofas will be in heaven, the set offers some very successful pieces of furniture which, even if they fill the different rooms as often, leaving no room to turn around, are little nearly consistent with the furniture seen on the screen.

Too bad the staircase leading to the first floor and which is not in the right direction on the LEGO version is not covered with Tiles pad printed (or stickers) with the slightly kitsch motif of the place. As it is, it's a bit rough and flashy and a more pastel blue would have been perfect for the carpet in the entrance hall and for the stairs.

The front door and the interior of the pavilion are dressed in different stickers but there are also some pad printed pieces in this set: Three envelopes already seen in 2018 in a Disney set, in 2019 in several sets of the Friends range and available this year in several sets of the Harry Potter range and a copy of the Daily Prophet available since 2018 with the title "The Boy who LIVED!"on the front page.

The big feature of the set is the possibility of passing the three envelopes from the outside wall of the pavilion to the fireplace in the Dursleys living room by turning the black knob visible to the right of the sofa. You won't flood the room with the three included Hogwarts Admission Letters, but the nod is interesting.

Under the stairs, there is a broom cupboard to kidnap Harry and easily accessible by deploying a section of the exterior wall of the house. There is also a small door that is difficult to access inside under the stairs, the best solution to open it is to push it from inside.

The exterior appearance of the house is rather convincing and the texture obtained on the roof by the offsets of the different Slopes 1x3 black offers a really satisfying rendering. The result is not exactly faithful to the roof of the building in the film, but the solution used by the designers really has style. The insertion of bricks in the walls and the presence of gutters provide a nice finish to this suburban pavilion in front of which we also find the large hydrangea.

We may also regret the absence of wire mesh on the windows, even if it means providing us with stickers, LEGO could have taken the trouble to add a few stickers on a transparent background which allow this detail to be taken up and to hide the transparency of this half. construction.

Even if we can regret the absence of the adjoining garage, the few aesthetic approximations or the "movie set" aspect of the construction, I think the designers are doing pretty well on this issue.

As in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, it is planned here to help Harry escape from his room with the help of Ron, Fred and George all installed in the flying Ford Anglia. Almost everything has been designed to have fun reproducing the scene, with one exception: Fred and George are absent subscribers in this box.

LEGO still provides a chain installed in the trunk of the car, it will be enough to connect it to the bars of the window of the room and to pull to eject the latter. We will have as much fun as we can by then passing Uncle Vernon through the window.

The Ford Anglia delivered in this box is not the one seen in the set 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow marketed in 2018. The designers kept most of the good ideas of the previous model but the characteristic shape of the rear windows is now defined by two stickers. Ron and Harry can be seated in the vehicle, but they will have to stay upright because of their short legs and the white stripe on the doors is a bit too dull to really mesh with the rest. Was it absolutely necessary to provide this vehicle here rather than the Dursleys station wagon? While this is arguably better for the playability of the product, I'm not sure.

As for the minifigs, the continuity between the different sets which reproduce the chronology of the action of the different films is respected: The torsos of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley are those already seen in the set 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow.

Dobby's minifig is a variation of the one seen in one of the bags from the first series of collectible characters (LEGO ref. 71022), the head is made of soft plastic, the legs are injected in two colors and the pad printing is flawless . The character has at his disposal the cake that ends up on Mrs. Mason's head in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the construction is also placed on a transparent support to give an effect of levitation.

Pétunia, Vernon and Dudley Dursley complete the inventory here. The patchwork of outfits between the different family members is a bit confusing: Dudley is in the outfit he wears on his birthday in Harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, I'm still looking for Vernon's sweater in my memory but I don't seem to have seen it in this outfit and Petunia is wearing the floral shirt seen in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Vernon's sister swells like a balloon. The three minifigs are however very convincing and we will have to do with it for a few years at least.

The owl is the one delivered by LEGO since 2010 and the Hedwig owl with its wings outstretched has also become common in the various sets of the range released in 2020.

In summary, this set deserves your full attention if you are a fan of the Harry Potter saga, the house of the Dursleys is sufficiently iconic to deserve its LEGO version and it will easily find its place in a diorama. The interior of the pavilion would have deserved a little more finishing but the pretty furniture largely compensates for the aesthetic shortcuts taken by the designers.

I often say that this type of licensed set only wreaks havoc on the fan service, but this one does it pretty well with some interesting construction techniques, a nice build that remains very accomplished even if it does. is only half a house and a nice assortment of minifigs. I regret the absence of Fred and George a bit, especially for 74.99 €, but there is no room to install them in the Ford Anglia anyway.

As usual, we will wait for a significant drop in the price of the product before cracking, this box being already sold for just over 50 € at Amazon Germany, which immediately makes it more attractive.

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual in play. Deadline fixed at July 25, 2020 next at 23pm.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.