It has been almost 10 years since we last saw a LEGO Set bringing forth the action from Diagon Alley, the hidden lane in London where every witch and wizard goes shopping in search of the Things They Need to get through that magical life of theirs.
With 14 Minifigures and 5544 pieces, 75978 Diagon Alley Features Ollivander’s, Flourish& Blott’s Book Shop, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor, Scibbulus, Quality Quiddich supplies, the offices of the Daily Prophet and Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. While some of these appeared in last year’s microscale version of the street, this is the first time that most of these shops have been represented at minifigure scale. The set goes on sale on September 1 2020, and will cost £369.99 / $USD399.99 / 399.99EUR /$AUD599.99
The truncated form of the street, seen in 2010’s 10217 Diagon Alley gave us Borgin and Burkes, Ollivander’s Wand Supplies and Gringott’s bank. Ollivander’s is the only one of these businesses making a return this year, and has quite a different feel to older version, so it will be possible to incorporate all of these buildings into an extended layout.
Both the Leaky Cauldron and Gringott’s Bank feel significant omissions from this year’s set, and I wonder if something is being held back for some time in the future. Only time will tell.
The model is designed to be put together with individual shops connected together to form a continuous row. The Minifigures are essentially those seen in year one/two – so our main protagonists: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Draco Malfoy all feature short legs, rather than the mid-length legs that debuted in the previous set of Harry Potter Minifigures. George and Fred Weasley, as well as their joke shop, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, are represented in a way more consistent with their appearance in The Deathly Hallows.
The street is essentially presented in dollhouse format: detailed facade at the front, but open at the back, allowing you to view the interior, and access Minifigures in an easier fashion than if the buildings were fully enclosed. For this type of display, as well as the endless photographs that it is likely to inspire, I think this is a great format. If you are setting out to build inner London, with enclosed buildings, some additions will be required. The buildings are presented in a modular format – on four 16×32 baseplates: the shops are 12 studs deep, and of varying widths. The size presented allows the consideration of adequate depth, as well as a suitably cobbled footpath.
As you can see, lined up together, the final effect is quite effective:
There are an impressive 14 Minifigures included in this set. Of these, the Daily Prophet photographer and Lorean Fortescue are making their Minifigure debuts, while Gilderoy Lockhart has not appeared since licensed Minifigures adopted realistic skin tones. Larger images if the figures can be found at the end of the post.
Launching today, the spectacular new LEGO® Harry Potter® set allows fans to be transported to the most magical shopping street in the world, now in brick form!
Diagon Alley™ is one of the most iconic locations in the Wizarding World. It’s where Harry Potter gets his first glimpse of the exciting new world he is about to join, as he’s guided through the magical shopping street by Hagrid. And now LEGO and Harry Potter fans alike can build and create the iconic street in their own homes.
The set brings the two worlds together in a magical hybrid: a rich and versatile display model, with a modularity aspect that allows fans to choose how to display the shops (all in a row, swapping them around, or even placing individual shops on different shelves!).
Measuring more than a meter wide and made up of over 5,000 pieces, LEGO Diagon Alley features the famed wizarding world shops packed with authentic details from the movies to truly capture the ambience of the street.
Behind magnificent and detailed storefronts lie intriguing interiors, fascinating features and familiar characters. Fans can recreate some of their favourite moments from the Harry Potter film series including; discovering the wands at Ollivanders™ from Harry Potter and the Philosophers / Sorcerer’s Stone dropping in on Gilderoy Lockhart™’s book-signing event at Flourish & Blotts™ bookstore from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; or obtaining a love potion from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes™ from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Marcos Bessa, LEGO Harry Potter Design Lead commented: “I love how faithful the final design is to the architectural details in the film. You can barely see some of these buildings zooming past your screen, but we tracked down different photographs from the sets – some of them from nearly 20 years ago – to make sure everything is spot on. Diagon Alley is the biggest set I’ve designed to-date and I am really proud of how it has come together.”
The set also includes 14 Minifigures, including new versions of lead characters Harry, Ron, Hermione, and of course George and Fred Weasley who have their own joke shop in Diagon Alley. There are also Minifigures of Florean Fortescue and the Daily Prophet photographer, who have never been seen in LEGO form before.
With Christmas just around the corner, the LEGO Diagon Alley set makes an impressive and inspiring gift for Harry Potter and LEGO enthusiasts alike.
LEGO® Harry Potter® Diagon Alley™ set is available directly from LEGO Stores and www.LEGO.com/EnterTheMagic from 1st September 2020
I think this looks like a great addition to the serious LEGO Harry Potter collection. It is certainly a large set, ultimately measuring 102.4 cm wide; 29 cm high and 13 cm deep, and with 5544 pieces. I appreciate the modularity of the layout and the fact that it could be used to spread out across a couple of shelves if you are running short of space. At a price of £369.99 / $399.99 / 399.99EUR /$AUD599.99 it is an expensive set, but one that offers reasonable value for that price. Looking at these exchange rates, the Australian price seems to be about half way between the US and UK/European prices – Typically, similar scale releases are similar to the european price, exchanged for AUD – this is functionally about $45 cheaper. (and around $50 more expensive than the US price – but this is also typical.)
What do you think of this set? A day one purchase? A wait and see? What excites you most about it? Leave you comments below and until next time:
Play well.
Fantastic looking set! While I’m not a HP fan enough to buy it, I know a few AFOLs who are. My main interest would be the Minifigs.
Will you be doing a review anytime soon, Richard?
Not in the immediate future. This set wasn’t really on my radar… but it has piqued my interest
I’ll grab it eventually. Stay tuned for the review!