Brickheadz dominated the LEGO® Collector landscape a few years ago, and then seemed to all but vanish from the landscape. the truth is we have sill seen around 15 figures per year. This year has seen a resurgence, with 21 figures revealed to date in 2021. I would not be surprised if we see more announced over the next few months.
This year, most figures have been released as two packs, particularly animals and their young (so cute!). But now we are re-embracing character builds, with 2 new sets of Harry Potter Wizarding World Brickheadz coming in June. They will cost $39.99 each and are likely to be exclusive to LEGO branded stores. Be sure to check out my review of 40495 now.
After a quiet couple of years, it would appear that we are seeing a resurgence in new BrickHeadz sets this year. Today I would like to present 40495 Harry, Hermione, Ron and Hagrid. This set focuses on our first/second-year trio of young heroes, along with their sympathetic ally, Hagrid. Ron Harry and Hermione are depicted as 3 stud wide figures, as we have seen with some smaller characters over the past years. The other Harry Potter Brickheadz unveiled today, 40496, brings us Voldemort, Nagini and Bellatrix Lestrange and you can read my review here.
I feel honored that the LEGO Group have sent me a copy of this set for early review. It will be released on June 1st, at a cost of $AUD39.99.
A couple of months ago, I put together the 31201 LEGO Art Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests (HPHC) mosaic, and I felt a little underwhelmed. But I think this was more a ‘me thing’ rather than an issue with the set: I personally didn’t feel a strong affinity with the source material, not really identifying with any particular Hogwarts House. I have heard from plenty of people who really enjoy the build, and want to build the set of crests, as well as the larger combination crest. So, as I said, it’s a Me thing. Perhaps I should have looked at a crest other than Hufflepuff’s?
That said, one positive point that I do appreciate is a large number of left over parts.
Of course, one of the stated goals for the LEGO ART range is not just to produce a mosaic which you could hang on your wall, but to also give adults an activity to focus on. You don’t need to hang your final result. you can dismantle it, and rebuild it as one of the other options, or even rebuild it as another image.
Despite personally feeling a little deflated by the HPHC building experience, I find the idea of building a LEGO Mosaic/Art set appealing. If you have followed my posts around the time of the range being announced, you will have seen my analysis of the value for money building the LEGO Art Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, either through the set or purchasing the individual elements (Spoiler – they sets are good value for the elements you receive).
I’ll have to admit, the notion of a mass marketed LEGO Set based on the mass produced screen print of Marilyn Monroe amuses me as a further extension of the pop-art movement. So, I thought I would set out to investigate whether I could rebuild the Hogwarts Crest as Marilyn. Therefore using a mass produced LEGO Artwork to produce a different mass produced artwork. Now, along with virtually all Building instructions, you can download them from the LEGO customer support website, OR you can access them from Building Instructions App.
Since the LEGO Group sent over some pre-release copies for me to review, I have spenty a little bit of time looking at LEGO® Harry Potter Hogwarts™ Moments Sets. These four sets each encompass activities in a single Hogwarts classroom, and come with an interesting collection of fittings and Furniture for the different classrooms. They also come with one teacher, as well as a couple of students. And if that’s not enough, they all get bundled up into book form! Last time, we reviewed the built in scenery, some of which could be great for your own Hogwarts MOC. Today, I would like to look at the individual items of furniture, as well as any interesting accessories, as well as the minifigures.
Earlier in the week, I previewed the Hogwarts Moment sets: playsets, each depicting a class from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Today, I would like to take a look at the artwork included in the sticker sheets, as well as the fixtures within these neat little sets.
Today, we are looking at the internal artwork, as well as the fittings. Next time we will take a look at the furniture and the figures.
The LEGO Art range was unveiled earlier this year with a range of varied works to go on the wall: Andy Warhol’s Marilyn, The Beatles, Iron Man, and your choice of Sith Lords. We have recently seen the latest sets in the range unveiled: Disney Mickey and/or Minnie and Hogwarts Crests. The LEGO group sent me a copy of the hogwarts crests to look at. Given the fact that I was yet to tackle any sets in this series, I was curious for the experience.
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
Over the last few years, we have come to expect to see new Harry Potter sets appearing around the middle of the year. In 2018, we saw sets released for The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets. In 2019 we saw sets pertaining to The Prisoner of Azkaban as well as The Goblet of Fire. You might almost think that a pattern was appearing. So you might not be surprised to learn that, this year, we have some sets relating to The Order of the Phoenix, as well as the Half Blood Prince.
We have some locations that we have not seen before, as well as a a few being revisited after an absence of many years. The sets will be released inJune, around much of the world, and August in the USA.
In which I pick up a set that hasn’t quite been released from LEGOLAND Germany, admire a Patronus and see a new way to build a tree. And Sirius Black returns after 15 years!
Last year, we were delighted to see a series of LEGO Sets related to the first two Harry Potter novels, with sets that were able to join together. It should come as no surprise that this year we are seeing some more sets, now from books 3 and 4. These new sets will new available from June 1st. With some imagination, you might be able to guess what next year’s sets might relate to…
I particularly love the Stag Patronis: Transparent glittery light blue! Otherwise, we will see a great range of sets, relating to scenarios we have not seen rendered in LEGO Form for many years.
