Customer Reviews

Harry Potter Wizard Chess

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not your TYPICAL chess set. True, you can still play chess, but kids & adults alike will love this new game.

When you open the box, you will get a fold-out chess board (very durable). The board has the EXACT same colors as the chess set seen in "Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone". You will also receive two complete set of chess pieces.

Each piece was designed using the SAME sketches Warner Brother employees used to create the life-size pieces in the movie; they are COMPLETELY identical. The pieces are made of a thick-plastic type of material, so they are very hard to damage (but not impossible).

Also included in the box is a set of instructions that have easy-to-read insturctions on how to play chess. They have pictures showing the different ways each piece can move.

Whether you're a chess fan or not, if you LOVE Harry Potter, then you MUST have this chess set; makes a great decoration on any coffee table.

Fact: This is a chess set designed to look like the chess set protrayed in the Harry Potter movies.

Fact: This set is designed for, marketed for, and intended for use by children. Nowhere does it claim to be a "professional" or "regulation" chess set.

With that said, I'm amazed at all of the complaints concerning the game's contents. Yes, the board is a folding board, and yes, the pieces are larger than normal. It's designed that way for a reason. Would I purchase it for myself? No, because I prefer professional grade chess sets to collect.

I bought it for my KIDS, and they love it. It looks just like the one Harry & Ron played, and while the pieces do not automatically destroy each other, they have put hours of relatively quiet time into learning and playing the game of chess.... something they had no interest in until this game was purchased for them.

I highly recommend buying this product if you have kids as I'm sure they will love it. They don't care that some pieces are a bit awkward, nor that the board folds. They care that it's a "Wizard's" chess set just like Harry Potter's. My kids are happy with it, and in the end, that's all that matters.

My daughter had been begging me to teach her how to play chess. Why? I had no idea but when I saw this chess set it made sense. She's a huge Harry Potter fan and this set had her intrigued in playing chess. I'm all for it because chess is a wonderful strategy game that really works the brain. Plus it takes time and that means less time for brainless cartoons!

The pieces capture your attention right away, especially with the uniqueness from the first film so evident in them. They really do make you feel more inclined to play chess just because it's cooler to have pieces that fit the mood of chess than just bland, boring pieces of the cheap chess sets most of us are familiar with.

Overall the durability is good for children a little older. However, my daughter at 8 likes to use them in pretend games other than chess too. She likes to re-inact some of the movie with them too. She has the other HP figures and it all comes together real nicely... so overall it's a definite purchase any HP fan should make!

Yes, there are at least two different sets that represent the Harry Potter Wizards Chess and they are made by the same company - Arco. One of the sets is made of plastic and the other is resin. The Plastic set has the picture of the children on the front and the one without the picture of the children is resin. By far the resin set is the best set. While the plastic set has its draw backs, as far as the pieces having no decoration (although nicely detailed) ... and the fact that you have to paste the squares onto the playing board, it is the best choice for children. The resin set is much nicer in that the detail is just as good as the plastic set but the pieces have more weight to them and they look more geniune. The only problem with the resin set is that some of the pieces, such as the knight, tend to be a bit top-heavy and wobbly and the game board could be larger to accomodate easier movement... The resin set will make a great collectors item due to it's better quality, but they are VERY hard to find. As a matter of fact, even the plastic set is becoming hard to find. I have a resin set and I just love it. Although I am using a different playing board for it (a larger one) I will keep this set on display in my home for a long time. I LOVE HARRY POTTER!

I think chess is a great game to teach kids. And if your child likes harry potter this is a great motiviation to learn to play.

The connection to the movie and the game pieces make it fun for them to learn and play.

Personally, I thought the board was WAY too small. And way too flimsy. Especially for beginning players when even the biggest board with the smallest pieces can be hard to keep up with. And I found the pieces to look pretty similar, altho my son had no trouble with that issue.

That said, the issues with the design of the game were mine and getting out this game is something my son loves. So i would have to classify them as minor.

I got this chess set because I love Harry Potter and I thought it was really cute. It does look exactly like the chess set that Harry and Ron play in the movie, but it is not stone like theirs was. This one is plastic. I would like to have seen this chess set in a heavy duty resin. The plastic pieces are flimsy. The knight is constantly falling over because it is top heavy. The board is a joke! It is a very thin cardboard (or a very thick paper--depends on how you look at it). And the board is far too small for the pieces. I would say that the one redeeming plus of this chess set is that it is inexpensive. If you have a child that like to destroy toys, than maybe this is the way to go. It is really cute too, but If you are looking for a chess set to play or learn how to play on this one wont be that good for you. I think the only people who will really get anything out of it are the fanatic Harry Potter fans. If I was giving it an over all score I would give it a 3 out of 5 stars.

My grandson loves the pieces, but as other have said, the board is too small and the pieces unstable. My solution is to buy a soft vinyl tournament size board from various internet sites for $.... Also, I will fill bottom of pieces with plaster of paris and glue felt to the bottoms. That makes a top-notch set. Maybe the mfg will wake up and make it right so you don't have to fix it to have a good set.

I was very disappointed by this product. I had expected it to be much nicer and fanicer than the regular chess games. The board is folded into 4ths and does not lie flat. The pieces won't stay in place. Although it has the pieces that Harry Potter uses, you'd be better off to buy a cheap chess set. This is not up to the usual standard of the other Harry Potter products. Mattel didn't put much thought or time into this game.

This is, frankly, a disappointing chess set. I was looking forward to a set which I could use with my children to learn chess; one which had pieces which wouldn't blow over, solid pieces with weighted bottoms on a generous board.

This is none of those things. It's a set full of light, hollow pieces of single-cast plastic; the base is hollow and the pieces are top-heavy. The board is four-fold cardboard with tape holding the quarters together. The knights are the worst; the horse's belly is hollowed out and that's visible from the other side of the board (but you can only see it _AFTER_ you've opened the box).

Folks, I know the Wizard Chess game was riveting in the movie. If you've got kids who are hard on stuff, the set is inexpensive and durable, the pieces mostly easy to distinguish (though it takes a good eye to spot the differences between the queen and king), and if you've got a youthful chess/Harry fanatic, s/he'll have some fun hours pretending to be a wizard.

BUT... if you're looking for quality Harry Potter merchandise, spend your money elsewhere. And be ready to buy another board a couple of months after getting this set, or mount this board using carpenter's glue on a wooden square, 'cause otherwise, it'll fall apart on you.

--Phil

Hi,

I am a really big HP fan and for me this was one of those gotta have it kind of toys.

However, I have to say that I am quite disappointed in the overall durability. The box that it comes in is not even a standard quality board game box. You know, the shiny stiff cardboard ones. This is a piece of paper thin, flimsy, taped at the corners, cardboard wannabe. I really would have expected it to come in a tin, being that it costs so much, but for sure at least a standard quality box. I've got shoeboxes 10x's more durable than this. I know you're thinking that the box isn't why I bougth the game so what's the big deal, but hey, you gotta store it in something.

So when I opened the box, the pieces were in about 10 different little plastic baggies. The kind that when you try to open it by hand it explodes and sends everything flying. Some pieces were wired or taped to the storage box itself! What's the point of that? Once you get it open the pieces themselves are ok. A little small, but ok. I was expecting them to be quite a bit larger. The gameboard is one of those junky, fold it into fourths kinda things.

All in all, the game is still fun to play, but I am disappointed to see such a junky product from Mattel (but what do we expect from the makers of the barbie doll?) and not to mention the fact that it carries the honorable Harry Potter label. I hope somebody sends one of these to J.K. Rowling. I'm sure she wouldn't be impressed.

Also, the box comes printed in no less than ten different languages. I can't stand that! I'm not a xenophobe, but in America we speak English and that is what should be on our boxes-not Spanish, not Portugese, not German, not French, etc. Good grief!

I sincerely hope that they will make another version of this in a collectors tin that has a casing inside for putting the pieces in. The pieces should be much larger and grandiose. The board should not fold into fourths.