Customer Reviews

LEGO Harry Potter: Hogwarts Castle Set (4709)

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I grew up with Legos, spent countless hours building castles, forest hideaways, and tropical pirate hideouts. I still have all of the original Legos, boxes and instructions; Legos are a timeless creative toy for children of all ages.

When the first Harry Potter book came out a few years ago, I was hooked from the first sentence! I've read all four books a number of times and I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the first Harry Potter movie this November.

When I saw that Lego was coming out with Harry Potter kits I was thrilled! There are eleven kits in all right now, each of which represent an important scene from the first Harry Potter novel, but the neatest one hands down is Hogwarts Castle.

The castle features secret hidden compartments and treasure chests, a spiral staircase that moves, torches, one of the boats that carry students across the lake to Hogwarts, and many of the book's characters in Lego form, including Harry, Hedwig, Ron, Scabbers the rat, Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape, Hagrid, Peeves and Draco Malfoy. The architecture is brilliant; arches, grated windows, stone texturing, a balcony, multiple towers and a large interior. Quite honestly this is the coolest Lego set ever created, period.

It is sure to be a hot seller on many Christmas lists this year, will probably be the "Furby" of 2001, and with good reason. Harry Potter marked a return to kids actually READING, and likewise with Harry Potter Legos kids will have the chance to use their creativity and imaginations building something magical instead of sitting in front of a TV or computer screen. That's an amazing feat in itself in an age of high technology and should be appreciated by parents and teachers!

The new Harry Potter line of Legos features new artistic heights for Lego designers. Some of the kits come with brightly coloured backdrops and props, such as the Hogwarts Classrooms set, Diagon Alley Shops and Gryffindor House, and include details from the books, such as the portrait of the Fat Lady in Gryffindor House. All the kits capture the childhood magic and the unique flavour and subtle humour of the Harry Potter books.

Hogwarts Castle is 682 pieces and is recommended for ages 8-12. Because of the complexity it might be a bit frustrating for younger children, even for us kidults :) But if you're looking for a unique, creative, and absolutely magical gift for that favourite child, this is the one. Whether you're a kid or a kid at heart, Hogwarts Castle has something to offer for everyone.

The set includes almost all the Lego figures - Harry, Hermione, Ron, Draco, Hagrid, Dumbledore and Snape (no Professor Quirrell), plus a knight and a ghost. There are four owls, a crystal ball, a treasure chest, a fire place, books, a telescope, a boat, two golden keys, two grey keys, three jewels, letters (for the owls to deliver, I suppose), two mice and two cute little bats that are part of the building. The rooms it includes are the dining hall (you can choose either the Gryffindor table or the Slytherin table by flipping a banner), the owlery, the library and the hall outside the Gryffindor quarters. It has the fat lady painting for the door, and it spins around. I guess this would lead into the Lego set for the Gryffindor House, if you bought it. Although, then you'd have two fat lady paintings (and two Rons).

What's the verdict? Well, I think it was really expensive, but that's to be expected for Lego. But, it's pretty darn cool. I don't know how they expect kids to play with it, as the rooms are really, really small, the stairs are pretty precarious (they keep spinning around) and the books like to jump off the shelves. In the dining hall, there isn't much space for people to sit. And what's the point of being able to switch to the Slytherin table, if Draco's going to be the only one sitting at it? I don't know, these are things that would have bothered me as a child trying to play with it. Maybe other kids aren't quite as pedantic as I was then. :)

It looks impressive and displays nicely. The Harry figure has a different coloured cape, which looks kind of silly. The Hermione figure is really scary - she has a really weird grin on her face. Draco is really cute, and so is Ron. Dumbledore and Hagrid are cool. I thought Snape's head would glow in the dark, as it really looked like it would, but thankfully it doesn't, as that would make no sense at all. The ghost is not so good - I couldn't even tell it was a ghost; I thought it was a statue.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you have a lot of money and want something collectible. If you're buying it for a kid, you may be better off with a smaller set - most kids wouldn't have the patience to build this and you'll probably end up doing it for them. It took me three hours, but then, I don't build Lego sets often and I was unfamiliar with a lot of the new pieces as they didn't have them when I was young. There are also a lot of little pieces to lose. I'd recommend the Lego train set or the action figures instead.

This is the best set of the Lego Harry Potter line. It is also the biggest, and most expensive. It's retail value...is very high, but the experience with this toy is so cool! The set is simple to build in less than 3 hours with the detailed instructions. The set is like a playset with secret passages, moving staircases, a library, the Gryffindor room with the portrait of the Fat Lady, a real mini magnifying glass, Scabbers, owls, The Great Hall, an astronomy tower, and a boat to ride up to school! The sets figures are:

*Harry Potter
*Hermione Granger
*Ron Weasley
*Draco Malfoy
*Rubeus Hagrid
*Albus Dumbledore
*Professor Snape
*a ghost(possibly Peeves or Nearly headless Nick. Who knows?)
*a Gryffindor knight

This set is really worth those...bucks! This set even won an award for most imaginative toy of the year! Lego has really done it! The towers, turrets, and structure are so cool, that it brings Hogwarts to life! This set is great, and also it is very hard to find since there is an over-growing popularity of Harry Potter! Happy Hunting.

We bought this castle for my daughter's seventh birthday. She had already successfully constructed 3 other Harry Potter lego sets: Hagrid's hut, forbidden corridor and Snapes's potion class, so we weren't too worried about the 8-12 age rating.

It probably took her (with a small amount of help from mum) 3 or 4 hours to assemble (3 sessions). There was only one picture in the instructions that she found confusing, and I managed to puzzle it out. The set comes in several sections, with pieces for each section bagged separately. Just be aware that at least one section has two bags (bags are clearly marked with picture of section they are meant for), so check this out before you assume you are missing any pieces. (Lego will send you the missing pieces in unlikely event that you are missing some).

The detail is pretty much what you see on the box, with special features like the changeable great hall decorations (slytherin to gryffindor) being very popular. Lots of hidden compartments, great fine detail. Also, my daughter looked at the additional pictures in the lego guide and successfully fitted her Snapes potions class underneath the castle's Great Hall, thereby making an even more satisfactory triple decker structure.
Looks like you might be able to do that with some of the other Hogwarts kits, so that it's worth having more than one Hogwarts set. Our set is currently in pride of place on living room carpet, and is being used for extensive pretend play, but here is my only criticism of the kit. All the kids who come round to play admire it, but the lego loving ten year olds who come round wouldn't use it for pretend play. Her older brother's friends have various HP lego sets at home, which get built and then left as ornaments. For 7 or 8 year olds who are happy to work their way through long detailed instruction manuals it's a perfect present, because they get hours and hours of pretend play afterwards (plus my daughter doesn't mind pulling it to pieces and then rebuilding). But the age range on the box is 8-12 (probably accurate) so the children who would have the most fun with this are too young to put it together.

A plus is that the castle isn't that big when you've constructed it, so won't take up too much space (2 base boards are about 20cm by 8 cm, plus a couple of smaller bits, but be warned it gets very tall (50cm ish?).

I don't think any pieces are going to break (though there is 1 elastic band) but I give the durability only 4 stars just because there are so many pieces you might lose. (But we haven't lost anything from the sets she got at Xmas 6 months ago).

So, bottom line, best for capable lego lovers at younger age of 8 - 12 who will use it for pretend play after construction. Mixes and matches very nicely with other lego HP sets.

My 10 year old son saved his birthday money from August with the intent of purchasing this castle when it hit the stores.
Bad news....all the local stores sold out immediately.
Good news.....Amazon.com had it. We ordered on Monday and it was delivered on Thursday.
My son has been a lego fan for years. He has read all the Harry Potter books....and continues to read them...including a spanish version!
The combination of these two favorites made Hogwart's Castle a huge hit with him!
Great gift for the lego/harry potter fan!
I bet it will be hard to find come November and December.
Thanks Amazon!

The larger Legos sets are typically full of features and a lot of fun. This one fits that bill exactly. There is a lifting trap door, numerous characters, a spinning fireplace, secret chambers, and a wealth of characters. Did I mention you get a boat for first years to cross the lake?

While the wealth of characters includes once again ANOTHER Harry Potter (I think we must have six Harry Potters now), it includes HAGRID!!! You also get Hermione, Ron, Draco Malfoy, Dumbledore, Professor Snape, a ghost and a knight. One of the best collections of characters in any set.

The detailing of this set captures quite a bit of the Harry Potter mythos. There are owls, even Scabbers the rat, the portrait of the Fat Lady in front of the Gryffindor room, a magnifying glass, a telescope, and the great hall. The torches are one of the most interesting features of a Lego set I've ever seen. The architecture of the castle is well detailed also; arches, grated windows, stone texture, and many more details. The designers of this set brought much from the Legos castle sets.

While I wax enthusiastic regarding this set, it does have a few drawbacks. The first drawback is also somewhat of an advantage. With over 600 pieces this set is very complicated, thus making it quite a challenge for younger builders. While the box states it is suitable for children as young as 7, I believe this set will prove frustrating for some children that age, though there may be a few children younger than 7 that are up to the challenge. On the flip side, the complexity of the kit will enthuse older builders (and adults!). On building this kit we discovered we had used some colors incorrectly, and had to rebuild the kit.

The second drawback is the fragility of the set. While Legos are relatively durable, this kit has a number of smaller, long thin pieces that I suspect will break more readily than most traditional Legos. Also, because of the construction of the castle, it does tend to come apart more easily than some other Legos sets. Once again, the fragility of the set suggests that younger children may become frustrated as it is not readily usable as a routine play set.

The third drawback is that while the kit is quite large, the interior space is more limited than many other kits, thus setting the characters up in interior locations is more difficult than usual.

These drawbacks are more of an annoyance than being anything serious. However, together they spell frustration when younger children attempt to treat this Lego as a casual toy. Thus, I provide the drawbacks to suggest that the lower age limit of 7 should perhaps be a guideline, and you may want to hold this toy aside until the child acquires a lot of patience, or perhaps until at least age 10 or so, or perhaps both!

This kit is a very worthy addition to the Lego family, and will provide children and adults with a great deal of enjoyment in building. It provides a great center piece to the numerous other Lego Harry Potter kits, or could even be a part of Lego's numerous castle kits.

This is a great Lego set! If you like Legos and Harry Potter it doesn't get much better than this. So it takes a while to build, I mean it took me three days (and that was with my brother and sister helping me)but the castle is so cool! On the bright side its a great way to kill time. If you keep it in good condition this will last till your children's children will say "I walked 20 miles barefoot in the snow to come home and play with this." Overall this is an exeptional toy.::CAUTION:: WILL NOT HOLD THE PRESSURE OF LITTLE BROTHER!!!

Harry Potter is a children's book that can reach out to people of all ages - a great playground for the imagination. That being said, it's obvious LEGO should have done this property and it's a good thing they did. They put an incredible amount of effort into every detail including but not limited to: little folding books, a Slytherin/Gryffindor spinning flag, a spinning portrait of the Fat Lady, an extra-large Hagrid figure and on top of this all, this was the only set which included Draco Malfoy. This set is great for people ages seven to one-hundred-and-seven and is very well worth the purchase price.

I had sworn off my [costly] LEGO habit a couple of years before, but when I saw this set in the store, I knew I had to have it. I was not disappointed! Hogwarts Castle is filled with the coolest colors, shapes, props, and innovations I've ever seen in a LEGO set. Combine that with the fun of playing with little LEGO versions of the inhabitants of Hogwarts we've come to love from the books and movie, and we have a real winner.

Putting this set together with friends was a blast because of the easy-to-follow-instructions, and we learned to appreciate the construction motifs in the process. But I would say that kids younger than the 8-12 years recommended might not have the patience or fine coordination needed to complete the castle.

It is rather [costly]like all of the big LEGO sets, but you get a lot for your money including all of the LEGO HP characters except Quirrell and all kinds of delightful extras like a reversible spiral staircase, a rotating ghostly knight in armor guarding a jewel, and a rotating fireplace that hides a secret treasure. I'm really glad that I purchased this set to start with and that I will be able to gradually add on the smaller Harry Potter sets such as Snape's Classroom, the Challenge Corridors and Hagrid's Hut. I also have a lot of the recent Ninja and desert adventure LEGO sets, which I think would combine well with this one, and one of my friends has done a great job of integrating Hogwarts with her Castle sets.

Even though this was sold out at the time, I got it for Christmas with no return address, so it was probably from Santa or something. I think it's probably the coolest Lego set in the history of the universe. I mean, it's got moving staircases and everything else you can think of. I have a huge collection of Legos and I've taken some of the more Harry Potter like looking Legos out of it and used them to add on to the bottom of the castle. I have created a storage closet, Snape's classroom, and a double staircase. I wish I could post a picture of it. I think this set has so many turning doors and passages and little moving things and stuff like that so it would be an ideal set for any kid who likes Lego sets with lots of details, like me.