Customer Reviews

LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is probably one of the most tightly designed Lego sets I've come across. It manages to convey the essence of Hogwarts well within one set, so if you can only buy one Harry Potter Lego product, this would be the one.
It has classroom areas that seem to represent Potions, Divination and Transfiguration, has an owlery, and most importantly, does justice to Gryffindor tower.
It also has a very cool feature: the carefully designed mechanical clock tower. After winding up the wind-up motor, a pendulum swings back and forth in the entry area while simultaneously a portcullis-like gate rises to allow entry into the castle. The one hitch is that once the gate is raised as far as it can, the pendulum can no longer swing until you've dropped the gate to allow it to continue. Also the question comes to mind as how Hogwarts can run efficiently with the poor students having to dodge around the pendulum every time they want to leave or exit.
Another cool feature are the moving staircases, which come much closer to the stairs in the movie that the previous set.
There is also a nice little trap door that can be activated if Draco Malfoy gets a bit too obnoxious.
Finally, the Gryffindor tower area is very well done, with beds for Harry and Ron and a desk below. The one difficulty here is that the Fat Lady portrait is set up to only represent the period after the attack by Sirius Black, so it's a little awkward if you want to play with parts of the plot that happened before that event.
The dementors are really well done--wonderfully creepy.
My main dismay is that Lego has decided to change the skin color of the minifigures to an attempt at flesh tone, rather than the previous yellow. This makes it difficult for those of us who have previous sets and wish to use figures such as Professor McGonagall (yellow) with Professor Lupin (pale peach).
Still, if your imagination can get around all the cylindrical bumps on every surface, I suppose you should be able to rise above this as well. :-)

I own the very first Hogwarts Castle. This came out in 2001. The first one took me no more than an hour to build, and the instructions were all very clear.Now the first Hogwarts Castle doesn't have as good as looks, but is very fun to play with. Unfortunately the steps are hard to work and there arent as much areas to go exploring to.
The second set is much better. The steps are not like the ones on the first hogwarts set. They are very easy to control. This set also has many more locations than the first set had. It has some of the classrooms. Plus, this set you get a pair of dementors to go alng with it. This Hogwarts Castle looks a lot nicer and has many more pieces, and for what? The same azact price?
Now if i had to chose one of the two i would chose the second, and newest version, but dont take this review as saying that the other castle is not at all what you are looking for. Thank you!

I bought this for my 4 year old son (as his 2004 Hanukkah gift). He LOVES it!

Although it is way too complicated for him to put together himself, he still loves it because it comes with over 900 pieces and he gets to be very creative...(and it keeps him busy for hours!) Highly recommended.

Zev Saftlas, Author of Motivation That Works [...]

I have had this set for about a year and I have never lost interest in it.There are a lot of different places to put the minifigs in. It has 8 rooms.The entrance hall,potions class,dumbledores office,some useless trapdoor room, transfiguration class,another useless room,an owlery,and divination.Dont forget the Griffindor tower. Includes Dumbledore,Harry Potter,Hermione Granger,Ron weasley,Draco Malfoy,Professor Trelawney,and two dementors.Its worth the money but dont pay more than $90.00 for it.


P.S. Trelawney splits in half quite easily.I recommend Elmers glue.

I think this is the best harry potter lego set yet.
This set covers the entire hogwarts castle.
It also includes two dementors,Harry,Ron,Hermione,Professor Mcgonagall,Professor Dumbledore,2 owls,and Scabbers.
There is also a cool wind-up motor that makes the clock move,but you have to be very careful when you get to the where you put in the motor.I bought this set a week ago and finished it in 2 days, but it broke so I built it again.Overall,I think this set is definitley worth the price.
SO GET THIS SET!!!!!

Before buying this set, its important to know what your child (or you) want in terms of building, playing and of course the usefulness of the pieces after half of them are lost and your child has moved on to his or her own creations.
I come from a school where building it is the most important part, and this was a less than fulfilling build. With a large set like this I am accustomed to spending anywhere between 1 and 2 hours with my son on construction. However, this set took us just over a half hour. But if you (and your child) are more interested in the 'playability' of the set, I would say it scores high. After we finished, my son spent the rest of the day reenacting and creating his own Harry Potter exploits.
The other factor to be considered it the usefulness of these pieces on their own (when half of them get lost in the sofa). I guess the pieces are pretty useful in other creations, but I was mostly annoyed with how big they were. The bigger and more specific pieces are the less creative my son's other castles become and the more they resemble Hogwart's Castle. Since the point of Legos is to encourage creativity, this seemed to be a huge weakness and kind of counter productive.
Overall, I would recommend other sets that involve more frequent and simpler pieces.

I bought this for my 5-year-old nephew who loves Lego sets and Harry Potter. While it provides hours of entertainment, concentration/focus and independent play time for him it also helps him work on his fine motor skills -- which he doesn't get with sports and other favorite activities. He needs a little assistence at times because some of the pieces are very small and a little tricky for little fingers.

I like this one better than the first one because it's not just a bunch of walls and towers. There are actual rooms!! There are 8 rooms in the main building and three in Gryffindor tower.

I do have one question: Why is Draco in his Quidditch uniform?! There's no Quidditch supplies in here! If Draco is in his Quidditch uniform, why isn't Harry?!

i got this toy for christmas,and i think it is awesome!the other cool thing is the skin of the characters is white instead of yellow.there is trapdoors,moving staircases,spiders,<not ron's favorite>frogs,and other cool stuff.the set includes:

-harry potter

-hermione granger

-ron weasley

-draco malfoy

-proffesor dumbledore

-proffesor trelawny

and 927 pcs

this set is neato mosquito! i love it. It come with 2 skeletons with hoods & capes,some old guy,a nerd with glasses{Harry},Hermione,Ron,& Prof. McGonagoL.it took me three & a half hours to build it.its defenently worth the price.i like the classrooms & moving staircase's.it even has a moving clock.if you have the old castle{4709)you can combine it with this one(4757).I have to go now buh-bye.