Review: 76382 Hogwarts Moment: Transfiguration Class
Posted by CapnRex101,The innovative Hogwarts Moments range has provoked great interest, comprising four books which open to create different classrooms from throughout the Harry Potter saga. They feature several fantastic minifigures as well, associated with each classroom.
I have been especially anticipating the updated Professor McGonagall figure which accompanies 76382 Hogwarts Moment: Transfiguration Class. Furthermore, the folding classroom concept seems intriguing, loosely resembling the unusual 4721 Hogwarts Classrooms that arrived during 2001 and featured cardboard walls!
Minifigures
Professor McGonagall has appeared in several previous sets, although this example has been updated for greater accuracy when compared with her onscreen counterpart. The combined hat and hair component seems particularly attractive, capturing the crooked shape of McGonagall's distinctive headwear and improving upon the classic witch's hat that originated during 1993.
The double-sided head displays appropriate detail too, including metallic silver spectacles and two different expressions. One side appears kindly while the other is stern, perfectly reflecting Professor McGonagall's personality. The robe decoration appears similarly effective and I am pleased to see this printed skirt piece, following its original appearance with 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall at the New York Toy Fair during 2018. By the time the set was actually released, it contained printed legs instead.
Moreover, the minifigure includes a book which opens to reveal an exclusive printed tile! This element takes inspiration from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where a blackboard displays a bird transforming into a water goblet inside Professor McGonagall's classroom. An appropriate black wand is also provided.
Two students accompany each Hogwarts Moment set, including Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger on this occasion. These characters are both exceptionally common across the Harry Potter range, second and third to Harry himself, but their presence with the head of Gryffindor seems fitting. Ron features a splendid dark orange hair piece and two expressions, appearing cheerful and alarmed.
Hermione's double-sided head also features smiling and frightened expressions and I like her textured hair piece which has appeared on multiple previous occasions. However, these torsos are brand new. Further to the standard tie and colourful stripes above the hem, Gryffindor crests adorn each element and the fabric creases have been updated.
Reddish brown and dark tan wands are included with Ron and Hermione, respectively. Ron's aged rat, Scabbers, is also provided which seems suitable given his important role during the Transfiguration class, being partially transformed into a water goblet!
The Completed Model
The new Hogwarts Moments sets are constructed around books which are decorated with the colours of each house. These colours are not wholly consistent with the traditional designs for each house though and this combination of dark orange and flame yellowish orange elements seems odd for Gryffindor, given its traditional associated with red. Nevertheless, these shades look attractive together in my opinion, especially with metallic gold highlights.
These metallic gold decorations incorporate various references to the Transfiguration class, including Ron's questionable effort to transform Scabbers into a water goblet and Professor McGonagall's feline Animagus form. The famous Hogwarts crest at the centre looks fantastic and I am delighted to report that this large element is printed. Moreover, I like how the patterns around the smaller images could be assembled using LEGO tiles, comprising familiar shapes.
Another 10x16 book cover component forms the back cover, although this part lacks printing. The hinges along the edge connect neatly with the spine and I like the flame yellowish orange highlights which decorate this section of the book, along with each corner. The dark tan pieces visible here are required to join the books together, either for display as books on a shelf or for arranging the open classrooms into connected shapes.
The edges of the pages inside this book appear slightly untidy, although less than one might anticipate given the complexity of the internal structure. Opening the book reveals numerous walls and furnishings which are strangely arranged to occupy the smallest possible area. The blackboard fitted sideways is particularly fun and I am impressed with such efficient use of the internal space.
Removing the cabinets, tables and blackboard from their storage positions provides several items for distribution within the classroom. Additionally, I like how the walls fold outwards and form archways wrapping around the room. The resulting architecture definitely resembles that from the onscreen classroom, including Gothic archways with spectacular windows above.
Professor McGonagall's desk is extremely simple, featuring a dark tan sticker with scrollwork across the front. Another sticker depicts books stacked on the neighbouring shelves while the third sticker shows a LEGO frog transfiguring into a goblet on the blackboard. This seems odd since the authentic design appears inside Professor McGonagall's book, although I appreciate the consistency between this graphic and the yellow frog element.
Unfortunately, several additional stickers are placed across the wall. They are relatively large and liable to trap dust or air bubbles underneath during application which is slightly frustrating, although I do like the colourful windows. The lower stickers look nice too, although these differ from the onscreen classroom which lacks ground level windows at this end of the chamber. Additionally, the yellow 1x1 round tile visible below appears awkward, although this is required to prevent the book closing too far during its transformation.
Three portraits are situated at the centre of this chamber. Once again, these are reliant upon stickers but I think they look great, presumably depicting members of the LEGO Harry Potter design team as Gryffindor alumni. The uppermost character resembles Marcos Bessa and all three students carry accessories in their portraits. The candles flanking them look brilliant as well.
Overall
76382 Hogwarts Moment: Transfiguration Class definitely deviates from the standard Harry Potter collection and offers tremendous play value. The similar Storybook Adventures range from Disney has evidently proven popular and I anticipate these portable classrooms proving equally successful, especially since these involve more intricate construction than their Disney counterparts and appear more detailed.
The transformation between book and classroom configurations is impressive and I think either design is worthy of display, although the reliance upon stickers is somewhat disappointing. The minifigures are brilliant though and I love the new Professor McGonagall in particular. However, the price of £27.99 or $29.99 feels slightly expensive within the broader Harry Potter range and waiting for a discount might therefore be beneficial.
This set was provided for review by The LEGO Group but the review represents an expression of my own opinions.
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44 comments on this article
$30 seems a bit steep. Using Jang's "volume of stuff" metric, $20 would be more appropriate.
I like the idea, though. The HP series presents a challenge for Lego where a LOT of the "action" in the books/movies (particularly the first four) take place in classrooms. Not a super dynamic setting. This seems like a creative way to capture that aspect of the series.
Nice review! I was wondering, do all the minifigs fit inside the book as well when it's closed?
I love the idea of these books but I can't help but feel they're a missed opportunity to give us some students we haven't seen before. Nice thing about school uniform is they wouldn't need new torso prints!
Agree with many of you, this is a cool concept, I love that they collapse into books.
Perhaps the red color didn’t look “book like” enough so they went with this color scheme? Or dark red isn’t consistent enough for large pieces? I know that color sometimes has issues. Those are my two guesses anyway.
@BrickBees said:
"Nice review! I was wondering, do all the minifigs fit inside the book as well when it's closed?"
Good question. Unfortunately not but you could fit Professor McGonagall between the archways when the book is closed.
These are nice but I want the Herbology class.
"Additionally, the yellow 1x1 round tile above one archway appears awkward."
What's that piece actually for? There's no mention of it being decorated so is it for practical purposes? For things to rest on when folded up into book form?
Appropriate that the transformations classroom itself transforms..
In America, most HP Lego sets can be purchased at 20% off eventually. That puts the price at an acceptable $26.
Yes, I was intrigued, and didn't mind all the stickers, right up until the price was mentioned!
And only this and Herbology look all that interesting. The Potions class seems to be just a lot of stickered walls, and ironically the Charms class has the least charm of them all! (Right down to the official LEGO picture mistakenly showing a spare key still on its sprue as part of the set...)
@guachi said:
"In America, most HP Lego sets can be purchased at 20% off eventually. That puts the price at an acceptable $26."
That's generally how you have to eval pricing. What is the price before the Automatic Amazonian Markup. Sign of the times...welcome to the final show. :)
@Brickalili said:
""Additionally, the yellow 1x1 round tile above one archway appears awkward."
What's that piece actually for? There's no mention of it being decorated so is it for practical purposes? For things to rest on when folded up into book form?"
Looks like it's to help orientate the desk so it lines up correctly with the opposite side to allow closing things up into book form.
I really love this series of books. I just going to force them on my daughter x-D
Looks like a stickers per part ratio of over 0.05! I wonder what the record is..
Either way this is a great concept.
"Four portraits are situated at the centre of this chamber." I seem to be missing the fourth portrait, as I can only see three.
@darkstonegrey said:
" @Brickalili said:
""Additionally, the yellow 1x1 round tile above one archway appears awkward."
What's that piece actually for? There's no mention of it being decorated so is it for practical purposes? For things to rest on when folded up into book form?"
Looks like it's to help orientate the desk so it lines up correctly with the opposite side to allow closing things up into book form."
I also think it's to discourage people from putting something in that space since when the book is closed the space is occupied by the detachable shelves. If you look at the detachable shelves, there's a missing 1x1 gap in the bottom corner so that the 1x1 round tile fits inside it when the book is closed.
They look quite strange when they are closed.
@blogzilly said:
" @guachi said:
"In America, most HP Lego sets can be purchased at 20% off eventually. That puts the price at an acceptable $26."
That's generally how you have to eval pricing. What is the price before the Automatic Amazonian Markup. Sign of the times...welcome to the final show. :)"
I'll rely on Brickset and its daily "Amazon discounts" posts to tell me when to buy the HP Legos. Use the link and toss some coin to Brickset.
One thing I noted previously is that in each of these four sets, the professor and one student come from the same House that’s represented on the book cover. The second student is always a Gryffindor. Given who is in this set compared to the others, I’d say Hermione got the “House student” spot, while Ron joins Seamus, Neville, and Harry as the “token Gryffindor”, all of whom come across as screw-ups at some point during the classroom scenes.
@Joefish:
I remember it being a wand, and not even a spare one. I looked around and couldn’t find the matching wand anywhere in the same image.
@kelano28:
There were early Classic Space astronaut 2-packs that came with torso stickers before they started printing the designs. By official standards that would have been two stickers, ten parts for the minifigs, and however many parts they included as accessories. I’ve never seen that done for any other theme, but even that doesn’t hold the record. There’s a Kabaya Coca-Cola 6-pack (bottles in a box). The official piece count is seven (plus one extra), and it comes with two stickers. But there might be something that tops even that.
@Schmopiesdad:
Nah. There’s four. The last one wasn’t a particularly good student, and accidentally transfigured himself into a brick wall on class photo day.
I think these are a great idea. They've been making sets like this for ages, basically some room of the castle with some figures and accessories etc; and they always look a bit lame because the "room" is so minimal. This however makes a virtue of its simplicity and adds the extra play dimension of folding it away into a book. Plus you can collect all of them and grow your "library" of matching playsets. I wonder if the same idea could be applied to other themes like Star Wars?
The lower portrait is of Nico Vas, I know for a fact he was in the HP books design team. The middle one could be Djordje Djordjevic or maybe a graphic designer.
These fold out sets are reminiscent of the early colourful HP sets that had little vignettes. But ugh, stickers.
@guachi said:
"In America, most HP Lego sets can be purchased at 20% off eventually. That puts the price at an acceptable $26."
I agree, except that 20% off $30 would be $24. Even better!
These seem like really great sets. The traveling book feature is pretty nice for kids to take to grandma's house or even going from the kitchen to the bedroom without losing pieces.
Love the concept.. This is something that I would absolutely drool as a kid. A bit overpriced.
I know they are not as exciting as the big sets. These cute little builds will be in my January order.
@CCC:
If you're a kid, the minifigs probably all go into a box or a tub together. If you're an adult, they might be displayed on shelves together. Either way, there are things you can use the minifigs for that don't require the books to be open, so it's not really a failing that they can't pack inside. If anything, it just means there's more room to fit the classroom components, which means they can be bigger.
I love the entire concept of this, and it does look great, but I steer away from sets that rely too heavily on stickers, like this one does. For 30 bucks, I think it should've had prints instead of those large stickers. Obviously, it would've been even better if the details were made with actual Lego pieces, but I reckon that would've driven the cost up too much. Then again: this is Lego, so anywhere stickers are used that could've been done with Lego parts just feels like cheating.
It's a cool set and I want a more accurate McGonagall but I probably won't get this one. The Transfiguration Classroom just doesn't have much happen in it and I had to search up if it was in the film adaptations at all. It would've been cool if they included one of the birds that they transfigure into a goblet, but it's a solid enough set overall.
I'm actually glad that the decorations on the inner covers are stickers, because
1. you can take the contents out of the book, actually build walls out of bricks for the classroom to incorporate it into a more permanent Hogwarts build, using the stickers there.
2. The antistuds clash with the stickered flat areas on the cover anyway, so it would look cleaner, although less detailed, for the default book build, and you wouldn't have to have the torturous experience of applying large stickers within the recesses.
3. The back covers for the Hogwarts Moments will be pure undecorated versions, without a Hogwarts-suggestive print, and will thus be more useful in MOCs (perhaps large riveted panels on a huge spaceship that open to reveal the interior, unfortunately for Star Wars fans they don't come in gray yet) and likely source-able from LEGO Bricks & Pieces due to not being chained down to a license.
I am not a Harry Potter collector, but I do love those sets for Castle interiors, but not for €30.
Now hoping LEGO has not forgotten non-licensed Castle, with 2020's Pirates comeback and some Sci-Fi space in 2020-2021 sets via Creator 3-in-1.
I like the idea, but execution is lacking.
Why not make normal classroom set that would have more pieces instead of making huge silly printed pieces?
@capnrex101 Just so you know, the lower windows are authentic, albeit in the wrong place. I've been to the chapter house at Durham Cathedral, where this classroom was filmed, and it definitely had windows! They are on the back wall aside the entrance however.
I hate stickers. The fake brands often have amazingly printed tiles and Lego still has a slew of stickers in their sets and are very expensive. I won't buy these books because of that.
Interesting concept, but not for me as looking for standard walls, arches etc in a larger version of Prof Lupin's classroom 4752 in order to be able to connect and expand other Hogwarts sets. I also find that when there is no baseplate (even 8x8 is ok) all the furniture gets lost too easily.
@Albus said:
" @capnrex101 Just so you know, the lower windows are authentic, albeit in the wrong place. I've been to the chapter house at Durham Cathedral, where this classroom was filmed, and it definitely had windows! They are on the back wall aside the entrance however."
I live within extremely close proximity of Durham Cathedral and it does include windows at the ground level, as you said. However, I still think it is worth noting that their position with this model is incorrect.
For anybody interested, Durham Cathedral also provided the indoor shots of Asgard during Avengers: Endgame, among many other movie and television appearances!
@MisterBrickster said:
"I love the idea of these books but I can't help but feel they're a missed opportunity to give us some students we haven't seen before. Nice thing about school uniform is they wouldn't need new torso prints!"
I seriously expected more from these sets. In the early movies everyone wore their cloaks at all times so I expected these to include black cloak torsos when they are apparently banned from widespread use in the regular sets. Then it would have made sense to have crests on the torsos.
Then the teachers are all just repeats. I appreciate McGonnagals dress but that one part isn't worth the purchase of an entire set full of repeated elements. The hat seems fairly useless as the old one was shaped accurate enough in my opinion, would have rather seen a new classic magician hat that's shorter than the Death Eater one for white beard Flitwick, even if he didn't wear it in class.
And the Gryffindor set pictures show tan wands on sprues instead of dark tan. That would have been a color change I looked forward to since dark tan is really too dark for Hermiones wand. I hope those still get incorporated into other sets and weren't just overlooked, rejected test runs.
Never Tickle a sleeping dragon.
Good motto.
@capnrex101 you just had to bring up that nightmare-inducing rat cup...
I don't know if that's how the figure was intentionally designed or if that's a production error, but Ron Weasly's eyes look like he smoked a big good ol' joint, haha.
@kelano28 said:
"Looks like a stickers per part ratio of over 0.05! I wonder what the record is..
Either way this is a great concept."
Probably 853921: Brick stickers. It's the only set I can think of that has more stickers than parts. Maersk Triple E also has a lot of stickers.
It bothers me that the set even includes chairs and a desk for Ron and Hermione, but they have the non-bending kid legs instead of the newer bendy short legs.
Otherwise, looks like a very ingenious idea. I've been hesitant to buy most of the HP sets, but the display value of this series makes me very excited to get all four (once they're on sale, naturally).
Neat sets, but a bit overpriced. Likely due to the fact that retailers will discount them to 20% off at some point. Shame about the wealth of stickers involved and figures not fitting in the closed book though, as one would think that would be a selling point for the set, as they could carried around as traveling play sets if that were the case.