It’s now June and here’s our personal review of 76408 LEGO 12 Grimmauld Place from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. The set will be available for purchase worldwide in June (a little bit later in the USA on June 19th). This depiction is likely timed during the events of the Order of the Phoenix.
Box Experience
We have a pretty typical Harry Potter Box that we’ve come to know with a dark blue border and Harry Potter casing a spell around the box.
Unboxing
Inside you’ll find 7 bags of parts and a pack containing the instruction booklet and one sticker sheet. You’ll also find a loose part in the box which will be used for an interesting Weasley contraption.
Here’s a closer look at the sticker sheet which includes the doors for all three “houses”, the Black Family Tapestry, 5 portraits, a Gryffindor plaque, blanket and a red velvet curtain.
The Black Family Tapestry is magnificent and invokes a sort of olden grandeur as described in the books and shown in the movie.
“En Strips Nobilis Et Gens Antiquissima Black – “Behold the Noble Lineage and Oldest Clan Black”
The Build
The start of the build takes us immediately to the mechanism that enables the magical appearance of 12 Grimmauld Place . Two sub-assemblies are slid in place into grooved bricks and the stopper for the opening motion is controlled by a bent Technic link on each side. Once closed up, you see that the main bulding is hidden behind the two dummy buildings.
Once built up, you have 3 narrow buildings, each with 3 levels. The hidden building is in dark gray while the others are in medium nougat. Once closed up, there still is a small gap between the two buildings which is to be expected. The doors are all stickers. Some may be puzzled at the chosen position of the lampposts but his is because of the opening/closing mechanism being activated by the pushing/pulling of said lampposts that are inconspicuously connected to the sides of the houses 🙂
@candidbricks LEGO 12 Grimmauld Place “It’s ideal for Headquarters, of course. My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It’s unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call — as if they’d ever have wanted to — and now Dumbledore’s added his protection, you’d be hard put to find a safer house anywhere.” #lego #harrypotter #fyp #afol #wizardingworldofharrypotter #potterhead
The whole base is actually slightly above ground to accommodate the sliding mechanism. This is cleverly hidden/disguised when closed, by the steps leading to the houses. The distance between windows is also perfect to disguise the house hiding behind.
Here are some pictures of the different rooms that is accessible at the back of the building
You have a fake door on the 1st/ground floor of the left most building, the kitchen/dining area in the middle building. The designer has also utilized the empty technic holes from the bent link to include two chandeliers
Next up you have a with a fake window on the right most building. This looks to be Kreacher’s living space judging by the packed area and the printed curtain lifting to uncover a certain portrait.
We have to admit that we’re not hardcore fans of Harry Potter so we apologize that we won’t be able to identify most easter eggs here.
The 2nd/first floor of the left most building houses an armchair and the middle building has a standing piano (where Herminone and Ron shared a tune or twoin the movies) while the right most building houses the Black Family Tapestry
The highest floor of the building(s) gives us a bed on the left and right building. The bed on the left has some beige bats hanging overhead. The middle building houses a spooky attic with 2 skulls in jars and a lone candle.
The rooftop houses two chimneys and a lone TV antenna
The minifigures included breathe so much life into the build. Kreacher the house elf must be terribly annoyed. The cheeky addition of the “Extendable Ears” creation by the Weasley brothers is very welcome but is a bit of an annoyance when storing the set , a bit like the Weasley brothers 😉
The only functioning door here is the middle door leading to 12 Grimmauld Place. The two adjoining buildings both feature a fake door at the front.
The floors of the side building can be taken down for ease of play/posing.
The Minifigures
A total of 9 minifigures (and a cat) are included
Sirius Black and Harry Potter
This is probably the first time we see Sirius in his non-prison garb with a olive green jacket which continues down his thighs but unfortunately no side leg printing
Harry is in his dark blue garb from Book 3/Book 4 of the series
Identical twins Fred and George Weasley
The only thing not identical between the minifigures are their printed expressions. Both Weasleys share the same top, bottom and hairpiece. Cheery fellas aren’t they?
Mrs Molly Weasley and Ron Weasley
The decorations for the front and back of Mrs. Weasley is excellent but the design is a bit marred by the plain arms. Ron looks a bit hideous in this horizontal striped top, no doubt a hand me down from his older brothers.
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymphdora Tonks
Kingsley Shackleblot the Auror has full prints across his torso, thighs and back and is slightly different from the one from the Collectible Minifigures with the lack of a decorative skullcap (just plain blue here) and no arm printing (like the rest of the minifigures here)
Nymphadora Tonks comes with a red hairpiece for she gets angry and her alternate print shows her metamorphing her nose. The back print showing the red lining of the hood is a nice detail lifted out from the movie.
Kreacher and Crookshanks
Kreacher the house elf looks good here clad in his household sheets. the skin peeking out on this torso unfortunately suffers from the same light print on dark base issue whereby the outcome makes it it’s decidedly lighter than intended. How about a white primer before the skin coloured pad print TLG? 🙂
It is most unfortunate that Crookshanks looks like an everyday generic cat here but you still can see the printed expression showing it’s aloofness.
It looks as though the flying brooms have a new style nowadays with a two component assembly. It looks nice to say the least.
Summary
We give this set a good 4.5/5 with a healthy mix of minfiigures and build details.
The opening/closing mechanism is faultless.
The designer did well to include so many details in such a small area especially the two dummy buildings.
