Okay, I know this Minifigure series has been around since last August. You have probably read a review or two of them on the net already. But, I like to slowly collect my Minifigures, and spread the joy out over several weeks or months. As such, I buy a load of them at once, and then I only open one or two at a time. I do spend a lot of time feeling up blind bags in the store, so I am generally pretty sure that I have all the Minifigs that I want. But, at home I still select them at random to open, because it is a little fun to not be sure which one is coming. It also generally builds anticipation for that one character I am REALLY looking forward to. The end result is, however, that I don’t get around to reviewing my Minifigures until months after their release. In the past, I have just not reviewed several series at all because of that. But, the Harry Potter Minifigures are a little different in my mind.
I did not collect all of the Harry Potter series. I only collected the ones that really appealed to me for one reason or another. Mostly, I wanted the characters I liked the most from the films and books, but I also wanted the characters who had something new to offer to my collection. So, this review will focus less on design, and more on the novelty of the Minifigures.
I will begin with what was probably the biggest development that came about with the new Harry Potter Minifigures: medium sized legs. I love these. I am over the moon that The LEGO® Group has finally produced them. I have long moaned and groaned about those stupid, stumpy “child” legs. I hate them. It bothers me to no end that they don’t have any articulation. It bothers me even more that they make regular Minifigure torsos look disproportionate. The arms look overly long, which has lead to me to coin the characters with these legs as “ape-children”. I really hope to see more of these medium legs in lieu of the short legs. Granted, the Minifigures are not as short anymore, but they are still shorter than a full sized Minifig, and they don’t look so ape-like.
My next favorite newbies are the animals. The Harry Potter theme has always had owls. You get a couple of nicely detailed ones in this series. But, you get some new animals too. What excited me the most was Nagini. This is the first Minifigure scale constrictor snake. Prior to this, we have gotten some smaller snakes, but this one was a must have for me. We also got a new rat in this series, in the form of Scabbers, who comes with Ron Weasley. I believe this same mold was seen in the City theme last year, but this is the first time I have gotten my hands on it. It is a definite improvement over the old, rather un-detailed rats.
Another new Minifigure piece was the robes worn by Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Trelawney. In the past, robes and dresses have always been slanted roof tiles with some printing on them. They had regular studs on the top that did not stick to a Minifigure torso particularly well, in my opinion. This new piece is designed for a Minifigure, with pegs on top, just like Minifigure legs. The back is also curved, giving it a more realistic look.
You get a few other new accessories as well. I won’t go through them all, but the wands are pretty notable. Dumbledore has a new hat/hair and beard, and Trelawney has fun new hair too. I don’t remember seeing Moody’s hair before, or Luna’s, but I might be wrong. Moody comes with a new flask piece. Flitwick also has a new hairpiece, but it is the same one that came with the exclusive Minifigure frame character last October. One of my favorites is Tina Goldstein’s hair and hat.
There are a number of color variants too. Dumbledore’s pensieve for one. Han Solo’s newer hair from the Star Wars theme also gets a repaint for Ron Weasley, as does the feathered women’s hair for Hermione. Neville’s hair is a repaint of the piece that came with the gamer Minifig in series 12, which is always welcome. While not a repaint, it was also great to get another spooky girl hairpiece on Cho Chang.
All of the Minifigures in this series are really nicely detailed. I have had a lot of fun photographing them too. If I collected the Harry Potter sets, I imagine these would go well with them, maybe even better than some of the Minifigures that come in the sets. I have to say that the best Minifigure in series, in my humble opinion, is Professor Trelawney though. She comes with an awesome new hairpiece, loads of detail, and a new cup and saucer piece.
While this was by no means an exhaustive look at all of the Harry Potter Minifigures, it does highlight my favorite bits. This was a great series for Potter fans, but it was equally great for new Minifigure accessories and parts. There are a lot of re-usable things for even the non-Harry Potter fans out there. Where else are you going to get a python? Or a tea cup and saucer? I give this series a solid thumbs up for fun and design. Now, it’s on to the next series!
Until next time,
-Tom
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“If I collected the Harry Potter sets, I imagine these would go well with them, maybe even better than some of the Minifigures that come in the sets.”
You are correct! Dumbledore in particular is a huge improvement over what they gave us in the Great Hall set.
I still have mixed feelings about the medium-sized legs. They look better when the figures are in a standing pose, but they look really odd to me when the figures are sitting down.
Ah… The Great Hall… I am still debating if I should get that one. If only budgets were not a thing, lol. I suppose the medium legs do look a little odd when the Minifig sits. I still greatly prefer them simply because they can sit 😃
I like that the Great Hall is designed to connect with other sets. I have a nice display set up right now. By itself, though, I thought the Great Hall was a little overpriced.