In 2017 and 2018, I tackled the two largest sets that the LEGO Group had to offer. First off was #10256-1 Taj Mahal, which at the time was the second largest set out there with 5,923 pieces. Then it was #75192-1 Millennium Falcon with 7,541 pieces. Well the previous #2 is now #3 and I got sucked into buying and building the new #2. Hogwarts Castle (#71043-1 ) has 6,020 pieces. It was released on 2 September 2018 or as can be seen below, it was put on shelves in LEGO stores on 1 September. The retail price in the US is $399.99 which works out to be $0.066 per piece.
I used some VIP points, bought during double VIP points, made sure there was a good free offer to go with a purchase over a certain dollar amount, and used EBates (to get $20 back at the time). Still not a cheap set, but not a bad way to get a substantial discount on it.
Below is the box the set came in (it had an outer box to protect the inner box). The tag says it was made in Mexico in August 2018. I bought it in November so it sat for three months after production.
Here’s what the set box looks like. The front shows the front of the set while the back shows the back of the set and some of the details inside the castle that are included.
The contents included 37 numbered parts bags, 3 parts bag with larger pieces and BURPs, and a package that included the instructions and stickers. Some of the parts were in the separate white box shown while some were just in the main box. I’m not sure why they had that distinction.
The first instruction book had a write up about the design team, some info about designing the set, and info about the set designer and graphic designer. Definitely something interesting and out of the ordinary, but cool for a set to have.
There are 3 sheets of stickers. I’ve seen debate on some of the sites about whether to use the stickers or not. There are a lot and I don’t like stickers, but I decided to use them anyways.
The parts box, inside the set box, inside the LEGO big set box, that was inside the shipping box…
Instructions
Set contents
Stickers
The full build is built on two bases if you want to call them that. The first book completes the first base. The bottom portion contains a lot of the BURP pieces as well as a lot of slopes and cheese slopes to make the BURPs look like the bottom base of the castle. The whole assembly is pretty sturdy and it took some time to build as you really had to pay attention to where the cheese slopes went on which part of the BURP. Normally I can just complete each step and move onto the next one, but for this build I had to pull the pieces for that step and then build. That way I knew whether I had done everything for that step or not.
Here are two views of the build from the first instruction book below.
The bags for the first book also included the boats (pictured later). I did some Googling and it looks like the boats are used by first year students to cross the lake from the train station to get to the castle and then return to the train station. They are also used by graduating students. They first appeared in the book/movie “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”
The first book also includes a minifigure for Godric Gryffindor (pictured later). He has the sword of Gryffindor and a wand. The set includes a stand that you build and put stickers on picturing the crest of each house at Hogwarts. That stand is easy to build and I like how they used the stickers to show who each of the minifigures are.
Finally, below the base built with the first instruction book is the Chamber of Secrets. It includes the entrance to the chamber and then the chamber itself with the basilisk inside.
The Chamber of Secrets
The door to the Chamber of Secrets
The second instruction book finishes the first half of the build. It includes the Great Hall, the main tower, and the courtyard. The top also includes a bunch of dementors. It also includes the minifigure for Helga Hufflepuff.
The main tower (is there another name for it?) is built very similar to the building technique of #21309-1 NASA Apollo Saturn V. I’m not sure where, but I thought I saw a LEGO video somewhere where the designers of both sets shared building techniques with each other. Anyone know what I’m talking about?
Inside the Great Hall
Moaning Myrtle’s Bathroom (top)
Moving stairs (bottom)
Professor Dumbledore’s office (not pictured above the bathroom)
Tower
Hungarian Horntail Dragon
The third book is the second part of the bottom base. It is very similar to the first base with a lot of BURPs and slopes to add detail. It includes the minifigure for Salazar Slytherin.
Wizard’s Chess Board
The room on the left is the Room of Requirements and the room on the right is a Potions Classroom.
The Flying Keys room with the broom to ride to catch the right key.
The Mirror of Erised
The set includes a number of small builds within the larger set. I will go through them quickly here.
Boats for crossing the Black Lake
The Whomping Willow with the Weasley car. You can see my review of the Whomping Willow set here.
Hagrid’s Hut to include the garden with pumpkins and Aragog (the spider). You can see my review of the Aragog’s Lair set here.
The set includes 28 minifigures. This includes 4 of the standard sized minifigures. The 4 minifigures are the namesakes for each of the houses of Hogwarts. From left to right they are Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin, and Rowena Ravenclaw.
The remaining minifigures are microfigures. There are 24 for some reason my set had 36. The 4x12 plate was not part of the set, but I grabbed it from my spare bricks to put them on.
The fourth instruction book finished the build. As you can see from the pictures, there are a few additional rooms that get finished. The first is the school’s library. The picture I took gives a good view of how the designers gave the windows the stained glass look. Using 1x2 grills and translucent colored plates it gives the windows a pretty cool look. The next picture includes Professor Umbrige’s office from “The Order of the Phoenix” book/movie. It also shows the Defense of the Dark Arts classroom on the right side.
School library (top) with the Room of Requirements (bottom left) and Potions classroom (bottom right)
Professor Umbridge’s Office (top left)
Defense of the Dark Arts Classroom (top right)
Chamber of Secrets Warning (bottom)
So here’s the final set (without Hagrid’s Hut and the Whomping Willow). Was it worth what I paid? Overall, I think yes. I enjoyed the build. It was challenging and fun. There are a lot of great pieces and techniques used in it. I was nervous at first that it would be all small pieces since it is at a smaller scale, but it thankfully is not all small pieces. The stickers were annoying, but not too bad and they do provide some nice details to the set. I think part of the argument is that each book/movie adds different parts to the castle and they weren’t all there at once (like Professor Umbridge was only in one book/movie). In my mind it’s all good. I’m not trying to build the Castle for a specific movie. I wanted to capture it all like the designers built it. So not a big deal. If you want to build the set by book/movie, then go out and buy 7 sets and use only the stickers that apply to each book/movie.
Will this set ever go on sale? Hard to say. Usually LEGO doesn’t discount the really big sets. Sometimes Amazon.com or Walmart will, but you have to be right on the site when they announce the sale to get it because everyone else sitting there and waiting will scoop it up. Using VIP points helped and getting double VIP points was good too.
In the end it was definitely worth the investment. Now I just have to figure out where to put it. Along with where to put the Millennium Falcon and Taj Mahal.
Happy building!
