The second Fantastic Beasts move will be released in the US on 16 November 2018 (if you believe everything you read on the internet). Although here in Germany you can get movie tickets for 13 November. This one is called “The Crimes of Grindelwald.” Beyond seeing the trailer, I don’t know much about the movie so no spoilers to report here. I initially thought the first movie was just an attempt to keep the series going after a successful and profitable run of Harry Potter books and movies, but the first movie was actually pretty good. Hopefully this movie will be good as well.
Onto the set… #75951-1, Grindelwald’s Escape, was released in the US on 24 August 2018. It retails for $19.99, but I was able to pick it up for 16% off at Amazon.com. It has 132 pieces and 2 minifigures so that works out to $0.151 per piece which is rather steep in my opinion. I’m not sure if this is due to the Thestral figure which is unique to this set or not. Full disclosure, I had to look “Thestral” up. Otherwise, I would have just said winged-horse. Is “Thestral” even right? Anybody?
Here is the box. It’s the standard look with the set featured on the front and the play features on the back.
I had my 4-year old help me build this set (you can see her hands in the picture). As we opened the instructions, we had to follow them exactly as printed. One of the pictures shows a minifigure separating the pieces by color. This is the first time I’ve ever done that and it actually makes building very easy since you know which pile to look in. With smaller sets, I’ve never actually bothered, but it worked good for both of us.
This set has 2 bags of parts which are not numbered and an instruction booklet. There are no stickers to apply. YAY!
The set starts off with the minifigures. There are 2 which are Seraphina Picquery (in the lighter blue) and Gellert Grindelwald in the black with white hair. I have yet to see the movie so I’m not going to comment on whether they look like the movie characters or not. They both have dual faces and both come with wands and what Brickset calls a “mini shooter.”
The Thestral is next and you apply a brick harness and the wings. I’m curious to see if this figure will become popular on the secondary market or not due to its uniqueness.
Lastly is the coach. Nothing overly spectacular about this build. My kiddo had a tough time with a few of the attachments and I had to help a lot, but still it is a fairly easy build. The pieces aren’t overly exciting, but the wheels go back to the LEGO Castle days. I like the doors to the coach as well.
My overall opinion… this set isn’t too exciting. If you’re a big fan of the movie series, then it may be worth getting for the minifigures, but it didn’t do much for me. Check for sales on Walmart, Amazon.com, and/or Target. Hopefully it’ll go down in price more if you’re looking to pick it up.
Happy building!