I’m not sure why, but I’ve gotten into collecting the Harry Potter sets. I’ve never read the books, but I have seen the movies a few times. They used to be a bit more reasonable in price, but with the price increases last year, they seem over the top to me. This one is #76407-1: The Shrieking Shack & Whomping Willow. It was released on 7 May 2022 in the US for $89.99. With 777 pieces that works out to $0.116 per piece which is a bit high in my opinion. LEGO recently had it on sale for $72 and with two GWPs being offered at the same time, I couldn’t complain although $0.09 per piece isn’t the greatest either.
The good part is that my little guy is getting into LEGO and he enjoys building with me now. We built this one together… or maybe he built it and I supervised and applied stickers. We sat at our beat up kitchen table so the pictures aren’t the greatest, but it was easier than moving to take pictures as he wanted to build on his timeline and not my blog pictures.
Nothing spectacular about the box. If you’ve purchased a Harry Potter set in the past, you are familiar with how they look. Of note, the back includes a note that you get four Wizard Tiles in this set (Still? I wonder how long they will include them in sets?). All four of the tiles I got were duplicates. I have 14 of the 16, but I’m not rushing out to find the remaining two.
The set contains six numbered parts bags, an instruction booklet, and a sticker sheet.
Here are the stickers. There are a bunch, but they weren’t too bad. My daughter is a pro at putting them on and tackled most of them for us. She was good at applying the stickers on the curved surfaces and getting them to line up easily. I’m somewhat good at applying to flat tiles, but I’m not so good at curves.
Bag one builds a small fence section and then the area where the whomping willow will attach. This section has a rock piece set up so it can rotate along with a cloud. As shown on the box, when the moon comes out (3x3 round, glow in the dark tile), Professor Lupin turns into a werewolf. This is a fun play feature. This bag comes with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger minifigures… yet another set with the three main characters.
Bag two builds the whomping willow. It’s not an overly detailed build, but for the size and price point of the set, it gets the job done. #75953-1 - Hogwarts Whomping Willow from 2018 was the last time it appeared and I like this one better. This one is at an angle and there is a small gear in the back of the stand where you can make it rotate which adds to the playability of the set.
The Harry Potter minifigure comes with this bag in case you haven’t gotten a set with him in it before.
Bag three starts to build the shrieking shack. I wasn’t optimistic about this part of the build, but it actually wasn’t too bad. It’s not just stacking bricks to make a building, but instead offsetting bricks, using different colored pieces, adding in slopes and textured parts, and making it look like the old building that it is. Along with some of the white pieces to make it look like winter time, I can’t complain here.
This bag comes with Sirius Black and a dog which if you haven’t seen the movie or read the books, Sirius turns into a dog to hide.
Bag four finishes up the first floor. I will show the inside later, but the first floor has multiple boarded up windows, an interesting porch awning, the start of a chimney, and then on top, two pieces to allow rotation which was odd. My kiddo and I both were curious how these pieces would be used later in the build. Professor Lupin comes in this bag.
Bag five starts the second floor in a similar fashion as the first floor. It uses slopes, textured pieces, different colors, and tiles to create the old and abandoned effect.
The Peter Pettigrew minifigure is included here along with Scabbers, the rat belonging to Ron that ends up being Peter in hiding (spoiler alert?). I don’t think he appears often so this is a good addition to the set.
Build six finishes up the set. I like the way the roof was done with the slope, snow effect, and the two smaller windows on each side of the main window. The bottom of the second floor has round plates which connect to the turn table pieces on the top of the first floor. The second floor doesn’t spin. This instead allows you to connect the two floors so they are offset. This makes it look as if the second floor has shifted off of the first floor and is more crooked. A cool feature and interesting way to design this. The chimney is offset slightly as well which bugged my kiddo, but he understood after I explained it.
Here’s my picture of the inside. The designers did a good job decorating with a chair, piano, chest, table, and a few other items. The stickered tiles make up some busted blinds and damaged glass photos/paintings which adds to the scene.
Bag six comes with Professor Lupin as a werewolf. The molded head piece and werewolf legs are a nice touch.
While I think this set is overpriced, you have to admit that it’s not too bad to get seven minifigures and two animals. Plus the werewolf minifigure is something new.
Here’s the final build. Overall, I was more impressed than I thought I would be. It’s not a pretty looking set and to have LEGO put it on sale makes me think it isn’t selling well. I thought the build wasn’t bad and it captures the scene from the movie quite well considering the size and piece count. With seven minifigures and two animals, it’s not that bad. If you’re reading this close to when it posts, take advantage of the sale at LEGO or look for it on sale at one of the big retailers like Target, Walmart, or Amazon as it gets closer to Christmas. This one is scheduled to retire at the end of this year so don’t wait if you are interested. If' you’re not a Harry Potter fan, I’d stay away from this one unless you are looking for pieces or you want the werewolf minifigure parts for a MOC.
What are your thoughts on this one?
Happy building!
