Bricktober Harry Potter pack review

Back when the Bricktober Harry Potter pack got revealed a few months ago, I wrote a brief summary of the included figures. Now, at the end of October, I finally got my hands on a physical copy, and I’m really impressed by the quality of the figures. Below a closer look at the individual figures, but let’s first see how prices have moved since the early release in Germany in September.

Price development – a traditional case of supply and demand

The Bricktober set was released already in September in Toys’R’Us stores in Germany and when it became available, it was in fairly limited quantities compared to global demand. As result, prices were high with the Bricklink average sales price (quantity weighted) hitting $70.47 (Australian dollars). For remote places, such as Australia, prices were getting close to $100 (Australian dollars) when adding postage. And don’t get me started on Ebay prices!

Full set	Min Price:	Avg Price:	Qty Avg Price:	Max Price:
September	AU $36.14	AU $73.12	AU $70.49	AU $97.11
October	AU $28.69	AU $46.92	AU $45.19	AU $88.87

October came, and the set became much more widely available, hitting Toys’R’Us stores in places like Canada, across Europe and in Singapore. It seems to have had some limited availability in the US too from Barnes and Noble. That dropped the average price to $45.19 (Australian dollars) as we saw a lot more sellers. Rumours suggests that many Barnes and Noble sets are kept for November, when the new Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald movie has premiere. Depending on numbers, that may see prices come further down, otherwise, now may be the best time to get this pack.

Zooming in on individual figures, firstly it should be noted that not many have been sold yet. With very few actual sales, below is a comparison of the the average price for figures currently for sale (quantity weighted). I note it is almost similar among the four. I would have expected some already now stood out as more popular and had significantly higher prices – while a figure like Hooch seems reasonable, being offered at a price close to that of the 2010 version, which looked quite similar.

Figure	Min Price:	Avg Price:	Qty Avg Price:	Max Price:
Hooch	AU $12.86	AU $16.05	AU $17.58	AU $20.90
Slughorn	AU $16.15	AU $20.95	AU $21.94	AU $28.95
Umbridge	AU $16.15	AU $20.59	AU $21.29	AU $28.95
Boggart	AU $12.86	AU $17.34	AU $18.67	AU $24.12

Unboxing the figure pack

As for the figures themselves, they all look awesome. The printing is sharp, and fits the characters perfectly. There’s also a good range of accessories. Below a series of photo’s of the unpacked figures.

Madame Hooch

First up is Madame Hooch, the flying teacher. The comes with the most accessories of them all, having both a broom, a wand and a cape (in the new soft cloth design). There’s printing on both sides of the torso (though the back cannot be seen when wearing the cape) and the head has dual printing too, as shown in the figure below.

Professor Slughorn

I like when new characters become available as minifigures. Slughorn is a rather important character in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, so the addition of him is particular appreciated. He comes with a wand, and a potion in a glass bottle (he was the potions teacher after all, after Snape finally became Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. As Hooch, he comes with printing on both sides of the torso and two facial expressions printed on the head. The dark bluish grey hair also have light grey spots on the temples.

Madame Umbridge

It is nice to see the return of Umbridge, who only had come in one set previously, and is extremely hard to find. In addition to the printed front and back of the torso (and dual facial expressions) her legs are also printed to represent her dress. The hair piece is awesome. She comes with a tea cup and a wand.

Boggart Snape

Finally, we see a much, much improved version of the boggart form of Severus Snape (the person most feared by Neville Longbottom), once Neville used the Riddikulus charm.

The wardrobe burst open. Hook-nosed and menacing, Professor Snape stepped out, his eyes flashing at Neville.

Neville backed away, his wand up, mouthing wordlessly. Snape was bearing down upon him, reaching inside his robes.

‘R-r-riddikulus!’ squeaked Neville.

There was a noise like a whip-crack. Snape stumbled, he was wearing a long, lace-trimmed dress and a towering hat topped with a moth-eaten vulture, and swinging a huge crimson handbag from his hand.

There was a roar of laughter, the Boggart paused, confused, and Professor Lupin shouted, ‘Parvati! Forward!’

I’m looking forward to add that to my display of Lupin’s classroom. The fur scarf around the neck and handbag are perfect accessories for this model.

Build the magic!