REVIEW: Hagrid’s hut is back

75947 – Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeak’s Rescue

During each year at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione go and visit their friend Rubeus Hagrid, gamekeeper and keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts. Hagrid lives in a hut outside the castle and this is the key feature of the new Harry Potter set 75947 “Hagrid’s hut: Buckbeak’s rescue“. Does it stack up?

Box and content

The box follows the same general artwork and colour scheme from the 2018 sets with the only difference Harry Potter is now written in golden letters while it was silver in 2018. With the forest covered mountains as backdrop, the hut looks amazing, helped by fresh colours from Hermione’s pink shirt and the orange pumpkins.

As usual the back shows shots of the interior and various play features. We see the trio having tea with Hagrid inside and the lit up fireplace.

Inside the box you find three large bags of parts, a small bag with the hippogriff Buckbeak, a manual and luckily only a small sticker sheet.

Minifigures

The set contains a Minifigures in total. The in bag 1 and another three in bag 2.

In bag 1 we find figures for:

• Hagrid (of course, it’s his hut after all)
• Cornelius Fudge (Minister of Magic)
• Walden Macnair (the executioner)

As the figures suggest, the set focus on the scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where Buckbeak is to be executed following his incident with Draco Malfoy earlier in the book. Neither Cornelius Fudge not Walden Macnair have been made as LEGO minifigures before.

The front of the figures are all printed, with Cornelius also featuring printing on the legs.

Walden, the executioner, comes with a big axe while Hagrid has a lamp and his signature pink umbrella. Unfortunately Hagrid’s dog Fang is nowhere to be seen. Also a crossbow as accessory would have been nice but this has also been left out.

Only one facial expression printed on the heads though. A sad Hagrid would have been a nice addition.

Two of the minifigure torsos have printing on the back too; Cornelius and Walden.

Bag 2 contains Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger with brand new torso prints. The printing represents the clothes the had on the day they went back in time to save both buckbeak and Sirius. Hermione’s print includes the time turner that play a key role in the scene where Buckbeak is rescued.

We also get the posable junior legs in three different colours, though with no printing.

The trio comes with two facial expressions printed, happy faces (as above) and upset/angry which fits well with how they felt when Buckbeak was to be executed.

All the have back torso prints, though less detailed than the fronts.

Hagrid’s hut

The first bag completes half of the main octagon of the hut.

The outside shows brickwork with different coloured stones and climbing wines and a small wooden stair leading up to the main entrance of the hut.

The interior include an armchair and a crate with room for a shovel and Hagrid’s umbrella.

With the window in place is time to try taking some photos looking to represent actual scenes.

Bag 2 includes the bricks need to complete the main octagon, including the roof. It looks fine by itself when set up with the figures.

Within the hut the main addition is the fireplace complete with light brick and as a nice touch, the dragon egg being kept warm by the fire (to hatch and become Norbert from the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone).

There’s also a table with a couple of chairs. A teapot stand on the table, but the inclusion of a few mugs and maybe biscuits too would have been nice.

Finally, bag 3 includes the smaller octagon building build in the same style as the bigger.

The interior includes a chest and a small table with a newspaper.

Buckbeak and the pumpkin patch

In this set, many may be most pleased to see the return of Buckbeak in a new moulded form and with printing. The previous version which came in both Draco’s Encounter with Buckbeak (set 4750) and Sirius Black’s escape (set 4753) was pretty good but lacked the printing you’ve come to expect from modern figures. So the inclusion of a much loved character like Buckbeak here will be a major selling point.

With the printing of the eyes and feathers, the new moulded Buckbeak does look amazing.

The pumpkin patch is found in bag 3 and include a bunch of pumpkins with the smaller based on orange minifig heads and some bigger based on a new mould.

The pumpkin patch also include a post to which Buckbeak can be chained. Poor Buckbeak…

Overall impression

With only three bags of bricks (though fairly large bags), my initial impression was this set was very overpriced. However, I realised once I started building that I was pretty happy with the purchase regardless.

The six minifigs are awesome, with detailed prints and include two characters from the Harry Potter universe represented as minifigures for the first time.

To this comes Buckbeak, with a great mould and printed head looking stunning overall.

The hut is nicely designed and not repetitive in building, with only a few sections for the roof being identical.

The stonework is well done for a non Creator Expert set, with a reasonable mix of stone colours and irregularities from adding tiles on the walls.

I generally dislike panels as part of models and I’m pleased that only two have been used (none had been even better). One is behind the fireplace and not really visible from the inside.

The hut is not completed all around having an open back unlike all the previous versions of Hagrid’s hut released. I’m planning to do a version with the back closed in the next few weeks.

The pumpkin patch complete the set, and nice to see they haven’t just thrown in a couple of pumpkins – the set includes seven!

Combined, the set includes all the parts needed to recreate some of the key scenes from The Prisoner of Azkaban.

But with the high price point and lack of things like Fang, a crossbow for Hagrid, and a few mugs is a set best picked up on sale.

I better start looking at the other new sets. Till next time, build the magic!