THROWBACK THURSDAY REVIEW: Quality Quidditch Supplies

4719 – Quality Quidditch Supplies

I’ve reviewed most of the 2018 and 2019 sets so far on my review page. But there are many awesome sets in the earlier series. This post is my first go at reviewing some of the older Harry Potter sets. As a lot of my own building activity has focused on Diagon Alley shops lately, I’ve picked one of the early sets depicting one of these: Quality Quidditch Supplies (set 4719) from 2003. So let’s get building…

Getting started

This particular set I was lucky to get (mostly complete) in a bulk lot some time ago. So last Sunday, I sat down with a cup of coffee and sorted through the bricks and supplemented what was missing to build a complete one from my own stash. I only needed a few extra pieces to get the pieces needed, though the minifigure was a bit worn.

Along with Gringotts Bank and Knockturn Alley, this set was part on an early series of sets covering Diagon Alley and the narrow passages leading from this.

Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley was an eye-opener to the wonderful magical world. The movie captures this magic moment well – where he walks with Hagrid along the various shops finally with the footage showing the Nimbus 2000 in the window of the Quality Quidditch Supplies shop with kids lined up outside looking at it en awe.

The magic of that moment caught me – and hence I’ve chosen this as the first of the older sets to review.

Box

The boxart for this set is quite neat, though the stonework bordering the picture of the set itself kind of blur the set number and Harry Potter logos. The boxes of newer sets have a more clean look.

Inside the box you’ll find 117 LEGO pieces, a minifigure and the instructions.

Minifigure

The set only includes one minifigure – which is rare for a set this size, even back then. The figure is of Draco Malfoy dressed in a black jumper. Head and hands are yellow as this came out in the last year before LEGO started using flesh coloured faces for all licensed sets – including the Harry Potter theme.

The figure is unique to this set, but is otherwise not special or iconic in any way – and relatively easy to find at a reasonable cost.

One may question why Draco is the figure included here. He didn’t play Quidditch his first year at Hogwarts. But at the start of the 1992–1993 school year, Draco Malfoy’s father Lucius Malfoy bought the entire Slytherin Quidditch team Nimbus 2001s, a generous donation, that bought Draco a position on the Slytherin team.

As Harry can’t be in all sets, I guess it is reasonable to have a figure like Draco appearing here, though a store keeper would have been nice as well.

The build

The shop itself is a fairly small and easy build. I finished it before finishing the coffee!
It has a quite nice colour scheme of dark orange walls with sand green roof. Probably to keep piece count down (and thus price), as seen from this photo from the front open there are gaps on either side of the window and door frame.

From the other side, you see what is for sale in shop.

By the door, you see two quidditch cloaks, above the door two bludgers are held down, while by the window more quidditch goods can be found. A broom (Nimbus 2000?) hangs above the window while a quaffle and a snitch (held in place in a glass dome) are on display. There are also some flags and a quidditch book.

The book really stands out – with the snitch printed on one side and a broom with three gold posts behind on the back. I realise this set has quite a few lovely printed parts – and no stickers. Wouldn’t it be great if most sets would be like this?

Conclusions

Overall, I really like this set. If that was your only Harry Potter set, just having Draco might be a disappointment, but combined with either the Gringott’s bank (set 4714) or Knockturn Alley (set 4720) or both from that era, it would be great.

Those three sets had a quite similar style, but compared with the shops in the big exclusive Diagon Alley (set 10217) that came out in 2011, they are very different.

My own versions of Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and Flourish and Blotts again are slightly different in style again. My next challenge is now to rebuild this wonderful little shop into a version that goes with my new Diagon Alley under development. More about that later…

Till then – Build the Magic!