Make your own Rita Skeeter

Everyone hates Dolores Umbridge, period. But there are other villains in Harry Potter, including Voldemort of course. Fairly high on my list of nasty personalities is Rita Skeeter, a journalist of the Daily Prophet wizarding newspaper.  She invented fake news years before it was even discussed in the Muggle world. I made a minifigure of her for my display at Comic-con back in September, but have only now found the time to write a post about it.

So who is Rita?

We hear first about Rita Skeeter in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, where her savage writing about the Ministry of Magic’s handling of the Death Eaters and the appearance of the Dark Mark at the Quidditch World Cup was causing long working days for Arthur Weasley and the others in the ministry.

As the book progresses, we learn more about her. Wearing a bright green dress, she comes to Hogwarts to write about the Tri-wizard Tournament champions and is in particular interested in Harry Potter.

“Hello, I’m Rita Skeeter! I write for the Daily Prophet. But, of course, you know that, don’t you? It’s you we don’t know. You’re the juicy news. What quirks lurk beneath those rosy cheeks? What mysteries do the muscles mask? Does courage lie beneath those curls? In short, what makes a champion tick? Me, myself and I want to know. Not to mention my ravid readers.”

Rita interviews Harry but the story she publishes is far from what he told. She uses her Quick-Quotes Quill, which is a magical quill that automatically takes notes as one is interviewed. But instead of writing what is being said, the quill writes a sensational story that has little resemblance to the interviewee’s words. This also includes her unauthorized biographies of famous people like Professor Dumbledore, who  afterwards characterized her writing as “enchantingly nasty.”

But from the initial story about Harry, it just gets worse and both Hagrid and Hermione get to feel the wrath of her pen (though most if this is lost in the movie adaptation).  The details Rita provide in her stories make Harry, Ron and Hermione suspicious, as many things she could not have known. Finally, Hermione realises how she’s listening in and a bit of blackmailing from her side turns Rita silent. Amazing how Hermione move on from being the rule abiding student she was in her first year at Hogwarts!

How to make your own Rita Skeeter

Rita appeared wearing different dresses in the Goblet of Fire, but I particular liked the bright green dress she was wearing when interviewing Harry in the beginning. To recreate that, I’ve used:

• Hair from Hollywood Starlet from the Collectible Minifigure Series 9.
• Head from Abby Yates from the LEGO Dimensions Ghostbusters starter set.
• Torso from Snake Charmer from the Collectible Minifigure Series 13.
• Skirt from Marge Simpson from Simpsons Collectible Minifigure Series 1.
• Legs (and light flesh hands) from Queenie Goldstein from the Harry Potter Collectible Minifigure series.
• Fur collar from Boggart Severus Snape from the 2018 Bricktober minifigure pack.

Here she is:

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result, though I had hoped the fur collar would somehow have masked the small bit of “yellow” minifigure skin seen above the dress. From the distance it is not visible though, but I’m still considering making a custom decal for the torso to improve on it.

If you are into custom decals, I’d suggest having a look at Lucas’ version here.

As usual, Lucas have done a great job capturing how she looks in the movies.

That was my second “make your own” post, the previous being about a year ago, showing how to build Colin Creevey along with his beloved camera. I got a couple more coming though, so stay tuned!

Till then, Build the Magic!