REVIEW: Hogwarts Students

Set 40419

It was a pleasant surprise when LEGO recently added a Harry Potter themed minifigure pack to their range. Minifigure packs typically include four minifigures – and with four houses at Hogwarts, LEGO opted to give us a student from each of them. While we have seen plenty of Gryffindor students in previous sets, and occasional Slytherins, students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff have been mostly ignored. Is this enough to make this pack a must-have? Here is what I think…

LEGO’s current series of minifigure packs contain four figures, each with an accessory, and a small build. These are generally only sold from LEGO brand stores including LEGO’s online Shop at Home. The series was introduced last year and included packs for CITY, Ninjago and Spiderman back then. This year (so far) it we have seen another CITY set, Ninjago Legacy, Avengers and then fortunately Harry Potter. So, let us have a look at this one in detail.

The package

The package is similar to the previous Minifigure packs, with a paperboard back outlining the content and the parts packed in a clear minifigure shaped plastic container. It uses the typical Harry Potter misty blue background for consistency with other Harry Potter themed sets in the current series.

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The back of the pack lists all the included figures by name – and interestingly outlines one of them as being “exclusive”. The back also shows the included accessories, and again, one of them is listed as being exclusive. This is a printed 2×3 tile showing the Marauders Map which I will discuss in more detail further down.

The small plastic container has a small plastic bag with parts and a small instruction sheet.

Minifigures

A minifigure pack is of course centered around minifigures. As previously mentioned, we get one from each of the four houses at Hogwarts, and more specifically:

• Harry Potter from Gryffindor
• Draco Malfoy from Slytherin
• Cho Chang from Ravenclaw
• Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff

The four students have sweaters with couloured stripes representing their house (along with their ties). While a great idea, the Ravenclaw and Slytherin colours are hard to differentiate unless you have perfect lighting. They are all wearing black trousers – and it should be noted they use the full sized minifigure leg pieces representing students in their senior years at Hogwarts.

All four figures come head pieces with dual face prints – one side with happy/smiley faces (is that a smile Draco?) and the other side with determined, angry or scared looks. This is great for both children roleplaying, and collectors setting up the figures to represent different scenes from the books/movies.

Harry Potter – Gryffindor

You might belong in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. Their daring nerve and chivalry set Gryffindors apart.

The Sorting Hat

Okay, most fans may not need yet another Harry Potter figure. But remembering that LEGO is targeting a broader audience than collectors here, including many who will have no or very few Harry Potter sets, including at least one member of the Golden Trio makes sense. And this is a decent representation of him in the later years at Hogwarts, though this particular hair piece makes it difficult to position in a way that shows his scar.

The map he is given is beautiful – but I’ll discuss that further down.

Draco Malfoy – Slytherin

Or perhaps in Slytherin, you’ll make your real friends. Those cunning folks use any means to achieve their ends.

The Sorting Hat

Draco minifigures are not particular rare either, but previous sets have mostly included a younger Draco. So getting an older Draco is appreciated – and the head and hair pieces matches his appearance in the later movies well.

The photo below shows Draco in the Room of Requirement in the Half-blood Prince.

Cho Chang

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, if you’ve a ready mind. Where those of wit and learning will always find their kind.

The Sorting Hat

It is only the second time we get to see Cho Chang as minifigure, the first one being in the Harry Potter Collectable Minifigure (CMF) – Series 1. As this is getting hard to find, including Cho Chang is a great idea – but I’m not so sure about the execution – mainly due to the hair. This one uses a different hair piece from the CMF version, which was otherwise perfect. I think the hair piece used is too wavy for Cho’s flat hair.

Actually, the representation of Cho Chang in this pack is identical to a custom version of Padma Patil I did earlier this (noting that she was in Ravenclaw in the books, though in the movies, she was in Gryffindor along with twin sister Parvati).

The figure is listed as being “Exclusive” on the back of the pack, though it doesn’t really stand out as a must have item to me, so that by itself would not have swayed me to buy the pack.

Hannah Abbott

You might belong in Hufflepuff, where they are just and loyal. Those patient Hufflepuffs are true and unafraid of toil.

The Sorting Hat

I always love when we get new minifigures, so I’m in particular pleased to see Hannah Abbott included in the pack – as her very first representation as minifigure.

She was from Harry’s year at Hogwarts and is the only Hufflepuff student to appear in all seven books. This set depicts her in the later years – and will represent her well from when she became member of Dumbledore’s Army in the Order of the Phoenix.

Minifigure accessories

While the minifigures may be the main attraction, their accessories are worth mentioning as well, and I am not thinking of the wands each of them come with.

The absolute key attraction is the new 2×3 tile with the Marauders Map printing. It looks amazing and is the accessory given to Harry. On the back of the package, this map is listed as being exclusive. This suggests it is not to appear in any other sets (at least for the next few years). It may be a strong enough reason for some to get this pack.

While Harry got the coolest new accessory, I really like the choice of an apple for Draco too. Some may find it strange – even if remembering Draco eating an apple (so show how bored he was) while Hagrid was telling about Hippogriffs during the Care of Magical Creatures class (as per the video below).

Later on, in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, he picks up an apple from the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirements (as per this video). He had previously put a whole apple there, but it returned with a bite taken – showing Draco the cabinet following his repairs was now able to transport objects back and forth (while still not quite ready for living objects his next test showed).

From these two clips, fans of the Harry Potter universe have created “Drapple” – short for Draco and apple – basically stories/artwork/video clips about a romantic relationship between the two! Fan-fiction stories about relationships (on in that genre simply called “ships”) are common and there are many other such pairings out there, with “Drarry” and “Dramione” being particularly popular “ships” according to Google.

While I haven’t been able to find any good reasons for Hannah Abbott to get the lantern (which is relatively rare in pearl gold, so still very much appreciated), I assume Cho Chang got the book because she is in Ravenclaw.

The Build

These are not known as Minifigure packs for fun. The parts you get beyond the figures themselves are minimal. Apart from the accessories, you get the parts to build a bookshelf.

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It is quickly built and decent looking and as the modular Hogwarts castle sets released in 2018-2020 so far are missing a library, it at least get you started on one. And as a nice little detail, the book Cho Chang got as accessory fits it perfectly.

An even better idea for a small build would have been a cabinet, which could have represented the vanishing cabinet which Draco tests using the apple (see photo in the previous section). But it would probably have required too many pieces for what could be included in the pack.

Conclusion

I found this to be a nice little set – with a decent value for money, noting that being sold in LEGO Stores exclusively means you are unable to find this with any major discount. But compared to the cost of getting four Hogwarts student minifigures otherwise, it is a good price, and you get the beautiful map tile and small bookshelf in addition.

The selection of figures can be discussed. It could have been great with a teachers pack giving us some of the “missing” teachers, but maybe the rumoured Harry Potter CMF Series 2 will sort us out with that regard. For students, I think it is a reasonable selection and one would expect at least one from the “Golden Trio” to be included in a Harry Potter set.

As something new, the pack gives us two “exclusive” items – Cho Chang and the Marauders Map. The latter is absolutely awesome and would be a sought after piece. But Cho Chang is probably the weakest of the four figures in execution, but could easily be used for Padma Patil instead. It will be interesting to see if we will see a general move for sets to include “exclusive” parts and minifigures in the future.

This Hogwarts Students set fits well with the new Room of Requirement set. Both Cho and Hannah could join Harry, Hermione and Luna in Dumbledore’s Army with the spare Harry (the other set also included Harry Potter) could be used to build another Gryffindor student for the army. Draco of course would be lurking outside the room, trying to find the entrance. Good Harry has the map to check on Draco’s whereabouts.

I’ll try to see what I can come up with combining the two sets in a future post.

Till then, Build the Magic!