REVIEW: 4 Privet Drive

Set 75968 – 797 pieces

Price: US$69.99 / €69.99 (DE) / €74.99 (ES) / £64.99 / AU$99.99 / 649 DKK / 829 NOK

It is finally August, so the new LEGO Harry Potter sets should become available in North America. The sets have been worth the wait though – the ones I’ve looked at so far have been amazing. Here I take a look at 4 Privet Drive. I have really been looking forward to this one, having built my own model earlier in the year, so I was keen to compare it with the new one. Overall, I’ve really impressed with the set. Read on to see why…

Background

Hagrid delivered Harry on the doorstep to 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging after the tragic death of his parents. There, he got to live with his aunt, Petunia, along with uncle Vernon and their child Dudley. It was a normal house in a normal neighbourhood, and the Dursleys loved it that way. Unfortunately, with Harry around things were far from normal – Mr and Mrs Mason and aunt Marge got to feel that.

Harry hated his time there, but unknown to him, living with family also sealed powerful blood magic that would protect Harry when there until his seventeenth birthday. So Harry spend his long summer holidays there, and some very memorable scenes happened there.

It is therefore surprising that the Dursley home only has been released as LEGO set once before, and that was all the way back in 2002 in Escape from Privet Drive (set 4728). Like the new released, the old set along with the house also included the Ford Anglia used by Ron, Fred and George Weasley to “rescue” Harry from the Dursley’s to bring him to the Burrow.

I’ve discussed the 2002 set and a number of fan built models in much more detail in the post I did about my own model of 4 Privet Drive.

But let’s look at the new set in more detail.

Box and content

Firstly, I must say I really like the artwork on the box. The front shows the set, with number 4 Privet Drive to the right (matching well the building used in the movie set), with the flying Ford Anglia pulling open Harry’s window to the left, with the Dursleys screaming in anger below. We also get to see Dobby and the cake he delivered on top of Mrs Mason.

On the back, the box shows the interior of the house in the middle. Around it, smaller photos show close up detail, including the cupboard under the stairs, and play features like how to get the Hogwarts acceptance letters falling from the chimney into the lounge.

The top side shows the six minifigures included in the set. I’ll return to those shortly. We can also see the set includes two owls, including the new mould with Hedwig flying.

Inside the box, we find five numbered plastic bags with parts, a 8×16 plate in olive green, a sticker sheet and the instruction manual. The sticker sheet is loose in the box, which is know to occasionally cause the sticker sheet to be creased. Mine was in perfect condition though, so I could get started building immediately.

Minifigures

As indicated above, the set includes six minifigures. We get:

• Harry Potter
• Ron Weasley
• Dobby
• Vernon Dursley
• Petunia Dursley
• Dudley Dursley

This is an impressive line-up. Harry and Ron are common as minifigures, but this particular version of Harry is unique to this set, and the version of Ron has only been included in the 2018 Whomping Willow set previously. Dobby has a different face print, but is otherwise identical to the version in the Collectible Minifigure (CMF) Series 1. And the Dursleys are all new! Uncle Vernon has appeared once before, but that was back in 2002 where the figures still used yellow heads. Petunia and Dudley have never been made as minifigures before, and it is great to finally add them to the collection.

All of the figures as dual face prints (apart from Dobby, as his moulded head cannot be reversed). The photo above shows the figures (in the order they appeared in the plastic bags) with their smiley faces, while their alternative expressions (anger/scared) are shown below.

The torso prints are of the high quality as we have become used to and all the figures but Uncle Vernon have their torsos printed on the back as well.

Dobby is the only with printed (or dual moulded) legs. Here is a comparison between the new figure (left) and the version from the CMF Series 1 (right). As seen, the torso and legs are identical, but the smile is different.

The build

Bags 1-4 give us the Dursleys, Dobby and the parts to build the house, while bag 5 includes Harry and Ron as well as the bricks for the iconic Ford Anglia.

Staring with bag 1, I could build the foundation of the house, including the staircase (with Harry’s cupboard underneath) and lounge furniture.

There are plenty of stickers to apply when building bag 1, with some fairly large ones for the door, which can be tricky to apply straight.

Bag 2 finished the ground floor, including a wall, that covers the cupboard under the stairs, but is hinged for easy access.

The details are amazing so here I got distracted and spend some time taking photos of various features.

Bag 3 completes the walls on level 1 and adds furniture to Harry’s bedroom up there. I like the photo of his mum and dad, and the quilted bed cover in particular.

Finally, bag 4 allowed us to complete the roof and added Dobby. The roof construction with each row of sloped bricks offset by one plate is similar to what I first saw in the very first Modular Building (Café Corner). It is part intensive, but creates a great effect and I’m pleased to see the technique used in a “normal” set.

Again, I couldn’t resist having a small photo break. Watch out for the cake, aunt Petunia (one day I’ll build Mr and Mrs Mason)! And yes, uncle Vernon, mail may arrive on a Sunday. Finally, Harry meet Dobby for the first time.

The last bag included Harry, Ron and the bricks needed for the flying Ford Anglia. It looks pretty good overall, and is easily recognisable. In a future post, I will do a comparison with previous versions.

The trunk opens, allowing Harry to put his suitcase there. In the trunk is also a long chain, which is used to “free” Harry from the Dursley family home.

Before I finish, I must also mention the magnificent new mould of an owl with spread wings, here included in white representing Hedwig. It simply looks amazing. I found that with one of the spare round plates with open stud from this set and a mechanical arm I had from a previous set, I was able to let Hedwig fly around with a letter for Harry.

Conclusions

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed building this set. It has a lot of detail and is generally an interesting build. The roof part was a bit repetitive, but didn’t take long – and the end result looks great.

It captures the building used for the filming well, with the tan colour mixed with dark tan working well. Actually, two different buildings were used for the filming, and they are slightly different – mainly the window configuration – and this model appears to be based on the one built in the Studio.

I’m already thinking how I can best build Mr and Mrs Mason, so I can recreate the actual cake scene. But that will have to be another day.

Till then, Build the Magic!