REVIEW: Hogwarts Moments – Divination Class

I have had the opportunity to review the new Hogwarts Moments sets that came out in March. Last week, I posted my review of the Defence Against the Dark Arts Class. This leaves me with the Divination Class, which was one of Harry’s least favourite subjects at Hogwarts. Is this set one of my favourites? Read on for my review…

Set 76396: Hogwarts Moments – Divination Class

Price: US$29.99, £24.99, €29.99, CA$39.99, AU$49.99, NZ$54.99, DKK 269.95

LEGO’s AFOL Engagement Team has kindly provided me the opportunity to review the new LEGO Harry Potter sets released in March 2022. Following from my reviews of Hogwarts Hospital Wing, Hogwarts Magical Trunk, and Hogwarts Moments: Defence Against the Dark Arts, this leaves me with Hogwarts Moments: Divination as my last review of the March 2022 wave.

Four books in the Hogwarts Moments series were released last year – each associated with one of the four Houses at Hogwarts, covering the classes taught by the head of the Houses. They were well received, so it is not surprising that two new “books” were released this year, covering other well known subjects taught at Hogwarts. See below for my other reviews of books in this series:

• Transfiguration Class (Gryffindor) – 2021
• Potions Class (Slytherin) – 2021
• Charms Class (Ravenclaw) – 2021
• Herbology Class (Hufflepuff) – 2021
• Defence Against the Dark Arts – 2022

Divination was one of Harry’s least favourite subjects, but the setting is perfect for a Harry Potter set with the colourful classroom and rather eh “unique” teacher.

A rainy weekend day, I sat down to build the set. Here is my review…

Box and Content

Similar to last year’s series, the box is “book shaped” in the sense it is taller than it is wide. The front shows the book as main feature, though it should be noted that the actual book is somewhat smaller than the photo on the box indicates.

Apart from the book itself, the included minifigures are shown in front, having a tea party, with the usual banner in the lower left corner listing the names of the characters they represent. In the lower right corner is a small insert photo of what the book looks like opened up.

Looking at the back of the box, you get to see how the opened book looks in more detail. In its opened form, the book represents Professor Trelawney’s Divination class room, which is as colourful and cringey as it should be.

A couple of insert photos at the top shows how all the furniture in the class room can be packed in the folded up book. Also, it reminds buyers that there are more to collect.

Inside the box you will find the instructions, a sticker sheet, two numbered bags of parts and a three larger loose pieces to build the book cover. The sticker sheet was lying loose in the box, but was in good shape.

Let us open the plastic bags and start building…

Minifigures

As all other sets in the series, the set includes three minifigures. We get Professor Trelawny (of course – as she was the Divination teacher) as well as Harry Potter, who didn’t like the Divination classes at all, and Parvati Patil, who on the other side loved divination. So overall a good mix of characters.

The torso prints nice and detailed as usual, in particular for professor Trelawney, who also has printed legs. Trelawney is a quite rare figure. She used to be super-rare (for long, she only appeared in the 2004 Hogwarts Castle set), but her inclusion in the 2018 Harry Potter Collectable Minifigures Series helped with availability. This 2022 version comes with a new print design, maintaining the sand green dress underneath, but wearing a brown sleeveless cardigan over it. This is the first version where she has “legs” – as the previous versions used a dress as bottom piece. Her hair piece with headband is simply perfect.

It is good to see Parvati too. She was in the 2020 Advent Calendar in her Yule Ball dress, but hasn’t been seen in any other sets.

The minifigure torsos with printed Gryffindor robes used for Harry and Parvati are the same as used for Hermione and Neville in the Defence Against the Dark Arts Class set also released here in March.

All three figures have torsos with printed backs too as well as dual face prints.

Overall, three very nice minifigures – as we have become used to with these sets. Now, I’ll get on with the actual build.

The Build

Starting with bag 1, it gives us two of the minifigures as well as the brinks required to build a few small models and complete the book cover. The photo below shows the models – a shelf with tea cups, a small table with a tea pot, a larger table with a crystal ball and two chairs, and a large armchair. They are all pretty good designs, though the are made so they can be packed up nicely, and without that constraint, they could probably have looked even better.

Then you get started on the book cover. It is made from some quite large pieces and is thus quickly built. Once done, it needs four large stickers applied on the inside, and I’m not a fan of the big stickers. While I found them quite easy to apply straight, it is for some reason hard to avoid air bubbles under them. Make sure the surface is dust-free before applying, as that is often causing that issue. Luckily the book cover front in printed at least.

Then you start adding class room elements to the book cover, which uses the remaining bricks from bag 1 and bag 2. Firstly, we get to add some decorations to the spine.

Then you build two wall sections that can be folded out – one for each side of the book.

Here you can see the book cover with those wall elements added.

And here it is with all minifigures and smaller models added.

To help the students foresee the future, a crystal ball is included, along with a tea pot and a few tea cups for reading tea leaves.

As seen, a printed tile about the Grim for the divination textbook that comes with the set. So now you can recreate the tea-leaves reading session, where Trelawney saw the Grim — a well-known omen of death — in Harry Potter’s tea cup.

Looking at the finished classroom, there are many, many, many tea cups as decoration (I’m here thinking about the stickers). So many, I’d say they might have overdone it. I feel it is a missed opportunity not to include some chicken bones or even better, a few astronomy charts and a telescope, so you had the ability to play the following scene with some of you other figures.

Lavender: “Oh, Professor, look! I think I’ve got an unaspected planet! Oooh, which one’s that, Professor?”

Trelawny: “It is Uranus, my dear,”

Ron: “Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?”

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

(embarrassingly, I missed that joke completely, when I read the books the first time).

As previously noted, Parvati (along with Lavender Brown) did really appreciate the classes. So here’s the teacher with one of her favourite students.

The book looks great when unfolded and minifigures on display as shown in the examples above. But you can also fold it up into a book as shown at the back of the box (and illustrated below).

It is a good way of storing the books in the series in a way that does not take up too much space. Unfortunately, the minifigures in general cannot fit within the books when folded up, but you can attach them to the exposed studs on the top.

Conclusions

Last year’s sets in the series proved popular among collectors, including younger Harry Potter fans. At least two are of those are retiring this year and I’m sure they will be well sought after.

Similar to Defence Against the Dark Arts set, Divination is a great follow up to those sets. Of the two, I probably prefer Defence Against the Dark Arts slightly over this one. I like the asymmetry of its design, and as noted, I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the tea cups in the Divination classroom.

The set includes a good selection of minifigures of high quality, and the class room, when extended out, does looks pretty good. In particular I like the colour scheme, which is just how I would have imagined the room. As with other sets in the series, it is very reliant on stickers which requires a steady hand to apply, but overall, this set is an nice addition to the Hogwarts Moments series.

Having now completed the review of the March 2022 wave of sets, I can revert back to other posts. I’ve got a few MOC’s I’m working on – including one that I’m very excited to show once finished. Otherwise, we can only sit back and wait for news about what sets we might see later in the year. The air is thick with rumours, and I’ve finally published my own “speculations” on what such sets could be. We should know for certain within a month or two.

Till then, Build the Magic!

(Note that this set was kindly provided by LEGO for review. The views expressed here are my own however).