The five best LEGO Harry Potter sets according to ChatGPT

So I asked ChatGPT the question: “What are the five best LEGO Harry Potter set ever”. This is what I got…

To keen track of the always evolving technology, I thought I would give ChatGPT a try. Well, I actually needed help asking, but luckily I got helpful friends at work who could access the rather busy ChatGPT site.

What is ChatGPT, you may ask:

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot. The language model can answer questions, and assist you with tasks such as composing emails, essays, and code

https://www.zdnet.com/

So it is capable of understanding normally written questions and provide pretty good answers based on all the information it has been trained with (which is a lot).

Anyway, this is the response I got (having added links to my own reviews and photos myself, but the words are unmodified):

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As an AI language model, I don’t have personal preferences, but based on fan and expert reviews, here are five highly-rated LEGO Harry Potter sets:

1. Hogwarts Castle (71043) – This massive set features a highly-detailed model of Hogwarts Castle with more than 6,000 pieces and includes minifigures of many of the main characters from the Harry Potter series.

2. Diagon Alley (75978) – This set recreates the famous wizarding shopping street from the Harry Potter books, complete with several shops and minifigures of some of the most memorable characters from the series.

3. Hogwarts Great Hall (75954) – This set features a detailed model of the Great Hall at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and comes with a range of minifigures, including Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and several others.

4. The Burrow (75980) – This set recreates the Weasley family’s ramshackle home, which was featured prominently in the Harry Potter books and films. It includes minifigures of many members of the Weasley family and other characters from the series.

5. Hogwarts Express (75955) – This set features a model of the famous train that takes Harry Potter and his friends from Platform 9 3/4 to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It includes minifigures of Harry, Ron, Hermione, and others, as well as a platform section of Kings Cross Station.

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That was the response. It is noted that ChatGPT did state that it does not as artificial intelligence (AI) have a view itself. This is an interesting list though – not necessarily a top 5, but as such, I do agree that those are all great sets. It did make me wonder what kind of list I would have created. What would I think makes a good set – worthy to be on such a list?

I’d probably have swapped the included 2020 Diagon Alley set for the 2011 Diagon Alley (set 10217). The newer one is better for sure, but the 2011 Diagon Alley set was the first time LEGO tried with a large, exclusive set for Harry Potter fans, and it remained a standout for a very long time. And it got Gringott’s Bank, which many are hoping for will return!

Also, while the 2021 Attack on the Burrow set (which is the official name, though ChatGPT referred to it as The Burrow) is a nice set, it is not a huge step up from the 2010 The Burrow (set 4840). I was thinking maybe replacing it with one of the early 2001 sets that started it all, such as The Forbidden Corridor (set 4706). This could be combined with many other sets from the 2001 series of sets, into a larger scene from the first movie. We’ve since seen this kind of modular sets released many times. See my 20th Anniversary of LEGO Harry Potter write-up for more information about these early sets.

I’d probably retain Hogwarts Castle (set 71043) on my top 5 list being the first real direct to consumers (D2C) set, which was to become an annual event. And it is a stunning display piece!

The 2018 Hogwarts Express is also a good candidate for a top 5 list, being by far the best minifigure sized play set of Hogwarts Express released, and one that could motorised without too much trouble. An alternative could be one of the fantastic display sets seen in recent years, either the kinetic sculpture of Hedwig (set 75979) or the massive Hogwarts Icons from 2021 (set ), which also featured Hedwig. I’d go with the former though, as something more affordable and different when it was released in 2020.

The last set on the list, the 2018 Hogwarts Great Hall set is also excellent and gave us a nice selection of minifigures when released. It was the first of a series of modular Hogwarts sets, and would have been what many started their Harry Potter collection with when the theme was rebooted in 2018, having been dormant since 2011 otherwise. For that reason, it would easily be on a top 5 list. A worthy alternative is the 2021 Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets (set 76389) from the 20th Anniversary of LEGO Harry Potter series of sets. This featured not only the Great Hall, but also the Chamber of Secrets underneath, Professor Lockhart’s classroom full of pixies and it was the very first time we got Professor Sinistra (the Astronomy teacher) as minifigure.

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What would your top 5 look like? Please let me know in the comments.

I better get back to my other blog posts, I have under way, before the March wave of sets hit the shelves and also require some attention.

Till then, Build the Magic!