REVIEW: Triwizard Tournament: The Black Lake

With less than two months till the March 2024 wave of sets, I better get a few more 2023 sets reviewed. This time, I’ll take a closer look at the set covering the second challenge in the Goblet of Fire movie. I have the original set from 2005 – so I am very curious to see how this stacks up…

Set 76420 – 349 pieces

The Black Lake was one of six sets that were released in March 2023, but probably the one that I wanted the most. It might be because I simply like Hogwarts themed sets, or the the blue-greenish colour tones that made the box stand out – or the fact that I had the original 2005 version (Set 4762: Rescue from the Merpeople).

So bought the 2023 version as soon as I could, but never felt I had the time to do a review of it till now. So it wasn’t till the back end of the Christmas holidays, I opened the box and started to build…

Presentation

As noted earlier, I did find the box kind of stood out – due to the unusual colour combination of the underwater part, which features different shades of blue, green and teal. We can see Harry and Victor trying to save Ron and Hermione respectively, though the underwater creatures try to hinder this. At the back, we can see the wooden tower then started from raising above the waterline.

The back of the box shows that the two individual parts can be stacked, and some of the play features, including how to make Viktor and Harry dive headfirst into the water.

Inside the box, there are four plastic bags, a separate larger plate and the instructions. So no stickers! I can’t remember when that last happened…

Build experience

The first two bags are used to build the above water part. Firstly, we build a small rowing boat. I don’t really know why (the originally 2005 set also had one, but while they are there in the moving, they don’t really play any part of the story). The first photo shows how you can press a lever and make Harry jump into the water.

The only other thing I’ll mention is the little white building on the top level of the wooden tower. There is something that looks like a coffee maker and a couple of mugs in there. Maybe to give the wet and cold contestants something warm after an hour in the water. I don’t recall any such references from the movie or books though, but it has been a while since I revisited the Goblet of Fire.

Bags 3-4 focuses on the underwater part. It is built on the loose plate from the box. The bottom part is dark blue tones (mainly) and has a mix of water plants and marine animals added. Above it, an arch is created using teal and sand green bricks. It looks quite amazing.

The only thing slightly negative I’ll say about this part overall, is how symmetric it is. The arch is part of the buildings the Merpeople live in and may be symmetric, but all the plants are put there in a strict pattern, which doesn’t really look like the chaotic nature. But that is easily fixed my moving them around a bit.

You can use the models separately (as the front of the box), but I think most will use them stacked as seen below.

Before we round off, let’s have a quick look a the minifigures. The photos above showed them and I like the chains that hold Ron and Hermione in place. The soft plastic “tubes” attached to their back make the figures sway with the slightest touch, as if they were floating in water. That is a really neat feature.

Below you can see all the figures included. Firstly, we got Harry Potter, Victor Krum, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. In addition, we get two undersea creatures: one of the Merpeople and a Grindylow. Apart from the Grindylow (which isn’t a real minifigure), all have printed back torsos and alternative printings for the faces as well.

The included minifigures is an identical selection to the 2005 set, but the 2023 set includes a Grindylow, which is the first time in a Harry Potter set. The Grindylows are small, horned water demons living in the Black Lake along with the Merpeople.

If we focus on the two included Triwizard Tournament contestants for a second, Harry also comes with flippers in flesh-colour, but unfortunately with all black legs. In the movie he was wearing swimming shorts – as was Viktor Krum, who has also been given all red legs.

But the torso printing is great. Underwater, Harry was using gillyweed to allow him to breath underwater. That is what gave him gills. Viktor instead transformed partially into a shark. For this, the set include the shark head from the Shark Suit Guy from the LEGO Collectable Minifigure Series (CMF) series 15 some years back. That works really well.

Looking at the face printings, initially I thought it was a shame that Harry got gills in both face prints. Having one without could have reflected him before he entered the water (or when the impact of the spell faded off), but I do have plenty of normal Harry Potter figures, so I guess I could simply borrow a head from another figure if I wanted to recreate such scenes.

As a side note, the two other contestants (not included in the set), Fleur Delacour and Cedric Diggory both used the bubble-head charm to help them breath underwater. This post talks about how I created that spell effect (for my custom versions for Fleur and Cedric).

In terms of underwater creatures, as mentioned we do get both one of the Merpeople and a Grindylow. The merpeople character is well done and looks scary.

We first heard about Grindylows in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. When visiting Professor Lupin’s office there was one in a tank – intended for use in his Defense against the Dark Arts class. When Harry looked at it, it was ‘pulling faces and flexing its long, spindly fingers’ as well as ‘brandishing a fist at him’ from its tank. So they are vicious creatures and one held on to Harry’s leg during the underwater challenge, but he freed himself using a spell. Fleur faced more trouble though, with ongoing attacks from Grindylows preventing her from retrieving her little sister Gabrielle from the lake.

It is great to see a Grindylow finally included in a set, but I don’t feel it has been done particular well. I do love the colour, with the metallic bluish tones. But I would have been great if the figure had a way to hold on to a minifigure to recreate scenes from the movie. And the face print isn’t really scary as we see it on the Merpeople. Rather, I think it makes it look cute and rather cartoonish. So I don’t think this particular figure is well executed.

Summary

I really like the addition of the wooden tower compared with the 2005 set, that only focused on the underwater scene. As it is, the set covers the key parts of the second challenge of the Triwizard tournament. Of course, the wooden tower is much scaled down – and we only get one instead of three, but it is easily recognisable and that is the key thing. Building something full scale would cost a lot more and not really add to playability for the younger audience. Anyone who want a bigger scene can create their own, e.g. from multiple sets.

The figures are generally great but the added Grindylow is a bit too cute and cartoonish in my opinion.

Overall, due to the Grindylow mishap this set falls just short of a top score, but I’ll award it 4.5 out of five house points.

Till next time, Build the Magic!

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