Review: 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class

Quite a nice set. I bet it'll be a hit with the kids.

I really like the flexibility of the shape of this set and the four potion ingredient containers. Those two features are the highlights here for me!

The one vial next to the heart-capped one seems to be the luck potion from Half-Blood Prince.

To be purchased but on a HUGE discount..!

I can't believe they axed the Fabuland cauldron in favor of these silly pieces.

These stickers on the curved tile pieces remind me of the ones on 75385. They are even the same colour!

Ah yes, giving fans the chance to recreate class sessions with a man who had no business teaching children.

Snape's torso and arm prints look great, but I prefer the 2007 and 2010 faces.

@Nuclearxpotato said:
" @Norikins said:
"I can't believe they axed the Fabuland cauldron in favor of these silly pieces."

Surprisingly the Fabuland cauldron is actually still around, it gets 1-3 uses a year. Currently it's in Barad-Dur, Dreamzzz's Sandman's Tower, and this year's 4+ Little Mermaid set. Designers seems to reserve that piece of comically large cauldrons, whereas the newer small one is more standard-use.

I'm always weirdly wary of when a piece I grew up with will disappear, like the Classic Male Hairpiece getting discontinued last year or prints getting replaced. That cauldron is something I'm always checking up on, even if the ladle was discontinued over 20 years ago..."

That's a relief. But it really should have been included instead of this brick-built doppelganger.

I expect that, even if the wand packs completely replace it within the Harry Potter line, the old wand pieces will stick around. It's been used numerous times in other lines, after all.

Glad they've stopped doing the purple torso prints for Snape. I still prefer the all-black one from 2010, but this one is good. And arm printing!

@SearchlightRG said:
"Ah yes, giving fans the chance to recreate class sessions with a man who had no business teaching children."
Because of what he did to John McClane and Matthew Quigley? Or for his use of spoons in torture and steping out on his wonderful wife Karen?

Lego is bonkers today. Those makaroni/arches not being printed is such weird decision as they could be reused in SO MANY THEMES.

I find it really weird this set has like all of best stuff. There is no point to buying other HP sets xD

@PurpleDave said:
"Okay, I just watched HP6 a couple weeks ago, and something has been bugging me about it. Other than the need to keep up the pretense that Snape was really a villain, what was the big deal about Harry keeping the potions book? The standard issue version was clearly badly written, if even Hermione couldn't make any of the potions work (how anyone passed that class besides Harry, I don't understand). Harry's second-hand book was clearly right about _every_ change that had been made to the text. Potions was a subject he needed to be able to excel in if he ever wanted to become an Auror. So why did his friends insist that he had to get rid of it? Snape himself taught that class prior to Year 6, and presumably was a better teacher than Slughorn, so how many of his students up to that point learned the same adjustments that Harry's book detailed?"

It's just jealousy. Harry was really only good at air cricket, getting into trouble, and suspiciously saving the day. They couldn't bear to see him succeed in school. Hermione was especially jealous. Ron was falling farther behind, and Ginny was afraid he'd rise out of her league.

Of course, there was also the undercurrent of Dark Magic that Harry was succumbing to like an addict. Just as Snape had.

@madforLEGO:
I don't recall that from the film, so is that something that got cut from the book?

@PurpleDave said:
" @madforLEGO :
I don't recall that from the film, so is that something that got cut from the book?"

I think you need to watch Half Blood Prince again then as its in the film; its right before they convince him to give up the book. (or just check out the internet as Im sure its somewhere). Harry finds Sectumsempra in the potions book and uses it on Malfoy almost killing him (apparently without knowing what it actually did). If Snape did not show up to reverse the damage Malfoy would have likely died.

@madforLEGO:
The film didn't make it clear that this was derived from the potions text (nor would that be a logical inference, since it's not a potion). Combined with the incident when they arrived on the train, it was clear that Malfoy intended to do equal or worse to Harry, which further muddies the situation.

What I remember form the film is that Hermione was upset that Harry's potions were working when hers weren't, and that he had been told he needed to get rid of the book well before the incident with Malfoy occurred. It may have been the final straw, but it certainly wasn't the first. I know that large portions of the text were left out to get the first six books down to a single film each, but usually they managed to work the more pertinent details in somehow.

@PurpleDave said:
" @madforLEGO :
The film didn't make it clear that this was derived from the potions text (nor would that be a logical inference, since it's not a potion). Combined with the incident when they arrived on the train, it was clear that Malfoy intended to do equal or worse to Harry, which further muddies the situation.

What I remember form the film is that Hermione was upset that Harry's potions were working when hers weren't, and that he had been told he needed to get rid of the book well before the incident with Malfoy occurred. It may have been the final straw, but it certainly wasn't the first. I know that large portions of the text were left out to get the first six books down to a single film each, but usually they managed to work the more pertinent details in somehow."

Sectumsempra - For Enemies.

The book had a lot of darker magic written in the margins.

@StyleCounselor:
Again, this wasn't made super obvious in the film. It feels like a detail that's going to be immediately obvious to superfan book readers, but pass unnoticed by those of us who only ever watched the films. I even asked a coworker (who has read the books) about it last week, and he didn't know either.

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor :
Again, this wasn't made super obvious in the film. It feels like a detail that's going to be immediately obvious to superfan book readers, but pass unnoticed by those of us who only ever watched the films. I even asked a coworker (who has read the books) about it last week, and he didn't know either."

Interesting.

That novel was really large. If I remember correctly, they got progressively larger towards the end which is why the last spans two movies.

I used to keep track of all the ways the movies deviated. But, that was some time ago.

In the film, they do reference his obsession with the potions textbook. Clearly, his friends don't like his obsession. However, both the novel and the movie play with the notion that this is jealousy as much or more than any real concern for Harry.

In the novel, it does also provide quite a bit more about how it's making Harry gradually more aggressive and mean. He finds the dark magic empowering due to the helplessness he's perpetually in every school year.

This spirals toward addiction which Ginny's love is tendered as a cure/paragon of true empowerment in the face of the unknown terrors that afflict us all in the contemporary world.

Prof. StyleCounselor, out! (mic drop)

@StyleCounselor:
223, 251, 317, 636, 736, 607, 607, in the first printings. So Year 4 was over twice the size of Year 3, and the size grew through Year 5 before dropping back below the size of Year 4 for the final two books. The main reason Year 7 was split between two books was that so much of the story was critical that they couldn't cut enough to get it down to one film. There's a lot of filler in the previous six books, apparently. But there are a fair number of story points that never get explained properly in the films. For a long time, I didn't realize that the RoR appears as two very different rooms in the films, because they never really explained what was going on with the version where they hide the potions book.

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor:
223, 251, 317, 636, 736, 607, 607, in the first printings. So Year 4 was over twice the size of Year 3, and the size grew through Year 5 before dropping back below the size of Year 4 for the final two books. The main reason Year 7 was split between two books was that so much of the story was critical that they couldn't cut enough to get it down to one film. There's a lot of filler in the previous six books, apparently. But there are a fair number of story points that never get explained properly in the films. For a long time, I didn't realize that the RoR appears as two very different rooms in the films, because they never really explained what was going on with the version where they hide the potions book."

The RoR is defined in the novels as a place that transforms itself to meet the needs of the person. According to its first discovery in the novels, it appeared to Dumbledore as a room full of chamber pots when he really needed to go to the restroom.

@PurpleDave said:
"I know that large portions of the text were left out to get the first six books down to a single film each, but usually they managed to work the more pertinent details in somehow."

Which is why I stopped watching them after Goblet of Fire (which is actually the only one I saw in the theater). I left the theater feeling like I wouldn't have understood a good few plot points if I hadn't already read the book. I also didn't like the way it handled the Quidditch World Cup. I realize that some people were getting tired of the Quidditch scenes, but if you're going to cut the World Cup, do it cleanly. Showing the big build-up and the introduction of the players, then having a smash cut to the celebration afterwards is not clean, and I didn't feel like it was good storytelling.

@StyleCounselor:
But in the films, it appears as the empty room where Dumbledore’s Army practices their spells in Year 5, and as the room full of random stuff where you can’t find anything unless you already know where to find it in Year 6 and 7. It’s not really clear that the latter is one way the RoR can manifest, if that’s what you need at the moment.

@TheOtherMike:
Hah! One of my college friends said he’d advise people to read the first three books, watch the fourth film, and then read the last three books, _precisely_ because the QWC scenes dragged on like the War & Peace of the Wizarding World (not his exact words, but I don’t think he’d disagree).

While it's nice that this has been designed to slide into the Great Hall set, doing that means that there's no room to stow either the bathroom or Hufflepuff common room. And if this is the beginning of another multi-year Hogwarts Castle redesign, there are presumably more large scale sets with slots to come, and even more smaller classroom/dorm type sets to slot into them. I'd like to think that, somewhere down the line, they'll put out a "shell" set which is designed to hold two or more of the smaller sets, and can connect to the larger sets.
We finally got our 2021-2023 Hogwarts modulars arranged in a way we like, so I'll leave it up to the kids to decide whether we want to embark on yet another Hogwarts project. I do like some of the details with this, like the fact that this slides into the Great Hall set with the door visible, and also that the whole wall swings out while it's stored. I guess we'll see how the rest of the system goes together over the next year or two.

@WilsonPark:
It’s canon that the castle changes on its own, and there are no scenes from the films that take place in the Hufflepuff Common Room, so that’s the obvious one to set aside (interestingly, the Great Hall images include one showing this set being inserted into the base). Alternately, you can stuff the unneeded components into the base, and open up whichever one you want easier access to.

@TheOtherMike said:
" @yellowcastle said:
" @SearchlightRG said:
"Ah yes, giving fans the chance to recreate class sessions with a man who had no business teaching children."
Because of what he did to John McClane and Matthew Quigley? Or for his use of spoons in torture and steping out on his wonderful wife Karen?"

Because of the way he treated Galaxy Quest fans."

I was actually referring to the fact that Snape behaves so horribly that a kid whose parents were tortured into insanity was more afraid of SNAPE than of his parents' torturers or the Dark Lord to whom they were loyal. When a boggart turns into you in order to terrify someone, I think it speaks greatly to the idea that education is not the right career path for you.

I have next to no knowledge about Harry Potter, and I didn't even know this set existed until I saw it on a Kmart shelf two days ago. My first thought was that it looked like a neat little set and the minifigures were cool.

Thanks for the review, I'll be sure to pick this one up with my next Ninjago purchases, I really like the foldable design of the building

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor:
Again, this wasn't made super obvious in the film. It feels like a detail that's going to be immediately obvious to superfan book readers, but pass unnoticed by those of us who only ever watched the films. I even asked a coworker (who has read the books) about it last week, and he didn't know either."

I never read the books. Only watched the movies. Sorry, I think its fairly obvious to those watching the movies that Harry reads about that spell in the book, that it states 'for enemies' and he calls it while fighting Malfoy, almost killing him.

I haven't read the movies. I've barely even seen the books.

I do like these potions and effects, but I detest SOME WRITERS for SOME REASONS. I'll just PAB these new parts in due time, in all fabulous colours of the rainbow.

@PurpleDave said:
" @StyleCounselor :
But in the films, it appears as the empty room where Dumbledore’s Army practices their spells in Year 5, and as the room full of random stuff where you can’t find anything unless you already know where to find it in Year 6 and 7. It’s not really clear that the latter is one way the RoR can manifest, if that’s what you need at the moment.

@TheOtherMike :
Hah! One of my college friends said he’d advise people to read the first three books, watch the fourth film, and then read the last three books, _precisely_ because the QWC scenes dragged on like the War & Peace of the Wizarding World (not his exact words, but I don’t think he’d disagree)."

The Room is not full of random stuff (unless, that's what you need- but that's going to get us tied up in a fun little game of circular logic and dependent semantics).

Instead, those depictions you mentioned are sort of its 'natural state.' That is, a place where people can hide/dipose of items they want to be rid of.

For instance, Prof Trelawny becomes something of an alcoholic (not in the movies), because she has to share the Divination position with the centaur Firenze (not in the movies other than saving Harry in the first movie) who was hired to replace her (not in the movies) after Umbridge fired her, and because he couldn't return to the centaurs because he had disclosed their secrets to humans (not in the movies). Trelawny hides her empty sherry bottles in the RoR (probably not in the movies).

our first HP set without HP :D
a lot of special pieces, very good little set!