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009 - Lego Gringotts Bank
Episode 93rd December 2023 • Brick Magnate with Mike Morrison • Mike Morrison
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In this episode of the Brick Magnate Podcast, I discuss the Lego Gringotts Bank set from the Harry Potter series.

I review the build experience, the end result, and the value for money. I also address the dilemma of displaying the set alongside the Diagon Alley set and why that makes this set a little divisive for me.

Transcripts

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Well, hello there. Welcome to episode 9 of the Brick Magnate

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podcast. I'm your host, Mike Morrison, aka the Brick Magnate,

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and this is the show where I get to wax lyrical about Lego with

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my fellow brick building enthusiasts and review the

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latest sets that I've been obsessing over

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in recent weeks months. And today, I'm reviewing

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a fairly recent set. I'm gonna be talking

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about the LEGO Gringotts set, which only

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released a couple of months ago and had people Very excited because

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it's a huge set and also a pretty iconic one for

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Harry Potter fans. But before we get started, just a

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little reminder if you are listening to the show for the very first time or

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if you checked out a few episodes and you haven't yet subscribed, make sure you

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hit that Subscribe or follow button in your podcast app

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to ensure that you do not miss a single episode of The

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Brick Magnate Podcast. You get to follow me on my adventures

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down the rabbit hole into LEGO obsession.

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So today, let's talk about the LEGO Harry

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Potter Gringotts set. I

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was quite excited for this one. I was intrigued

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by it. It was, I'd seen rumors that a Gringotts set was

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coming, and I think a lot of people were taken aback

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by how Lego had actually approached it and designed it. So I

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was curious. And I've gotta say, for me, in my

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experiences anyway, Lego Harry Potter can be a little hit and

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miss. All the way back in episode 1, the very first episode of this

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podcast, I reviewed the Lego Hogwarts

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Express, the big Hogwarts Express set that they released,

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which, overall, was a bit of a disappointment,

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especially for that sort of premium priced

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signature set. But on the flip side, both

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the full size Hogwarts set and Diagon

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Alley. Those are really, really strong builds for me anyway.

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So I was hoping for more along those lines than some of the

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other Harry Potter sets that are out there. So did it

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deliver? Let's dive in. So this set is,

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4,803 Pieces. So

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it's a big one. It is a big one. It's about,

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2 thirds, a little more than 2 thirds the size or or

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the brick count of things like the, Millennium Falcon or the

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Razor Crest or those big UCS Star Wars sets.

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And for that, You pay $430

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or 370 British pounds,

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which is actually under the the

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measuring stick of 10¢ per piece that,

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most people will use to calculate Whether a price

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is is good value or bad value based on the brick piece count.

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It comes with 13 minuteifigs, including the main

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trio, along with Hagrid, as well as iconic characters like

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Bellatrix Lestrange and Grepook. And,

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it's an interesting set because, first of all, It's very tall.

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And that's because you not only get the bank building itself,

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but you also get the underground area with the railroad and The

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Vaults, which obviously played a huge, huge part in the movie. So that's

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really unique and visually impressive, but it's a

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double edged sword, which I'll come back to, as the review

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kind of comes on. But first, let's talk about the build experience.

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I think the best way to describe this build

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is uneven. I was going to say that

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it's a build of 2 halves since you are literally building 2

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distinct separate areas above ground, below ground, But that makes it sound

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like maybe OneHalf was good, so maybe the underground was good,

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and the building was bad, but that's not the case. They both

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had Fun build phases. But they

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were also hampered by some really boring stretches too. And it

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does Like, in the way that you're building, sometimes when you're building a a

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set that has multiple areas or multiple components, you might do a

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bit on each, but this Does feel very divided into okay. 1st,

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we're building this whole separate standalone underground bit, then we

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build the overground, and then we just pop 1 on top of the other.

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But, yeah, they both had fun myths. They both had really, really boring

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stretches. So you start the build with the underground vault area. Now,

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obviously, because the bank the building sits on

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top of this, this is kind of like

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it's its own sort of area, but it's primarily

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concerned with being a sturdy base.

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So it's more that's kind of the priority, and you can tell the priority for

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this bit. Make sure it's a solid sturdy base for the

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building, rather than make sure that it's really

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cool as a standalone section. And it does work. It

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is a solid base. The the the set doesn't really wobble.

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It doesn't feel flimsy. But it also means that,

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there's a big Stretch of pretty uninspired building,

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that is that goes into creating this kind of strong x

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shape that supports the weight of the bank above it. So

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yeah. Definitely, I think uninspired for for stretches of this when you're building

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out kind of the the foundations of That area,

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there there's some vault rooms built into that x stand and a

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few attempts to reproduce elements from the film, But you do feel like you're limited

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by the true purpose of this section in being an x

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shaped bass with a few bits and pieces tacked on. That's

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definitely what it feels more like. The thief's wall the the waterfall,

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the thief's downfall, from the movies where the card

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passes through. And if you've got any enchantments or spells, then it washes

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off those spells. Right? That's a big, big part of the movie. Right? It's kind

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of a a a main feature of this area.

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But that's a good example of what I mean by they've kind of

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just I wouldn't say phoned in, but they've been limited

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by What they could do within this section

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by having to stay true to the the main purpose, the main

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priority of this section in creating a strong base. So it's just kind of tagged

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on. It's just like a flimsy strip of blue tiles really

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awkwardly, I'm sitting on one of the axes of the base, and

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act it is quite flimsy. Like, it it's

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it doesn't There's something when you build it. It's one of the first things that

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you actually piece on to the base. And when I kinda did it, I was

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like, oh, that really? That's how they're doing that.

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It feels something weird, but it connects on with 1 little

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thin piece at the top. Anyway but I think that's

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kind of representative of,

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where I feel the shortcomings with the underground section

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of this, war. The areas it's fairly joyless

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in terms of the build, save for a few funny strikes in the vaults

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themselves, which the vault kind of just like slot in.

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I'll mention those Easter eggs in a bit, but the big highlight of this section

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comes in adding the railroad tracks

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for the carts to spin down on. Like, that's

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that's the bit that kind of salvages this section. So you have this

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spiral of railroad, and you have the

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cart that obviously will have, the characters in, and they spin

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round. They they they make their way down, and and you can have them stop

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off at at the different vaults. That's cool.

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But, unfortunately, That part doesn't come until, like,

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right at the end of the build for this section, so it

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doesn't save that experience from feeling like a bit of a slog.

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I did find myself flicking ahead in the instructions to see when I

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would get started on the bank building, which looked like it would be the more

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fun part of the process. And for the most part, it was. You know, I

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quite like modular building sets and building my LEGO city, and building,

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like, Diagon Alley and stuff like that. So I

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knew that this was the part of the build I was going to enjoy the

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most, and it was. I mostly enjoyed building the the

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bank above ground. The way in which they tackle kind of the wonky

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structure, at the front of the bank,

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was was satisfying. You know? When you see each level

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of the building come up, and you've got those kind of those askew,

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bits on the front facade. It's cool. It's just one of those little things where

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you're like, yeah. I like that. So, yeah, it was it was

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quite good. With the exception of Lego, once again, deciding to use stickers

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for the signage on the front, which obviously looks terrible compared to

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printed bricks, because, you know, you've obviously got The name of the

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bank, it's all it's it's kind of split in the middle, and there's awkward

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spacing because they've done it with stickers. Everyone hates stickers.

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Right? The interior of the bank building itself was pretty

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plain. It's mostly that ground it's

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mostly about the ground floor. There's kind of like a A small third

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floor with not much happening. But once you're done with the

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the fairly sparse detail in the,

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on the The first the ground floor where they

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have the the different, they're not checkouts. They're kind of the

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the teller stations right. It's where They walk up to,

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to the, is it dwarves or is it elves? Or is

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it goblins? It's goblins. And it's goblins. Yeah. So they walk up to

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the camp where the goblins are at, and they're they're in disguise and all of

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that. You've got that, but it's just it's just a bit anaemic. It's just a

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bit, I don't again, I don't wanna

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say phoned in, because that suggests laziness. Yeah. Maybe there

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just wasn't as much they could do with with that. But once you're

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done with that bit, the rest of it is fairly plain. You're really

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just building up 3 stories of outer walls and then the roof, which Did get

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pretty repetitive. You can tell they tried to mix it up a bit for

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this phase by having you do a bit of the building, then a bit of

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the outside, and the little random side building they add on,

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and then a little bit of a a wall that they added at the edge

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of of the the space for the baseplate. And then you're building a wall

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on the building again. So they they had you dot around that area to

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mix it up a little bit, but I don't think it really saved it during

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the more monotonous parts of the build. There was a

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dragon. So you piece together a dragon, the dragon that's down in the vaults, and

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it helps them escape. These are all spoilers for the Harry Potter movies, by the

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way, in case you've not seen them in the last, you know, 20 years.

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So that mix Things up slightly, but not enough to really elevate the overall build

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experience. So I'm gonna give this a disappointing

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2a half out of 5, which I think is fitting for a build of 2

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halves for it to get half marks. It's a shame because this

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is a big expensive set. Maybe I'm being harsh, But I think

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when you have something that's based on a phone IP like Harry

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Potter, Harry Potter, and they look on, Harry

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Potter, Yeah. When you've when you've got an IP like

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Harry Potter, especially one that's got, you

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know, a set that's got 2 very contrasting areas.

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You know, the the polished, kinda quirky, overground

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building, and then the the the cave, the natural, the the

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rock, and the stone, and the the dark and dingy

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underground. It shouldn't feel like you're

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just grinding it out, and you shouldn't be flicking ahead in

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the instructions to try and find the interesting part.

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So, Yeah. Yeah.

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A a disappointing build experience, I'm sorry to say. So let's talk

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about the end result. Well, it does Look Great. It's

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an impressive, satisfying size. It stands at

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just under 80 centimeters tall, So it's a strong signature piece

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on its own, even more so if you purge the dragon on top of the

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building. So that's gonna bring it closer to the 1 meter

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mark. So It is a striking

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piece. The contrast between above and below ground

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really works visually Despite some of the details on

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the underground section feeling a little tacked on, if you step back from the

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whole thing and look at it, like, the the contrast in the color,

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The contrast in, you know, the the neatness, even with

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the wonky walls up up top, but kind of the the neatness and the cleanness

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of what's above with The jaggedness and

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the, the kind of griminess. I'm

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not grimy, but it's a bit it's brown bricks. Right? Brown and gray

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bricks. Like, there's a good visual contrast, and it looks,

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it it does look good. There's some fun little Easter eggs in there

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for Potter fans too, particularly the addition I think

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my favorite one, the addition of a a vault containing Helga Hufflepuff's

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cup, where they added in a cool little mechanism. Fairly simple

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one, but a cool addition that emulates, the the

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I don't know if it pronounces Gem Geminio curse, the

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doubling spell. So if you kind of pop your finger and touch the cup,

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it sort of pushes back a little mechanism, and a whole bunch of

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Duplicated cups spill out of the vault.

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Call me easily pleased. You know? And

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there's also something very satisfying about seeing the rail carts

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spiraling around the base. Again, I did say I'm easily pleased. Right? But

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there is something. You know? Pop your cart on the top, and it spirals round

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and comes out the bottom. That's yeah. Fun. Right?

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Satisfying. Although on that, it

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again, though, the kart thing, it's it's a bit clunky when you're

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unloading and reloading the karts on the track. Little fiddly. I've had bits break off

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when I'm trying to do it, which I don't really want.

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So yeah. So it's It's a set that

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that maybe looks a bit better from a few steps back

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than it does up close. When you start getting into the details, it's a bit

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disappointing. It's a little clunky. And so where having

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the 2 sections of Above and Below Ground really becomes a double edged

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sword, though, is if you're planning on adding Gringotts

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to your existing Diagon Alley set. And that's what

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I'd intended on doing. I've got Diagon Alley. It's got Honeydukes. It's got

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the, joke shop. It's, it's it's got

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Ollivanders. I think it's got Burt and Botts. It's got all

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all the shops. It's missing Gringotts. And so, you

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know, my first thought when I get it,

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is I'm going to, you know, add it to the display where I

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have Diagon Alley. I can't even remember. Gringot is in Diagon Alley.

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Right? It is. I don't know. My Harry Potter

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law is getting away from me. But I think, you know, Lego

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marketed it on the basis of, You know, hey.

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You can take the bank off the base, and you can display it with your

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diagonal alley buildings. Right? This completes your diagonal alley set.

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So that's what I'd intended on doing. And I think it was smart of

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LEGO to make it so the bank building is on its own

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baseplate. It can be lifted off the underground section displayed separately.

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And if you did that, you would never know that that's not what it was

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originally designed for. So they presumably did that knowing that a lot of

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people who would spend all this money, who

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would be willing to spend $430 on this set,

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are also probably the same audience who would have spent

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the $500 or 600, whatever it was, for,

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the Diagon Alley set. Right? So

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that set, I think, was released a couple of years ago. And so,

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yeah, maybe they're thinking, okay. That profile of a Lego buyer

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will be in a place now where they're gonna spend 100 of dollars. They're gonna

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get Gringotts. They're already likely to have Diagon Alley all

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by the 2 together. So, you know, if if you're one of

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those people, that's fantastic. But now you're left with the dilemma

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of what to do with the lower section, because it

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it's no good on its own. It doesn't work on its own. It

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doesn't look good on its own. If you just look at the

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base, the underground section stand alone. You can tell

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it's missing something. If you just look at the building, the bank on its

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own, you wouldn't know that it's missing the underground.

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Right. But it wouldn't work to have

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the underground attached if you're putting the bank next to the

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Diagon Alley buildings. So suddenly

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that base area, the underground area becomes redundant. And if you're

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displaying Gringotts next to Diagon Alley, That base

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area, half of the set is gonna end up shoved in a corner

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or in a cupboard somewhere. And that's not ideal for something that took up Half

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of the build and accounts for a big part of the cost of the set.

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You know, you pay $400 for this, you gotta shove $200 worth in a

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cupboard. Right? Now, obviously, this doesn't apply to everyone, but given the fact that

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Lego did specifically mark this set based on the

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fact you can Take the bank off the

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base and display alongside Diagon Alley.

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Like, they did that deliberately, and they're assuming there's more than a

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few people in their audience who will want to do that. So

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that's definitely a mark against this set for me. It might sound harsh,

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But any set where you have to face the choice of sticking half of it

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in a cupboard somewhere needs to have that factored into my scoring.

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So I'm gonna give this a 3.5 end result. If you don't

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have Diagon Alley, then maybe it's a fall for you. The

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underground area definitely lets this set down, in

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all areas other than the the the railroad.

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And other people probably won't find that as as,

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Satisfying as I do. Like, yeah, I'm easily pleased having the

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car to go around in a spiral and being able to have them stop at

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the different vaults. I like it. It's cool. That that kind of salvages

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what is otherwise a pretty uninspired area.

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So, yeah, the underground area lets it down. The use of stickers definitely lets

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it down. That really annoys me that that the Gringotts

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sign is is stickers. And the kind of

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sparseness of the interior of the bank itself. As someone

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who likes modular buildings, and I like The

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the little details on each floor, but this doesn't have much of that going on.

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So, yeah, 3a half end result, and that mostly

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It just comes from how visually impressive the set is

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from a few steps back. So

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finally value for money. This was not a cheap set, but it does sit at

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the right side of the 10¢ per, item per per brick

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count line in terms of Average costs. It

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should be pointed out, however, that a bunch of those pieces that make up the

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brick count are single square tiles or dots,

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as well as little spiral cone thingies. That's not their official

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name. It's the one they use for the stalagmites and stalactites in the underground

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area. I don't want I don't know why. I just don't like them. I don't

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know if it's because they're like rubbery, and I like my I like my plastic.

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I just don't like them. And, Yeah. I'm overly critical

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when you've got a high brick count, but you've got a load of these tiny

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little pieces. It feels like that detracts from the value

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you're getting. You know, if you look at the brick count for the LEGO Bowser

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where almost every piece was a thick, substantial,

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chunky piece, and then you have a set which is

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you know, you've got hundreds of the thin one square

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tiles. You can't you can't compare those in

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terms of value. Anyway, that's just my weird

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neurosis over this. There is a decent amount of minifigures

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with this set, but, again, you have the same thing that they've done

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with other Harry Potter sets where they've included multiples of the same

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character at different ages to reflect the different

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visits that they made to Gringotts over the series. So

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you have young Harry, with Hagrid, which I think is

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is to represent the 1st series, but then You have the

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older trio of Harry, Ron, Hermione,

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to represent. I think it's the 6th movie that they go there, or

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maybe the the 7th. 6th is hard blood print, so that's not when they go.

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So with the 8, I get confused. 7 books, 8 movies.

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Yeah? So I think it's the 7th movie they got. Anyway, nobody cares.

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But, yeah, you end up with that duplication, which is a little bit annoying, especially

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if you bought other sets. Like, I don't know how

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many Harrys I've got now. I've got too many Harrys, too many Hermione's.

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They're not unique and different and distinct enough, to warrant that.

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So, Again, this does sound like I'm nitpicking. Right?

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But anyone who's built other Harry Potter sets probably has already

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more Harrys run than Hermione's, and they can shake a stick at. They're really not

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gonna want more. But, you know, there are some additions in there.

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I don't think I've got a Bellatrix, minifig from any

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other sets. Might have it from Grimmauld Place possibly. Don't

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think I've got it from Hogwarts. So, you know, having a a

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Beltrix, having Grippook, again, I've definitely not got him from

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another set. They're cool. Overall, I

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can't give this too high a mark for value for money though, given that the

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The pretty the bill experience was pretty average,

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bordering on disappointing, and again, you just can't escape the

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problem of What happens if you wanted to

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display this alongside Diagon Alley, which is how they marketed

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the set? That's not That's not me wanting to do

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something that is contrary to the purpose of

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this set. They use that as a strong marketing angle.

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And yeah. I mean, it's it's

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tricky. Right now, I haven't actually, I'm doing nothing with it. It's Still it's

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still on my my desk my hobby desk while I do my builds

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because I'm annoyed at the fact that I'll need

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to I'll need to find somewhere to just shove the the underground

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bit. Or you get the real, kind of like, the real

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ninja Lego builders where They

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they'll do something to raise up the other buildings

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in Diagon Alley, and they'll just have The below part

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kind of sit below the street level. Like, that's kind of the only way you

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could display them together, but that's that's getting a little crazy. Right?

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So yeah. It's a tough one because you really can't fault them

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for making it possible to display the bank as a standalone thing, but

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I don't actually think it'd be right. Yeah. I don't think it'd be right to

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dock points in my review just based on the Diagon Alley problem.

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But even so, based on the build experience and some

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some let downs in the end result. I've still got to give this a

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pretty mid range 3a half out of 5 for value for

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money. Brick count to to dollar price,

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it's on the right side of things, especially for a licensed

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IP set. If you're

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displaying it standalone, you're gonna be happy with it.

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But the build, It wasn't a fun build. It just

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wasn't a fun build. You know, you want a build that you

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enjoy that maybe has 1 or 2 boring bits, not a bill that's

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boring that has 1 or 2 enjoyable bits. Right? And that definitely

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impacts value for money because you're paying for that experience too.

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So while I wouldn't say that this set was a letdown overall, I do think

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it suffered for its own ambition to create that 2 tiered result.

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The practicalities of this made from mixed bag of the

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underground area and a relatively sparse upper building, and, of course,

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you have the Diagon Alley quandary in there as well.

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Thing is, though, I don't actually think they could have done it any other way.

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Had they just released The upper building, they would have been slated for missing out

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the best bit in terms of what you see in the movies. And if they'd

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ignored the Diagon Alley crowd and made it more of a complete

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set that couldn't be separated. So you're not building 2 halves and piecing them together.

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You're building 1 cohesive set. I think they'd catch

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heat for that as well. Maybe they should have done it a

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little how they've done the recent smaller Hogwarts

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and and Hogwarts grounds set. Right?

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So I don't know if you've seen it, but you've obviously got the big, big

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Hogwarts set. That was, like, 600, $700. But

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they released a smaller scale one that actually is

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more more of a model of the the the broader grounds of

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of Hogwarts. And so the Hogwarts itself is smaller.

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You've got more of the surrounding area. Maybe they they cut in on something a

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little bit like that with, Gringotts,

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where the building itself is smaller, but, actually,

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you use more space for the underground area. Right? I don't know.

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Who knows? So yeah. I think it it would the

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choice to do this, I think they they had to do Gringotts at

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some point because people wanted it, But it was a bit of a

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poison chalice, not unlike Helga Hufflepuff's cup,

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ironically. So overall, this wasn't the letdown

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that the Hogwarts Express set was. That that for me is the low bar

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for pre like, the premium signature Harry Potter pieces,

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but it's definitely not hitting the heights of other sets like Hogwarts

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itself or, of course, like Diagon Alley. So this is

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probably divisive. I'd love to hear what you think. You can connect with

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me on, Instagram and on TikTok. I am at

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brickmagnate. Brick, m a g, and a t e

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on both of those platforms. If you wanna let me know what you thought of

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the set, whether you agree or disagree or feel

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particularly strongly, about anything I've talked about

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here, then let me know. Of course, if you follow me on those platforms,

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you'll find videos and other behind the scenes looks at

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the different sets that I talk about in the show, as well as some that

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I don't. And, be sure to hit that subscribe

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button or head to brickmagnate.com for

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past episodes and future episodes of the show. Next

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week, I'm gonna be talking about The Lego set I swore I

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would never buy, but then I caved and bought

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it and didn't regret it. Find out what that set

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was and get the full review of it on next week's episode.

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For now, thank you so much for joining me for another edition of The

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Brick Magnate podcast, and I'll see you all next week.

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