Early this morning, Leicester Square witnessed the biggest gathering of Harry Potter fans since the final film premier was held there in 2011. Fans of LEGO and J. K. Rowling’s famous wizard were out in force, excitedly queuing outside the store, some camping out overnight for the highly anticipated 71043 Hogwarts Castle set, which is now available. At over 6,000 pieces, 71043 Hogwarts Castle is the second-largest LEGO set released by the company to date. Packed full of amazing architectural detail and showcasing almost every important scene from the series, it certainly lives up to its billing. Earlier today we posted a full review of the Hogwarts Castle LEGO set that covers every nook and cranny of the impressive build. Inside the store, a magical makeover had been undertaken, with a life-sized sorting hat installed. It was time for us all to find out which house we would be sorted into....

“Welcome to Agrabah. City of Mystery, of Enchantment, and the finest merchandise this side of the River Jordan…” This cool little LEGO Disney diorama by Peter Ilmrud captures both the exotic atmosphere of Aladdin’s hometown, and a real sense of action and excitement with characters leaping around the rooftops and the magic carpet soaring above. With multiple minifigures crammed into its tight circular footprint, the model has some nice detail in the framing walls. I particularly like the use of panel pieces to provide architectural texture to the top of the buildings. The only slightly jarring note for me is the mixing of regular minifigs with Friends-style mini-dolls — a form of LEGO heresy in some parts — but the overall scene is so nice we’ll let it slide. The post When did you last let your heart take flight? appeared first on The Brothers Brick. Original linkOriginal author: Rod

At 6,020 pieces, the new microscale 71043 Hogwarts Castle is the LEGO set with the second-highest part count ever, exceeded only by last year’s 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon at 7,541 pieces. This massive Hogwarts is part of the new wave of LEGO Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts sets, including the minifig-scale 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall. In what is sure also to be one of our longest LEGO set reviews ever, we’re immersing ourselves in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World as we take a close look at this massive set, which retails for $399.99 and will be available on September 1st (August 15 for LEGO VIP Program members). Packaging, instructions, and sticker sheets The Ultimate Collector Series branding and packaging is usually limited to LEGO Star Wars sets, and packaging for very large LEGO sets still varies widely across themes, with LEGO Technic sets like the Bugatti Chiron featuring premium packaging and the spiral-bound...

For years LEGO Harry Potter fans have been asking for a complete model of Hogwarts Castle. LEGO has made more than 20 sets depicting various parts of the wizarding school, some with just a few rooms or a bit of wall, and some with large parts of the structure. Some were excellent, and some were not. Now LEGO has finally created the whole castle in a single set, using a massive 6,020 pieces to sculpt 71043 Hogwarts Castle in microscale, including 27 microfigures and 4 minifigures. The set is available beginning today for LEGO VIP members (signing up is free), and will be available to everyone beginning Sept. 1. It retails for $399.99 USD. Wondering if you should spend your hard-earned cash on a set this big? Check out our hands-on review of 71043 Hogwarts Castle, or see more of the official photos in our announcement article. You can help support The...

It does not take an exceptional amount of imagination to see a landing module in a stereotypical bacteriophage, the type of virus that infects bacteria. So I am surprised that the latest creation from Dwalin Forkbeard is the first time I have seen the aforementioned virus used as inspiration for a LEGO spaceship, especially given how crazy some builders can get with their spaceship designs. Sometimes it takes someone with an outside perspective on the theme to come up with the most out-of-the-box idea. And, as might be expected from a builder with a name taken from The Hobbit, they have so far mostly focused on medieval and fantasy creations, quite often centered about dwarves, as, again, you might imagine. The spacecraft features the main parts of a bacteriophage, but giving a mechanical twist to them: the head, which has the angular appearance we are used to from phage models; the...