Hinges, baby! Or: the Provisional Potions Classroom MOC... Part Two: the Official Set 76431
A REVIEW and MOC (My Own Creation) in three parts...
This is the second in a three part series reviewing the official lego Harry Potter summer 2024 wave's 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class and introducing gingerwitch's (MOC) modification thereof.
Today we'll look at the official lego set, 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class, and establish how many of those key features from the canonical classroom in the films have been represented and just how well at that. I'll endeavour to grade in a fashion somewhere between Snape and Sluggy. ๐
As the floor plan is a little odd, and frankly doesn't make sense given the number of students, the majority of the concept and accompanying art, or far too many scenes... in an attempt to minimise confusion, we'll start with the floor plan from the last post, Slughorn's sixth year N.E.W.T.s Potions Classroom from Half Blood Prince. (Which he then... what? Transfigures for the first through fifth years? ๐ค Bygones. This is what the set tour gives us to work with, so we'll run with it.)
Here's the floor plan, seen through a "fish-eye" lens:
from Karen Roe's 'The Making of Harry Potter 29-05-2012'
One of the better renditions of the classroom as a toy is the mini-funko pops display. Although it could do with more (any) gilding, it really captures the floor plan and other main features:
That's obviously less true of the new lego version. (For reference, here once more the model of the original set that I built on mecabricks, complete with the substitutions I was forced to make.)
But here's why that smaller version isn't a bad thing, though, and up next we'll see what we can easily do to zhuzh it up.
Now I'm one of the first to point out that most of us wouldn't actually want to pay for the build we often envision, nor can most of us afford the space that that scale would require, certainly not if it's carried out for the entire castle. And while I appreciate the occasional aspirational set (even when it's clearly out of my reach), if anything, it's good when the sets, by and large, are designed more realistically. So let's see what the official lego set 76431 gets right and wrong about the room, and how that stacks up against the previous post's list of things to include...
1) The ingredients... Och. I'll start by saying I think the Potions Ingredients bench is a great idea for a play feature and reminds me of the lego Harry Potter video game so: Outstanding there, the problem as such lies with the ingredients as a feature of the room. To that end, there are only four cylinders built into a piece of wall (immediately to the left of the brick built cauldron above) that remain unseen from many angles. The experiments from the Professor's table have moved to a narrow bench under one of the windows, doing double duty by filling in visually as more ingredients; I'll venture they're Amortentia and the inverted cone Felix Felicis. And the remainder of the ingredients, as such, is represented via a sticker. I do like their sticker art, but still... I appreciate there is a great lack of wall space, nevertheless, considering how prevalent the ingredients are in the classroom film set and even in the lego HP video game's Potions classroom, I have to mark them poorly here. Troll? Doesn't quite seem fair. Dreadful also feels too harsh, but I don't think we can go above a Poor on this one. Plus in an ideal world, we should have seen a new variant of 1x1 'cupcake topper' / 'poop' mould that represents those iconic ingredients lids from the top shelf.
We have plenty of gilded arches, mostly in more of a window format, but as a representational design form, I'll say they ticked boxes 2) (ceiling) and 3) (window arches). Check check. The ingredients jar covers (1x1 rounds), the goblet, and the portraits add pops of pearl gold to help convey that sense of generous gilding, so here again: success. Exceeds Expectations.
As for 4) the rounded part of the room just doesn't exist, the couple of hinges only allow you to hint at it if your specs require an Oculus Reparo!, you squint heavily and view it from a very narrow angle, and even the instructor's round table has been replaced with a square lectern. That latter we should probably let go of, as space is at a premium and including a table won't be worth the hit to the budget. The former, on the other hand, really does want some attention, so let's add that to the to do list. Poor, but only because of the hinges we have. (Deep down a curmudgeonly little voice keeps demanding 'troll!', but I promised not to grade too Snapely.)
5) The cast iron stove yields way to the cauldron from the video game. Perfect. Genius. Outstanding. The only question I have there is why it's brick built instead of using the large cauldron piece which appears in one of the Disney sets this summer, so it's clearly still kicking around? I'm going to guess a) piece count ๐ b) budget and less obviously, but more interestingly, I'd bet because c) it's closer in form to the stove this way, and could be seen as a compromise. (Although in that case a closed option might have been nice and provided added storage space for loose ingredients.) Even the stirring rod (and I love that it mounts on the wall so that it's less likely to get lost) doubles visually as the exhaust / chimney / stove pipe for the stove (cauldron), although I might have gone for black here to emphasise that despite the lack of contrast that would give rise to when it's in use in the cauldron. Either way, it works, and it's fun, although I still think the large cauldron would have looked better, hang the stove reference. Commit. Go all in on the game.
6) The straight bit of entrance wall and the sole floor / base are both reminiscent of those rectangular sections to the front of the room. The 7) rectangular workbenches add to that as well. While lego obviously lends itself to rectilinear forms inherently, and it might seem something of a gimme, it's safe to say I certainly don't feel cheated of boxy shapes here. ๐ The build needs to be both round (see 4) above) and square, and they've suitably nailed the square. They deserve an Exceeds Expectations on those aspects of the design. (Despite the fact that I expect no less from them. It's frightfully unfair to deduct points for a very good track record. ๐)
8) I'll venture we've forfeited the miscellaneous massive bottles for the large mix-your-own-potions cauldron and ingredients bench, but they are both such good play features that I don't even mind. Canon be hanged! ๐ Seriously, between the cauldron and the blackboard right above it to tell you how to mix a potion, it screams lego Harry Potter video game. (I wish I had the sticker to show you.) Anyway, the designer earns a smooch. ๐
screencaps were taken from gamerwalkthroughs UK's video of the game
It's difficult to say what grade to give the set as a whole, as it's largely dependent on your personal priorities. I need the rounded bit that doubles as Snape's office in Chamber of Secrets. When it's missing, the room feels incomplete. On the other hand, I don't mind not achieving the proper 'Slughorn footprint' as it's non-trivially daft to begin with. As is not uncommon in films, that was a room that felt cool but made no sense. How would a sensibly cautious Professor properly patrol the potion making process in progress when substantial parts of the classroom were designed to be out of his line of sight? Sluggy might let it go, Snape would never, so no, no point deductions there. But the absence of the rows and rows of ingredients... Tsk. I don't think people really need others telling them how to feel. After everything we've covered, you know if you like it or not. Go with your gut and refuse to be swayed.
For my part, I like it. I'll buy it. But I could like it more. To that end, it doesn't require too many changes to get where I'd like it to be. Tomorrow we'll take a look at just that.
Up next: the finale, Part Three, the eagerly awaited gingerwitch's MOC of the Potions Classroom.
This is the second in a three part series reviewing the official lego Harry Potter summer 2024 wave's 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class and introducing gingerwitch's (MOC) modification thereof.
Today we'll look at the official lego set, 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class, and establish how many of those key features from the canonical classroom in the films have been represented and just how well at that. I'll endeavour to grade in a fashion somewhere between Snape and Sluggy. ๐
As the floor plan is a little odd, and frankly doesn't make sense given the number of students, the majority of the concept and accompanying art, or far too many scenes... in an attempt to minimise confusion, we'll start with the floor plan from the last post, Slughorn's sixth year N.E.W.T.s Potions Classroom from Half Blood Prince. (Which he then... what? Transfigures for the first through fifth years? ๐ค Bygones. This is what the set tour gives us to work with, so we'll run with it.)
Here's the floor plan, seen through a "fish-eye" lens:
from Karen Roe's 'The Making of Harry Potter 29-05-2012'
One of the better renditions of the classroom as a toy is the mini-funko pops display. Although it could do with more (any) gilding, it really captures the floor plan and other main features:
That's obviously less true of the new lego version. (For reference, here once more the model of the original set that I built on mecabricks, complete with the substitutions I was forced to make.)
But here's why that smaller version isn't a bad thing, though, and up next we'll see what we can easily do to zhuzh it up.
Now I'm one of the first to point out that most of us wouldn't actually want to pay for the build we often envision, nor can most of us afford the space that that scale would require, certainly not if it's carried out for the entire castle. And while I appreciate the occasional aspirational set (even when it's clearly out of my reach), if anything, it's good when the sets, by and large, are designed more realistically. So let's see what the official lego set 76431 gets right and wrong about the room, and how that stacks up against the previous post's list of things to include...
1) The ingredients... Och. I'll start by saying I think the Potions Ingredients bench is a great idea for a play feature and reminds me of the lego Harry Potter video game so: Outstanding there, the problem as such lies with the ingredients as a feature of the room. To that end, there are only four cylinders built into a piece of wall (immediately to the left of the brick built cauldron above) that remain unseen from many angles. The experiments from the Professor's table have moved to a narrow bench under one of the windows, doing double duty by filling in visually as more ingredients; I'll venture they're Amortentia and the inverted cone Felix Felicis. And the remainder of the ingredients, as such, is represented via a sticker. I do like their sticker art, but still... I appreciate there is a great lack of wall space, nevertheless, considering how prevalent the ingredients are in the classroom film set and even in the lego HP video game's Potions classroom, I have to mark them poorly here. Troll? Doesn't quite seem fair. Dreadful also feels too harsh, but I don't think we can go above a Poor on this one. Plus in an ideal world, we should have seen a new variant of 1x1 'cupcake topper' / 'poop' mould that represents those iconic ingredients lids from the top shelf.
We have plenty of gilded arches, mostly in more of a window format, but as a representational design form, I'll say they ticked boxes 2) (ceiling) and 3) (window arches). Check check. The ingredients jar covers (1x1 rounds), the goblet, and the portraits add pops of pearl gold to help convey that sense of generous gilding, so here again: success. Exceeds Expectations.
As for 4) the rounded part of the room just doesn't exist, the couple of hinges only allow you to hint at it if your specs require an Oculus Reparo!, you squint heavily and view it from a very narrow angle, and even the instructor's round table has been replaced with a square lectern. That latter we should probably let go of, as space is at a premium and including a table won't be worth the hit to the budget. The former, on the other hand, really does want some attention, so let's add that to the to do list. Poor, but only because of the hinges we have. (Deep down a curmudgeonly little voice keeps demanding 'troll!', but I promised not to grade too Snapely.)
5) The cast iron stove yields way to the cauldron from the video game. Perfect. Genius. Outstanding. The only question I have there is why it's brick built instead of using the large cauldron piece which appears in one of the Disney sets this summer, so it's clearly still kicking around? I'm going to guess a) piece count ๐ b) budget and less obviously, but more interestingly, I'd bet because c) it's closer in form to the stove this way, and could be seen as a compromise. (Although in that case a closed option might have been nice and provided added storage space for loose ingredients.) Even the stirring rod (and I love that it mounts on the wall so that it's less likely to get lost) doubles visually as the exhaust / chimney / stove pipe for the stove (cauldron), although I might have gone for black here to emphasise that despite the lack of contrast that would give rise to when it's in use in the cauldron. Either way, it works, and it's fun, although I still think the large cauldron would have looked better, hang the stove reference. Commit. Go all in on the game.
6) The straight bit of entrance wall and the sole floor / base are both reminiscent of those rectangular sections to the front of the room. The 7) rectangular workbenches add to that as well. While lego obviously lends itself to rectilinear forms inherently, and it might seem something of a gimme, it's safe to say I certainly don't feel cheated of boxy shapes here. ๐ The build needs to be both round (see 4) above) and square, and they've suitably nailed the square. They deserve an Exceeds Expectations on those aspects of the design. (Despite the fact that I expect no less from them. It's frightfully unfair to deduct points for a very good track record. ๐)
8) I'll venture we've forfeited the miscellaneous massive bottles for the large mix-your-own-potions cauldron and ingredients bench, but they are both such good play features that I don't even mind. Canon be hanged! ๐ Seriously, between the cauldron and the blackboard right above it to tell you how to mix a potion, it screams lego Harry Potter video game. (I wish I had the sticker to show you.) Anyway, the designer earns a smooch. ๐
screencaps were taken from gamerwalkthroughs UK's video of the game
It's difficult to say what grade to give the set as a whole, as it's largely dependent on your personal priorities. I need the rounded bit that doubles as Snape's office in Chamber of Secrets. When it's missing, the room feels incomplete. On the other hand, I don't mind not achieving the proper 'Slughorn footprint' as it's non-trivially daft to begin with. As is not uncommon in films, that was a room that felt cool but made no sense. How would a sensibly cautious Professor properly patrol the potion making process in progress when substantial parts of the classroom were designed to be out of his line of sight? Sluggy might let it go, Snape would never, so no, no point deductions there. But the absence of the rows and rows of ingredients... Tsk. I don't think people really need others telling them how to feel. After everything we've covered, you know if you like it or not. Go with your gut and refuse to be swayed.
For my part, I like it. I'll buy it. But I could like it more. To that end, it doesn't require too many changes to get where I'd like it to be. Tomorrow we'll take a look at just that.
Up next: the finale, Part Three, the eagerly awaited gingerwitch's MOC of the Potions Classroom.