LEGO Harry Potter 71043 Hogwarts Castle

Our first BIG TICKET DAY choice for the 2018 PopCult Gift Guide is the perfect gift for the obsessive (and maybe compulsive) Harry Potter fan on your shopping list. LEGO has created a new and comprehensive building set of Hogwarts Castle. It’s gigantic. It will take a long, long time to assemble, and it’s going to set you back about five hundred bucks.

Your PopCulteer has thus far remained immune to the appeal of the boy wizard, but even I was mightily impressed when I saw this set assembled at the LEGO Store in Chicago. It’s huge and epic and I can’t imagine any Harry Potter fan not wanting to have it.

Let’s go to the product hype:

Make the magic come alive at the LEGO Harry Potter 71043 Hogwarts Castle! This highly detailed LEGO Harry Potter collectible has over 6,000 pieces and offers a rewarding build experience. It comes packed with highlights from the Harry Potter series, where you will discover towers, turrets, chambers, classrooms, creatures, the Whomping Willow and Hagrid´s hut, plus many more iconic features. And with 4 minifigures, 27 microfigures featuring students, professors and statues, plus 5 Dementors, this advanced building set makes the perfect Harry Potter gift.

“Includes 4 minifigures: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin and Rowena Ravenclaw, with a buildable minifigure display stand. Also features 27 microfigures: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Albus Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Professor McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Professor Dolores Umbridge, Argus Filch, Lord Voldemort, Bellatrix Lestrange, 3 students from each of the 4 houses, 2 chess pieces and the Architect of Hogwarts statue and 5 Dementors, plus Aragog the spider and the Basilisk figures, and a buildable Hungarian Horntail dragon.

Features a buildable microscale model of Hogwarts Castle, hut of Hagrid, Whomping Willow tree and 5 boats.

Hogwarts Castle features the Great Hall with buildable ‘stained glass windows’, house banners, benches, tables, flaming torches and moving staircases; potions classroom with racks of jar elements; Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with assorted potion jars, gramophone and a closet containing a boggart; Chessboard Chamber with chess piece elements; Room of Requirement with assorted elements, including the Goblet of Fire and the vanishing cabinet; Chamber of Secrets with the Basilisk and Tom Riddle’s Diary; hidden Devils Snare room with vine elements; Gryffindor common room with fireplace and seating; Professor Dolores Umbridge’s office with desk, chair and pink furnishings; library with bookcase and desks; and Professor Dumbledore’s office with the Griffin statue entrance and Memory cabinet.

Hagrid’s hut features Aragog the spider and buildable pumpkins.The Whomping Willow includes the buildable blue Flying Ford Anglia car in its spinning branches. Also includes 5 buildable boats.

Take a seat in the Great Hall and feast with the Hogwarts professors and students! Sneak your way into the Chamber of Secrets through the secret entrance and face the Basilisk! Attend a Defence Against the Dark Arts class to learn how to protect yourself from dark magic! Climb the moving staircase! Study for your Ordinary Wizarding Level exams in the library.

Accessory elements include the Sword of Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff´s cup, wands, potions, house banners, flames, a cauldron and 2 magnifying glasses. Microfigure accessories include 2 chess statues and the Architect of Hogwarts statue.

Hogwarts™ Castle measures over 22” (58cm) high, 27” (69cm) wide and 16” (43cm) deep.

Your best bet is to order Hogwarts Castle directly from LEGO. Other retailers are selling this set, but at a higher price. Get this for the Harry Potter fan on your gift list and they’ll never know that you’re a Womble…or a Muggle…or whatever.