Lego 76388, Hogsmeade Village Visit contains 851 pieces including two buildings and 7 unique minifigures, it focuses on the Prisoner of Askaban film and the popular Hogsmeade Village that is around throughout the history of Harry Potter.
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Lego 76388
Being Harry Potter fans, most Harry Potter sets are eagerly anticipated if I’m honest, especially for the girls, but for me, I like these style sets. I’m a big fan of the modular sets so when we get a chance to do buildings and sets from the films these are the ones that I get excited to do. What makes this even better is the Winter style effects on this which means actually you could add this to your winter style displays if you didn’t want it in the Harry Potter of your selection.
Harry Potter
Harry is here again, and for the scene of him discovering more about Sirius Black, then he kind of has to be in it. Being a visit students done need to be wearing their Uniforms so Harry is wearing his blue jacket, which has been used a few times now, as ofcorse is the hair and double side face.
Dean Thomas
Unlike Harry, we have an exclusive character in Dean Thomas, and actually, nice to have a character that hasn’t really been done much. A double-sided face looks good while wearing a great Red winter style puffer jacket.
Professor McGonagall
The Fantastic Minifigures continue with Professor McGonagall, this is one of the best representations so far the robes, in particular, look great, his double-sided face is fine though the angry-looking expression side of it doesn’t quite fit as a worried or stern look would have suited her more.
Madame Rosmerta
The same can be said for Madame Rosmerta, excellent mini figure and looks great, an excellent addition to the minifigures but her double-sided face is fine, the angry again doesn’t quite make sense but it’s such a small thing.
Ambrosius Flume
My Flume owns the business of HoneyDukes and is great to be in the set, he looks excellent and the hat and scarf, in particular, look awesome. The expression on his face sums him up and is all around a great mini-figure.
Mrs Flume
Mrs Flume is also present and she looks arguably even better, she fits that sweet shop looks with the colours and apron style on her minifigure. Her head is fine and the double-sided face has been used in other Harry Potter sets for characters, so not really that unique but it’s fine.
20th Anniversary Ron Weasley
If you have read my other anniversary set reviews you know I don’t like them, but if you do the pearl gold design with the 20th anniversary on the back looks fine. It sits on a flat piece stand also in pearl gold, Ron looks fine in one of the more generic designs but that’s the point of it, the crest looks good while the face doesn’t really have much detail within the gold.
Extras
Within the scenery of the village, they provide a Lampost, Bench and Sirius black poster, all three look good, the bench could have been better as I’ve seen better winter benches in other sets, the Lamposts always look good. As for the Poster, it’s great, bang on with the film and completely fits the part of the film and scene.
Honey Dukes Sweet Shop
Now I’m not a fan of half builds, I’ve mentioned it a few times as they often limit detail etc, but actually, In these two buildings, they are actually good, especially Honey Dukes. From the outside the long sloping roof and Snow effects are terrific, the curving windows remind you of Diagon Alley style buildings which is a great way to carry on the Harry Potter style theme.
Being on a show base is nice as it flanks around, and to be fair even the sides of the building look fine with small little snow roof and brick designs, often these get forgotten about but let’s not forget the front is where the style is, and its looks great with the snow on the roofs and little window, the chimneys offer more visual height as well.
Inside the building sees a small room in the room, the loft wasn’t really shown in the film so it’s just a little generic with storage but does have a neat yellow crate in amongst it the area. But because of the design of the roof, it goes to quite a point that still looks good from the inside, especially with the window shining through.
The main detail is on the shop floor, and arguable the best detail in the whole set, the walls have stickers of shelves of stock, this is neat to try and create the fullness of the room, but in reality, they have managed to cram in a lot to the space. The window displays are excellent, the till is small but doest everything you want, visual displays of candy floss etc flank the walls as well, with a cabinet display in the middle of the shop. This is all excellent and one of the better half buildings examples I’ve seen.
Three Broomsticks
Unlike the much brighter Honey dukes with Green and Pinks amongst the snow, roof and Building, the Three Broomsticks tavern is a more traditional style of the tavern, it’s not boring but the Tavern wouldn’t be bright and bubbly. But from the outside it carries on that design from the village while being a very different design to the Sweetshop, the porch out the front with antlers etc, lantern signs etc.. all look excellent.
But that’s not all, the windows are different and I love the architecture that’s actually got a surprising amount of detail in this set, the curve of the high roof at the front just shows you the level they went to that, to be honest wouldn’t normally be done.
Inside again is two floors, the upstairs has a lot more detail and essentially a small family room with fire, chair, table etc.. again for a half build and in particular, upstairs of that building, this is a lot of detail in comparison to most other builds. Essentially this is the room they are discussing Sirius Black that Harry overhears etc..
The main room does what it needs to do, it has a bar, table, Butterbear display, excellent sticker of heads on the door, a little food and a colour scheme that fits. I would love these two buildings to be bigger to have more detail that someone really went into on the design but as small half build? it’s great in the feel of the Tavern.
Overall
Obviously, 851 pieces for near £69.99 is a tad high, and these days with the theme sets they are expensive. However I wouldn’t say this is over the top from a price point, for me, it doesn’t have much play value and is a much better display piece. As I said it kind of double for either Harry Potter or Winter Village if you wanted to bulk out that display, but Harry Potter fans will love it, it’s a big area to focus on as it’s been around a long while. The Minifigures are excellent with only a couple of slight criticisms and these are often because of faces.
As for the buildings like it said I don’t like Half builds but this is one of the best examples that if done right they cant actually look good and fit, the only knock would have been the inclusion of the basement as in the story of Harry Potter the basement of Three Broomsticks is significant, but how they would fit this in? I have no idea and may have changed the set entirely.
But the design of the buildings, the colours the style that fits the rest of the Harry Potter etc.. are all bang on, the level of detail is excellent and is one of the better sets I’ve done for the price range, would we love it to be a full-blown modular style build? yes, but it would have been double the price, though it’s something that could have had that Diagon Alley treatment of a Village, but don’t let that distract you from the set.
