LEGO® Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley: the build

Before I hand over to Jonas Kramm for his superb LEGO® Harry Potter review, I need to mention an unrelated-and-yet-related subject: New Elementary supports transgender people. We do not support the heedless views now being broadcast by the original writer of Harry Potter. Many of you may prefer we just stuck to the LEGO escapism but I feel it's essential for anyone purchasing this product to consider their own standpoint. The product in this article was provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this. Okay: now over to Jonas for the LEGO fun, and it's a corker!

We already posted about the reveal and the new parts of LEGO® Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley, so today it’s time to take a look at the actual build and its most interesting building techniques. With 5544 pieces the set is the second biggest Harry Potter set to this day; only 71043 Hogwarts Castle has more. As expected, such a huge build comes with many things to explore, so without further ado, let’s get started!

LEGO® Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley: the new parts

Following on from his detailed look at the first images of new LEGO® Harry Potter set 75978 Diagon Alley, Jonas Kramm will be reviewing the actual set as well for you soon. In the meantime, the inventory has been added to Rebrickable and so Tobias Witmer has distilled this into a list of just its new elements for you. Today, Jonas presents that list and discusses the most interesting elements.

After the reveal of LEGO® Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley just a few days ago, it’s time to take a closer look at which of the 5544 elements are new. Some were already mentioned in my last article but now we have a complete list, based on the inventory on Rebrickable, which you can see after my summary.

LEGO® Harry Potter 75978 Diagon Alley: the reveal

Welcome to Diagon Alley! Officially revealed today, we have Jonas Kramm to walk you through every shop – as well as the new moulds and each of the 14 minifigures – found in the latest LEGO® Harry Potter extravaganza.

75978 Harry Potter Diagon Alley is the new addition to the LEGO® Wizarding World, launching on 1 September 2020, just one day after the official reveal! Measuring over 1 metre (3.3 feet) long and made up of 5544 pieces, it’s one of the biggest LEGO sets ever and will cost £369.99 / US$399.99 – to learn the price in your country, see the list at the end of this article.

LEGO® Accessories review: 40419 Harry Potter Hogwarts students

Our second and final review of the new LEGO® accessory packs of minifigures features characters from the Harry Potter universe, as Erik H. from HokayBricks explains. These sets are released 1 June 2020 and Brickset estimates they will cost US$12.99/£11.99 but this is unconfirmed.

This accessory pack includes four minifigures and the pieces and instructions needed to build a small bookcase. The bookcase build is simple but effective. It does not include any new or exclusive parts, but considering that this set is likely to be purchased several times over by some customers I'm sure any number of MOCs could benefit from the parts included here. The interest here, however, is all about the minifigures.

LEGO® Harry Potter review & alt build: 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage

Continuing our final run of 2019 sets that caught our interest parts-wise, we have an August release from LEGO® Harry Potter which Jonas Kramm has not only reviewed but also created an alternate build of his own design with!

The recent series of sets from the Wizarding World brings us a bunch of scenes from the fourth movie: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Our pick is 75958 Beauxbatons' Carriage: Arrival at Hogwarts including 412 pieces and priced at £44.99 / $49.99 / 49.99€.

LEGO® Minecraft animals: Silverfish and Chicken

I've always been intrigued by the animal head elements that were specially introduced for LEGO® Minecraft sets. They're highly specialised and don't entirely conform to the System, but their blockiness and intriguing shapes made me wonder what else could be done with them. Who could I challenge to take on such a challenging challenge? The brilliant Jonas Kramm accepted my evil task! Over the course of three posts he will examine six Minecraft animal moulds.

Under the radar of most AFOLs, LEGO® has added several new Minecraft animal moulds to their assortment, which seem to be quite strange on first sight. But in a series of articles here on New Elementary I will dive into the blocky world, analyse the geometry of several Minecraft moulds and show you examples for the capability of these elements.

LEGO® Fantastic Beasts: new bricks and bits of beasties

We thought that it was time to take a look at the remaining new elements in the LEGO® Fantastic Beasts sets that were released last month as part of the Wizarding World theme. 

There are two sets in the LEGO® Fantastic Beasts range: 75951 Grindlewald’s Escape which has 132 elements, two minifigures and a price tag of  US$19.99/£19.99/29.99€ and 75952 Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures with 694 elements, four minifigures and costs US$49.99/£44.99/49.99€.

New parts in 75951 Grindlewald’s Escape 

Within Grindlewald’s Escape, there are two elements that are completely new moulds and both belong to Thestral, the flying horse creature.

LEGO® Harry Potter and the Enlightening Elements

Following on from our in depth look at the Wanderful Wand and Spurious Sprue, Elspeth De Montes takes a look at three enlightening new elements that appear in the recent LEGO® Harry Potter Wizarding World releases.

Appearing for the first time is Lamp, No. 1 “lantern” in Titanium Metallic [TLG] / Pearl Dark Grey [BL] (Element ID 6234116 | Design ID 37776). This was actually introduced in three Elves sets released this summer: 41157 Rapunzel's Travelling Caravan, 41195 Emily & Noctura's Showdown and 41196 The Elvenstar Tree Bat Attack which all contain one Black lantern element and it also appears in the new 40312 Xtra Streetlamps polybag released this month.

LEGO® BrickHeadz: Harry Potter, Frozen and Star Wars

The LEGO® BrickHeadz theme continues its domination of all known and imagined universes by bringing us collectable characters from some of today's most popular franchises. Sven Franic sees how this latest batch get along, including its introduction of a new template for smaller BrickHeadz characters.





I had the chance to review the first batch of BrickHeadz more than a year ago. I never would have guessed at the time that Marcos Bessa’s standard for chibi characters would gain so much popularity. There is a high standard of quality behind the sets, considering the price range. Despite their blocky outer appearance, it takes a lot of tiny slopes and tiles to capture the spirit of a character. All decorations are printed and applied generously, and the sets tend to come with a lot of freshly re-coloured pieces.



LEGO® Harry Potter: 71403 Hogwarts Castle

LEGO® have just released their second largest set ever, 71043 Hogwarts Castle, so Elspeth De Montes thought we would take a look at the new elements. With 6,020 parts and a £349.99/ US$399.99/ 399.99€ price tag, perhaps we should warn you to pop the kettle on a get yourself a cuppa as there are quite a few magical elements to uncover in this huge set.

To start, there are three interesting new moulds all introduced in Brick Yellow [TLG]/ Tan [BL].

The first two are currently exclusive to 71043 Hogwarts Castle, and have an important role in depicting the microscale arched windows of Hogwarts’ Great Hall.

LEGO® Harry Potter and the Spurious Sprue

While some fans will be thrilled at the return of LEGO® Harry Potter, we were more excited about the arrival of the new wand element (Design ID 36752) which Elspeth De Montes examined recently. But as she now explores, there is more to the element than simply two wonderful wands: there is a little piece of plastic designed to hold them neatly together in the mould – the sprue.

Due to numerous reader questions, comments and ideas across social media, we’ve decided the wand sprue is worth a closer look. It is anchor-shaped and approximately half the depth of a tile, with a flat side and a slightly rounded side.

LEGO® Harry Potter: A Wanderful New Element

LEGO® Harry Potter has returned once more, along with Fantastic Beasts, within the overarching theme of Wizarding World. While we are busy exploring all the details of the new sets, in this initial post Elspeth De Montes introduces a very small item that is essential to any wizard: a wand.