LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle Boathouse Building Set, Toy for Kids, Boys and Girls Ages 8-10, 76426

Of the recent Hogwarts sets that are designed to sit outside the castle I think along with the Owlery this set makes so much difference to the look of the castle. This set is probably one of the most important Hogwarts grounds sets to be made as it is the scene in the first movie where they first reach hogwarts by lamplit rowing boat at night and it is such a magical scene and that atmosphere has definitely been reproduced in this little set. For a relatively small set there are so many features and details. You can see this set is designed with lots of thought, care and attention to that arrival scene. It even includes Trevor the toad who was given to Neville Longbottom but it wandered off to live in the grounds. Pieces have definitely been put to good use and makes it look quite a generous size for the price and I love the way the new portrait tiles can be used in the sets, ive faced mine facing out of the tower which looks like a nice little feature. The only question I had was on the lamps on the boats, these lamps look like ones that should be used for streetlights or ones that you fit to buildings and don't really represent the boat lights in the film. In the film they are glass balls on long sticks. The ones in this set do look nice in a viking dragonship way or in like a swanlike side profile way but they are also a little delicate too due to the 'sausage' piece holding those small pieces together. I have included a photo of what I would have used in a similar piece count (please see my last photo of my suggestion). Saying that though everything does look nice and magical and that's what matters. I'm an adult collector and I'm very happy with it. The Harry Potter and Hogwarts sets are getting better and better and I'm glad they have introduced this set. Its affordable and suitable for everyone. Thank you.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My 9 year old completed this set and we felt it was the right age rating with the right level of challenge. The instruction book was extensive for such a small set which could be a bit much for younger children. Lots of nice little details in the set, including a tiny frog/toad and it was great to find out we had the characters included in the set too. It contained a free character portrait, but the only downside to this was that the images of the portraits to collect in the book didn't include names of who they were and we struggled to work out who it was!