Hogwarts Gryffindor Dorms 40452 will be available as a Gift with Purchase of Harry Potter purchases over $100/€100/£100 between October 25th and November 7th.
The Build
The dorms are built in the same way as the other modular Harry Potter sets this year, so this can go right in with those sets.
The build is relatively simple consisting of an 8×16 plate base, a back wall, and arch doorways for the sides. The back wall is built with a combination of stacked bricks and SNOT (studs not on top) techniques to create the windows and wizard tile holder. 1×4 fence pieces are cleverly used to create a window technique that differs from the standard prefabricated window parts. The beds are constructed with plates and tiles. Lightsaber handles act to connect the canopy to the main parts of the bed.
The floor is decorated with a tile rug pattern made up of standard and 45-degree angle tiles. Various jumper plates provide studs for attaching minifigures and accessories.
Minifigures and Accessories
The set includes Harry Potter and Ron Weasley minifigures. These are quite common versions of the minifigures and if you have a collection of Harry Potter sets from the last few waves you likely already have these ones.
Their torsos depict generic sweaters and they have short legs. Each minifigure comes with its respective wand.
Collectible wizard tiles have been included in many of the 2021 Harry Potter sets and this set is no different. This set includes 4 random wizard tiles to boost your collection. My set had Dumbledore, Nicholas Flamel, and two Snape tiles.
A candle, chocolate frog, and chest are also included to decorate the room.
Photography
I found this set rather difficult to photograph. The space is very cramped and the wizard tile holder makes for an ugly background. The rigid short legs of the minifigures limit posing options and the beds only allow minifigures to lay fully prone. I had hoped that by switching the minifigure’s legs to the articulated medium legs that they would be able to sit upright on the bed but the beds were too small.
For the main shot, I used reflective black acrylic for the base and a black background. I used a small LED to illuminate the candle in the set, a small LED panel on the left side to cast some warm directional light, and a flash with a large soft box for the key light.
Final Thoughts
Overall I rate this set 6/10
It’s difficult to be too critical of a free set but considering the high spending threshold ($100 / €100 / £100) to qualify for the set it is underwhelming.
The build is quite lackluster and the minifigures are so common within the Harry Potter theme you probably already have them if you have a collection of Harry Potter sets. The outside facade is quite ugly and does little to add to the modular castle system as a whole.
Though it is nice to have an integrated way to display the collectible wizard tiles, along with including 4 random wizard tiles in the set itself to help boost your collection.
For someone wishing to build the most complete modular Hogwarts play set, this is a must have, especially considering this is the first iteration of a Gryffindor dorm room in the modern line of sets.
