LEGO Harry Potter Build Your Own Adventure (LEGO Build Your Own Adventure)

I'm both an AFOL (Adult Fan of Lego) and a big fan of all things Harry Potter. The book and the included set absolutely tickled me.All the builds featured in the book are based on the first Harry Potter book/movie: (Philosopher's)Sorcerer's StoneTable of Contents:The beginning of the book includes some background on Harry Potter, Hogwarts and basic info on Lego bricks. The back of the book includes step-by-step instructions for the included 2-in-1 lego set.Chapter 1 - The Muggle WorldPrivet Drive (Dursley house facade, lamp post, planter & bird bath/fountain)At the Zoo (python display w/ removable glass, small animal enclosures)Harry's Bedroom (cupboard under the stairs)Mail delivery (fireplace that spills envelope tiles)Island Hideout (shack with breakout door)Chapter 2 - The Wizarding WorldDiagon Alley (secret entrance & ice cream parlor)Gringotts Bank (bank cart & tunnel)In the vaults (ornate vault door)Ollivander's shop (wand shelves & storefront)Chapter 3 - Welcome to HogwartsHogwarts Castle (castle door & moving staircase)Sorting Ceremony (House Points hourglasses & House crest flags)Teachers' table (long table, Dumbledore's chair & lectern)Common room (Fat Lady portrait, sofa, wizard chess table, minifig Gryffindor bust)Dormitory (four-poster beds & storage cabinet)Chapter 4 - Life at HogwartsPotions class (tables & shelves of bottles, etc)Flying Lessons (simple gazebo w/ minifig statue, small stone bridge, small watchtower turret)Library Visit (ornate window frame, interesting bookshelves)Halloween Feast (simple tables, windowed wall facade with 'floating' pumpkins)Chapter 5 - Magical AdventuresForbidden Forest (brick-built trees and paths)Troll Attack (brick-built troll, bathroom sink & toilet stall)Facing Fluffy (brick-built 3 headed dog)Devil's Snare (snare plant w/ trap door & mini plants)Wizard Chess (Chessboard, rocking Knight piece, Queen piece, articulated pawn w/ swords)Pros:The printed house crest tiles are gorgeous. Currently, apart from this set, the tiles can only be found in the Lego Harry Potter 2019 Advent Calendar (75964). Similarly, the Sorting Hat element is only found in the Hogwarts Great Hall Set (75954). Though there's always the option to buy them second-hand/from a third-party on sites like Bricklink, eBay or similar.The 101 pc 2-in-1 design Lego set included allows fans to create a Sorting Hat spinner to sort Minifigures into their houses, OR a fireplace with a turning center to make Minifigures "disappear" - great for Floo travel!Many wonderful ideas presented in the book: I want to build them all! It also gave me ideas to design MOCs (my own creations).Exploded sections of some builds and notes about techniques or bricks used are frequently presented. An intermediate to advanced Lego fan should be comfortable attempting them.Cons:There are only enough pieces in the set to create one design or the other; you cannot create both designs at once. Some might find this to be a con.No step by step instructions for builds beyond the 2-in1 set that comes with the book. The builds are inspiring but the minimal instruction presented is likely to disappoint or frustrate younger or inexperienced Lego fans.Many builds presented use parts outside the current HP line or even beyond what's available in Lego Classic brick sets. It can be very frustrating or limiting for young and burgeoning Lego fans who don't have access to or haven't discovered the resources to obtain such parts. Pro tip: the Bricklink, Brickset, and Rebrickable websites are fantastic resources for Lego fans to expand their sets and knowledge.Thoughts:It would be extremely helpful if the book included an appendix with an inventory of part numbers for the various Lego bricks and elements appearing throughout the book. I found a number of parts I'd never encountered before and had a difficult time trying to figure out what they were.I've been using a free Lego design program by Bricklink called Studio 2.0 to recreate the builds in the book. This has helped me identify parts I don't recognize, price and locate parts to build the models, and create step-by-step instructions for them. Occasionally, the program didn't have a specific part represented (which goes to show how rare those pieces really are because Studio's catalog of Lego parts is vast). However, I've been able to substitute or work around those pieces so far. The program even allows you to render a realistic image of your build (see photo)In my opinion, the Studio program is user-friendly enough that kids 6-8+ could learn to use it with the assistance of an adult or older kid. It allows one to create virtual lego builds, render 3D images of them, create step-by-step build instructions, parts lists, and provides part prices and build costs. I highly recommend it for any Lego fan looking to design their own creations. It's become indispensable to me in recreating all the builds in this book.All in all, I love this book and the included Lego set. As an intermediate AFOL (at best), the book taught me some new techniques and challenged me to learn more, plus inspired me to expand my inventory and create custom designs of my own.

This book is great! Lots of fun ideas for recreating scenes from the books and movies. The included set is simple but fun to build. I love the 2x2 PRINTED tiles for each school house. I believe this is the only set to come with these printed tiles. Even the super expensive LEGO hogwarts 71043 doesn’t have them. Nice little set with some great pieces and a fun ideas book.

It’s got a lot of ideas for other builds - a must for Harry Potter fans. Warning! You have to go to LEGO store for picking up more bricks for the alternative build. No regrets - thanks for the great ideas from the book.

This description is so misleading.The kit comes with a story book.Each page of the story book shows a new “set” to build.It seems like you’ll have the bricks to build each set, even if you have to take one set apart to build the other. We were okay to assemble and then disassemble over and over.However, this ONLY has blocks for TWO of the sets pictured in the story book.Two!!!There are beautiful sets photographed in the story book and buyers are led to believe that you can build each of these beautiful sets.This is an expensive LEGO kit for only TWO sets.We were very disappointed.

The book is good and the lego set is a nice size set for being in the book. Actually the set is a 2 in 1 set for more fun.

The scenes you can build are very cool. However, the product entry seemed to imply that you could build the content of the book with the provided pieces. It is not possible for that to occur without extra pieces.

This is the cheapest way to get the Harry Potter Sorting Hat and the 4 House Shields logos printed

This product is misleading. It give you all these wonderful ideas, but no instructions on how to build them. My 10-year-old is finding it very frustrating and quickly lost interest. It's a waste of money.

The item was delivered as expected and well packed -> five stars on the delivery services. About the book itself, it is an amazing book with a lot of good ideas and my son was thrilled about it. Even me, I must confess that my eyes were sparkling considering all we could do... but that’s the tricky things, it will not be easy to get the parts required to do these constructions. We will have to buy from LEGO website and some other specialized sites which will come at a price. That’s the reason I gave it a 4 stars, not because of the quality of the book which is amazing but because it will be complex and pricey to find the parts.

Bought as a Christmas present last year, Grandson number three absolutely loved it, and kept him amused for ages. The book is the usual excellent quality that you'd expect from Dorling Kindersley, which slots nicely into a presentation box with the Lego pieces. There's two different small models to build with the Lego included, a Magical Fireplace and a Sorting Hat Spinner, with only enough pieces to build one at a time, so it encourages children to strip down a model and rebuild it into something else. There's also plenty of ideas in the book, with pictures included, to inspire children to build their own Harry Potter models (but be aware that the additional Lego pieces will have to be purchased separately).

This sounds like I can not make up my mind whether to like or dislike the book. But, it is simple. The designs in the book (i.e. ideas) are very nice, and will help the creative juices flowing to make a Harry Potter MOC (My Own Creation). However, if you give this to a child, the odds are they don't readily have the pieces needed to build these creations lying around. The colours and kind of bricks are often quite specialised. It is OK to go with the advice "just use what you have got", but 9 out of 10 times that will look rather lame. So children can often only watch what they could do, but not actually do. OK, a grown-up can help and perhaps order some pieces in. If you are not that into LEGO you will scratch your head as to what the pieces are called, what unique (order) numbers they have got etc. And that is the weird thing. I would have expected a parts list at the back of the book, like you get when you buy a LEGO set. But no. I managed in the end to source quite a few bricks for the little one through LEGO GB and Brick Owl, but it took a while to puzzle it all out. We greatly enjoy the creations, but the book could have provide a bit info and practical help.....like a said, for the average child, who enjoys building every now and then, it will end up on the shelf with pictures of things they perhaps could make.

This book was purchased for my 6 year old Lego and Harry Potter mad daughter. The book is really well executed and has given my daughter some great ideas for her own Lego builds. She also loved the sorting hat build included with the book.The book really is good, the main issue is that although the book is great and has some awesome builds, we don't have the right bricks to build the ideas. If we want to recreate them we'll have to buy more bricks from Lego and spend more money. Hence 4 stars, but for the price this is a great gift idea for Lego and Harry Potter fans.

I have not yet seen this product out of the box as I is a Christmas present for my great-granddaughter. It looks exactly the type of this she would like being a fan of Lego and Harry Potter.