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The LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition is the continuation of the Harry Potter wizard and wizard building set series. In the thematic line, the construction set will become the most expensive after the LEGO 71043 Big Hogwarts Castle and LEGO 75978 Corner Alley play sets. The construction set will be on sale from August 31, 2022 and will be presented in official Lego stores.

General information about the LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express set

The constructor «LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express» impresses with its scale and high cost. It comes with 5129 parts and 20 minifigures. The prefabricated set is intended for an audience over 18 years of age. It will be available for purchase at a price of 499.99 euros.

The game designer is packed in a beautiful branded black box. This already indicates his belonging to the 18+ category. I would like to note the weight of the box at 7.2 kg.

Not surprisingly, the finished train model is quite large:

• length will be 118 cm;
• height 26 cm;
• width 20 cm.

Once assembled, the Express consists of the iconic red locomotive, coal station and wagon. Due to the large size, the model turned out to be especially interesting and more detailed.

The authors decided to play 4 scenes from different Harry Potter films in one set. For this, many details, elements and interior zones were used. To decorate some of them, the set includes special stickers — 34 pieces.

The included 20 minifigures are required to recreate four scenes. In addition, each story will be accompanied by a suitable quote from the movie written on the tile. This tile is partially decorated with stickers, but there are also some printed elements. The size of the tile is 8×16 cm, and its design resembles a ticket for the Hogwarts Express train.

Considering that the train model is large, it will need a lot of shelf space as an exhibit. But the advantage of this Hogwarts Express is that it has good gaming features. For example, with the help of a crank in the upper part of the locomotive, its wheels can rotate, and it is also possible to turn on the lighting in the compartments of the car.

This means that it can be used not only as an exhibition specimen, but also as an exciting toy.

What is the LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express model?

When assembled, the Hogwarts Express has a rather beautiful and stylish look, magically drawing attention to itself. You just want to touch it, look inside, move it. And this is not surprising, because the developers tried their best to create a train model from a magical story!

LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express is an amazing 1:32 scale building and play set. A lot of interesting moments and fine detailing makes it even more attractive to users.

Special attention to detail can be seen inside and out:

• the lower part of the locomotive is perfectly recreated;
• the presence of a lever at the top of the train makes it rock like a real steam engine;
• the coal cart is loaded with the required supply of coal;
• the train car accommodates 3 compartments — each of them will feature a separate scene from the Harry Potter films with the participation of other characters.

The assembly process may be accompanied by certain difficulties, since the project is intended for experienced 18+ builders. But the package includes 4 detailed colorful instructions that will greatly speed up the process.

Minifigures and scenes from the Harry Potter films

Perhaps the first thing that sticks out of all the LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express set is that it comes with 20 minifigures! When you find out that they are meant to recreate four scenes, you understand the need for so many characters.

We offer you to immediately get acquainted with the plots from the films, and which minifigures will be used in this case.

1. The first scene is taken from the first movie, when Harry and Ron meet at King’s Cross station. That’s when Harry unsuccessfully searches for access to the 9 ¾ railroad. Then they sit together in the compartment of the Hogwarts Express and become friends. After the boys eat the witch’s candy from the diner, Hermione appears looking for Neville’s toad. Just this scene is shown in the first compartment and is accompanied by a quote from the film: «Has anyone seen a toad?»

Minifigures are designed to repeat this plot:

• train conductor;
• a witch with a food cart;
• Harry Potter;
• Ron Weasley;
• Hermione Granger.

In this scene, the figure of Ron Weasley with a dirty spot on his nose is especially interesting. In the film, because of him, he receives a remark from Hermione.

2. The following scene is taken from the third film, dedicated to the escaped Sirius Black. In this series, another friend of Harry’s father appears — Remus Lupin, who becomes the new teacher at Hogwarts. The plot shows Harry, Ron and Hermione traveling to Hogwarts in his compartment under Lupin’s protection. On the way, the train is stopped as they are looking for Sirius Black. The scene is accompanied by Ron saying «I think…someone’s coming on board!».

This time minifigures will be used:

• Remus Lupin;
• Dementor;
• Harry Potter;
• Ron Weasley;
• Hermione Granger.

The figures of Harry Potter and his friends are repeated in this scene. Lupine is presented with the same swivel head, but in a different, worn out outfit.

3. The set designers in the third compartment recreated a scene from the sixth movie. The plot tells that Harry suspects Draco, who, like his parents, became a Death Eater and received a task from Voldemort. He follows him into the Slytherin compartment under his camouflage cloak and hides. However, Draco notices him and uses a spell to make him immobile. After that, he punches Harry in the face, covers him with a camouflage cloak (cloak is not included in this kit), and wants to remain unnoticed on the Hogwarts Express. But Harry Potter is found by Luna despite his disguise. The scene is also accompanied by a quote from the film: «Traces of the wreck! Your head is full of them!”.

Minifigures used in this story:

• Harry Potter;
• Luna Lovegood;
• Draco Malfoy.

The Harry character is used here for the third time in this set. This figurine has a distorted face with downturned mouth corners and crooked broken glasses. So the authors of the prefabricated constructor decided to convey the suffering that the young magician had to endure from Draco.

4. The final fourth scene is taken from the eighth movie (Epilogue) «19 years later». She shows how Harry and Ginny brought their children to Route 9 ¾. At this moment, Albus Severus, the youngest son, utters the words: «Dad, what if I get transferred to Slytherin?». It was they who became the quote for this scene.

Perhaps this scene on the platform will be the most interesting to include minifigures. It uses adult characters Harry and Ginny with three children. Up to this point, such figures have not been found in other LEGO designers. You can also see two other extraneous minifigures that just added to this plot.

The following minifigures are used in the scene:

• Harry Potter;
• Ginny Potter;
• Albus Severus Potter;
• Leela Luna Potter;
• James Sirius Potter;
• Ravenclaw Schoolgirl;
• Hufflepuff student.

The result is some pretty interesting scenes, especially the minifigures involved. Of course, after that, you will definitely want to get other characters from the magical movie novel into your collection.

What new parts are used in the constructor?

Such a large-scale and story-rich set could hardly do without the use of new details.

So, after the assembly is completed, it becomes clear that the train and platform models can be used separately, but they can also be connected. To do this, in several places on the rails there are technical bricks. At the same time, the train model can be placed directly on the rails or lifted with the help of transparent parts. Then, when the crank is pressed, the wheels on the locomotive will be able to rotate freely.

LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express features a 6 x 8 custom sign that can be attached to the foot of the platform wall. You can also find an explanation why no one has yet noticed this train outside the magical world:

«The Ministry of Magic has cast the largest Concealment Charm in the history of the country on a train to keep it secret from prying Muggle eyes.»

As for the platform wall, it has 2 slopes with dimensions — 2 x 3 and 2 x 2 x 2 cm.

There is another construction trick on the platform — a full top wall is installed overhead with spikes down.

In a big way, the size of the wheels on the train has changed. In LEGO sets, wheels of such parameters are found for the first time.

The locomotive also has a 2×2 tile with a printed black stripe.

The car uses red doors, which, although not new, were previously seen in the 2007 set.

If you look at the track of the train, you can see that it has become wider compared to other LEGO trains. On standard tracks, there are 4 gaps between two rails, but here, on the left and right, an additional jumper increases the distance by one more notch — up to 5 gaps. This means that it is hardly possible to put this Hogwarts Express on rails from other LEGO sets.

An interesting point was the possibility of lighting the car. You can give light to the compartments both in the open and in the closed state by pressing on the luminous details above the roof. This creates a special atmosphere of a magical train.

In addition, compartments of the wagon can be opened individually by removing part of the side panel to, for example, change the position of the minifigures.

Finally

When considering LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express, you can replace a lot of pleasant moments. Fans of Lego construction and the young magician will surely appreciate this toy. The design of the train was especially successful. Equally impressive is the platform construction technique.

But a large number and variety of stickers in this set was rather a negative point. I would like more printed elements that would become more appropriate and look decent for this expensive designer.

As for the minifigures, more new ideas and attention to detail were expected in their designs. But in general, these moments were offset by the number of characters.

Much more embarrassing is the width of the Express way. Too bad this train can’t be connected to other LEGO sets.

However, it is worth remembering that the LEGO 76405 Hogwarts Express set was originally created as an exhibition piece. And look in it, and the truth is, there is something to see! What is only worth the length of the train is almost 120 cm — it looks very impressive. Coupe lighting, original elements, a good selection of scenes from films — all this more than covers the bad moments in the set. Either way, Harry Potter fans are already looking forward to seeing this set on sale.