LEGO Dimensions – Harry Potter Team Pack

If you’ve never read or watched Harry Potter, I strongly suggest you just stop reading this and go do it. Regardless of what you think about wizards and witches, this long saga is a tale you don’t really want to miss. When it was originally announced that this franchise would be coming to LEGO Dimensions, I was incredibly excited. After playing around in the level for a number of hours, I can safely say I was not disappointed.

The Builds

I would argue that LEGO Dimensions is about 40% the quality of the LEGO builds and 60% the in game worlds, character interactions, and missions. In this situation, I feel like I would have gotten my 24.99 out of just the LEGO figures themselves – we were supplied a copy by Warner Bros. The Ford Anglia flying car from the second film and book was impressive enough, but the Hogwarts Express mini build is the highlight of the package.

For such a small build – less than 50 pieces I believe – the Hogwarts Express is one of the most detailed miniature builds available in the whole LEGO Dimensions line up, and really made me hope for larger (wider, with multiple bases) LEGO Dimensions builds in the future. Who wouldn’t want a few train cars added behind that?

The two figures included with this set are Harry Potter himself, and Lord Voldemort. Both come with their own wand – a bit of a disappointing LEGO piece in my opinion, as they could have been much more details – and Lord Voldemort also has a black cape of standard LEGO quality. If you love collecting LEGO figures and never had the chance to purchase the Harry Potter sets from a few years ago, this is a great way to get both for a reasonable cost. Now the only way to get these characters is to try and locate (since retired) Harry Potter sets online or at retail, a task that won’t be easy.

Gameplay

Many people will compare this LEGO Dimensions world to the recent Harry Potter rerelease and that is not entirely fair. While the rerelease is very good – you can read about it here – this LEGO Dimensions world is not suppose to be that. And frankly, it’s not.

The environments you get to explore in the LEGO Dimensions version of Harry Potter and really detailed, and when thinking back to the movies, you realize just how well the developers did rebuilding it all in miniature LEGO form. You will get to explore numerous popular franchise locations, including the Hogwarts Castle, the Great Lake, 12 Grimmauld Place, Hagrids Hut, the Burrow, and much more. A few of these locations – Hagrid’s Hut and the Burrow for example – require you to collect LEGO studs and cash them in to unlock the building in the world. It is a small price to pay for the added content, especially since each resurrected building comes with it’s own mini quest.

There are 28 gold bricks to collect in the Harry Potter world, and while none of them are particularly hard to get – make sure you swim below the Great Lake for one of the more out of the way quests! – you will need to own multiple LEGO Dimensions sets to compete them all, or utilize the rent-a-figure feature. Early on in my few hours with Harry Potter, I was roaming around Hogsmead with Ninjago figures, Wild Styles, Emmet, and much more.

Not everything about this world is great, however. Because of the vast number of locations to visit, there has to be a believable amount of space between each. The result of this requirement are large tracks of land you must cross with little to no interactions along the way. It can at times pull you out of the LEGO Harry Potter experience as you trudge between the various locations offered. It’s a small (unfortunately unavoidable) problem to be sure, but a problem none-the-less.

Conclusion

If you are a Harry Potter fan, or even a fan of fantastic LEGO builds, this LEGO Dimensions Team Pack is a no brainer of a purchase. The figures look great, the vehicles are excellent, even if you never use them, and the quests throughout the world do enough to hold your attention. The real gem here is exploring the details environments that are a staple of the Harry Potter franchise. For me, I cannot recommend this Team Pack enough, and you will get great value for your 24.99 investment.