75952 – Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures – LEGO Review

In August, The LEGO Group launched a number of brand new Harry Potter LEGO sets, using inspiration from both the Harry Potter books/films, as well as the Fantastic Beasts series of movies. A number of fantastic sets have been released, including the Womping Willow, Hogwarts Express, Hogwarts Castle, and the one we got the opportunity to review, Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures. Is this roughly 700 piece set worth the asking of price of roughly 49.99 USD? Let’s dive in and get building!

75952 – Newt’s Case of Magical Creatures

Pieces: 694

Price: 49.99 USD

Ages: 8-14

The Build

The set was broken down into 4 bags with instructions across two books. The first two bags were filled with the minifigures for the set, and the three fantastic beasts that consumers were able to build. The difficulty level of the beasts definitely scaled low, and my eight year old son had no difficulty quickly piecing these creatures together. All three creatures have a lot of repetitive build opportunities, meaning putting these creatures together was fast and easy.

The 3rd and 4th bags were much more difficult to put together, as they not only used a lot more pieces than bags 1 and 2, but are also using a number of really dark pieces as well, and for an eight year old, discerning between the dark pieces and the darker pieces was pretty difficult. There is also a lot more going on with this part of the build, as you are hinging together a briefcase that holds the magical creatures. When completed, it looks fantastic, but putting in the work required a lot of hands on attention from myself, as my 8 year old struggled to get this part of the set finished.

Fortunately, the set only comes with a few stickers to affix to pieces, and for as few as there are – 3 or 4 – I really wish The LEGO Group had opted for printed pieces over stickers. They’ve done it often before, especially in the LEGO Cars series, so it could be done again.

The Set

Even before putting this LEGO set together, there is a ton to love because of the plethora of unique and hard to find pieces that come packed in the box. Years later, when this set is broken down and all the pieces in a big box, there are some fantastic blocks that would be incredibly useful in unique builds. It isn’t just the blocks that are unique, but the minifigures as well.

Included in the box is Newt Scamander, Jacob Kowalski, and Queenie and Tina Goldstein, all of which are unique to this set at the moment. Each characters comes with two faces to express different emotions as children play with the sets (see below). On top of these characters, consumers will also get a nifty Niffler figure that is adorable, but also likely to get lost very quickly because of his small size.

Once everything is put together, it looks really great, with a few minor exceptions. The underside of the Thunder Bird leaves a lot to be desired; a simple plate would have helped cover up the underside of the bricks, making the creature look much more visually appealing. The other aesthetic problem I have with the set is the backside of the briefcase. The mechanisms for opening it up is out in the open, and incredibly unattractive. For those putting this on display, it’s great that this portion of the set will be hidden at the back.

Playability

It’s been about a week since my sons and I put this set together, and they’ve been playing with the sets every day of the week. There is so much to do with the 4 minifigures and the three beasts, and although they haven’t seen the film themselves, they had a great time playing with it all none-the-less. The extra wands included with the sets even allowed them to bring in other minifigures to join in the fun.

The biggest disappointment for my kids was that all the creatures and minifigures wouldn’t fit into the briefcase, and be closed. While I completely understood this wasn’t the purpose of the set – and let’s face it, if the movie plays into this at all, it also wasn’t possible their either without some magic – my sons were disappointed that the creatures couldn’t fit inside. Still, with lots of little things to get their hands on, they both could easily play with this set and not have to fight over the contents that came with it. Overall, a solid play experience loved by both my kids!

Conclusion

For 49.99 USD, and with 694 included pieces, there is a lot to like about this LEGO set. Even if you aren’t the biggest Harry Potter fan, there are tons of great pieces included with this set that anyone would love to have in their set. Whether the bricks used to connect the parts of the case, or the fantastic umbrella accessory, there are few faults and way too many amazing things to pass on this set.