Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Rescue

Thanks to our good friends at the LEGO Group, we had the chance to build and review one of the newest Harry Potter sets, Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeacks Rescue, based on the third film in the Harry Potter franchise, The Prisoner of Azkaban. When it comes to movie sets being recreated in LEGO form, this is one of their finest works. But is it a worthwhile investment for 79.99 CAD? Let’s dive into the build!

Set Name: Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Rescue

Item Number: 75947

Pieces: 496

Price: 79.99 CAD

The Build

Putting together Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Rescue was a lot more difficult than I originally thought it would be – in most situations, my 5 year old son can put together LEGO sets for an 8+ audience with relative ease, but this one proved fairly difficult for him; when looking over the set myself, I think the trouble came with the layout of some of the pieces when first putting the hut together.

With a fairly large base to begin building upon, builders are asked to put pieces in very specific places before the walls go up – often in LEGO sets, the outer walls can be valuable when attempting to place interior decoration pieces as it provides context, based on visible studs between where the wall is and where the, say, bed should go.

But once the base of the hut was assembled, getting the rest together was relatively easy. The hut itself is put together in two parts, which site side-by-side when complete, providing a façade in the front, and open areas for playing in the back.

It took my 5 year old about 1.5 hours to fully complete the hut, asking for help only for the base, and affixing the numerous stickers that come with the set. Placing the interior decorations was bit of work because of the tight space everything fits into, but when completed, there is no mistaking what it is. It is a perfect reconstruction of Hagrid’s Hut in LEGO form!

Playability

LEGO has done a really good job of making almost all the Harry Potter sets playable. With so many great minifigures included with the set – including Harry, Ron, and Hagrid, to name a few – and a beautifully recreated hut, there are hours upon hours of play that can be done. My kids alone recreated numerous scenes from the films that revolved around Hagrid’s Hut, and a few scenes that involved Buckbeak as well.

While there are many minifigures to play with, which will allow for multiple kids to get in on the fun, actually playing inside the hut can be problematic – this is a problem with many interior LEGO designs, and I don’t really fault LEGO for this. To make an interior that can easily fit two or three hands would require a LEGO set so large and expensive, that very few people would every buy it. For one, even, some spaces – such as Hagrid’s Hut – can by tight – this is just an unfortunate issue with LEGO sets in general.

Is It Worth It?

What might instantly turn off a number of people when it comes to Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Rescue, is that the set is incredibly expensive for the number of pieces you receive. As we’ve said in the past, a really good price for a LEGO set would equate to roughly 10 cents per piece (in Canada). This set is well above that mark, retailing for $79.99 but providing just shy of 500 pieces. That being said, it’s understandable why this is. Let me explain.

If you’ve ever been to a LEGO store before, and wandered over to the Build Your Own Minifigure kiosks, you will notice that the price of three custom minifigures is incredibly expensive – last time I was in Disney Spring, the price for a 3 pack was $9.99 USD, or about $3.33 per minifgure. If you purchase minifigures form the various collections LEGO releases, you are looking at $2.99 USD and $4.49 CAD for those. Ultimately, minifigures are expensive.

And therefore, it is easy to see why this particular set costs so much more – licensed franchises from LEGO have always carried a bit of a premium when it came to pricing, but this set is unique in that it is less than 500 pieces, yet comes with an overabundance of minifgures! Usually, a set of this size would be lucky to get three minifgures, but with Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Rescue, consumers are getting 6 – Hagrid, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, the Executioner, the Minister for Magic – plus the addition of a Buckbeak figure. If you break it down, you have over $30.00 worth of figures and Buckbeak alone!

With a ton of unique items as well, the value here is easy to find – in some situations, it’s important to look at what is included in the set, as opposed to the pieces count. This is one of those times.

For the price, we highly recommend Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeaks Resuce. It is a great way to get a ton of LEGO Harry Potter figures, and allusive and hard to get Buckbeak figure, and a ton of unique Harry Potter items such as wands, a copy of the Daily Prophet newspaper, and much more!