After the news came out of another LEGO Harry Potter set that is being still being kept under wraps, the LEGO fan community was quick to share several box art images of the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978) over unofficial channels (aka leaks). As always, we’re not going to share these images here out of respect for LEGO’s established embargo. However, these are some of the things that we know so far about this very exciting set.
It’s the second-largest, and next most expensive LEGO Harry Potter set as of to date.
Though the title holder for being the largest LEGO Harry Potter set in terms of piece count still belongs to the Hogwarts Castle (71043) coming in at 6,020 pieces, the latest brick rendition of the Diagon Alley comes in second place with a total of 5,544 pieces included in its set. What is interesting here is that the latter comes with a similar price tag of $399.99 even if it comes short of around 400 pieces. This is probably because a lot of baseplates are used in this set, especially when you realize that it is primarily a modular set, which leads us to our second observation.
It follows a modular design and plenty of baseplates.
If you were following the trail of bread crumbs over at Instagram (#legoleaks), you will immediately notice that this latest LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978) observes a modular design that highlights the following locations. These shops are designed in pairs, giving the set four distinct modular builds.
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- Ollivanders Wand Shop and Scribbulus Writing Implements
- Quality Quidditch Supplies and The Daily Prophet
- Flourish & Blotts Bookseller and Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor
- Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and Knockturn Alley
Each module seems to rest on a singular baseplate, which may be one of the reasons why it is similarly priced to that of the LEGO Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle. It is also interesting to note how LEGO designers opted for this ‘dual’ approach in creating these shops to somehow maintain a balance between showing as many details as they can about the famous Harry Potter marketplace, and offering it within a reasonable retail price. This is a good decision, in my opinion, considering also that they were able to package this for LEGO fans 16 years old and above.
The Minifigures
The minifigures in this set does not disappoint as well. I’m personally glad that LEGO opted to offer actual minifigures in its LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978), instead of opting for nanofigures as what they did with the Hogwarts Castle back in 2018. Based on what we’ve seen so far, these are the 14 minifigures included in this set:
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- Rubeus Hagrid
- Fred Weasley
- George Weasley
- Molly Weasley
- Ginny Weasley (younger version)
- Ron Weasley (younger version)
- Hermione Granger (younger version)
- Harry Potter (younger version)
- Draco Malfoy (younger version)
- Lucius Malfoy
- Gilderoy Lockhart
- Garrick Ollivander
- Florean Fortescue
- Daily Prophet Photographer
Those who knew their LEGO Harry Potter minifigures will immediately point out that the last two in this list are first-ever LEGO minifig renditions of the said characters. It may be said that they only had a brief moment in the Harry Potter universe, but I love how LEGO pays attention to these details and even gave such random characters like the Daily Prophet Photographer the LEGO treatment that they deserve.
Will it come with a gift-with-purchase set?
Yes, the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978) will certainly come with a gift-with-purchase or GWP set like other new LEGO HP sets slated to arrive next month. As I’ve mentioned in an earlier report, these promotional freebies will come in the form of a polybag and the LEGO BrickHeadz Hagrid and Buckbeak (40412). There’s seems to be no specific freebie unique for the Diagon Alley, but having these promotional items thrown into your shopping carts are certainly a welcomed gesture.
As a final note, LEGO has not yet announced an official release date for the LEGO Harry Potter Diagon Alley (75978) as of this posting. I hope an official press release will be out by next week, and I’ll keep my radars up until then.
