ORLANDO, Fla – We have read the books, watched the films, and even sipped on a butterbeer or two at Universal Orlando’s theme parks.
Now fans of Harry Potter can enjoy an incredible new LEGO Harry Potter set that brings the Wizarding World’s Diagon Alley to your home.
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The more than 5,000 piece set features the iconic hidden wizard street with stores like Ollivander’s wand shop, Flourish & Blotts bookstore and the colorful Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke shop. The set also includes 14 mini-figures including Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Ginny and several others.
Exclusive to this set are Gilderoy Lockhart, Florean Fortescue, Lucius Malfoy and the Daily Prophet photographer.
“I love how faithful the final design is to the architectural details in the film. You can barely see some of these buildings zooming past your screen, but we tracked down different photographs from the sets – some of them from nearly 20 years ago – to make sure everything is spot on. Diagon Alley is the biggest set I’ve designed to-date and I am really proud of how it has come together" said Marcos Bessa, LEGO Harry Potter design lead.
“On the inside of the model there is so much to discover. In the Ollivander’s shop, we know there are lots of shelves with wand boxes. Some are decorative, but there a few here, and there that you can actually pick up yourself and open and find a little wand inside” said Bessa.
Harry Potter actors, James and Oliver Phelps, who play Fred and George in the Harry Potter films recently got a chance to see the set for themselves.
Djordje Djordjevic, the senior LEGO designer for the set said it took some research to get all the details just right.
“It was actually a quest for myself to go through the shop and learn cause what you get in the movies there is a bunch of content, a bunch of colors. I think one of my personal favorites is Fred’s basic blaze boss which is essentially a magical fireworks, as well as the Dancing Doxy. If you’re a dog owner it could be fun because it’s marketed as “it drives cats crazy,” Djordjevic said.
When it’s fully complete the set will be a magical hybrid which includes a rich and versatile display model with a modularity aspect that allows fans to choose how to display or play with the shops.
The new set retails for $399 online and in select stores.
True Harry Potter fans can also check out the Hogwarts Castle, astronomy tower, or Hedwig owl sets.