Rock the boat, baby!
Posted by
droobles
in United States
on
28 August 2008
Overall this is a very good set. I ordered it off eBay in August 2008 for about $40 dollars, which I think was a reasonable price for this retired set this large.
I love the large scale of this set. When put together it looks very impressive.
This avoids one of the cliches of some previous Harry Potter sets. Harry Potter sets have a knack for putting in out-of-place treasure chests, or hidden compartments with random stuff that doesn't make sense. While there are many cool features in this set, such as a diving board, an anchor, a hidden cellar, steering wheel, and removable layers for the cabins, all the movable parts and "secrets" seem to fit in the ship setting.
I am extremely happy with the way the designers handled the masts. I would not have been nearly as happy with this set if there had been big paper or cloth sails hanging over the set. The little fins to give the impression of sails without putting in conspicuous paper parts was great. The only cloth parts are flags at the top of the masts which, while a little long, do not get in the way. I am slightly bothered by the off center back mast, but I can't find a better place to put it.
Some people might be bothered by the small cabin on the ship. When closed, it is entirely filled with little knick knacks with no room for mini figures. Personally, I wasn't bothered. If you are displaying the ship, it looks nice and you wouldn't want to hide mini figures inside it anyway. If you are playing with the set, the cabin is detachable and has hinges to give space for the characters.
Onto mini figures. The set normally comes with Victor Krum and Igor Karkaroff. I was disappointed that the only difference between the figures was the heads. They both have the same dark grey pants and dark grey/brown fun jackets, and a goofy looking black hat. They could have given Krum a student uniform, or given an alternate hair piece for each character as well as the hat. Normally this set comes with only two people, which is kind of small for a set his large. Why couldn't they include a generic Durmstrang student, or Karkaroff's Aide?
This set is also available in an edition with four bonus mini figures, which are Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Dumbledore. The extra people are nothing special, don't fit in, and are all available in many other sets.
Anyway, this is a pretty good set that I would recommend to any Potter or Lego fan.
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