I've always been a big fan of LEGO Harry Potter: I own the first Hogwarts set released in 2001 and a handful of smaller sets. I'm not too impressed by any of the newer versions of the Great Hall, but when I saw this Clock Tower set, seasonal touch and all, I thought it would be the perfect match for my castle.

I think the Clock Tower facade looks beautiful. It is robust and remarkably close to the one in the films. I still marvel at how LEGO got better at embracing the brick for everything, long way from the plastic sheets used for the roof in that old 4709 set. (It's been 18 years!??!?!?) This set also explores unusual rooms at Hogwarts: the Hospital wing, the DADA classroom and the prefects' bathroom. I particularly like the stained glass window with the mermaid, but I'd have appreciated getting the golden egg from set 75946.

The dance floor is an interesting build too, cogs and all, with great playability. Good opportunity to recreate the ball with unlikely yet genuinely shippable couples. (Ron and Cedric anyone?) The cute icy tables and the Christmas tree, very similar to that of the advent calendar, are great adds for a more festive setup.

The only thing I'm not a big fan of in this set is the stickers. More specifically, I'm not loving the ones for Dumbledore's office. A Fawkes build and the new great moulded Sorting Hat was included in the Great Hall set, also released this year, along with a basilisk. I understand they might fit better in the HP1 & 2 themes of the Great Hall set instead of this HP4 set. Still, adding Fawkes and the sorting hat as a sticker to the first LEGO depiction of Dumbledore's office since 2010 is a bit disappointing. The stickers otherwise add a great Gothic touch to the scene. (tip: Fawkes and the sorting hat are cheap on Bricklink… and it's pretty easy to add them to the scene making use of the set's many spare pieces, see the pic)

Regarding the minifigures, we get all the eight of them in their Yule ball attire. My favourite is, of course, Olympe Maxime, director of Beauxbatons, in her pink and white dress. Dumbledore, Hermione and Ron are great in this set too, IMO. The rest are fine, it's cool to have all four Champions.

This set is a great add overall, with a good balance between the detailed, highly-specific Yule ball depiction and the usual all-year Hogwarts. Happy 2020!

(Pic includes the Clock Tower, minifigures and builds from the advent calendar, and the arch from the 2001 Hogwarts set)

The Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Clock Tower is a beautiful display piece, as well as a way to get good pieces in a set with a fair price per piece.

Packaging:

What can I say here, it's used the same packaging for three years. And it has a review of the other sets in the wave.

Comparison to other sets:

I'd say this is the worst of the modern Hogwarts. This one is hard to display, do to the side builds having nowhere to go. Once that problem is solved, it's an amazing display piece. The playability is also very well done, but I don't know if children would play with it that much, as the scene that the set is portraying isn't really action packed (although you could say the same for the Hogwarts Astronomy Tower set).

Minifigures:

There are a lot of these figures. I don't like how Harry and Cedric have the same torso print, but that's excusable. The other figures are amazing, with Hermionie having a new hairpiece, and Krum having a useful new torso, but the Dumbledore figure is the best in my opinion.

Build:

Not much to say, other than it is a stable build that looks great next to the other three. The interiors are cramped, but that is expected. The side builds aren't that good in my opinion, with the builds being small and a waste of space.

Overall:

My rating is 4 stars. It's great, and has a lot of value, but it fails to deliver a better experience then the other three Hogwarts sets. I'd recommend skipping on this one if you don't need them all for your collection.