LEGO Harry Potter 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops review

LEGO Harry Potter 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops takes the theme back to the magical world of microscale building with epic results.

As the priciest, biggest and most eye-catching set of the January 2025 LEGO Harry Potter range, 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops is already a stand-out set without any of us needing to build it or review it. To understand what’s really great about this set, though, and to really enjoy and appreciate everything that has gone into it, that does require some hands-on LEGO building…

Release: January 1, 2025 Price: £169.99 / $199.99 / €199.99 Pieces: 2,750 Microfigures: 12 LEGO: Order now

‘Welcome… to Diagon Alley’

76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops follows up on 2023’s 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, and before that 71043 Hogwarts Castle from 2018, to take on a new and sprawling location in the smallest LEGO scale – the busy, colourful streets of Diagon Alley.

And much like both of those excellent little big Hogwarts builds, 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops fully embraces the source material and the challenges of designing a LEGO set at a much smaller scale to offer a completely new take on what may otherwise feel familiar by now. This is with consideration to the fact we’ve had a handful of minifigure-scale sets already offer up a number of shops from Diagon Alley, and each of those has delivered detail and depth and references galore to satisfy anyone after hands-on play and large-scale display.

76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops obviously goes smaller and in doing so opens up not just a handful of shops, but the entire setting, the whole street, both sides – inside and out – for an all-in-one LEGO Harry Potter experience.

Importantly, it’s an experience that is as immersive as can be at miniature scale – that is both in how it includes important and recognisable reference points to the shops and buildings that you build, and in how it showcases what’s possible to recreate if you simply look at those same LEGO bricks you’ve built big with in a new way.

For All Occasions

As mentioned, 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops packs in the entire collection of shops and buildings from the books and films, including a fair few you may even be surprised to learn have already been done before in LEGO form, albeit at different scales via the likes of 75978 Diagon Alley, 76439 Ollivanders & Madam Malkin’s Robes, 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank Collectors’ Edition and 76422 Diagon Alley: Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes.

These include outfits such as Quality Quidditch Supplies, bookshop Flourish and Blotts, Ollivanders, Scribbulus Writing Instruments, The Leaky Cauldron, The Daily Prophet HQ, Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour, Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, The Owl Post, the Magical Menagerie, the ever-bright Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, and of course Gringotts Wizarding Bank right at the head of the street.

Alongside these are some first appearances too, including Eeylops Owl Emporium where Harry picked up Hedwig for his 11th birthday with Hagrid, and Mr. Mulpepper’s Apothecary (which does not sell unicorn blood, so don’t ask).

As a collection, this is the largest number of stores and buildings from the magical shopping district we’ve ever had in a single LEGO set, and each is built to excellent detail both on the outside as you walk along the street, and on the inside with particular nods to what each shop or building represents worked into tiny interiors. With smaller, bite-size builds, this is a version of Diagon Alley that is fun to put together, moving at a better pace from shop to shop whilst giving you a good taste of each unique outfit, and as a set is able to lean into the variety and selection of shops that make up the street.

In addition and what really helps set the entire, sprawling scene, is the inclusion of 12 printed microfigures based on characters including Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Lavender Brown, Ginny Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy and Mr. Borgin. The detail on these little LEGO folk walking around the street is just enough to make them recognisable and match the scene they are based in. Alongside the huge dragon sat on top of Gringotts, they bring a sense of life and activity to the entire display and help tell the story of this busy London street.

How about… diagonally?

Beyond story and details, though, which both make everything that you build so engaging and interesting from building to building, comes the decision that the final model presents you with – how do you display it?

The set is built into five separate sections that join together with loose-fitting clips – they hold everything in line but don’t form a rigid connection. These clips align the five sections to sit all in one long, thin row that measures 8cm deep and 88cm long, or they can be connected so as to have two rows of shops face each other with Gringotts at the top, in a configuration that measures 16cm wide and 45cm long. As the box art also demonstrates, there are other, looser display options too, which highlight as much as anything how interesting this entire set looks from pretty much any angle.

And how good the set looks will make your decision on how to display it a tough one, as all in one row, or closed in together, or somewhere in between are all ways that pull you in and help to showcase different details inside and outside the various shops and buildings.

LEGO Harry Potter 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops packs so much into its 2,750 pieces for an engaging and genuinely fun exploration of a vivid and wholly interesting cross-section of magical-themed shops. As a display pieces these microscale models are some of the best and most complete experiences for older builders, and serve as the sorts of sets you’ll come back to again and again.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

Our honest opinion: A deep dive into a colourful street makes 76444 Diagon Alley Wizarding Shops a fun set to build and an engaging one to take in on display.