LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds review

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds revisits an iconic location with a fresh take that shows exactly what’s possible at such a small scale.

Taking more than a page of inspiration from its bigger sibling 71043 Hogwarts Castle, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds downsizes the same complete-castle-in-tiny-scale build to offer up a just-as-smart, engaging and fun LEGO Harry Potter build at less than half the price.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds set details —

Theme: LEGO Harry Potter Set name: 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds Release: September 1, 2023

Price: £149.99 / $169.99 / €169.99 Pieces: 2,660 Minifigures: 1

LEGO: Order now

— Where to buy LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds —

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds releases on September 1 at LEGO.com and will presumably be available from select third-party retailers from that date too.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds build —

Those of you fortunate enough to own and have built 71043 Hogwarts Castle will know why we say that remains the undisputed LEGO Harry Potter experience for die-hard fans…who have a lot of real estate to display it. It’s a massive, comprehensive and wholly immersive brick-based experience that recreates the iconic castle central to the Harry Potter story across seven books and eight films.

Five years on from its release, that remains the case. Yet, here we have LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds and we couldn’t be happier. Coming in at a far more sensible size, adding a few more of the castle’s structures to the back right, as well as some of the surrounding grounds, and altogether very cleverly not skimping on any of the design industry the LEGO Harry Potter line continues to lead by example with in recent years, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is a beautiful rendition of the same source material, just realised at a completely different scale.

It is smaller, it is more modest and with fewer parts to play with the design does have to make a couple of compromises that its bigger sibling from five years back does not. Yet smaller doesn’t mean worse, modest doesn’t mean cheap, and that lower price doesn’t mean less value.

Indeed, there is just as much intelligent LEGO design that has gone into 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, but crucially at a change in scale and all-round size that unlocks a completely different and new building experience. That means that for those who have experience with 71043 Hogwarts Castle, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds feels fresh, and for those who haven’t yet forked out over £400 for it, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds offers up a just-as-brilliant and authentic scale model at a far more palatable price.

As mentioned, and is obvious in the name, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds expands into some of the surrounding grounds to the massive castle, as well as actually offering more of the castle’s structures than we have previously built. Not only helping to differentiate this model from 71043 Hogwarts Castle, this all helps to add extra colour and detail to 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, which is then nicely capped off with a black border that houses the model and all its energy really quite nicely and neatly, like a vibrant art piece caught between a simple picture frame.

So much is the expansion into the surrounding grounds (including some internal rooms of the castle worked into the back of them), that the first 11 bags from this 22-bag build are focused purely on this. It’s no bad thing and at once both reflects what is a very different model to 71043 Hogwarts Castle and just how immersive and detailed in its own right 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds really is.

Exterior details include the Durmstrang Ship and the Beauxbatons Carriage from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the Flying Ford Anglia’s encounter with the Whomping Willow from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. While coming in at this smaller scale means there are no interior details to the buildings themselves, there are – as mentioned – also a number of interior rooms built into the underneath of the backside to the grounds, particularly chronicling the rooms Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have to work through in the climactic sequence of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

All round, it means that a great many more references and nods to particular moments from across the books and films are very carefully and cleverly included, adding an extra level of detail, colour and enjoyment to both the build and the final model. It also means that the build process is far longer than you may be expecting – it’s one to be enjoyed and one to pay attention to, with some refined techniques and asymmetrical details that will keep you on your toes.

Also as mentioned, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds comes in at this much more modest scale, built on a base measuring 35cm by 25.5cm, and coming in at a height of 22cm. Much, much more friendly to any number of display options, this is by far and away the biggest improvement upon the concept of a microscale LEGO Hogwarts Castle. Not only helping to differentiate the model in design, features, colour and build experience, the fact it can be so much more easily placed on a desk or a shelf or table, be held, turned around etcetera cannot be overstated.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds characters —

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is smaller than 71043 Hogwarts Castle so doesn’t come with any of those excellent nanoscale versions of characters, but it does still come with a single minifigure: The Architect of Hogwarts Castle. Based on a statue that appears in the grounds of the castle, it’s a nice inclusion to have, even if in scaling it ends up sitting a bit awkwardly, at one of two optional attachment points to the front of the base.

It’s also a strong (if coincidental) addition to all those golden 20th-anniversary minifigures from a couple of years ago.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds price —

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds comes in at £149.99 / $169.99 / €169.99 and, in offering up a high-quality, immersive LEGO Harry Potter experience with an eye-catching and enjoyable final model at the end of it, there’s plenty of immediate value to be seen here. Also coming in at less than half the price of 71043 Hogwarts Castle, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds arguably manages to offer as much of an authentic all-round experience as its bigger sibling, only at a much more palatable price tag.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds pictures —

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds pros and cons —

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is unexpected from the theme, particularly with 71043 Hogwarts Castle still available on shelves. However, through clever design and fully embracing what working to a completely different scale can mean, 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds offers up a wholly unique and equally as fun and immersive LEGO Harry Potter experience, ticking a lot of the same boxes as its much larger predecessor at a fraction of the price.

There is plenty to admire about the design that has gone into 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds, for how it makes building this iconic location very enjoyable and for how it offers up a colourful, accurate and excellently-sized final model that works wonderfully on display.

76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds pros	76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds cons
Much more of the castle and surrounding grounds to build than ever before	An even bigger piece count could have expanded the surrounding grounds even further
Good value for the price	Those with 71043 Hogwarts Castle may hesitate to get this (but, don’t)
Great size for display	Not for younger builders looking for play

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds —

LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is the smaller sibling to 71043 Hogwarts Castle – if your budget can stretch that far then that offers up an even deeper dive into the castle. In terms of LEGO artistry at this particular scale, though, we recommend a next step after 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds be 21060 Himeji Castle, which we recently reviewed here. Coming in at a similar size, this Architecture set does feel like it would sit in natural balance to 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds FAQs —