LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat review

LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat can certainly talk the talk, but can it walk the walk when you drill into the details?

Soon to release in the March 2024 wave of LEGO Harry Potter sets, 76429 Talking Sorting Hat brings the gruff magical object that sorts all the Hogwarts students into their houses to brick-built life. And you can finally live out your own dreams of getting sorted thanks to the hidden sound box that has 31 different phrases to place you into one of the four houses.

It marks the first time the sound box has been used in more than a decade, so with a voice to put on a show, is 76429 Talking Sorting Hat worthy of a standing ovation?

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat set details —

Theme: Harry Potter Set name: 76429 Talking Sorting Hat Release: March 1, 2024

Price: £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99 Pieces: 561

LEGO: Order now

— Where to buy LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat —

LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat is available from March 1, 2024 for £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99. You’ll find it at LEGO.com and in LEGO Stores, and possibly through some third-party retailers.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat build —

For a build that works from the base up in shrinking circles, 76429 Talking Sorting Hat offers a surprisingly engaging construction process. There’s enough facial features on the front of the hat, as well as some hidden treasures within the dome of the hat itself, to keep you intrigued throughout – and that’s perhaps a good summary for the set as a whole.

The main appeal of 76429 Talking Sorting Hat might at first glance appear to be the triumphant return of the sound box, and that’s certainly a fun feature. It can be triggered by either pushing on the tip of the hat or (our preferred means) placing it on someone’s head to trigger a button on the bottom of the hat. While the brick-built hat cannot actually be worn, both size-wise and because it’s not hollow, you can have a tonne of fun ‘sorting’ friends by putting on their heads a la Professor McGonagall in the first Harry Potter movie.

The voice itself sounds pretty close to the on-screen voice, done by the late Leslie Phillips. It’s got enough of the gravelly tone to send a thrill through anyone who spent years waiting in vain for their red-ink Hogwarts letter.

However, the more time spent with 76429 Talking Sorting Hat, the more fun you’ll have with it. The moving features on the front of the hat align it pretty closely with the on-screen source material, with ‘folds’ of that hat forming stern eyebrows and a mouth.

You can’t forget that 76429 Talking Sorting Hat is indeed a Sorting Hat either, with various references to the four Hogwarts houses throughout. The more obvious ones can be found on the stand, of course, with a printed tile for each house. You can choose which house to give preference to, depending on which angle you want the stand to face.

However, there are still more references hidden inside the hat, with tiny stud-sized icons from the Hogwarts houses. There’s a ruby-studded sword of Godric Gryffindor, a Hufflepuff cup, and two admittedly less detailed parts that are meant to represent Ravenclaw’s diadem and Slytherin’s locket.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat characters —

76429 Talking Sorting Hat also comes with a Harry Potter minifigure, because that appears to be the rule for any LEGO Harry Potter set, but you really don’t need him. The minifigure is hard to see when standing next to the comparatively towering hat itself, especially when it’s on the stand. If you want your minifigure to attach to the stand, it’s almost completely obscured by the brim of the hat. It’s surely quite cute to see a tiny Harry wearing a miniature version of the hat you just built, but we don’t think we’d miss him if he wasn’t there either.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat price —

76429 Talking Sorting Hat impresses a lot more in hand than you might first think. Rather than just being a vehicle for the return of the sound block, the LEGO Harry Potter set is an impressively-detailed display model of a true icon from the Harry Potter franchise. However, it’s still relatively small and a lot of that cost is probably eaten up by the sound block itself, resulting in a pretty steep price. It’s certainly a set that any LEGO Harry Potter fan will love, but for £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99, you might have expected a slightly larger final build.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat pictures —

— 76429 Talking Sorting Hat pros and cons —

All in all, 76429 Talking Sorting Hat is an impressive set. In a theme weighted towards building-focused sets, it’s great to see the addition of another display-focused build that can stand alone, rather than as part of a wider wizarding street. While it’s slightly overpriced for what you get at the end, the fact that it’s equally fun to interact with and display is something that not every LEGO set can claim.

76429 Talking Sorting Hat pros	76429 Talking Sorting Hat cons
Surprisingly expressive features for a hat	Unnecessary appearance of yet another Harry minifigure
Great execution of a sound box	Slightly overpriced for the final effect
Fun hidden references

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat —

Two other LEGO Harry Potter sets spring to mind if you want to have a little piece of magic sitting on your shelf: 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds and 76414 Expecto Patronum. The latter is closer in price to 76429 Talking Sorting Hat and is a similar size too. It also offers more choice, with two possible build modes. The advantage of 76429 Talking Sorting Hat over 76414 Expecto Patronum, however, is that it’s interactive as well, thanks to the ‘sorting’ functionality. While 76414 Expecto Patronum is just as impressive to look at it, it’s more likely to sit on a shelf forever, without the possibility of engaging with it once you’re finished building.

76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds is in a different price bracket to 76429 Talking Sorting Hat and for that you get a bigger display model. However, there’s arguably more detail in 76429 Talking Sorting Hat thanks to the scale of the brick-built hat. Overall, any one of these sets would be a great LEGO Harry Potter set to build and exhibit, depending on your priority for your magical display.

— LEGO Harry Potter 76429 Talking Sorting Hat FAQs —