Brace yourself, Epinions has added most of the new Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Lego’s to the site! And yes, Freak369 plans of reviewing all of them over the next few days. With the holidays right around the corner I wanted to get the reviews up early so parents of Lego addicts could see exactly what they are getting for their hard earned money. Make no mistake about it, these sets are not cheap, you are not only paying for the Lego bricks but the Harry Potter name.

The Sorting Hat is one of the smaller sets in the series and when added with the other sets to create the castle scene it sits in the lower gallery, second set from the right. As I mentioned in the Chamber of The Winged Keys review, the concept of collecting sets to create one master set is nothing new – but this series perfected it. Check out the back of any of the boxes in the series to see the complete diagram of the sets and how they are constructed to create the complete castle.

Much like the other sets in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone collection, this set has some fantastic pieces that will greatly enrich any Lego junkies never-ending fascination with the ‘toys’. This set required the most amount of ‘treatment’ before I handed the pieces over to the kids. The magical spell book, crested wheel, magic wand and owl all needed some special attention – the details of which I’ll get into a little later in the review.

The Wheel of Decision

The basic principal with the Sorting Hat set is this – a small spinning wheel rests on a centerpiece with half of the wheel being exposed [the other half is covered with a triangular piece]. The four crests of the Potter series are painted on the wheel and have withstood a few weeks of heavy play without any scratching, however I highly suggest that you place a piece of acetate over it or cover it with an even layer of clear nail polish to prevent wear or scratches.

The magic wand also doubles as a decision maker / wheel marker. I took some gold glitter nail polish and applied a few coats to ¼ of the end of the wand to give it a little more of a mystical feel. On the front of the box you see Harry Potter with the wand in his hand and you also see small gold stars and sparkles shooting out of the end of it. To me this is false advertising – sure adults know that the magic wand is simply a piece of plastic but when kids see the box they expect it to be so much more than what it turns out to be. The boys didn’t seem to mind me adding the glitter nail polish but they gave me strict orders not to make it ‘too girlie’.

The wheel is extremely easy to build from the enclosed instructions but I suggest that you read through the booklet completely before you start so you see all of the steps before you get started. When properly assembled the wheel should spin with little or no effort, if you notice any ‘drag’ on the bottom – remove the brown half cover and remove the wheel and make sure all the pieces are pushed in and are even.

Harry Potter

Almost an exact duplicate of the figure included in the other sets, this one features the trademark scar on the forehead, gray sweater vest, stenciled glasses and black hair. He also comes with a nice black cloth cape accented with small purple [somewhat pale and almost gray looking] stars. The cloth is a little stiff and it way take it a while to loosen up and hang correctly so don’t get upset if it looks a little odd at first.

Extras

Even though this is a smaller set – don’t count it out just yet. One the extremely cool pieces you get with this set is the magic spell book [same one that was released with the Castle and Dark Knights sets]. It is a little out of proportion to the actual size of the characters hands and this isn’t a new issue – it’s always been there but most people just never noticed. You might want to give this a coat of clear nail polish to keep it from getting scratched or to keep the design from getting worn.

The white owl has some nice detail to it but it lacks any detail [much like the white ghost from the Chamber of The Winged Keys set] or stenciling. Maybe that was part of the overall design and when I tried to imagine it with eyes or stenciled wings it seemed that it would be too overpowering for the setting. Who knows – I just buy the sets, play with them and write the reviews. The owl can be placed anywhere on the sorting hat wheel chamber but it does look pretty cool sitting atop the highest pillar [as suggested in the instructions].

The black magic hat is nothing too spectacular but it is the first time I have seen the design in black – all the others from previous Castle and Dark Knights sets have been in blue or glow in the dark white with green hue. Since it’s a little plain I added just a touch of the gold glitter to the top part of the hat – and it really gave it a little extra charm.

In addition to the above mentioned extras you also get a chalice [which can also used as a goblet, trophy or candle holder] that’s the same yellow as the Lego figures faces. Make it unique by taking a permanent marker and putting the Harry Potter lightening logo on the cup. A little zig, a little zag and you have a one of a kind magic gobble just for Harry.

The flames are standard issue but come with unique holders. The holders are black and are four pronged enclosures. These really give the flames a little more attention and showcase them. Check out the back of the box or the Lego website to alternative designs and uses for the flames – but don’t be limited by what others have built – use your imagination.

My Thoughts

I really wasn’t sure about this set, it seemed a little small for the price and I knew up front that one of the reasons for the slightly higher price than other sets of the same piece count was the Harry Potter name. Since I also knew that my ultimate goal was to collect all the sets and build the castle I knew that I would need at least one of these just for my scene. The brood asked for three of them to use the extra pieces to build additional scenes – one of my favorites was a spinning wheel they mounted to a wall instead of having it flat on the ground.

If you are planning on collecting all the sets and building the castle you might what to buy a few of the Sorting Hat sets for the selection of pieces and to have the spinning wheels in a variety of locations. If this will be the first or only set a child has in the series they might get about an hour of play time out of it before the fad wears off

While this set is pretty cool, it’s rather small and doesn’t get the stellar rating reserved for sets that have awesome ‘bonus’ pieces, good replay value or an exceptional price tag. So I am going to give this two big thumbs up but also remind you that there are small pieces that could present a choking hazard if smaller children share the same play area as older kids.

The Stats

Set Name: Sorting Hat
Family Set: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Lego Set: 4701
Number of Pieces: 48
Age Recommendation: 7 - 10
Ease Of Assembly: Not that hard
Time Of Assembly: 10 minutes
Cost: $5.99
Retail prices vary from $5.99 - $6.99


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2004 Freak369


Other awesome Harry Potter Lego sets ...

The Final Challenge
Chamber of The Winged Keys
Snape’s Classroom
Hagrids Hut
Hogwarts Express
Hogwarts Castle
The Flying Lesson
Quality Quidditch Supplies
Gryffindor House
Quidditch Practice
Dobby’s Release
The Dueling Club
Slytherin House
Quality Quidditch Supplies





Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): $5.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family