A great little set: LEGO Harry Potter Dobby's Release 4731
Written: Dec 14 '02
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Pros: Two new minifigs, two secret hiding places, cool pieces, inexpensive
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: A great little set for any Harry Potter Lego fan.
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| robynkoz's Full Review: LEGO Harry Potter Dobby's Release 4731 |
Overview
This small 70-piece set, Dobby's Release, Lego item number 4731, has a lot to offer at a good price.
First of all, it contains two new minifigs -- Dobby (a house-elf; this is a smaller-than-normal minifig) and Lucius Malfoy. As far as I know, neither of these minifigs is available in any other set, so that alone may be reason enough to want to buy this set.
The set builds a room (or part of a room) on a small black plate. The room contains a chair and desk and two windows (with cool paned inserts). The chair is hinged to reveal a secret hiding place, and there is also a sliding panel that covers another secret hiding place.
Other cool pieces in this set include Tom Riddle's ink-stained diary (a small book that opens to hide any small flat plate) and a small 1x2 smooth-topped plate featuring an image of one of Harry's socks. (I won't spoil the significance of the sock, in case you haven't yet read the book or seen the movie...). There are also two orange flames.
What the kids think
This was a very simple set to build. But the new minifigs, two secret compartments, Tom's diary and Harry's sock were all very exciting for my 6yo and 9yo Harry Potter and Lego fans.
When my boys get LEGO sets, they follow a predictable pattern. First, they build the set according to the instructions, and leave this up to play with for a while. Then they may try some of the alternate suggestions shown on the box or in the accompanying instruction guides. After this, they break it down and add the pieces to the general collection. So, in addition to what the set builds, what it comes with is very important to them. For a $6 set, this piece has a lot of cool and unique pieces.
What Mom Thinks
I like LEGO toys for my children, and this one is no exception. At first, we were concerned that today's specialty sets would limit our children's creativity (compared to the generic bricks of our youth), but that has not turned out to be the case given our kids' pattern of use for their new sets. Our kids learn to follow directions by building the model the first time, and then engage their creativity with a much more interesting set of LEGO bricks than we could have ever imagined as kids. While many of the specialty sets are overpriced, I can't really complain about this one. I think it's a great value for the money given how exciting all the new pieces are.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 6
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
robynkoz
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Location: Vermont
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
Mom of three wonderful boys, and a computer scientist in my "spare time" :)
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