LEGO Harry Potter 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons review

LEGO Harry Potter 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons delivers more than just the expected thanks to some dynamic LEGO design.

Swooping in to take one of the higher-priced positions among January’s wave of LEGO Harry Potter releases, 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons appears to take a more conventional approach to recreating a well-known scene from the books and films we all love.

Release: January 1, 2025 Price: £69.99 / $79.99 / €79.99 Pieces: 651 Minifigures: 6 LEGO: Order now

‘Flying is not unlike walking. It's just much more difficult, and far more dangerous.’

Where LEGO Harry Potter as a theme continues to push and experiment with which creative directions to take its LEGO sets each release phase, it still delivers sets that can be considered staples by this point. The latest of these – at least at face value and taking the position of a fresh addition to your growing Hogwarts castle – is 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons. However, appearances are a little deceptive as there’s a lot more to this than just a standard castle segment build.

Part of the theme’s ‘most detailed LEGO Hogwarts Castle ever’, 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons offers a two-for-one experience, taking on Quidditch and Transfiguration classes for first years, as seen in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

This plays out as a tower with a portion of wall to serve as an exterior for the Quidditch class, complete with broomsticks and a Quidditch set for the selection of students, overseen by Madam Hooch herself. The other half to the set is the interior that houses two slide-out portions, one of which houses the Quidditch supplies and the other of which folds out for a teacher’s desk and some basic study desks for students for Professor McGonagall to run her Transfiguration class.

As a design concept this mirrors what we see in the larger 76435 Hogwarts Castle: The Great Hall, which combines with the likes of 76431 Hogwarts Castle: Potions Class and 76442 Hogwarts Castle: Charms Class to offer fold-out classrooms that can be stored within the castle when not in use.

It’s a great idea that is being used to good effect with such larger classrooms as both 76431 and 76442, and it makes sense to mimic the same approach in 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons, even if it rather downsizes what’s possible and, as a result, downgrades the entire effect when it comes to the Transfiguration class in particular.

‘You’ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say ‘Quidditch’.’

Indeed, Professor McGonagall’s attempts to train her students on the art of Transfiguration have been somewhat curtailed in 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons and it does generally come across as an afterthought in the design of the set, particularly when half of the interior is otherwise given over to storing the bits required for the Quidditch class held on the exterior of the building.

There’s a smaller tower to the other end of the castle segment included here which has been given over to (presumably) Professor McGonagall’s office and a trophy room. These could have easily taken on storage duties for the Quidditch bits and left two rooms of space to have slide-out material for a more convincing and sizeable interior classroom setting like Transfiguration.

That would have truly given the set an even stronger two-in-one feeling between inside and outside. As it stands, it feels like the only shortcoming in 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons, and it’s not the worst interpretation that we are given in any case.

The exterior to the castle is designed very accurately to what we saw in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, from a sequence filmed at Windsor Castle that has that squarer design with higher walls than the rest of what we eventually saw Hogwarts to be. The design team are offering a bit more character to Hogwarts this time around, breaking up what could otherwise have been an all-tan build with rockwork and other details such as exposed brickwork, a bit of plant life and other finer details to the walls’ structures.

These little details add real depth and interest to a) what you build and b) what you are left with on display for play. There’s a lot more for your eye to take in and it works so nicely as a result. Anti-stud pieces are also built into the wall to attach clear pieces that then also attach to the broomsticks, to give the students of the Quidditch class some much-needed airtime.

‘Give it back, Malfoy!’

In all, 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lessons is best at recreating the stronger and more memorable Quidditch class scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone where, as Madam Hooch is off escorting Neville Longbottom to the infirmary with a broken wrist after he kicked off with his broom too early, Harry confronts Draco Malfoy to return Neville’s dropped Remembrall (and then flies into the air to catch it). All that (and eventually the Remembrall) is caught within 76447, as well as Professor McGonagall’s intervention and Harry’s introduction to Gryffindor Quidditch team captain Oliver Wood to be his new seeker.

That’s a lot of story involving a number of characters and ultimately – and perhaps wisely – the choice is made to prioritise all of that over giving too much interior detail and budget to McGonagall’s classroom. It does rather diminish the potential of the inside space to the set, but in turn allows for so much story and all the relevant characters to be included for the much more interesting exterior action.

The fact that the castle also folds away is an engaging touch that continues the excellent trend of folding LEGO Harry Potter sets and gives an already dynamic LEGO model a secondary mode for play and display. It also helps to transform what is otherwise a standard release from the LEGO Harry Potter theme into something a whole lot more interesting and different to what we’ve had before.

For as good as the set is, though, is there value at that price for 651 pieces and six minifigures? Admittedly, the price does sting a little – take off £10 and this is an excellent set with all the value you would hope for, but at £70 it’s just a little too steep, and that’s without the set itself having too many drawbacks.

Our honest opinion: A faithful and fun recreation of an early Harry Potter scene, even if the price is a little steeper than we’d hope.

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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