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  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    The Game Is Afoot!

    So the lovely folks over at Pantasy got in contact with me and asked if I would like to review one of their sets. I haven’t built anything brick wise that isn’t lego so I thought why not, id love to have something different and it would be my first proper brick set sent to me for review, I’ve had the Clean My Bricks vacuum and a light kit from Lelightgo in the past but this is bricks proper!

    Why this set?

    I had a free rein of what to build and I picked the Sherlock Holmes Baker Street 221B Apartment 85014 as I am building a MOC street including the Tudor Corner, Sanctum Sanctorum and a MOC red brick Tube station. I thought this set would look great amongst these, which next to the Tudor corner (as this is the only one I have build so far) one I MOD the levelling I think It will look fantastic!

    The Box

    The Box and packaging are quite different from Lego sets, this comparison to lego will naturally come up a fair amount due to me only having lego until now, let’s get into that.

    The box seems to be a bit more robust than lego boxes, the cardboard feels thicker, the print is nice and vibrant, opposed to the black +18 boxes lego are currently doing, which are flimsy and not eye catching at all. Now the bags inside are a thicker plastic than lego ones, no paper bags like what lego is very slowly trying to incorporate into sets now, and quite a few of them, I do think the bags could be in one big bag, even though I organised them before building I was still looking for all the bags with the right number on or not finding enough of the bags and mid build missing a bag.

    The Set

    Over all I really like how this looks, I think its maybe a floor too high but I still really like it, I’m going to modify the street level so it matches up to the Tudor modular but yeah I’m very impressed by this set.

    The front of the set makes this stand out and will look great next to the Tudor modular, which I haven’t done yet but will in the near future. some pieces are recoloured from what you would expect so the flame piece is black and used for decoration for the railing, a good parts usage, even some reverse stud pieces which are very interesting! the sticker on the front awning is very well done, it was applied on on a big sticker and then you take the outer off so it is just the lettering left over, a nice way of doing it, but me personally I don’t like stickers on multiple pieces, but that’s just personal preference, but I do like the way it looks.

    On the first floor we have the main entrance to sherlocks home, just stairs mainly, and a cafe which I love! very good builds and prints, using a 3×4 tile for these, basically a CMF stand plate but with no studs, the prints are great and very clear.

    trying to capture images of a modular is always difficult at the best of times! this is the first floor which is sherlocks apartment, so many details and references, which I’m sure some of you will be able to work out. again the prints are perfect and the builds were fun too! this floor focuses on the lounge area with a kitchen mostly taken up by scientific equipment.

    Up another flight of stairs and you come to sherlocks bedroom and guest room, which I’m assuming is for Watson. again a lot of detail in this floor, lots of prints and some interesting techniques, I liked making the board of clues!

    The top floor is quite disappointing to be honest, it looks quite unfinished on the back, from the front it looks good but the back looks unfinished, I genuinely thought a bag was missing.

    This also comes with a horse and carriage build with is quite sweet, even this has quite a few good techniques in it as well!

    The Figures

    The figures are good in design but not for purpose. In isolation they are quite cute but don’t really fit in the build. I know the minifigure design is owned by Lego, but these for the purpose of this set don’t work for me. They came completely dismantled and had a side instruction to build them, which was fun but I do prefer the look of the minifigure in the modular. I appreciate the effort to make something different but as they don’t work in the set they are made for its a miss on these for me I’m afraid!

    Verdict

    Aside for the roof and figures I actually really enjoyed building this set, and love how it looks! the dark nougat colour was getting a bit same-y by the end of the second floor but once the rooms are filled they look better with the break up of colours. the front look of the building is by far the selling point to me, it looks fabulous and I will add this to my street scene I’m making. I will be making some adjustments to the pavement, roof and levelling (so it’s the right height) but other than that im super happy with this set!

    id like to say a massive thank you to Pantasy for sending this set to me, I was given freedom to express my own thoughts on this. if you would like to pick up this set please click my affiliate link below, any purchase you make gives me a bit off a kick back which goes solely back into the Wizard Bricks socials. thank you for reading and ill be blogging again soon!

    If you’d like to get your hands on one of these please use my link https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D1QXGCNF with my discount code WIZARD0811 for 10% off!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    An Update…

    I haven’t posted for around a week now and thought I would update you lovely readers on what’s going on the next month or so.

    I’m currently sorting everything behind the scenes, so this means tidying the lego room, storage for sets, adding parts to the bricklink shop, getting some billy’s to display builds and planning how I want the rest of the year to look for me over my socials. this will take a bit of time unfortunately so I may slow down the posting so I can get myself organised to have a slight reboot of the Wizard Bricks socials.

    I do have quite a lot to do so I most likely won’t post any blogs between now and when its sorted, being as its a hobby and not a job so family and work come first, my aim is to finish around mid August so hopefully will speak then.

    I have a lot of ideas in the coming weeks when im back so please be patient and I’ll be back soon! also make sure you follow my instagram I post stories of updates and such so follow along there!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Supersonic Brick Show ’25

    It is that time of year again when one of my favourite shows comes around, the supersonic brick show at the Aerospace museum in Bristol, under a Concorde! its a very unique show to be apart of and I feel very fortune to have been apart of it for the second time!

    I displayed some of my Harry Potter Mocs, for now being the last time as I’ve displayed them a few times now and want to make something a bit different, I will come back to them but I’m just enjoying the Harry Potter sets at the moment.

    I will make a featured post on these in the future but here they are for now, hope you like them!

    I find these shows for me now are a great way to catch up with friends, and make new ones. I helped on the Friday evening to put all the tables out in the latest heatwave to hit the UK and yes it was very hot and muggy especially inside an airplane hanger which is just a gigantic tin. I then set up my table and got home for an early night as it was a long day the next day, my favourite part is it was a one day show.

    My wife and daughter tagged along for most of the day which was lovely, can’t wait for my little one to grow up and hopefully display her own creations at shows but its a bit of a way off yet! ill show some of the builds that stood out to me but I will also post a video on my YouTube channel showing everything that was new to me, I hope you enjoy that find the link below!

    I hope you enjoyed the little window into displaying lego and hope you watch the video for more builds, thanks for reading!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Building What Everyone Else Does…

    So I recently (in February actually this year is going quick) picked this set up due to a small discount, and I’m glad I did as its got my modular building itch scratched but I want more as everyone does. So I’m deciding to build my own little road/street MOC/MOD and I’m really looking forward to making it. I’m taking some time out from my usual Harry Potter MOCs which I will share here soon as I’m displaying them this weekend at a show under a Concorde airplane, I will also do a write up about that too!

    I have wanted to take a change of pace from the Harry Potter MOCs for the moment, still collecting the sets but MOCs can wait for now. I always see cities or towns being made which look fabulous but I would love to make my own little one!

    The Plan

    Right so the plan is to have 4 buildings, from left to right Tudor corner, sanctum sanctorum modular, a red brick tube station and another modular. I have seen some mods of the house included in the bookshop modular with colour swapping and mirroring the builds so I may add some of those in! ill show some pictures of what I have now below…

    Obviously I need to build more for an actual display but I’m gathering mini figures too to add to the build. I’m quite excited to build this and I quite like my design of the slopes going to the road it locks in great!

    Probably won’t add much for the next few weeks due to me being busy but the next step is adding the SS so looking forward to that.

    Hope you enjoyed the little update of what I’m making and stick around for what it will look like in the coming weeks!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Victor I Love You, Victor I Do!

    The second Harry Potter LEGO set I’ve decided to review it 76440: Triwizard Tournament: The Arrival, and it’s a beaut! It costs £124.99 in the UK, consists of 1229 pieces and has five minifigures all unique to this set. it released 01/06/24 and is still available now, I recommend you go and grab it for yourself its not one to be missed!

    The Side Builds

    Lets get the small side builds out of the way first shall we? These are very well done, we have had a few designs of each the goblet of fire and the triwiard cup but I do think these are the best versions we have had to date very nice small builds using fairly common parts, so if you wanted to build these separately it wouldn’t be too much of a cost.

    The Minifigures

    We have five brand-spanking new minifigures and I’m all for it, especially when the are all exclusive and all obscure characters, lets get into it…

    Barty Crouch Sr. – HP494

    Let’s start with the ‘boring’ figure a character you don’t see too much in this films, but has a bigger presence in the book. The face print likeness to Roger Lloyd Peck is very good, the pin striped suit is done rather nicely and the back is good too. My main issue is the bowler hat, it needs hair moulded into it for more of a likeness, otherwise he just looks bald, and for me lets this figure down, which limits this figure to a single printed head, would have loved a ‘Realisation’ face when he works out Mad Eye Moody is, spoiler alert, Barty Crouch, Junior.

    Fleur Delacour – HP497

    So we have had a few Fleurs before even in her Beauxbatons uniform, but this version has an updated print and uses a darker blue for the mini figure, I adore the hat and hair design, which has been used before with this character. Nice back printing and double sided head, a lovely figure to have!

    Madame Olympe Maxine – HP499

    So I get the idea of this figure and I applaud the attempt but to me this doesn’t work and looks really off to me with the Woody legs and Hagrid arms, it just looks so off putting to me. I love the prints and the head print looks great, I think I would have preferred what we have had in the past with the slope looking like a dress. This is a big swing and a miss for me, love the experimentation but I think this is my least favourite figure from the Harry Potter line.

    Professor Igor Karkaroff – HP500

    I love love love this figure. the print is excellent, face print is brilliant I would have liked this in the long coat and hat, as that’s what he arrives to Hogwarts in, this is more of a Yule Ball outfit, but ill take it! Dual moulded legs, great front and back print, great hair mould, this is a home run figure me and the gold staff finishes it off.

    Victor Krum – HP498

    My favourite figure from the set, this Krum looks incredible. Ever since the introduction of the fur color piece I’ve wanted a Krum figure, again this should have come with a hat/hair moulded piece but ill take this version any day of the week. great second face too!

    All in all not a bad bunch of figures all new so I can add all of them to the stand!

    Beauxbaton’s Carriage

    This has been a lego set before but was released by itself, and much larger. I would have happily had the pieces from this go towards the ship for a slightly larger ship but it is a lovely addition, and its a good way for new collectors for getting the carriage without going on the secondary market for getting the old one. I believe the winged horse is the same as before, the carriage is smaller but still looks rather stunning, looking very classic French. Not much going on in the inside but there is room for both figures to sit down and some tea cups in the luggage on the rear, overall a nice build.

    Durmstrang Ship

    What an absolute beast of a ship! I never got the original one, which I am trying to track down for myself one day, so this is a very welcome addition to the collection, I love this, my favourite of the wave for last summer. All the prints you see are stickers, besides the sail,I honestly don’t mind stickers, it’s just an amazing set. The angles for the front and rear of the ship are created In a fun way and the ship even has an interior with some seating and a bed to take a nap, revealed by taking some rigging down and removing the centre section. The sails look great and the print for the centre one is chefs kiss. Before I bought this set I wasn’t sure on the price, which I paid full price for, but it was worth the money I feel.

    As you can properly tell I love this set it’s not one to miss. my favourite Harry Potter film and book is Goblet Of Fire so I am a bit biased to be honest, but it does look lovely!

    Do you have this set, and what do you think about it, let me know in the comments below!

    Disclaimer: I bought this set myself and I am not affiliated with the LEGO Group or any Harry Potter properties, I do this out of sheer enjoyment.

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Let’s stand out…

    I made a new thing! A minifigure stand for my Harry Potter figures.

    I had a lot of Bricky Bricks left over from previous versions of my Hogwarts MOC so I wanted to use them for something, had a little search on YouTube for some inspiration and Cheesy Studios had made one I quite liked so thought I would use his design and modify it to suit what I had to hand. It fits 64 figures which is pretty good and covers a 32×24 stud base. Super happy with the outcome and it’s modular too so I can add more as it will be needed!

    I can also modify it to display the gold figures from a couple of years back and even have the frog cards and portraits along the front, can’t wait to keep adding to this!

    How do you display your minifigures, let me know in the comments section below!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Wizard’s Bricks

    I have run a bricklink shop for a little over two years now and I want to document what it’s like running a bricklink shop alongside a full time job. 

    I decided to start my own shop to see how it went as I had so many spare pieces with no idea how I accumulated so many I thought I’d rather have people that need them to have them. It’s been a long old task of sorting, figuring out storage, where that storage will go, I decided the garage as my Lego room was going to be my daughter’s room. 

    I started with the towers with the small plastic drawers which didn’t work out because of my labelling system I had no idea where anything was I unless I had bricklink, which unfortunately got hacked into soon after I started, so I had to start over. With a mix of life, building LEGO and moving house it’s taken a long time to get it all in order, but now I finally feel like I’m getting somewhere. 

    I now have bigger drawers, better storage, and more space to store things. I still have a lot of sorting to do but now it’s in localised bags of bricks, plates, tiles etc so once everything is sorted, it will be quicker and easier to store and upload to the shop, I already have just over 12,000 pieces in the shop but looking at what I have, I think I may be closer to 50,000 when it’s done, my goodness it’s a lot of pieces!

    My dream goal would be to make this my full time job, perhaps renting a small office to work from but I’m a long ways from that right now, my last order was in May but hopefully with the more pieces added the more orders I will get, and hopefully grew the shop to a small business but we will see!

    My aim is to have a monthly update on the shop, what’s been added and sales and such, just so if your thinking about starting a shop on bricklink you roughly know what it’s like and what it takes!

    https://store.bricklink.com/Wizard_Bricks#/shop

    Hope you enjoyed my window into owning a bricklink shop and I hope you start one soon!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Hermione Granger & Neville Longbottom

    For these two figures I thought I’d group them together as they are wearing the same outfits and have seen these heads and hair before with these characters but not in this combination before.

    So lets start with Hermione…

    Hermione is using elements we have all seen before in sets but not in this combination which makes this exclusive to the set, I love the design of the overalls for repotting mandrakes, would have loved a new hair mould for having earmuffs on but it looks great regardless. She had a secondary face and some back prints, which look great!

    The other figure is Neville, we have had him before but not with this head print. looks great with the earmuffs round the neck and I love the expression on the faces, the overalls are exactly the same on both figures but still look great!

    These figures are great and an easy way to get more of those overalls, I’m going to have to figure out a way to display these as I’ll be getting a few Harry Potter theme minifigures. Do you have these figures what do you think of them let me know in the comments below!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Professor Pomona Sprout

    My first minifigure spotlight, and I’m excited! This first blog about Harry Potter minifigures is Professor Pomona Sprout, Played by the wonderful Miriam Margolyes, I believe this is an exclusive minigifure to the LEGO set 76445 Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class which I recently posted about if you would like to have a read about that.

    The figure has a double face printing as you can see the opposite side here. the face prints are brilliant as always capturing the character perfectly and I love the print on the torso which I believe is a new print. No prints on the arms or legs but I don’t really expect that from a ‘cheap’ lego set.

    Here is the back of the figure, nothing too exciting but a lovely thing to have back printing. They have a tan wand which is inconsistent, this character has had reddish brown and tan wands, it would be nice to have a specific colour for the character as most figures do have the same colour. The hat, hair and earmuff head piece is great but I believe it’s the same as the one in 76384: Hogwarts Moments: Herbology Class, and in the CMF series.

    This figure is pretty great but I have a love for Miriam so I naturally would like this figure. It’s a good second favourite as the CMF one is the one I like the most, which I will cover on a blog soon!

    Do you have this figure and the set it comes in? What are your thoughts let me know in the comments below!

  • The Wizard Bricks Blog

    Neglecting My Earmuffs…

    This is my first ever set review and I’m quite excited! This review is for the Harry Potter set 76445 Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class

    The Review

    This set released in 2025 and is a part of the most detailed Hogwarts Castle collection started in 2024. It contains 390 pieces and 3 minifigures all of which I believe are exclusive to this set, we have had a Neville Longbottom in this outfit before but I think he had a different face print. New moulds for this set and large pieces make this set £44.99 which in my honest opinion is a bit steep, and I paid £49.99 from a local toymasters that love to over charge for LEGO which is already expensive, but this was a Father’s Day gift from me to me!

    The contents of the box contained the new (ish) version of instructions that are so dull, I really dislike the instruction manuals LEGO are producing at the moment for the “smaller” sets, also the lack of paper bags in this set is disappointing too, I’ve had a fair few sets recently that have had paper bags , but this seems like a step backwards.

    The three minifigures are pretty great Neville and Hermione have the same print which I’m fine with and what seems to be a new Professor Sprout which is always welcome!

    These will have their own spotlight later in their own blog post…

    The build was pretty fun, seems like the Botanicals team had a helping hand in this set. All the little plant details are wonderful, the use of a skirt for a flower piece stands out to me in particular. The new moulds for the Mandrakes are nothing short of incredible, the plant pots that contain them are new to me, as I haven’t seen them before but they fit perfectly. I also noticed the reference to Neville’s Mimbulus Mimbletonia with the use of the new what I call potion explosion piece recoloured to sand green. This also can be displayed long ways or folded (I prefer the folded) and if you wanted to buy multiple sets, they could be placed back to back and these would look great next to a Hogwarts castle. I adore the over grown look but it takes up space in the already cramped area and its quite difficult to pace figures, the front sections do detach but I would prefer a little more space to place figures inside. Overall a lovely little set!

    Verdict

    This is a great addition to the Hogwarts that LEGO is now releasing, its one of the reasons why I stopped making my own MOC of Hogwarts as I feel these sets are pretty great, when its all finished ill MOD it I think to close up areas and design what parts they never got round to making. Anyway, great figures, great build, horrible price I would wait for this to go on discount I would happily pay £35-£40 for this, but would definitely recommend this for Potter fans and if you want the completed Hogwarts.

    Have you got this set, what did you think of it, let me know in the comments below. Thank you for reading my first ever review, if there is anything you would like to know about this set let me know in the comment section below!