Thinking About Hogwarts Castle

Interesting. How do you know if the item is going to be limited quantity?  It seems with the new movie coming out at the same time, they’d want to cash in with the Harry Potter license.  Well, I guess we will all find out in November.  If Lowes, Home Depot, Kohl’s or Sears sells it, it’ll probably go on clearance - we just need to pounce before other people do.  

Ballz2 posted:

Interesting. How do you know if the item is going to be limited quantity?  It seems with the new movie coming out at the same time, they’d want to cash in with the Harry Potter license.  Well, I guess we will all find out in November.  If Lowes, Home Depot, Kohl’s or Sears sells it, it’ll probably go on clearance - we just need to pounce before other people do.  

Absolutely, if you do see it in any big-box store, post something on the forum. But if you really want one, your best bet is going to be to order one from a Department 56 dealer.

I found this at target and figured I would post this. It’s slightly bigger than the $1 figure but the detail is really great. The cost was 14 bucks I believe which isn’t bad.  

Additional figures are available.  They will be too big. 

The price and detail are great!  I agree, if they are much bigger than the dollar ones they will be too big for around the castle.

They are about a head taller. So probably too tall?  The $1 figures were already a bit too tall.  Scale wise, prying off the Harry Potter funko pen toppers were the closest. 

There are now a few other buildings in the Wrebbit 3D puzzle series check it out;

http://www.wrebbit3d.com/our-wrebbit-3d-puzzles

I just picked up the Diagon Alley puzzle to add to the Hogwarts castle that I built.  Going to try to get it built for a display for an upcoming model train show. Will look good with the figures from Walmart.  Will have to see how it looks when built and see if the other new buildings would fit with it for size.

Note also that there is a lot in Lego in the way of Harry Potter buildings and vehicles. 

I was just looking at that! It seems that the new buildings replace the Diagon alley set with separate, more detailed diagon alley stores.  Very interesting. 

For those acquiring the HP Nano Metalfigs, the new ones are being released.

I found this new 5 pack at Walmart. https://metalsdiecast.com/port...y-potter-w3-5pack-b/

This one I was unable to find. https://metalsdiecast.com/port...y-potter-w3-5pack-a/

I haven't seen any new metal figs singles, but I'll be keeping an eye out.

Thank you for posting these for us!

Last Sunday I visited a local garden store where they always have Department 56 stuff (Charles Dickens houses, etc.) and Department 56 has added Harry Potter stuff including Hagrid's hut which appears close to 0 gauge scale. Do a search on Amazon and see other similar items.

John F

Here's the link to the dept 56 HP stuff.

https://department56.com/colle...harry-potter-village

Hogwarts is lovely but small and the figures are huge.  Hagrids hut and Olivanders look amazing though. And they should size well with O and nano metalfigs.

I came across this and I think it’ll work and it’s affordable

HARRY POTTER Monogram Gringotts Bank PVC Bank https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F..._api_i_1UCdCbBFB8W0W

Hard to tell scale wise but the measurements say it’s 9.5 inches. 

Found this other picture online... 

https://goo.gl/images/v8yayh

I was not impressed with the Department 56 version of Hogwarts / Hagrids etc.  The translucent design makes it look like cheap plastic.

Ah! how do they scale with o gauge?  

The castle is probably way too small but the hut and the wand shop? 

Could windows be masked and the interior be painted to block the light bleed?

Im not a scale hobbiest, but Hagrid's house and Olivanders look like a good match for O  gauge.  The castle is way too small and disproportioned in itself.  

I received most of the Dept 56 collection today.  They’re cast resin vs the traditional ceramic but are very nicely detailed.  Perhaps not worth the asking price, but nice nonetheless.  The castle is very scaled down, but I think it would look great in the distance on a high hill.  I don’t have the wand shop yet as I just ordered it today, but Hagrids hut would scale nicely with traditional Christmas village sized buildings.  The figures are the traditional oversized Christmas village style.

Just got Hagrid's hut and Hagrid with the hippogriff as a Christmas present from my wife. The Hut appears apropriate for 0 gauge and I will place it near the Hogwart's Express train and station with Harry Potter characters. I have a very large decal with Hogwarfts in the background.

John F

Here is a better photo and a video of the Lionel Lionchief Hogwarts Express set with the Dept 56 Harry Potter Village set.  Currently missing is the Wand Shop building and the Ron/Hermione figurine set that I have on order.

Do those figures seem a tad too large for o scale? That castle is definitely too small. I wished they just would've released two or three separate larger parts of the castle.  ah well.  i'll live with my wrebbit puzzle for now.  Apparently they sell a knock off hogwarts lego set for a third of the price. Thats pretty tempting but I just don't know if I like the look of it...  Hagrids hut and the hagrid figure look amazing.

Ballz2 posted:

Do those figures seem a tad too large for o scale? That castle is definitely too small. I wished they just would've released two or three separate larger parts of the castle.  ah well.  i'll live with my wrebbit puzzle for now.  Apparently they sell a knock off hogwarts lego set for a third of the price. Thats pretty tempting but I just don't know if I like the look of it...  Hagrids hut and the hagrid figure look amazing.

I don't believe any Department 56 item could really be considered "scale."  They're the same as many other Christmas Village buildings and accessories.  The figures are oversized and the buildings are sometimes selectively compressed.  Hagrid's Hut, and I assume the Wand shop when it arrives, might be within reason for O scale as many other village buildings are but the figures are probably a scale 8 or 10 feet high (which might actually be appropriate for Hagrid as I believe his character was supposed to be about 10 feet high).  If I ever put these on display other than under the tree, I'd likely build a base for the castle to look like it's sitting up high on a mountain and off in the distance as it does look very nice as a background structure as it more or less was in the movies.

As far as the lego set, I believe they make two different ones.  One is more of a "scale" model of the castle, although it's also very compressed and uses smaller than normal lego figurines.  I'm not sure it's much bigger than the Department 56 one although I haven't seen it in person.  The other is more of a play set (which my girlfriend has on display here at home) and looks great from the front, but is just an open dollhouse style structure from the back so you can see inside.

Went to Wal-Mart today for the Christmas clearance and I figured that I might as well check out the toy dept.

Found the Harry Potter nano metalfigs 5 pack with: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black, Prof Trelawney and Moaning Myrtle for $ 4.68.

I also found the Walking Dead 5 pack at clearance for $ 3.50. Comes with Rick Grimes, Michonne, Carl Grimes, Walker 1 and Walker 2. Last pack at my Wal-Mart.

Sean007,

Glad you found it.  Really hoping the second pack shows soon.

SantaFe158,

Those look nice and not nearly as translucent as the earlier pics seemed.  Yeah, Hogwarts is way off scale, but we kind of knew that going in and if it were to scale it would take up your entire living room! I think it looks fine in the back and would look amazing perched on top of a rocky little tunnel...

Very much looking forward to seeing how Olivanders looks when you receive it.

BallZ2

That bank looks fantastic and a great price too. Did you -or anyone- pick it up?

Eilif posted:

 

SantaFe158,

Those look nice and not nearly as translucent as the earlier pics seemed.  Yeah, Hogwarts is way off scale, but we kind of knew that going in and if it were to scale it would take up your entire living room! I think it looks fine in the back and would look amazing perched on top of a rocky little tunnel...

Very much looking forward to seeing how Olivanders looks when you receive it.

 

I will say, in the daylight the light bleed through the building walls isn't as apparent.  In the dark it shows through a lot more although I still don't mind that.  The Olivanders shop should arrive in the next couple days and I'll post pictures as soon as I get it opened. 

Have you considered painting the insides black? I've done that for a fair number of models and it always seems to work well. 

I didn’t end up buying the bank, 9 inches tall, because it wouldn’t scale with the wrebbit puzzle, 11 inches tall. However I think it could work with the dept 56 wand shop, 7.88 inches tall.  The bank is supposed to be the tallest building on diagon alley. To add lighting it looks like you could just shove a few led Christmas light bulbs down the coin slot too or cut a hole in the bottom as it’s that soft pvc material. 

Eilif posted:

Sean007,

Glad you found it.  Really hoping the second pack shows soon.

Thanks - I probably get to Wal-Mart weekly as ours is a Super Wal-Mart with complete grocery section.

I need to visit the toy dept more often.

Sean007 posted:

Went to Wal-Mart today for the Christmas clearance and I figured that I might as well check out the toy dept.

Found the Harry Potter nano metalfigs 5 pack with: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black, Prof Trelawney and Moaning Myrtle for $ 4.68.

I also found the Walking Dead 5 pack at clearance for $ 3.50. Comes with Rick Grimes, Michonne, Carl Grimes, Walker 1 and Walker 2. Last pack at my Wal-Mart.

 

The Harry Potter figures were further discounted to $3.50. I just picked two sets. 

Jim R. posted:

Sean007 posted:

Went to Wal-Mart today for the Christmas clearance and I figured that I might as well check out the toy dept.

Found the Harry Potter nano metalfigs 5 pack with: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black, Prof Trelawney and Moaning Myrtle for $ 4.68.

I also found the Walking Dead 5 pack at clearance for $ 3.50. Comes with Rick Grimes, Michonne, Carl Grimes, Walker 1 and Walker 2. Last pack at my Wal-Mart.

 

The Harry Potter figures were further discounted to $3.50. I just picked two sets. 

Thanks Jim - wasn't much left at my Wal-Mart but we have two other Wal-Mart s  next town over. I will get back out tomorrow after the flooding subsides.

Ballz2 posted:

I didn’t end up buying the bank, 9 inches tall, because it wouldn’t scale with the wrebbit puzzle, 11 inches tall. However I think it could work with the dept 56 wand shop, 7.88 inches tall.  The bank is supposed to be the tallest building on diagon alley. To add lighting it looks like you could just shove a few led Christmas light bulbs down the coin slot too or cut a hole in the bottom as it’s that soft pvc material. 

That does sound like a good size.  I wonder if there's a hatch/plug in the bottom to let the money out.  If so, you could put a regular Christmas house bulb mounting in it. However, I'd replace the incandescent with an LED or the heat could have a "negative" effect on the PVC.  

I just got a string of 6 Candelabra bulbs/mounts on a wire with switch from Menards.  They're intended for Ceramic houses but I used them to illuminate some plasticville on my Christmas layout.  I replaced the bulbs with LED's (also cheap at Menards) to keep from melting the plastic.  

As an aside I'm definitely going to have to paint the inside of the plasticville houses.  They look like paper lanterns!

The Dept 56 Olivander's Wand Shop arrived over the weekend.  I still need to get a power strip out to plug it in, but it looks nice with the rest of the collection.  The Ron/Hermione figures arrived as well.

Instead of a power strip, you might be interested in this instead. Totally changed my village without having to worry about so many wires.  It was on sale for 8 bucks earlier too. 

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-...ywords=village+light

Ballz2 posted:

Instead of a power strip, you might be interested in this instead. Totally changed my village without having to worry about so many wires.  It was on sale for 8 bucks earlier too. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Darice-...ywords=village+light

I do utilize many of those on my Christmas display, but only two of the HP buildings use the traditional light cords.  The castle and the Harry Quidditch accessories use the small 4.5V power supplies for the built in lighting and animation features.

woah, I'm so glad I mentioned it because nobody ever mentioned harry rotating around the top.  I thought it was a stationary thing but I should've figured.  

Ballz2 posted:

woah, I'm so glad I mentioned it because nobody ever mentioned harry rotating around the top.  I thought it was a stationary thing but I should've figured.  

If you look back on my post in this thread from 12/26 there's a video showing it in action.  It's definitely a neat piece to an otherwise stationary set of buildings/figures.

I came across the honeydukes sweet shop building. It’s supposed to be an ornament but it’s 4 inches tall? I think that might scale well then. 

It’s also currently on sale at various places (Kohl’s)

https://www.hallmark.com/ornam...ent-2499QXI2996.html

That doesn't look close to 4" tall.

they are prob measuring from the very top of that chimney
I'll try and go check out a hallmark store today and find out. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnEyNV4SK5g

Mystery solved

I will also say that this is plastic and not ceramic or glass.  At 6 bucks its good but its probably worth only 10 bucks max. 

Sean007 posted:

Went to Wal-Mart today for the Christmas clearance and I figured that I might as well check out the toy dept.

Found the Harry Potter nano metalfigs 5 pack with: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Sirius Black, Prof Trelawney and Moaning Myrtle for $ 4.68.

 

I also found the Walking Dead 5 pack at clearance for $ 3.50. Comes with Rick Grimes, Michonne, Carl Grimes, Walker 1 and Walker 2. Last pack at my Wal-Mart.

 

Went to a different Wal-Mart today (Cinnaminson, NJ) and found the Walking Dead Pack B which has Daryl Dixon, Glenn Rhee, Negan, and Walkers 3 and 4 for $ 3.50.

They only had a few Harry Potter sets, and they were all of the early ones. No new Potter figures.

Attached please find a link to the new 2019 Dept 56 Harry Potter items

https://www.enescobusiness.com...ry+potter+village.do

Action Jaxon posted:

Attached please find a link to the new 2019 Dept 56 Harry Potter items

https://www.enescobusiness.com...ry+potter+village.do

 

Interesting that there are items at that link that aren't yet available.  I'm glad to see they will likely be expanding the collection as time goes forward.

Edit, I see upon clicking on the items that they were introduced just this month as new additions.  Cool!

So they did split hogwarts into two!  Nice.  Kind of sucks that they are still so small.

I saw this on sale at target for 6 bucks

Dang, that's a fantastic deal.  I paid retail for mine. 

I was at two Targets this week and neither have any Harry Potter any more.

I just saw this at GameStop and it’s about same scale as the metal figs. Maybe a little smaller.   Looked it up on amazon and it’s 20 bucks.  Pretty tempting

HARRY POTTER Quidditch Pitch Arena Mini Playset, Featuring HP and Draco Malfoy! Chase The Golden Snitch! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H..._api_i_Ap31CbPWEMNN2

After watching this video on the various mini play sets, I’m less than enthused about em. But they might interest someone else.  Might be better with some paint and some mods. 

 https://www.litlgeeks.com/magi...-from-jakks-pacific/

Bed bath and beyond has the dept 56 hogwarts line on sale. 20 % off but it looks like you can’t use any other coupons.  

https://www.bedbathandbeyond.c...ne-collection/807606

I made this several years ago from plaster molds and other supplies. 

This thread was just pointed out to me after I purchased a Nano Metalfigs set of 20 die-cast Harry Potter figures. Couldn't resist them at only $30. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with them, but here is a pic:

No room on Warrenville for an appropriate castle.

Lionelski posted:

This thread was just pointed out to me after I purchased a Nano Metalfigs set of 20 die-cast Harry Potter figures. Couldn't resist them at only $30. I have no idea what I'm gonna do with them, but here is a pic:

No room on Warrenville for an appropriate castle.

Don't need the castle, just use your imagination for a scene or two and swap the figures out. 

Though I recall the bookstore having small Hogwarts buildings you assembled. 

For realism, hallmark is now selling the buildings and some of the town stores. Dept 56 is also selling the castle. Both are a bit small and very very pricey.

 Wrebbit 3D puzzle hogwarts castle is pretty big and seems to be good enough.  We’ve posted photos of them already.  I’m going to combine the wrebbit castle in the background with the hallmark stores in the foreground. Off Christmas sales make them ok cheap. Happy hunting.  Post what you manage to put together! 

 I bought the Wrebbit 3D puzzle hogwarts castle puzzle but never built it.  Too many other things to do.  I may do it someday and set it up at Halloween time.

Since the last photos I posted, I figure I would post a picture of some of my latest.  Ever since hallmark started selling the stores from diagon alley (6 to 11 bucks after christmas sale) I’ve started to build a foreground of the town with hogwarts in the back.  The detail is impressive especially for the cost.  And it scales nicely.  The Gringotts bank is actually a coin bank - super detailed and very nice.  It was only 20 bucks on amazon and it’s fits really well with the hallmark ornament buildings.  I was able to get my hands on other buildings but just wanted to show you guys here. 

Hello friends, wizards and muggles alike,

I have continued to follow this topic, although I haven't posted anything for quite some time.  I haven’t really accomplished anything layout-wise due to family health and family business issues in recent years.  In looking back over the posts, it’s amazing how much Potter stuff that might be usable in a toy train scene has come along since I posted finding some plastic potter figures intended to fit inside plastic bubbles in a “gumball machine on eBay from a guy in Italy.

Since I last posted, I have acquired most of the Nano Metalfigs except for the elusive Snape that came with the Griffidor House playset.  One of our sons and his wife gave me Wave 2 of the Metalfigs for Christmas couple of years ago and gave me the Gringott’s Bank for my birthday last year.  

Somewhere my wife found an Olivander’s Wand Shop play set which, while small looks pretty good with the Bank.  Like the other playsets, it opens, has a couple of figures and some movable parts, but looks more “real” than either the House or their Hogwarts Great Hall and Quiddich playsets.

Here are pix of these last two gifts.  Hope to integrate them into a layout scene eventually.

Cheers,

Alan

Alan.  Just saw that wand shop set on sale for 8 bucks on amazon and bought it. Thanks for pointing it out!  I never was able to find that gumball thing on sale but we did get pretty close in finding It. 

This topic has slowed down quite a bit.  But I just found this on clearance at target for 6 bucks.  Scales well with the train.  I think it might be hard to locate him as I couldn't find the product on targets website - but amazon has it for 9.50.   

Those are pretty slick looking!  I was just at Target, but haven't looked for Potter stuff for months.  

Corgi reissued the Anglia last year in its 1:43 line, as well. The Jada one appears to be 1:64. 

It's actually even smaller than that.  The Anglia is pretty close to HO scale.  Would scale well with the HO or OO Hogwarts Express.  Grabbed it a couple months ago for my HO layout.  

Looks like my post got deleted (mabye for having links in it) but suffice it to say I also picked up the wave 3 figure set recently.

Going to get Wave 4 set soon. Looks like there's some good figs in there.

Costco sells a simplified hogwarts castle!!  For 25 bucks!!

Also someone modified the Gringott’s coin bank, put a diffuser inside it!!!! The diffuser also changes light colors. 

oh this is a winner.  

More photos of the Costco castle. It looks more detailed then the more expensive wrebbit puzzles from a few years ago.  With the cliff on the bottom. 

That puzzle at Costco is very impressive looking!!  I bought the wrebbit castle back when we first started this discussion, but it is still in the box in the closet.  Too much too do, too little time! 

the other hogwarts puzzles we bought were 850 pieces each side for about 1700 pieces.  This one is 428 pieces altogether so this will be significantly easier.  I say get this one, give the others as gifts

;p

The Wrebbit Hogwarts 3D puzzle both kits; the Great Hall and Astronomy Tower together is 19" high 17" wide and 3 feet long.  I posted photos of the ones I built and glued to a display board on page 1 and 2 of this thread. It looks pretty good and with some other Howarts buildings and 3D puzzles that look good inside a loop of track running the Lionel Hogwarts Express train.

But the one shown above from Costco by 4D Cityscape is;  size: 24" (L) x 15.6" (W) x 30.5" (H) a little smaller in width and length. It looks fairly well detailed. I have the Frozen II Arendelle Castle from the same company shown in bottom left of the photo from Costco. It was very well designed went together better and more secure then the Wrebbit puzzles. It is pretty well detailed though you do see the tabs that stick up through the roof as in the photos. I think it and other buildings shown would be interesting to get and build to see which Hogwarts I like the best! There is a good video close up of the built puzzles on the company's website just down the page; https://www.4dcityscape.com/collections/3d-puzzles-1

I built this model of the Holyoke MA City Hall for a HO layout at the Holyoke Senior Center. Just the front of the building was constructed but it gives the impression of an entire structure. You could place the partial building near a rear wall and construct smaller buildings around it. The model is made with Precision Board and is 36" tall in 1/100 scale.

I saw the Harry Potter studio exhibition and was amazed at the sheer size and detail of the model! Good luck trying to convey the sense of something like that in O Scale...

The costco around me did not have the model but looke like they do sell it online.

https://www.costco.com/harry-p...oduct.100685564.html

Bringing this thread back after a couple of years of silence on the subject.  I posted a video a couple pages/years back that showed the initial offerings of the Department 56 Harry Potter village.  Since then I've been slowly adding pieces as they're introduced into the line each year.  As of now I have everything they've offered except for the Hogwarts Express locomotive (figured I don't need it AND the Lionel set) as well as the Hogwarts Gate that I put in an order for today.  Here's an update video.  Things are a bit crammed in under my Christmas tree, but it's been a fun village to have out for the season as something different.

  Those buildings look amazing.  I went the much cheaper route with hallmark's buildings (post christmas sale too). Hope to display it this year. (Last year was the wife's snoopy town) 

The buildings look great. Looks like they would scale pretty well with the Nano Metalfigs HP figures.

@Eilif posted:

The buildings look great. Looks like they would scale pretty well with the Nano Metalfigs HP figures.

They very likely would scale better with the figures you mentioned.  The Department 56 figures are the typical oversize Christmas village type.  Nicely detailed but obviously oversized for the buildings.

Figured I'd finally post this. Several years ago l made a Harry Potter themed Christmas tree and picked up the Hogwarts Express to run under it. Well do to the sets size l can't run her on my main layout so she has become a shelf queen for now. Picked up a free shelf found on the side of the road cut down sanded and stained the plywood. Finally got time from work to put it up. Since l can't fit all the passenger cars only have the Dementor passenger car and the Ravenclaw boxcar my Mom won on a contest on the official Lionel Facebook page a few years ago. She was asked which of the Hogwarts Houses boxcars she wanted she get me the Ravenclaw car since that's my Hogwarts House. The buildings are 3d puzzles my sister and l got on clearance and put together. The figures are Harry Potter Nano Metalfigs that l might repaint at some point.