Review: 76410 Slytherin House Banner
Posted by CapnRex101,
The dark, although elegant, interior of Slytherin common room differs drastically from the other houses' common rooms. 76410 Slytherin House Banner appears equally distinctive and features superb details, corresponding with this location onscreen.
Furthermore, the lenticular panel appears to be more prominent here than on other House Banners. Before building the sets, I expected the lenticular features to be simple gimmicks, but they are impressive when integrated properly!
Summary
76410 Slytherin House Banner, 349 pieces.
£29.99 / $34.99 / €34.99 | 8.6p/10.0c/10.0c per piece.
Buy at LEGO.com »
An accurate interior and great lenticular features elevate 76410 Slytherin House Banner
- Excellent lenticular features
- Generally accurate design
- Clever furniture storage
- Expensive
- Awkward doorway
The set was provided for review by LEGO. All opinions expressed are those of the author.
Minifigures
Three minifigures are included, wearing different uniforms, like the other Hogwarts Banners. The natural inclusion to represent Slytherin is Draco Malfoy, whose traditional robes have appeared three times before in Slytherin colours. However, this double-sided head is new and displays an unusual frightened expression, with the character's typical scowl on the other side.
Pansy Parkinson has never appeared in LEGO before and introduces another new head. Both unfriendly expressions are ideal for the character and her dark brown hairstyle corresponds with the climax of The Deathly Hallows. Pansy's jumper is also unique and includes Slytherin's green and silver colours, so looks splendid.
The third Slytherin student is also available in 76413 Hogwarts: Room of Requirement, although this version of Blaise Zabini wears exclusive Quidditch attire. The striped design matches other House Banner minifigures, but its colours are accurate to Slytherin. I am pleased to see this hair component again and each character comes equipped with their wand, as normal.
The Completed Model
Dark green dominates the Slytherin House Banner, so this model introduces 8x8 plates and 8x8 triangular plates in this colour for the first time. Unfortunately, the contrasting tiles are light bluish grey rather than drum-lacquered silver, which seems like a missed opportunity because many of these tiles have appeared in metallic silver before.
However, the banner does incorporate a new 2x2 curved tile with cutouts, which forms part of an attractive pattern on the front. The printed serpent in the middle also looks marvellous and does display a silver finish, as this 6x8 rounded tile is pearl silver. Even so, the primary colour scheme of dark green and light bluish grey appears frustratingly bland, in my opinion.
The banner opens in the same way between all four sets, with the triangular panels folding up to become sections of the floor. However, many more small accessories are included here, nestled in spaces in the wall or attached to those 8x8 triangular plates, so this transformation feels more like the previous Hogwarts Moments sets.
Furnishings and accessories include a simple table with a round base, which slots into a circular window, alongside a pair of trans-green lamps, a side table and an armchair. Ideally, there would be a larger settee because they are memorable from The Chamber of Secrets, but space inside is inevitably limited. In addition, Slytherin's printed locket returns, after two prior appearances.
Brick-built details are paramount, but I am delighted that 76410 Slytherin House Banner actually takes advantage of its lenticular panel by leaving various gaps in the wall. This common room is located in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle, so several windows show an underwater scene on the other side. The three-dimensional effect of these images is quite effective.
Another fun detail is hidden inside an opening cupboard, as a young Voldemort's graffiti appears and vanishes, depending on your perspective! The lenticular panel is also integrated to splendid effect above, as books and an oil lamp are visible through a pair of arched frames, each forming wooden shelves.
The neighbouring fireplace looks nice too, featuring a sinister skull and the Slytherin crest on the chimney breast. Moreover, accurate steps to enter the common room are neatly designed in two sections, only assembled after opening the model. I like the combination of light bluish grey and dark tan to represent aged stone, but the doorway itself looks inevitably odd, being filled in.
Salazar Slytherin's portrait gazes upon hs eponymous house. The ancient wizard appears rather sinister from one angle, but becomes friendlier as a snake nestles against his beard. The room also displays a static image of Severus Snape, a creepy minifigure hand and the purple spine of 76396 Hogwarts Moment: Divination Class, each represented by stickers.
The lenticular panel slides between four black taps on the back of the banner, holding it securely in position. The decoration on the panel therefore lines up correctly with the windows across the wall, when viewed from the front. Moreover, a hanger is attached on top, so you can display the House Banner on a wall, if you choose.
Flipping the lenticular panel around reveals that very little detail is actually hidden, unlike on the two House Banners I have reviewed already. While finding a surprise is always nice, this serves to show how successfully the designer has used the lenticular gimmick, which works remarkably well.
Overall
Despite lacking the vibrant colour of the other sets in this series, 76410 Slytherin House Banner could be my favourite. The common room's dark atmosphere is captured well, while the supplied furnishings match the onscreen location. The lenticular panel looks fantastic too, as the wall has been constructed to maximise use of its printed details.
The minifigure selection is also appealing, introducing some new Slytherin uniforms and unique double-sided heads. The price of £29.99, $34.99 or €34.99 remains a concern though, like other House Banner sets. While very detailed, the model feels unsubstantial because the walls are so thin.
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25 comments on this article
Ah yes, the Magical Racists Battlepack.
Don't forget the basilisk is visible in the top portion of the lenticular card! (just don't look at him directly in the eye!)
@Murdoch17 said:
"Don't forget the basilisk is visible in the top portion of the lenticular card! (just don't look at him directly in the eye!)"
Huh? I don't see- .......................................
I think the hand is supposed to be the one from brogin and burkes from the 2nd book, I like this one the most as it doesn't hide much and to me doesn't feel that flat, also I come from Slytherin and is a great way to express my house pride!
not all Slytherins are racists, ever read the Cursed Child?
@DoctorDumbledore said:
"also I come from Slytherin and is a great way to express my house pride!"
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I’m very excited to get these! Just waiting for a little discount.
@Ephseb said:
" @DoctorDumbledore said:
"also I come from Slytherin and is a great way to express my house pride!"
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Dumbledore is still the greatest even if he didn't come from Slytherin
I'm really disappointed in these sets. They are extremely fragile.
@WemWem said:
"Ah yes, the Magical Racists Battlepack."
I’ve been making a Brickfilm remake of Philosopher’s Stone for a while, there’s a background Slytherin whose made to seem likable and thus not hateful (might even be a Muggleborn/half-blood). Despite the unanimous evil of Slytherin students referred to by name in canon, I’ve had an unfairly soft spot for the house for most of my life since green is my favorite color.
An overpriced wall that relies heavily on stickers and a magic eye 3D panel prize from a cereal box for detail. Wow!
The way those lenticular plates are held in on all these books gives me so much anxiety, it looks so flimsy and fragile.
Great review. I will probably buy one of these and use the parts plus ones from my collection to build a more substantial room. Since I'm a Ravenclaw it should probably be that one, but I think it's the least interesting of the four. Or perhaps it could be my challenge to improve it and make better use of the lenticular plate. Either way, I'll wait for a discount...
This seems an... ambitious model. Ravenclaw may be my favorite house, but if I were collecting all of these, this might be the last one I built, unless maybe Hufflepuff uses its lenticular panel to equal effect.
@gatorbug6: Magic Eye is a different thing from lenticular images.
Not Slytherin eh? Better be... Gryffindor!
Now seems as appropriate a time as any to mention that WB has announced plans to reboot the film series as a 7-year TV series. I’ve never read the books, but I understand a _lot_ of material had to be trimmed to fit feature-length runtimes. No word yet on how many episodes to expect each year, but even short seasons would allow considerable expansion of the story. It’ll be interesting to see if, and how, this impacts the LEGO theme, since there’s no guarantee the existing license would cover this reboot without being renegotiated.
As for the design, light-bley seems a bit too bright for the source material.
Mine came with a missing part and a part that wasn't even in the parts list. I'm still waiting on LEGO to send the replacement because it said that my particular part was backlogged.
Wasted potential.
I think the only thing that really bothers me about these backdrops, is that they acutely show us some really cool relics and elements in Lego-fied form - but which are still not available in Lego-form.
It's nice, but it's mainly a -picture- of 'nice'.
Slightly curious, are those designs on the front of the book supposed to represent the animal mascot of the house? There’s something vaguely badgery and eagle-like about the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw ones, the Gryffindor one kinda forms a mane and muzzle, just not sure how snakey this one is. Not sure if this is just pareidolia kicking in or if that kind of abstract representation was the aim
Nice and reusable stickers/prints but those understuds seriously bother me!
@WemWem said:
"Ah yes, the Magical Racists Battlepack."
They haven’t even noticed that they are different skin colours. They must be the worst racists at being racist in history?
@Ridgeheart:
Gryffindor, of course, gets special treatment with not only the sole House “artifact”* to survive the film series, but the only one to get molded. Slytherin got an exclusive print, but the locket can’t be worn. Hufflepuff got a generic trophy for the cup. And Ravenclaw gets a physical diadem for the first time, but again not something that most minifigs can wear.
Gryffindor didn’t have anything else that I recognized, that also isn’t something that can be represented by a physical element, except Sirius in the fire. Slytherin has the hand, but there are ways to fake that (and no chance they’d ever build this with a real minifig hand). Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had nothing else that I recognize. So, what else is shown that got mentioned in the books?
* An IP I once followed had several clans, all the major ones of which had ancestral armor and ancestral swords, all of which had great importance to their respective clans. Are the House items just a way to tie the story back to the four Founders, or was there some significance to these items where the modern members of their respective Houses were concerned?
@Martin_S:
I think what’s being referenced is the whole Pureblood vs Mudblood thing, same as Marvel focused more on Homo sapiens (humans) vs Homo Superior (Mutants) as a way to address racism without directly referencing racism.
@PurpleDave said:
" @Ridgeheart:
Gryffindor, of course, gets special treatment with not only the sole House “artifact”* to survive the film series, but the only one to get molded. Slytherin got an exclusive print, but the locket can’t be worn. Hufflepuff got a generic trophy for the cup. And Ravenclaw gets a physical diadem for the first time, but again not something that most minifigs can wear.
Gryffindor didn’t have anything else that I recognized, that also isn’t something that can be represented by a physical element, except Sirius in the fire. Slytherin has the hand, but there are ways to fake that (and no chance they’d ever build this with a real minifig hand). Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had nothing else that I recognize. So, what else is shown that got mentioned in the books?
* An IP I once followed had several clans, all the major ones of which had ancestral armor and ancestral swords, all of which had great importance to their respective clans. Are the House items just a way to tie the story back to the four Founders, or was there some significance to these items where the modern members of their respective Houses were concerned?
@Martin_S:
I think what’s being referenced is the whole Pureblood vs Mudblood thing, same as Marvel focused more on Homo sapiens (humans) vs Homo Superior (Mutants) as a way to address racism without directly referencing racism."
It's more "pureblood vs. everybody else" kinda thing for Slytherin, from what I can recall.
@Murdoch17:
The impression I got from the films, at least, is that Purebloods vs Mudbloods is like skin color, and basic humans might as well not even be the same species. But Draco never spat the word "human" at anyone the way he did to Hermione with "Mudblood".