Should you buy it? 75979 Hedwig

After my first taste of the world of Harry Potter with Diagon Alley I am back with my second Wizardy set review.  As part of my latest order from LEGO I decided to add in 75979 Hedwig simply because it seemed to be really popular. It’s also pretty cool looking.

In the opinion of somebody who doesn’t know his butterbeer from his Buckbeak, should you buy it?

Are you a Harry Potter fan and/or an ornithophile? Then you should definitely buy it. If you are not either of those things then I’d honestly still say consider it.

The majority of Harry Potter sets fall under the category of play sets, rather than beautifully designed display pieces. I’m not saying you can’t display the other sets just that they are designed for kids to interact with them. This feels like an acknowledgement from LEGO that there are Harry Potter fans looking for display pieces but not everybody can afford a Hogwarts Castle or Diagon Alley.

If you are an adult Harry Potter fan you could absolutely get away with having this model on display on a bookcase or even on your desk at a workplace.

The build is not particularly complicated, but being a model with a functional element you will have to deal with some Technic elements such as gears. At the end of the day this is still a set designed for kids to build rather than an 18+ set. You should be able to knock this one out in one session rather than having to split it up.

The finished build is just fantastic to look at. Even if it’s just sitting there it still looks great. Some functional models have a lot of exposed Technic that detracts from the overall aesthetics but that isn’t the case here.

The stand is really nicely designed with just a few touches of colour that really elevate the look.

Included in this set is a Harry Potter minifigure and a minifigure scale version of Hedwig. These are welcome additions for the Harry Potter fan and will help muggles know what this set is, rather than just being some random owl.

The magic happens with this set when you turn the handle at the base of the stand. The fact that the designers have been able to get such realistic motion in such a compact mechanism is just incredible. The wings don’t just go up and down, they rise and fall with a forceful and deliberate flapping action.

You can also turn Hedwig’s head to suit the pose that you want to create.

I really can’t fault this model at all. The designers have pulled off an affordable model at a decent size with a fantastic mechanism. The included minifigure and smaller Hedwig are just icing on the cake.

Where to buy?

The best price that I can currently find for this model is $59 from Kmart. This is less than 20% off so if you can find stock of this at Myer or David Jones during a 20% off sale then that would be the better option.