Harry Potter

Hogwarts Clock Tower

Eight Yule Ball figures in one box, and the whole reason to buy it.

Brick Rated Score

4.1/5

Set 75948 · 2019

Pieces926

Minifigs8

Year2019

Set number75948

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The verdict

This is the Goblet of Fire set, all icy blue trim and dress robes, and the minifigure lineup is what makes it sing.

You get Harry, Ron, Hermione, Cedric, Fleur, Krum, Dumbledore, and the wonderfully oversized Madame Maxime, every one of them in Yule Ball attire. The tower itself is handsome but a little awkward standing alone, so it lands best if you are collecting the modular Hogwarts range. Buy it for the figures and the shelf presence, not for clever mechanics.

Best for: Harry Potter minifigure collectors building the modular Hogwarts range

The full review

What it is

This one is pure Goblet of Fire, the fourth story, dressed up for the Yule Ball. The palette got me first, all that pale icy blue running across the trim and the little frozen decorations, because it instantly reads as the winter ball scene rather than generic castle. The tower stacks up in three levels and hides a surprising amount inside: the entrance hall, a Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, the hospital wing, a Prefects' bathroom, and Dumbledore's office tucked up top. For a set built around a clock, the real gift is how much room LEGO crammed into a fairly slim footprint, and the roughly three-hour build stays pleasant the whole way, no fiddly nightmare sections.

The catch

I will be honest about where it wobbles. The clock mechanism is the thing the box is named for, and it is just a handle you turn to spin the face, which feels thin when you were half hoping for gears you could actually watch move. The Yule Ball dance floor is a lovely idea, but the rig is fragile and you spin it by shoving the edges, so it feels like it might pop apart. At its original 89.99 dollars for 922 pieces the value was fine rather than generous, and since it retired in December 2022 the aftermarket price has crept up, so patience at resale matters. A couple of the printed dress pieces, Hermione's and Madame Maxime's, do not clip in as firmly as you would like.

Who it's for

Get this if you love the Harry Potter minifigures or you are building the modular Hogwarts collection piece by piece, because in that context it is genuinely lovely and only gets better sitting next to the Great Hall. The figure lineup alone justifies it for a lot of people, since these Yule Ball versions live almost nowhere else. Skip it if you want a standalone castle centrepiece, because on its own the tower looks a touch odd and unfinished, and skip it if working mechanisms are your thing, because the clock and dance functions are more toy than engineering. Know which camp you are in and the decision makes itself.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building it feels relaxed and rewarding rather than technical. You work upward through three floors, and because each level is its own little room you keep getting small payoffs: a fireplace here, a stained sort of arched window there, a hospital bed, a bathtub. There is nothing here to trip up a confident builder, which is part of why it is such a nice evening or weekend project, and the icy blue accent pieces keep the winter-ball mood going as you stack the sections.

The headline part is Madame Maxime, who uses the tall figure build so she genuinely towers over everyone else, exactly as she should. The eight figures carry a lot of printed detail in their Yule Ball outfits, with Hermione's periwinkle dress and Krum's Durmstrang look standing out, and Madame Maxime's gown is a printed sloped brick. Five of the eight figures are exclusive to this box, which is the strongest reason to grab it. The trade-off is that a few of those dress elements are separate printed pieces rather than fully moulded, so they sit a little loose.

Fun facts

01The set recreates the Yule Ball from Goblet of Fire, so all eight minifigures come dressed in their ball attire rather than school robes.
02Madame Maxime is built as an oversized tall figure so she stands head and shoulders above the other minifigures, matching the half-giant character.
03It is part of LEGO's modular Hogwarts range, designed to connect with sets like the Great Hall and the Whomping Willow to form a larger castle.
04Released in July 2019 at 89.99 dollars, the Clock Tower retired at the end of 2022.