Harry Potter

Hogwarts Whomping Willow

The first Whomping Willow LEGO ever made, and it spins.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 75953 · 2018

Pieces754

Minifigs6

Year2018

Set number75953

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The verdict

I have a soft spot for this one, and it's mostly the tree that did it.

After years of Harry Potter sets that skipped right past the Whomping Willow, LEGO finally built it, gave it a hand crank so the branches actually swing, and parked the Flying Ford Anglia right in its grip. Six minifigures and a little chunk of Hogwarts round it out. It's not perfect (the leaves love to jump ship), but it's charming and it plays beautifully.

Best for: Chamber of Secrets fans who want the iconic tree and the flying car in one box

The full review

What it is

This is the set that finally gave Harry Potter fans the Whomping Willow, and honestly it took long enough. For all the Hogwarts sets over the years, the tree that tries to flatten Harry and Ron never got its own model until 2018, and the version LEGO landed on is a real charmer. The tree is the centerpiece: a gnarled brown trunk with a hidden Technic crank in the base, so you can turn a knob and watch the branches swing around exactly the way they do in Chamber of Secrets. Cradled in those branches is the Flying Ford Anglia, that pale blue 1959 sedan, and the whole thing recreates the crash landing in one satisfying tableau. Around the back there's a slice of Hogwarts too, a dormitory, a potions bench, Snape's office and a little owlery, so the set does more than just the tree.

The catch

I'll be straight with you about the sore spots. The leaves are the big one. Those green plant and stem pieces perch on the branches by the thinnest little clips, and they fall off if you so much as breathe near them. LEGO's official line is that it's deliberate, like leaves scattering in the wind, but nearly everyone who built it just spent play sessions hunting for lost greenery under the couch. The trunk also leans hard on stickers rather than printed pieces, which always stings a bit at this price, and a couple more branches would have filled the tree out. At its 69.99 dollar launch RRP for 754 pieces, the value is fair rather than generous, and you're partly paying for the minifigure roster and the play function.

Who it's for

If you love Chamber of Secrets, or you just want that tree and the flying car on your shelf, this is an easy yes. The spinning function makes it genuinely fun to play with, and the figure lineup is strong. It was also designed to sit next to 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall, and the two really do look like one castle when you pair them. Since it retired in December 2021 you'll be shopping the secondhand market now, where sealed copies hover a touch above retail. I'd skip it only if fiddly, drop-prone leaves are the kind of thing that will drive you up the wall during the build.

The parts story

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

The build keeps shifting on you, which I really enjoyed. You start with a Technic-heavy base that hides the rotation mechanism, then move into the organic trunk work where you're stacking angled brown pieces to get that twisted, menacing shape. It's rated for ages 8 to 14, and I'd say the tree section leans toward the upper end of that: some of the branch angling and the mechanism can trip up younger builders without a hand nearby. The Ford Anglia and the little Hogwarts rooms are gentler, more traditional brick-stacking, so the box gives you a nice range of difficulty across the bags.

The standout part is the tree itself, since this was the first time LEGO tackled the Whomping Willow and the whole branch-and-crank assembly is unique to it. The dual-molded minifigure faces are a highlight of the era, and Seamus Finnigan and Argus Filch are exclusive here, so figure collectors care about this box specifically. The pale blue of the Ford Anglia is a lovely color moment, and the printed steering wheel and details make it feel like a proper model rather than an afterthought. The one part-quality gripe is real: the trunk relies on stickers where prints would have felt worth the money.

Fun facts

01This was the very first LEGO set to ever include the Whomping Willow, despite years of Harry Potter sets before it.
02The 1959 Ford Anglia in the set appears in four memorable Chamber of Secrets scenes: the Privet Drive rescue, the flight to Hogwarts, the crash into the tree, and the rescue from the spiders in the Forbidden Forest.
03The set was designed to combine with 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall, released the same year, so the two form a larger connected castle.
04It retired in December 2021, and two of its six minifigures (Seamus Finnigan and Argus Filch) appear in no other LEGO set.