Harry Potter

Triwizard Tournament: The Arrival

The Durmstrang Ship we waited nearly twenty years for, finally done right.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 76440 · 2024

Pieces1,229

Minifigs5

Year2024

Set number76440

Check price on Amazon

Affiliate link. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The verdict

The ship is the reason this set exists, and it's genuinely lovely, tall and dramatic with a hull that looks great from every angle.

The Beauxbatons carriage tacked on beside it feels like a lovely idea that got squeezed for room, and the price does ask a lot for the build time you get. If you loved the fourth film or you've wanted a proper Durmstrang Ship since 2005, this one's for you. If you're chasing pure value per brick, you'll notice the pinch.

Best for: Goblet of Fire fans who've wanted a grown-up Durmstrang Ship for years

The full review

What it is

Some LEGO® sets you build for the fiddly engineering, and some you build because you've quietly wanted the subject for half your life. This one's firmly the second kind. The Durmstrang Ship first showed up in plastic back in 2005 as set 4768, a small 550-piece thing, and fans have asked for a proper grown-up version ever since. Set 76440 finally answers that, and the ship is the clear star. It stands over 17 inches tall on its mast, the hull has that top-heavy, slightly menacing shape straight out of Goblet of Fire, and it genuinely looks good from any angle you turn it. That's harder to pull off than it sounds, and the designers nailed it.

The catch

Here's where I'll be straight with you. The box also includes the Beauxbatons carriage, and I'm not fully convinced it needed to. The far bigger 75958 carriage was on shelves not that long ago, so this smaller one arrives with visible compromises, less detail, less presence, and it slightly steals room and budget from the ship everyone actually came for. Both models feel a touch starved of detail in places because they're sharing one box. The price is the other sting. At around 130 dollars for a build that wraps up in roughly 90 minutes, the cost per minute of actual building is steep, steeper than most Ideas sets people rave about. And once the ship's done, a good chunk of the hull interior is sealed away, with the whole rear cabin being decorative rather than a play or display space.

Who it's for

So who ends up happy here. If the fourth film is your favourite, or you've been holding out for a Durmstrang Ship that finally does the source material justice, you'll adore this and the carriage becomes a nice bonus rather than a letdown. The minifigures alone carry real weight, with Krum, Fleur, Karkaroff, Barty Crouch Sr. and a semi-giant Madame Maxime who can actually sit inside the carriage. If you build mainly for value per brick or for a long, involved session at the table, this isn't the set that'll win you over, and that's okay. Buy it for the ship and the story, not for the hours, and you'll be glad it's on your shelf.

The parts story

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

The ship is where the building actually gets interesting. The hull comes together with quarter-circle plates and shell elements locked in with SNOT (studs not on top) techniques, the same family of tricks you'll know from the Creator 3-in-1 Viking Ship and the Ideas Sailboat Adventure. What's satisfying is that no giant single-mould cheat pieces are doing the heavy lifting, the shape is earned brick by brick, which is exactly what fans hoped for. The whole thing takes around 90 minutes, and the carriage is the quicker, breezier half, with opening doors, a lift-off roof and a little trunk of teacups at the back.

For pieces, the sails are soft fabric, though only the main central sail carries printing and the other three stay plain white on both sides, which is a small letdown up close. The winged Abraxan horse pulling the carriage is a lovely element, and the accessory pile is a real draw for Harry Potter fans, with the Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard Cup, wands and Karkaroff's scepter all in the box. Madame Maxime is the talking point, built on the elongated Avatar-theme arms and legs to get her half-giant height. Opinions split on those proportions, but the articulated legs let her sit in the carriage, which the old fixed-dress version never could. Five minifigures in a 1,229-piece set is on the lean side, so the figures you do get need to be good, and happily they are.

Fun facts

01The Durmstrang Ship first appeared in LEGO form back in 2005 as set 4768, a 550-piece model, making this 2024 version the long-awaited grown-up follow-up nearly two decades later.
02Madame Maxime's half-giant height is achieved using the elongated arms and legs originally created for the LEGO Avatar theme, and unlike her older long-dress version she can now actually sit inside the carriage.
03The buildable ship stands over 17.5 inches (44 cm) tall, taller than it is long, which faithfully copies the exaggerated top-heavy proportions of the ship in Goblet of Fire.
04Builders have combined two copies of this set's hull to create larger custom ships, including a Mary Rose MOC, thanks to the sturdy no-cheat-piece hull construction.