Marking 20 Years Of LEGO Harry Potter

Posted By Adam White on Dec 10, 2021 | 0 comments

As time marches on, some of our favourite LEGO® themes are celebrating major milestones. Just this year LEGO NINJAGO reached the 10-year mark and LEGO Harry Potter doubled up with its 20th anniversary. The LEGO Group have really stepped things up in the celebration stakes. For the 40th Anniversary of Technic, we got a single printed element and to mark 20 years of Star Wars, five classic Minifigures were added to sets. Earlier this year the 10th anniversary of NINJAGO was marked by golden versions of the theme’s main characters.

To mark 20 years of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, celebrations have gone all-in with both a collection of special Chocolate Frog Wizard cards and a line-up of golden Minifigures. But getting them all isn’t an easy feat. The Wizard Cards are randomly placed in a selection of 20th Anniversary sets, a polybag, a promotional set and this year’s Advent Calendar. With the golden Minifigures found in six standard sets and the special D2C set, which also includes a stand to display the full collection.

Thankfully, I’ve now managed to track them all down and my collection of both the Wizard Cards and Minifigures is complete. So here’s a look at them all and here you can also find them. But before that here’s a brief history of the LEGO Harry Potter theme.

LEGO Harry Potter debuted in 2001 alongside the first Harry Potter film. Over the last 20 years, the theme has been rested a number of times before its current run began in 2018. LEGO Harry Potter rivals the likes of LEGO Star Wars and Marvel, when it comes to offering a diverse array of LEGO products, more so with the current line-up of sets. LEGO Harry Potter has inspired BrickHeadz, two Minifigures series, a LEGO ART set, LEGO Dimensions expansion packs and even Advent Calendars. The entire movie’s storylines were also the basis for two LEGO Harry Potter video games and a recent remastered collection of the same games. So it’s no surprise that the 20th Anniversary is being marked with such gusto.

The Wizard Card tiles not only tie into the fictional collectables featured in the films but also to the very first LEGO Harry Potter set, which included a holographic tile. The current collection includes 14 different tiles to collect, with each one featuring teachers from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Depending on the size of the set, you’ll find random tiles in the sets listed below. As I found out there is no guarantee you’ll get a full set by having the full collection of playsets.

The most recent LEGO Harry Potter GWP set also links to these Wizard Cards. Where it acts as an elaborate display stand for them. The back section of the Hogwarts Dorm features a slide-out 8×8 panel perfectly sized to accommodate all 16 tiles. Unfortunately, they do get a little lost one fitted into the set but I appreciate the ability to have them gathered in a single place.

Moving onto the Golden Minifigures, these were released in two waves. The initial six were split across the same sets found above. Unlike the golden NINJAGO Minifigures, the Harry Potter ones are completely golden, right down to their accessories and baseplates. Each one also features 20th branding on their back. Many assumed these six would be it but an additional 3 were added to the collection via the Hogwarts Icons Collection Edition set.

This large-scale build, not only celebrates 20 years of Harry Potter but also added three more Golden Minifigures and a fancy display plinth to show them off. As you can see the central figure is Albus Dumbledore, who is the only Minifigures to be housed within a brick-built replica of a Chocolate Frog box. The trio of characters found in the Hogwarts Collection set can be displayed as they are but the set also includes two extender platforms which offer room to add the other six characters. The result is an impressive visual memento of the themes’ enduring popularity.

Although the Wizarding World’s creator has some questionable opinions, the world she has crafted continues to inspire in very much the same way Star Wars has. Seeing its brick-built journey celebrated in this way has me excited to see how future anniversaries will be marked.