Yes Hermione, I think this is going to be exactly like wizard’s chess. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Conclusion The king is probably my favourite piece, looking strong and majestic. The helmet, the pointy shoulder armour and the large sword really make it stand out. Next up is my review of the Harry Potter and Hermione Granger maxi-figures. Look out for this in the coming weeks. Looking at it from beneath, you see how it has been build to keep it light, yet sturdy enough for play. The two rubber tyres have been added to prevent the board from sliding on the table during play. It works really well. While chess isn’t mentioned directly in Tolkien’s magnum opus, it’s clearly known since it’s referenced by several characters, and it fits with the aesthetic. Perhaps it’s because chess is an ancient game, played by the Anglo-Saxon people whose culture Tolkien was riffing on when he created the horse-lords of the Rohirrim. So, while there are plenty of character chess sets for Lord of the Rings around, there’s a certain allure to choosing one that echoes sets like the medieval Lewis chessmen.

The set also includes an exclusive golden anniversary minifigure, as most of the other mid-2021 sets. In this set, the included figure is Severus Snape. Being an anniversary set, it also includes three random collectable wizard card tiles (there are 16 to collect). In the lower left corner we see the three minifigure listed – but also that the includes a golden anniversary version of Professor Snape. At end of year feast,Professor Dumbledoreawarded some last minute points to Gryffindor, including fiftyhouse point to Ron for “the best played game of chess thatHogwartshas seen these many years”. Curious to see if it would work well, I set out to build it one Saturday morning. Saturday morning fun Box and content

But there is no way around it if you are to build a chess game – and you do get a pretty neat and fully functional chess game with this set. The size is perfect for playing chess, and as noted the rubber tyres underneath work well in preventing the board sliding around on the table. Unfortunately, the figures easily slide on the board itself, so you need to be careful if playing. Recent options in this area tend to focus, for obvious reasons, on more recent Star Wars film and TV releases; mixing them up with classic characters from earlier in the series. But this Saga Edition makes no apologies for concentrating on the original, and perhaps the best, trilogy with its widely-beloved stars like Chewbacca and Darth Vader. The sculpts are great quality, full of life and detail, and they’re made of good quality hard plastic.

In 2021, we got kind of a hybrid; set 76392 – Hogwarts Wizard Chess. It can simply be displayed as a chess game (and be used as a chess came), but with the included minifigures, it can also be used as playset, recreating the scene from the first movie, where the trio had to overcome a number of challenges, each made by a different Hogwarts professor, to prevent Voldemort to get the Philosopher’s stone.Having built the board, the remaining four bags of parts are for building the chess pieces: two bags for each side. The set itself looks nice when complete, but as I noted, the build experience wasn’t fantastic. The board itself is pretty basic (and lots of tiles to add), and while the figures themselves are quite interesting, building four bishops or 16 pawns was something I just wanted to get over with in the end rather than enjoying it. As previously noted, the set comes with three minifigures: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. It also includes an exclusive golden anniversarySeverus Snapeminifigure Being less a play set, and more for display (or playing chess) is probably the reason the set is recommended for age 10 and up rather than the more usual 8+ years. I think that makes sense and should be considered if you consider this as gift for someone. For the wizard card tiles, the recent Hogwarts Gryffindor Dorms set included an 8×8 plate you can use to display all sixteen tiles (should you have them all). Alternatively, you can build a display stand as mine below (instructions are available here). The build