LEGO® Harry Potter has returned once more, along with Fantastic Beasts, within the overarching theme of Wizarding World. While we are busy exploring all the details of the new sets, in this initial post Elspeth De Montes introduces a very small item that is essential to any wizard: a wand. Editorial note: Although views expressed by Harry Potter's creator do not align with that of New Elementary, we continue to cover HP sets. Read about our stance here.
All previous wands in the Harry Potter theme have simply been a 4L bar otherwise known as Light Sword - Blade (Design ID 30374). The size of the wands in comparison to the size of a minifigure made them more like a fishing rod than a wand! I did always wonder why a 3L bar was not used but that question is now redundant as a new wand has been released. LEGO have definitely cast the Wandus Improvus spell.
The new wand element (Design ID 36752) has been released in six different colours thus far in the sets. See the end of this post for a list of which colours come in which sets.
Although the base of the wand appears spherical, it is actually a little squashed - officially known as an oblate spheroid. This means that you can angle the wand a little within the hand of a minifigure but any more than a slight angle will cause the clutch power to be lost. There are some examples shown later. At its widest, this roundish base is 3.18mm in diameter. There is a second raised portion only a few millimetres further along its length, also 3.18mm.
The rest of the wand tapers into a smaller diameter round bar that is slightly wider in width than the 1.5mm shaft to be found on the end of plant stems. I do not have callipers to measure but it appeared to be about 1.9mm - does this fit the System anywhere, or was this a deliberate choice to avoid unusual connections?
What can you build with the new LEGO Harry Potter wand?
Time to have a little play with the wands to see what other ways my minifigures and I could utilise this small new part.
Get your Auntie Sue to knit you a wanderous poncho with these knitting needles.
Burn a few extra calories when building your latest LEGO creation with this standing-height building table.
Rhythms become magical with these special drumsticks.
The wand could become a gramophone stylus but here, its oblate spheroid base made it tricky to get the angle right.
Finally, keep the campfire burning with your spare wands. The three that are more vertical are about as far as the wand will go before it pops out - as demonstrated by the one on the right of the fire.
Fantastic Wands and Where to Find Them
The new wand (Design ID 36752) is available in the following sets (excluding those to be supplied in LEGO Minifigures 71022 Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts). Links in this list all go to Amazon USA; if you're buying your LEGO Harry Potter sets from Amazon, please consider following our affiliate links to get there! It sends a few pennies our way and helps us carry on publishing.Black (Element ID 6232209)
- 75956 Quidditch Match
- 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall
- 75953 Hogwarts Whomping Willow
- 75952 Newt's Case of Magical Creatures
Dark Brown (Element ID 6235076)
Reddish Brown (Element ID 6232210)
Dark Orange (Element ID 6235072)
Sand Yellow [TLG] / Dark Tan [BL] (Element ID 6235074)
Medium Lilac [TLG] / Dark Purple [BL] (Element ID 6236260)
Here are our affiliate links to Amazon Canada: Amazon.ca | UK: Amazon.co.uk | Deutschland: Amazon.de
There are many more exciting new elements to show from the latest Harry Potter sets and we will be highlighting these in posts to come.
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The wand base is not an oblate spheroid! It's a Steinmetz solid, the intersection of three cylinders, allowing a standard clip or hand to snap to right angles or parallel with the wand.
ReplyDeleteProbably a deliberate choice, although still not great for any non-right angle.
When viewed from the cardinal points, the handle end of the wand looks perfectly spherical. If it hasn't been chewed up by the minifig hand, and you rotate it to one of those points, you can swivel the wand from up to down and all points in between (it helps if you make sure the nub left from breaking it free from the sprue is facing forwards or backwards, and not to either side). Granted, it does feel like it locks in place in the up/down/forward positions, but if you get the bulb centered in the hand it won't just pop loose. Well, that's not strictly true. If you rotate it through the positions too quickly, it can actually shift towards the top or bottom of the hand when it pops into one of those three positions, and that can cause the bulb to slip out of the hand. If you're rotating to the forward position when that happens, there's nothing left for the minifig to grip.
DeleteI think “The wand base is not an oblate spheroid! It's a Steinmetz solid“ may just be my favourite ever reader comment on New Elementary
DeleteI was definitely out-shaped by that reader! Haha.
Delete“The wand base is not an oblate spheroid! It's a Steinmetz solid“
Great article. I wonder:if you keep the wands attached to the sprue, do any of the known arch pieces fit over the curved part?
ReplyDeleteSure. Some of the really large ones fit over it with acres to spare. None of them really match the profile, though, and since the only currently known attachment points are the bulb and the cylinder right next to the bulb, the only one that I can see as really being viable for what you're thinking is the 1x4x1 arch. On a plus note, it appears the wands are spaced just right that 1x1 plates or bricks with clips turned inwards, with two studs gap between the plates/bricks, can grip both of the wands. However, combining your question with Håkan's, I just found that you can insert the bulb end of the sprue into one of the grooves on a grille tile and it's a gentle grip. Not tight enough to damage the sprue, but not so loose that it'll just fall out easily. The wands are slightly off center on the sprue when viewed from the side (the flat surface is centered between the two wands), so you can flip it to put the wands a bit more towards the center. Doing that, you could then insert the T end of the sprue and the wand tips into the cavity below a 1x4x1 or 1x4x2 arch brick as a decorative window element, and you wouldn't have any clips ruining the effect.
DeleteAaahh, Modulex bricks in the white crate!
ReplyDeleteBtw, would the sprue part contain any standard connections for inclusion in Mocs? (Although its shape is a bit cumbersome to integrate, anyway...)
The sprue is flat on one side, slightly rounded on the other (somewhat like the 28326 fender when viewed from the side), and too thin to be used with any official connection. That doesn't mean nobody will find a way to attach it to something (maybe a grille tile?), just that it's not compatible with bars, hat-pins, flowers, or anything of that sort. The end where the bulb attaches is too thick for hat-pins and flowers, and the nubs on the T end and in the center are too thin. Now, if you clip the T end off, the long part might be just the right size to work, but because it's sorta rounded on one side and not at all on the other, it could chew up whatever you insert it into.
Delete@Elspeth:
ReplyDeleteThese wands would also make great walking sticks for short minifigs, like Yoda. Unfortunately, they don't make great wands for Bellatrix LeStrange, and you can't attach any wand effects to the tapered tip.
But I also hated the bo-staff wands (and likewise the no-dachi lightsabers). 3L looks much better for both purposes. For Darth Maul, you can make a really great looking double-bladed lightsaber with two 3L trans-red blades, and a lightsaber hilt and telescope in light-bley. If you use 4L lightsaber blades it just becomes super ridiculously gigantic, kinda like the lightsabers Hasbro packed with their first runs of Star Wars action figures when they won the license to bring them back.
Haha, I remember those figures. They were the orange card Star Wars Powers of The Force. The figs suddenly looked like He-Man became everyone’s personal trainer.
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