LEGO accidentally sends out 76405 Hogwarts Express set to customers in New Zealand. Woops!

August 10, 2022 | 17

So this isn’t technically a leak since LEGO themselves are at fault here but…. some lucky LEGO customers in New Zealand who had ordered 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle from the online store got a bit of a surprise when their boxes arrived containing the 76405 Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition set, a set that LEGO has not officially announced or revealed!

Update: Check out my review of 76405 Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition

A Redditor who was the first to receive the set shared them online and has been updating his progress unboxing the contents of the 2022 version of the Hogwarts Express.

76405 Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition is a massive 5,129-piece locomotive that looks absolutely brilliant, and is set to be one of the most detailed LEGO trains yet.

• 76405 Hogwarts Express Collectors’ Edition [US] – US$499.99
• 76405 Hogwarts Express Collectors’ Edition [AUS]  – AU$799.99
• 76405 Hogwarts Express Collectors’ Edition [UK] – £429.99
• 76405 Hogwarts Express Collectors’ Edition [EU] – €499.99
• 76405 Hogwarts Express Collectors’ Edition [CA] – CAD$619.99

76405 Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition has a release date of 31 August 2022, and will be available exclusively from LEGO.com or your local LEGO Store.

There isn’t a release date yet, or pricing, but as these are already in warehouses, I think it’d be safe to assume it will be available on 1 September 2022, or end of August. Expect this to be super pricey too, so prepare your wallets if this set calls out to you.

The Hogwarts Express departs Platform 9¾ on 1 September at 11 o’clock in the morning, so 1 September makes sense for the release date in my head.

If you’re thinking of purchasing the Hogwarts Express online, please consider using these affiliate links. This blog is completely reader-supported and I may receive a small commission with each purchase that goes a long way to keeping the blog running!

Here’s a look at the back of the box, with more details of the carriages, and dimensions of the train. It’s quite a sizable set, measuring 118cm (46.5 in.) long, 26cm (10.5 in.) high, so you need to make quite a bit of space for this behemoth of a train set.

The set is packed with minifigures, with 20 minifigures in total, spanning across 4 movies – the Philosopher’s Stone, Prisoner of Azkaban, Half-Blood Prince and the epilogue of Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Philosopher’s Stone: Train Conductor, The Trolley Witch, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Prisoner of Azkaban: Remus Lupin, Dementor, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger
Half Blood Prince: Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood, Draco Malfoy
Deathly Hallows Part 2: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Albus Severus Potter, Lily Luna Potter, James Sirius Potter, Ravenclaw Student, Hufflepuff Student

Here’s a look at the sides of the box.

And here is the manual and sticker sheet – great to see multiple booklets, which means that you can build this together with a partner or group of your Potterhead friends.

And here’s a closer look at the Sticker Sheet. I do like the quotes from the movie, as well as the plaque.

And here are the contents. So many bags!

We’ll just have to wait for LEGO’s official announcement and reveal to see more of the set, and find out more about release dates, pricing and availability.

So how did this happen? This seem to have occurred to a small number of customers located in New Zealand (so far), who ordered 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle. I have independently been able to verify that this happened to a handful of my readers, so if you ordered a Castle… it might be a good idea to open the box to check if you got the Castle, or if there’s a very expensive LEGO Harry Potter train inside.

I’m not sure if this has impacted anyone else, those in Australia have not received their Castles they ordered from LEGO.com yet, and some may be en route, so I recommen checking just in case.

It’s incredulous that such a mistake could happen, especially for such a big release like this, but mistakes do happen, and my guess is that these large sets are shipped directly with their outer boxes intact, so someone might’ve confused the 2 very large brown boxes.

What do you think of 76405 Hogwarts Express? Will this be something you’d be interested in come September?

Personally, I think the model looks great, and I’m bracing to discover the final RRP. Even if you aren’t a Harry Potter fan, this is such a gorgeous steam engine, and a huge win for long-suffering LEGO Trains fans who haven’t got a set this detailed since 2009’s Emerald Night, and at certain angles, this doesn’t even look like LEGO.

Kudos to the design team for pulling this off, and a shame that the official reveal got gazumped by operational and logistics mistakes.

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