Wizard Bricks

The Wizard Bricks Blog

  • Part 1: The Boathouse

    The first part has been made! I really like how this MOC came together. my first time building anything from rebrickable and m very happy with it.

    The instructions were easy to follow, I did have to add two 2×3 bricks (orange as its my daughters favourite colour) in the base to keep it together while building which I believe would be held together once built but its the only mod I had to make so far. I also didn’t have enough 1×6 dark bluish grey plates but I improvised with that two, just my own wrong calculations.

    im very impressed with the overall look of the boathouse, its the design of the boathouse from the last film, I may modify this to be like the one on the model at the studios, but this was a tester to see if I enjoyed the build enough to build the rest and the verdict: yes I will build the rest.

    The whole closed off look Is brilliant and exactly what im looking for with my hogwarts build, im a big fan of something that is playable but can also be completely closed and displayed faithfully. it fits the standard row boat that lego make but there are instructions to build a custom one but I decided not to build it as I have these two already, I think I have a third one somewhere…

    The inside looks rather good, a bit rudimentary but it’s a mouldy wooden structure so I’ll give it a pass. it opens on one hinge and also has some steps up to the base. this is a really nice piece to be honest and I’m really looking forward to the next part.

    the next section I’ll build is the underground section of the great hall. the inside has details of the chamber of secrets and the Slytherin common room, in a fully enclosed rock base. I’m looking forward to this one so I need to get sorting as this one has a fair amount of parts compared to this one!

  • Hogwarts MOC, Getting Started

    I have decided to build the 2Bricks Hogwarts, I’ll be building this as quickly as I can to catch up with the build how it currently is on the Rebrickable website. But it may take a little bit of setting up before I get to actually building this mammoth castle.

    First I need to make a parts list for all the pieces needed to build this, which was done pretty easily as the parts list is free and you can upload directly to your brick link or brick owl account, I’m using brick link for this. I’ve set them up in parts or sets so I can pick the parts one section at a time.

    Then I had to make the decision on where I would get the parts. Buying the pieces would cost a small fortune and I didn’t want to have to fork out for what seemed like the 10th Hogwarts and the only one that would be displayed or permanently built with parts sitting unused for years in the loft. So I went against everything I have ever done and decided to use parts from sets I already have. I have always been quite strict on how I store lego, separated into numbered bags with the minifigures so it was like having a new set when it came to the rebuild, but now I have decided every copied set or Hogwarts set, excluding the original “yellow head” sets and the two micro scale Hogwarts. it will all be used for the greater good.

    So to do this properly I have printed the parts list for all the sets that I want to use, 65 in total, and putting these all together in boxes in the loft for easy access when parting out, and keeping the other sets I’m keeping built as that how they should be! I’ll also be using parts from my bricklink shop if needed and making the occasional bricklink order from time to time.

    I will also be purchasing all the instructions, as I want to build them first then modify to make my own, but I will always credit 2Bricks as it will be the main foundation for my Hogwarts, I have the boathouse, dungeons, kitchens and great hall instructions so far so a good starting point.

    so this is where I am now with it, not too far into it but im now at a point where I am ready to pick for the boathouse build, so hopefully I will be able to get this picked for this weekend or next and we can get started building!

    I will also be tracking this over on my instagram along side this blog so that will be the visual and this will be the discussion. really excited to build this MOC, I’m currently build a Star Wars MOC alongside this but that’s for another post, thanks again for reading!

  • My Next MOC…

    My next MOC I’ve decided on is…. Hogwarts!

    I know not much of a shock but I have recently found 2Bricks on YouTube and I have fallen for his Hogwarts design and its all on Rebrickable, and I’ve also been thinking recently the latest rendition of Hogwarts could be a bit more if you know what I mean. I’m probably going to keep that one as is for now but I will be using parts from my Harry Potter sets I’m no longer wanting, specifically the Hogwarts sets to try and make this behemoth!

    I’ll make it the way he has for now and then do some minor tweaks to make it my own. I needed to find a way to use pieces I have and make something impressive and I think this is the way to go.I have wanted to build a big playlet style Hogwarts for a while and this seems to be the perfect way to do it. I will always give him credit where I can but this will be a long running project, hopefully have most done before the end of the year. when it come to displaying at shows I may display it next to the official lego one, for a size comparison.

    So far there are already a fair few modules: the boathouse, the rocks base for the great hall, kitchens, great hall, base of tower, mid tower, office, roof, back quad, viaduct entrance and viaduct. I believe he is currently working on Ravenclaw tower section currently, so a fair few to build.

    I have currently made the boathouse in stud.io, and going to source the parts for this soon, hopefully before the end of the week. really looking forward to how this will go, lets get building this thing!

  • Bricktastic ’26

    I had so much fun doing the show in 2025 I really wanted to display again for this year so I signed up as soon as the google form went live. The show is run by Brickish/Fairy Bricks in Manchester raising money for charity and you have to be a member of brickish to apply, I’d recommend this highly if you live in the uk as it also advertises other shows to display at, also you can volunteer if that’s what you would prefer.

    You have to tell them what you’re going to display and with a year in advance it’s quite hard to decide. Last year I took my Harry Potter MOCs but I wanted to take something completely different this year so I went with a street display, and a construction MOC. I won’t say I started building it until 4 weeks before the show… (pictures on my Instagram)

    Hotel booked, Premier Inn overlooking the venue which was lovely (the price wasn’t) MOC built, bag packed and ready to go up on Friday late morning. I got stuck in pretty much every bit of traffic on the M4,M5 & M6 but got to the venue at 5pm and all set up by 6. Checked in and got some papa johns in the room with the switch.

    The first day proper was started with a buffet breakfast, only had one round as I wanted to get going, once I got into the main building I met some new and old faces, even old colleagues from when I worked at Bright Bricks. This year I decided to explore Manchester a bit more than last year, but before that I had to hit the legendary shop that has the discounted sets, I picked myself up a Gringotts, £50 off which I had to grab, they only had 5 in stock and I got the first one, also having the beauty of the hotel across the road I went straight there and put it safely in the room!

    Once it was in the room I thought I might as well explore so something else I collect is football pins, I only had Swindon Town so far (the club I support) so I went up to old Trafford to get a Manchester United pin and one from the Etihad stadium for Manchester City. By this time it was lunchtime and I headed back to the venue for lunch using my lunch brick to grab a hotdog.

    The rest of the day was wondering around looking at all the builds better than mine and wondering why I’m even allowed to display there, with a giant Minas Tirith, Middle earth map, Pokemon builds and a Hogwarts castle to name a few, a very good and overwhelming show to be apart of.

    The end of the day was capped off with a dinner and an auction, at least I assume it was like last year but my social battery was drained so made an exit to McDonalds and back to the room. Most shows put on a social on the Saturday evening but by this time I’m a bit peopled out aha, so went back to my room ate, rang my wife and played the switch, staring at the Gringotts set resisting the urge to build it.

    The second day started with a bit of a lay in (7am is a lay in when you have a toddler) with yet another buffet breakfast, and only one round again, had to get ready sharpish to get checked out, belongings to the car (which was a bit more difficult now due to the huge Gringotts box) but made it back in time for opening.

    I was wanting to get a toy (Stick Man plush to be exact) for my daughter and never got around to it on the Saturday. So I left to get one from Waterstones but I didn’t realise that nothing opens in Manchester until 11am so had to dive into a Cafe Nero’s to waste some time. Back at the venue it was a bit chaotic so I mostly stayed behind my table and spoke to the public. A lot of people took interest in the MOC which was nice, compared to all of the other builds which were far more impressive but as one person said “less is more”, I’ll take that!

    When the show had closed we had a quick group photo and pack up and went, think I was out of Manchester by 7pm which is great timing but I had to stop for some food. I got home around 22:30 so I am happy with that!

    So I love doing this show, I would do it every year but I think next year I may give it a miss with what situation I may be in, but we will see. I’m hoping to take something more along the lines of Harry Potter again but this is only an idea at the moment I’ll write a post about my idea in the near future.

    Thanks for reading!

  • I’m Posting again..

    Hello I’m back, yes, whether you wanted it or not!

    I did love posting blog posts before but its time between posting to now was just too long of a pause to carry on, so now we go again.

    So a bit about me I suppose as we are kicking off again. I’m Tom, 33, from the south west of England and I love me a bit of lego, hence the main topic on this blog. The main theme interest is Harry Potter, but I also build Star Wars, ideas, icons sets, I’ll just build anything that takes my fancy.

    I’m wanting to share a bit more in-depth about what I build and what I do in the lego community, hopefully you will like a good read too. what I would like to do on this blog is to document all the Harry Potter theme minifigures, do some set reviews, MOC showcases and show reviews, I recently did Bricktastic 26 in Manchester so hoping to write about this soon.

    this blog will hopefully run alongside my instagram, where I am most active and my YouTube channel, I really need to put more time into as its crept passed the 1,000 subs mark and I don’t really know what to do with he channel, any suggestions I’m open to.

    thanks for reading the short and sweet opener and I can’t wait to get started blogging again!