Since The LEGO Group announced its first commercial partnership in 1999, fans have loved seeing their favorite scenes from books and movies come to life in the world of LEGO. The acquisition of certain partnerships has increased the fanbase of LEGO by widening their audience to not just LEGO fans but the fans of the novels and movies that they base the sets on. Following the success of their early partnerships, in 2001 LEGO announced a new line of sets, a line that would later become one of the Top 5 best-selling themes.
Harry Potter is widely regarded as a household name after the worldwide popularity of the 7-part book and 8-part film series. Like LEGO, there are fans of all ages, so it was only natural that we saw LEGO Harry Potter to be one of the most popular LEGO themes released. There was so much demand for the LEGO Harry Potter sets that The LEGO Group released a revival of the Harry Potter theme in 2010 following a three-year hiatus from the release of new sets.
In the rich history of LEGO Harry Potter, one icon which has frequently been featured in sets is the Hogwarts Express. The iconic Hogwarts Express, gleaming red with its magnificent engine, has been portrayed in a variety of ways over the years. Here we will take a deep dive into the list of every LEGO Hogwarts Express set that has ever been released. Let’s jump in!
4708: Hogwarts Express
RRP: $50.00 | £39.99
Year Released: 2001
Pieces: 410
Minifigures: 3
The LEGO Hogwarts Express in this set was the first ever rendition of the now famous train, which transports the wizards and witches to and from Hogwarts at the start and end of each school year.
Built from only 410 pieces the set features the iconic ‘Hogwarts Express’ locomotive along with one carriage which can fit in the 3 Minifigures of this set (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger – who is found exclusively in this set).
Aside from the train itself, we see a small section of the Kings Cross’ Platform nine and three quarters where the students would board the train from. From its launch in September 2001, the set was on shelves for just over 2 years before retiring on the 31st December 2003.
4758: Hogwarts Express
RRP: $40.00 | £34.99
Year Released: 2004
Pieces: 389
Minifigures: 4
The second rendition of the Hogwarts Express was based on the journey to Hogwarts from the 3rd installment in the Harry Potter Series, ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’. Anyone who read or watched this scene would be familiar with the eerie atmosphere, which is certainly depicted on the box.
Similar to its predecessor, we see the locomotive with one carriage, but that is where the similarities in this set stop. The set contains 389 pieces with 4 Minifigures. Interestingly, we don’t see the classic trio of magical students – Hermione is absent. In her place, we have Professor Remus Lupin and a dementor, rather spooky, to match the atmosphere.
We also get a small section of the Hogsmeade platform (where the young witches and wizards would disembark the Hogwarts Express upon their arrival at school). The set had a shelf life of 1 year and 8 months, on sale from 5th April 2004 until it retired on the 31st December 2005.
10132: Motorised Hogwarts Express
RRP: $120.00 | £89.99
Year Released: 2004
Pieces: 708
Minifigures: 4
The 10132: Motorised Hogwarts Express appears to be a ‘deluxe’ version of the 4758 model. It launched only one day later but has almost double the number of pieces (708). It includes a larger train than seen before, as it has a fuel carriage in tow of the locomotive in addition to the carriage.
Furthermore, the set includes the same four Minifigures; Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Professor Remus Lupin and a Dementor. We see a larger build of the actual platform in Hogsmeade: there is a house-like structure that makes up the platform which the train pulls into. Now, as the title suggests, the USP of this set has to be the motorization function which saw power functions used to allow the train to move around the track itself. This was the first Hogwarts Express set to include tracks with it for the train to move on.
The shelf life of this set was 1 year and 8 months, launching on the 6th of April 2004 and retiring with other LEGO Harry Potter sets on the 31st of December 2005. The new resale value of the set is absolutely huge, with valuations from brickset.com suggesting values over £900!
65524: Motorised Hogwarts Express Super Pack
RRP: –
Year Released: 2004
Pieces: 724
Minifigures: 4
Launching in 2004, the Motorised Hogwarts Express Super Pack contained the Motorised Hogwarts Express as well as two additional packs of rails for the train (4515 and 4520). This set is regarded as extremely rare and data on the set is limited.
4841: Hogwarts Express
RRP: $79.99 | £81.99
Year Released: 2010
Pieces: 646
Minifigures: 5
After 5 years without a Hogwarts Express set, fans were delighted to see it again when it was launched in the 2010 revival of the LEGO Harry Potter theme. This set appears to be inspired by the journey to Hogwarts that we see in, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ but includes other details from later in the series. Like the previous set (Motorised Hogwarts Express), the train has 3 segments: the locomotive as well as a fuel and passenger carriage.
The set features 5 Minifigures (the most in a LEGO Hogwarts Express set seen so far) with 3 of them being unique to this set! The Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood and Ron Weasely that are found in this set are never released again, undoubtedly this increases the set’s value for collectors and Harry Potter superfans! We also see Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy who appear in one other set. It’s not just the train that appears in this set, a variety of extras are included: Harry’s trunk, equipt with Hedwig; a printed tile of ‘The Quibler’; and the iconic, flying Ford Anglea that Harry and Ron use to get to school in the second installment of the series.
This set was on shelves for little over a year, launching on 1st October 2010 and retiring on the 31st December 2011.
40028: Mini Hogwarts Express
RRP: $4.99 | £3.99
Year Released: 2012
Pieces: 64
Minifigures: 0
A radically different portrayal of the Hogwarts Express was seen in 2012, fans were treated to seeing it built from 64 pieces in miniature! Although it was available as a free gift when you purchased the LEGO Diagon Alley from lego.com in August, the polybag set could be purchased for 8 months from lego.com from February to September. Interestingly, the set was also available from ’Shop at Home’ throughout 2012.
75955: Hogwarts Express
RRP: $79.99 | £79.99
Year Released: 2018
Pieces: 801
Minifigures: 6
In this set, we see the biggest section of Kings Cross’ Platform Nine and Three Quarters, with a stairway bridging over the platform. This set is still available to buy but is predicted to be retiring on the 31st of December 2022. To find out all of the retiring sets for 2022, sign up to our list of retiring sets here.
6 LEGO Minifigures are included in this set: Dementor, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, The Trolley Witch, Professor Remus Lupin and Hermione Granger; with the latter 3 being unique to this set. Although not supplied, the train can run on standard LEGO train tracks, available for purchase separately. This set has had a very long shelf life, which will reach 4 years and 4 months by the time it retires (Launched on 1st August 2018, with its projected retirement on 31st December 2022).
Hogwarts Express (Barnes & Noble Promotional)
RRP: –
Year Released: 2018
Pieces: 43
Minifigures: 0
Being the smallest set in this list of every LEGO Hogwarts Express set, this addition was available in the US store Barnes and Noble in April 2018 as a promotional item. Because of that, this tiny set was extremely exclusive and is hard to find. There is not much to it, but it is a fun depiction of the popular train.
The set was built from only 43 pieces in 16 steps, so it was certainly not a challenge for any LEGO builder.
76405: Hogwarts Express – Collectors’ Edition
RRP: $499.99 | £429.99
Year Released: 2022
Pieces: 5129
Minifigures: 20
The newest and biggest addition to the list of LEGO Hogwarts Express sets released so far is the Collectors’ Edition set. With a piece count of 5129, it absolutely eclipses the other sets in terms of size.
In the set we see 5 separate builds. The core focus is the Hogwarts Express train itself, equipped with a locomotive that has wheels which can spin (but not move the train); a tender carriage filled with coal, and a passenger carriage that comes packed with scenes bringing together key Hogwarts Express moments from across the series. This uses the included 20 Minifigures from the set to bring these moments to life.
Kings Cross Station is also depicted, with a small section of the platform (in comparison to the train); and there is a section of track just long enough to fit the large train on it.
Final Thoughts
LEGO Harry Potter is one of the longest-running and most popular commercial partnerships that The LEGO Group has, and the Hogwarts Express has been an icon that was continually recreated with the release of a new wave of Harry Potter sets, only improving each time.
Another popular sub-theme of LEGO Harry Potter is the ’Hogwarts Moments’ series, and you can check out a full list of all of these sets here.
