LEGO Harry Potter 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network GWP review

One of three free LEGO Harry Potter gifts-with-purchase available during this year's Back to Hogwarts event, 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network is a clever little set.

The LEGO Group’s new annual promotional period to celebrate all things LEGO Harry Potter includes three gifts-with-purchase available from September 1 to 10, or while stocks last.

Anyone spending £35 / $40 / €40 in LEGO Stores or at LEGO.com on LEGO Harry Potter products will receive a free copy of 30677 Draco in the Forbidden Forest, whilst anyone spending £120 / $130 / €130 on LEGO Harry Potter will also receive a copy of 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network.

Finally, anyone purchasing 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition will automatically qualify for both of those (as it is priced at £219.99 / $259.99 / €259.99) and also receive 5009008 Collectible Weasley Clock. More details on the promotions running during Back to Hogwarts can be found here.

As a trio of free gifts available at the start of the month it is the middle promotional item 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network that will likely end up in most people’s collections and not just because of how easy it is to find £120 of LEGO Harry Potter in stores.

Much like last year’s Potter-themed GWP 40598 Gringotts Vault that was available at almost the same threshold and was purposefully designed as a clever add-on to the showpiece release of 76417 Gringotts Wizarding Bank Collectors’ Edition, 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network very cleverly ties in with this year’s big release for September 1, 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition.

Whilst the two sets don’t directly attach and actually represent completely separate locations, they are connected in story in the books and films and cleverly so in LEGO form. Representing the moment at the start of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets where Harry uses the Floo Network for the first time under the supervision of the Weasleys at The Burrow, 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition includes a smartly-designed play feature built into the fireplace that at the turn of a knob can lift a minifigure upwards into the chimney, as if travelling through the magical transportation method.

And that same play feature is the central design point to 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network, offering up a snapshot of the dark and mysterious shop on Knockturn Alley based around the same structure of a fireplace with Floo Network spire. It works the same way, has the same effect and so simply and effectively continues to tell the story of Harry’s misadventure in LEGO.

Where he begins at The Burrow, misspeaking his intended destination Diagon Alley as ‘Diagonally’, he ends up popping out at Borgin and Burkes, where he eventually spies Lucius Malfoy seemingly up to no good in the shop.

What you read in the book and saw on film is continued for the first time in LEGO now between 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition and 40695 Borgin and Burkes Floo Network, wonderfully and quite simply pairing two sets in a unique and effective way. The LEGO Group’s gifts-with-purchase have generally been of a high quality over the last two years, and in particular those for the Harry Potter theme, and 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network very much continues the trend.

At an affordable spend threshold and standing alone as a solid LEGO set with potential to pair with an already brilliant larger model, 40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network is a flawless LEGO Harry Potter gift-with-purchase perfect for this Back to Hogwarts promotional period.

40695 Borgin and Burkes: Floo Network is available from September 1 to 10 (or while stocks last) with spends of £120 / $130 / €130 on LEGO Harry Potter products in LEGO Stores or at LEGO.com. More details on all the LEGO Harry Potter promotions going on during this period can be found here. You can also read our review on 76437 The Burrow Collectors’ Edition here.

This set was provided for review by LEGO UK.

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