Are you ready for Halloween in Summer? For us fans of the spooky season, it is better than Christmas in July! And coming this July, you will be able to pick up the spooktacular 21341 Disney Hocus Pocus: The Sanderson Sisters’ Cottage. I was humbled to have been chosen by the BrickNerd family to receive this set early!

The Sanderson’s cottage shown next to my haunted mansion from last year

Every year for the past three Halloweens, I have made a custom haunted house MOC, and thankfully the BrickNerd crew were acutely aware of this. Frankly, it has become my favorite build I look forward to every year, not only because I enjoy getting into the Halloween spirit but because my children also share in my passion and excitement which makes it that much more worth it.

Ghostly Presence

Let’s be honest: for any Halloween season enthusiast, the LEGO sets within that theme seem far too few between for us. Luckily we do have some great standout sets that are high on the list of favorites, most notably Scooby Doo, the Monster Fighters theme, and the recent Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately, none of which I own (yet)!

Luckily the Hocus Pocus Ideas set comes at a great time when we need another large set within that theme. Not to mention a set for a cult favorite movie that has had a recent boost in popularity.

Thoughts While Building

Construction of the set starts with the side build, or I guess the front build, depicting the gate to the property along with some gravestones and a nice little tree. With obvious jumper plates which will give us a nice little display for all of the wonderful minifigs including Binx in black cat form. The gravestones include a nod to the designer Amber Veyt and a hint at her birthday. This is unusual, by the way, to get the full name of the designer!

As an avid part nerd I am always interested of course in the new parts or recolors of existing parts, to see what I can use for a future MOC. The highlight here for me is the minifig skull in medium stone gray, which means we can now make a full gray skeleton!

The set is packed with details and tons of references to the film which you would expect

Moving on to more construction, I won’t go into full details as to not double, double spoil and trouble your future experience. Just know this set is packed with all of the details you would expect as reference to the film.

The minifigure selection includes the main characters of the film you would of course expect. Disappointingly, Billy Butcherson is not included like in the original Ideas submission. But, all of the minifigures here have excellent printing, I have to say.

The set includes a lot of dark brown which is one of my favorite colors that we don’t get all that often. If you are looking for a supply of dark brown plates this set has you covered. You will get eight 8x16 plates (rare in that color), fourteen new 4x8 plates, and lots more. Because of all that dark brown I am glad they added some notable pops of Autumn color to help balance all that out.

Segments and Sections

An interesting experience unfolded as I built this set, and I thought it was worth mentioning. I cannot ever remember building another set like it, the more I think about it. Where you would traditionally expect a LEGO set to be built in layers for each instruction step, and those layers overlapping and interlocking, this set is quite different. The walls are constructed in “modules” or sections, in varying widths and then added to the build as completed walls. This is not necessarily a positive or negative, just intriguing. Although I did notice this method of construction made the build progress much quicker, or at least it felt that way.

Regardless, this set appears very movie accurate, and any fan of the film will absolutely enjoy it!

Community Spirit

MOC building really does come alive for the Halloween season, and I always enjoy seeing the amazing builds pour in from around the community. I have a feeling the release of this set may spur some earlier activity and excitement at getting into the spirit (I’m ready to start now!). So make sure to join in on the fun, whether you participate in community builds or your own MOC just for fun.

I can’t NOT mention Jen @brickfambuilds and the amazing community of builders she helped inspire to get active in creating Halloween Habitats. Last year's results show you how much that has grown.

My favorite builds are the spooky houses with all the details, like this Haunted House from Tyler.

Tyler has also done a series of very cleverly constructed Halloween characters, so make sure to check them all out!

I have to mention the spectacular Victorian on Mud Heap created by Mike Doyle. Even though it doesn’t scream Halloween, the amazing dilapidated details give it all the spooky vibes. (Make sure to find out the secret of that fridge in the roof, too!)

One of my favorite builders that I only recently discovered, yet inspires me to want to build even more haunted things is Jeff Chapman.

Here are some of my own creations from the past several years. Making this an annual tradition has really helped progress my building skills, with each year’s haunted house getting better and better.

I hope these wonderfully spooky MOCs will inspire you to build something haunted this coming season, and join in the community fun! And look for the Hocus Pocus set from LEGO in July.

Are you into Halloween as much as Brian is? Do you have Halloween where you live? Let us know in the comments below!

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