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Lego recently released a beautiful Hogwarts castle. enter image description here enter image description here

I would love to buy it, but before I do, I need to know: Is it consistent with canon? (Either book or movie). If not, where does it differ?

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    The key difference is that the actual castle is made of stone whereas the Lego one is made of small plastic blocks. Also it's much smaller. – Valorum Feb 27 '19 at 18:56
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    @Valorum I obviously meant major differences in the floor plan. Also, the lego one is populated by minifigs as opposed to humans. – TheAsh Feb 27 '19 at 19:04
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    Obligatory meme – Valorum Feb 27 '19 at 19:33
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    Obviously, the grounds are missing, which include the fields adjacent to the castle, as well as the Quidditch pitch. – Persnicketous Feb 27 '19 at 20:21
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    Which movie canon? See this link for the changes to Hogwarts throughout the movies... seams like it mostly matches the Prizoner of Ascaban set... – Torsten Link Feb 27 '19 at 22:46
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This is a picture (from the Daily Telegraph) of the model of Hogwarts on display at the Warner Brothers studio tour.

enter image description here

You can tell right away that the Lego model is incomplete, but a pretty good match from the outside.

So the leftmost building which I believe is the clock tower and behind that the Great Hall? is clearly present in both pictures, and then you've got the courtyard outside the clock tower and the path leading down to the boathouse is even correct. Then you can see the tall tower, which I suppose is the Astronomy tower, and the adjoining building is all correct. The bridge in the foreground is correct, and then that leads into your building which is the rightmost building in the Lego set, but there's a lot more in the real thing. I believe Potions is taught in the dungeons beneath that building.

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As far as the canonical source is concerned this Lego set is, like the other smaller minifig-scale Lego models, a movie tie-in (a good hint is the movie font being used on the box, together with the Wizarding World logo).

The (first out of four) instruction booklet contains interesting information about what the set was meant to be:

Begin a magical journey with this detailed replica of the iconic HogwartsTM Castle.
Explore the prestigious school of witchcraft and wizardry. Experience a microscale LEGO® model built from over 6,000 pieces and packed with authentic details for a rewarding building experience. Discover the intricately designed chambers, towers, classrooms and many other hidden features depicting scenes from the Harry PotterTM series and recreate the movies’ pivotal moments of magic and adventure.
(page 3, emphasis mine)

Translating the magical onscreen locations into a LEGO® model in microscale was an exciting design challenge. To represent the key architectural structures, iconic silhouettes and details in tiny bricks, whilst retaining the unforgettable look and feel of the movies, was not an easy task.
(page 4, idem)

A few pages in, Lego model designer Justin Ramsden states:

My design approach focused on capturing the essence of Hogwarts; its iconic silhouette, the exciting feeling of going back to school and starting a new adventure. I wanted to recreate all the iconic locations from the castle and moments from the movie series in ‘micro-detail’, including the moving staircases, the Whomping WillowTM, Professor Lupin’s Boggart lesson in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom and the Basilisk encounter in the Chamber of Secrets.
(page 6, idem)

So, concerning the consistency with the source:

  • the esterior face of the model in its entirety aims at recreating the general silhouette of movie-Hogwarts as seen from the lake on a small scale
  • the resulting interior space is used to house a collection of places and scenes coming from all the movies represented on a larger scale, which are therefore inherently incoherent and sometimes "out of place" and not matching the outside, for example
    • the Chamber of Secrets is directly under the Great Hall
    • the Room of Requirements is in the underground level, next to Snape's Potions Classroom (which is in the "right" place)
    • House Gryffindor's Common Room in on the ground floor of the large building on the right of the model, next to the library
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