Wizarding World 2026 - Rumors & Discussion

[brickbride]

6 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

What bothers me about the system is the fixation on the pull-out-room-sizes... the chamber desperately needed a slightly langer face for slazar slytherin like in the last chamber. With the devils snare in the main tower and the slide next to the chamber it isn't like anyone would put the hufflepuff common room or something like that there, so they could make it a few studs wider, if needed.

This. As I've already said before we got pics, the Chamber needs to have a certain grandeur. I still think the 2002 set did the best job at conveying the sheer enormity of it. Here it's literally the size of Lupin's pull-out DADA class!

Edited May 7 by brickbride

[Gorilla94]

3 hours ago, brickbride said:

the Chamber needs to have a certain grandeur. I still think the 2002 set did the best job at conveying the sheer enormity of it. Here it's literally the size of Lupin's pull-out DADA class!

That's not even my issue. I am perfectly fine with things not perfectly matching scale-wise. It is in my opinion part of the cartoony charme, if everything looks a bit crouded together. Otherwise i would buy 3d printed scale models. To me the problem here is that the statue just looks terrible. With a few more studs on every side they could have done at least something comparable to the last iteration in terms of design - which I really like. I can't wrap my head around how the most detailed version can be so much inferior.

Edited May 7 by Gorilla94

[Tariq j]

10 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

What bothers me about the system is the fixation on the pull-out-room-sizes... the chamber desperately needed a slightly langer face for slazar slytherin like in the last chamber. With the devils snare in the main tower and the slide next to the chamber it isn't like anyone would put the hufflepuff common room or something like that there, so they could make it a few studs wider, if needed.

Yeah, there have been a number of rooms in the system like the DADA classroom and now the Chamber and the Slytherin common room too which would have benefited from being a “normal” room rather than a pull out set. I didn’t even realise until now but the door to the chamber that was included in the 2021 set seems to have been omitted here. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

7 hours ago, brickbride said:

The best basilisk will always be the 2002 version, no contest. It has glow in the dark fangs and can fit a minifig in its mouth!

And it looks like a bloody sock puppet without the dagger teeth

[Gorilla94]

52 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

And it looks like a bloody sock puppet without the dagger teeth

You say it as if it was a bad thing!

[RODDY]

2 hours ago, Tariq j said:

Yeah, there have been a number of rooms in the system like the DADA classroom and now the Chamber and the Slytherin common room too which would have benefited from being a “normal” room rather than a pull out set. I didn’t even realise until now but the door to the chamber that was included in the 2021 set seems to have been omitted here. 

While I can see that point with DADA because you lose some of the key features of the room like the balcony or the dragon skeleton, I think the Chamber actually benefits from being a pullout. My problem with the 2021 Chamber of Secrets was that it didn’t feel like a chamber or a cavern underneath the ground as it lacked any rock face that’s prominent in the Chamber. It just felt like it was the Statue of Salazar Slytherin jutting out from the bottom. However with the very nature of this system, this Chamber feels a lot more subterranean and underground thanks in part to it being a pullout with the rock work naturally surrounding it adding more to that feeling of depth and submersion. 
 

2 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

That's not even my issue. I am perfectly fine with things not perfectly matching scale-wise. It is in my opinion part of the cartoony charme, if everything looks a bit crouded together. Otherwise i would buy 3d printed scale models. To me the problem here is that the statue just looks terrible. With a few more studs on every side they could have done at least something comparable to the last iteration in terms of design - which I really like. I can't wrap my head around how the most detailed version can be so much inferior.

For me at least, I much prefer having a smaller Statue of Salazar Slytherin if it means having space to pose minifigures in front of it. And the 2021 statue was very cartoony looking with the sticker eyes, this feels a lot more natural and more Lego. Add that with the ability of having the Basilisk being able to pop out from its mouth, it’s honestly night and day in my mind and adds more display options. But then again, I just particularly don’t like the green roof Hogwarts and will take anyone of the new interiors over that system except the Girl’s Bathroom and the Hospital Wing. 

[Accio Lego]

11 hours ago, brickbride said:

The best basilisk will always be the 2002 version, no contest. It has glow in the dark fangs and can fit a minifig in its mouth!

Don’t forget that the fangs were removable knife pieces, and the eyes were also removable studs – allowing you to properly recreate the scenes where Fawkes gouges out its eyes and Harry takes the fang ripped from its mouth and stabs the diary with it. Kids today just don’t know what they’re missing. 

[Legofan04]

While I do wish we were able to remove the fangs from the basilisk (I can understand why LEGO might be against having the eyes being removable), this version is the most accurate to the film ( even color-wise, as in a lot of photos, it does look almost teal). I have a lot of nostalgia for a lot of the old Harry Potter sets, but to say that the 2002 Basilisk is better is ridiculous. One of the things that this theme has been applauded for is its accuracy ( aesthetically ) to the films, and sometimes that does mean sacrificing playability.  If it wasn't movie accurate, there would be even more bellyaching  , whining, and complaining about the set.

On a different note, the Bloody Barron, with blood represented, raises the question of whether Lego is beginning (and more willing) to represent darker aspects of the series. Besides that, we get two two-character faces representing characters who are unconscious because their life essence is being sucked out of them, with Sirius in Expecto Patronum and Ginny ( which is new as far as I can tell)in the East wing. Also in the east wing we get Tom Riddle with his face essentially being torn apart, the representation of a petrified animal, and the drugs ( the cupcakes) that were in esscence used to roofie two children which is basically what Harry and Ron do to Crabbe and Goyle so the two can steal the hair and take their place; because of it's problematic nature I never thought lego would include that detail. On top of that, there is the petrified necklace in Knocturn Alley. With such details and references this year, and including the cursed Kate Bell in the Hogsmade last year,   I wonder if it makes getting scenes like the cave and some form of the Leaky Cauldron more likely (two things that Lego has yet to do for this theme). It most certainly increases our chances of getting the veil in the rumored Ministry of Magic for September

[brickbride]

8 hours ago, RODDY said:

While I can see that point with DADA because you lose some of the key features of the room like the balcony or the dragon skeleton, I think the Chamber actually benefits from being a pullout. My problem with the 2021 Chamber of Secrets was that it didn’t feel like a chamber or a cavern underneath the ground as it lacked any rock face that’s prominent in the Chamber. It just felt like it was the Statue of Salazar Slytherin jutting out from the bottom. However with the very nature of this system, this Chamber feels a lot more subterranean and underground thanks in part to it being a pullout with the rock work naturally surrounding it adding more to that feeling of depth and submersion. 

What do you mean? The 2021 Chamber of Secrets clearly had a rock face background. If anything wouldn't it have been better than the current version, since by taking it out for play as intended (like you see in the pics) you now lose the immediate rock face background? (Also note how they cheat in the picture by taking out the Slytherin Common Room in the background as well, making it looks as if the space behind the pull-out roughly matched the pulled-out and spread-out Chamber.)

3 hours ago, Legofan04 said:

but to say that the 2002 Basilisk is better is ridiculous.

Thank you for disrepecting my opinion. I genuinely prefer the 2002 version. YMMV of course, but there's no need to be insulting about it.

[Gorilla94]

9 hours ago, RODDY said:

 For me at least, I much prefer having a smaller Statue of Salazar Slytherin if it means having space to pose minifigures in front of it. And the 2021 statue was very cartoony looking with the sticker eyes, this feels a lot more natural and more Lego. Add that with the ability of having the Basilisk being able to pop out from its mouth, it’s honestly night and day in my mind and adds more display options.

I am a bit confused. I meant the statue should be a few studs wider not deeper in the room.

Of yourse it's a matter of taste. I like cartoony and think it still feels very lego-like. There is a reason pretty much all large buildable figures of a certain scale include stickers/prints for the eyes.

The old hall had the option to remove the lower jaw, so you could have the mouth open to di exactly that. I doubt you can do it in the new east wing with a wall right behind the the pullout room.

Edited May 8 by Gorilla94

[RODDY]

1 hour ago, brickbride said:

What do you mean? The 2021 Chamber of Secrets clearly had a rock face background. If anything wouldn't it have been better than the current version, since by taking it out for play as intended (like you see in the pics) you now lose the immediate rock face background? (Also note how they cheat in the picture by taking out the Slytherin Common Room in the background as well, making it looks as if the space behind the pull-out roughly matched the pulled-out and spread-out Chamber.)

The rock face background in the 2021 is largely blocked and nowhere near prominent thanks to the oversized Salazar statue, the arches, and the snake statues occupying most of the real estate down there. It’s an afterthought really and not a part of the lived in environment. It’s just a head jutting out from the bottom really. There is no sense of depth or space where in the East Wing version you can clearly see the rock face behind Salazar when it’s in place. Sure I’ll give you that when you take it out the rock face is lost, but that just makes it equal to the 2021 one since that has barely any visible rock face to begin with. Nevertheless also giving points to the new one for actually having a spot for the Basilisk to slither through the mouth and actually have designated space for minifigs to be posed in front. 
 

4 minutes ago, Gorilla94 said:

I am a bit confused. I meant the statue should be a few studs wider not deeper in the room.

Oh okay I must have misread that then, that I can agree with, wider would have a nice improvement even if I’m fine with it as is. 

[Legofan04]

1 hour ago, brickbride said:

Thank you for disrepecting my opinion. I genuinely prefer the 2002 version. YMMV of course, but there's no need to be insulting about it.

Sorry about that, genuinely. I really wasn't trying to disrespect your opinion,  but more so about how there's been general commentary about the sets of where the feeling is that the people  complaining about the sets wouldn't be happy no matter the direction that LEGO went in, and this weird recency bias wherein the previous system is regarded as being perfect and the new one being horrible. The same thing happened when the 2021 system started: it was a horrible system, while the 2018-2020 system became perfect. I actually really love the 2002 version, and it does hold a special place in my heart, too.

 

36 minutes ago, RODDY said:

Nevertheless also giving points to the new one for actually having a spot for the Basilisk to slither through the mouth and actually have designated space for minifigs to be posed in front. 

It's a really nice aspect of the set.  Given that part of the intent is for the Basilisk to travel under the Viaduct, I must wonder whether kids will be able to reach through the gaps to pull it along into the chamber.

[brickbride]

@Legofan04Thanks for clarifying. I get what you mean about the bias but like I've said I genuinely prefer the 2002 version and probably always will.

In other news, Chinese New Year has had a set revealed larely that stood out to me: 80121 Ancient Moon-gazing Inn, 1530 pieces, 9 figs and a horse, and it's EUR 110! That's EUR 10 more than Knockturn Alley with eight figs, a dog, and pretty much half the pieces! No licence but still sets like this suggest to me that LEGO could justify significantly better ppp ratios even now after inflation and everything. They just don't do it with sets aimed primarily at Europe and the US because why ywould they when we're buying them anyway.

Edited May 8 by brickbride

[brickbride]

@Legofan04I've been thinking about what you've said - that as soon as a new system comes out, people regard the previous one through rose-tinted glasses. I guess part of it might be nostalgia, but part of it is also that LEGO just doubles down on things.

When the 2021 system came out I said that it was overpriced, I felt that EUR 140 for a playset (even the flagship set of the entire system) was absurd, as was expecting us to pay EUR 50 for just the Hospital Wing and clock tower bits.I called out sets like the Fluffy Encounter and Sirius Black's Escape for making us pay for empty rooms.

Now we have several so-called playsets priced waaaay above 2021's one flagship set, the Hospital Wing with DADA (but no clock tower) is EUR 100 and doesn't even include Pomfrey, and even EUR 250 sets like the East Wing come with empty rooms. Given all of that I can understand people thinking "Looking back, I should have gotten the old system" or "I guess it wasn't such a bad deal after all".

[Virginia_Bricks]

Comparing to the source material (movies, not books), the 2002 chamber did well with the limited range of bricks back then but is clearly the worst. Its redeeming fact is its size, but its just un-decorated open space. The 2021 chamber made solid improvements in Salazar's face but went a little too cartoonish and had no room in the set. The 2026 chamber has the best Salazar and basilisk, but shouldn't have cut the snake door from the final set.

[Legofan04]

7 hours ago, brickbride said:

Now we have several so-called playsets priced waaaay above 2021's one flagship set, the Hospital Wing with DADA (but no clock tower) is EUR 100 and doesn't even include Pomfrey,

Yeah, it sucked that Pomfrey wasn't included, and I'm glad I had the 2022 Hospital to include her in the set. I will say, though, that not having the clock tower makes sense; canonically, the hospital wing is not in the clock tower but in one that connects to it. At the very least, the empty hallway in the east wing gives the Miss Norris scene.  Also, the completed 2021-2023 system, if put together the way LEGO directs, would have the bathroom chamber entrance bring the character down into the library. It kind of felt like Lego didn't think about how they would connect

 

2 hours ago, Virginia_Bricks said:

The 2026 chamber has the best Salazar and basilisk, but shouldn't have cut the snake door from the final set.

In the preliminary photos of the unfinished product, the designers did include it, so I wonder why the designers didn't include it in the final product. My only guess is that Lego wouldn't budge on the piece count. Or mayby its a thing about not including stuff that can't fit inside the castle

[Virginia_Bricks]

19 minutes ago, Legofan04 said:

In the preliminary photos of the unfinished product, the designers did include it, so I wonder why the designers didn't include it in the final product. My only guess is that Lego wouldn't budge on the piece count. Or mayby its a thing about not including stuff that can't fit inside the castle

It clearly was designed to sit in front of Salazar and fit inside the castle, so I'm guessing it was a budget cut with the windows in the Slytherin Common room. Disappointing, but there has to be compromises. 3 new animal molds probably cost the set the door and windows. Mrs Norris in the preliminary image is the old cat mold, so that might be the trade off right there. New cat mold or the snake door. They also redid the restricted section of the library in the final version and it seems to use more pieces that the preliminary version. That or the Viaduct Bridge took more parts than they expected.

[Legofan04]

1 hour ago, Virginia_Bricks said:

New cat mold

Is the new Mrs. Norris not the same cat mold that appeared in the Spiderverse collectable minifigure series?

[mark1991t]

43 minutes ago, Legofan04 said:

Is the new Mrs. Norris not the same cat mold that appeared in the Spiderverse collectable minifigure series?

Yes. The piece is a recolor with new printing.

[BrickBob Studpants]

I think they omitted the snake door because it didn’t really fit anywhere. The castle system is supposed to be compact with the removable modules, and free-standing parts like that would be a bit awkward I suppose

[BrickMatit]

45 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

I think they omitted the snake door because it didn’t really fit anywhere.

Actually, looking at the prelim image, it's likely to conclude that the door would have been put on the front edge of Chamber of Secrets module. There are 2x 2x2 tile with a central stud to accomodate the door.

So it was likely removed for budget constraint.

 

[brickbride]

2 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

I think they omitted the snake door because it didn’t really fit anywhere. The castle system is supposed to be compact with the removable modules, and free-standing parts like that would be a bit awkward I suppose

More awkward rhan all the stuff you have to take out anyway in order to acommodate the extra modules (i.e. the Hufflepuff Commom room that you have ro remove in order for the Potions Class to fit, or the original interior of the Great Hall to be replaced by the 2024 AC to then be replaced by the Duelling Club to then be replaced by the Sorting Ceremony)?

[RODDY]

The only thing I wish that was included from the prototype was the panels for the Slytherin Common Room. Otherwise sacrificing the door for a more fleshed out Restricted Section was imo a good call. 
 

JB Spielwaren is currently in the middle of building the East Wing so reviews should be coming out any day! 

Edited May 9 by RODDY

[mark1991t]

Could it be that they left the panels out, because the stonebridge can not connect to the slytherin common room with the panels in. Than the bridge leads to nowhere in this alternate confirguration where someone maybe does not have the main tower to connect to:

[(1)Stein]

In that picture the "Link Bridge" or stone bridge is definitely not where it should be! 

Edited May 9 by (1)Stein