Wizarding World 2026 - Rumors & Discussion

[Virginia_Bricks]

10 hours ago, brickbride said:

Serious question (because I don't have many expensive hobbies): Is that how it works everywhere these days? If you buy, say, an expensive smartphone, and the company tells you that they had to cut a popular function which the previous generation of smartphones had because it wasn't in the budget for the new one, would that go over well or would people question the validity of the budget? If you buy premium products from other companies, is it a given that you pay full price in the first place and then have to budget extra in order to complete the products by using second-hand market places and the like?

Yes, the growth in MBA schools has made an era of business leaders who are smarter, in terms of maximizing short term profit, than who came before. Also the proliferation of data collection makes it easier to understand human behavior.

It’s not just Lego. It’s every company and business. Subscription services instead of buying once and done. Ads on smart refrigerators. Just look at the movie industry and how much it has changed artistically in the last two decades.

It’s also why Lego has doubled the number of sets they can produce each year. There are downsides to this in what seems like odd budget cuts, but there are upsides too.

I also went to business school so that makes it easier for me to understand but maybe I’m brainwashed 

Edited May 16 by Virginia_Bricks

[Legofan04]

10 hours ago, brickbride said:

'm constantly baffled by how well LEGO have trained their customers to defend their cutting corners; I really can't think of any other premium product where buyers constantly go "Sure those features would be nice and in fact kind of expected given the subject matter, but we can't ask this poor little corporation to dip into their huge profit margin in order to provide them".

 

I think saying that Lego has trained their customers is the wrong way to look at it.We live in a world where all businesses are cutting corners and putting things behind paywalls. It's in every industry and so pervasive that it's hard to avoid, and consumers have to put up with it (the whole 'speaking with the wallet' thing doesn't really work anymore) even if Lego was protested on a massive scale. And to be honest, a lot of other companies are a lot worse, especially those that hobbiest are in. You mentioned smartphones, and gaming is another prime example. And it's not a new phenomenon. Lego did it with the last Hogwarts system, which lacked thought. I mean, when that system is fully built, the girls' bathroom entrance sends the figure into the library, not the Chamber of Secrets. However, in otherways lego's cut corners are being used to create new molds and prints. It's better than phones, where the prices go up with each model without offering anything new.

Perhaps it's a cynical take, but gotta take a win where one can get them. 

[RODDY]

16 hours ago, brickbride said:

I'm constantly baffled by how well LEGO have trained their customers to defend their cutting corners; I really can't think of any other premium product where buyers constantly go "Sure those features would be nice and in fact kind of expected given the subject matter, but we can't ask this poor little corporation to dip into their huge profit margin in order to provide them".

As an average customer I'd want the Library to come with a librarian and the Hospital Wing to come with a nurse, period. Especially since LEGO insist that those huge, expensive sets are still aimed at kids so they need to have some play value. If you need a Ravenclaw for the Common Room, to me that means an additional figure and LEGO should budget accordingly.

My sides 

Now that’s out of the way, it’s not defending Lego it’s acknowledging that Lego is a corporation at the end of the day, and they are going to corporate. For better or for worse. Expecting Lego to not corporate is like expecting my Bassett Hound to become a marathon sprinter. It’s simply acknowledging that there will be things that are cut and we are not going to have an all inclusive package. It’s the system we live in unfortunately. In an ideal world, yea not only would I love Pomfrey but I’d love Boggart Snape and Neville in my Hospital Wing. But I realize it’s just not gonna happen and expecting it to happen really just leads to disappointment in the end. It’s why the Hogwarts system gets rebooted every three years and there’s different rooms in each one that makes you feel compelled to buy it. A good example is the Challenges from Philosopher’s Stone. It’s why the 2018 Great Hall came only with the Mirror of Erised, the 2021 came only with Fluffy’s Encounter and Devil’s Snare, and in 2025 after investing in two systems they finally decide to give all the Challenges by some miracle. And that’s such a pivotal bunch of scenes being the climax of arguably the most popular Harry Potter film, it’s crazy it took them 20 years to include them all. There will never be a complete Hogwarts for this exact reason, nevertheless a complete Hogwarts minifigure lineup. 2021 Hogwarts Castle minifigure lineup was missing McMonagall, and Quirell which are far more egregious exclusions than Pomfrey and Pince. But you constantly talk about how it’s a better system than 2024. 

Phones are such a funny example because I’ll point to the headphone jack being omitted from latter year IPhones that forced you to not only go out and buy headphones but forced you to buy Apple specific products to supplement them.
You couldn’t use just any old headphones but you needed to pay the extra $30 for wired ones that were not as good as other headphones. And if you want the better Air Pods? Try $200 more ontop of spending $1000+ on a phone. Or be a Neanderthal and listen to music out in the public. So no this isn’t a Lego exclusive problem at all, far from it. Lego is nowhere near as bad as other companies are. 

 

5 hours ago, Legofan04 said:

Lego did it with the last Hogwarts system, which lacked thought. I mean, when that system is fully built, the girls' bathroom entrance sends the figure into the library, not the Chamber of Secrets. However, in otherways lego's cut corners are being used to create new molds and prints. It's better than phones, where the prices go up with each model without offering anything new. 

Perhaps it's a cynical take, but gotta take a win where one can get them. 

100% this although I don’t think it’s a cynical take it’s the realistic one. Enjoy what you can while you can. 

Edited May 16 by RODDY

[Legofan04]

But taking it out of the realm of Harry Potter for a second, there are worse ways Lego is treating its fans. Lego DC barely gets anything, and when it does, it's Lego's version of the iPhone philosophy, where it's slightly different versions of the Batmobile, Tumbler, or Batplane. In marvel many of the figures of the main characters reuse inaccurate or generic face prints, or are inaccurate to the scene being depicted if it's a movie-based set, or are important and entirely missing ( as has been the case of villains in recent years), and for the most part, a limited number of figures. Then there's Star Wars, where the Republic Juggernaut set has like 813 pieces, retails for $160 (and has only 1.2 stars on Lego's website for how overpriced and flimsy it is), and doesn't even begin to address the whole smart brick fiasco.

All this to say is that even when the Harry Potter theme and Hogwarts is at its subjective worse whether that's this current system, the 2021-2023 system, or the 2018 system, and regardless of whether all the figures we want are being included or not, this theme gets more love than the ones referenced above. These sets are sturdy, fairly accurate to the source material (really depends on the set and ofcourse their are limitations,  and are slowly giving us the things us fans want to see. If the Eastwing was given the treatment Marvel has received in more recent years there would likely have been no new for face prints for characters we already have ( specifically Ginny),  there would probably be no Bloody Barron (or one without leg printing) and who knows if Riddle would be included. If it was given the Star wars treatment it would probably half the size  and still no cheaper then $200. 

[hikouki]

1 hour ago, Legofan04 said:

But taking it out of the realm of Harry Potter for a second, there are worse ways Lego is treating its fans. Lego DC barely gets anything, and when it does, it's Lego's version of the iPhone philosophy, where it's slightly different versions of the Batmobile, Tumbler, or Batplane. ...

Not an HP collector but thought I'd drop by and just check out what's going on. And the first time I'm ever here, then I read this!!! 

That is so so so true!!!

You guys here have something to complain about and we guys over there do nothing but fantasize about products that Lego from an alternative universe might make. 

[brickbride]

In other words: LEGO HP fans should stop complaining because LEGO SW abd LEGO DC fans get even less for their money?

To me that's absurd. LEGO should not be about the least common determinator.

And it's what I meant by "trained". I'm not even talking about boycotts or voting with your wallet. Everyone get to buy whatever they want to buy.

I'm talking about fans telling other fans that they're at best naive and unrealistic and at worst greedy and, apparently, lacking solidarity to expect some value for their money.

Over at LotR, Minas Tirith has just been revealed. It's EUR 650 and has 10 figs, let me spell that out: ten. For a EUR 650 set. And those ten are not that great either (Arwen with no skirt printing, four identical guards with identical facial expressions). And yet I've seen posts where fans timidly ask others if they are crazy for wishing there were more.

Because by now we know not to question LEGO's budgeting. If you want more than ten figs in a EUR 650 set chances are that other fans will tell you you're greedy and unrealistic, you don't know how budgets work, why don't you just Bricklink the missing figs? If they'd included Eowyn we might not have gotten Denethor, and he's more important! It's actually a good thing because maybe they'll bring out a set with some of the missing figs that you can then also buy! And so on.

And I guess no-one is to critizise a HP or SW set for its lack of figs ever again because guess what? LotR has it worse.

Like I've said: We're being trained to be content with minimum efforts. That's what LEGO is doing, and a lot of us are helping. It's okay to say "I guess this is the best we'll get these days and so I accept it" but it should also be okay to say "I feel we're being ripped off" and "What do you mean your budget cannot accomodate that? Increase the budget, then!" without being reprimanded.

Edited May 17 by brickbride

[BrickBob Studpants]

4 hours ago, brickbride said:

Arwen with no skirt printing, four identical guards with identical facial expressions […]

Yeah, but Aragorn and Arwen get arm printing for the first time, which is a fair compromise. The skirt would only have had a couple of lines printed on it at best, so not much of a loss in my book. And the guards have 4 unique faces, two pairs sharing the same face was a mistake in the promotional images. Look at the reviews

Criticising Pomfrey and Pince being absent from their respective sets is fair, but it’s far from a deal-breaker. Just compare it to what we got in 2001-2011! Barely any side characters, no Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, no scene-accurate costumes, and no ghosts. I’m not saying everthing’s perfect, but I focus on what we get and not what we could’ve gotten

[Legofan04]

12 hours ago, brickbride said:

I'm talking about fans telling other fans that they're at best naive and unrealistic and at worst greedy and, apparently, lacking solidarity to expect some value for their money.

 

No one has called anyone naive or greedy for expecting value for  money. What's being done is putting it into perspective of a larger context of a hobby where some people's interests get more ignored or milked and get less for what they are paying for in even larger context of that happening across pretty much every type of hobby. It's not to say we shouldn't expect or demand more from Lego, or even that we shouldn't be upset with them for cutting corners or skimping in certain ways, including fewer figures in the Harry Potter sets than what I would personally like to see wether that being Pomfey and Bogart Snape in the Hospital wing or lack of Prince in the East Wing (despite pretty much every other important characters to the scenes being portrayed being present).

I said it when I first saw the pictures of the eat wing: the interior looked a little shallower than I was expecting, and the door should have been included. I wish it were like $30  cheaper, but if the physical size is proportional to the Main tower, the price isn't too bad, all things considered. Plus, it seems like Lego has been pricing products with the knowledge that they will go on sale in certain places. Perhaps the next castle system (when it happens) will combine the best aspects of this and the previous system and make it cheaper. Perhaps they won't, but LEGO has experimented and tried to improve with each system (including this system objectively).  One of the biggest improvements is actually more room for minifigures to stand within some of the models. All that being said, not liking this system is fine, but to say that people have been trained by Lego to rejoice over or love some of the new faceprints, recolors, molds, or the inclusion of certain details is harsh. LEGO Harry Potter might not be up to your standards. which is again fine, but objectively it's been getting more love than other themes the past couple of years.

[Mom builds lego]

Lots of people saying HP gets more than SW and DC but we are sadly not even getting an advent calendar this year 

I always thought SW did pretty well and Marvel looks to do well. I don’t really know anything about DC sets. There was hardly anything released for Stranger Things but I was very pleased with the Upside Down (Byers House) and the Creel House when they were released. 
Is the general consensus that HP gets the most attention and/or new prints/moulds?

[Clone OPatra]

5 hours ago, Mom builds lego said:

Is the general consensus that HP gets the most attention and/or new prints/moulds?

HP for sure gets a higher operating budget than Superheroes, but on the consumer side, it certainly feels like Harry Potter consistently gets "more love" and thus provides a better overall product/experience for Harry Potter fans than even Star Wars (which no doubt gets a pretty high budget) does for Star Wars fans.

Marvel and DC (both under a single Superheros team/budget) tend to feel like the designers have to forage for pennies to save up for a new face print.

Harry Potter though does have the distinct advantage of having very limited source material, so the team can focus on fleshing out every aspect of it over time (but not all at once, as we've been talking about). Star Wars by comparison has SO much material and a steady stream of new material, plus the line is fractured into an absolute ton of sub-lines.

Comparing HP to something like One Piece might be more fair - just look at the level of detail and new moulds there are in that theme so far, and it's pretty comparable to HP.

[Legofan04]

7 hours ago, Mom builds lego said:

Is the general consensus that HP gets the most attention and/or new prints/moulds?

As far as themes that get multiple sets a year and are normal system sets ( not technic or minidoll scale), I don't know if it's the general consensus, but I would say it's likely. The only good comparison is, as Clone Opatra said, One Piece, which might be getting more love than any theme has gotten in a while.  Got to wonder if it has something to do with whatever deal Netflix has with lego

[BrickBob Studpants]

I‘m only semi-kidding  HP has been my favourite theme since 2018, but last year and this year that homour has gone to One Piece, and it‘s not even close  HP still earns its #2 spot with Icons at #3 and SW at #4.

Depending on how well the SpongeBob set turns out, Icons might earn itself the #2 spot this year though  Minas Tirith by itself is almost enough for that but I let me boy be the deciding factor.

[Roebuck]

12 hours ago, Mom builds lego said:

Is the general consensus that HP gets the most attention and/or new prints/moulds?

It is possible that HP has less licence fee on the sets so they can use more on prints and new parts etc. I can not believe SW and Marvel have less budget for the sets than HP, however they have the infamous Disney tax and are known for getting you the least Lego for your buck. More prints, new parts etc would probably make the sets even more expensive  

[Gorilla94]

7 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

Marvel and DC (both under a single Superheros team/budget) tend to feel like the designers have to forage for pennies to save up for a new face print.

Harry Potter though does have the distinct advantage of having very limited source material, so the team can focus on fleshing out every aspect of it over time (but not all at once, as we've been talking about). Star Wars by comparison has SO much material and a steady stream of new material, plus the line is fractured into an absolute ton of sub-lines.

I think the largest issue for Superheroes is the lego batman movie and the treatment of it's moulds. They were pretty much all great interpretations by Lego. Poison Ivy is one of the most gorgeous minifigs ever done. Twoface's boxershorts visible through a hole in his molten pants are hilarious. Their later versions were all severe downgrades with standard hairpiece for poison ivy and so on. Catwoman is as far as I know the only character that reused the perfect cowl mould (which made her the perfect arkham city catwoman). The few new moulds were often wasted like the ugly new hairpiece of the Twoface in red jacket or completely useless new bat-cowl-moulds. 

HP canibalises on other themes budget like Hermiones Hair in the cmf sleepy girl or lupins Wolf in a cmf. It gives us rarely something specific like the hat of mcgonnagal, but if they do, they keep those moulds llng term instead of just devolving.

 

[Black Falcon]

14 hours ago, Mom builds lego said:

Lots of people saying HP gets more than SW and DC but we are sadly not even getting an advent calendar this year 

I am not surprised that they cut down the number of Advents calendars, but certainly that they chose the Harry Potter one in the jubilee year rather than Marvel.

14 hours ago, Mom builds lego said:

I always thought SW did pretty well and Marvel looks to do well. I don’t really know anything about DC sets. There was hardly anything released for Stranger Things but I was very pleased with the Upside Down (Byers House) and the Creel House when they were released. 
Is the general consensus that HP gets the most attention and/or new prints/moulds?

I don´t think Star Wars is doing that bad, but there are so many things there, when you look in the SW thread here in the Forum, one says he is only interested in the Original Trilogy, the next one wants more Sets for current series, or more for a specific series like Andor, which already retired. Then you got the Smart Play stuff that many don´t like, buildable stuff (like we got the Crest or Dobby/Kreacher and the plants), UCS ships, small ships etc. 

To really compare which theme gets the best in regards of moulds/prints etc is IMO impossible, as  recolours play a role here too, and it isn´t just about getting new Stuff but also keeping the existing stuff in production. And here Star Wars has a lot unique parts like helmets, special head moulds, windscreens etc.

Edited May 18 by Black Falcon

[Virginia_Bricks]

Images leaked of the new Main Street Disney set which was described in leaks similar to Hogsmeade/DA. I think it is fair to expect the Ministry of Magic to be similar in size and approach but with 400 less pieces. I'd rather they do 2 16x32 base plates and go taller than 3 and shorter, but it seems Lego thinks more width markets better than more height.

[Accio Lego]

3 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

I am not surprised that they cut down the number of Advents calendars, but certainly that they chose the Harry Potter one in the jubilee year rather than Marvel.

I’m still not convinced that WB/HBO didn’t give the kill order because of the upcoming series. Kids getting toys based off the movies for the 24 days preceding the release of the reboot probably isn’t ideal in the eyes of the marketing team, but expecting anyone to buy an advent calendar based off an unseen show 1-3 months before it premiers is a bit of a stretch. That would be a lose-lose situation in the eyes of the license holder. Hopefully, that’s it, and we’ll see the Harry Potter calendar return next year. 

 

1 hour ago, Virginia_Bricks said:

Images leaked of the new Main Street Disney set which was described in leaks similar to Hogsmeade/DA. I think it is fair to expect the Ministry of Magic to be similar in size and approach but with 400 less pieces. I'd rather they do 2 16x32 base plates and go taller than 3 and shorter, but it seems Lego thinks more width markets better than more height.

It’s also got 15 minifigures, so fingers crossed that we get at least the same amount in the Ministry (I mean, how could they justify not giving us at least a couple more than the East Wing). 
 

On a non-Ministry related note, the straw boaters introduced on the Dapper Dan quartet remind me of Dudley’s Smeltings uniform. Probably wishful thinking that we’ll ever get that in Lego form, but it’s the kind of thing that would have been fun as part of a Bricktober pack back in the day. 

[Legofan04]

7 hours ago, Accio Lego said:

Dudley’s Smeltings uniform. Probably wishful thinking that we’ll ever get that in Lego form, but it’s the kind of thing that would have been fun as part of a Bricktober pack back in the day. 

Seems like Lego is done with brick-tober or figure-type packs in general. However, with the show covering more from the books, who knows? It would be a cool figure to see. (Speaking of a side note, and I'm not sure how LEGO would do it, I would love to see a recreation of where the Weasley twins break the Dursleys' fireplace in the fourth book and give Dudley the candy.  There's something amusing about a Vermon covered in chimney powder minifigure.)

[RODDY]

 

22 hours ago, Virginia_Bricks said:

Images leaked of the new Main Street Disney set which was described in leaks similar to Hogsmeade/DA. I think it is fair to expect the Ministry of Magic to be similar in size and approach but with 400 less pieces. I'd rather they do 2 16x32 base plates and go taller than 3 and shorter, but it seems Lego thinks more width markets better than more height.

Yea I feel like 2 16x32’s would be the longest they could do it at without it looking wonky. I always imagined the layout would be similar to Arkham, inverted corner with the fountain where the steps are and a green arch to separate the lobby from the atrium where all the flume networks replacing the Arkham sign. No closed backs because it’s not supposed to be a modular and you can add extra pieces to the height. It’s gonna be interesting to see how they execute this set, as much as I always wanted a D2C Ministry, the layout is really going to make or break this one.

[JS038]

Where the heck are early the YouTube reviews this year? 

[mark1991t]

The embargo date has probably not passed yet.

[mark1991t]

7 hours ago, JS038 said:

Where the heck are early the YouTube reviews this year? 

 

[mark1991t]

According to their German review video, The East Wing does not come with extra Slytherin Torso's, so to make Crabbe and Goyle, you have to use Draco and Millicent's torsos.

[Virginia_Bricks]

17 minutes ago, mark1991t said:

According to their German review video, The East Wing does not come with extra Slytherin Torso's, so to make Crabbe and Goyle, you have to use Draco and Millicent's torsos.

Not completely disappointing with how cheap they are on the secondary market.

They have gone too far with the multiple instruction booklets and now it looks like a running gag of how many can they include in a set. Its great to have a way for a whole family to build together on these large, expensive sets, but why do we need 9-10 instruction booklets in a 2100 piece set.

[BacktoBricks]

2 hours ago, mark1991t said:

According to their German review video, The East Wing does not come with extra Slytherin Torso's, so to make Crabbe and Goyle, you have to use Draco and Millicent's torsos.

Thank you for the link as the English version of the video has no review part at end. The lack of Slytherin torsos, as cheap as they may be on the secondary market, is total cost cutting in my opinion because whilst Millicent can be done with out, the whole point of Harry and Ron transforming into Crabbe and Goyle was so they could go and quiz Draco Malfoy. So kids won't be able to play out the literal point of the transformation all for the sake of a couple of extra torsos and little legs.

Edited May 21 by BacktoBricks