Wizarding World 2026 - Rumors & Discussion

[BacktoBricks]

Cheesey's video has really highlighted some major disappointments with the MOM set.

• His camera panning towards the Ministry shows how bad the floor of the atrium looks in just plain black studs. Gringotts got a tiled floor, so should this have. Sure, leave the bottom underground section as studded floor as it fits with the rock environment, but the glossy atrium floor deserved better.
• The telephone box having just a sticker for the telephone is just lazy. Lego has even shown us they can do better in a standard set.
• The road being done in black studs not only means there is no differentiation between the road and the atrium floor, but by extension it implies that the atrium floor is tarmac, which makes even less sense when tarmac in England is generally dark grey. So a dark grey road would have not only been more realistic, but it would have provided some differentiation at least if they weren't going to tile the atrium floor.
• Lucius continues to use a lazy headpiece with his eyebrows too dark and no alternate mask face print for the scene that the masks play a large role in.
• Again, no Minister in the Collector's Edition of the MOM. Logic ...sorry the Minister ... has left the building.
• The statue looks so underwhelming compared to the film material. The GWP fountains are really needed for the extra grandeur.
• Add in a tiled atrium floor, a brick built telephone, the GWP fountains, a better face print for Lucius, give Dumbledore his proper head and beard pieces, and put the Minister back into his Ministry, and it would still be a good $50 overpriced. For the current price, I would want the silver trio as well. Don't call it a Collector's Edition and give it less value than a playset like the Main Tower.

[joeee]

The most random tangent: Having a Mrs. Figg minifigure will give me an excuse to buy the most recent Privet Drive. I can transform the previous release into her house. :)

[Accio Lego]

7 hours ago, BacktoBricks said:

His camera panning towards the Ministry shows how bad the floor of the atrium looks in just plain black studs. Gringotts got a tiled floor, so should this have. Sure, leave the bottom underground section as studded floor as it fits with the rock environment, but the glossy atrium floor deserved better.

That’s one of the things that irks me – the movie Ministry’s most distinctive feature is the subway tiles everywhere. They literally just had to put down a layer of 1x2 black tiles with some strategically placed studs and I doubt it would have changed the price that much. 
 

 

6 hours ago, joeee said:

The most random tangent: Having a Mrs. Figg minifigure will give me an excuse to buy the most recent Privet Drive. I can transform the previous release into her house. :)

I hope you have a robust collection of cats to make it accurate. :)

[brickbride]

The black street with yellow curb lines looks hideously out of place, did they take those prints from some upcoming F1 set?

Is the red grid at the entrance of the phone booth a sticker or a print? It was a print in the playset.

Edited Friday at 12:26 PM by brickbride

[mark1991t]

14 minutes ago, brickbride said:

Is the red grid at the entrance of the phone booth a sticker or a print? It was a print in the playset.

It is a sticker this time.

[Roebuck]

A former Lego designer point out that the licencing fee could be behind the high price 

[Virginia_Bricks]

1 hour ago, brickbride said:

The black street with yellow curb lines looks hideously out of place, did they take those prints from some upcoming F1 set?

Is the red grid at the entrance of the phone booth a sticker or a print? It was a print in the playset.

Huh? Maybe they should a slightly less aggressive yellow, but the designers nailed it when recreating the actual street the scene was filmed on.

https://movie-locations.com/movies/h/Harry-Potter-5.php

Edited Friday at 01:55 PM by Virginia_Bricks

[brickbride]

"Nailed it"? The street's not supposed to be black and like you've said the yellow looks very aggressive. It just clashes in tone (the street resembling a race track and then the old-fashioned buildings).

And the set's such a stickerfest. The reviewer said DA was even worse but I don't know. I feel like in the DA set, most of the stickers were shop signs and the like which you wouldn't expect to be brick-built. On the other hand, the clutter in Arthur's office, the phone, and the hand dryers in the bathroom definitely could and should have been.

The phone booth entrance being a sticker in the UCS set when the playset had a print is also bizarre.

Edited Friday at 02:18 PM by brickbride

[Virginia_Bricks]

16 minutes ago, brickbride said:

"Nailed it"? The street's not supposed to be black and like you've said the yellow looks very aggressive. It just clashes in tone (the street resembling a race track and then the old-fashioned buildings).

And the set's such a stickerfest. The reviewer said DA was even worse but I don't know. I feel like in the DA set, most of the stickers were shop signs and the like which you wouldn't expect to be brick-built. On the other hand, the clutter in Arthur's office, the phone, and the hand dryers in the bathroom definitely could and should have been.

The phone booth entrance being a sticker in the UCS set when the playset had a print is also bizarre.

I'm sorry but that road is clearly asphalt which is black. Sure, London is worn down so its not fresh asphalt and paint which the Lego pieces look more like, but it is factually black and yellow.

[brickbride]

I'm familiar with asphalt roads. ;-) They look black when new, which a street in central London won't be unlike after repairs. Black's just an odd choice. LEGO's own road plates are gray, too!

[MaxHeadroom]

What an awful set. I’m shedding no tears about missing it, which I couldn’t say about Hogsmeade which I liked but couldn’t justify the price. I can’t believe they did nothing to engineer any kind of elevator feature for the proper elevator or the phone booth. I love illustrated details in stickers (or preferably prints like other companies) but they went so overboard here. The hand dryer is ridiculous, why not make a build for such a simple shape? And that bathroom door looks like it’s more for a vault than a bathroom stall. The offices are such messes of color with the green and red coming in uncovered, Umbridge’s office is so poor and shockingly might be a downgrade from the last one. Speaking of downgrades the prophecies look worse too. The biggest sin is the floor of the atrium though. I usually don’t mind studs but what makes the ministry so iconic is the polished surfaces including the floor. How hard would it have been to just cover it in 1x2 tiles with a few jumpers thrown in? 
 

And even conceptually what is going on with the rocky lower level? Those rooms aren’t rocky in the movie to my memory. If it’s just to imply that those rooms are underground then where is the rocky framing for the main level? 
 

This would be cool for a MOC, especially a first draft. But an official set? Not even talking about that price. I scrolled through the video with comparisons and the comparison with the staircase tower is laughable. Don’t think I could get myself to pay more than $300 for this. 

[Clone OPatra]

On 8/14/2026 at 1:44 AM, mark1991t said:

More reviews are out. In this one, a comparison with other Collectors Edition sets, like Gringotts and Hogsmeade and with the Main Tower. We also see whats in the room above the station (nothing interesting)

It's this one that really sealed the (bad) deal for me too with the comparisons to other sets. It just looks unimpressive compared to either Gringotts or the Main Tower (the latter of which is much cheaper for a similar visual impact).

Shrinkflation has hit D2C sets and it is not cool.

This set feels like one idea that would've been floated in the concept brainstorming stage that should've been abandoned, but they ran with it instead. The street level is just not what anybody cares about for the ministry (especially if they're not going to do an actual play feature with the phone booth). And like everyone has said, the part heavy rock work is incongruous. This isn't the Batcave.

It's a hard location to do, to be sure, so they just needed to commit to something. Do a super grand atrium. Maybe it's atrium one side, flip it around and it's a courtroom and hall of prophecy on the other.

Same with the Minifigures. Commit to one thing. Ministry infiltration from OotP? Great, then the main six, Dumby and Voldy, Bellatrix and Sirius, maybe Remus and Lucius (Remus was very memorable in that scene), and Fudge and Umbridge for good measure. And don't half-ass Dumbledore.

Tonks, Mad-Eye and Kingsley might be the best done figures in the set, but they're also the least important.

The playset had a more complete cast of characters for the scenes it was trying to portray, and novel designs to boot that looked very good.

[Kaijumeister]

5 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

It's this one that really sealed the (bad) deal for me too with the comparisons to other sets. It just looks unimpressive compared to either Gringotts or the Main Tower (the latter of which is much cheaper for a similar visual impact).

Shrinkflation has hit D2C sets and it is not cool.

I don’t quite know how to articulate this, but it’s been weird seeing this recent trend of big D2C sets that have gigantic piece counts and occupy a large footprint, yet don’t seem all that much more impressive than standard playsets.

Not sure if that makes sense, it’s like the build  equivalent of speaking a lot but actually saying very little.

Edited Saturday at 09:31 PM by Kaijumeister

[brickbride]

@Clone OPatraI get what you mean. I think the black surfaces are a symptom of the designers not committing, too - they're meant to echo a diorama but it's not a diorama so they just look unpolished and odd.

Edited Sunday at 03:07 PM by brickbride

[sahidko]

Yeah, this one is going to be an easy pass even without the ridiculous price tag it comes with.

[Mom builds lego]

On 8/13/2026 at 12:44 PM, mark1991t said:

More reviews are out. In this one, a comparison with other Collectors Edition sets, like Gringotts and Hogsmeade and with the Main Tower. We also see whats in the room above the station (nothing interesting)

I still really want this set and was considering getting it day one but I after seeing the comparison to the Main Tower I just can’t. Crazy that they are basically the same dimensions but vastly different in price. I hope it eventually gets discounted. I did manage to pick up the Hogwarts Express Collectors Edition on a really good Black Friday sale at Costco online in 2023 - I think it was discounted because it sold poorly. Hopefully if I wait long enough I can find this at a reasonable price. 

[BacktoBricks]

24 minutes ago, Mom builds lego said:

I still really want this set and was considering getting it day one but I after seeing the comparison to the Main Tower I just can’t. Crazy that they are basically the same dimensions but vastly different in price. 

That is very much how I feel. OOTP has long been a favourite of mine so a Ministry D2C would have once been an absolute certainty for me to pick up. But seeing the comparisons and the general lack of detailing and I just can't support it.

This feels like the set Lego gave to its new Lego Fan CoLab members to throw under the bus.

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Mom builds lego said:

I still really want this set and was considering getting it day one but I after seeing the comparison to the Main Tower I just can’t. Crazy that they are basically the same dimensions but vastly different in price. I hope it eventually gets discounted. I did manage to pick up the Hogwarts Express Collectors Edition on a really good Black Friday sale at Costco online in 2023 - I think it was discounted because it sold poorly. Hopefully if I wait long enough I can find this at a reasonable price. 

Since the only exclusive GWP is the Phonecell there is no need to buy it right away, so you can easily wait for double points or possible discounts  either from Lego or else it should also become avaiable to at least one of Legos exclusive partners, though often you can´t really expect high discounts there,

As for the Set itself, I can see why the reception is rather negative. Personally, I understand why Lego wanted to include the Phonecell but I think they would have been better of adding that as a gwp - even if probably many would have complained about that too - and concentrated on the ministery itself and omit the complete first section of the set. 

The same probably goes for the underground section, and just included what is in there within the green buildings - as they are now they look not really tall, so if they would have focused on this section alone it would look better IMO - and they could also have added more depth to the ground section, so it could have space for both parts of the fountain - though in the end it would be incomplete eitherway, becasue there is no way they could include all the figures in this set for it - and I don´t really like the film version anyways.

If they wouldn´t have included the wizengamot I think not including Fudge would be ok, since he isn´t all that present in the ministry scenes really - even if it is his ministry. Not including Bellatrix is probably due to her killing Sirius - else the Designers would likely included her instead of Dolohov. Personally I can live with this decision aswell with getting Fudge in the GWP instead.

As for the studded Atrium, that is something that doesn´t really bothers me at all - in the end you are free to place the minifigures whereever you like and personally I am not that much a fan when everything is tiled, though it depends on the set really I guess. I can see why people prefer tiled ground though.

I do like the GWP, especially it is also usefull for those that don´t plan to buy the ministry but own the old one, as that one also didn´t include fudge or the second part of the fountain.

 

Overall the set has some highlights (some of the minifigures and of course the Lynx!) but also I would have expected something else, especially more focus on the "green section" of the ministry.

[RODDY]

On 8/15/2026 at 11:40 AM, Clone OPatra said:

Same with the Minifigures. Commit to one thing. Ministry infiltration from OotP? Great, then the main six, Dumby and Voldy, Bellatrix and Sirius, maybe Remus and Lucius (Remus was very memorable in that scene), and Fudge and Umbridge for good measure. And don't half-megablocks Dumbledore.

Tonks, Mad-Eye and Kingsley might be the best done figures in the set, but they're also the least important.

I’m still kinda shocked they did Kingsley, Tonks, and Mad Eye before Lupin. I thought when Tonks and Mad Eye leaked we’d definitely be getting Lupin and the rest of the Order that showed up for sure since they were blink and you’ll miss it appearances where Lupin literally holds Harry after Sirius is murdered by Belatrix Lestrange. I guess they wanted the Ministry workers for the Ministry but that logic goes south when even the Minister himself is not even included. Everyday this set just perplexes me more and more, I could write a thesis on everything wrong with this set. 

[Jack Sassy]

22 hours ago, Kaijumeister said:

it’s like the build  equivalent of speaking a lot but actually saying very little.

I think the term ''quantity over quality'' might be suitable. 

 

This set seems very unnecessary, as the 2022's version was good enough. Even though I do not buy new sets anymore, the whole thing seems stupid, really. Out of all of the bad decisions that were made I cannot, for the life of me, understand Dumbledore's minifgure - was LEGO trying to portray him closer to the books? This was a good chance to get another Gambon Gandalf with that lovely beard piece, instead a strange looking Harris version is present in robes that are reminiscent of the Yule ball. Perhaps I missed this bit in the book...

 

Even more so, the Ministry Munchies GWP seems like a joke directed at the consumers. It could work as a standalone set, better yet - part of this big set. I feel the price that was given for this is unfair or the executives should have asked the designers to take a different direction, one that would give 430 euros worth of stuff in this set. Now, given all of that, the build is still good and the designer did a good enough of a job on it. It does seem like they were pushing the piece count closer to the the price with that street level bit, but, alas, could not manage it. Perhaps it might be the time to tone it down with these big and elaborate models of buildings that were not the main focus of the series. Then again, we cannot have only Hogwarts. I am confused, completely torned and disappointed in the theme.  It does feel like the reboot has overstayed its welcome by a year... or two.

 

P.S.

It would be interesting to see this set similar in design to one of the Cloud Cities. That way there would be room for many more... rooms. 

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

It does feel like the reboot has overstayed its welcome by a year... or two.

It's a evergreen theme by now As long as Lego make good money on the theme they will keep it around. 

10 hours ago, Jack Sassy said:

Even though I do not buy new sets anymore

I have stopped also. I think most of the sets are good and if I had to choose a theme where I must buy every set it probably would be HP. However I have not room for any more so they just end up unbuilt in the box and the price for the theme has increased a lot especially this set (which is probably harder to find on sale than normal retail sets). Even if a few of us old timers have stopped buying them do not mean that newer fans or families with kids have

[Jack Sassy]

2 hours ago, Roebuck said:

Even if a few of us old timers have stopped buying them do not mean that newer fans or families with kids have

Of course and that is understandable. I do think the new Hogwarts system, especially the main tower, looks amazing! The original Chamber of Secrets and the 2010 castle still hold a special place in me heart but I cannot deny the new one is out of this world, even if the Great Hall is lacking in interior detail.

[brickbride]

Families with kids are hardly the target group for a EUR 430 set based on the Ministry of Magic, though. 

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, brickbride said:

Families with kids are hardly the target group for a EUR 430 set based on the Ministry of Magic, though. 

I don´t think there is just a single target group for those kind of sets. I mean, sure there is a aim at adult collectors but they always add playfeatures, make sure those sets are accessible to play with and all and all you would probably be surprised how many kids still get to play with those sets - whether the kid gets it giftet for itself or mom/dad buys it to build and play together with those sets - but sure, the majority will still and up on the shelf of adult collectors.