Harry Potter 2018 - Rumors & Discussion

[Balrogofmorgoth]

1 minute ago, Whovastron said:

Tbh they don’t have much control on bricktober. Ya unfortunate that we all New about it, but form a business point of view, nothing was even hinted until the full reveal by Barnes and noble. Not mishandled at all by Lego, all down to B&N.

Diagon Alley again just suffered from leaks, if there were no leaks, we would of just had a reveal and announcement and it’s been widely advertised like any other S@H promotion.

as for the solo polybags, they were well advertised here in the U.K. on S@H.

bricktober is gonna be a mess because of TRU closing, it’s not Lego’s fault, and they’ve sold atleast the HP ones to B&N, taking any blame out of their hands really.

In the US the Solo polybags and Diagonal Alley were not advertised at all. I think one of the Solo ones was advertised late as a promo for a little bit but the second one never even showed up. Diagon Alley should have been in the store calendar but it wasn’t so nobody knew about it until the promotion started. And Barnes and Noble told me bricktober might not even happen because they’re having too much trouble getting the products from Lego 

Edited November 10, 2018 by Balrogofmorgoth

[nikhkin]

5 hours ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

In the US the Solo polybags and Diagonal Alley were not advertised at all. I think one of the Solo ones was advertised late as a promo for a little bit but the second one never even showed up. Diagon Alley should have been in the store calendar but it wasn’t so nobody knew about it until the promotion started. And Barnes and Noble told me bricktober might not even happen because they’re having too much trouble getting the products from Lego 

Diagon Alley is advertised on there right now. I quoted the US site's information in my last post. 

[Balrogofmorgoth]

35 minutes ago, nikhkin said:

Diagon Alley is advertised on there right now. I quoted the US site's information in my last post. 

I didn’t say it wasn’t on there right now. I said it wasn’t in the store calendar. They didn’t advertise it until it started, we usually get some warning with these things. Regardless, it wasn’t meant to become a big deal, it was merely a side observation. I spent the money, got the free set, done and done. Promotions have just felt a little more chaotic this year than they normally are, that’s all. I’m not really mad about it, it’s just an observation.

Edited November 10, 2018 by Balrogofmorgoth

[Legochaek]

Diagon Alley is out of stock at my local store and online in the UK. They said they don’t think they’ll be getting it back in. 

[Scarilian]

On 11/10/2018 at 3:15 PM, Whovastron said:

it’s not Lego’s fault

It kind of is to be honest

Diagon Alley was sold in stores, that was where our first IRL leak of the set came from, due to the early distribution and direct sale of the set as opposed to a 'gift with purchase'. As a result of this they have ran out of stock incredibly prematurely in many locations (As noted by Lego-Fire) they are already out of stock in the UK and will not replenish, having removed the info on the promotion from the website.

The Bricktober sets themselves admittedly had some issue due to the lack of a distributor in the forms of Toys R Us, i can understand that causing issue. Yet this does not magically make all the stock they had disappear. They have the stock, have advertised it and seemingly have no plans to release it in a majority of locations unless they find a distributor. The packaging has even been changed to remove the Toys R Us Logo so they could easily give us the promotion. If they wanted to save Bricktober they could have distributed it with purchases over a certain amount. Instead they have only distributed via distributors who seemingly have no clue what they are doing, such as Barnes and Noble who directly sold the set to people resulting in an influx of scalpers.

While the closure of TRU is a factor, the majority of the blame here rests on Lego for not only failing to have a back-up plan for if a distributor pulled out, but also consistently providing the sets either to official stores where the policy of distribution was not enforced OR to simply not have the stock to satisfy demand. The second of which was also a factor with the HP Minifigure line.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Scarilian

[LegoFjotten]

3 hours ago, Scarilian said:

It kind of is to be honest

Diagon Alley was sold in stores, that was where our first IRL leak of the set came from, due to the early distribution and direct sale of the set as opposed to a 'gift with purchase'. As a result of this they have ran out of stock incredibly prematurely in many locations (As noted by Lego-Fire) they are already out of stock in the UK and will not replenish, having removed the info on the promotion from the website.

The Bricktober sets themselves admittedly had some issue due to the lack of a distributor in the forms of Toys R Us, i can understand that causing issue. Yet this does not magically make all the stock they had disappear. They have the stock, have advertised it and seemingly have no plans to release it in a majority of locations unless they find a distributor. The packaging has even been changed to remove the Toys R Us Logo so they could easily give us the promotion. If they wanted to save Bricktober they could have distributed it with purchases over a certain amount. Instead they have only distributed via distributors who seemingly have no clue what they are doing, such as Barnes and Noble who directly sold the set to people resulting in an influx of scalpers.

While the closure of TRU is a factor, the majority of the blame here rests on Lego for not only failing to have a back-up plan for if a distributor pulled out, but also consistently providing the sets either to official stores where the policy of distribution was not enforced OR to simply not have the stock to satisfy demand. The second of which was also a factor with the HP Minifigure line.

Oh come on... seriously?

How many stores sold the Diagon Alley set in addition to the one where the first picture came from? Claiming this is the cause they run out of stock prematurely is a huge assumption on your part.

Barnes and Noble screwup? Of course you blame that on LEGO too.

Not having a backup-plan for if a distributor pulled out? Are you being serious? No business ever has a backup plan for one-off promos.

[Scarilian]

4 hours ago, LegoFjotten said:

Oh come on... seriously?

You seem to want to excuse Lego of fault, that is admirable, but misguided. Lego messed up and that should be acknowledged. Now a majority of the most desired sets, all with exclusive figures, are unreleased in many places around the globe. I am completely serious in the fact that Lego is to blame in regards to certain aspects and I feel the failure to handle the scenario has amplified the problem.

4 hours ago, LegoFjotten said:

How many stores sold the Diagon Alley set in addition to the one where the first picture came from? Claiming this is the cause they run out of stock prematurely is a huge assumption on your part.

The Diagon Alley set was intended to be a 'gift with purchase' with 'one per person' - an official Lego store messed up and sold them individually for cheap while allowing people to buy multiples. Given this is an official Lego store, when they run out of stock, they would be prioritised to get more stock first. It's difficult to calculate how many Diagonal Alley sets were sold via this method but this fault is on Lego. Maybe the specific store and its employees, but definitely on Lego.

4 hours ago, LegoFjotten said:

Barnes and Noble screwup? Of course you blame that on LEGO too.

The Barnes and Noble screw-up is a mixture, admittedly. Part of it is reliant on my below remark - however Barnes and Noble severely messed up also. The Bricktober packs were also intended to be limited to a 'gift with purchase' 'one per person' scenario, yet Barnes and Noble did not realise this and sold multiples of the sets to individuals for less than $1 each while also allowing people to use the store ordering system to order more copies of the sets for themselves. This resulted in individuals walking away with countless sets and many Barnes and Noble stores ran out of stock before the official release day. I'm still finding stories of people managing to walk out of the store with 10+ sets or individuals who went to a store only for Barnes and Noble to have no clue what they were on about.

4 hours ago, LegoFjotten said:

Not having a backup-plan for if a distributor pulled out? Are you being serious? No business ever has a backup plan for one-off promos.

Lego has been through this exact scenario before with Woolworths - yet they had alternative distributors lined up when that happened. This time they did not. (Despite Bricklink showing only a few, many sets were released under a 'Woolworths Exclusive' tag). This time they had nobody in place so they rushed into finding an alternative distributor and either the alternative distributor was not informed or they were incompetent resulting in the release of a magnitude of sets at a time and price that they were not meant to. This resulted in sets selling out quickly and an influx of scalpers. A competent business has a back-up plan and its incredibly surprising that Lego did not have one this time after they did previously.

This has been further amplified by a lack of communication between Lego and the customers, nobody had a clue what was happening regarding the sets and Lego themselves were not helpful in this matter resulting in many turning to scalpers and online sources to purchase the Bricktober packs and Diagon Alley instead. This has reduced sales for Lego, given the previously mentioned scenario of getting a 'gift with purchase' for incredibly cheap. Promotions that would have required the purchasing of sets have instead been sold cheaply without the requirement of a large purchase losing Lego potential income, sales and decreasing movement of stock.

Edited November 12, 2018 by Scarilian

[Whovastron]

Well, the Woolworths closure wasn’t as sudden as TRU, and they didn’t have promotions as exclusive and major as Bricktober.

you seem to just want to blame Lego for everything. Yes an official store sold the set, but just one store in the whole world, do you seriously think they dried up the stock? This is in no way the first time a promotion has gone out of stock quickly, the set was just popular, so it sold out, there is literally no other factors involved. Infact, the early leak of the set led to more anticipation, boosting sales of the promotion.

and not having a backup if the promotion holder backed out? It was TRU, TRU, the whole bricktober theme was there’s and the closure was extremely sudden, of course Lego wouldn’t have a backup for products that even had packaging themed around the distributer, it’s taken this long to get them out there because they had to repackage everything, and then find a new distributer.

 

[Osbot]

Anyone buying more than one copy of each set? What did you do with them? I did the following:

Aragog looks more at home with a double sized lair and a lot more children.

I turned a great hall set into a 5 story astronomy tower.

I made Newt’s suitcase into a Monster Book of Monsters with a forbidden forest/Hagrid's Hut/buckbeak scene inside.

Grindewalds escape was left as is and now I have an empty carriage for Hogwarts students off the Hogwarts Express.

I’m going to make a full Quidditch Pitch out of two sets and make a double sized Kings Cross. I will throw an extra car on my Hogwarts Express and display just the engine by itself somewhere (haven’t started these yet, but I have the sets).

I just need another whomping willow set and I’ll build a better griffindor tower and better willow!

All the extra characters are in display cases with my CMF series and looking awesome!

i doubt I will get more than one of the micro Hogwarts Castle, but if I did, I’d use the second for pieces to build that insane MOC posted a few pages ago. That thing was nuts!

[Scarilian]

15 hours ago, Whovastron said:

you seem to just want to blame Lego for everything.

I am simply seeing people here saying none of the fault lies on Lego. People claiming that "its not legos fault". I am acknowledging Lego's part in this. They have the ability to sell the Bricktober and Diagon Alley sets - however the poor handling of both via seemingly random distribution methods has resulted in stock running short due to scalpers, a loss of income/sales for the company and the negative stigma that will hang over future promotions such as Bricktober or otherwise.

15 hours ago, Whovastron said:

Yes an official store sold the set, but just one store in the whole world, do you seriously think they dried up the stock? This is in no way the first time a promotion has gone out of stock quickly, the set was just popular, so it sold out, there is literally no other factors involved. Infact, the early leak of the set led to more anticipation, boosting sales of the promotion.

Multiple stores. It did not dry up all the stock obviously, it did result in a large amount of individuals missing out on the set. It's difficult to calculate how many of the promotion were sold to single individuals as opposed to distributed as intended. The lack of adheering to the distribution rules is a factor - a massive one at that. You cannot turn a blind eye to the issues created by allowing an individual to purchase tons of copies of a set designed to be distributed on an individual basis - nor the financial impact of a promotion designed to sell stock being effectively given away.

To use the Harry Potter Bricktober set as an example, it was meant to only be with sales of $50 or more, instead it was sold for $7.99. An individual on Bricklink has 138 copies, another has 60, 44, 38, 36, 25, 23, 20...  over 300+ individuals who did not get a chance because the policy was not enforced properly. Thats not even factoring in how much stock was left unsold because an individual went elsewhere for the promotional item and/or did not need to spend the required amount.

15 hours ago, Whovastron said:

And not having a backup if the promotion holder backed out?

All retail outlets that have distributors have plans in place for if a distributor is unable to fullfill the contract and/or if something occurs that results in that distributor no longer being an option. I feel people are excusing the lack of preparedness of a global brand that should have had plans in place for if a specific store chose to either not be the distributor or would face closure. Even excusing the lack of a plan, the announcement of TRU closing came in March. Six/Seven months should have been enough time for Lego to get a plan together. The packaging redesign was done before August. Worst case scenario they could have used themselves as a distributor - which they are doing anyway by having the Ninjago Bricktober set distributed via the Black Friday event. It seems they rushed into finding a distributor which caused most the problems with the distribution rather than simply delaying the release or attaching the promotion to a specific event - they rushed release causing the previously mentioned problems.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I did not mean to start this big debate. I think there is fault to be shared in the situation, some of it definitely lying with Lego, but not nearly all of it. There. There’s nothing to be done about it now, we can’t change it, we should probably drop it before mods get involved. 

[Ferder]

13 hours ago, Osbot said:

Anyone buying more than one copy of each set? What did you do with them? I did the following:

Aragog looks more at home with a double sized lair and a lot more children.

I turned a great hall set into a 5 story astronomy tower.

I made Newt’s suitcase into a Monster Book of Monsters with a forbidden forest/Hagrid's Hut/buckbeak scene inside.

 

You should post some pics! (though maybe in their own MOC thread, not this one)

[Whovastron]

13 hours ago, Osbot said:

Anyone buying more than one copy of each set? What did you do with them? I did the following:

Aragog looks more at home with a double sized lair and a lot more children.

I turned a great hall set into a 5 story astronomy tower.

I made Newt’s suitcase into a Monster Book of Monsters with a forbidden forest/Hagrid's Hut/buckbeak scene inside.

Grindewalds escape was left as is and now I have an empty carriage for Hogwarts students off the Hogwarts Express.

I’m going to make a full Quidditch Pitch out of two sets and make a double sized Kings Cross. I will throw an extra car on my Hogwarts Express and display just the engine by itself somewhere (haven’t started these yet, but I have the sets).

I just need another whomping willow set and I’ll build a better griffindor tower and better willow!

All the extra characters are in display cases with my CMF series and looking awesome!

i doubt I will get more than one of the micro Hogwarts Castle, but if I did, I’d use the second for pieces to build that insane MOC posted a few pages ago. That thing was nuts!

Most certainly want to get another Hogwarts Express set for the reasons you say, allso another Whomping Willow Set, but to make the tree bigger rather than the castle

[Falconfan1414]

In a Q and A on Instagram a LEGO designer confirmed there is more Harry Potter sets on their way 

[Roebuck]

Just now, Falconfan1414 said:

In a Q and A on Instagram a LEGO designer confirmed there is more Harry Potter sets on their way 

Great to get it confirmed, but it is hardly a surprise and from what I understand do not specify when they will come

[Huigberts Builds]

4 hours ago, Falconfan1414 said:

In a Q and A on Instagram a LEGO designer confirmed there is more Harry Potter sets on their way 

That's some exciting news. I guess it won't take too long until we receive those sets, since otherwise they probably would have kept this information secret for now. Like maybe half a year? Or at least I hope so.

[GryffindorResistance]

Anyone have any good recommendations for modifying the Microscale Hogwarts to make it somewhat minifig scale - without changing its beautiful exterior too much?

The Great Hall is simple (just make two tables) , and everything in the rocks just needs higher rocks around it but still looking for suggestions! Thanks

[FordianL]

On 11/13/2018 at 12:21 AM, Osbot said:

I’m going to make a full Quidditch Pitch out of two sets and make a double sized Kings Cross. I will throw an extra car on my Hogwarts Express and display just the engine by itself somewhere (haven’t started these yet, but I have the sets).

 

I've also been thinking of getting two sets for the Quidditch Pitch. I'm thinking of having six towers: (four being the Hogwarts houses and two being random color combos of my choice, probably black w/ gray and yellow w/blue). Once I get those, I need to figure out how to construct the rest of the arena.

Also, I'm not much of a trains guy, but I do like the new Hogwarts Express. For someone not too into trains, would anyone recommend it?

[Huigberts Builds]

17 hours ago, GryffindorResistance said:

Anyone have any good recommendations for modifying the Microscale Hogwarts to make it somewhat minifig scale - without changing its beautiful exterior too much?

The Great Hall is simple (just make two tables) , and everything in the rocks just needs higher rocks around it but still looking for suggestions! Thanks

Really don't know how you could do that, but if it works I would love to see the results. If I'm not mistaken is the marble staircase tower about the same size as the one in the great hall set, so maybe a similar interieur could work.

[Graupensuppe]

18 hours ago, GryffindorResistance said:

Anyone have any good recommendations for modifying the Microscale Hogwarts to make it somewhat minifig scale - without changing its beautiful exterior too much?

Most of the rooms of the UCS castle don't actually seem to be that much smaller than the ones in the Great Hall and Whomping Willow sets to me.

Just remove all the tiny chairs and tables and replace the nanofigures by minifigures. At least that's what I did:

Edited November 14, 2018 by Graupensuppe

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

Regarding the Bricktober pack in the US, do we know for a fact that it won't be available online? I'd love to save myself the trip to the store.

[BacktoBricks]

12 hours ago, Graupensuppe said:

Most of the rooms of the UCS castle don't actually seem to be that much smaller than the ones in the Great Hall and Whomping Willow sets to me.

Just remove all the tiny chairs and tables and replace the nanofigures by minifigures. At least that's what I did:

Thanks for the pics; the minifigures look really cute in those dinky spaces. They are totally disproportional and yet somehow it works, probably because like you say the scale isn't too different to the minifigure sets so we're use to seeing them in small places. 

[ItamatTheGreat]

Anyone knows how I can get the HP bricktober packs in china or taiwan?

Edit: or berlin?

Edited November 15, 2018 by ItamatTheGreat

[Balrogofmorgoth]

Ok so I’m the B&N website, it mentions the HP event tomorrow and says it’s at 2:00pm. The Bricktober promotion is part of that event but I’m not sure if the promotion is all day or just starting at 2:00pm. It also says it’s a children’s event so idk if that means only children get the promotion. Anyone have any info to clarify?

[GoldenNinja3000]

4 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Ok so I’m the B&N website, it mentions the HP event tomorrow and says it’s at 2:00pm. The Bricktober promotion is part of that event but I’m not sure if the promotion is all day or just starting at 2:00pm. It also says it’s a children’s event so idk if that means only children get the promotion. Anyone have any info to clarify?

There’s a Harry Potter event at that time but I’m pretty sure the Lego promotion will run for the entire day. It’s free with $75+ Lego purchases and employees here told me that every store will only be getting 8 packs. 

I saw Crimes of Grindelwald on Tuesday night and last night, and absolutely loved it (although it’s not without its problems). I really hope we get some more Fantastic Beasts sets because I think some amazing locations and minifigures could be made. I especially want updated Tina and Queenie figures, and a minifigure of Claudia Kim’s Maledictus character. I hope Lego will make more sets for the third movie if the two on shelves have been selling well!

Edited November 16, 2018 by GoldenNinja3000