Harry Potter 2021 - Rumors & Discussion

[lego_guyon02]

For me the 2018-2020 sets were pretty much exactly what I wanted from a LEGO Harry Potter reboot: a well thought out journey through the various films with sets that perfectly mixed play and display, resulting in fantastic products that appealed to children and adults alike. The 2021 wave then proceeded to do a complete 180 on this concept, dividing (for a lack of a better word) the theme into play and display sets instead of focussing on retaining the aforementioned "perfect mix of play and display". Besides the sheer amount of sets that have been released this year feeling a bit overkill the removal of this "perfect mix" resulted, at least for me personally, in an overwhelming amount of sets that just did not appeal to me due to me greatly disliking the new Hogwarts system and not having an interest in non-minifigure scale sets. While there are plenty of fantastic figures, creatures, stickers and prints to celebrate the only set I would actually call good is Hogsmeade, which is right up there with the 2018-2020 sets. 

Having said all this 2021 had a major focus on the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone so it's hard to tell where the future of the theme lies. Is this the new path the theme will follow or will 2022 and beyond see a return to form? Regardless of what the designers have planned for the future of this theme I just hope that, a few years from now, I will look back at this year of Harry Potter sets as "the year the theme didn't really interest me" and not as "the beginning of the end".

[BacktoBricks]

11 minutes ago, lego_guyon02 said:

For me the 2018-2020 sets were pretty much exactly what I wanted from a LEGO Harry Potter reboot: a well thought out journey through the various films with sets that perfectly mixed play and display, resulting in fantastic products that appealed to children and adults alike. The 2021 wave then proceeded to do a complete 180 on this concept, dividing (for a lack of a better word) the theme into play and display sets instead of focussing on retaining the aforementioned "perfect mix of play and display". Besides the sheer amount of sets that have been released this year feeling a bit overkill the removal of this "perfect mix" resulted, at least for me personally, in an overwhelming amount of sets that just did not appeal to me due to me greatly disliking the new Hogwarts system and not having an interest in non-minifigure scale sets. While there are plenty of fantastic figures, creatures, stickers and prints to celebrate the only set I would actually call good is Hogsmeade, which is right up there with the 2018-2020 sets. 

Having said all this 2021 had a major focus on the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone so it's hard to tell where the future of the theme lies. Is this the new path the theme will follow or will 2022 and beyond see a return to form? Regardless of what the designers have planned for the future of this theme I just hope that, a few years from now, I will look back at this year of Harry Potter sets as "the year the theme didn't really interest me" and not as "the beginning of the end".

This. Exactly.

[doclord]

I'm not sure about the doom and gloom when this seems pretty clearly a "break" year from the usual HP stuff to commemorate the tenth anniversary. It's not like we're missing crucial sets aside from Gringotts and Deathly Hallows so after they knock those out, the theme is effectively "done" isn't it? 

So next year can have all that and then it's a matter of rereleases and/or going obscure or alternative again.

[Brick Clicker]

59 minutes ago, Huigberts Builds said:

Sorry if this has already been answered, but where's the golden Dumbledore design from? It looks different from the Dumbledore's we've gotten so far, or am I forgetting one? All the other golden figures are based on normal figures right? So why not this one? On a sidenote, happy to be able to skip a set this year, not gonna need my wallet anymore for storage after this amazing year of sets in (almost) all themes.

It might be based off the one from series 2 cmf version but I might be wrong with that 

[Micmac]

The new set looks lovely. Lovely is how I feel about these types of sets. Really nice details and cute builds. I have Hedwig, fun build and off to the shelf with it. I got Fawkes as well as it was going cheap, off to the shelf to gather dust too. So this sets is more lovely but do I think the $ are worth spending on it to build and then set it up somewhere to look at. Probably not for me but I can see why other people would.

The other Hedwig was at price point that was an impulse buy and it had an exclusive figure. The Golden figures are not really must have figures, I would like the golden witch hat and Dumbledore hat but I can bricklink them or hopefully lego will have them. So I can see the appeal but these sets are never must have sets. My logical brain kicks in and I make adult decisions about them as opposed to my child 'must have now' brain buying normal Harry Potter play sets.

So it's a bit sad now that we have seen everything that 2021 has to offer, a mixed bag that had more lows than highs for me. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next year and hopefully they are not planning a three year run of the new Hogwarts stackable style. And even if they are I think the none hogwarts locations will still be the same quality as the Hogsmeade set as they are stand alone sets. 

Building my Hogwarts mocs will keep me inspired this year. I'm building the Durmstrang ship at the moment which I do think we might get a version of next year.

[Modal]

27 minutes ago, doclord said:

I'm not sure about the doom and gloom when this seems pretty clearly a "break" year from the usual HP stuff to commemorate the tenth anniversary. It's not like we're missing crucial sets aside from Gringotts and Deathly Hallows so after they knock those out, the theme is effectively "done" isn't it? 

So next year can have all that and then it's a matter of rereleases and/or going obscure or alternative again.

Except it’s pretty likely that we are not getting Gringotts nor Deathly Hallows next year, based on how Marcos worded it.

[chris6507]

I'm just surprised how easily people seemed to be swayed by this set. Everyone hated the idea and now everyone loves it. Personally It's exactly the sort of thing I was easily going to pass on and find it even easier still. Only thing that really annoys me about it, is that I was expecting one golden figure (which i've been collecting so far), not 3! Now I just have to try and figure out how to either convince myself that my golden figure collection is complete without these 3 or whether i'm actually comfortable paying the extortionate prices these will likely go for. Absolutely hate LEGO for doing this. It's made anyone's golden figure collection 66% complete in one foul swoop!

Happy some people like this thing, but I personally rank this thing well below the chess set which is pretty sad (and yes, my personal opinion).

Edited August 2, 2021 by chris6507

[Robert8]

Love it!

Great piece for display

[Clone OPatra]

22 minutes ago, doclord said:

I'm not sure about the doom and gloom when this seems pretty clearly a "break" year from the usual HP stuff to commemorate the tenth anniversary. It's not like we're missing crucial sets aside from Gringotts and Deathly Hallows so after they knock those out, the theme is effectively "done" isn't it? 

So next year can have all that and then it's a matter of rereleases and/or going obscure or alternative again.

The thing is, we could still be thinking this if Marcos Bessa (the design lead) hadn't made statements to the contrary. From the sounds of it, for some reason they only had a three year plan to do parts 1-6 with no contingency for 7, then when that was going well they cooked up this year to honour the anniversary, and they have no particular plans for Deathly Hallows or Gringotts.

[doclord]

1 hour ago, Modal said:

Except it’s pretty likely that we are not getting Gringotts nor Deathly Hallows next year, based on how Marcos worded it.

43 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

The thing is, we could still be thinking this if Marcos Bessa (the design lead) hadn't made statements to the contrary. From the sounds of it, for some reason they only had a three year plan to do parts 1-6 with no contingency for 7, then when that was going well they cooked up this year to honour the anniversary, and they have no particular plans for Deathly Hallows or Gringotts.

I actually didn't know he commented on it. I can't see what else they'd do.

[Lion King]

2 hours ago, lego_guyon02 said:

For me the 2018-2020 sets were pretty much exactly what I wanted from a LEGO Harry Potter reboot: a well thought out journey through the various films with sets that perfectly mixed play and display, resulting in fantastic products that appealed to children and adults alike. The 2021 wave then proceeded to do a complete 180 on this concept, dividing (for a lack of a better word) the theme into play and display sets instead of focussing on retaining the aforementioned "perfect mix of play and display". Besides the sheer amount of sets that have been released this year feeling a bit overkill the removal of this "perfect mix" resulted, at least for me personally, in an overwhelming amount of sets that just did not appeal to me due to me greatly disliking the new Hogwarts system and not having an interest in non-minifigure scale sets. While there are plenty of fantastic figures, creatures, stickers and prints to celebrate the only set I would actually call good is Hogsmeade, which is right up there with the 2018-2020 sets. 

Having said all this 2021 had a major focus on the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone so it's hard to tell where the future of the theme lies. Is this the new path the theme will follow or will 2022 and beyond see a return to form? Regardless of what the designers have planned for the future of this theme I just hope that, a few years from now, I will look back at this year of Harry Potter sets as "the year the theme didn't really interest me" and not as "the beginning of the end".

Right on, you make a point.

[RichardGoring]

2 hours ago, BacktoBricks said:

Like you I'm not going to base too much on one set, but what screams to me with this set is how Lego seems to be really pushing the 'Lego as trendy adult art' concept. And whilst sets like these certainly have a market and I do think the set is fantastic in its own right, I'm hoping they don't start to overshadow the great playsets that we have also seen in the past few years. Whilst I think the pandemic has influenced Lego to really capitalise on the adult market, I hope they don't forget that the HP theme started with and has grown so popular on the fantastic playsets and not on purely trendy art pieces.

 

2 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Who know's what kind of set makes sense on the market. Lego looks like they wanna go away from traditional sets - maybe they are wrong but maybe we are a minority here and for many collectors space has run out and they won't get any more 300€ builds with whatever 20 figures. This set or the nanoscale Hogwarts was pulling many of my friends who never purchased any Lego sets ever. So maybe it's a gamble by Lego to reach a different audience or maybe it's a safe thing.
 

I can easily see the logic of this set. There are a very large number of adult Harry Potter fans out there who don't buy LEGO generally, but would be delighted to get this really very impressive set for $250. The pandemic has brought many people to home-based activities that LEGO is great for. The same happened with the FRIENDS Ideas set too.

I think it looks great and is well executed. I appreciate it as a set and think it's great that people will no doubt have a fun building experience and enjoy a wonderful model afterwards. Although I personally won't get it as I prefer the minifig scale sets for HP (and yet I really like the buildable models in the Ideas line).

[The_Chosen_1]

Gotta chime in here and say that I’m absolutely floored by this model!!

I’ve been trying to convince myself lately to phase out of collecting the HP theme, but this will definitely pull me back in. An absolute must-buy.

[BigHobbit]

While I traditionally get more minifig scale sets, this Hogwarts Icons set reminds me of a really cool build I would see on LEGO Masters...except it's something you can actually purchase. I don't find the items disjointed at all...the items are all very typical items Harry would own all in a single sculpture. 

[BigHobbit]

Just to head off rumors, according to this article, the golden minifigure trio with the chocolate frog packaging is actually a gift with purchase set premiering with the Hogwarts Icons set. HOWEVER, a picture on the back of the box shows the golden minifigures, so I don't think this is true.

Edited August 3, 2021 by BigHobbit

[SoupOrFishOil]

The display is on the back of the Icons box. It's not a GWP, but maybe it is packaged inside as a bonus like the Silencio! display in DA.

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, Prometheus87 said:

I assume that next year, 2022 D2C will be another Icons set with Fawkes and Dumbledore's office objects.

I think that is exactly what we will not get, and probably why we did not get a DA set this year. The HP theme designers like to experiment and give us something different every year the opposite of e.g. SW

9 hours ago, Lacdaran said:

 I feel like the lego designers did an amazing job turning a bunch of bad ideas into art pieces, but it doesn't change the fact that whomever planned out the wave and decided what sets to make royally missed the mark.

I guess they will find out when they see the sales numbers, that's what matters not what we think here

8 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

We know that it's the designers who tend to pitch the ideas that wind up becoming sets, and it seems therefore that the designers are losing interest or confidence in just making traditional LEGO play sets. We already got three non playsets this year, and four playset adjacent sets with the Moments sets, and now we get another big one.

I think the designers get a lot more free reins than in other themes, if one comes up with a great idea they will make it into a set 

7 hours ago, RODDY said:

While I personally don’t like the buildable objects, if they do sell well and help keep the Harry Potter line alive, then I’ll accept it as a “necessary evil”. I’d much rather have a couple of good sets that round out what we’re missing then having no sets at all.

I see the buildable objects as a way for Lego to keep an imo, not an evergreen theme evergreen. Throw in a bunch of remakes and more of the new modular Hogwarts extensions as they have been doing, they have content for the next five years at least. Maybe eventually they’ll throw in some more less likely sets like 12 Grimmauld’s Place to test the waters. Also means more spread out purchases for me, which is totally fine since there are so many other themes to collect as well. Honestly I’m just thankful for the first three years and while I thought the 2021 wave didn’t stack up as well to waves prior, I really do love the new modular Hogwarts. 

I agree with this, we may not get only 2018-2020 in the coming years, but we will get a lot of great sets that and probably some every year in that style, is it better that we got DA this year and they stopped the theme

7 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Who know's what kind of set makes sense on the market. Lego looks like they wanna go away from traditional sets - maybe they are wrong but maybe we are a minority here and for many collectors space has run out and they won't get any more 300€ builds with whatever 20 figures. This set or the nanoscale Hogwarts was pulling many of my friends who never purchased any Lego sets ever. So maybe it's a gamble by Lego to reach a different audience or maybe it's a safe thing.

I am pretty sure this set will make a lot of new AFOLs

6 hours ago, doclord said:

I'm not sure about the doom and gloom when this seems pretty clearly a "break" year from the usual HP stuff to commemorate the tenth anniversary. It's not like we're missing crucial sets aside from Gringotts and Deathly Hallows so after they knock those out, the theme is effectively "done" isn't it? 

So next year can have all that and then it's a matter of rereleases and/or going obscure or alternative again.

I think they do this to make something new and avoid a lot of re-releases as long as they can

6 hours ago, Modal said:

Except it’s pretty likely that we are not getting Gringotts nor Deathly Hallows next year, based on how Marcos worded it.

I have not seen that interview do to Wi-Fi trouble for 2 weeks, do you have a link? However in general Lego designers do not talk about future sets so I find it hard to belive he said we are not getting that. As long as the theme keeps on going we will see more sets from DA and DH, they scale could be different than the DA we have, but it is only a matter of time..

4 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

I can easily see the logic of this set. There are a very large number of adult Harry Potter fans out there who don't buy LEGO generally, but would be delighted to get this really very impressive set for $250. The pandemic has brought many people to home-based activities that LEGO is great for. The same happened with the FRIENDS Ideas set too.

Exactly

2 hours ago, BigHobbit said:

While I traditionally get more minifig scale sets, this Hogwarts Icons set reminds me of a really cool build I would see on LEGO Masters...except it's something you can actually purchase. I don't find the items disjointed at all...the items are all very typical items Harry would own all in a single sculpture. 

That what a nice way to explain it, it is a piece of Lego art in my mind

2 hours ago, BigHobbit said:

Just to head off rumors, according to this article, the golden minifigure trio with the chocolate frog packaging is actually a gift with purchase set premiering with the Hogwarts Icons set. HOWEVER, a picture on the back of the box shows the golden minifigures, so I don't think this is true.

Sound really unlikely since they are on the box

[Clone OPatra]

14 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

I think the designers get a lot more free reins than in other themes, if one comes up with a great idea they will make it into a set 

I have not seen that interview do to Wi-Fi trouble for 2 weeks, do you have a link? However in general Lego designers do not talk about future sets so I find it hard to belive he said we are not getting that. As long as the theme keeps on going we will see more sets from DA and DH, they scale could be different than the DA we have, but it is only a matter of time..

Responding to these two points, on the subject of the designers having free reins, that's precisely what worries me. It seems the designers themselves are getting more interested in creating these non-playset sets rather than terrific playset ones. It's like they're a bit bored of creating the exact sets that I want most from this theme!

The Deathly Hallows thing was an Instagram AMA, saved in Marcos' saved stories. It's precisely THAT he said that they find it hard to create sets from DH that's worrying. If they had something in the pipeline he would've had to say "can't talk about upcoming releases, sorry!" But he did of course leave it a bit open with a "But who knows..", so yes I expect they'd get there eventually, but not necessarily very soon.

The Gringotts thing came from an interview by the YouTuber BricksByMind, but he apparently lost the actual recording of the interview so posted a summary of it. He said it with no ambiguity, but it would be better hearing Marcos say it himself.

[karrit]

Considering that a while back Marcos did an online interview where his face lit up like a Christmas tree when asked about Gringotts I find it hard to believe they don't have one in the works by now even though he didn't directly answer the question.

[Tommy9]

8 hours ago, Micmac said:

Building my Hogwarts mocs will keep me inspired this year. I'm building the Durmstrang ship at the moment which I do think we might get a version of next year.

Can’t wait to see it.

4 hours ago, BigHobbit said:

Just to head off rumors, according to this article, the golden minifigure trio with the chocolate frog packaging is actually a gift with purchase set premiering with the Hogwarts Icons set. HOWEVER, a picture on the back of the box shows the golden minifigures, so I don't think this is true.

I really wish this was true. However, seeing that they are on the back of the box, it seems likely that this isn’t. My favourite parts of the set are the golden minifigures + stand and the potions. CMF Dumbledore’s head piece, Mcgonagall’s hat and most of Hagrid are really cool pieces to get in gold. I might get it, I might not. However, I am certain that I will get the golden figures eventually. 

[Roebuck]

51 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

Responding to these two points, on the subject of the designers having free reins, that's precisely what worries me. It seems the designers themselves are getting more interested in creating these non-playset sets rather than terrific playset ones. It's like they're a bit bored of creating the exact sets that I want most from this theme!

Lego designers have one day (I do not remember how often) where they can make what ever they want and I believe it is here that they make a lot of these concept arts, that sometimes end up as sets. I do not think the HP designers can make whatever they want on a regular basis. My guess is that next year we will see more sets from this year Hogwarts style, those who do not like them will at least gets some figs and animals out of it. Then there is probably more stand alone sets like Hogsmeade this year e.g. the second task, shrieking shack etc that collectors of only the 2018-2020 set can use as they are. In addition to other sets like this D2C, maxifigs etc that are easy pass for that kind of collector So probably something for every one and the theme will stay evergreen, but it depends on what kind of collector you are how many sets are for you every year  

[???theriddler???]

I won't buy the set, because it's not for me. But I have to say the design is really good!

[Salix]

I like the set, but unlike DA it won't be a day one purchase.

Edited August 3, 2021 by Salix

[drewdotexe]

9 hours ago, chris6507 said:

I'm just surprised how easily people seemed to be swayed by this set. Everyone hated the idea and now everyone loves it. Personally It's exactly the sort of thing I was easily going to pass on and find it even easier still. Only thing that really annoys me about it, is that I was expecting one golden figure (which i've been collecting so far), not 3! Now I just have to try and figure out how to either convince myself that my golden figure collection is complete without these 3 or whether i'm actually comfortable paying the extortionate prices these will likely go for. Absolutely hate LEGO for doing this. It's made anyone's golden figure collection 66% complete in one foul swoop!

Happy some people like this thing, but I personally rank this thing well below the chess set which is pretty sad (and yes, my personal opinion).

What info we have been drip-fed hasn't exactly been presented in a positive light so peoples expectations have been lowered massively I guess. Hard to form a neutral opinion when every piece of guesswork has been met with "lower your expectation" with no real reason as to why that should happen.

Perhaps hypocritically of me, that saaaaaaid....I think Hedwig is an improvement from last year but the rest of it is forgettable. Probably not going to pick it up.

Edited August 3, 2021 by drewdotexe

[Sir Godric]

Hallo @ all

Do we already know if there will be

a new GWP next time from the HP theme?