Wizarding World 2022 - Rumors & Discussion

[Brickroll]

48 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Now it’s on track to suffer the same fate as LotR, SW, Marvel, DC, JW, PotC, Indy, and most other licensed themes by having a big gaping hole in their range of sets. Even the themes that got very close had pretty significant gaps in the end (The Hobbit, Toy Story).Rant over.

Star Wars? I don’t mean to get too off topic, but the main stuff they didn’t cover was just later seasons of Rebels and a few things in Resistance. It’s unfortunate, but not really a gaping hole, is it? Especially compared to some of the other themes you mentioned and the lack of DH sets.

Edited January 15, 2022 by Brickroll

[BrickBob Studpants]

Just now, Brickroll said:

Star Wars? I don’t mean to get too off topic, but the main stuff they didn’t cover was just later seasons of Rebels and Resistance. It’s unfortunate, but not really a gaping hole, is it?

Well, that and lots of important characters from the prequels, sequels, and spin-offs  The OT is the only era I would consider almost complete in terms of characters, with one glaring omission #whereismyniennunbminifigyoucowards

Also, SW has the advantage of having had a constant output since 1999, which cannot be said for any other licensed theme. So what HP was on track of achieving in a pretty short time was very impressive, only for them to derail divert the train in another direction  

Can't wait to learn what they have in store for us this summer, even though deep down I know it won't be what I really want for this theme. At least there's other cool stuff besides DH they could still do 

[BlueberryWaffles]

4 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

The OT is the only era I would consider almost complete in terms of characters, with one glaring omission #whereismyniennunbminifigyoucowards

No love for Aunt Beru?

[BrickBob Studpants]

2 minutes ago, BlueberryWaffles said:

No love for Aunt Beru?

Whoops, forgot about her  #whileyoureatitgiveusauntberutoobutpleasenotthecrispyversionthanks

[Clone OPatra]

12 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Also, SW has the advantage of having had a constant output since 1999, which cannot be said for any other licensed theme. So what HP was on track of achieving in a pretty short time was very impressive, only for them to derail divert the train in another direction  

Have they really diverted it in another direction, though? Ok, so they're doing more Hogwarts stuff (which they were always going to do somehow, be it 18-20 style or a different style), and they're doing more non-playsets, but they're still covering new ground and there's no reason to think they won't keep filling in some of the other missing locations like Gringotts, the Ministry, Shrieking Shack and Grimmauld Place in some form.

It's actually way more frustrating to me with Star Wars. In HP we already have nearly every consequential character with lines, and not only that but inconsequential characters with no lines and blink-and-you'll-miss amounts of screen time (Sinestra, Florian Fortescue, the owners of Honeydukes, Daily Prophet guy). Plus, at least the HP line has done sets based on some of the missing locations at one point (two Gringotts sets and one Shrieking Shack). For the Star Wars OT and PT, which LEGO has been doing continuously for over 20 years, we're still missing consequential characters with lines and screen time including Aunt Beru and Shmi Skywalker, Boss Nass, and Kaminoans - and all the locations where those characters have scenes.

I have more faith in HP finishing things out than Star Wars at this point.

[BrickBob Studpants]

29 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

Have they really diverted it in another direction, though? Ok, so they're doing more Hogwarts stuff (which they were always going to do somehow, be it 18-20 style or a different style), and they're doing more non-playsets, but they're still covering new ground and there's no reason to think they won't keep filling in some of the other missing locations like Gringotts, the Ministry, Shrieking Shack and Grimmauld Place in some form.

What I’m referring to is the 2-films-per-year pattern they abandoned by skipping DH and circling right back to PS/CoS (and a bit of PoA)  I know they didn’t have a plan beyond year 3 in the beginning, but you can’t blame us for thinking they’d continue a pattern like that

31 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

I have more faith in HP finishing things out than Star Wars at this point.

Only if they release sets based on DH, otherwise I consider them on the same level of incompleteness 

[Roebuck]

20 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

You would buy a set for $100 with 5 to 6 unnamed random civilians?  You do you

Of course most of the figs would be the usual suspects, but 1-2 per set could be a random shopper after all they have the same amount of screen-time as e.g. Florian Fortescue

33 minutes ago, Clone OPatra said:

I have more faith in HP finishing things out than Star Wars at this point.

Yes SW have been on repeat for years, HP try hard to make new things every time, when they make something similar like the car it makes sense to include it in the second set as well.

[BrickBob Studpants]

52 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

Yes SW have been on repeat for years, HP try hard to make new things every time, when they make something similar like the car it makes sense to include it in the second set as well.

It’s definitely one of the most impressive aspects of this theme, even the sort-of remakes are crammed with so much new stuff I can’t help but love them  That cannot be said for SW, where the remakes rarely include something worthwhile for the long-term collector anymore, even though they pretty easily could in most cases if they didn’t play it this mind-numbingly safe 

As I’ve said, (mostly) ignoring DH is the only failing of this theme in my eyes. The green roofs and blockier Hogwarts style I can live with, the DH-shaped hole in my collection however is nowhere near as easy to ignore

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

15 hours ago, BlueberryWaffles said:

No love for Aunt Beru?

I mean from a companys perspective - you don't need to do every character who appeared 5 seconds. And they did most of them anyway. Kids want the big characters and Lego manages to cramp in some minor characters here and there just for the hardcore fans anyway (Admiral Dondana or whatever beard-face guys name was from the last X-Wing set; yep this guy for sure wasn't done for kids).

And they almost didn't cover anything from Rebels unfortunately. Aside from S3 Kanan and Thrawn we've only ever had the S1 appearances and Sabine in that regard looked just horrible.. Not to mention that her S2 outfit came without helmet, despite being an overpriced 100€ set with only 4 figures to begin with...

Lego does what sells. And Rebels - as much as I loved it - was a trauma for the company. There is many instances where officials mentioned how retailers didn't want any sets from Rebels. I see the Phantom II set more as a  favour for fans as well.


With HP, as long as they cover some of the main parts from later movies it should be fine. And unlike LotR and some other companies, they seem to get along well with the licence owner.

[lego_guyon02]

3 hours ago, Kim-Kwang-Seok said:

Lego does what sells. And Rebels - as much as I loved it - was a trauma for the company. There is many instances where officials mentioned how retailers didn't want any sets from Rebels. I see the Phantom II set more as a  favour for fans as well.

Rebels was and still is a perfect example of bad timing though. The sets came out some time before the show and by the time it's popularity starting rising rapidly the sets were already hard to find and close to going EOL.

[BrickBob Studpants]

Well, TLG can get away with some gaps in SW by citing poor sales (even though I personally disagree with that reasoning because timing was the issue, not the subject matter, as @lego_guyon02 points out). 

This is certainly not the case with HP, unless the two 2011 DH sets happened to be shelf-warmers (which they weren’t, right?)  Maybe TLG really do think DH sets wouldn’t sell, but I have no idea how they reached that conclusion.

Hey, let’s look at the bright side though: at least we get to see Batman eating one of his hands, that oughta be quite the spectacle 

[steam235]

On 1/13/2022 at 8:00 AM, BrickBob Studpants said:

That’s pretty much the consensus  Other ideas have been thrown around, but none of them come even close in terms of feasability, desirability, or iconicity 

Motorized Hogwarts Express. 

Feasability...  Disney Train and Station is the proof of feasibility. Yes it's only $300 but it shows that it's the type of set they'd make. a 9 3/4 station with a gimick opening or a second platform could cover that price. 

Disirability.... There were six? Hogwarts Express trains in the original run for the theme, and was one of the show case pieces of the theme's relaunch four years ago. 

Iconicity.... It's the Hogwarts Express. 

[krimimimi]

Because we always seem to end up back here, here's what Marcos Bessa himself had to say on the topic last August:

Quote

 

For the first few years of the relaunch we had a clear strategy of focusing on the first few movies, then to move on to 4 and 5.

For 2021, we had a blank slate and got to look back at what we can do that’s fresh to keep the franchise relevant.

That’s where we decided to go for a soft restart on the story, so instead of looking at specific movies we decided to look at key moments. We reflected on what started the franchise, picking some of the strong sets and reinvented them to fit how we design sets now, as a love letter to the first sets.

It’s definitely not to say we won’t cover the later movies at some point, but they do tend to be aimed at a higher age which is why we target the first few movies. Our overall values are more in line with the first movies where there’s more magic and the universal theme of a wizarding school is more in line with our values. I definitely think we’re creative enough to sneak in things here and there, so who’s to say what will come in the future?

 

 

The interview was with Tips&Bricks and this excerpt appeared on Promobricks on 20. August. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

5 minutes ago, steam235 said:

Feasability...  Disney Train and Station is the proof of feasibility. Yes it's only $300 but it shows that it's the type of set they'd make. a 9 3/4 station with a gimick opening or a second platform could cover that price. 

That's a bit of a stretch. Why not reduce it to a $300 set then instead of unnecessarily buffing it up with "filler" like that? Especially when the $80 alternative is still readily available

6 minutes ago, steam235 said:

Iconicity.... It's the Hogwarts Express. 

Granted, iconicity is not an issue with this one.

7 minutes ago, steam235 said:

Disirability.... There were six? Hogwarts Express trains in the original run for the theme, and was one of the show case pieces of the theme's relaunch four years ago. 

Desirable? Yes. $470 levels of desirable? Ehhhhhh... 

5 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

Because we always seem to end up back here, here's what Marcos Bessa himself had to say on the topic last August:

I definitely think we’re creative enough to sneak in things here and there

This is exactly the part that bothers me. Sneaking in a DH outfit or two like they did with the new Trelawney sure is a nice gesture, but not a replacement for proper sets 

[Kim-Kwang-Seok]

2 hours ago, lego_guyon02 said:

Rebels was and still is a perfect example of bad timing though. The sets came out some time before the show and by the time it's popularity starting rising rapidly the sets were already hard to find and close to going EOL.

True. Timing is always an issue, especially in context of how long it takes for Lego to get sets for such a big licence.

Like now, while there is hype for the Boba Fett show - there are no sets in sight and months after it'll be over we'll get some probably inaccurate ones, based on concept art, without any of the key figures.

However: as said, I love Rebels but the show itself wasn't too popular - not at Disney, not with new kids and not with old CW fans and surely not with the classic SW fans. In addition, other toy brands had sets (like action figures, ship models) for a longer time and they were also flopping horribly.

[droobles]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

1 hour ago, steam235 said:

Feasability...  Disney Train and Station is the proof of feasibility. Yes it's only $300 but it shows that it's the type of set they'd make. a 9 3/4 station with a gimick opening or a second platform could cover that price. 

That's a bit of a stretch. Why not reduce it to a $300 set then instead of unnecessarily buffing it up with "filler" like that? Especially when the $80 alternative is still readily available

1 hour ago, steam235 said:

Iconicity.... It's the Hogwarts Express. 

Granted, iconicity is not an issue with this one.

1 hour ago, steam235 said:

Disirability.... There were six? Hogwarts Express trains in the original run for the theme, and was one of the show case pieces of the theme's relaunch four years ago. 

Desirable? Yes. $470 levels of desirable? Ehhhhhh... 

I agree that some sort of Ultimate Hogwarts Express is feasible, and totally desirable enough to be the $470 flagship. I'd guess the Hogwarts Express is more desirable among the general public than Gringotts. The 2004 Motorized Hogwarts was the most expensive Harry Potter set ever at the time.

I think there are plenty of ways to reasonably work up to $470.

Previous Hogwarts Express sets have covered a lot of different material - Platform 9 3/4, Hogsmeade Station, Ford Anglia. Those could all be combined and each could be scaled up. Especially Kings Cross could have a rendition justifying up to $200. Hogsmeade Station could be supplemented with Thestral carriages or the Hogwarts Gates. There's so many scenes to play around with throughout all eight films.

I could see them going for up to 3 carriages, which would be just one more than the Disney Train. We have seen two distinct carriages interiors in the films (compartments and open plan) so I think there is enough material there to make 3 distinct builds with some differing decorations. (Just 2 would look incomplete, right? I think they would go with either 1 or 3.)

Or instead of a running train, they could make Hogwarts Express as a collector's display by making a larger train on top of a build of the iconic viaduct in the Scottish Highlands.

Plus, this has a high potential for unique collectible minifigures like they have done with the Founders, the golden figures, or Harry & Hagrid in Diagon alley. They could include characters from the epilogue, like old versions of characters or their children. They could do Harry and Dumbledore in limbo-Kings-Cross. I think those would be huge draws. Or maybe the could do Voldemort-in-a-suit from OOTP. 

I would say Gringotts + Diagon Alley is a bit more likely just because such a set would probably be best timed to come out while the original Diagon Alley is still fresh. However I see Hogwarts Express as the next most likely candidate. Or maybe they will subvert our expectations again and do something like "Harry Visits Wizarding London" featuring Leaky Cauldron + Gringotts + Kings Cross + Hogwarts Express.

[BrickBob Studpants]

@droobles Your idea doesn’t sound bad, but in my opinion the minifig potential is really poor no matter what they’d do with a Hogwarts Express D2C  It’s either boring students, Ghostledore, Babymort, and/or the middle-aged trio plus their more-or-less cursed offspring  If this ends up happening and remains our only semi-major DH representation, I’m gonna strangle someone 

[droobles]

@BrickBob Studpants Obviously I just have a different opinion to you because I would love to get a lot of those. But have you considered... what if we get the muggle station guard?

[BrickBob Studpants]

2 minutes ago, droobles said:

But have you considered... what if we get the muggle station guard?

Well that changes everything, the most important and beloved side character in the entire franchise!  

One man’s trash is another’s horcrux, or something like that. I wouldn’t much care for any of these minifigs, but it could be worse, I’ll give you that

[Juve]

On 1/15/2022 at 7:42 PM, BrickBob Studpants said:

Interesting point. HP was one of the few large franchises that actually had a decent chance of being „completed“, given the obscure characters they were willing to cover. …and then they gave that idea the middlefinger by skipping DH 

Now it’s on track to suffer the same fate as LotR, SW, Marvel, DC, JW, PotC, Indy, and most other licensed themes by having a big gaping hole in their range of sets. Even the themes that got very close had pretty significant gaps in the end (The Hobbit, Toy Story).

They’re still doing a great job with the theme, but the way DH was treated will never not bug me 

Rant over.

Same idea here. They could complete the theme in two waves I think :D

[BlueberryWaffles]

I still don't think the Hogwarts Express is iconic enough for a $470 set (especially if most of the set would be non-train elements) but I have to admit, having the epilogue minifigs as incentive is an amazing idea. That's really the only way I could see them being made outside of another CMF series, and I would think there would be significant demand for them.

[Juve]

1 hour ago, BlueberryWaffles said:

I still don't think the Hogwarts Express is iconic enough for a $470 set (especially if most of the set would be non-train elements) but I have to admit, having the epilogue minifigs as incentive is an amazing idea. That's really the only way I could see them being made outside of another CMF series, and I would think there would be significant demand for them.

Imagine a huge train with both kings cross and hogsmeade station. Then you get both the old versions and the young versions of the characters. Something similar to the ucs millenium falcon that had both young and old characters like solo

[Legoman123]

I think the $500 set will be some form of Hogwarts to be honest, I really don’t see it been anything else for that price.  

[Clone OPatra]

19 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

What I’m referring to is the 2-films-per-year pattern they abandoned by skipping DH and circling right back to PS/CoS (and a bit of PoA)  I know they didn’t have a plan beyond year 3 in the beginning, but you can’t blame us for thinking they’d continue a pattern like that

Only if they release sets based on DH, otherwise I consider them on the same level of incompleteness 

I totally get what you mean and I also felt blindsided by their decision to abruptly stop after 6 and circle back to 1&2, but then again, they left a fair amount of gaps during the two-movie-per-year cycle, and I'm cool with those getting filled.

I'd also like to see DH done justice, and there are certainly one or two DH-specific characters that it'd feel crummy not to get ever, and yet I still feel more hopeful that we'll get the likes of Xenophilius Lovegood before we get a Shmi Skywalker. But personally if we never get Mundungus Fletcher or the Carrows, I won't lose sleep, though other might not feel the same way.

[RichardGoring]

I have a few found appreciation for just how sturdy and detailed the 71043 Hogwarts Castle is, having spent ages this weekend taking it apart. Wow, that's one tough set. With So. Many. Pieces!