Wizarding World 2023 - Rumors & Discussion

[Bricknificent]

On Reddit under r/Legoleak, there is a list of retiring lego sets with a September 2023 update. Diagon Alley will retire one year later, on December 31st 2025! The Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition will retire one year earlier, on December 31st 2024.

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 minute ago, Bricknificent said:

Diagon Alley will retire one year later, on December 31st 2025!

That makes sense  Retiring DA only a year after introducing Gringotts would have been a huge mistake.

[JeanGreyForever]

3 hours ago, Bricknificent said:

On Reddit under r/Legoleak, there is a list of retiring lego sets with a September 2023 update. Diagon Alley will retire one year later, on December 31st 2025! The Hogwarts Express Collector’s Edition will retire one year earlier, on December 31st 2024.

Isn't the Hogwarts Express retiring rather soon? It hasn't been out very long. That seems to indicate it hasn't been a major seller.

[Accio Lego]

1 hour ago, JeanGreyForever said:

Isn't the Hogwarts Express retiring rather soon? It hasn't been out very long. That seems to indicate it hasn't been a major seller.

Hard to say whether it’s not a major seller, or it’s just not selling as well as Diagon Alley (which lego will want to keep on shelves longer thanks to the new Gringotts expansion). Each theme only has so much ‘shelf space’ work with, so some things are going to have to retire to make more room. But I wouldn’t consider it surprising that something marketed as a ‘Collector’s Edition’ has a more limited shelf life than a set that pairs with the theme’s latest offering. Even if they sold the exact same number of copies it would still make more sense to retire the Hogwarts Express first in this situation. 

[joeee]

Trimming down the space between the two T’s in Gringotts was nerve-wracking! I think I did okay *shrug* 

https://i.ibb.co/cTTgt7g/072-B98-BD-3032-4699-990-E-308-A89-A24-AEC.jpg

Taking the build slowly to enjoy it as long as possible. Also, having it at this stage is giving me 2011 Gringotts vibes lol!

[mark1991t]

1 hour ago, joeee said:

Trimming down the space between the two T’s in Gringotts was nerve-wracking! I think I did okay *shrug* 

The best I've seen so far. 

[BrickMatit]

1 hour ago, joeee said:

Trimming down the space between the two T’s in Gringotts was nerve-wracking! I think I did okay

I think you did a very good job. No more Gringot TS Bank 

have a good building time! When I built Diagon Alley with my brother we spent a week on it.

 

By the way, there's a reason for that horrible sticker? I've thought that maybe there's a margin of error in the printing, so the letters have to be some millimeters away from the edge and this create the empy space.

Anyway, I haven't bought the set yet, but I hope to manage to obtain a good result when building mine.

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by BrickMatit

[krimimimi]

Thanks for the minifig lists, @Seaber and @mark1991t. It might be worth considering age ranges of the character, too? Like I'd very much like to see a DHish Seamus; little Firstie Seamus blowing up a bridge doesn't work for me nearly as well.  Ditto the PPM version of Crabbe and Goyle. I need them for the DH RoHT. When the minifig we have of the character is too far at one or the other end of the series, then it does feel there's still a gap. 

Also, if we're counting Bem and Nigel, then iirc Pike was missing from the PoA list. 

21 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Honestly, I really doubt it. DA had the appeal of featuring the most prominent shops (besides Gringotts) and Gringotts has, well, Gringotts, plus the underground section and the dragon. Another add-on would be desirable, but that would lack the iconicity of the other two and DA will have reached its EOL by then, making the whole exercise a bit pointless for newcomers. An add-on for the new WWW on the other hand...

"pointless" - But that's not how they necessarily approach things. Look at the more expensive Ninjago sets, for example. The Ninjago City & Docks were EOL Dec 2019, but City Gardens wasn't released until Feb 2021, and City Markets June 2023.

While I agree that knowing that ultimately there's going to be a more coherent display is a selling point - I didn't pull the trigger on N.City because I thought it would look odd by itself on the shelf - on the other hand having too high a price tag attached to a display per unit of time is also off putting. I had to save up for Diagon Alley, doubling the buy in too quickly would probably have kept me from even starting. I'm certain they have plenty of stats available on the sweet point to maximise sales. 

As for most prominent, the Leaky, Eyelops and Madam Malkins' are more prominent, for me anyway, than Scribulus, say, although I appreciate the Leaky might be rough as it's an ugly and deliberately plain exterior. (Iirc, in the HP lego video game, they had to resort to placing a busker in front for visual interest.) Even Slug & Jiggers or Mulpepper's (you have to have an apothecary), Sugarplum's (for the colours alone, and its form lends itself better to lego than many others on the street), Potage's and Wiseacre's for the storefronts... Even the Menagerie deserves better treatment than it received in Gringotts. And if we include KA, and they should, then Borgin and Burkes is an exceedingly obvious choice, and has even been part of a set before that could really do with updating. Dystyl Phaelanges is also another standout that really pops that I've been quite keen to see a build for (and that's despite never visiting the WWoHP).

Honestly, there's so much there they could sell to me over time, and I can't imagine I'm the only one. lego, take my moneys please.

 

As for 2024 1st HY, 1) Forbidden Forest - spot one for potential new animals. (I wish they'd included Fang here, however.)  2) Boat House, 3) Owlery (but only because I was impatient and built my own), 4) Hagrid's, 5) the Ford - a belated thanks @Accio Lego for your defense of the set; you're so right. 6) Hedwig, 7) Sorting Hat.

[BrickBob Studpants]

30 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

"pointless" - But that's not how they necessarily approach things. Look at the more expensive Ninjago sets, for example. The Ninjago City & Docks were EOL Dec 2019, but City Gardens wasn't released until Feb 2021, and City Markets June 2023.

I see your point, but the Ninjago City sets aren‘t based on anything pre-existing, so those can easily be displayed on their own. I highly doubt anyone would buy a D2C set with some of the „lesser“ DA shops unless they already own one or both of the other sets. They’re just not as iconic as those two IMO

[mark1991t]

30 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

Also, if we're counting Bem and Nigel, then iirc Pike was missing from the PoA list. 

Off-course we count them. LEGO makes these sets off of the movies. They are in it.

Quote

Honestly, there's so much there they could sell to me over time, and I can't imagine I'm the only one. lego, take my moneys please.

You're not the only one. I absolutely want a Diagon Alley 2 with pretty much everything you mentioned. And Its compatible with Gringotts too, so Diagon Alley doesn't need to be around that long as long as Gringotts is on the shelves.

[krimimimi]

3 hours ago, mark1991t said:

Off-course we count them. LEGO makes these sets off of the movies. They are in it.

Then we need Pike as well. https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Pike 😊

[Seaber]

On 9/14/2023 at 8:28 PM, Timemaster11 said:

 

 

I mashed both of your lists together and got a Count of 63.    

PS 10,   CoS 7,   PoA  5,   GoF 8,   OotP 10,   HBP 9,   DH 14

 

	DH	Non-Speaking	Mark1991T	No Line

 

 

Nice to see the lists combined, just a quick explanation on why some are missing from mine - 

Firenze I had along with the goblins as they are not humans, however the list is now so small I may as well include him in the PS characters. 

Fat Lady, the Longbottoms and Charlie Weasley only appear in photos or paintings, so I'm not expecting figures of them. 

Winky and Terry Boot I don't think actually appear. There are a couple of house elves in GoF but no evidence of either being Winky and Terry Boot is sort of in the background in PS, but is far more background than say Susan Bones or Hannah Abbott. 

Bem, Nigel and the Waitress are all film introduced characters that aren't in the books, and there was no real indication they'd be included, however with the Owl Post Worker who isn't even in the films, I guess these are now possible, however the list is large with Pike and Kellah and several others so I was still planning to omit these for now. 

Mr and Mrs Granger and Housekeeping Witch - these I forgot! I'll add them, I like that and future Leaky Cauldron set gets another possible minifig. There is also the witch who asks Harry if he's lost in Knockturn Alley. 

19 hours ago, krimimimi said:

Thanks for the minifig lists, @Seaber and @mark1991t. It might be worth considering age ranges of the character, too? Like I'd very much like to see a DHish Seamus; little Firstie Seamus blowing up a bridge doesn't work for me nearly as well.  Ditto the PPM version of Crabbe and Goyle. I need them for the DH RoHT. When the minifig we have of the character is too far at one or the other end of the series, then it does feel there's still a gap. 

Yeah, I agree about the different ages, however the list is just to keep a running total of which characters have or have not appeared to date. Many students often change a lot over the course of the eight films, not just different haircuts but facially too, so a variant tracker would be useful but a big job! Most adult characters look the same throughout, with some exceptions (Flitwick, Tonks 😁) 

In the films, five non-students change actor - Dumbledore (got both), Bozo/Daily Prophet photographer (got the one from CoS), Tom the Barman (got neither), the Trolley Witch (got the one from PS) and Aberforth (got the one from DH). 

Some Death Eater and Order members were also played by background actors and recast but that's for a much deeper dive into the background players which I don't have time to do yet 🙂

Edited September 18, 2023 by Seaber

[mark1991t]

3 hours ago, Seaber said:

Fat Lady, the Longbottoms and Charlie Weasley only appear in photos or paintings, so I'm not expecting figures of them. 

Thats true, I did not expect them either, until last year. We got a variant of Sirius in the Advent Calendar who's wearing something he only whore in a photograph. Furthermore, we even got the founders of Hogwarts in 2018, who only appear in promotional material for the movies. Therefor I think there are possibilities for these characters.  

[Accio Lego]

1 hour ago, mark1991t said:

Thats true, I did not expect them either, until last year. We got a variant of Sirius in the Advent Calendar who's wearing something he only whore in a photograph. Furthermore, we even got the founders of Hogwarts in 2018, who only appear in promotional material for the movies. Therefor I think there are possibilities for these characters.  

Let’s not forget James and Lily Potter, who really only appear in photos, the mirror of Erised, and as specters for very short scenes in GoF and DH2. The adult Lily also has a couple short flashback scenes, but not adult James. It’s a little more than those who’ve only appeared in photos, but when taken with the founders and mug shot Sirius I don’t think we can fully discount characters that were only shown through photos, especially characters that showed up and had small but significant roles in the books. 

[Mordarch]

On 9/17/2023 at 11:40 AM, BrickMatit said:

By the way, there's a reason for that horrible sticker? I've thought that maybe there's a margin of error in the printing, so the letters have to be some millimeters away from the edge and this create the empy space.

That's exactly it, you can never guarantee perfect prints or cuts so designer have to give the stickers either a margin or make the design bigger than the cut to prevent an outline on the sticker itself. This is also why a print would not have worked lego bricks also tend to have a little margin around the edge where it cannot be printed or the mistakes would be too distracting. The only two ways they could've done the 'Gringotts Bank' differently is to shift the text, but this would've made it off-centre or introduce a new solid piece for the curve so it could be one sticker. The latter one would be the prefered choice.

[Seaber]

On 9/18/2023 at 4:26 PM, mark1991t said:

Thats true, I did not expect them either, until last year. We got a variant of Sirius in the Advent Calendar who's wearing something he only whore in a photograph. Furthermore, we even got the founders of Hogwarts in 2018, who only appear in promotional material for the movies. Therefor I think there are possibilities for these characters.  

I would struggle to think of a place for the Longbottoms, but I guess Charlie in a Weasley based set would make sense. It would be good to get the Fad Lady as a figure, perhaps in a brick built frame, but again not going to hold my breath on these ones :) 

On 9/18/2023 at 6:20 PM, Accio Lego said:

Let’s not forget James and Lily Potter, who really only appear in photos, the mirror of Erised, and as specters for very short scenes in GoF and DH2. The adult Lily also has a couple short flashback scenes, but not adult James. It’s a little more than those who’ve only appeared in photos, but when taken with the founders and mug shot Sirius I don’t think we can fully discount characters that were only shown through photos, especially characters that showed up and had small but significant roles in the books. 

Lily and James were my first thought too, but even as photos they were very prominent - unlike the Longbottoms and Charlie. 

[Accio Lego]

1 hour ago, Seaber said:

Lily and James were my first thought too, but even as photos they were very prominent - unlike the Longbottoms and Charlie. 

True enough, but I think when you consider their significance to the greater franchise outside the movies their chances get a little better. Especially Charlie, who has a small but not insignificant role in the books and heavily features in the Hogwarts Mystery mobile game - a decent number of people will want him just to fully complete their lego Weasley family (especially once the inevitable Bill minifig shows up). 

[BrickBob Studpants]

Fans of other themes are struggling to get minifigs of main characters pivotal to the movies‘ or shows’ plots, while we‘re merrily discussing minifigs based on characters from deleted scenes, 1 second background extras, or characters only showing up on PAINTINGS.

Gee, I sure do wonder who’s the favourite child among the licensed themes

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Fans of other themes are struggling to get minifigs of main characters pivotal to the movies‘ or shows’ plots, while we‘re merrily discussing minifigs based on characters from deleted scenes, 1 second background extras, or characters only showing up on PAINTINGS.

Gee, I sure do wonder who’s the favourite child among the licensed themes

I don't care what figures they produce in 2024, as long as there is an Owen Grady in a Jurassic World set and a Batman and Joker combo. The fans are crying out for these and they don't even appear in sets that they have nothing to do with! 

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 hour ago, RichardGoring said:

Owen Grady […] a Batman and Joker […]

For real. Sure, we get our fair share of the trio, but also lots of popular and obscure characters to make up for that  The HP team is even giving the SW one a run for their money! Let alone other themes.

[RichardGoring]

27 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

For real. Sure, we get our fair share of the trio, but also lots of popular and obscure characters to make up for that  The HP team is even giving the SW one a run for their money! Let alone other themes.

You know, I don't even mind that much about the trio appearing a lot, because they are often varied, they appear in those scenes, and you get a load of other characters too for variety. It is, as you say, pretty good. In fact, in a decent number of sets where you do get them, they're essentially other characters through polyjuice potion, so ignore the alternate face and you don't even have them there. They're definitely doing a great job on that front.

The insistence of shoehorning lead characters that aren't connected to sets in other themes is very frustrating though. As is focusing on things related solely to lead characters at the expense of variety.

[Seaber]

Just done a quick count so may be one or two out, but so far (including polyjuice potions, disguises, etc, but not the gold figs) we've had 46 Harry, 26 Ron, and 30 Hermione variants. Not bad for six years! 

[JeanGreyForever]

I'd still like to see minifigs dressed for Bill and Fleur's wedding. 

[Xenophilius]

For folks in the US looking for a good price on the new Lego Harry Potter Advent calendar, I noticed that my local Costco now has it in stock and is selling it for $35.

[karrit]

1 hour ago, Xenophilius said:

For folks in the US looking for a good price on the new Lego Harry Potter Advent calendar, I noticed that my local Costco now has it in stock and is selling it for $35.

I picked up HP, SW & Marvel in Costco the yesterday just to be sure I have them.  If prices go the way they did over the past few years I will eventually return them if I get better prices from Target, Walmart or elsewhere.  The Costco I went to only had one layer of a pallet left so I figured it was time to bite the bullet.  They had lots of the SW one but only one row each of HP & Marvel.  I know the few Targets I've been in didn't seem to have any HP ones out so don't know if they are holding them back or haven't gotten stock yet.  I haven't really checked the stock in Walmart yet.  Haven't gotten the City or Friends ones yet, but did see those as well as SW & Marvel in Target.