nicknack116

Dang, was hoping the Indy sets from the original movies would be January 1st releases.

Found all 12 Muppets figures today. So excited! I modified my Palace Cinema months ago in preparation to become a Muppet Theater, complete with the first floor as the theater and the second floor as the "backstage" area with Kermit's desk and dressing rooms. I thought I'd share a few pics: MuppetTheater1 by Mr Screenright, on Flickr MuppetTheater3 by Mr Screenright, on Flickr MuppetTheater4 by Mr Screenright, on Flickr MuppetTheater8 by Mr Screenright, on Flickr

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's such a silly feeling, since everyone can get it in a couple days, but it just made my weekend.

Not usually a big Jurassic Park/World set collector, but the Jurassic Park T-Rex Breakout diorama was too cool to pass up. And it just arrived two days early from Target! Never got a LEGO set before its official release before.

Seems like the sentiment here is the same as mine: Sometimes getting details on a set is a relief because you don't have to pay for it. A Hogwarts Express at this price is awesome...just not for me, especially when I satisfied any desire for a train with the Disneyland one. Agreed. I'm still trying to justify spending money on Diagon Alley and haven't yet. It'd be awful if this year's D2C set had been Gringotts/more Diagon Alley, amounting to needing $1000 just to "get it all."

Technically the Muppets IS a Disney series, but not the one we expected I agree that next year seems like a good year to expect a new D2C set and a proper Disney series to go along with it. 2023 is also the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary, so there could be some larger merchandising push with companies like LEGO for that, too? Personally, I would love for LEGO to do a monorail set with a collection of park attractions/icons for us to arrange around the monorail. Something like the style of the 50th Disney World castle or the rumored Haunted Mansion but for attractions that wouldn't sell on their own. Something like the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn, etc. all on their own display base and then monorail track you can weave around them.

That's what's prompted this for me, as it seems like a good deal! Thanks for all the insight, that's all super helpful. I agree. While the Falcon is popular, I hesitate to assume another Falcon would immediately be on the way, and I never like speculating on what could maybe happen vs. what's available. Thanks!

Aside from my original 1999/2000 childhood collection at my parents' house, I only have a few SW sets now. But I've been looking at the 2019 Millennium Falcon. While I love the sequel trilogy more than most, I definitely would prefer the original crew to the Rise of Skywalker. So, I'm trying to decide whether to buy 75257 or if I should wait and hope that eventually it will be retired and replaced with a system-scale original trilogy version of the Falcon. Curious what you all think of that happening?

Definitely agree that a Gringotts rollercoaster would fit a kid consumer more so more likely to be priced lower. And now I think too hard about all of this for my own good: Lots of good theories in here for how/why LEGO chooses to make some sets (like Diagon Alley) priced as D2C vs. others. I just think it's fun to speculate and guess. I agree that there aren't a whole of options left to justify a $470 price tag from the "well, duh" category. Seems like people keep throwing around potential sets of: Gringotts/Leaky Cauldron/other DA shops Quidditch Pitch (Personally, I think some people are really underselling the popularity of Quidditch) Some sort of UCS/motorized Hogwarts Express Another version of Hogwarts castle I think looking at Universal Studio's approach to designing Harry Potter would help see what's iconic to diehard and casual fans, too. So, what does Universal have that's not been made into LEGO? Grimmauld Place Full Hogsmeade/Kings Cross Train Stations Gringotts Bank/Rollercoaster Additional Diagon Alley/Hogsmeade shops The Leaky Cauldron and Brick Wall TONS of merchandise/objects So, what's left and iconic? Just throwing out random ideas here: Battle-damaged Hogwarts Brick-built Sorting Hat and Sword of Gryffindor Items to represent the Horcruxes or Deathly Hallow-connected objects The Triwizard Tournament - All 3 tasks in one giant set, complete with hedge maze Portrait of the Fat Lady Brick-built Dobby or Buckbeak That was probably way too long of a message, so I'm sorry. Really curious to see what the set will end up being.

I know people are passionately for or against different sets at this price point, with a lot of good points of why certain sets are likely/unlikey. Just saying that to keep in mind this is 100% pure fun/not a serious idea...but what if the D2C is a Gringotts...underground rollercoaster? Using the rollercoaster track pieces, they could give us a couple of cars that go around to Harry's vault, the sorcerer's stone vault, the waterfall that removes enchantments, the Lestrange vault, and the Ironbelly, with supports made to look like the caves. And then the $120 set is the Gringotts exterior that can connect to the coaster if you want or stand on its own.

This is a really good point I hadn't thought of before. I've always felt like there aren't many scenes from DH1 or DH2 that LEGO would feel comfortable making into sets given the lack of action or that the action is too dark. But being able to pull double duty by having the Ministry of Magic also be a DH1 set and Gringotts be a DH2 set is a brilliant way to adapt scenes from those movies. I also feel like the creative energy behind adapting the wizarding world (as in what becomes LEGO sets and what was chosen for the Harry Potter theme parks at Universal) means that we're more likely to get a Gringotts with an option for displaying the Ironbelly on the roof, which means DH2, too.

Catching up on a few pages of commentary on the Summer set descriptions, and it's exciting to finally have news. It sounds to me like the Ministry of Magic set will be OotP-based. The Hall of Prophecy supposedly being included seems to point that direction. If the dementors are really dementors, could they be included with the idea that they be used to recreate the attack on Harry over the summer? Because that's the reason he even goes to the Ministry in the first place. Umbridge, Lucius, and Arthur are all present in the scenes around Harry's trial at the Ministry. Ron might even be Percy, who's also in that scene. Or maybe we're given Ron (if it is Ron) and a death eater or two (with Lucius) to also recreate the Hall of Prophecy fight. But then again, I'm surprised to get a Ministry of Magic set that doesn't include Dumbledore and Voldemort fighting in the atrium. I've also seen lots of comments saying the big D2C set is obviously more Diagon Alley. I feel like we were saying the same thing last year on the Mario discussion that the D2C "had to be" Princess Peach's castle, and then we got something entirely out of the box...er, block, as it were. I wonder if something similar is happening here? I'd love to get a set with Gringotts and The Leaky Cauldron, but I wonder if there are any more recognizable Diagon Alley buildings to make? And it seems like both of those could be standalone purchases. But I'm surprised to see hardly any mention of a minifig-scale Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch. It could easily give us full rosters of all four house teams and any number of random/requested students/staff as spectators. Not to mention it would be an impressive display piece on its own.

That's a brilliant idea! I agree with a lot of what you said about potential sets, but I hadn't considered this one at all. It would also give an opportunity to provide a user-controlled antagonist if they wanted, too.

The Lightyear trailer was great, and I'm excited to see what the sets look like! Really curious to see how they redesign Zurg (and maybe the little green men?) for this movie. I'm confused that people thought it was going to be "grounded" though? Pixar, when they first announced this movie, said they had always thought that the Buzz Lightyear action figures/video games in Toy Story 1 and 2 probably had a big blockbuster movie to go with them in-universe. Like Andy saw a Buzz Lightyear movie and then wanted the merchandise/toys that came out with it. And Pixar just decided to actually make that Buzz Lightyear movie. So in that sense 2022's Lightyear is based on the "real" Buzz Lightyear...the Space Ranger who was stationed in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4 and fought the Evil Emperor Zurg, sworn enemy of the Galactic Alliance. Just like his packaging says. :) I'm curious to see how much that box description has influenced this movie's story.

I'm surprised no one's talked about the new ? block set yet! I picked it up on October 1st and just finished building last night. It's really fun, and I love the amount of details and hidden things they were able to pack into such tiny dioramas of the Mario 64 levels. Definitely in my top three favorite sets of the year. Of course, I feel like I'm an oddball around these parts. The giant, brick-built Harry Potter and Hermione minifigures were also one of my favorite sets of this year.