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I'm sorry, I really just don't get this no pupils thing. One of the things about the character for me is his expressive face and this just make him look like a hypnotized zombie.

I'm expecting another Chamber of Secrets; it's part of the castle and plays a part in not just one, but two of the films, so I don't think you can create the most detailed Hogwarts system ever without including it. I would be shocked if we didn't get it in all honesty. The current one is also meant to be retiring at the end of the year. Charms and Flying Class could well make a whole new castle section rather than being a slide in module, but that being said, I am expecting us to have more classrooms/ castle rooms than gaps in the modules so we inevitably have to decide what we want to put in the spaces and end up with surplus rooms which is annoying from a display and storage perspective. I would love to be proved wrong, but we already have the Hufflepuff common room and Potions class vying for the gap under the Great Hall.

I got the new smaller Ollivanders and Madam Malkins on Prime Day and I have to say, whilst the Ollivanders included in the set obviously cannot beat the D2C Diagon Alley offering for detail and scale, the set does have a lot of charm. If like me, and I'm presuming a lot of people, you only have the ability to display the sets on a bookshelf etc so only the front is on show, then whilst the new set is obviously not as good a facade, the sheer fact that you can fit more buildings is a definite plus. The facade still has that magical quality and if I'd never seen the D2C then I'd be more than happy with this offering. I think the only thing I might change if to put the shops on to baseplates and put the pavement and cobbles in front of the buildings like in the D2C.

Sounds fantastic! I wasn't expecting any HP news apart from The Burrow as I thought they'd be a March wave. That being said, I much rather a January wave and a bit more of a spread between things.

Hopes dashed already.

Please Lego make the N-1 PM based and throw in Queen Amidala. You already have your little Annie minifigure and 4+ sets are all about the large and printed pieces. Watch all us AFOLS by a 4+ set just for the minifigure. Who cares if she doesn't quite tie in with the scene.

It's not just The Burrow ... It's The Burrow: Collectors Edition (yes hear that in Hermione's voice ). Casual fans beware haha. Very excited for that GWP. I really want a proper Borgin and Burkes to add on to DA, but something is better than nothing. I hope it includes Harry with his cool sooty faceprint and broken glasses.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I've been trying to think why this new one looks so flat to me on the exterior and I think it's to do with the window shaping. Looking at the 2018 Great Hall, there's no doubt this one is more detailed and the windows are taller, but they don't have the pointed shaping at the top like the 2018 one. Those pointed / curved top windows are a integral part of the Great Hall's exterior design to me and I think it's that which makes me look at the 2018 model and see more of a Great Hall compared to this new one, even though this new one is definitely 'more' in quantity terms. Looking at the build it seems this could be easily fixed with the same upside down slope bricks put across the top windows like in the 2018 hall.

No your not. I feel the same. Even the art looks plain from what I can see; a dusty green landscape and murky sky facade.

Here here. I actually didn't mind displaying the last one. The eyes were just cartoonish enough that they didn't look too childish, but also not menacing. This one looks like it's out to suck your blood. I wouldn't even want to put it together.

I thought the Harry included in this year's advent calendar might be the one from Hagrid's Hut seeing as Harry wears that green jumper whilst playing chess with Ron in The Great Hall during in the Christmas holidays. But I've just found this activity book on Amazon which releases in September and will be including that Harry so I'm guessing the advent calendar might have a school uniform Harry again.

Phew! Well I'm glad you said it @krimimimi I get what they are trying to do with the concept of providing both a playset and a castle that appeals to collectors that want to display a good outside view. It can't be easy for the designers to work with that concept whilst being stuck to a particular price point. That being said, I can't get behind these modules; blurry or not I don't think they are going to look much better with clearer images. Of course the concept could work, just not on a budget basically. The last iteration might have been basic and blocky, but it did at least allow for creativity and MOC expansion. This concept will of course allow the same and I'm sure we will see some fantastic MOC modules to replace those under the Great Hall and then you will have a system that looks better in the outside than the last, but it won't change the fact that I just can't see a set on a price point really deliver on both exterior and interior whether that's the Great Hall or something smaller like Potions. That being said, in a way I'm really glad this Great Hall hasn't impressed me. I was dreading getting sucked in to buying yet another castle iteration as much as I would love to be excited by the concept. I'm very glad that I'm only interested in some of the minifigures. However, I'm sure that mindset is going to be quite commonplace and the exclusive minifigures of Dumbledore, Professor Vector and the Fat Friar are going to cost a fair amount on BL, let alone the troll who I think is going to appeal to a wider audience than even Harry Potter collectors. It might end up being one of those situations where buying the minifigures separately will end up costing nearly as much as the set, but there's no way I want to get dragged in to buying the set just to get them. You're point about the Quidditch uniforms reminded me that yesterday I came across the Lego Harry Potter Official Yearbook 2025 which comes with a Quidditch Harry who has no cape, not even a cloth one let alone the rubber ones used in the Quidditch Trunk. I also saw the Lupin from the big Hogwarts Express the other day in a activity book called 'Duelling a Dementor', but he has plain brown legs not the printed ones similar to how the Voldemort from the Hogwarts Battle set can be found with a plain slope piece in a book rather than the printed version it comes with in the set. Then you have Filch in the owlery with the plain legs and not the printed legs that are clearly still in production and in another set that is still on shelves. In some ways I get it; budget constraints of those books and the amount allocated for each book probably means it's a necessity to downgrade the minifigures and the kids that receive them probably won't know or care too much. You also, I would assume, have the fact that there is a third party involved in their production. But Filch in the owlery is just wrong to me; maybe it was plain legs Filch or one less owl or something like that due to the allotted budget, but when it is clear you can do better, downgrading him is just a pure indication of profit margin. He is available with printed legs so clearly the only thing stopping him from being included with printed legs is the fact that saving a few cents is worth more than giving the customer a better product. I also get what you mean about the price hikes too. In terms of Ollivanders though, I do have a couple of counters. In the UK at least WWW is an Argos exclusive and can often be found for around the £65, saving £20 off the Lego RRP and making it effectively just over £30 cheaper than the WWW in the D2C Diagon Alley which cost £389.99 for the set and so basically £97.50 per unit. So that to me is enough of a price difference to justify the smaller size, especially when you get quite a few minifigures with the set. Then you have the fact that selling the DA shops separately means some people who cannot afford to spend well over £300 all at once can literally start small and either spread the cost over a longer time period, or they could just get the shops they like. From a space perspective too, just displaying a single building can definitely be more practical. So I have nothing against these smaller DA sets. The increase in the price for the largest castle module is disappointing though when I don't think anybody is really sold on it. If it's not exciting us steady Lego fans and collectors, will the increases prices start to alienate the more casual fans or parent / grandparent buys and effect sales? The Ford Anglia and Forbidden Forest: Magical Creatures sets are both currently set to retire at the end of the year and whilst I can see them potentially being extended, if not, why such a small shelf life for the small sets? They are perfect for little display pieces that draw in casual HP fans, work as gifts for kids that could then get them sucked into the theme etc, not to mention the Ford Anglia will work well with the D2C The Burrow that will only have been out three months by the time the Ford Anglia is set to retire. Unless they go all Whomping Willow and Privet Drive and include the Ford Anglia in yet another set and have it in The Burrow too, then surely that would miss out on a lot of sales of people who buy The Burrow and then want the Weasley's Car to go with it. Anyway, sorry for doubling down on your disappointment.

That's very true. They could maybe squeeze into the bathroom size module or it could be you get two modules and they replace both the bathroom and common room, but it's going to be cramped.

I just don't think the detailed exterior / removable interior thing looks very good here. I know there are budget constraints, yet if it was say this concept but with the Polyjuice style modules slotting into the underground I could see the charm and aesthetic appeal. However, these interior modules just don't resemble rooms. The bathroom section just reminds me of a chair with the curved back and sides and the common room feels like one of the balcony module sections of the last castle wave, except the difference there was that they were just to provide a roof or rampart and this is actually meant to be interior.