BacktoBricks

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.

I think you're absolutely right, and yet somehow whether it's part of 'the most detailed Hogwarts Castle' or not it still feels underwhelming.

At last Dumbledore gets his hat in a set and not just the CMF version! Great Hall feels like what I was expecting with the pull out bases, but can't say it feels very detailed to me. Those bottom sections just look plain, but will need to wait for better images. Nothing about this screams value for that price though to me as it's hardly better than the last one and you got a basilisk then, so the troll doesn't justify it. Yes it's bigger, but does it offer more play value? I don't really think so. Also, @brickbride where is the ghost because I'm just not seeing it? Ollivanders is cute and a perfectly shrunken version I think. I'm guessing the Flourish and Blotts sign is a nod to the next modular in the series, as WWW have the Madam Malkins sign. The interior of Malkins itself is underwhelming, but it is the secondary build I suppose. Great to see a fresh Ollivander so he has a unique torso again. Buckbeak I'm afraid to say looks bland and yet somehow chaotic to me with all those different shades of grey, but then I never had any intention of purchasing it so it makes little difference to me. I'm sure some will love it and no denying it's a detailed model, but definitely not my thing. The same goes for the buildable Mandrake; it holds no interest for me and a Mandrake that doesn't have the sound brick so it can scream in the year they made that a thing again is kind of ironic. Overall, this wave so far is extremely disappointing if I'm being totally honest. I really hope the Durmstrang Ship looks good after waiting for a remake all these years and doesn't end up looking like some Chibi version because they'd used pieces on the Beauxbatons Carriage.

Count me in.

I could see R2-KT being the other minifigure in Jedi Bob's Starfighter. The other 'buildable creature' set that Young Leia was rumoured to come with could also be Lola I suppose. I could see someone not knowing what they were looking at and maybe see a few 'eyes' on the build.

GITD Nick is a great minifigure, but I find him a bit of a pain to be honest; so many times I've had to put him away in a draw or he becomes a beacon in my dark bedroom at night when I'm trying to sleep. I have to say the current Lego glow in the dark quality is very good. I would rather they just stick to the light grey for the ghosts and stop changing all the time.

I see. Thank you. I wonder if it's still meant as a little 'inn' joke.

I don't play D&D so I've no idea if it has any in universe reference, but the sticker for the inn sign on the new D&D set looks like the Eye of Sauron and the inn is called Inn Plain Sight. A hint at Barad-dûr set maybe?

Well the auto translate for me said it is 'a new cast in the bigfig version' which I think could either end up looking terrible or really good. Personally I always think the bigfig villains look like their pose is one of squatting on the toilet, but the troll obviously needs to be large. I loved the original troll and think it looks nice and tall and gangly, but that being said it's not really large enough. So a big fig of sorts with a new torso and legs might work out great like you say. I just hope the face print isn't too comical and the 'clothes' are done in cloth like the original.

I get why some people might think the theme should come to a close soon; I myself as a big Harry Potter fan have become more select with the sets I buy now after a few years of the theme's return, but in all seriousness I can't see the theme dying anytime soon. You only have to think that there will be kids of around six who will start getting into Harry Potter that were only just born when the first lots of sets from this new HP era came out to know that they could keep remaking sets for a while and feeding a new audience every few years, especially when they haven't quite covered all locations and characters yet. Also, I know it's a contentious issue, but I can't see how they won't move on to doing sets for the new series in a couple of years too. I don't know how it will work alongside the old films, but the Lego deal is with Warner Bros hence why we don't get book only material unless the designers happen to sneak in an Easter egg. So if Warner are in charge of the new series surely they will want merchandise for it and then the series will give even more material for Lego to work off seeing as the whole point of the series is they can cover the books more in depth than the movies. Harry Potter fatigue doesn't seem to have hit generally even with the material being a lot more limited than say the Star Wars ever expanding universe, so I don't see why Lego should be much different.

Ah good glad you managed to get one. Already starting to see bundles of them on ebay.

Release date for issue 106 with the Shock Trooper was 6th March and the next one is due on 3rd April. They are every four weeks so throughout the year some fall at the beginning of a month and some at the end.

It was released yesterday so I'm guessing maybe the supermarkets just haven't turned their stock over yet. Sainsburys and Tesco are my go to, although issues with Clones tend to go fast.