Retro Brick Reviews

A new owl just leaked, which I believe to be Errol judging by the disheveled look and twitchy eye. Combining this with the Ripper-esque bulldog that leaked yesterday, it's starting to seem pretty clear that we are getting HP sets early next year. (Pieces don't leak 10 months in advance.)

Gotta say, I think it's pretty unlikely that A.) 4 summer numbers would leak alongside dozens of sets for Nov. 2019 - Jan. 2020, and B.) that LEGO would do only four sets next year for what is proportionally one of their most popular themes.

It's a bit different, the mouth is SLIGHTLY thinner. I can't remember where I saw it, but I believe he now also has an alternate singing expression. (If I can find the image, I'll post it here.)

Exactly. In a D2C, they'd have to strive for perfect accuracy, and make the shops nobody cares about. If they didn't, it'd be an incomplete display piece. If they release them individually, they can release what people want, and, since it'd be designed for dollhouse play rather than for display, it wouldn't be so off to have pieces missing. Plus, in a modular system, they could eventually add the less interesting components, or-heck, it is LEGO, just build them yourself. With a D2C, you're stuck with what they give you.

With all this Diagon Alley talk going around, I think the most likely scenariois to see the buildings be released as individual large sets. (A Gringott's set, a WWW set, etc.) My reasoning? Well, for the first few years of the line, we've gotten a series of modular Hogwarts sets, each based on iconic castle exteriors. Well, after the Astronomy Tower, we're just about out of Hogwarts exteriors to make into flagship sets. Now, we'll continue to see Hogwarts in the form of interior-based sets with generic exteriors (Chamber of Secrets, Room of Requirement, etc.), but I see those as playsets in the $30-$60 range, not as main sets. Were this the case, it'd only make sense that the new big $90-$120 set spots would now be taken up by Diagon Alley. And, by the time we've gotten a fair amount of the Alley, it'd be time to go back and remake the big Hogwarts sets like the Great Hall. Another issue is that a D2C Diagon Alley has similar issues to a D2C Hogwarts (before we knew it was nano-scale). Anyone remember that? We all took issue with the idea, because LEGO wouldn't be able to capture most of the castle in one set, AND it would be odd for them to release most of the castle in one hard-to-get set, when they'd make way more money by releasing sections individually. We all know how things actually turned out, and it'd make the most sense for Diagon Alley to happen the same way. Not as many people can buy one $400 set, but many more people could buy an $80-$120 set every year. One more thing: there's no way LEGO would be able to capture the entire Alley in one set, anyway. There are dozens of shops, and there's no way they'd all be doable with a budget of less than 10000 pieces (and a D2C would more likely have 4000 pieces anyway.) Also, squishing them all onto a couple bsseplates as some are suggesting A.) Would be out of place with the rest of the line, as baseplates don't appear anywhere else in LEGO HP and B.) Would leave many buildings either left out or squished. The only real way you'd be able to the Alley on the budget of a single D2C would be to cut out half of the Alley, which LEGO wouldn't do. The most likely course is that they release each building (or perhaps a pair in some cases) as individually-packed sets that can be connected together to form the full street. (Think the modular buildings from LEGO Creator, but on a more modest scale.) I mean, Gringotts almost has to be a DH set, and, considering the lack of choices for HBP, WWW has a good chance of popping up next year.

Honestly, I think Lucius needs a new hairpiece. The Richard Harris hair could sort-of work, but it lacks any hair in the front.

So, I think this winter wave will probably be for EITHER for 1-2 OR 3-4. (I doubt they'd mix the minifigure designs in the same wave.) Considering that LEGO's main release season overall is May-August, that is most likely to be when we get the main 5-6 sets.

Well, Quidditch Cedric appears briefly in Prisoner of Azkaban (albeit not played by Robert Pattinson), so that is a possibility. As for Crabbe and Goyle, I think LEGO would give them mid-legs based on their height compared to other figures, like we saw with Neville in Series 1.

Not sure if this is consistent across the US, but both of the LEGO brand stores in my relative area claim to have twelve-to-sixteen copies of each of the five sets. Just posting in case anyone wanted to know potential stock (Which seems to be way better than last year.)

Oh, I hadn't thought of that. I'm pretty sure I have that figure somewhere, so that's a change I'll be able to make as soon as I get Wormtail. Thanks!

I think the Last Jedi Luke hair would theoretically work well, if not for Wormtail's giant orange eyebrows. If you can overlook that, the Luke hair is accurate in both shape and color, and the muted tone makes less obvious the lack of a bald spot. The other issue is that Sirius uses this hair in dark brown, but a solution is to instead use the Moody hair in brown (available at LEGO retail stores in the Build-a-Minifigure stations), which both makes him more accurate and gives Wormtail a more unique cut from his old friend.

My List: 8: Knight Bus (It looks nice and has great figs, but I have the 2011 one, and this doesn't add much play value) 7: Expecto Patronum (Awesome Sirius and Prongs and really good builds, just not as much desirable stuff as other sets imo.) 6: Hungarian Horntail (Vastly underrated set with great figures, a Dragon far more accurate than the 2005 piece, and a cozy tent.) 5: Advent Calendar (I love me some Christmas jumpers.) 4: Rise of Voldemort (Awesome villains and a fun little play set. Excited to connect this to the Hidden Side Graveyard.) 3: Beauxbatons Carriage (Beautiful figures and build. [Just a side note, but I think it's funny that people think this is an odd choice whilst simultaneously wanting a new Durmstrang Ship, even though they're in the movie for the same amount of time and serve the same purpose.]) 2: Hogwarts Clocktower (This has always been my favorite castle section, and I love the Yule figures and cozy interiors.) 1: Hagrid's Hut (Everything is perfect.)

Oh, thank God.

If it isn't too much bother, I've a few questions. 1. How did they accomplish the Horntail spitting fire? 2. We know the main head is from the Occamy, but does it have a new piece for the bottom jaw? 3. How many studs wide is the Knight Bus? Thanks.

Well, I don't know how it'll be done, but they'll need to figure something out for the Twin Core Connection in the new Graveyard set, it would be extremely disappointing if we never got anything to represent it.