Retro Brick Reviews

Well, your comparison point was the first LEGO System Winnie the Pooh set, so it's a fair comparison. Both were $100 sets to introduce/reintroduce a new license. WtP got 5 new molds (7 if you count the new shorter sleeve right and left arms), and the GH got 14. Of course newer HP sets don't include so many new molds, it isn't really necessary in most cases, and they've been very generous with new molds in most cases. Prints, however, are another thing entirely, but most themes are starting to suffer from that.

Yes. I know it's in both the Visual Dictionary and Chararcter Encyclopedia, and I imagine it was mentioned at the time in retail catalogues. Also, there was a LEGO Creator game based on PS, so he also might have been name dropped in there.

Yeah, there's no chance this could ever happen. People seem to forget rather often, but LEGO's main goal is to make money. If they couldn't sell buildable action figures with cool play features in one of their most popular lines with characters that make sense, no designer would even propose they do the same thing with HP, a theme for which most of the above doesn't even apply. Honestly, people here need to stop doomsdaying and assuming that LEGO wants to make sets everyone will hate, because this forum's starting to get to be as toxic as the LEGO Star Wars fandom.

While for Colin and Justin I've no idea what path LEGO will take, for Ginny I think it's fairly possible that they reuse Gabrielle's face from 2019, just with the eyebrows recolored to dark orange (think Ron's alt. face from CMF s2). I think that face would definitely be a few steps closer than the generic girl head, and it wouldn't cost LEGO as much as an entirely new print.

Ah.

Agree on both counts. As some have pointed out, the PPP of the $120 set is very similar to DA, which also used a lot of small pieces. Combine that with a likely low print budget (a new Goblin face and a couple new torsos to make up, say, 4 total, and then reused Harry and Hagrid), and I feel confident this will be our bank, however it turns out. As for $250, I'm starting to find it more and more likely that it might end up being a Motorized Hogwarts Express, which would be rather disappointing.

No one's mentioned it here yet, but a few hours ago @Falconfan1414 posted on his Insta story an image of a message reading "Everything will fall into place, just be patient" in gold text, over a white marble background. Now, that's a Gringotts tease if ever I've seen one, which means to me that a Gringotts set in some form must be planned for 2021 (there's no way anyone knows 2022 info yet, and besides, it wouldn't make much sense to post right after we got some new concrete info about the August sets, sparking a bunch of discussion). My money's on the $120 set being Gringotts, since that piece count sounds about right for a DA-scale bank with no dragon. So, it'll probably be PS-based, which I'm sure will be enough to disappoint some of you. Combine that with probably a new gimmick set and a couple of 2018-on remakes, and I can definitely see this being a disappointing wave. And that's presuming that this proposed $120 Gringotts would actually be a great and accurate build, as opposed to, say, a roller coaster playset, like the 2009 Temple of Doom. But, of course, this is all just speculation based on FF's post.

I've heard a lot of people mention the D2C Burrow, but I really doubt we'll get a $250 set of something we just got as a $100 set only one year ago. There isn't an exceptional amount you could do with the Burrow beyond what they already did in 2020, and this set likely wouldn't sell very well at all as a result. While this would be nice, it's extremely unlikely that LEGO would put out two different sets of several Hogsmeade buildings at the same time. If they wanted to release all five at once, they'd have been packed all together as a D2C. I considered the Niffler, but iirc @Guyon2002 said that there won't be any FB sets this year, so no Niffler quite yet.

Okay, seeing as how we might be getting news of everything in the August wave tomorrow, I suppose this is the last day to put out our predictions. So, behold my realistically disappointing August wave draft, complete with out-of-order set numbers (I think it flows better this way). Also, this is presuming we're getting another Anniversary wave. (Despite that, I'm not mentioning which golden characters would appear in which sets, since unlike SW 20th Anniv. and Ninjago Legacy, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the distribution of gold figures in these sets.) 76393 ($120) Hogwarts Express Departure - Since a major complaint with the 2018 version was how short it was, this model would be much more accurately proportioned. It would also include a much better carriage design (complete with an opening door for boarding) and a build of Hogsmeade Station, in the style of Honeydukes and TTB. Figures would include Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville (all in Gryffindor robes), Hagrid, the conductor, and a luggage handler. While this would be a big improvement over the 2018 set, it wouldn't interest most who have that set, especially with a rather bland figure selection. Also, just the fact that this would make both of our big 2021 sets be remakes of 2018 sets would be pretty disappointing, all quality aside. 76395 ($30) Quidditch Dementor Attack - A Quidditch set more in the style of the 2002 and 2010 sets, with three separate hoops and a single tower for the referee. It would also include a single section of the wooden stands, helping to justify that price. Figures include Harry (w/ goggles), Cedric (w/ goggles), Madam Hooch, and 2 Dementors, plus Padfoot. 76392 ($60) Shrieking Shack - Come on, it's not as though the wave can be all bad, LEGO still has a vested interest in making money, even off of people who aren't interested in remakes of 2018 sets. The Shrieking Shack is one of the last major requests they've had since 2018, which, judging by Fluffy and the COS, is clearly a goal of this year's sets. The house build would be larger than Honeydukes and TTB, and have a deep interior similar to Privet Drive; however, it would be rather empty. Figures would include Harry, Ron, Sirius, Lupin, and Wormtail: All in variants we've either had before or have had very similar versions to before, so that would be disappointing to y'all, especially with the set lacking a Wolf!Lupin. 76394 ($40) - Not really sure what this one could be. Skip! 76391 ($250) Gringotts Wizarding Bank - Look, even lowering expectations as much as possible, I still can't see anything else taking the $250 D2C slot, and haven't heard any plausible ideas anywhere over the last ~70 pages of discussion. That being said, it's still likely this set won't live up to the hype- underwhelming and too small minifigure selection, boring interior, no cart section, no dragon- but I still believe it will happen this year.

The D2C is a 3,000 piece model of Voldemort, post-confetti. It is the only Deathly Hallows set.

I think it's more likely that the trapdoor will be in the tower level, and lead down to Devil's Snare on the bottom, just like the 2001 set. That being said, a rocky underattachment does seem quite likely for a Challenges set (I could see it being similar in shape to the Indiana Jones Temple Escape, just built on 8x16 plates), and, since it wouldn't include any new characters (at best, we could get slightly battle-damaged versions of the trio, in addition to a reused Quirrel and some chess pieces), it's a set I could see fitting under the umbrella of disappointing. That, and the exterior would literally just be rocks. I'd also find it disappointing, but that's just because I'm one of those weirdos that wants a full-scale gimmick Chess set.

LEGO just revealed official images for the "Amelia Earhart Tribute" set, and it includes a new female face print. Looking at it, the face looks quite similar to how Madam Rosmerta appeared in the POA film, so I could see this face being reused for her. Just an idea.

His "evidence" is that everyone's favorite "leaker" from last year posted on his new account that 76394 is a new Quidditch set.

Well, he was cast as a different character in Azkaban, but Mike Newall didn't understand that and just make him Flitwick. Same difference though. Also, uh, hi everyone. I was pretty active last year, but I've pretty much just lurked on this new thread. (By lurked, I mean that I've spent the last week reading up on the last 98 pages of comments.) It's good to be back, I missed this chat.

Dang. What happened to Depp is tragic, and it's awful that Warner Bros. has now forced him to resign from the series, even though he's the victim. I'll be honest, I didn't care much for his performance in the FB movies, but he doesn't deserve this. That being said, I'm curious as to who will play Grindelwald going forward, presuming FB3 ever actually, y'know, comes out.