Retro Brick Reviews

My sets are still stuck in customs...

By my count, we had 7 new printed elements and two new recolours, but maybe I'm counting something that had appeared beforehand and I'm mistaken. Nonetheless, I just had a thought: What if a potential AC Krum figure would have a new, more accurate face print? (It's happened already with Fleur in the Carriage and, perhaps a bit more topically, McGonagall in last year's AC.) This, I feel would make the inclusion of Krum an acceptable choice, but I have my doubts.

Honestly, I don't think we should trust his info. So far, he's made exactly one claim regarding this theme, and that claim turned out to be incorrect. This post reminds me of how KingNoKnow made a good amount of his rumors by just taking ideas that have a high likelihood and presenting them as fact. I think LEGO wouldn't do this, as it'd be incredibly dumb from a business standpoint to include the four most desirable figures from the Clocktower all in one set, since that removes a lot of the incentive for people to buy that set. (Then again, it's already dumb in my eyes to reprint just three figures from one large set in a much cheaper one, so four wouldn't be a massive stretch.)

Unfortunately not in the main book, but, since some of the behind-the-scenes images from the end of the book feature the design process for the known 2020 sets, it's possible, albeit unlikely, that some designs from CMF2 or DA may be in the background of those images.

Tom Riddle has no alternate face. (Confirmed by Ashnflash review) Honestly, that fact alone makes a future Chamber of Secrets set seem a lot more plausible, since that could have a more standard dual-sided head. Alternatively, I'm just telling myself that to cope with the fact that we only have one face print for my favorite canon interpretation of Voldy.

I ordered on 4 June. They reached German customs and were trapped there for weeks, but eventually was shipped and arrived in New York just yesterday. Hopefully I'll have them within the next week or so, but at this point I have no way of knowing. (My order was the AT, #4, and Hedwig.)

Tomorrow.

My final 7 predictions: 1. Madam Poppy Pomfrey 2. Rita Skeeter 3. Harry (Gregory Goyle) 4. Ron (Vincent Crabbe) 5. Hermione (Millicent's Cat) 6. Aunt Marge Dursley 7. Percy Weasley (Head Boy)

I feel with your comparisons between Diagon Alley, the Death Star, and Cloud City, there are a few key points you failed to take into account: 1. The majority of minifigures in those sets are reused from other sets, with only a small handful of new designs. Therefore, if LEGO bloats DA's figure count in the same way, we'll end up with a load of figures we already have rather than a load of new characters and variants as you're proposing. 2. Those SW sets exist as large-scale playsets for children, while DA will be more of a display set for collectors. Therefore, LEGO will likely feel more comfortable with giving DA a smaller figure selection than those sets. 3. SPACE. (The surface area kind, not the kind more typically associated with Star Wars.) The Death Star features massive amounts of empty floorspace, to the point where even the 25 figures aren't enough to even come close to filling it. DA is going to be comprised of several buildings, which, while large, will still not have nearly as much figure space as the Death Star or Cloud City. LEGO isn't going to include more figures for any specific building than can comfortably fit. Going off of this, I think any more than 15 figures in DA would be a nice surprise, and I think 20 is quite high. 30 is ludicrous. This being said, your proposed list (and I mean this in the nicest way possible) is a bit ridiculous. Firstly, they aren't going to include different versions of Harry for PS/SS and CoS, they'll do one or the other. Speaking of multiple variants, there's no way they'd do two versions of Fred and George. Even Ginny and Draco are somewhat crapshoot based on what shops and scenes are prioritized, but they aren't going to splurge on multiple brand new variants for new characters. Going back to the SW sets, you'll notice that our heroes got only one new variant (if that), and the rest are reused from other sets. It's essentially just an easy way to reuse more preexisting figures to up the figure count. If we're lucky, we'll get a new variant for each member of the Golden Trio, but even that seems a bit unlikely in Harry's case (and this is presuming they're even including multiple trio variants. After all, our only source for this idea was Kingnono, so I don't really know how believable this is.) There's no way they'd include Molly, Arthur, Bellatrix, Greyback, and HBP Harry, Ron, and Ginny all in one set, that'd completely devalue the Burrow. Your selection seems to rely on the inclusion of both TLC and B&B, two buildings that are only semi-likely to appear in the set, and it's highly doubtful we'd get both. If they include more generic characters, I doubt they'd include boring main characters like Lavender and Cormac. Firstly, they both have extremely minor appearances in the WWW scene, not really worthy of a figure spot. Secondly, if Lavender was going to appear in a high-profile D2C, they'd have tried a bit harder to make her figure look not bad (same goes for Bellatrix). Thirdly, I think they'd rather include more interesting characters we wouldn't get elsewhere like Dedalus Diggle and Doris Crockford, and I think most consumers would rather get them over blander students. The only way I could see them including Cormac is with a potential QQS, but other characters like Angelina Johnson and Katie Bell are more popular and relevant.

If that's the case, then please explain how in Merlin's name they could possibly design a DA set at the same nanoscale as 71043 (which, reminder, is a SMALLER scale than that of the GWP) and have it be $400, or, heck, more than $50. I don't really care too much for Narnia, but I'd definitely love to see these pieces if they ever made sets based on the Percy Jackson series, and, seeing as how there is a Disney+ series in the works, I think that license has a better chance than Narnia in the current climate. Anyway, back to HP!

If I had to guess, it means that we'll be getting new versions of both Richard Harris' Dumbledore and Lucius Malfoy later this year. We already know that Dumbledore is coming in CMF S2, and Lucius having a differently-coloured toytag implies to me that he'll be coming in a different set, most likely Diagon Alley. At least, that's what I figure.

It's currently unknown. I think it's now safe to say that KNN has been officially debunked, so his Hogsmeade GWP was made up, but it is still entirely possible that there will be a GWP to go along with 75978. No real evidence either way, though.

Sorry to bother you, but how do you find out when the shipment from Steinchenwelt arrives? I've tried using the tracking email, but the status of the shipment hasn't changed in over a week (It shipped on the fifth). So, either I'm doing something wrong, or my sets are lost in Germany...

It's a German Bricklink store called "Steinchenwelt". Currently, the only sets they have in stock are 4 Privet Drive, Hedwig, and the Hogwarts Room of Requirement.

My mistake, I was thinking of the book... of Prisoner of Azkaban, apparently. I still think he fits acceptably well for QQS, since I feel each shop should get at least one representative figure, but someone like Katie Bell in casual clothes could work just as well.