Micmac

Yes you really need to shop around in Australia at the moment as there are some big differences in prices across the major shops. Sorting Hat: Lego shop $149.99; Target $149; Kmart $129; BigW $144. Kmart winner $129. Hagrids Hut: Lego shop $129.99; Target $119; Kmart $109; BigW $93. BigW with an amazing price $93. Owlery: Lego shop $69.99; Target $69; Kmart $59; BigW $59. Kmart and BigW $59. Boat house: Lego shop $69.99; Target $69; Kmart $59; BigW $45. BigW wins with an amazing price $45. Forbidden forest: Lego shop $49.99; Target $45; Kmart $45; BigW $42. BigW wins $42. Ford Anglia: Lego shop $24.99; Target $25; Kmart $22; BigW $22. BigW and Kmart win $22. Hedwig: Lego shop $29.99; Target $27; Kmart $25; BigW $22. BigW wins $22. So $412 cheapest and $524.93 from lego. That's a $112.93 saving. BigW have some great prices this year. Ill be checking them out first when the next wave hits in the summer (our winter)

Its a pain. totally buggered. I can get the early access version on but then it breaks down when i rotate an object and won't lock it into place again. The normal version gets stuck on the update available box that you cant click on.

"Buildable Wizarding World toys – This set is the first in an upcoming series of modular sets (sold separately) that connect to create the most detailed LEGO® brick-built Hogwarts™ Castle scene ever" So this is in the info on lego site for the Owlery so it seems the castle is being relaunched again and this is the first release for the new design. So maybe a new great hall next summer. I'm happy we are done with the anniversary version of the castle but i'm not sure what to expect just from seeing the owlery. A few nice figs and the the portraits are lovely but I'm not a fan of any of the new sets so will wait for some of them to go on sale before i get any. Skipping the car, forest and owl definitely, I have so many cars.

So on second look the pet shop is part of the set so if you want it gone you will need to slightly modify it. Doesn't look hard. I whipped up a picture with the bank at end of street. Other nit picks on looking at better pictures: All the side windows are stickers The skinny pillars The dragon looks like he squished the building, it should be taller. That gringot ts sign I would have love a new dome shape for roof with printing. The steps up and then down into bank. That pet shops shows the new scale of design and when you add it to the alley its just too small The unnecessary underground section. The top mostly empty room of the bank. I just don't think most of this set was necessary and the main part, the bank, has really suffered because of it.

sorry I thought it was revealed

deleted my image until official reveal

So yeah it looks like you can because the pet shop looks like it lifts off. So you could remove it totally and that will fix the issue of the tiny shop that doesn't go with the rest of the street and the bank is at the right end connected to Ollivanders via the wall section..

It stands out so bad the gap in Gringotts. Thoughts on first look: The vaults are done well but I wish they weren't in the set. I like the interior of the bank downstairs but upstair seems very empty. Is there no interior to the pet shop? It seems sealed on all sides. Dragon head is great, body needs tweaking. I feel like the bank looks very fat in image, it might just be the angle. I thought them might make new piece for the dome of roof but no. Wall on the right is boring, another shop would have been great. The image of it displayed with diagon alley shows all the issues with it. It's not designed to go with it so the wall on the right is all wrong. It blocks off the street. And the pet shop is tiny compared to the other shop. Lots of modification needed to make it right. The bank looks like it should be taller to fit with the street. I'm a bit sad. It looked so promising in the blurry image.

The joy blurry lego pictures brings you. I thought it was fake for a bit. I actually think the underground section looks much better than I thought, how it holds up the bank will be fun to see. Hopefully its easy to seperate. and the best news, we get more shops, pet and broom shop i'd say. Can't wait to see the official pics.

I think everyone is anxious to see what they come up with but like MaxHeadroom said there are a few tiers of sets now and the quality differs across them all. I think all the D2C sets are all very well designed, they are not everyones cup of tea though and the cost of them is definitely a deterrent. I think if you asked the lego community over the last few years what they wanted they would have said the bank that fits with the rest of the Alley with the dragon on top. So I think the main issue with Gringotts will be the underground area. If it consumes lots of bricks but doesn't really add much to the set then i think people will be mad that they have to spend so much when they only really want the top section. It seems from the description that the upper level is compatible with the old set. It may have a plate base but it shouldn't stand out too much. And even if the scales are a bit different between Gringotts and the alley I'm sure it won't be too bad. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do the dome roof and if we will get some new parts designed for the set. So i'm optimistic and hopefully it will feels worth the money but the underground section is my main concern and if you seperate the bank to add it to the alley will the underground section be enough by itself to display. We shall see soon hopefully. And just on Krimimimi comment about them releasing a smaller bank if you don't want the big one. I would have said no but look at the two WWW on sale at the same time. I think it is very likely we get another bank in the next year or two like the new WWW shop. It would have sounded crazy a few years ago but it sounds like a very lego 2023 thing to do now.

target have the new Harry Potter sets in now for the ends of their 20% off sale, they didn't have the train or www at my store. Think sale ends next week

It seems like the big retailers like kmart, target and bigw release the sets later than they used to. Definitely Kmart anyway. The last batch of Harry potter sets took a month to get to some stores in the new year. Kmart only got in WWW set in on time and i think we will have to wait until july for the rest. They definitely have changed their lego buying policies as you used to be able to pick up all the sets a few days early before their official release date. Now they seem to get a few items from all the different themes released and then get different sets in a month. Not sure if it's a lego decision or the stores decision. So if you want them on release day the lego store is the only guaranteed store to have them all which is really annoying because of the price differences.

This one of the few sets that a second set is overkill and i'm not sure it would help really with building the rest of the land as it changes from cliff to grass hills.. A lot of lego sets are buy two and you can make a full building. I've just bought two friends botanical garden set. But this one is missing such a small part of the castle it seems so odd to have eliminated it. This image was just an example of the whole grounds. I wasn't saying lego should have built this. They made the castle section minus a bit of the castle. The clock tower part thats missing would probably have added 50 at most to the set which seems overpriced like all sets at the moment. An original complaint of the first micro set was it was just a bit of the castle so lego heard that and was like here you go but we want it to fit into this price point so we knocked a little bit of the castle off. And I understand finding that middle price tier for certain sets but I think keeping the clock tower in should have overridden that factor.

That wasn't really my point. The last set was half the castle and this one is maybe 90%. Some people would love the rest of the original set, they are never going to make it though. But why would they not finish this version when it was nearly there. Its an odd choice to chop the castle there.

I'm surprised that more people are not annoyed that lego made the castle micro scale and then didn't give us the full castle. I think it looks nice but it's incomplete. I've seen better versions made by fans. I couldn't help myself if i got it, I'd have to expand it like this version which is beautiful. Even a few studs bigger with the clock tower and bridge would have been fine. Loads of people still want the rest of the last microscope castle as a set, lego never learn. I think the figure is great but a lot of people don't even know who it is.