MaxHeadroom

I really hope we get a Battle of Hogwarts Ron. It would be completely bizarre to have Harry and Hermione without him. Although, maybe it would be a nice tribute to the dimensions sets giving us DH2 Hermione but no Ron. LEGO isn’t against holding things back to use as bait later but DH2 Ron would be a really strange thing to hold back.

Surely that distant future has to just be the upcoming D2C right? No clue how they could do a $430 Gringotts without those two. As for the Battle of Hogwarts figures Harry, Ron, and Voldemort feel essential. A repeat of Neville (plus Nagini) also seems like a given if they want this to be the complete battle. That only leaves room for two more figures, both need to be villains and at least one or two probably need to be female characters. Luckily Ron and probably Voldemort are the only characters that need any new prints which should leave a decent amount of budget. Narcissa is an obvious choice imo. A character recognizable enough to make it to the pre-2018 reboot line and one collectors have been wanting. I imagine they’d go all out on this figure since it would be the one selling the set to minifig collectors. Bellatrix seems like a safe voice for the remaining villain, maybe with a printed dress this time around. The 3v3 setup makes me think this could have some kind of duel/battle function like we occasionally see in Star Wars sets. To represent the Harry/Voldemort duel this would probably be placed inside another set of courtyard modules (just what this interior focused line needs) like the Sirius Escape set had. Hopefully this time they’ll include more than half the floor so it’s actually functional vertically in the modular system. As for the rest of the interior maybe we will get a room with a random toilet to pair with our room with a random sink. My expectations are so low after the ROR I’ll be praising them if they manage to include even one complete wall.

Pretty expected since the last 3 summer waves included buildable creatures and last year’s was even upgraded to being in the main wave instead of an exclusive. Now that we know what everything is, it makes 2022’s semi-return to form seem like an accident. Gringotts is the only set I’m properly looking forward to, although including the Second Task set puts this year above 2021’s single good set. While I hate the idea of buying sets for figures the ROR does tempt me by finally including DH2 variants and Zabini, who was my one niche character I really wanted. Fingers crossed that the Hogwarts battle not only has a couple interesting figures (I’d class a Neville repeat as interesting since I didn’t bother with the advent calendar so there’s a freebie) but a semi coherent build without for example every window design that designers can come up with or an entire room dedicated to a nondescript sink no one can figure out even months later.

They could’ve easily included it without the dragon or mine-cart in the DA set, just like they did in 2011. Releasing Gringotts outside the DA they still probably could’ve gotten away with one set to go with the DA and a mine-cart set for the kids, including the dragon with whichever one they though would need an extra push. Like I said in my post though that time has passed since expectations grew after years of LEGO making us wait. I’d bet on it being DH2 because this set needs to be the most Gringotts that has ever Gringotts’ed so they’ll have to include the dragon. Not to mention the dragon could help pad out the set more to make it worth the price. There’s also the rumored vault GWP which I think could easily be the PS vault, since that would work better as a small standalone than Bellatrix’s vault. Very early to place 2023 for me but I’ll make a guess. 6. 2021 5. 2023 4. 2018 3. 2022 2. 2019 1. 2020 Gringotts is on Diagon Alley and I assume they will include some kind of cobbled path around it like they did with the DA. That leaves room for them to potentially include some other characters walking around. I wouldn’t bet on it or expect anything but I also wouldn’t completely rule it out.

Back in 2020 they maybe planned on saving Gringotts as it’s own thing for later and figured they could wait a few years and string collectors along for awhile. Then they realized they wanted to do this new playscale DA line and now have to finally finish what they started because collectors would (rightfully) be pissed if they bought a $400 setup and it was forever missing the most important part. They could’ve just made it an above ground thing for less than half the price but I think because they waited 3 years to finally do it, expectations were raised to astronomical levels. Over the last few years we’ve seen Gringotts go from something people wanted and were expecting to the most important and hyped up set of the entire line. Back in 2021 they could’ve just released an above ground D2C + a play based vault set and included the dragon with either of them and I think everyone would’ve been happy but that’s not the case anymore. It’s been so long that I’m not entirely sure if it’s even about finishing the DA, a Gringots D2C is just its own thing now which people want on it’s own. It definitely does seem like a mishmash but I’m not sure there’s any other way they can do it and satisfy fans without a time machine to go back and either release it in 2021 or make it part of the 2020 set like it probably should’ve been in the first place.

Hearing King NoNo brings back memories lmao. I’ve got two thoughts on all this, assuming it’s true 1. If they were going to make a playscale DA series they should’ve just saved the Gringotts underground for that and included a basement free Gringotts building with the 2020 DA in the first place. It would’ve saved so much time, effort, and heartache. It’s also unfortunate that we’ve got what will still probably be the best version of the buildings with the 2020 set, but we now need to track down probably $30+ worth of new parts, minifigures, and prints from the new set to perfect the original. I 100% understand making these individual sets though. Kids shouldn’t need to spend $400 to get the location of DA and experience the general wizard shops play style (although Hogsmeade covered that ground well for awhile), $90 is already more than expensive enough. It’s just frustrating for us collectors. I’m not sure if I’ll buy these remade DA sets. I guess I’ll see how they turn out or if I happen to get one as a gift or something. 2. These sets we have less info on aren’t mass retail and are more limited right? If so, why is the Express being rereleased here? Surely it’s the kind of thing that should be accessible everywhere and be on shelves for many years like the 2018 one was. I doubt I’ll get this as I’ve already got the 2010 and 2018 sets and they’re some of my least favorites because of how much horizontal space they take up instead of vertical. They always have to be at the front of a shelf if I want to see them. A hogsmeade station side build sounds okay but not cool enough that I’d spend $130 on it and want to deal with another train. Never thought the hogsmeade station was that visually interesting anyway. In general I have a very different take on remakes than most people (or the ones with the most disposable income) seem to. Personally I’d rather remakes either be so different they might as well be new (like the 2021 castle remakes on paper if they were actually focused on interiors) or I’d rather they slowly improve over time with minor new parts and techniques but not actually include anything particularly desirable in each update like a figure or side build. Id love to just have them in the background easy to ignore until one day over time they’ve naturally improved enough from the last version I bought to be worth getting again.

Apparently there’s a new Ameet book coming in June with Ron and Hermionie figures. The Hermionie figure is the Forbidden Forest one with the standard hair, but I’m not sure where the torso on the Ron figure comes from. I don’t think it has appeared in a set as far as I can remember. Is this reused from another theme or something new that we could expect to see in the summer sets?

The Hogwarts with grounds set makes far more sense to me than the original micro castle. If people want play sets they’ll buy the normal playsets (especially when they still had decent exteriors from 2018-20) so a set focused on showing the castle’s full layout makes more sense.

As someone who owns all 4 minifig scale Great Halls I’d gladly buy a UCS one as part of a UCS castle series. The 2021 version hasn’t got much for an interior, the exterior takes a lot of liberties, and its attached to the worst staircase tower Lego has ever produced. Meanwhile the 2018 version is just the wrong shape and way too short (not to mention the staircase tower there is missing some key details), The 2010 version is alright for what it is but the interior is facing the wrong way, and the 2001 version is a LEGO model from 2001. I’d love to see LEGO make a Hogwarts UCS series that’s actually planned in advance with things like all four common rooms. Even better if it’s all on top of a few BURPs like the micro scale castle. LEGO have never made a Hogwarts that feels complete to me and I’d love to finally get one so I never feel the need to buy another system. I think the issue would be selling things as standalone sets. The Great Hall/courtyard would sell well as would a staircase tower but aside from the viaduct enterance the rest of the buildings from the iconic view used for the microscale set aren’t super recognizable on their own.

Half the rooms in the current Hogwarts are empty or just random tables so no loss there.

Considering we just got a $100 set with 10 figures (9 of them new) featuring tons of new prints and an unprinted statue I think 9 figures for this $85 set (considering Harry, Hermionie, and Neville if included are repeats) is definitely possible. I’m personally expecting less but I could see anything between 6-9 figures. Usually complexity of LEGO sets increases with the age range, but you can find exceptions. Yes, that was my point and what I said. Lego marking the expecto patronum set as 14+ does not necessarily mean it’s more complex than other sets, only that it’s intended for an older audience.

Voldemort is bound to come in the battle of hogwarts set. Gold figure aside we haven’t seen him since 2019 have we? There are probably a lot of kids who got into collecting in the last few years that are without Voldemorts. Really LEGO should’ve saved the courtyard for this set since a lot happens there and they could’ve included some exploding features to make it slightly more interesting than the one we got. DH2 Ron is obviously going to be there with a repeat of DH2 Harry and probably DH2 Hermionie (they seemingly gave up on the Ron/Hermionie balance last year). Neville is also pretty important to that scene and I wouldn’t be surprised if they included last year’s advent calendar figure. So thats 5 figures already, which doesn’t leave more than another 4-5 if we’re being generous. I wouldn’t really get hopes up for the Carrows but who knows.

The Everyone is Awesome set is by far one of the least complex sets I’ve ever bought (just stacking bricks and placing tiles) and that was 18+. Subject material doesn’t completely determine the recommended age but neither does complexity. Subject matter and complex generally increase the age range but it’s a not a rule that can be used definitely. Both can factor into the decision but at the end of the day it’s based on what market LEGO wants to target. Seeing that it’s not 18+ is a good indicator that it isn’t an adult diorama focused on a quote. I’m not really sure what a 14+ set would entail though. I think the kinetic sculpture idea is a good one (and it’s something missing from this wave) but I’m not sure what exactly would raise it from 10+ all the way to14+ aside from it being slightly larger than the previous ones.

Brick built Dobby’s sock set, the prophecy was real. My time has finally come. I want to buy it but $430 for Gringotts though, wow. Guess I’ll have to start saving for that. I’m confused by the rest of the sets though. Other than the battle of hogwarts which seems straightforward and is more DH stuff so looking forward to that.

Looking at the spielwaren pics and wow the bright blue legs on DH2 Harry look even cartoonish and silly than the Grimmauld Place figure, not to mention Malloy still having brightly colored hair. The pixie sticker remains incredibly tacky and the random clear bars don’t make much sense either, maybe they’re meant for posing flying figures? The display cases built into pillars are also bizarre. The plethora of pin and axle holes don’t make much sense to me considering the snake didn’t split into a million parts in the movie if I remember right. I definitely wouldn’t need the ones facing the camera in the third pic above the stickers. They just make it look like an unfinished build made out of whatever parts could be found, not an official Lego set. In general seeing it removed from all the roof garbage and with everything in place the main build isn’t THAT bad but it’s still not great. No surprise they avoided photographing the roof sections though, despite those probably taking up a third of the parts budget. The arches and gaps in the construction of the smaller roof are odd, the general existence of the sink room is bizarre (between the polyjuice postion set and this, this Hogwarts system has as many rooms with sinks as classrooms), the scroll room is pointless, and the weird tower that attaches to the side is both pointless and ugly. So many completely useless bits of castle too boring for kids to play with and too ugly for adults to display eating up so much of the set’s budget. Personally I would’ve scrapped all of it and put the parts towards making the ROR configure into different versions (display cases aside the rest of the builds in this version are already removable). Being able to add in the vanishing cabinet or switch out all the junk for a training dummy and a chalkboard would’ve given kids a lot more to do. Still even if they needed to have a lot of roof stuff, a sink and a scroll were really the best they could do? A nitpick but looking at the official pictures, I noticed that the small side tower uses the standard square window frame to prop up the top of the cylindrical roof instead of the arched window frame like every other roof using that technique in this system has used (afaik) including the other larger cylindrical roof in this very set. I know actual the windows have never been remotely consistent in the 2021+ line but the windows used for structure can’t even be consistent? Honestly feels like a joke.

I got the Sirius Rescue set as a Christmas gift and while I wasn’t planning on buying it myself I was pretty happy to get it since I did think it looked good when it was revealed despite most people being critical of it. After building it, what an awful set! First and foremost the colors for the stickers are closer to white than tan. They were a bit too dark in 2018/19 and perfect in 2020, why can’t they match the color anymore? I compared with the staircase promo and that also has the same bright stickers although they don’t suck out as badly there. Frankly it looks like it’s either a bootleg or been sitting in direct sunlight for half a century. It’s completely unacceptable imo, especially with the box and product images making it actually match the color of the tan parts. The build itself is also a let down. I didn’t mind the grated floors but the wedge floors are a cost cutting measure too far (at least for the courtyard itself, I can excuse the “roof” sections). The parts budget for the useless barrel and chicken leg thing with nowhere to go should’ve been spent on proper floors kids could’ve played with. Unless the courtyard modules are on the ground level they’re completely useless for this multilevel hogwarts system. Considering this is meant to be an interior based system though, doing a two layer 8x16 courtyard was a strange choice in the first place. None of the interiors in this set are good anyway though. Really they should’ve cut the whole bottom layer (as much as I like seeing the spiral staircase again) and sold the set for $25 (even cutting the Hermionie figure if they needed to). They also should’ve fixed the awful buckbeak color. I’ve got the original sure but the kids who don’t deserve better. Sorry for my initial positivity when the set was revealed, I was too swept up in seeing curved castle elements again. The people who complained were right.

New leadership will probably want to do their own thing and bring their own spin to the line rather than stick with what came before, regardless of the quality of the current system. 3 years is the standard for LEGO and it gives the new leadership a year to settle in before another soft reboot. I would be surprised if it lasted into summer 2024. As for the 2018 era ending while I could believe that they ran out of recognizable buildings at first, the marketing of the current reboot quite thoroughly disproves that old theory. If consumers will buy sets with buildings as niche and even made up as the ones covering the front of the boxes for all the new Hogwarts sets (bar the Great Hall and Clock tower which actually are recognizable) then I don’t think something like the bell towers would’ve actually been that hard of a sell. I’ll be interested to see what happens with the current castle system under new leadership though. They’ve historically struggled to decide to make decent interiors or decent exteriors each wave of this new system and based on the new ROR they’ve chosen to do neither. Looking at this castle format as whole there’s an incredible lack of classrooms considering it’s meant to be a school. DADA and the cramped astronomy room are all this system has unless I’m missing something. obviously that’s because of the Moments books (releasing competing interior hogwarts based sets probably wasn’t a great idea for this system) but now that those are gone I think getting a classroom set in the box style seems like a realistic guess for summer 2023.

I’ve been campaigning for a Zabini probably as long as I’ve been active on EB so I’m very happy to finally have him. The Second Task set is excellent and the banners are take it or leave it like the moments books. That ROR though, I have some thoughts. The summer 2022 castles were a genuine improvement from the earlier sets. The exteriors looked solid considering the box constraints and while the interiors weren't anything amazing they were solid enough, even if they were clearly put on the back burner. The Room of Requirement meanwhile couldn’t be more of a step back. What are we getting for an interior here? An 8x16 area with a fun door function, display cases awkwardly built into pillars, a small pile of undecorated 2x2 bricks, two other container pieces, a small record player, a bust with a helmet, and an extremely tacky pixie sticker. Then there’s a 8x8 room with a sink(?), a roof piece with a random scroll, an empty roof piece, and another empty roof piece. Where’s the vanishing cabinet? The parts budget for the random sink room and roof pieces could’ve easily gone there. Also things like the HBP book or a training dummy which I’m sure kids who missed the 2020 set would appreciate. Not to mention making the only stack of things they do include a bit taller to make use of the increased height for this module. If the interior was nice I wouldn’t care but since it isn’t I’ll say the exterior is awful. It’s a mess of different textures, colors, empty arches, window designs, and roof designs. The minifigures and the fact it’s a DH2 set in the first place are the only things this set succeeds in. I still love the concept of the modular hogwarts sets and the Polyjuice Potion set is an excellent example of what could’ve been. I just wish they would’ve fully committed to interior sets and not wasted so much parts budget on exterior details roof modules, loosing the interiors in the process most the time. Committing to a consistent roof and especially window design would’ve been cool too. We’re at the point now where they’re probably planning for the next system (this one will probably continue in summer 2023 and maybe spring 2024?) and I’m ready to move on to it.

Blaise Zabini is one of my favorite minor characters so I’m really glad we’re finally getting a figure of them. Not too sure about the set in general just because it’s presumably in the 2021+ castle format, those have slowly been getting better though. Nice to finally have two whole DH sets. The second task is what it is and I’m sure it will be solid, was only a matter of time until they made it. This is definitely the best winter wave of the reboot but that’s saying very little.

Bought Grimmauld place and the Shrieking Shack to get the two GWPs. The Ministry was the set I wanted most but I figured since it's not a retail exclusive it would be showing up elsewhere on sale sooner than the others, along with the carriage which I would also like to get some point. I'm also tempted by the dragon since it's minifigure scale but I'll definitely pass on the castle sets, especially with the price on Dumbledore's office being raised. They're an improvement on last year's castle builds and I think the combined castle looks much better than it did but it's too little too late for me and I really couldn't justify getting into it now. Only one more year of this system until they introduce a new one anyway, hopefully it's exterior based again and they've taken some time to actually plan it using what they've learned from the last two. Pretty happy overall with this wave for what it is. It's given OOTP some much needed representation, finally scratched the surface of DH, and the shack filled one of the few remaining gaps in 1-4. Looking forward to finally building it. Still plenty left on my wishlist though. Along with the obvious Gringotts and dragon I'd like to see (in order of importance), a battle of Hogwarts focused set, the trio's tent, the second task, Borgin and Burke's, and the Durmstrang ship since we have the BB carriage. If we get a couple of those and at least one set is DH focused I'd probably be content with any wave.

Are these movies meant for adults? I remember the first one at least was marketed as introducing the Wizarding World brand to a new generation of children. That would explain the lack of LEGO sets based on it but the first two both had a couple of LEGO products each.

Hearing that WB won't make any more FB movies if this doesn't do well has massively incentivized me to avoid the new film despite my mild curiosity, and I saw the last two on their opening nights. The original was a clunky mixed bag but there was just enough whimsical creature stuff to make it passable. COG seemed to learn all the wrong lessons though and was a real disaster. I can't imagine the kids who saw it got anything out of it and (based on reviews) I'd guess that is the case for the new film too. This could've been a perfect film series for kids and merchandisers if they just focused on Newt and the titular beasts. I'm still a little bit surprised LEGO got away with releasing absolutely nothing for this movie (not even the brickbuilt Niffler many of us speculated about) but it doesn't seem like WB has any deals for this movie with any merchandisers. I at least haven't seen anything for it anywhere. Based on the negative reception the last two entries have gotten I think these movies are probably doing the brand more harm than good. I'm not sure this theme is really a great example of LEGO not avoiding critical things. DH was avoided for a long time (still only two CMF figures and a brickheads set for part 2) plus they're completely avoiding the new FB movie for the people who care about those.

No Gringgotts, what a relief. There are enough good sets to keep me occupied already without another $470 dropped. I'd rather have it be a $200 set with a dragon anyway without any forgettable shops as padding.

Well things are definitely going to get expensive and we haven't even seen the D2C yet (after seeing these I really hope its easy to skip and not Gringotts). After 2020 the things I wanted were the Shrieking Shack, more OOTP sets, and DH1+2 sets. At least two of those are fully crossed off for me. Shrieking shack looks great (if overpriced, I might wait for a sale on that one) and OOTP now has enough stuff that it matches the 2018-2020 sets for movies 1-4, and 6 for me. It's nice that we're getting a start on DH but I would need the tent and the battle of Hogwarts before I'd be content (wouldn't say no to a set for Gringotts or the dragon either). I didn't expect to be interested in the Horntail but since it's minifigure scale and the stand isn't too conspicuous I actually really like it. Those castle sets are shocking IMO. The stand on a completely different level than the 2021 sets (flying lesson notwithstanding) and spring 2022 set. CURVES! Curved walls of castles! Not just ugly curved brown windows awkwardly jutting out of squares, but actual parts of the structure! Plus there's only one awkward "window with roof popping out of flat wall" design to go with the standard single stud wide hole windows and the standard lattice windows (although we get both gold and black lattice windows for some reason). That's without even mentioning the buildings finally having angles (and not in the middle of what's actually meant to be one flat structure like the clock tower was). Why they didn't start out with sets like this is beyond me. The 2001 sets had angles and curves too so they really had no excuse to be so flat and dull. The texturing is also far better on these sets, they aren't remotely as labored and it doesn't feel like the designers are desperately trying to make the boxes interesting by forcing in as many window designs, build techniques, and textured parts as possible. At first I thought they were so much of an improvement that I actually considered actually buying them but giving it more thought I would still hesitate to call them good. As for interiors Dumbledores' office is good and the library is fine if a bit bland and empty, but the rest of the interiors are all mostly empty which really defeats the whole point of this system. It's also great to have angles again but the courtyard is a 90 degree angle and Dumbledores office as a whole seems to be able to do 90-180 at most. That means that if we put these sets together the exteriors will mostly close in on themselves exposing the interiors which is is what eventually convinced me to not buy these. Don't get me wrong, these are a massive step forward but there's still a ways to go. They could perfect this format next year but at that point this system will probably be on its way out. I don't like having most of this post be negative since I really like this wave overall but the good stuff about all the fantastic non-Hogwarts sets have already been discussed here. The one thing I really like that hasn't been said yet is that it's nice to get a bit more forest again which I think was really missing last year. The trees aren't always amazing but I like getting a bit of nature and slowly building a forbidden forest. In general my ranking of all the 2018 revival waves would be 2019> 2020> 2022> 2018> 2020.

Are the sets coming out in June even in the US? I wasn't paying attention much after the leaked prototypes last year but I do remember the sets being delayed until July in 2019 and roughly August in 2020. Haven't been this interested in new sets since the DA so I'm really looking forward to seeing them, hopefully it's not the last theme to get revealed in full.