strangely

Hagrid's Hut is my favorite of this wave, it really captures the energy of the early films. I really appreciate that they didn't retread too much from the previous iteration and went with a different build style, it really makes it feel like it's worthwhile to get even if you have the previous version. All the minifigures and creatures are great too. Seeing the back of the box with the wooden floor pattern makes me wish they had found a way to give the floor that look. My second favorite set is the boathouse. Yes, we get some retreads on the minifigures, but I really enjoy the build, it's simple but effective and I actually really enjoy the brick built boats (though the lantern build feels kind of meh to me). I like the exterior of the Owlery, but really dislike the interior, very much a mixed bag for me. I will likely wait for a sale on that one. I actually really like the look of the Forbidden Forest, the color palette really appeals to me and I like how they captured the look of terrain of the forest (though the build could be a bit smoother). Honestly, had they included a unicorn rather than Buckbeak, this would have been a slam dunk to me. The Flying Ford Anglia seems to be a minor improvement over the previous version. It's a solid little set and if I didn't have two other variations of this car I'd be tempted to buy it. Hedwig looks pretty bad. The accessories are pretty boring too. A definite skip for me. As winter waves go I actually like it overall. It's a bit less gimmick heavy than some of the previous years, and they managed to give us a couple of new locations, so I can't complain too much. Seeing the Hogwarts components built on rocks makes me hope that the next incarnation of Hogwarts is built up on a base a little bit more.

I assume for Fortnite they'd just use the Overwatch gun piece with different elements attached, so they don't even have to create new gun molds.

Lego already did Overwatch, which is a first person shooter, I think the rules really only apply when the intended sales audience is children.

It feels weird to me. Designing/customizing your player and house is a core component of the franchise. I mean, if the idea is that the builder is the player, it's kind of strange that if you go into Nook's store you can't buy the furniture for your house, if they add a Able Sisters shop you can't buy the clothes for yourself, if they add the salon you can't do your own hair and so on. Having a player minifigure gives you the ability to interact with all these things in the same way as the games, it acts as your avatar for roleplay. Too, the player designs are fairly iconic in their own right, so it just makes it even weirder that they're not present. I hope they add it in a following wave, the theme just feels incomplete to me without it.

I can understand them holding off on the player for now. The animals all have specific designs, with basic hat and torso variations, so it's easier to start with them. The player on the other hand is meant to be completely customizable, and if they go with molded heads to match the animals then they're basically committing to putting out a plethora of new parts (heads in all the skin tones, new hair pieces with color variations). I wouldn't be surprised if they saved the player for a cmf series as that would be a good way to provide a decent selection of options to customize your player avatar.

They just revealed the sets! New window and door pieces!

I'm really hoping that they capture the customization element of the games. It would be great if the set that introduces the player character could have a selection of parts to make your own basic villager to start off with (like the part selections in the Hogwarts and Quidditch trunk sets) and then other sets could increase the range of customization options. I'd love to also see expansion sets to upgrade your house, maybe a cmf with furniture sets, costumes, etc. I'm super stoked that they're building everything on baseplates so you can make your own island.

I'm guessing Isabelle's House Visit might be the player house since Isabelle doesn't traditionally have a house (I could be wrong, been a couple of years since I've played).

Lego just put out a teaser for Animal Crossing showcasing the minifigures. The designs really transfer well to minifigures. Can't wait to see the sets.

Very nice, such an improvement over the official version.

It's an interesting lineup, an updated Hagrid's Hut sounds nice, but unless it's a night and day improvement over the old one I think I'll probably just Bricklink the new parts and add them to the old set. The Magical Creatures set sounds exciting, I'm always happy to add more magical creatures to my collection (soon I shall have a herd of Hippogriff). Hopefully rather than recycling the same old Hogwarts robes they actually give us some new prints for Ron and Hermione. They weren't wearing their robes/sweaters, so they could get white shirts instead of the same old torsos. This would also be a great opportunity for them to do some mid leg skirt printing for Hermione, after all they've introduced a skirt for 1st/2nd years, so some printing for the 3rd/4th years would be welcome. The boathouse is potentially exciting, but I'm not sure how it's going to turn out if it's part of the current modular building style. I also wonder if any of the minifigures in the set will be new (this just feels like one of those places that they'll use recycled minifigures for). The Flying Ford Anglia has some real potential. If the front seat can fit two minifigures that would be a great improvement over all previous versions. The Owlery doesn't excite me much. It's great to get a new location, but unfortunately it's a location that bores me quite a bit. Still, the potential to get a new Cho and some interesting Owl prints is nice.

I think they did the vinyl piece so it can split open at the top.

I imagine they saved some time and money not dealing with anything related to Ezra Miller at the very least. As for Joker, they probably had that design ready to go from an upcoming set anyway.

I think they made the right choice to focus on Batman only. The article says he outsold Flash by a significant margin. So Lego probably came out ahead since they solely focused on Batman and avoided the Flash connection entirely.

As much as I'd like to see more sets, I just don't see it happening after the the movie bombed so badly.