Felkin

I wish there had been more weird / colourful choices like Cat Hermione or Rita Skeeter; half of this CMF look like "just" normal people in normal-ish clothes. But looking back, the previous CMF was more about filling in the blanks in the main sets anyway (students in 3rd / 4th year uniforms, Fantastic Beast characters, stuff that fans would want that wasn't included in the sets), and this series does this for the current wave of sets. We all knew we would never get a "Murder of Lily and James Potter!" set, for example. I thought Quidditch Harry, Ron and Ginny would be a given in the CMF as interesting variants, but alas not. Maybe a Quidditch set or minifig pack is on the way next year? (I can dream.) I can't help but think the trio's muggle clothing was included to match the "Why is it when something happens, it's always you three?" meme.

The pub was part of the set, but it wasn't the focus. The set name 'The London Chase' doesn't mention the pub, and on the box art it looks like just a background building, which allows them to include the pub without being seen to "promote" alcohol. In the same way, I would expect the Leaky Cauldron to be part of the Diagon Alley D2C. Parents (who, let's face it, buy most Lego sets) may not want to buy a set that ONLY features a pub; they don't want their little children re-enacting what happens in a pub. "Look, mummy! Harry's drunk!" But as part of Diagon Alley, Lego can focus on the journey from the muggle world to the Wizarding world via the transforming brick wall, with the Leaky Cauldron as just one part of it... possibly including bottles of Butterbeer and Gigglewater.

Both Gringotts and the Leaky Cauldron could easily be stand-alone sets, rather than part of Diagon Alley. Gringotts is more likely to be a stand-alone, though, since Lego has shied away from making pubs before (note the lack of Moe the Bartender in the Simpsons line, and the rumoured cancelled Moe's Tavern set). Including the Leaky Cauldron as part of a Diagon Alley D2C would allow them to include an iconic location without focusing on a place which sells alcohol.

Sounds awesome; I expect he'll get a minifig in the most expensive set (ala Lockwood Estate). I hope the movie Dodgson meets the same sticky end as his book counterpart!

Hopefully we'll get more student packs in the future; representatives of the four house Quidditch teams, winter theme with hats and scarfs, Battle of Hogwarts fighters, that sort of thing. We could easily get obscure students that way rather than being shoehorned into the regular sets, such as the Quidditch players or Dumbledore's Army members.

Is anyone else disappointed they missed the chance to put the Sith holocron wayfinder behind a panel in the Emperor's throne room?

Maybe, but the first two were movie tie-ins. The new CMF is strictly DC Superheroes, and I was wondering if that was treated differently by Lego from a licensing perspective. Like THELEGOBATMAN says, it's only a matter of time until we get a Marvel CMF, I was just wondering if the solo DC CMF was a hint that a Marvel CMF would be sooner rather than later, per the sharing of the Lego Superheroes brand.

The Superheroes brand includes both Marvel and DC. Although the two lines are not identical in terms of number of sets, pricing etc, does anyone know if DC getting it's own CMF this year increase the likelihood of Marvel getting one soon for "balance"? Surely Marvel wouldn't want DC to be seen to dominate a corner of the market?

They made a reuseable body for bigfigs where they just have to change the head, like Marvel's Hulk or DC's Killer Croc or Disney's Maui, so clearly they can use that across various licensed themes without a problem (with different heads and printing, obviously). They could possibly use it in Harry Potter, but I can't think of too many characters / creatures it would be suitable for. The existing Hagrid mould is better than the bigfig mould (I can't imagine Hagrid with those huge beefy arms!). The troll in the bathroom might be a good shout, though, that's a possibility when they do more Philosospher's / Sorcerer's Stone sets.

They have had sweepstakes on Lego's new VIP site for older SDCC exclusive figs, so maybe they could do it this way? But Guyon2002 is probably right, they could just skip this year, there's nothing year-specific about the SDCC exclusives.

If it means getting most of the missing Endgame versions of MCU characters (chainmail Cap, fat Thor, etc), and maybe some missing characters from earlier films, I'm all for it.

Kids do care. One shop in my town STILL has leftover Star Wars Episode I merchandise they haven't been able to shift, and Star Wars was (in theory) a guarantee of huge toy sales. A good movie sparks the imagination and makes kids want to make their own adventures with those characters; bad movies don't. And so far, the DCEU has either failed to spark the imagination (BvS, Justice League), or hasn't made much of an impact in the public conciseness (Shazam, Birds of Prey... both which didn't get Lego sets). Hopefully 'The Batman' will do both and generate interest in all further DC movies, but until then, it's gonna be Batman or nothing, sadly.

I wonder if the CMF will be based on the comics or the MCU. There are so many comics designs we'd probably never get any other way (Scarlet Witch with her classic tiara, stuff like that), but then there are so many missing MCU outfits too, including a lot of the Endgame cast and Spidey's bosco suit. Comics would be more colourful for kids, but Disney might prefer MCU to help promote Disney+. Anyone got any thoughts which it might be?

Maybe they thought that having two mostly red busts would look too similar on shelves, so they went with red and green so they stand out. If they sell, I'm sure Spidey will be in a second wave.

Licensed CMFs are almost always accompanied by a D2C. If HP CMF series 2 has been delayed, does that mean the D2C will be held back?

Tom Riddle looks great! Wish he came with an undamaged diary, but that's the only niggle. Amazed to see he doesn't re-use the General Hux / Professor Snape legs!

Is the Venomsaurus Rex in the cartoons now? It was introduced in the decidedly non-kiddie-friendly Old Man Logan comic story, and I was wondering if this is just Lego's dark humour (like putting Joker in his Killing Joke shirt, and with a camera, in TLBM CMFs)? I love that they gave Spider-Ham his hot dog from the "Caught in a Ham" cartoon!

Maybe, but the antenna would need to be printed on, and it would need a new custom body with wings anyway; we'll probably get a whole pixie someday with the same sort of scale and detail as baby Groot from the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 sets (either in a Defence Against the Dark Arts Cornish Pixies set, or with Lockhart in the next CMF series).

Those story books look awesome! I'd love to see a Tales of Beedle the Bard one showing the Tale of the Three Brothers, hopefully as an official Deathly Hallows set, but that's pure wishlisting.

Has there ever been a licensed CMF without a companion D2C? The only ones I can think of is the first TLBM CMF and the new DC series. Maybe the DC CMF is a hint for what Lego will do from now on, but since HP is popular with adults as well as kids (who are seen as having more disposable income than kids), surely they'll make a new D2C?

Whenever Disney decide they have a game plan for introducing the X-Men across media and merchandise. A new cartoon is probably more likely before their MCU debut, to get kids excited for all these "new" characters, and Lego sets will hopefully be a part of that (like previous sets based on the Avengers Assemble cartoon). Lego sets usually take a few years from concept to shelf, so I would guess 2021 at the very earliest.

A lot of people want House-themed battle packs featuring generic / minor members of each house. The Star Wars battle packs (such as the new Mandalorian one) always have a small build in addition to the minifigs, so any hypothetical HP battle packs could easily have part of their respective common rooms. The Fat Lady's portrait hole and a few armchairs next to the fire for Gryffindor, for example. Lego Harry Potter has been selling very well, so hopefully one day we'll get something like this! It would be a good way to give us the school and quidditch robes for each house, as well as those characters not important enough to be in a "regular" set.

Batmite's Batman glasses are adorable! It makes him look like a nerdy member of the Sons of Batman (the reformed Mutant gang members from the Dark Knight Returns comic).

It's a reference to the original Jurassic Park hatchery, where the heat lamp (the white disc) would normally incubate the eggs, but would rise up to allow access for egg turning or the birth of dinosaurs (like the baby Raptor). As for why it's in a Lego set of an amusement park ride, I guess it's just an easter egg (see what I did there), and an extra bit of activity for kids to play with.

New Joker looks awesomely creepy, although I wonder if they went with the white suit to look as different as possible to Joaquin Phoenix's Joker look. Rebirth Superman is okay, I guess, but why oh why it isn't his first appearance look like Batman and Wonder Woman, I have no idea. I'll be glad to get it since we never got a New 52 Superman, but there are so many better Superman looks they could have used, it's a missed opportunity.