Alexandrina

I hadn't even noticed the windows! It would actually unironically be nice to see the old windows - that size and the others - make a return. They're better pieces imo than the more modern windows. (Is a piece from 1981 still 'modern'?)

I wouldn't care if all the sets were just differently-shaped pipes for Myrtle's bathroom, if there was an Ernie Macmillan minifigure somewhere in the mix.

No offence - but I would hate this. The moment you make a series about a band of friends, I find it hard to see how you can keep it medieval and interesting. A Da Vinci style character would set the series too close to the Renaissance for my taste.

I must admit, it's not every day that you see flick-fire missiles incorporated into a MOC. I know it's in exactly the location the part was designed for, but still - the missiles are often discarded by MOCers. Nice work. Very sleek.

Imagine Lego giving us all our most-wanted characters... as printed tiles in the middle of a buildable frog card!

The AFOL's curse! I've already spent half of the excess money from my last paycheck on Lego this month - they just keep making stuff I want.

There was definitely stock in the UK, I nabbed ten myself. I had two emails from Brickhawk - one at 3.55am which didn't give me a push notification, and one about 9am which did. By the time the second email came through it was out of stock - I got lucky that I was at work for 5am today else it would have gone! I hope they don't continue to make them available at such a terrible time for us in the UK - it makes it nightmarish for us to get hold of any.

I actually think something Lord of the Rings esque is the perfect balance between fans of realism and fans of fantasy (though non-human minifigures for one faction might annoy many people!) The magic system in Lord of the Rings is subtle compared to lots of fantasy, and much of the look is medieval inspired swordplay rather than crystal balls and hexes and "double, double, toil and trouble"! If there was to be a story, I would like something like that. Like MAB, I would have no interest in what the story was - but the parts and sets it would offer in a high fantasy pseudo-medieval Middle Earth sort of setting would be perhaps more interesting than a real-world-esque theme. Especially since Lego would never touch the politics and intrigue of the real Middle Ages in sets.

I'm a simple woman. I see a well-designed Western set, I swoon for it! The callback to the town of Legoredo is appreciated - as is the presence of a civilian. Lego never really did that with their Western range, so this would be a lovely little addition to fill that gap. You can count on my support - I hope to see this in the next review!

At least you can afford the Marvel sets with the money you save not buying the Harry Potter sets you don't want!

I remember a possibly apocryphal story from the early years of Potter merchandise where they (not LEGO, a different toy company) had to recall a line of Nimbus 2000 brooms with a vibrating function, because of complaints from parents whose kids were running round the house with a vibrating stick between their legs So I think that would be a pretty terrible set!

Rupert Grint who was in the ABC Murders a year or so ago? Where did you hear that he decided to stop acting?

Not really. Though the old Dobby minifigure was definitely cursed, and I suppose you could argue he was a child, from a certain point of view.

Perhaps they know that Fantastic Beasts isn't as good as it could be, so they're spreading fake word that Cursed Child is in the pipeline. That way when it turns out to be false, we're all relieved and eat up the bang average Fantastic Beasts movie we get instead.

That was my thinking. Do the comics have a place? Absolutely. But it's probably more in the sets aimed at collectors - the same demographic who are likely to recognise lots of the comics-only characters - than in the most mass market product Lego do.

Not gonna lie, I assumed that was a given. Is there anything else that has enough mass market appeal? Lego aren't going to throw a bone to massive lore fans in the biggest impulse product for kids, and given that people like Spiderman have been adapted into the films, what's left? (I ask this genuinely: I have never read a superhero comic and have no idea if there's anything they haven't made into a film yet)

The legs sold out a few days ago, some time after the torsos. I ended up buying legs only at the time, in case the torsos came back into stock while the legs didn't. That was obviously a good decision! But yeah, they aren't lasting long at all.

Parts breaking are not a common occurrence. Even on dark red and reddish brown bricks, during the period when they were known to be brittle, most of the time you would be fine. Bricks in other colours, being displayed long term rather than dismantled, are very unlikely to just break. In any case - and I promise I don't mean to be rude here - Lego to me is a construction toy at its core. Yes, you build the model and display it for a time. But if all you want is something to sit on your shelf forever, why not buy a model? If you're going to be dismantling the set at some point, bricks eventually going slightly yellow won't be a huge issue - when you rebuild, you can use nin-yellowed bricks.

It seems to be a wintry Hogsmeade, so your best bet for building the whole village is probably the winter sets modified slightly to be wizard-friendly.

For anyone desperately waiting, the Black Falcon torso and the tan horse are back in stock on B&P. Just ordered ten of the torso myself, to go with the six legs I ordered the other day. Gonna have to crack out the hangover cures, since four of the knights will be legless!

Even ignoring the latter-day Castle, what is it that makes Fantasy Era true Castle but not Kingdoms?

This might even be their undoing this year. How much of the general miasma towards the June wave is because of the standards of the last few years? If it was the first wave since 2011, it would probably be better received.

It's worth remembering that it's at least theoretically possible to remove the yellowing - so there's nothing stopping somebody restoring all the bricks in a set to their original colours.

We'll have to agree to disagree on that, I think

Is there a price increase? The sets seem on par with previous Harry Potter sets, with a decent price to piece ratio - and I think you're the first person I've seen cite price increase as an issue.