Metanoios

Builds stay mostly the same. Only some colours might change, because the prelims usually don't include new recolours, prints or exclusive new moulds (the white/grey ones are prototype parts). The white part on fluffys back is either a new piece which allows the attachement of all three heads via mixel joint or is a recolour of an old part

Are they using the wand sprue piece for the harp strings? That would be kind of a cool part usage. Or it might be another piece. The tan on tan and bad resolution make it quite hard to discern. I hope the yellow pieces will be recoloured to pearl gold in the final product

@Roebuck At least there are owls in the Hogwarts set. And the basilisk looks great

Maybe that is the design reason why they went with sand green roofs again. If the base and the rocks are dark grey, the roof with the same colour would look weird and monotonous

A specialised moulded or good brick-built stairwell gargoyle would make that set a must-buy for me. If they managed to modernise the play feature of the original, that would be amazing. My expectations are getting to high again

A bigger set with more details would actually be cool

Ok I'm lowering my expectations further. The next wave will include a 250$ D2C cloak of invisibilty. Another Ford Anglia (but this time with a working invisibility booster). Also someone in Billund apparently figured out how to cast Repello-Muggletum on all the bricks. Or in other words, Lego went too far with their reduce-single-use-plastic-campaign and will just send out empty cardboard boxes starting this august

Wowowow if you think Assault on Hoth was overall pretty good, then what does "lower your expectations" really mean? I can go lower than Cursed Child sets but I really don't want to. I was only joking before but now I am afraid

I think the brick-built silver dagger would hurt him more... they could even include an exclusive printed tile with the epitaph

The app works fine on my phone. But I have one of the best mobile releases of 2020 so that might play a role. The image recognition and AR algorithm they implemented requires a fair amount of computing power, although there are no measures installed to prevent you from just scanning still images (which I definitely would never ever do or recommend). I just installed it to test it, because I work in data science and was interested how advanced their implementation was. Their were rumors about a canned addon to the Dimensions theme that was also supposed to have the scanning feature of minifigs. There is potential in this technology but they would have to think bigger, if it should be more than a gimmick, that gets boring in less than a minute.

Maybe this year marks the redemption arc of Lord Voldemort and KingNoKnow "Because they are the leakers we deserve, but not the ones we need right now"

Maybe GOT Season 8 is the perfect metaphor for the Harry Potter theme. At the beginning it's all hype and they can do no wrong. Then the cracks begin to appear, but you are still on the hype train for Cleganebowl, Valonquar-prophecy, Bran-the-Builder (Gringotts, Grimmauld Place, ...) and you have to believe that it can only get better after season 6 and 7. First two episodes are not bad, then it goes down-hill fast and before it is over, you try to forget about all of it. Burning the bluray discs in their cases. Waiting for a book, that you know will never be published

The 18+ sets have these dark and sometimes very low contrast instruction pages giving me PTSD and flash backs to the "The Long Night" episode from season 8 every time. It's just blackness for more than an hour... and me trying to figure out what's happening.

The 250$ D2C could also just be a package deal of 4 Harry Potter art sets titled "The Hogwarts Crest"

Maybe the wave is a tie-in with the vidiyo theme and Harry, Ron and Hermione are joining the Unicorn in the K-PAWP-Genre of the vidiyo app. It's already confirmed that we are getting a (furry) Cat-Hermione and this would certainly shock me

Says the one who is buying the 4+ sets I would give them a second chance, even if the wave consists of misformed minidolls and every set is a cross-over like "Harry Potter in Space", "Hermione's petting zoo" or Ron driving a speed champion (something from Ford)

Funniest part, you don't have to buy any of the sets or figs at all for the full functionality of the app features. Just scan the pics that are available on the various Lego fan sites or reviews and you have all the beatbits and bandmates... before they are even on the market.

It's Cursed Child sets, isn't it? Wouldn't it be hilarious if they skipped Deathly Hallows and went straight into the best Harry Potter canon material out there. They could do child appropriate sets with Scorpius and Albus because they are between 11 and 14 years old again. I mean we already got the trolley witch in the first wave

Ok I just made a literal text search on the string " lower your expectations" in the Harry Potter movies and books: The following is a quote by Harry in Deathly Hallows part 1 during the scene where they are in the tent discussing the Horcruxes: "Well then, I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand. What part of this isn't living up to your expectations? Did you think we were gonna be staying in a five-star hotel? Finding a Horcrux every other day? You thought you'd be back with your mum by Christmas?" So I guess the tent is confirmed for the August wave. /s

Some fan designers basically did the heavy lifting for them already on the Hogsmeade facades: The half cylinders fit perfectly into MartinOt's rendition of Honey-Dukes (size-wise Honey-Dukes will probably be a little bit smaller and less detailed). The three broom-sticks are probably what we can expect in the best case at that price point. Just erase the cart and the building in the middle: https://ideas.lego.com/challenges/fa395293-eda9-4603-83cc-aac44c1052cb/application/9a0b44ec-21df-4dd6-b83d-e279b19fa8e4 The versions of Scarlett patronus are also pretty much along a set I could see Lego release (minus the 3 other buildings and the cart): https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ09sibJd5X/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link According to Stonewars the colour scheme for Honey-Dukes is medium nougat and green which would mean that MartinOt's stonework fits. The Three-Broomsticks however will have golden window lattices and a dark tan with reddish brown colour scheme. Snow on the roofs fits again

I would love a buildable display piece of the Cursed Child prototype Time-Turner as a 120 $ set. They could make it spin and build in a light-brick, along with a small minifig-stand with three exclusive minifigs, so that we can replay our favourite scene like the timeline, where Cedric is a Death-Eater or the Polyjuice-Potion scene with Albus, Scorpius and Hermione in the Ministry of Magic. There is so much potential for great sets in the future of the Harry Potter franchise!

How would your source know that he/she is the only one that knows what sets are coming and would therefore be the only one that faces consequences, when the info surfaces somewhere as a "guess" on the internet? Falconfan and promobricks obviously know as well. Unless your source is the same designer (or Lego as a PR stunt themselves), that supplied all the others with information, your source or Lego for that matter would have no way of knowing, who exactly that person leaking the information is. Also someone could have guessed the D2C correctly in this thread already. Is that person leaking information or just lucky?

I mean he wouldn't really say that, if we were getting a full wave of DH sets. I get that he can't outright state it as fact at this point. I think the anniversary wave is kind of a good idea and that way we would get a lot of locations or scenes, that were missed in previous waves, faster than if we would have to wait for 1 or 2 filler sets per year.

Yeah he was just visiting King's Cross station

The Hobbit killed LOTR... I think the release of 1 set per movie for an anniversary is not that far fetched and could match with the remaining set prices. The 39.99 could be another buildable figure like it was rumoured. 59.99 for a Year 4 Durmstrang ship or a second task set. Year 5 gets the 119.99 set and year 6 the 29.99 $. Gringotts (Year 7) with the big D2C and the 249.99 price point