AnnaBuildsLego

Oh no, now my hopes are up. Please be true!

Wow! What a fantastic set! 10 wonderful minifigures, a pretty sizable and decent build, and so many things from the movies (Basilisk and Fawkes apparently, although I can't see them)! Goodbye, future-me's money... The main source of jubilation is the Hufflepuff torso. PRAISE. Thank you LEGO, finally! It's a shame there's no Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw banner, but I'll take what I can get.

Got my 60th Anniversary Set and Old Fishing Store in the post, now having a lovely weekend of building. So glad I opened the 60th set - it's much bigger than I imagined! Also absolutely loving the Fishing Store so far!

The latest episode of The Flash (Season 4, episode 12) has a scene where two characters get shrunk down and placed in a LEGO display. Pretty cool! Link to the scenes on YouTube.

Wow, I hope it's true that a Jurassic Park set is happening! Hope it includes the iconic jeep and gates.

Thanks for the response! This is very helpful, I'll have to think about the options. Cheers!

I think I would echo everyone else in saying to get the Parisian if you really want to get something from Lego directly; it's gorgeous and the oldest modular currently in production. However, the Palace Cinema (which is also beautiful) was only recently retired and is still available in some places and I'd highly recommend getting that while you can at retail price. -- My question to people: How easy/difficult would it be to piece together the Town Hall? I've always sorely regretted missing that set because I adore it, but I was in my Dark Ages at the time of its release. Do you think I could relatively easily recreate it with the right parts? Thanks in advance to anyone who can give advice!

There's no doubt that it's a nice build, but that price is WAY out of proportion for this thing. Compared to Ninjago City, it really doesn't look like it gives you the right amount of value for that huge amount of money - very strange that this set is being produced. I think the price range of a regular modular building would be much more suited to the Docks. I'm genuinely interested in how this set will perform.

Finally got to order the Old Fishing Store so I could get the 60 year anniversary set with it. So happy right now!

I do agree that this is an ever-increasing issue. I went into my dark ages in 2011, and returning to LEGO around 2016 was definitely a really strange experience. 2009 was a fantastic year that had Castle, Pirates, Bionicle, City, Power Miners, Space Police, Agents... Tons of variety on the shelves to balance out the licensed themes that were also available. When I returned to the hobby, I fully expected some themes to still be around. City of course never dies, so that wasn't surprising - but I thought Castle at least would still be in production, or Space of some variety. It was surprising to see so few slots for original themes; surprising too, to look back on what I had missed during my dark ages and see that licensing like Lord of the Rings had for a time become the Castle equivalent, as I remembered people in 2009 insisting that such a thing would never happen. It feels like, crucially, the difference between now and 2009 is the sheer number of themes. 2009 had multiple clearly defined themes with their own clearly defined aesthetics; whereas now, in 2018, we have fewer original themes, and to compensate for that, TLG are smashing a lot of aesthetics together to try to still cover all bases. Hence we have a Creator set incoming that is both a City-esque civilian rollercoaster and pirate themed, to appeal to those who miss Pirates; we have Nexo Knights mixing sci-fi Space elements with Castle; we have Ninjago which is arguably the clearest-cut of the newer themes (ninjas are fairly easy to understand) but also incorporates flying machines and pirates at various points. The result is that LEGO's current original offerings are muddled to say the least, in comparison to the very concise premises of the themes they had in 2009. These current original themes are increasingly connected to exterior media also - TV shows, movies - and have developed their own mythologies that mimic licensed themes. Rather than getting a bunch of random knights and orcs, and getting to decide what each character is like, we're increasingly being given story lines. That has some benefits, but I would like more themes like City and Creator that don't do that; that allow kids to decide what each minifigure is like. Licensed themes also contribute to one of the biggest concerns I've noticed in the AFOL community since 2009 - pricing. It is doubtless that large licences like Disney have inflated the prices on sets - Star Wars in particular is shockingly more expensive than it was in 2009. Therefore another reason why LEGO needs to produce more original in-house content is to provide more affordable sets; last year's Ninjago Movie theme was great for pricing, and I'd like some more variety. Ultimately, licensed themes are fallible. There is no guarantee that the popularity of some IP will not plummet. There is always a risk to be taken. While some IP's (Star Wars) will likely never die, it's never a bad idea to have an immutable, always recognisible classic backup in the form of some knights or generic spacemen.

I really hope you're right about Lupin! Always wanted a Lupin figure, I imagine they could do a great figure for him now. You could even possibly have him as both regular Lupin and the werewolf by using the Chima wolf head mold, then have a double-sided regular head underneath (one side normal Lupin, one side with a grey Batman style band for the eyes when he's a wolf). As for the twins, I agree. They did just have twins take up two slots in the second LEGO Batman series after all, so them making both Fred and George here does not surprise me. I agree! Plus it's nice to get the different house mascots to go with the Great Hall set. I'd say that's probably incredibly likely to differentiate the figures. Can't wait to put them in my Burrow.

I mean, there is a Teen Titans Go movie coming out this year... Oh no...

Wow, the Manor building looks great! Something really good for Town/City building fans.

I was beginning to worry that they'd never make another CITY Hospital - so glad that's not the case! Always wanted a hospital for my town but never had one, so this has made my day. It looks absolutely wonderful too!

I agree with the general sentiment that none will be chosen from the 2nd batch, and the only one from the 3rd group will be the Pop-Up Book.

You could always pick up the Dimensions pack with Hermione! It might be on sale in places because of Dimensions being cancelled. Yiiiikes, that's too expensive for me. That's almost certainly a full Hogwarts; I can imagine them including minifigs from both Harry Potter and the new Fantastic Beasts film for this (Ron, Harry, Hermione, young and old Dumbledore, Newt, etc). Yeah, I think the Great Hall is a separate thing from the D2C Hogwarts, although I think they will be able to be connected like a modular building. The Great Hall is the biggest retail set of the wave, so kids can still get a good chunk of Hogwarts; then the rest of Hogwarts will get the Disney Castle treatment as a D2C.

As amazing as that would be, I wouldn't count on it. Hogwarts is the most recognizable, iconic place in Harry Potter, and it's also going to be appearing in the new Fantastic Beasts movie. I don't think LEGO would ever bring back Harry Potter as a theme without remaking a new Hogwarts - I would be absolutely shocked if the D2C wasn't an attempt at the whole castle (ie Disney Castle) or some part of it (ie this rumoured Great Hall). Amen to that about the torsos. Can't believe the theme has never had Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff represented. About the "child size suitcase" - I can certainly see a brick-built suitcase with the beasts inside being a real set, but it does have to be much smaller than an actual child's suitcase. So if these rumours are true (which I think they definitely could be) it'll just be a small approximation of a suitcase with some little creature builds, a minifig or two, and some things to set certain little scenes inside the case (ie plants etc for habitat).

Strange designer video, I liked the interviews but they definitely need to go through the actual set as well. I'm still not sold at all on this building, although I am extremely glad that they didn't make that Car Dealership. I hope they do make a Hotel in future, I had been meaning to build my own but I don't have the pieces or the skill to do so.

Yay, new trains! I used to have the 2006 Passenger Train (no idea where it went) and I loved it. I'd be delighted to have a train to go around my town.

The Disney CMF series was the only series I collected in its entirety, and I'd love a second series! A potential lineup that sounds fun and viable off the top of my head: Disney Collectable Minifigures Series 2: Fantasia Mickey Goofy Mulan (with Mushu) Belle Beast Judy Hopps Nick Wilde Robin Hood (in order to get mileage out of the mold used for Nick). Elsa Olaf (in summer outfit to differentiate from the sets) Jafar Jasmine Mike Wazowski or Boo Sully Snow White Evil Queen Rapunzel Flynn Rider

I agree, these are odd choices, but nice ones in my opinion! In the past we've gotten Aragog with Hagrid's Hut, the Ford Anglica with the Hogwarts Express, and attempts at a full Hogwarts - seems like they want to remake parts of old sets in a new, more specific way. If these rumours are true, I'm happy that we get the Whomping Willow, and I think focusing specifically on the Great Hall rather than attempting to encompass all of Hogwarts is a great idea. All that detail. Maybe if the Great Hall set did well enough, we could see expansions for it in the future! Anyway, I'll be happy if these rumours are true!

Wow, interesting! I'm quite surprised, but this is still really great for fans of those movies if these sets do go ahead. I'd certainly happily get a BTTF Delorean if it was priced nicely, as I missed the last one. All of that said, I do wish LEGO would focus a bit more on developing their own original themes; but as Whovastron suggested, I think LEGO will want to get mileage out of the licenses they got for Dimensions. I think we could certainly expect a new era of one-off short licensed themes every year (although I think Harry Potter will last longer than one year).

That's true, but it is quite expensive. Maybe I'll pick it up and give it a shot one day, but for now I'm gonna prioritise the other modulars.

I'm still not sure how to feel about this set. Something about the colour scheme is somewhat off-putting to me: I think I have a tendency to prefer the more muted modulars, although it does make sense that a diner would be shiny and bright. I LOVE the actual downstairs diner portion of the build with the rounded window and the beautiful interior. Everything else, I'm not that excited about. The teal side isn't too appealing to me, nor is much of the upper floors. It's not a bad set by any stretch of the imagination, but not one that sticks out hugely to me.

I think the criticism the set receives is because it seems pretty small in comparison with the other modulars, as well as having a very simple, monotone colour scheme. Perhaps also a bank isn't as appealing or exciting to people as other things. I think the set is nice for what it is, but I do agree with people that it's visually one of the weaker modulars of recent years.