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One issue that @Ferder's question has made me think of is the Modularity aspect of sets. Last year the modularity of the castle sets would have driven me to purchase them to add to my Hogwarts. But now that the theme is getting more and more sets and looks like it will be continuing for quite a while, plus add to that I'm not confident that they won't switch to a different Hogwarts format in the near future, and I have stopped collecting the castle modules. Any I have bought I have kept the minifigures from and sold the buildings to fund other new sets which is what I will probably do with any future castle modules unless they display well on their own. The Room of Hidden things for instance I might display on it's own. Space for connecting all these castle modules has also become an issue. It's a great format for telling stories and encouraging creativity, but it it expensive overall and demands considerable room. I would be interested to hear what approach others are taking with the castle sets.

Interesting question. From most important to least: 1) Minifig quality 2) Display potential 3) Design Accuracy 4) Modularity 5) Play features 6) Parts uniqueness My list is driven by the fact that I'm primarily a minifigure collector who also displays some HP builds that feel like central locations or scenes etc e.g. DA, The Burrow, Shrieking Shack. In reality, numbers 5 and 6 play no part in my decisions hence their location at the bottom of my list.

Believe so. Didn't think they'd leave that torso exclusive for very long what with it being a general young Harry variant, not after what happened with DA and the Silencio Harry torso.

Aberforth looks like he went to the same tailors as Stan Shunpike.

I've sent you a PM :)

They have moved platform.

Thanks I've just seen it. Cannot find the post I originally saw, but I don't believe it's Gandalf. I think the torso is meant to be this. The purple is like Stan Shunpike's purple colour and it's been paired with plain purple legs so not sure if he'll get the lower tartan. Most of the torso is covered by the beard piece, but it looks quite plain with thick black lines.

Ah thank you. I find that IG on my browser will only show me the latest 21 posts on a page/# and then I just get. Loading wheel, so if it's not in that lot I can't find it. Those photos are completely different to the post I saw which appears to have now gone.

Where have you found Rosmerta? I've only seen the trio and Aberforth on IG under the usual #.

Thank you. We really are getting them early this time then!

I think you might be right. I think @BrickBob Studpants might know the timescale. I do remember thinking it barely felt like we were over the last Christmas.

I'm guessing the Hogsmeade variants are from the Advent Calendar unless they are from one of the two unknown sets, but I can't see what set they would be in to warrant such a high price tag when we already have Hogsmeade. Very early to be thinking of Christmas if so, but can't doubt that they do make good wintery editions!

Some minifigures have leaked on IG. Looks like the trio and Malfoy in POA Hogsmeade outfits and Aberforth. I love Hermione's look, but the hat/hair pieces for the others are slightly off, but still passable.

But if the new one looks more like a complete Hogwarts, I can't help but think people will gravitate towards it more than the old one. After all, it might not be £400+ but it will still be a lot of money. If both are microscale, it's not like people will need to choose between micro or minifig scale which is the normal dilemma. Yes 71043 has the founders and presumably the new one won't, but still. Maybe you know more about the general structure of the set, but it just seems like an odd crossover from set names alone. I think it does show the popularity of the theme though for Lego to think they can have more than one microscale build on the shelves at the same time, not to mention to many large sets.

The only definite buy of the Summer wave for me is Gringotts so it seems like a pretty light year ... Then you remember the price. I'm kind of glad there's going to be a variety of sets this year outside of standard playsets so I can skip a lot.

What I don't understand is, if this is a new microscale castle, why extend the retirement date for 71043? Why have that clash on the shelves? They will arguably appeal to the same market.

How on earth does a Microscale Hogwarts and a Knight Bus even get mixed up. Guessing we'll get the Bus in 2024 then assuming it's not one of the unknown numbers.

There's no denying it's a beautiful set, but I just can't help but think this is a real example of Lego prices gone crazy. I know it's licensed, I know there are a lot of minifigures, but I don't see over £400 worth of value there. A lot of the piece count is small pieces and it looks quite small in size terms. With Diagon Alley for instance the piece count is slightly lower, but you get a long street and some quite large pieces and baseplates etc and the price is less. An unpopular opinion maybe, but this feels like it's taking advantage of all those desperate for sets and minifigures from this license and that takes the shine off it for me. Hats off to the designers those because they have done a great job,

Still waiting to see the Peter Pan and Wendy storybook. Hope we will see some pictures any day now if it's meant to be a March 1st release. Assuming it will include Peter and Wendy minifigures which I'd love to get as I don't have CMF Peter and the film was one of my favourites growing up.

It's an interesting thoughts, but I doubt it, purely because the 'UCS' Hogwarts was meant to retire at the end of 2022. Granted they have extended the expected retirement date to the end of 2024, but an expansion would have taken months, probably years to create. If they knew it was going to be released sometime around now, why would they have slated the 'starter' kit D2C castle for retirement before the add-on was released?

I still think there's a new Knight Bus set out there somewhere in the pipeline; that rumour has cropped up a couple of times from our more reliable sources so I'm guessing they saw a prelim pic, or a set name or heard a description. Which makes me think that even a prelim pic of a Knight Bus set could hardly be confused with another set, or if only names were seen then Knight Bus would be pretty recognisable in any language and not likely to get lost in translation, and who would confuse a Knight Bus description with another set? So even if it's not this year I'm guessing we might get it next year unless the sales of the Hogwarts Express has put them off releasing it either this year or next. It was heavily discounted for Black Friday, but that might not mean it was selling poorly it might just have been Lego's marketing plan for the set all along to price higher and discount heavy to make people think they are getting a good deal.

Finally found them. The Burrow looks nice for sure, but not different enough to warrant it anytime soon in my opinion. Let the last one breathe easy in it's retirment for a little bit I'd say before it gets replaced. And the Sorting Hat? Well call me a Slytherin, but that's one boring set.

I don't get why I can't see them. I'm searching the usual # but can't see these or the Disney character builds. 😫

Can't see them either, Insta only showing me last 10 images.

I have to say I'm feeling this way about the rumoured Knight Bus this year. Potentially if it has some sort of expanding / contracting feature then it might be a neat set, but otherwise it just feels like a pointless cash grab. And this is coming from someone who's always liked the bus both in canon and as a display piece. The Hogwarts Express felt iconic enough to warrant a more detailed display piece, but I really don't want to get into having every vehicle in the series made into 'UCS' style pieces. Budges aside, I just don't have the space for all these display sets and I'm sure others don't either. I can definitely see the Ford Anglia getting the treatment though if the bus is true this year.