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I agree; the flexibility of the current set up is definitely a strong point. As a child I was not fond of the stacking / separated set up of the first line. The sets were quite revolutionary for their time, but the modular concept is a lot better realised now.

There's some interesting information in the Magical Treasury about this. Mark Stafford says that he came up with the idea of the modular Hogwarts early on and he did a really big sketch model that included the Great Hall and Clocktower as the two largest modules and then the kitchens, Gryffindor common room, bridge, walls etc, but the idea was almost dropped until another designer, Raphael, realised the Hogwarts build in his Whomping Willow set would fit nicely on the side of Mark's Great Hall design. The modular idea was then resurrected and Mark included a connection point on the other side of the hall for a future module. Woon Tze later developed Mark's Clocktower design into what we have now and this could then be connected onto that point. I think what this little snippet of info shows is that A) a modular Hogwarts was not always intended, but more prominently, B) whilst the designers are now working to a modular layout, the pin holes are not intended for the connection of specific modules, it just means that whatever module is released next can be connected to one before if the customer wishes to do so.

I haven't built mine yet, but that is the layout I'm thinking off as my cabinet can't fit it as one long display. I'm hoping the 'alley' effect will look good displayed in the cabinet too. Should also just be enough room to fit Gringotts in at the end ... I hope.

We do not speak of it.

No way surely

A very intricate model to be sure and I think the designer did an amazing job, but somehow I think it looks cuter on the box.

@Lego-Freak When your Lego display is that big it makes even DA look relatively small lol.

No. But have felt our a whole box and not a single Neville or Sprout.

Thank you There seems to have been quite a few reports which just seems very odd. Brickset seems miffed they got seven Griphooks, but considering others have had none of some characters I'd say that isn't too bad lol. I was also wondering if Lego had resorted to just randomly selecting figures for boxes, because the packets I have all have the same number on them (the number which usually is the individual box code) and I'm sure my packets come from different boxes. Plus Neville and Sprout are intent on alluding me. I hope your box works out well.

I would be interested to hear your box distribution. Reports are suggesting boxes are very random in terms of the number of each character and some characters are even missing from boxes.

That sounds like an awesome job. :)

Interesting to see Disney Princess, Speed Champions and Harry Potter effectively replace Friends, City and Marvel.

Oh no! Pity that didn't 'flag up' before they stuck the stickers down. Thanks for sharing! I don't have a store near me so I never get to see these displays. The minifigures seem weirdly placed; I'm assuming most are on the inside, but why squeeze a twin next to Florean when you have the whole street? It looks very sparse which is not a good display IMO. Someone must have been having a laugh when they placed Lucius and Draco though.

Showing on my account now

Thanks guys! I need to get to bed too. :)

Anybody in the UK got their order confirmation yet? Not had email or showing on account yet. I know it has taken hours for me once, but I'm just feeling nervous.

It attaches to the back of the greenhouse in the Astronomy Tower set. In the UK and gone midnight and the GWP is still not showing. Ggrr! I want to go to bed ...

That's good to know. They just seemed to have released it online in the UK a lot earlier than other time zones. I've known 15 minutes earlier than stated time before, but a whole hour is a lot. If a lot of people jump on it and just ignore the GWP it could go. Wow what an awesome xmas gift and great parents. It can take a few minutes to appear on your account and even a few hours for an email from experience.

Available a whole hour before in the UK. Don't think I've ever seen a set go live that early. But no GWP yet so a no go. Why would you do this Lego! Why! If it sells out before midnight I'm out.

It really does look like Lego has Karkaroff in mind with the photographer's face. Otherwise there seems no reason to me why Lego would choose black for the beard instead of making it dark grey to match his hair. A financial decision to cut a little corner here and sacrifice a small bit of accuracy to help towards next year's budget (or potentially next year's budget helping towards this set) feels like the only logical reason why the beard would be the wrong colour. The scowling face especially looks like Karkaroff.

One thing about the stickers, does QQS really allow customers to try out brooms? Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!

Thank goodness those QQS windows aren't stickers!

I'm so glad that PS Harry is included. I was dreading another GWP down the line, and whilst that still could happen with another unknown set, it seems likely to me that the Brickheadz is this year's main HP GWP set.

I thought he looked familiar!

The interview video with the designers is very interesting in that at the end they are asked about the future of the theme and Marcos answers that he has ideas and hopes the theme continues for a long time. He admits that he 'does not have a crystal ball' and cannot predict the future and he is also not allowed to say too much, but it certainly gives the impression to me that, for now at least, Lego is planning to continue going strong with the theme. I'd hope therefor we will at least see another couple of years if not more. :) Note to Marcos Bessa: You'll probably never see this, but we do appreciate all of your effort!