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The playscale Hogwarts Express was on the 2024 EOL list, but it has been extended to end of 2025 from what I've read. The Flying Ford Anglia was also down on the 2024 EOL list when it came out, but has also supposedly been extended to 2027, which makes a lot more sense to me considering it pairs so well with the D2C Burrow and is just a great little cheap set for kids to pick up regardless. The last sets of the previous Hogwarts Castle line are no surprise. From comments I've seen in various places, having different modular castle systems on shelves at the same time does cause consumer confusion, so a fresh start there really is needed. I can also understand Expecto Patronum and the Quidditch Trunk. Expecto Patronum was always on sale and the Quidditch Trunk was also an overpriced gimmick. I don't know if either have sold particularly well. It's a shame about the D2C Hogwarts Express because it's a beautiful set, just so hard to display with length, which probably put off a lot of buyers. WWW and the The Black Lake are a bit more puzzling. I would have expected WWW to stay around for another year to allow people to get caught up in creating a new modular Diagon Alley as there would have been three sets on shelves by this summer, but alas it would seem not. Same with The Black Lake, as the Durmstrang Ship and Beauxbatons Carriage set is currently set to retire at the end of next year and the two sets pair very well, not to mention I think The Black Lake was well received. As for the Forbidden Forest set, I wonder if it was just a way of them getting rid of surplus Buckbeak and baby thestral stock with an easy set? Duplicated minifigures, but a creature battlepack probably made an easy design and easy sell. True discontinuing breaks up a forest module line as it doesn't look like there will be any more forest sets this summer, but it screamed filler set from the start considering the ages of Hermione and Ron didn't match the creatures. The 'forest' in the Aragog set is also so negligible as to be insignificant so that set can just sell on the basis of the spider. It is true though that there doesn't seem to be much stickability with the HP theme considering how many times we've changed castles, and now the DA modules not sticking around for long.

I think it all depends on how long this Hogwarts line continues on for. Harry Potter has far less locations and continually expanding content than other perennial themes like Star Wars to draw from, so inevitably at some point most of the movies' scenes will have been covered. That being said, Lego could keep remaking the same locations and sets every few years and each time hit the next lot of kids who are interested in Harry Potter and were too young to appreciate or buy those sets even a couple of years before. The only trouble with that is that adults too are clearly purchasing a lot of the Harry Potter Lego and whilst each wave might capture new adults into the market, there are also a lot of us who have been interested in this theme for years and won't keep buying remakes. I collected the first castle line for instance, then the second, but am now only purchasing the minifigures from the new line. As detailed or interesting as it might be I have hit a fatigue when it comes to Hogwarts castle sets and can't bring myself to collect another line, even though I no longer have the first two lots of castle waves. So I suppose it will all depend on how popular both Harry Potter and Lego content remains and whether it is viable for Lego to keep producing sets. Like you, I think the compromises and cost cutting in sets in this line has become glaringly obvious if you've been interested in the theme for even a little while. To get a minifigure like McGonagall in the Boathouse set in one wave, means that another minifigure like Filch in the Owlery gets a downgrade and loses his printed legs. Again, there are quite a few minifigures in the new Malfoy Manor set, but Draco is literally a rehash of old and reused parts rather than the more specialised face and torso provided in the Room of Requirement set. When you know a minifigure can be done better then there is literally only cost to account for the lack of printing or downgrade in parts. Those standards though are not the designers' faults and I think the quality of sets in general has remained pretty consistent with some sets definitely improving when remade. This year's Ford Anglia and Aragog for instance were notable improvements for me and I will be interested to see how next year's Privet Drive turns out. As far as I know, the Bloody Baron as a minifigure is just pure speculation based on the fact that Lego has now given us not only the ghosts with dialogue in the movies with Nearly Headless Nick and the Grey Lady, but they also have now made the Fat Friar. Completing the house ghosts therefore doesn't seem that improbable or as potentially distant as it did when the line was first restarted and there was a plethora of characters more likely to be produced. Does Lego follow our logic when it comes to what they produce though? Often not. We've had Crookshanks twice now, first as Hermione's accessory in the first Harry Potter CMF series and then as a brighter orange cat included in the Grimmauld place set. That being said, I wouldn't mind a remake using the new CMF cat mold so we have a fluffier Crookshanks. The new wolf mold looked perfect for the Grim though to me, but Lego is still using the skinny smooth thing for the Grim in the Night Bus, so if Crookshanks does appear again at all it will probably still be the basic cat mold. I think Lego has committed to Luna and Lucius having bright yellow hair so I can't see that changing, but I would like there to be more variation in the child faces used for all the various students. No matter what the skin tone they are all smiling serenely or comically sad clones.

The mods make the year threads and a mod said recently on the Star Wars forum that they've changed the concept of yearly threads to being that they start at the beginning of each year rather than the next year's thread gets opened and you have to discuss the sets from that year in that thread. So 2025's HP thread should theoretically be opened at the beginning of January.

I'm going to go with your first option as I find it unlikely that they would go to the trouble of producing the supposedly most detailed Hogwarts ever and yet cobble together some random tower that fits nowhere. I can understand the owlery as it's a separate structure in the source material, but I'm guessing it's more likely the Flying Lesson is meant to be used in connection with another yet unreleased set. I really hope so at least or it would show very little forethought and care and I think the designers know there are a lot of Lego HP fans that have been following the brand through the past two castle iterations and are looking for something more cohesive.

Maybe we won't get a D2C this year as the Main Tower is basically straying into that territory in terms of price and we still have five D2Cs on shelves after this year: Hogwarts Icons, Diagon Alley, Hogwarts Castle, Gringotts and The Burrow. The first two will supposedly retire at the end of next year and then the last three supposedly not until the end of 2026. Only the Hogwarts Express is set to retire this year, so the shelves are pretty saturated right now. I'd personally be totally okay with them skipping the D2C this year, but I do hope there will be an Advent Calendar as they can be a great cheap-ish way to provide character variants.

Lol. I suppose they are limited for clothes shops if they have to stick to just DA.

So the witch in the Knight Bus is using the same torso as the flower seller witch in the Ollivander's set which is dissappointing as like with the DA Ollivander torso being used for Griphook and the random wizard from the minifigure pack, it starts to looks like all the magical folk have a uniform. I also can't tell if her hair hat combo is the same one as Mcgonagall or if the hair is darker. If it is the same, then I'm guessing that the only part that is new is the sleeping face?

I mean considering Simba didn't come with 'minifigure' Simba it's probably too much to expect one minifigure puppy, but we can dream.

Two of the summer Disney sets will be 101 Dalmatian related according to leaks: 43271 Lucky and Penny Puppies $24.99 and 43269 101 Dalmatian Puppies 18+ $139.99 I feel like this may be another Simba situation where we get a 'child friendly' set with two buildable puppies and then an 18+ set with more detailed builds of a couple, maybe three puppies. If this is the case and they include minifigure versions of the chosen puppies using the CMF mold that what be cool.

Haha no I was watching the German version as it was the first one that came up, but I was just there for the video of the minifigures in all honesty which was why I wasn't really listening until I heard the lazy comment and just thought it was so funny that even the language barrier couldn't disguise the dissatisfaction over the plain astromech back. Thank you

I can't understand much of what he is saying, but I do love when he points at the astromech's plain back and says 'Lazy, lazy.'

I take it Wood's jumper in the Flying Lesson set is a new torso print and not a reuse from another theme since it matches his film outfit? I love how Hooch is patting Neville's head in the minifigure image too. Although at this rate I'm starting to think Umbridge might have been correct in thinking Dumbledore was starting an army with the amount of Gryffindor students we're getting. Resistance is futile Malfoy.

I wasn't expecting McGonagall in this set, but seeing as she is and the seeming downgrade to her printing I've just done the same and watched the scene and came to the same conclusion that her Boathouse outfit is spot on apart from the fact that she needs a hairpiece not her hat. The closest I could see her to this outfit is when she crosses the front of her robe over herself more when leaving the troll bathroom scene, but then she's wearing her hat and she still would still benefit from arm and skirt printing. So that being said all I can think is that like you say they want to keep that McGonagall exclusive to the Boathouse and / or cut costs by putting one new printed torso in this set with her robe closing at the waist so they don't have to put in the printed skirt. I'm hoping the summer wave has got the budget for figures which is why this January wave is using endless student repeats and seems to be cutting corners elsewhere.

Yes after doing a trial run earlier this year, over 850 larger Tescos now have their toy isle run by The Entertainer. When I saw this wad happening I like you thought that would be the end for HP Lego and indeed this seems correct. In fact it seems to have been the end for most Lego generally in my store with The Entertainer having nothing on the shelves as yet. Ironically though some HP Lego was in the Christmas gifting section a month ago until it presumably sold and Tesco shifted the last of their stock and there is now a display stand with Wicked sets near The Entertainer, but I presume not being sold by them as they supposedly won't stock anything with witches in. So Tesco can still sell products outside of The Entertainer it would seem. That being said, I've just resigned myself to forget Tesco, but then my store never did any great deals anyway. And The Grim is still the skinny version dang it!

I read the reactions to Hei Hei over on reddit too and I have to say I think it's well deserved. When the page loaded this morning and I first saw the picture I saw Hei Hei instantly. Not that I think Dobby is actually bad at all, but Hei Hei really does capture the character to me. Rocket Racoon on the other hand ... that guy's been through a lot and it shows. If it wasn't for the fact that I have nowhere to put a buildable rooster I'd been tempted as I do love the character.

The moving wall entrance to Diagon Alley would make a cool shelf insert and they do love to reuse that Harry minifigure. Or the Platform 9 3/4 wall with platform either side. It doesn't have to be really expensive Lego *cough*.

Ouch that's not good, but at least it will spread the spending out I suppose.

They have the same helmets, but different prints. The shot from ROTS always sticks in my mind with Captain Jag sitting behind Odd Ball. Jag has blue stripe printing, whereas Odd Ball has yellow markings. I would include a pic, but can't get it to work.😑 https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Davijaan/Legends You can see what I mean in the pic in this link.

Exactly how I feel, which is a shame really that we kind of expect the better not to be made. Let's hope we're proved wrong!

The Grim and the sleeping wizard are more than I expected so that is a welcome surprise. Would be even better if they used the new wolf mold for the Grim!

I'm sorry, but Harry's face is why not everything needs to be done as a Lego set. Props to the designer for capturing Hagrid and the motorcycle fairly well, but Harry looks like some weird Lego and Playmobil mashup.

Ah okay thank you. The shape kind of looked familiar from when looking through Bricklink stores, but I really couldn't say for certain. I think it works well for Lucifer so I'm glad they've made use of the mold.

An image of the new January Cinderella castle set is out and there's a new Lucifer. Not sure if it's a new mold as I don't follow the Friends animals closely, but he's in a more laying down position than the current one where he's very upright. He looks to have the same kind of Friends style expression, but the pose does look more movie accurate to me.

And the wolf would work much better in black for the Grim than the current smooth skinny thing. Do we dare to hope they used the CMF budget to make better Crookshanks and Grim molds.

Not dumb at all. There have been so many castle releases it can be hard to keep up. The castle owlery is meant to go along with the latest 2024 castle system with the new Great Hall, Boathouse, Potions Class and the Charms Class, Flying Lesson and Dueling Club sets supposedly coming in January. That being said, the owlery is a standalone building so you can put it with any castle layout you like really so long as the scale is okay for you compared to other parts of the castle. The 2018-2020 system would probably work better than the 2021 - 2023 system as it has grey roofs rather than green, but it's Lego so you can mix what you like at the end of the day.