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You are probably correct and with this set especially they probably know they can get away with cheaping out on a minifigure because Narcissa, puffy face Harry, Luna, Dobby etc will sell the set for most anyway, but that does it mean it's right or not a cheap out. I suppose what I should have said is not that it surprises me, but annoys me, because looking more closely, if Draco is reusing Old Man Marley's torso as has been suggested then all I can think is that the Hogwarts Express is retiring this year and Home Alone is not and it's easier to discontinue the HE torso and use Marley's. So that being said, as I won't be getting the whole set, I will just Bricklink the minifigures when they are on at a reasonable price and I won't be buying Draco just because he's a new variant because he's not really 'new' to me just a mix of older and less accurate parts.

Thanks. It looks different to me too, but it surprises me that they would use another torso when they have the other one in current production. Same with Malfoy and not reusing the torso in the ROR or Hogwarts Express sets which look to be more accurate than the one they have gone with here.

Is the Bellatrix in the leaked imaged for Malfoy Manor using the same torso as Gringotts Hermione Bellatrix can anyone tell?

If a buildable Ewok turns out to be the reason for that Redwood hint, then ouch.

I was guessing this was a code word or a translation for the same brick built characters we've just seen for Wednesday and Wicked.

No!!!! I was so looking forward to Hagrid with googles minifigure face.

From what I can gather, it's the LMB 2.0 kit for the mini Hogwarts Castle that let you install the lights as you build, with the digital instructions being like Lego's but with the light steps integrated. But I don't know if that's the same for the big one. It's a bit confusing. But this would be the one: https://www.lightmybricks.co.uk/products/light-kit-for-lego-hogwarts-castle-71043?_pos=2&_sid=39fa1edd3&_ss=r and this is the install instructions https://guides.lightmybricks.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/71043_Harry_Potter_Hogwarts_Castle_Light_After_Build.pdf I think maybe it's less invasive than some kits, but I've never used light kits so don't know. It's pricey though!

It would certainly be a talking point over dinner that's for sure! Like having a mini Legoland in your dining table.

Haha you may end up needing a custom dining room table by the end.

You seem to have found a lot of fun and happiness from your latest HP set which is great to hear. Space is a major problem for many of us, especially with this theme I think as something like Hogwarts requires a display to have depth, width and height so cabinets and displays soon become full and rather large. I think many of us, myself included, have given up on creating a full Hogwarts Castle for this very reason. I would love to collect all these new castle sets and display them, but I just don't have the option to have a display cabinet or area that could accommodate such a large build so I'm reluctantly not going to be collecting these sets and just buying the minifigures instead. I thought I was going to be a completionist with this theme when it came back, but I gave up on that a couple of years ago and have parted with most of the sets in favor of keeping just the minifigures. I still love seeing all the new sets though and, like you, I'm super excited to see new castle sections and how this castle comes together. I'm expecting another Chamber of Secrets and I'm also looking forward to seeing a new Basilisk and Fluffy as I can't see how they can do Hogwarts without including these castle dwellers.

Yoda's is meant to be, but Obi-Wan's is supposedly not set to retire until the end of 2025. And I think originally it was said to be retiring at the end of 2023 and has then got pushed back a couple of times. Maybe they want Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter to be on the shelves at the same time as the UCS Jango's Slave 1 as despite their scale differences people may want to pick one up if purchasing the other, even if it's just to get the minifigures for the Kaminoan Scene. That being said, it does seem a bit overkill to have so many Starfighters and I'm not taking Plo Koon's rumor as true just yet. However, maybe plans get made and things get juggled and it just turns out that we have so many starfighters in one go. At the end of the day they will all probably sell well regardless because they make good play sets for kids and they're often cheap enough for collectors to pick up just for the minifigures even if they do have an army of starfighters already.

Nope you're totally right. I'm not buying any 3rd party bricks, I'm just not buying as many Lego bricks.

This totally. I've cut back drastically on what I collect when it comes to Lego because of price and quality. I know I'm just one consumer, but I'd say I've probably cut back at least 50% compared to a couple of years ago and that chunk is all basically Star Wars. I can no longer justify the price for a product that is becoming less than premium. I think all Lego is having more faults with breaking, missing pieces etc, but you only have to look at the new Fortnite sets to see the blatant discrepancy between the value of Star Wars sets and other Lego products both in terms of price and figure quality and detail. Anybody getting into Lego through Fortnite is going to get a shock if they then want to expand into the hobby and I don't know how Lego thinks that will be a good look from a consumer point of view. Lego says this new greener plastic initiative will be coming from its bottom line and not from the consumer, but I can't help but think there has been some extra price increases and corner cuttings in the past year at least to help ease the blow, measures that may not be obvious to casual buyers or those just getting in to the hobby but is for longer term collectors such as a lot of us. I was never going to buy the Sail Barge, because whilst I would have been all over it a few years ago and bought it for the minifigures and the build experience even if I then ended up parting ways with the main build for space, money etc, I can no longer justify doing so for the price. However, I did think before the reveal I might be investing in the minifigures, but even that won't be happening now, what with Bib's bulky lekku, Leia's trunks and Salacious' hypnotized eyes. The Ewok Village was one of my first sets when I came out of my dark age and large scale play / display sets like it and the Mos Eisley Cantina are my favorite, but the Sail Barge whilst an excellent model is an inferior overall product when you compare price with amount of stuff and minifigure quality and details (I haven't even mentioned C-3PO's lack of dual molded leg). I wonder that too, but I think they are still riding the sales of post pandemic new collectors right now, many of whom might not realise how the product has decreased in quality and the prices rises haven't quite hit them. But how many of us here have stopped buying sets, let alone the Sail Barge, because of the escalating prices? I'm sure a lot of us are saying it. I don't want Lego to fail, but I do think a lot of us are, and should, be voting with our wallets to send the clear message that Lego isn't that premium a product that we will just keep paying the prices.

Thank you. I hadn't thought to look for reviews yet, but just watched Tiago Catarino's. I have to say Simba looks much better from the front to me than from what I could see in the images, but I'm still not keen on his side profile. And I agree with Tiago that Mickey feels a bit disjointed with his sleeves being all tiled and sloped off, but his torso being left studded. It's not a set I will be picking up as I don't love it enough to display, but I do want the minfigures. That being said, I'm guessing the set's reasonable price is because most of the 'exclusive' minifigures will soon be used in future sets and therefore the budget for the minifigures has been spread across them thus helping to reduce the price of this one. Hopefully by next year the prices for the minifigures won't be too bad so I don't end up having to just buy the set.

Do you think they intentionally used dual molded legs for Leia to make the costume less 'risque' and her bottom half seem more covered? Because of all the minifigures who would have been fine with just print on the front of the legs this is one of them. On the other hand, I could be wrong, but it looks like the C-3PO included is not the 'UCS' dual molded leg version despite this being a UCS set and you just get the printed leg version. Got to buy another set to get the premium C-3PO it would seem despite the cost of the set. Really disappointed with the Leia minifigure as she was the minifigure I was really looking forward to owning.

I know we've already heard about the Lilo house, but the family hint could be Lilo and Stitch? Ohana means family. Or the Madrigals would make sense with the Bruno minifigure. Probably too soon to be seeing sets based on the Parr family seeing as we don't have a release date for Incredibles 3 yet.

Anybody still looking try @ney_lordfire on IG

Sure The Burrow is iconic and different and distinctive enough to be a cool set. Myself I'm perfectly happy with the D2C Burrow existing, but I think Tiago's point is more, do we really need everything to be done in this detail? If you think Harry Potter, I think most would agree the most iconic location would be the Hogwarts Castle. If there had to be just one Harry Potter D2C set, The Burrow wouldn't be it. And yes, that argument could extend to other themes. As for Privet Drive, tourists make a point of visiting the house that was used and taking photos etc just like they visit Kings Cross and take photos pretending to go through (or crash into) the wall. The owners of the house are well used to tourists by all accounts and know it comes with the territory. Boring it may be, but stick a Privet Drive sign out front and plonk a couple of owls on it and I think a huge majority of people would recognize it. It's where the story starts, it's 'Harry's' house, the home of the cupboard under the stairs and the place where Vernon goes mad and boards everything up etc. That whole scenario is pretty famous and popular even if the house itself might be ordinary. They could easily run out of concepts for big D2Cs with the Harry Potter material sure, but somehow I don't think they're going to take a break. I think they have a taste for the big sets now. I'm guessing 2019 was just them being cautious, but you said yourself HP is on the bestseller list now. I could even see them doing a D2C Grimmauld Place at this rate.

So Tiago Catarino states in his review that The Burrow is a perfectly good set, but he's not sure if the house warrants the big D2C set in that it's not an iconic a location as the castle or Hogwarts Express etc. And I do get his point. That being said, if Lego are going to continue to produce a D2C every year then I think the Weasley's house was a perfectly acceptable choice. The only house from the series that I would consider more iconic than The Burrow would be Privet Drive, and considering this year's D2C I would bet the Dursley's house would get the same detailed treatment should the line continue. So theory: Lego released the Ford Anglia earlier this year and it makes a perfect cheap play set for children, but also pairs well for people displaying The Burrow, so does the rumored upcoming Hagrid's Motorcycle set foreshadow a D2C Dursley's later next year? Other than a Quidditch Pitch, I can't think of anything else that would warrant the D2C treatment right now if they don't do vehicles and after the 'supposedly' poor sales of the Hogwarts Express I can see them having shelved that rumored detailed Night Bus. I can see them wanting to increase shelf variety next year and go with a location such as Quidditch first rather than another building, but it's just a thought.

Count me in. For instance, It did my head in as a child that my dolls' house didn't have stairs to get between levels so I built a staircase out of my 2x4 Lego bricks. My pedantic child brain refused to believe the house's occupants could fly between levels. And the child aspect aside, it doesn't change the fact that Lego is actively pushing Lego as an adult product, hence the mounting 18+ labelled sets, so if it only matters to adults in an argument then the excuses are rapidly wearing thin. Nevertheless, neither audience changes the fact, like you say, Lego promotes itself as a premium product with the motto of only the best is good enough, and yet, ultimately, when the picture starts to become one of multiple mistaken details, quality downgrades, and glaring instruction manual errors, the sense becomes one of apathy for both the product and the consumer. It's not a good look and often does the designers' a disregard I think.

There was also an error in the Hogwarts Icons set on the big letter head tile. It should be titillandus, but said titillandos to start with. That error was also corrected, but I'm not sure how long it took. There was also technically another error which we know thanks to designer Marcos Bessa. The Wormwood bottle sticker has the number 349, but apparently it was meant to be 394 in reference to Snape entering the classroom and telling the students to open their books to that page.

Oh the irony. Of all the words to get wrong.

Well said @Flieger.

@Agent Kallus Thank you. I couldn't resist.

Because he doesn't nose that spell.