lego_guyon02

Really hope WWII Cap will be reused as well. Considering Steve wears that same suit at the end of TWS (with some minor changes but it's not different enough for a new torso) and the new "Civil War" Bucky is based on TWS they could give us a pretty great little $30 set or something with those 2 reused and then a new TWS Falcon, who only really needs a new torso print. Feels like a pretty easy set for LEGO to do that takes next to no effort and yet will still be quite popular if the general love for TWS as a movie is anything to go off.

I really love the exterior of the Flying Lesson set and how it folds off, great stuff. The interior on the other hand is so barebones it's actually kinda ridiculous and the figure selection is... well I guess it has figures? At this point these bigger Hogwarts sets might as well just put an "interiors sold separately" disclaimer on the box because this ain't it lol. The Knight Bus doesn't really interest me as I have the 2019 version and am perfectly happy with that one but I guess this new one is fine, it does some things better and other things worse. The figures aren't anything to write home about but I do really love that new Daily Prophet print. Really wish they had included Marge here so the rumored Privet Drive remake could be based on OotP or DH but alas. Overall the january wave might honestly be the weakest Potter wave to date for me. There are some solid ideas here but the execution and figures are so underwhelming that even the gimmicky Moments and Banner waves (which really weren't my cup of tea) had more to offer. There's honestly not a single new figure here that I would consider to be genuinely great

Finally getting a set based on Gandalf vs Durin's Bane sounds like a dream in theory but in the context of a booknook I assume the Balrog will be similar to that Spider-Man Art set where he's mostly 2D but his head and arm(s) are sticking out. If that's the case I really have no interest in this set if I'm honest, especially at $120.

The HD Spider-Verse setpictures are new but don't really show anything that we hadn't already seen in past leaks, that's why I didn't bring it up. But even though I do like it and plan to get it when it's discounted (because the base price is pretty insane) it still isn't perfect either and has some problems 1 out of every 10 figures being good isn't exactly something to cheer for. I don't know about you but I sadly haven't figured out an infinite money glitch yet so as long as I need to pay for these very expensive products with my own hard earned cash I don't exactly feel like making excuses for a large corporation cheaping out on things. Especially when most of my issues with these figures stem from LEGO actively downgrading reused figures (Widow's arms, Spidey's legs, Wanda's skirt) and making mistakes that could easily have been prevented if the designer knew how to use Google (Bucky being based on the wrong movie and having the wrong haircolor).

The problem is that nothing will change no matter how loudly the fans complain. The average consumer neither notices nor cares about all these cheap decisions and inaccuracies and will just buy the sets anyway. Our only hope is that alternative companies like FunWhole (man they need to change that name) manage to dig out and expand their little corner of the market so LEGO has to think twice about what they release and at what price. It absolutely pains me to be positive about alternative brands for once but right now they are absolutely a necessary evil to get LEGO to care again.

I have to say I'm lowkey pretty jealous of the Marvel team in that regard. Imagine having that same level of confidence that allows you to just put out bad products that are seen by people all over the world on a regular basis and yet not give a damn. Having to work with a limited budget is something that I, while I definitely don't like or justify it, at least have some level of respect for as that's something the designers themselves have no control over but basing characters on outfits from completely different movies is some truly next level incompetence.

Looking at how lazy and cheap the figures in this wave (and past ones) are I doubt they'd be able to fit a bunch of new figures like that in their $8 budget.

Duelling Club has a fine build (I hope those are prints) and the Charms Class looks pretty damn great but sadly both sets have really boring minifig selections. The only standout here is Lockhart but I'm not a huge fan of his new head, it somehow looks even less like Kenneth Branagh than the old one. Eh the prices are low enough to look past it Really hope to see more of these classroom sets as both Potions and Charms have been pretty neat but I do cross my fingers that LEGO will be willing to look beyond the most iconic scenes for the figs. I understand that iconic scenes sell but it'd be nice to get some more variety with students that aren't Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Neville, Luna or Cho for once. Or if they do insist on giving us the same handful of characters over and over again at least give us some more variety in the House robes, so far Gryffindor is the only House that has even the slightest bit of variety.

I was so angry about him not having armprinting and having black hair for some reason that I hadn't even noticed that he's based on the wrong movie. This wave isn't even just abysmal at this point, it's simply embarrassing and deeply sad.

The Marvel team really said "you already have a powered up Infinity War Thor so instead of a powered down Infinity War Thor we're just gonna give you the same thing but infinitely worse. Now give us your $100! "

So let me get this straight: - Gwen has the most common and inaccurate head and hair reuses imaginable for her unmasked look, yet they waste budget on yet another dumb gimmick web piece. - Black Widow is reused in 2 sets this wave for the 4th and 5th time respectively and yet they cheap out and remove her armprinting. - Sanctum Spider-Man is reused in the Civil War set and yet they cheap out and remove his legprinting. - Winter Soldier gets black hair for some boneheaded reason and somehow becomes the first Winter Soldier EVER to not have a printed arm??? - They reuse the IW/EG Scarlet Witch figure for the Civil War set (understandably) but then can't even be bothered to switch out the hairpiece for something accurate to Civil War? - Our first TDW/AoU Thor torso in a decade (that already should've been made for the AoU set this year) gets ruined with some bad looking lightning. - Our first ever WWII Captain America gets an excellent torso design but the whole figure is the wrong color. This wave is so insanely bad and representative of the current state of the theme that it's almost funny in the most gutwrenching way imaginable. My god this theme is in the gutter EDIT: Thor is based on Infinity War and I'm not sure if that's just as bad or even worse

DH Lucius really needed a new print of his own to properly convey how gaunt he looks from his time in Azkaban but in terms of the expression and stubble Job's head is definitely a way better fit than Paul Atreides'.

Looks like Paul Atreides from Dune. Definitely happy that head is being reused in other sets as it's too neat to be a one-off but it's a pretty poor fit for Lucius, especially considering this is supposed to be the gaunt and stubbly DH look.

Man this really should've been a small $40-50 set with just the drawing room, similar to that scrapped 2011 set we saw concept art of a few years ago. I ADORE those portraits and the drawing room looks pretty great but the interior surrounding it just feels very lackluster, empty and hard to use. I LOVE the inclusion of the brickbuilt peacocks though! The figures are also a very mixed bag. Harry, Hermione, Luna and Dobby all look pretty good or great, Draco is a mediocre looking figbarf, Narcissa and Bellatrix have amazing torso's but the rest of their figures feel like an afterthought, Lucius just feels very underdetailed and the new(?) head is so similar to the Luthor one that it doesn't really feel like an upgrade (would've been better if it had his DH stubble), Voldemort kinda looks like he's enjoying the smell of his own fart Overall there's some great stuff, some bad stuff and a lot of mediocre stuff in between. For a $150 set that sadly makes it an easy skip, I'll just get the stickersheet and call it a day.

Aside from Philosopher's Stone I'd say Prisoner of Azkaban would be without a doubt the lamest movie to choose for a Privet Drive remake, it really doesn't offer anything new or interesting beyond Marge and Ripper. Probably the ideal scenario (assuming it's a Privet Drive remake and not just another brickbuilt character) is that there's a Privet Drive remake based on either the Advance Guard (OotP) or Battle of the Seven Potters (DH) scenes and then a smaller $20-30 add-on set with the conservatory Marge floats through that could include Harry, Vernon, Marge and Ripper.