Accio Lego

It’s definitely annoying as hell. Unfortunately, I’ve just been stacking everything together in standard banker’s boxes (with the ones from small sets bundled together off to the side) like normal and hoping that the thinness of each booklet allows the paper to even itself out enough that the stack doesn’t start tipping over. Not very elegant, I know, but sorting different booklets into different piles because of the inconsistent sizes would drive me bonkers.

I highly doubt Moody wasn’t capable of casting a corporeal patronus at some point, but he along with the vast majority of other characters never had anything confirmed by canon, so for the purposes of this set that point is moot. That said, I think the presence of Mrs. Figg, not to mention Tonks and Moody with no Death Eaters to fight, very strongly suggests that 10+ is a very lowball estimate on the number of minifigures in this set. So there’s still a strong chance that Kingsley, Arthur, and/or Ginny could appear, all of whom have confirmed patronuses.

Personally I’m following the Newt Scamander “Worrying means you suffer twice” philosophy. I could worry about a potential Harris/Gambon fusion Dumbledore and then potentially be disappointed again if it’s confirmed, or I could say “hey, confirmed new Dumbledore outfit and wand, that’s nice. Guess his head is just as much of a mystery as the full minifigure lineup for this set and whether it will have a patronus” and continue waiting for more news without thinking one way or another about it.

I feel like automatically assuming the leaked Dumbledore we’re seeing is the exact composition we’ll see in the set is jumping the gun a bit. Recently, when some of the figs from the series 29 CMF leaked, we saw the legs and torso of the Bionicle Cosplayer leak without the head or iconic mask. This was almost certainly because the mask was a new mold, and whoever had appropriated the parts photographed in the leaks couldn’t get ahold of one or recognize the head without it. In fact, no new molds at all appeared in those series 29 fig leaks. Gambondore’s hat and beard haven’t appeared since 2019 - that’s seven years and the set they were in has been out of production for a bit. There’s a high chance that if Lego brought them back, they’d be treated the same way as a new mold at the factories and it would be much harder for someone stealing parts to leak to get ahold of them. The leaked Dumbledore with OotP robes and Harris’s head, beard, and hair just doesn’t feel too dissimilar from the pics of the Trash Monster’s rotten jack-o-lantern head on the Bionicle Cosplayer’s body, so I’m not inclined to start seething about cut corners or quibble over what Lego should have done until I see the official set pictures and get the minifigure’s official composition confirmed one way or the other.

I think it goes without saying that everyone hanging around on this thread would absolutely buy an entire animal accessories series for themselves, but given how consistent Lego has gotten with including new animals each unlicensed/unthemed set I think it’s obvious that animal accessories are a crowd favorite across demographics too. And the thing is, a new small to medium sized animal must require roughly the same amount of budget as one of those animal costume headdresses, and Lego already managed to do an entire series where every character had a new one of those. They can’t argue that it would be too expensive, especially when there are some animals that are dying to be done in a new color or brought back from the dead.

So we’ve got: - Umbridge (Deathly Hallows) - Dumbledore (OotP dual scene) - Voldemort (also dual scene) - Tonks (OotP final battle) - Moody (OotP final battle) - Mrs. Figg (OotP trial scene) As much as I’d love to get Fudge in his Wizengamot robes, I think there’s a greater chance of getting him in his pajamas from the iconic “He’s back” scene. I agree that we’ll definitely get the trio as well. That brings us up to 10 already. If whoever leaked the 10+ number saw these, that might be where they got it from. I think it goes without saying that there will be more – getting Mrs. Figg instead of Death Eaters for the Order members to fight seems rather unlikely otherwise. To the extent that I wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘+’ was carrying a lot of weight here. The big question is, will we see Sirius and Bellatrix?

Yesssss, Gambon Dumbledore returns! AND HE HAS A NEW TAN CASTING WAND!!! Between him and Umbridge, my money is on the majority of minifigs in the set being OotP based like him. And we’re definitely getting another Voldemort with a casting want to square off against him.

First installment in the spooky new Midnight Valley Collection has leaked and it comes with a new longhaired cat that would look very close to Crookshanks if not for the white chest patch. Top of my wishlist for January is a set that includes him. It’s silly that we got fluffy Mrs. Norris but nothing for the cat who explicitly has long hair.

I imagine the licensing to use the likenesses and names of real people (outside of actors playing characters) is rather expensive – to the extent that putting a whole team together in one low priced item probably is a bit of a balancing act as far as profit margins and budget go. There’s also the fact that a series where all the minifigs wear the same or similar outfits probably doesn’t sell as well because it holds little appeal to casual or non-fans compared to a more varied series. Lego almost certainly makes more money doing the medium to large Icons sets.

I’m guessing you never watched Shrek? Donkey is his own character with a fairly cartoonish and anthropomorphized face – the only reason he’s going to be an accessory in the series and not a normal slot in the lineup is because he’s not compatible with the Minifigure format. He’ll be about as useful as a normal donkey as Scooby-Doo or Krypto were as normal dogs.

Contract obligations is literally the only thing I can think of that would make anyone looking at the sales figures for the last F1 series green light a second one, especially since anyone who’s not an super fan won’t be able to tell the difference between the two. Sure, we AFOLs can’t see those sale figures, but we can see the stock left on the shelves and know the majority of our own community isn’t buying them – any series that can’t appeal to adults and creators as well as luring in kiddie impulse buys isn’t going to make anywhere near the kind of profits as a normal CMF.

It’s not really surprising that Umbridge would be DH1 based, because if the main scene Lego does in the set is the final battle from OotP, then she isn’t part of it. She’s one of the more well known Ministry characters and since we’re probably seeing a D2C Ministry in part because the popularity of the new Epic Universe ride made Lego realize it could be marketable, she’s kind of an important factor. We’ve already had Diagon Alley and a Gringott’s including first year Harry and Hagrid despite the rest of the characters representing other movies, and Diagon also has Ollivander and the Weasley Twins in their suits manning their stores despite the bulk of the minifigs in that set belonging the CoS. Then the Burrow included Bill and Charlie despite being so scene specific that Percy is in his pajamas, and last year Hogsmeade included the trio and Katie from HBP while also having several PoA elements. So I’m not too worried about not getting OotP elements. I am interested to see if we get more Ministry employees who weren’t part of the battle of the Ministry though. If Lego takes their usual approach, it’s possible we might see Rufus Scrimgeour or Amelia Bones.

I suppose a Great Hall sorting ceremony book nook would make about as much sense to have on shelves at the same time as a $15 Sorting Ceremony set as the current Dumbledore’s Office book nook being released at the same time as a Dumbledore’s Office paperbag (while the Main Tower set which includes the same location is still on shelves). Including interchangeable decorations (like the Slytherin to Gryffindor banners, jack-o-lanterns, or Christmas trees) would also explain the title.

I didn’t realize there’d been an unprinted black kitten. I imagine it’s from the Batman logo set though, so I wouldn’t have paid much attention. I wonder when we’ll be getting that color with printing, it seems like an obvious choice now.

While the Harry and Dobby set is obviously movie based – I'll believe that First Year at Hogwarts Castle set isn’t show based when I see it. Leakers are notorious at getting Harry Potter details wrong, remember when ‘Cornelius Fudge’ was going the come with the Triwizard Arrival set and it turned out whoever did the leak simply didn’t recognize Crouch – the actual Ministry official who was there for that scene?