Accio Lego

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?

Yes… so detailed that we don’t even know what the colorful Mohawk character is supposed to be…

There’s two costumes (Mamma and Baby teddies and the Gondolier). And – provided we assume the mysterious Mohawk character is cyberpunk related (which would make sense, since there are no other sci-fi characters in this series and there’s usually at least one) – there are four contemporary civilians (Lady with Corgi, Spa Lady, Florist, and Game Show Presenter). That’s… pretty much the standard number of costumed and contemporary figs we’ve seen in every unthemed series since the roster was taken down to twelve. And the CMF designers have proven they can take a ‘typical’ archetype and elevate the design to the point it feels like it deserves to be in the CMF. Just look at t this series’ Marine Biologist – the concept had been done before, so a lot of people were expecting to just get her for the clownfish she can with, but the designers pulled out all the stops with metallic prints and fine patterns on her wetsuit, made a new dual molded snorkel hair piece that looks like a work of art, and even gave her a printed tile to act as observation notes so she actually connected to her new animal instead of being just a human that came with it. Obviously not all the contemporary characters are that good, but Lego is putting the effort in.

It sounds like they might have a breathing mask of some sort and be wearing a jumpsuit with colorful accents. The description is still ambiguous though, so some sort of cyberpunk archetype is still a distinct possibility.

I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for a raven. Cute Witch and Trash Monster didn’t have any info on the sitting cat or fish skeleton leak until full pictures dropped, so it’s still possible.

Kinda reminds me of series 23 without the heavy costume emphasis. That had a Nutcracker and Sugarplum Fairy, Reindeer (costume) and Santa Elf, a Dragon and Knight (both costumes), and a Snowman (costume) that vaguely went with the four Christmas ones, but it also had a bunch of other costumed characters that had no relation to the others. Not necessarily a popular series, but that does mean there’s a precedent for Lego trying out having a couple of characters in a series being tenuously connected to each other. That said, I’m with you on taking this with a pinch of salt until the reliable leakers express more confidence in it. Especially since ‘new raven knight with a recolored raven’ was definitely floated as a concept on here before series 29.

To expand upon the bare bones list, the original (translated) text reads thus: - Oni Warrior - A warrior who wears samurai armor and a special Eastern-style mask it looks like an Oni mask. so a may be a reference to Ninjago and Ronin Loyd - Flower Child - a child dressed as a flower. Has interchangeable hair elements - Classic hair or a flower - Knight - It looks like we’ll be seeing the return of another knight faction this year. They’ll have yellow and black colors and a black raven on their shield, a nod to the Tournament Knight from series 20. We expect this to be a huge hit. • A painter? - It's hard to tell who this figure is. She's dressed in a very strange, colorful outft and has a pink mohawk. She could easily be a diver, a painter, or anything else from cyberpunk. - Venetian Gondolier - he will have a gondola element between his torso and legs, and the torso itself has typical black and white stripes. - Lady dressed as a teddy bear - a classic figurine dressed as an animal, but the set will also include a baby dressed as a teddy bear. - The flower shop Lady - a very similar outfit the chocolate shop Lady, but this time the Lady works in a tower shop, the set includes a bouquets of flowers and scissors. • Sea Creature - A humanoid crab with a nice cast element on its head and pincers instead of hands. - Game show presenter - a man wearing a yellow suit with a check for the winner - SPA lady - a woman in a bathrobe with a mug and her hair tied in a towel - Child Knight - a child dressed as a knight with a shield emblazoned with a squirrel. Aldo included is… a squirrel. - Lady with a Corgi dog - a typical resident, but with a corgi cast This text is an English translation copied directly to the Lego News and Rumors subreddit from a source called FanKlocków.pl (as such, any odd word choices are a result of translation software issues. If you want to read the original Polish it is available on Reddit). Since the images on Reddit have annoyingly tiny and fuzzy text, I thought it might be a good idea to transcribe the info here, so those who haven’t seen it know why we’re talking about a crab monster and a new raven faction knight.

Mad Max is a little too grungy for straight cyberpunk archetypes – the only thing we know about this character is they’re very colorful, more like a Tron type of cyberpunk.

No white yet, but there was a black one alongside the grey and dark orange when they first came out. I regret not getting some ASAP back then because I have very fond memories of seeing melanistic squirrels whenever we visited family in Ontario as a kid, but by the time I grabbed some squirrels off pick a brick they only had the other two colors. I wouldn’t mind an old color if they brought black back (and a black squirrel squire neck to the raven knight would look quite fetching), but a white leucistic squirrel or a dark tan squirrel to represent the brownish variations of grey squirrels often seen would be nice as well. The corgi is also an exciting addition if true. That said, the current series comes with two new animals, a full larger recolor, an unprinted larger recolor, and a new animal skeleton mold. The last unthemed series had three brand new animals, and the one before that had two new animals (yes, the goat counts), a fish recolor, and a new butterfly reprint. It just seems unlikely that Lego wouldn’t learn from how popular all three series have been and scale back on the animal companions. The early leaks from last series didn’t mention that the Cute Witch came with a new cat familiar, and were frustratingly ambiguous on whether the Unicorn Elf came with a recolor of the unicorn foal or was just unicorn themed – so I’m optimistic there are potentially more animals than the corgi and squirrel. It would be fun if the squirrel squire’s squirrel could be matched by the raven knight having a realistically recolored raven (we are overdue), and the florist, flower girl, and sea monster are all archetypes that could have small critters hanging about them.

Several of these, like the game show host and spa lady, seem very meh to me – there always City style with bland archetypes in any series but usually there are new or unusual molds to make them exciting (see marine biologist and chocolatier from the current series), whereas those two especially seem like they don’t have a lot of breathing room for super fun new molds. So……the raven faction knight will come with a proper raven, right? The kid knight (page/squire) has a squirrel shield and comes with a squirrel and the adult raven knight comes with a raven, right? RIGHT? Costumes aren’t my thing but it sounds like the Venetian gondolier costume will be pretty easy to convert into a regular gondolier in a mini gondola, which sounds pretty fun. The mama and baby match teddy costumes sound heckin’ cute, and I’m interested to see if the Flower Girl ends up being in the same vein as the Acorn Lad and Mushroom Gal. Like the trend of having a straight up inhuman monster in the line up, hope it continues for varieties sake. Oni Knight sounds cool, even if it’s not my wheelhouse. At least it sounds like it will include some epic new molds. If this is real I will need that corgi – I hope the ‘typical resident’ it comes with is wearing a monochrome pastel skirt suit with a matching hat. The Mohawk haired character sounds interesting – I think the cyberpunk suggestion in the original description might be on to something because none of the other characters leaked are sci-fi archetypes and there’s usually at least one in a series. Lego has done a couple of steampunk characters in recent series, so it would make sense for them to try cyberpunk as well.

Ginny’s horse is definitely one I want for the set to feel complete. That said, with the Ministry location taken into account Arthur’s weasel and Kingsley’s lynx are also distinct possibilities. Given that out of a so far 8 patronus set we’ve only gotten 2.5 new molds it doesn’t seem crazy to potentially expect another, and given the fact that the Hogwarts Icons set included 3 golden minifigures the Ministry having more than one patronus doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibilities either. We’ll just have to wait for more leaks at this point. Given the amount of August set info that’s been coming out and the fact we just finally found out what the Harry Potter gwp is, Ministry details could leak at any time

A valid argument – however, as a counter: for the 20th anniversary of Star Wars sets Lego released 6 throwback minifigures – one of which, Obi-Wan Kenobi, was only available in a polybag as a gwp (although I think they eventually sold him through s@h in some countries). So, unfortunately, Lego is not above such shenanigans. I do think you’re generally right though, but it would be nice if we could get something a little different if Lego is going to insist on giving us yet another micro Hogwarts. I do still hope that we get more additions to the anniversary patronus line though, and since the golden minifigure gimmick from the 20th extended into the D2C, so I still have hope for the Ministry. (I really mostly just want Ginny’s horse to round out the last of the known Ministry Six, but a weasel and/or lynx would be super cool too)

Okay, so I hate to double post, but since it’s been over a day – I was thinking about how Lego could potentially carry the anniversary patronus gimmick into a microscale Hogwarts. Currently, there are only 3 unused patronuses that are both known and preexisting Lego molds: Ginny’s Horse, Seamus’s Fox, and Aberforth’s Goat. Ginny’s horse is out because it would probably be too expensive to recolor something that large for a gwp (same reason there wouldn’t be a new animal), which leaves the fox and goat. Seamus doesn’t seem likely for a microscale castle, and Aberforth doesn’t seem so either under normal circumstances, but what about a battle damaged version from the final movie? It would set the gwp apart from the other two microscale castles (that are still available for purchase!) and since Aberforth dramatically fights off dementors on the aqueduct bridge, Lego could reuse a reasonably rare minifigure (that’s still in production) and also include his goat patronus. It would be a cool way to make the gwp actually different from other versions of the same subject, and also make it desirable for collectors.

I can sort of understand why they wouldn’t want to do Umbridge’s office – the D2C itself will certainly include her Ministry version, so a castle module with pretty much the same decor would fall a little flat. The annoying thing is, there’s other OotP stuff they could do to keep with the connected theme they’ve had going the last few years. We haven’t gotten the DA training room version of the RoR in this castle system yet, and I think a module of that accompanied by Seamus Finnigan and his fox patronus would have been extremely popular. Plus, by my count, we’ve had four different microscale Hogwarts Castles of various sizes since the reboot – the subject is getting a little stale. Hopefully, we’ll get some sort of unique minifigure to compensate.

Not sure if this is the right place for this – but I couldn’t find any Topic specifically for Insiders/VIP program news and discussion, so I thought I’d from it here. I got a large set yesterday, specifically planning to take advantage of the double points promo and because I wanted the new DaVinci gwp. I checked my points history yesterday and noticed that there was a second SKU number with 325 points in addition to the one from the set – which seemed odd since GWPs do show up in the purchase history but always with a value of 0 points before. Then I opened up the DaVinci set this morning and found the instruction manual had a QR code on the cover that I was able to scan and register the set for the same 30 points as a regular set. There was a generic filler name and pic instead of the normal ones specifics to a set, but it still worked. I’ve never been able to do this before – the last proper gwp set I got was the Year of the Horse in January, and that didn’t count for points or include a registration code. Is this a brand new thing starting this month? Has anyone heard anything official about a change in gwp policy, or this this a random accident for this set?

According to New Elementary, it seems in addition to the fantasy printed goat, the Messi football Icons set also has an unprinted green dog – specifically the sitting puppy mold previously only used for the Disney Dalmatian puppies. Not interesting in itself for most people, but somewhat exciting that that mold has officially broken out of being IP locked.

I mean, Lego CMFs have never been truly blind except for Marvel series 2. People were always feeling the bags long before the boxes had codes, and there’s always been the option of a ‘purely blind’ experience by ordering online where you know the source you’re buying from hasn’t been picked over by scalpers and you’re getting something purely at random. And the problem with purely blind boxes (even beyond just Lego) has always been stock loss from stupid jerks who’d rather rip open boxes in store and leave behind a bunch of damaged goods they don’t want. No one here was that bad, but if you go back to around series 25 before the codes came out, there were loads of people investing in pocket scales (and based off my experience getting one for non-Lego purposes, wildly throwing off their advertising algorithms) or handheld endoscopes they were planning on stabbing into the corners of boxes. Boxes with codes is the compromise that works best for all parties – and as I’ve said before, the characters who end up rarified by scalpers almost always become fairly easy to find a month or two into the run when the original round of foolish fomo buyers die down a demand evens out.

Highly sought after figs do tend to get rooted out pretty quickly at first, but after a month or so the hype dies down and they get easier to find. That’s my experience with the Wolfpack Beastmaster from series 27 at least. Each series officially has a roughly four month run and we’re still under one month in, so I wouldn’t start worrying about scalpers preventing you from finding what you want on your own just yet.

As I already pointed out – a new mold like the baby reindeer in an advent calendar is completely unprecedented, so I’m wondering if it appears first in a regular set we don’t know the details of yet, where it would make sense for it to accompany a realistically colored doe.

OH YESSSS!!!!! This is the first time I’ve ever seen a new mold introduced in an advent calendar too, so I’m wondering if there’s some forest-y late summer or fall sets coming that it’s actually introduced in (perhaps part of that Nat Geo colab?) City advent calendar also has a pigeon and an honorary mention rocking horse.