Accio Lego

Fingers crossed that it’s something like D&D that can feature a bunch of new accessories and parts that can be useful outside of the license. Properties like Simpsons/Loony Toons/Muppets typically have almost no new parts outside of molds representing the specific characters, and it would kinda be a bummer for the CMFs to go 8 whole months without producing anything that people who aren’t interested in very specific licenses would be interested in.

Yeah, and the gorilla will need an assembly of three parts (body and two different arms) so that’s going to add up. And the deco on the red panda is far more complex than the goat – it doesn’t have the longstanding cult following so I doubt it will be marked up quite as much, but I also doubt it will be any cheaper than the goat either. The new croc color will probably be about the same as the old one though.

Nice to have an idea of what’s coming, even if there isn’t an exact date yet. Nice to see that in addition to the City jungle animals and typically Friends style animals it also looks like we’ll be getting the new color of tiny owl that was introduced in Friends Adventure Camp Treehouse. The first two uses of the mold were in licensed properties, so this is the first smowl we can get off pick a brick. I definitely want to grab a couple of that and the red panda at the very least.

I desperately want that red panda, and I’m in the USA so there’s no point waiting on my part. I’ve got a cart full of parts for decorating my Harry Potter Great Hall for Halloween, I’m just holding out in hopes of adding those June animals to the mix. Although that does make me wonder – there’s a sizable new Lego facility going up in Virginia that’s set to start rolling out production in 2027. Maybe those of us in the Western Hemisphere will be able to have the same PaB perks then too.

Yeah… I think they’d be better off taking the udder out, not replacing it with anything new down there, and printing a ring on the nose. But all that effort would still need to be precipitated by a situation that specifically needed a bull instead of a cow, and I can’t think of too many situations like that in Lego form. Maybe if they ever did a covered wagon type set they’d do oxen to pull it (which would be indistinguishable from a bull in lego form). On an unrelated topic, isn’t the start of the month when Bricks and Pieces adds new parts? And shouldn’t this month’s batch be from the June sets? That means we should see the new jungle animals available at any time now right?

Series 25 included two visibly disabled characters – the athletic champion with double leg prosthetics and the dog groomer with a cochlear implant – and I don’t see why Lego wouldn’t want to keep that number if possible. From the leak we have all that we can see is the astronomy kid with what looks like a prosthetic arm. And we can see just enough of the other characters to rule out everyone outside of the four in the back row having normal limbs (and everyone has normal hair pieces). And of the four in the back row the steampunk inventor and the quartermaster are the two most likely candidates for a prosthetic leg, with the inventor being the more unique and interesting option.

TLBM is kinda an odd man out since it’s technically a licensed series but for something that’s also partially a Lego property and was trying to work in tandem with the actual movie. Series 2 also flopped pretty hard from what I remember, so that would just be reinforcement on why lego wouldn’t want to repeat the pattern Simpsons being the September series next year would make much more sense based on rumors of its return (which seem credible since it’s a Disney property now, and you know how Disney is). I’d be about as interested in that as the F1 series, but it would have much more broader appeal, so I could understand Lego going that direction.

The Simpsons was the very first licensed CMF and the theme ended pretty quickly. Are we really surprised Lego hasn’t wanted to repeat licenses in back to back years since then? After years of seeing feedback, they have to realize that repeating a license too soon will draw annoyance from fans who are interested in other subjects.

2026 is the earliest, I don’t think there’s ever been an outside property that’s had CMFs two years in a row. Probably a combination of most license holders aren’t keen on agreeing to another series before they see that the first one sells and Lego themselves not wanting to fatigue customers to a particular theme.

That would be hilarious actually. Give him a nice wide brimmed hat and a beard and bring back Kermit’s banjo for him to play as well. 100% would buy.

So the latest rumor I’m seeing on instagram is that the upcoming F1 series doesn’t have any minifigure parts at all? Apparently it’s half micro cars and half buildable helmets? This has gotta be something completely separate like the bandmates or unikitty at this point right? There’s no possible justification for including this in the Minifigures theme at this point.

Bricks and Pieces seems to have been reformatted a bit. There’s now a hub page that gives quick access to the major categories (which are also still available in the drop down filters menu), which also has a set of easy access portals for a variety of themes. I predict that the castle and pirates ones will be the most clicked on, but it’s also refreshing to see Friends have one, since I don’t think there was an easy way to sort out Friends parts exclusively before. The hub page also has quick links to ‘seasonal’ collections – currently the new parts from July (featuring goat), and ‘Spooky’. As well as a link to the online minifigure factory. Otherwise notable is sliming down to a single search bar on the browsing page. The keyword or piece number’ bar is still easily visible, but to search by set number you now have to click a small icon of a box and magnifying glass next to it to open up a pop up window that will give you a set look up option. TL;DR there’s no change in functionality, but navigation is now looks more accessible for casual users

The last time we saw anything Egyptian in a CMF was the mummy woman from series 19 (I’m rather fond of her because they gave her a death mask alternate face so you aren’t stuck with just a goofy zombie-esque face), so really we’re overdue. Given the inclusion of Cupid in the upcoming series and Orion in the last one, I hope in the future we could see some Egyptian gods making an appearance. I’m sure minifigs of gods like Bastet or Sobek would be popular with kids and adult collectors.

I personally grabbed the Sorcerer entirely for the baby dragon, but I switched the minifig to a human and she’s now the best dressed patron in my Diagon Alley (suck it Lockhart). I’m also considering picking up the Witch Queen to do the same with. (And I’m tempted to grab the Paladin just because he’s so cool, I’ve wanted that head mold since it came out but the Vidiyo beatboxes were so overpriced and I never saw the bandmates series 2 in my area)

If that’s the case then the included minifig would almost certainly be Oliver, since he’s the one who trains Harry. It’s worth noting though that this year’s polybag could probably win a poll for worst ever in the theme, and there’s a high chance Lego has been paying attention to that (they did stop adding to the Harry army via polybag when people complained after all). So it’s possible that they’ll take that feedback and favor a design that’s not directly tied in to a new set. For instance, the upcoming Flying Lesson set is large enough that it will definitely come with a sizable chunk of castle. Top contenders for rooms inside the building would be McGonagall’s office, the trophy room, and Quirrel’s classroom where she fetches Oliver Wood from. If the later is included, there’s a non-zero chance that Oliver and a Quidditch trunk will be included as well, allowing anyone buying the set to recreate the Quidditch introduction scene as well. If that’s the case, the polybag could include anyone, and might just be the designers’ way of giving fans affordable access to a new quidditch related mold introduced in the Flying Lesson set (the Owl Post polybag in 2021, for example, came in a year with no SS sets, but was a cheap way for everyone to get ahold of the brand new flying Hedwig that was introduced that year).

Ron, Ginny, and Oliver Wood are all possibilities. As are Harry, Draco, and Cedric unfortunately. At least we seem to be going back to polybag builds that can be useful in multiples again. In previous years when I buy the polybag and it turns out to be a gwp later I didn’t mind having doubles, but this year’s Draco in the Forbidden Forest one isn’t something anyone would want to stock up on.

It’s hard to say since reviews ≠ sales. I was in my local store on release day for the Burrow and they had a separate table staffed by a phone wielding employee set out for the D&D series. It was never super crowded, but I stopped by to snag a Sorcerer for the new baby dragon and I was probably there for less than a minute rapid scanning codes, so you can’t really judge engagement based on first day crowd huddles anymore. It’s worth noting that a whole lot of clicks for CMF reviews used to be generated by people looking for feel guides for the old bags. After a year of boxes and about eight months of box codes with multiple apps released taking away the average person’s need to look at a cheat sheet, there are probably plenty of reviewers less enthusiastic about doing all the work for a review (on a license they may have no interest in) that ultimately won’t do much to boost their engagement numbers in the algorithms.

January 1st. CMFs have almost always dropped on the first of January, May, and September every year.

What round tile on the telescope? Looks to me like it’s a basic stack of various 1x1 pieces with the hollow antistud of a black round 1x1 being the front of the telescope. It looks like a reflection telescope, they don’t have a large lens at the front.

In the earlier movies they threw a whole bunch of extras at the head table and in the teachers’ section of the Quidditch stands. That’s actually the main reason we have ‘canon’ designs for Sinestra and Vector is because lego picked a couple of more interesting looking female extras and assigned them the names of known but unseen professors in their Harry Potter video games. WB apparently had no problems with this, and now the appearance of the ascended Sinestra extra has been used in non-lego media as well. It’s hard to say if lego would ever bother producing a Professor fig without a name attached to it though.

Your preferences mean nothing though. Lego has been using the CMF mold budget to introduce new City compatible molds for basically since its inception. Just look a series 25 - the dog groomer introduced the cochlear implant with ponytail mold. It’s easy to point out that this could have been in a City set - there actually was a short haired version introduced in City at the same time! The thing is, now there’s two cochlear implant options, and City has a little more mold budget for another new part, like, say, the vested service dog that was introduced this year as well. Like it or not, the City inspired CMF characters clearly have a broad appeal and help sell the series, so they’re going to include new molds. And new ‘City molds’ like new hair or an arm stump mean that playset based themes (not just City) have more budget for things that couldn’t appear in a Minifigure series, like licensed parts or architectural bricks. Not to mention, saved budget on new molds could also go towards other things, like recolors or prints instead of stickers.

I don’t remember if she was clearly pointed out, but she is very visible behind Umbridge while she’s making her speech. Good catch. The thing about Grubbly-Plank is that she’s only present for the first part of the year before Hagrid’s return, so to include her would require a large OotP Hogwarts set based off something other than the Weasley twins’ fireworks display or anything else that came after Hagrid’s return. Maybe something involving the first DA meeting plus the wall of Educational Decrees? I’d expect something like that to not have much room for random minifigures though, what with the DA vs Inquisitorial Squad narrative.

It could include more than that. The expedition had a large number of sled dogs to facilitate the overland portion of their trip to the South Pole. And there was also a ship’s cat named Mrs. Chippy (male). Admittedly, none of the animal crew members had the happy endings the human ones did, which might be a reason for lego to gloss over them.

Assuming it’s not the same mold as the Friends one – there’s a decent amount of purposeful proportional match up between minidolls and minifigures (they can mostly share hair pieces and the hands are the same size), so it’s entirely possible they could share a prosthetic arm as well.

There actually aren’t many teachers left. All we have left is Professor Burbage (Muggle Studies), Professor Binns (History), and Professor Babbling (Ancient Runes), with Firenze (Divination, books only) and the Carrow siblings (agents of Voldemort) honorable mentions that most people wouldn’t necessarily consider part of the category. Of the first three, Charity Burbage is the only one who appears on screen (in a rather disturbing scene), but given this year’s introduction of Madam Malkin and Charlie Weasley there’s now a solid precedent for including off screen characters.