Accio Lego

The survey leak is still one of the first results you’ll get if you google ‘lego burrow survey leaks’ despite Lego doing their best to scrub it from most platforms. It’s definitely still in the planning stages though, the minifigs are all just plain white with different hairpieces. We already know from other sources that this year’s Harry Potter D2C is number 76437 and it’s 2405 pieces, which seems to fit the leaked image. So while the final set will probably have some adjustments it will likely look very much like the leak.

Yeah, that is a bit of a surprise. The only Harry Potter sets we haven’t seen yet are the D2C Burrow – which is a good candidate for a ‘new’ owl but that would be a return of the great grey color and print (the only 2010/11 owl that hasn’t been brought back yet and a perfect match for the Weasley’s owl Errol) – and the 40695 gwp that we only have the number for so far. And none of the Harry Potter gwps since the reboot have included animals, so I’m not holding out hope there. It’s worth noting that both the butterfly and small songbird molds have likewise been included in Friends sets without specialized prints, so maybe the smowl got lucky and the designers decided it was small enough to work in both systems unchanged? Whatever the case, I’ll always be happy for more owl variants.

I suspect there might be an Easter egg in this year’s Madam Malkin’s and Ollivander’s set – it’s got a signpost with a sign for Gringotts pointing to the left (backwards in most western writing systems) and signs for Flourish & Blott’s and Quality Quidditch Supplies pointing to the right (aka forward). We got the Gringotts D2C last year so might this be a hint at getting the other two next year?

New Elementary has done a review of all the new parts in the June Friends sets - which means a nice detailed shot of the new dark tan(?) tiny owl that’s difficult to see in the official pics. Obviously they mention all the Friends animals getting recolors and reprints as well – plus the brand new beaver mold! – but the new smowl earns a special mention because it’s minifig compatible as well. (I know I’ll be making a bricks a pieces order to beef up my Harry Potter displays when it gets added)

Oh definitely! But I had a hard enough time collecting all the frog cards and there are considerably fewer portraits distributed among sets even in this first year. Not including one in the poly bag is already irksome, but not having any in the gwp will make collecting them all even more of a pain since doubles are guaranteed.

I doubt this year’s gwp will directly tie in to the D2C like last year’s did. The only logical add on to the Burrow I can think of that would be the right size would be the Weasley’s flying Ford Anglia, and that was already released as it’s own set in March. My personal hope is that whatever the gwp is it comes with some more collectible portraits. So far with the March sets we’ve got 4 in total, and the Great Hall and Potions Class in June will only add 7 between them. This year’s advent calendar includes 2 as well, but ultimately that only adds up to 13 portraits in total if you get all the sets that include them - and there are 14 to collect! Back in 2021 when Lego did the Chocolate Frog Cards the gwp was the Gryffindor boys dorm module with a built in 16x16 plate that could act as a display for all the cards, as well as 4 cards included in the gwp itself. It would be nice to get something in a similar vein for the collectible portraits (especially since they skimped out on putting one in the polybag this time around).

To be fair, the new broom head + shaft combo is great for some things. I don’t think the reason we’re still seeing it much less than the old broom is because it was unpopular or the designers don’t like it, but because it’s significantly more expensive. I’ve checked those parts on PaB in the past and the old fabuland broom costs less than the new broom head on its own. Budget can be a big deciding factor for sets designs so I’m not surprised that the old broom still sees more use. As for these new wand packs, I don’t see this as a soft launch because I can’t see them effectively replacing the regular wands anytime soon. A single new multipack of wands might be cheaper than half a dozen of the old pairs, but there’s typically only one set a year that even begins to need that many wands to begin with. For anything less it will probably remain more cost efficient to just have the appropriate number of the old wands. Which allows for different colors, which I imagine will remain a preference for a lot of the fanbase. The only time I can the new style being useful is A) in black if they ever give us a death eater battlepack type set, or B) if a designer ever gets really dedicated to giving Lucius an accurate wand (I’ve definitely had tool or utensil multipacks where only one part was used in the set before, so I could actually see this happening).

Nah, red panda bodies are way too chunky compared to raccoons - not to mention that while they’ve both got striped tails, raccoons’ are much shorter and scrawnier. Besides, it would be a shame to get a raccoon without working hands like the monkey has.

lol - I’d figured out it was a Friends hairpiece, but I hadn’t really thought about the accessorizing potential before. This means that as of right now, Igor Karkaroff and Lavender Brown are the only two characters that can actually wear the current version of Ravenclaw’s Diadem. (Not that they should, it’s probably super cursed based off what happened to Dumbledore when he put on the Peverell ring)

I also used code scan for the last series, but it’s a general barcode reading app that will only give you a string of numbers. You have to get a list of the relevant numbers for your region and either memorize them or constantly switch between your list and the scanning app on your phone, which I found rather fiddly last time. For this series I've got the Bricksearch app, which claims to scan the data matrix codes on the new cmf boxes as well as barcodes on regular lego sets. I haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but I’ve seen some videos of people demonstrating it, and it’s got all the know codes loaded into the app so when you scan a box it will show you a picture of the Minifigure that should be inside instead of a string of numbers. That promises to be a lot simpler.

Removing everything might be a tad inconvenient, but it looks like the modules slide in and out very easily. If anything, I’d think that the ability to slide modules out and even open them up a bit via the hinged bases will improve playability. I’ve had a decent amount of trouble just posing some of the minifigs in the more enclosed 2021-2023 modules because they’re so cramped - and when you’ve got the rooms assembled into a castle it gets really fiddly to reach in there. The new set up means that everything is easily accessible without having to actually disassemble anything. Yes, there’s a more complete pic out now and that fifth character definitely has Crouch Senior’s mustache. Madam Maxime also has the extra long legs and a different torso - it’s nice that they’re going out of their way to give people who already have the 2019 carriage something different I guess. Also, it’s hard to see with the current pic, but is that our very first triple handled triwizard cup?!

Yes, we might have to wait until an official announcement for that one. On the bright side - the site that claimed that Cornelius Fudged is the 5th minifig in that set completely missed Cho in their description of the advent calendar, lending credence to the theory that they’d slightly confused and it’s actually Barry Crouch Sr. as originally rumored. EDIT: scratch that, Brickclicker just posted an image of the Triwizard Arrival set! Looks like a box art render type image, but no sign of the fifth minifigure.

Brickclicker just posted a bunch of summer set pics (all in the same post so you have to scroll through), including the Great Hall, Diagon shops, Buckbeak, and Potions Class All just front shots so nothing new for the Great Hall or Buckbeak except being slightly better quality than the catalog shots. Outside of Malkin’s looks nice and accurate, but nothing unexpected. Potions Class is really fun. It definitely doesn’t look like a plain module for the Great Hall at first glance, I’m pretty sure it would only fit in one of those slots if it was folded up, which it can clearly do. It’s definitely the most movie accurate set ever done for the potions classroom. The new large round flask Snape was holding in the Minifigure pic is present in both yellow and orange. There’s also a new bubbling/steaming cauldron part that we get in both trans dark blue and neon green (not sure if those are the official colors or not, but that’s what they look like). There’s also a build of four open topped jars that contain tiny pieces used as ingredients, so the play factor is better than any potions clad build before too. I can see a lot of people who skip the Great Hall still getting this one, it definitely stands on its own just fine.

The new animals had all leaked before, so there’s nothing crazy as far as animal molds go in the leaks. Plenty of frogs adding a little biodiversity in all but the red panda set, and the gorilla set also has a spider, a fish, and the morpho butterfly.

I think those are actually supposed to be Christmas crackers. They only have a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it background appearance in the movies, but they’re described in detail in the books.

Yeah, full pics have dropped and that’s definitely a holiday sweater. What I really like is that four of the minifigs plus the baby also have similarly styled sweaters - it’s a little matching family!

The Bloody Baron really needs a new piece for that ‘17th century nobility’ hairstyle of his (not exactly historically accurate, but the filmmakers had no idea of his true origins when they styled him for the first movie and helpfully left out that part of Helena’s story so we can tacitly ignore it). So we were always unlikely to see him in an advent calendar unless it came immediately after a cmf featuring a male counterpart for the Marie Antoinette fig.

Pretty sure that’s a Raven/Eagle and a Badger - you can tell what house they’re meant to represent by the color of the tile on their bases. I’m pretty sure they’re based on the figural wall sconces in the Great Hall, but yeah, not necessarily the best choice for brick built decor at this scale. On the bright side - flying Hedwig! After they used the perched version in the 2022 calendar I figured the dimensions on the mold were incompatible with the calendar cubby holes or something. Then again, they did make the switch from a pressed paper tray to slotted cardboard slats to separate the sections last year. Perhaps that expanded what could fit behind each door, and the Harry Potter designers are going all out to take advantage of it by putting in flying Hedwig and the double wide skirt of the caroling ghost.

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No, that’s one of those caroling ghosts I mentioned before. They’re seen singing right before the shot of Flitwick trimming the tree in SS. The Grey Lady never had a large skirt or light hair like that. A very exciting use of the wide skirt piece though. Also - SURPRISE CHO! That brings up the number of fully printed figs in this calendar to SEVEN - a new record for this theme. I wasn’t expecting new sweater + scarf torsos for all the houses (because we didn’t know there’d be a Ravenclaw student) but this adds so fun variety.

The City Downtown Tram set has leaked and it has the brown lab with service vest in it. Looks to be the same colors used for the prison island and firehouse sets, but it comes with the guide dog harness in yellow to match the vest, so presumably the printing barely visible under the harness is more neutral than the police and firefighter logos on the previous examples. UPDATE: the team sets vested dog isn’t a new color but the City advent calendar DOES have a new color of vested dog! Looks like a yellow lab in tan with a green vest (probably printed as a holiday sweater). The white kitten also makes an appearance in the calendar.

An entirely new tiny dragon mold just for a statue? I wonder if this is proof that D&D cmf leaflet leak was fake after all? It seems crazy for lego to release 3 different mini dragon molds in the same year.

Both the Great Hall and advent calendar descriptions we have from before suggest an ability to swap out decorations. We only have two pics that actually show the interior of the set, both of which have the Christmas table set up. It’s pretty easy to believe that there are alternate Halloween decorations included but the pics of them just haven’t leaked yet. We’ve really only seen a sneak peek at this point.

That Aragog is amazing, it’s hard to believe it’s got the same price point as the last one. The Great Hall definitely looks good from the outside too, and it’s nice that we have confirmation on the new character names and the 5 collectible portraits. Not seeing the Buckbeak and Mandrake box art that someone mentioned before - hopefully that turns up soon, and more importantly pics of the actual Potions Class (not to mention the Triwizard Arrival set).

I don’t see why the advent calendar would use a recycled torso for Harry. We’ve had roughly on average 3 new torsos per calendar (with the exception of 2021 when there were only 2 new torsos but several new tile prints and 2019 that had 4 new torsos), and Susan Bones and Draco Malfoy are much more likely to recycle student uniform torsos. Dumbledore and Flitwick are also prime candidates for recycling prints, which means that the unknown ghost and Harry are almost certainly going to be something new. Remember, while Flitwick is present in the scene with the green jumper, Dumbledore is from the Mirror of Erised scene where Harry wears his red jumper (which currently only exists in ripped form from the 2021 chess set). The designers could even take a shot a doing partially invisible Harry with transparent parts since they’ve only ever represented the invisibility cloak with silvery fabric before.