Accio Lego

That’s the big question isn’t it. Will lego try to force minidolls on whatever these themes are or will they finally recognize that some themes will do better in minifigure format no matter what the target demographic is? I mean, minidolls do have a limited number of advantages over minifigs - characters in full skirts can actually bend at the hips and sit down and the between the range of different leg molds and wigs focused on accommodating accessories minidolls are definitely superior for fashion focused themes where a bulk of the characters will be wearing skirts. Whereas the classic minifig has a wrist joint, individually moveable legs, connection points on the back of the legs, and the option for a reversible head - which makes them much more versatile for any sort of action play (not to mention their more compact proportions letting you get more bang for your buck/piece count when making buildings or vehicles). Going back to the age ranges for Buffalo and Bright – After looking through the Friends and Disney Princess lines those 10+ ~700pc sets in Buffalo really aren’t close to anything that’s available now. The only Disney Princess set currently available above an 8+ rating is the massive Frozen ice castle set. Similarly, Friends sets typically cap at about 9+, with only a handful of 12+ sets available - all very large and clearly geared towards tweens who have been growing up with the theme (which obviously doesn’t really apply to new properties). It’s also worth noting that both Friends and the Disney Princess lines have a pretty solid showing of 5-6+ sets, which even Bright doesn’t have. That 7-9+ range is way more similar to the Harry Potter theme’s age distribution (minus D2Cs and buildable creatures). If we’re inclined to over-analyze what we have (since, y’know, it’s all that’s available right now) that might mean that the IPs in question are a little more action-y than the current minidoll themes and by extension may be more appropriate for minifigures.

That occurred to me too, but the thing is that Gabby’s Dollhouse is geared towards little kids and is a 4+ theme as a result. Whereas Buffalo is 10+ and Bright 7+ to 9+, meaning both properties are geared towards slightly older kids and probably fall under the umbrella of ‘family friendly’. In the day and age of the internet, shows like that typically have noticeable adult followings. With age ranges like those I’d be very surprised if there’s nobody on here that can say they’ve watched the shows/movies before when we finally get names.

The Buffalo sets are rated 10+ and the Bright ones are all between 7+ and 9+ – Wednesday is very much a teen show, so I don’t think it’s that either. And what does ‘aimed at girls’ even mean in this instance? Are both themes minidoll based or has Lego finally realized we like minifigs just fine too? I could probably go on a whole rant about how the need to gender properties like this is detrimental for kids and everyone should be allowed to like what they want with all sorts of asides about sexism in media and how it’s bad for kids of all genders, but this isn’t really the place for that.

Well, nothing we don’t already know about anyway. Remember, the Sorting Hat set still hasn’t been officially revealed, Lego could decide to do that in conjunction with a toy fair.

So news of two new themes just dropped: Buffalo: 76780 (702 pieces) and 76781 (750 pieces) both 10+ Bright: 75681 (7+), 75682 (9+), 75683 (9+), 75684 (8+) Apparently both these new themes are based off tv/movie properties, so I thought I’d bring them up here since Doctor Who’s past with lego and the stated intention to grow the show’s merchandising has to put it on the shortlist of possibilities.

I forgot about the crazy hat she wears when she’s not planning to fly. That could be a fun new mold.

Meh, Karkaroff deserves an asterisk beside his name here since he did appear in the original Drumstrang Ship set from 20 years ago. His inclusion is still pretty significant though since it brings the list of characters waiting to be remade in the new reboot down to just Narcissa and Peeves.

Or potential licensing partners a warily eying all those torn open boxes from Marvel series 2 and are waiting to see if Lego’s current steps (adding the data matrix codes, and I’m sure the themed unlicensed series is part of it too) to see if they do enough to combat stock loss. The Marvel/Disney behemoth can afford to absorb that, but anyone else…

Assume this is what we will get, but maybe they will go for something brighter. The baby croc already exists in lime green right? Maybe they’re recoloring the adult to match.

Darn it, I knew I was forgetting something. And that’s one I really want to. In my defense, I’ve long believed that the lack of flying motorbike has more to do with the prohibitive cost of making unique parts for a Hagrid compatible seat and handlebars (plus the fact that lego doesn’t seem to have done a sidecar before) than Lego not wanting to sell us one. It’s also interesting to learn that the official name of the set is apparently “Triwizard Tournament: The Arrival”, which is much less of a mouthful. Igor Karkaroff and Madam Maxime aren’t exactly surprising, but it’s good to hear that the speculation about Barty Crouch Sr. wasn’t in vain. But at that price point I’m still expecting at least two students each for the visiting schools. The new Great Hall set being based off the first movie really doesn’t surprise me. Fingers crossed that my theory about Halloween decorations and a troll bathroom on the side are solid.

I’m not saying the bear mold isn’t versatile. Polar bears, black bears, sun bears, sloth bears, spectacled bears, even grizzly bears/brown bears. I’m just not sure the current mold really works for a giant panda. The legs and neck are too long and a giant panda’s face is much rounder and shorter than the current mold.

There’s actually nothing unusual about that choice. Vehicles of every sort are a long standing staple of lego, be they cars, carriages, trains, buses, sailing ships, space ships. I haven’t specifically checked, but I don’t think we’ve gone a year since the reboot without a vehicle of some kind. And since Harry Potter canon isn’t as lush with vehicles as something like Star Wars, it’s pretty easy to keep track of all the vehicles in the story and recognize that the Drumstrang Ship is really the only one that hasn’t been done in full scale since the reboot (unless you want to count the boat from the inferi cave, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that lego doesn’t want to touch that scene).

For the cubs maybe, but not the adult

Let’s not forget the Loony Toons and Muppets series which have only had brickheadz of some of the characters released after the fact and lego essentially released bind not really knowing how they’d be received. And both of those were super heavy on unique new molds that can’t be used anywhere else.

Or Hogwarts Mystery just took their cue from the Lego games? From what I can tell, Professor Sinestra had no canon appearance until the Lego game said ‘yeah, this cool background extra - that’s her’ and then years later Hogwarts Mystery came along and said ‘okay then’ and used the same cool looking extra when they added her character to their own game. In any case, there’s barely anything recognizable on the Charlie stand-in in that Egypt photo, which they might not want to call attention to considering that the Bill they end up doing won’t look anything like the one beside him. And what’s there to take from that version anyway? They won’t want to include the souvenir fez, so a pretty plain patterned shirt? That might work for an exclusive Sirius variant on an advent calendar budget but I’m not sure how thrilled fans would be with that treatment on the only Charlie Weasley we’re likely to get. His Hogwarts Mystery outfits have the benefit of being far more complex and featuring little hints of his dragon obsession, which might make him a little more recognizable even to fans unfamiliar with the game.

Something clearly meant to be the ultimate version of the Weasley home would definitely feel incomplete without the whole family. And plenty of people want a complete Weasley family just in general. And there’s not any other place to put Charlie unless Lego decides they want to do some explicitly Hogwarts Mystery based sets - which I think is highly unlikely although I do believe there’s a chance they’ll use Charlie’s HM appearance as the basis for his minifigure if he shows up in the Burrow (it’s not like they really have anything else to go off as far as I know).

It’s worth remembering that the first Harry Potter series came alongside the revival of the theme, and was certainly used by the designers to get a lot of new molds for the rebooted theme. Theoretically, a new theme could also see that treatment of Lego had enough faith in it. That said, I’d expect to see a cmf like that released more closely to the first wave of sets in that case. The May cmf is the unlicensed space one so there’s nothing really stopping a theoretical Animal Crossing series from being switched with that and being released close to the theme’s first wave. To me that’s a much stronger argument against it being an Animal Crossing series as opposed to just ‘new theme’.

That’s what I’m hoping too. There’s still the matter of Harry not being in the preliminary image, but 11 minifigs is just as plausible as 10 for a $250 D2C. I'm also hopeful that the lack of any Bellatrix style blank minifig means that we’ll finally get a Burrow based off something other than that movie-only HBP scene. Bill and Fleur’s wedding is a possibility (although wouldn’t include Percy), but the shorter stature of some of the stand ins makes me wonder if they’re referencing the beginning of GoF. Bill, Charlie, and Percy don’t make an appearance in the movie but in the book it’s the first and almost only time that the entire family is seen in the same place, and with Lego doing increasingly more book content it’s possible they’d go in that direction.

Okay, that’s pretty reassuring actually Although I personally count 10 minifigs in that leaked image. There’s 9 on ground level around the build and a tenth on one of the balconies near the top - it’s just short so it’s not super obvious. Based on the top of the hairpiece visible I think it’s the Ginny-coded stand in figure, hence why there’s no fig with Ginny’s typical hair in the ground level group despite Molly clearly being there. Which means that if the prospective line up seen in the preliminary model carries over into the final set we could theoretically get all nine Weasleys - including Bill and Charlie. Of course, with no Harry in sight in the leak it’s more than likely the final set will be edited to include him.

Weren’t the prices attached to the Burrow leaked in the survey more in the typical $400 range? 2405 pieces isn’t a $400 set, more like $250. That suggests that if this is the Burrow it’s been scaled back from the leaked image. A PoA theme for the Brickheadz then? And they’re typically priced at ~$10 per head, so my guess would be Harry, Hermione, Moony the werewolf, Sirius/Padfoot, and either Ron or Buckbeak. (With the trio in their PoA casual clothes)

I mean, as the Weird Kid who decided that red pandas were superior back when I was ten I’d argue why not? Red pandas actually went by the name panda before giant pandas were referred to as such. Depending on the mold it’s possible that lego might also be hoping to reuse it for a raccoon, although while the two species share some similarities red pandas have a slightly different body shape and a much longer, fluffier tail.

Oh man, talk about a blast from the past. I’ve got one of these stored in the garage somewhere, along with the Hagrid’s Hut (a totally normal looking rectangular shack with a blue roof) and Burrow extensions. All the little characters should be stored in a little blue Bertie Botts Beans drawstring bag (yeah, that was a thing before the movies too). All the characters for this, and the original lego sets for that matter, were based off the early illustrations - I had to do a bit of research but it looks like the name of that original artist was Mark Brought. The reason there were so many star spangled cloaks in those first sets was those early illustrations as well. And Warner Bros must have been pretty tight fisted with letting any actual movie concept art get out back then - even the 2001 Hallmark ornaments were based directly off of Mark Brought illustrations!

As a bit of a divergence from the current talk of summer sets – it just occurred to me that the Sorting Hat set scheduled to come out in March still hasn’t been officially revealed on shop@home. I’m assuming that the 18+ labeling and talking aspect means Lego is planning on hyping it up with a reveal trailer and everything – which would be our first chance to actually hear what’s going on with the sound brick. As someone who’s actually pretty curious about what this thing sounds like, when do we think that official reveal and hype campaign will happen?

I think we’re far more likely to see the mountain troll or an improved Fluffy than a basilisk repeat while the last one is still on shelves. The last version of the great hall in the Chamber of Secrets set obviously came with Slytherin’s chamber - the most obvious way to set the new Great Hall set apart is to make it based off a different movie.

I’m going to hazard a guess from looking at the fuzzy spread of the castle in the March set booklets the the ‘Great Hall’ also encompasses the front courtyard and that massive grand staircase tower at the very least. Throw all that up on a rocky base and you’ve got a pretty massive set.