Accio Lego

Nah, Hedwig has had at least one Brickheadz and three other different buildable versions since 2020, plus several ‘minifig’ versions of her in sets. Stitch has a ways to go.

The set shouldn’t require any new molds, the only new things we’re really expecting to see are a recolor+new print of the small owl and new torso prints for Harry and Cho. There are about 4 regular owls and 3 flying owls (omitting ones exclusive to CMFs or BAM) that already exist and are available to the designers for just the cost of the part. Now the owl pieces themselves are a little pricier than the average brick, but they’re in the same ballpark as some minifig parts, so it’s not necessarily something you’d expect to make a major dent in the budget unless there were lots of them. That's why the price per piece ratio keeps getting brought up. The Owlery is $7 more expensive than the boathouse but only 14 more pieces - and it’s supposed to have one less minifigure. Considering that the boathouse will likely feature a large molded rowboat (which is significantly more expensive a part than any owl) those numbers are telling. That’s why a lot of us are guessing more in the 5 or 6 range here.

The Basil torso has leaked on Instagram. For those interested it should be findable under the usual hashtags as well as #basilthebatlord I think the design is nice, it’s even got arm printing.

I wouldn’t totally rule it out, since that was how they did the eagle mold. And I’m pretty sure the spread winged owl with the owl lectern in mind as opposed to biological accuracy. But you’re right, I can’t see it being a priority right now.

Honestly, my assumption is that we’re seeing the Owlery as a set specifically because the introduction of the small owl (which has only been used to represent smaller species as opposed to actual babies so far) being added to the line up alongside the original and flying versions finally gives the designers enough variety to make an parliament of owls that’s actually visually diverse. The fact that a specific Owlery set is coming out less than a year after the new mold was introduced just can’t be a coincidence. The owlery also has a higher price per piece ratio than Hagrid’s Hut (which should feature Hagrid and two new creature molds) and even the Boathouse (which should include at least one of the large molded rowboats), suggesting that a good chunk of its budget is devoted to having multiple owls.

Unfortunately, the only set with the potential for non-Gryffindors in robes is the boathouse set, which with probably see a return of the pre-sorting torsos. The only non-Gryffindor students set to appear in any other sets are Draco in Hagrid’s Hut and Cho in the Owlery, both of which will probably feature casual wear. Fingers crossed that the summer wave has more variety. I mean, the Forbidden Forest: Magical Creatures set sounds potentially promising, and the Owlery is pretty much guaranteed to have some new owl styles in it, so if you like animals those should be worth looking forward to as well. I won’t deny the minifig selection this wave sounds pretty anemic, but 3/7 sets sound great for animal lovers.

Yeah, I’m itching to get a proper look at that barbarian

We usually don’t see official picks until about a month before release (although sometimes lego drags their feet), so likely there will be nothing official before December. And I doubt lego wants to hype anything not coming out until January during the Insiders weekend/Black Friday period when the emphasis is on buying gifts for the winter holidays.

A new flower element with a standard sized bar that fits into an antistud could be combined with the new Harry Potter casting wand to create a floral wand while also introducing an element that could be used as regular flowers in any number of sets.

Everybody and their mom also knows what a standard handgun looks like no matter what their personal experience with firearms is, but lego has made it quite clear that they’re not doing any contemporary real life guns. Lego’s policy on including firearms in sets has nothing to do with kids’ preexisting knowledge of them and entirely to do with not wanting to normalize the idea that real life guns can be playthings in any form. I get that it’s not as big a deal in Europe where getting common sense gun laws passed is fairly easy, but in the US our gun safety laws are so lax and poorly enforced that the number of casualties we see from children getting ahold of improperly stored firearms is truly horrific. I know the difference between a tiny plastic toy and a real gun seems obvious to an adult, but it isn’t for all children so I understand Lego being very strictly cautious on the issue. Best to pin any future hopes on futuristic blasters and historical firearms - frankly I personally think that latter category has more interesting prospects than anything contemporary anyway.

I wonder if it will just be as full figures or if they’ll part them out. Like, I’ve got very little interest in the Dreamzzz characters themselves, but some of those hair pieces are super cool. I’m still hoping that Izzie’s hair will show up recolored in BAM towers sometime soon. And the black version of Mateo’s dreadlocks is definitely going to be part of my next PAB order.

Yeah, that’s the big challenge I think - it’s pretty easy to put together more generic minifigure packs that group together Doctors with their companions and a few enemies, but once you get to the actual lego builds you generally need to draw on more story specific material unless you want to try and sell multiple versions of the TARDIS at once. That’s why I’m more inclined to imagine past Doctors getting representation in CMFs, or perhaps a large Collectors Edition TARDIS that opens up to reveal multiple versions of the console room containing their respective Doctors and companions - released alongside a more kid friendly wave of playsets based on the currently running series. Speaking of currently running series - I’ve seen rumors of an 8th Doctor spinoff series (with the same BBC/Disney+ distribution as the main series) going around. Anyone else hear about that? And do we think it’s a good sign for prospective merchandising that there’s apparently already enough faith in how well the new era will go that they’re already getting people to sign on for a spinoff?

Tbh they are pretty cute. And with the average size of an advent calendar build I could easily imagine the 19 other gifts including some tiny vignettes for them to play in (plus a few animal companions of course). It’s something I can see going over very well with the little girls the Disney Princess line is geared towards, which is why I pointed out the possibility.

True but at least they snuck one in to the lenticular background, perhaps a little hint that they wished they could include the piece? And I imagine that the price to bring back a duel molded animal from 2018 is a fair bit more expensive than a single color animal from 2021 that’s already being used in another set in the same wave (not to mention that the Chamber of Secrets set is still on shelves, so they weren’t bringing the pixie back so much as essentially extending its production time). With any luck, the Magical Creatures set will have enough budget to bring back our favorite furry kleptomaniac.

I won’t argue with you regarding the Ravenclaw banner, but Pixies actually did make a brief appearance in the DH2 Room of Hidden Things scene so that was definitely an appropriate set to reuse the piece in. And I still think there’s reason to be optimistic about the Niffler piece coming back - the FB movies might not have gotten traction, but Nifflers have become rather popular in their own right and lego would be foolish not to take advantage of that when they already have the part.

5 minifigures isn’t crazy but 5 minidolls would be considering that the Friends advent calendars typically only come with one or two. And on the minifigs side of things - there’s usually only so many new minifig prints per calendar, and while Moana and Tiana have been released in sets this year, Elsa and Ariel were only released in CMFs quite awhile ago (no chance of reusing their prints) and Maribel has never been made as a minifig. The 2020 Harry Potter advent calendar managed to squeeze in 3 characters in brand new gowns, but one of them used a preexisting head and the other two were twins who shared a new one so I’m not sure Elsa, Ariel, and Maribel could be squeezed into the budget like that. Honestly, I know I’ll be accused of fear-mongering, but why hasn’t anyone brought up the very real possibility that the advent calendar could be stocked with the pint sized minidolls lego uses in the storybook sets? All of the named characters bar Moana have been made in that form before and they use normal minidoll heads and hair so it would be perfectly feasible budget-wise to do a new body for Moana + an exclusive new holiday special inspired one for one or two of the others. Not saying I think it would be the best idea, but clearly the storybooks do well enough with the target audience for them to keep making them year after year and lego have made stupider decisions regarding advent calendars in the past.

I am vaguely interested in the two ‘random’ students in the boathouse look like, since there’s a non-zero chance they could be based on actual named students (Millicent Bulstrode, Ernie McMillan, and Zacharias Smith are all technically possibilities) and the builds sound fairly fun, but the creature are definitely the stars of this wave

Oh, my eagerness to see pics of the March sets is definitely focused on what animals other than Buckbeak come in the Magical Creatures set, how many owls (plus what new color of the inevitable smowl) come in the Owlery, and seeing what the molds for Fang and baby Norbert look like. Everything else is just extra.

Theoretically the UCS Burrow hasn’t been confirmed, but a lot of the other sets names from that survey leak have been getting confirmed recently, so it does seem a safe bet. (And I do recall that leaked image having enough red headed minifigures for the entire Weasley family so if this is how lego chooses to sneak up Charlie I’m not going to complain) And in the past March Harry Potter images have leaked in January or even Deso we might not have to wait until February. (Except for the Mandrake, that’s a summer set apparently so it will be quite awhile before we see that) Personally, I’m hoping to hear something about the other Harry Potter summer sets soon - it’s a little odd the info on the mandrake leaked all on its own.

Apparently it’s 579 pieces for $65, the Sorting Hat is supposed to have fewer pieces than that for $100 so I’m not getting my hopes up for a screaming Mandrake :(

I think you’re right about the barbarian being a woman. It’s hard to tell between the glare in the photo on top of the ‘war paint’ design, but it does look like the eyes have longer lashes and the mouth definitely seems to have the thicker lips lego uses for their adult female faces.

They do seem to have compromised with a fabric collar (possibly the same shape from Jiminy Cricket in the latest Disney series?)

I get less of a ‘winter’ vibe and more of a ‘camping/outdoors’ feel from it - admittedly cold weather outdoors, but still. Personally, I suspect we might have to wait for January for that one.

Hmm… Zonko’s maybe, but Puddifoot’s? I’m not sure about that. Zonko’s is iconic as the prank shop that inspired the Weasley twins and it features as a theme park location so it’s got name recognition outside just book savvy fans, whereas Puddifoot’s only rated a non-functional shopfront in the theme parks. Pretty sure only book fans understand the significance of the doily covered tearoom, so I can’t see there being nearly as much demand for it. Zonko’s and the Hog’s Head paired up like Honeydukes and the Three Broomsticks could work though.

No, it’s the preexisting French Bulldog, they just animated it with a bone stuck next to its mouth for the promo video