Accio Lego

Definitely like the direction lego is going by adding these new skin tones. The real question is - will they retcon what color they use for Cho after making 4 inaccurate ones? I guess it’s a toss up on what’s more confusing - a character’s lego appearance being suddenly revamped or all the fans having a ‘wait, are they doing a book-accurate Padma?’ moment every time they see a Cho minifig.

It’s worth noting though that BAM towers do get a decent amount of exclusive recolors and prints, so this could easily be one of those as well.

If it were anything other than the train I’d agree with you, but I feel like ‘Collectors Edition’ could easily still mean motorization and tracks in this case - since those have notably been absent in most lego versions of the Hogwarts Express.

It’s definitely nice that lego is expanding their skin tone range - although there’s still a noticeable gap between light and medium nougat that could really do with being filled in. But I guess skin tones is hardly the only place lego plays loose with colors - I’m pretty sure werewolf Lupin is supposed to be a shade of grey.

My problem is more that she’s noticeably darker than the white characters she shares screen time with, while Cho Chang isn’t. Obviously lego can’t capture anywhere near the full range of skin tones, but how characters look relative to the cast of their franchise definitely should be part of the equation.

I was crazy about Babe when I was a little kid, so I’m going to need a couple of those adorable piglets

She’s one of the six main teen characters in the Camp Cretaceous animated spinoff on Netflix - which Lego made a wave of sets to very loosely tie into since, y’know, target demographics. The actual problem is that the head is light nougat and, as her name might suggest, Yaz isn’t white. Which is thoroughly annoying. At least the head works properly on Mary Cattermole.

Probably more SS/PS, since OotP didn’t really show much of the actual platform. OotP really focuses on the whole Thestral thing, so you really only see a tiny bit of the outside of the station - and the first movie only really showed the actual platform (along with some really good aerial views), so theoretically you could combine elements of both.

Glad someone had the guts to say it, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Will be interesting to see just how many “oh, I think I’ll http pick this up after all”s we’ll see posted here once the pictures drop.

Prior to this the most expensive Hogwarts Express set was the 2004 motorized version - which featured Hogsmeade Station, not 9 3/4, so it would hardly be unprecedented to have a more expensive set featuring the station with the less buzz worthy name (I’m reluctant to outright say less iconic, because there are some pretty iconic scenes that take place at that station). That being said, for a $470 I suspect we’re likely to get both, with Hogsmeade being the larger build. As for the Lego Fulcrum issue - I don’t particularly trust him, but I do trust that the plethora of other leakers that are trustworthy who’ve been reporting the information as well wouldn’t be doing so without their own sources of information that were confirming what he’s saying.

In the OotP movie Harry hallucinates him there (wearing a suit, hence why some people are referring to suited voldy despite him never actually wearing anything other than robes). I was never a real fan of that particular cinematic choice, because one of the main reasons that Harry insists on going to the Ministry to rescue Sirius is because he’s never had visions that weren’t 100% real before. In any case, if you search for pictures of Voldemort actually sticking his tongue out like the leaked head has (as opposed to just screaming with the tongue visible) the best examples will be the GoF graveyard scene where he presses Harry’s scar and one of Harry’s other OotP hallucinations. Presumably, the leaked alternate Voldemort head is making people think that hallucination!Voldy is a possibility, and that’s why he’s being brought up as a possibility for 9 3/4. Agreed, plus it hasn’t been made since 2004 (and not particularly accurately) while 9 3/4 has a good showing from 2018. Added on to that - in London most of not all the students would be in street clothes, but by Hogsmeade everyone’s supposed to be in uniform robes - hence, we’re more likely to get new student minifigs from Hogsmeade Station than 9 3/4.

With any luck, the designers will use the high price point D2C format to give us a ton of students to populate the train. Lee Jordan (with tarantula) in particular would be a good choice as a callback to the book, since his main appearances are in the quidditch pitch and he’s unlikely to make the cut in a regular quidditch set. Augusta Longbottom would be a fun addition too. Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, and Cormac McLaggen also have notable train scenes. Really, any student character who we should have but don’t yet could easily fit on the Express. We could also get a decent selection of owls and cats that students are bringing along to school, and maybe even the much desired pygmy puff? And of course, there’s a decent chance that the designers will take the opportunity to give us some bonus Epilogue minifigs (I think we’re pretty safe from the entire set being 19 Years Later though).

There are literally pages and pages of people telling me and other Hogwarts Express theorizers that it wasn’t going to happen because lego wouldn’t be able to stretch it to that high a price. You’re all lucky you didn’t promise to eat anything this time. lol (and this is why I refused to get into the ‘it has to be Gringotts’ camp)

The capes with the stars on the inside were also clearly based off of many of those pre-movie release artwork. Pretty sure characters like Hagrid and Norbert were pulled more from that too.

The telescope is a half level or so up from the main office, so it would make sense. And it wouldn’t shock me if it turned out the designers had originally planned it that way but decided that they didn’t have the parts/budget to do it properly or that it was too visually confusing (especially with the telescope room in the CoS set from last year). It shouldn’t be particularly difficult to mod it though.

Lol - she does spend a significant amount of time shushing you if you play the Hogwarts Mystery game. It bears pointing out that Sinistra, Fortescue, and Pince have all been put in places they belong - and in sets based off movies they actually appeared in. Fortescue is in his shop, Pince is in the Library, and Sinistra appeared in the telescope room that’s basically a classic for Harry Potter sets. Compare that to Bill, Narcissa, Aberforth, Doge, Xeno, or even Mrs. Figg who couldn’t appear because the locations they would appear in simply haven’t been made yet. Or Marge and Mundungus who do appear mostly in Privet Drive/Grimmauld Place, but in entirely different movies than the sets are based off of. And while Skeeter and Crouch Sr. are characters I want, I can understand that they were divorced enough from the main action in GoF that finding a set with a spare minifig slot to put them in might be tricky. The only characters on your list that lego would have been able to easily slip in to preexisting sets are Karkaroff and the students. I’m willing to give them a pass on Karkaroff, because the Clocktower was completely packed and the Drumstrang ship is a solid contender for a future set - but I’ll admit constantly getting the same repeated students is getting a bit old - Hermione’s my favorite character, but someone else could have taken her place in the Dumbledore’s Office set.

That’s Madame Pince, the Hogwarts librarian - an obvious choice of character for a set that includes the library. She doesn’t have any speaking roles in the movies, but she gets a decent number of lines and name drops in the books and has appeared in some of the video games. And even without lines, her appearance is distinctive enough that several of us were able to recognize her immediately.

The face print expression is definitely different, and I’m pretty sure the original Crookshanks didn’t have any printing on the chest. I also think that the Crookshanks in Grimmauld Place is some shade of orange, while the version in the cmf was medium nougat.

It was the Mario theme, and those seem to be unprinted, so ‘Baby Fawkes’ is still a little unique. Personally I’m more excited about Mrs. Norris, Padfoot, and Crookshanks, since they’re all new and unique prints and at least the first two are new colors as well (not certain about Crookshanks though, anyone able to say?).

Same. That’s why I switched out the RoR Luna’s legs with the black mid legs I took off the extra Yule Ball Harry I got in the advent calendar (since I was already cannibalizing his torso for a custom Roger Davies). Glad I won’t have to do something like that for this Luna. It also looks like that full moon in the Shrieking Shack set is glow in the dark - nice touch :)

Given it’s in the room with the Gryffindor banner on the wall I’m guessing it’s meant to represent the bat skeleton mobile seen in Sirius’ bedroom in DH1.

Since I haven’t seen anyone mention it yet - Chocolate Frog Cards are mentioned on the back of 3 of the boxes. Sirius’ Escape (x2) Dumbledore's Office (x3) Shrieking Shack (x4) Presuming the other 4 set don’t have any, that’s still 7 chocolate frog cards this wave. I wonder what the criteria for deciding which sets would have them and which wouldn’t was.

These are all spectacular! Plenty of things I was expecting (including Grimmauld Place) but also plenty of things I never would have guessed (Madam Pince and the library!) so lots of fun things to unpack. Can’t wait to build these (but why June 19th?).

Yeah, but there were rumors going around that 40560 and 40577 were going to be for the Harry Potter theme. I think the other poster was wondering what we currently know about 40577.

That’s what’s got me stumped. Like, I’d get it if the release date moving from July to April left a lot of companies floundering and unable to move up product releases at short notice. But you’d think at least a few of them would have product images ready to slap up on their social medias around the movie’s release so that potential customers know they will have merch even if it’s not coming until closer to the original release date. Like, Noble Collection should at least have the usual new character wands but I haven’t seen anything so far.