Accio Lego

I’d definitely expect Fudge, Bellatrix, Dumbledore, or Voldemort, or maybe even all four, if this was an OotP set. The fact that we have none of them and Umbridge instead is definitely food for thought.

In Promobricks defense, the golden statue is definitely from the OotP Ministry, and it’s pretty clear that the character list has at least one misidentified character due to stand-ins or ambiguous/low quality illustrations, so I wouldn’t fault them for calling it based on the statue if the Minifigure lineup was fuzzy (and since Promobricks wasn’t even willing to call the last character it’s pretty clear it was).

or “Ron” could be Ron and “Arthur” could be Reg Cattermole, the real Reg makes an appearance after all. Or “Arthur” could actually be Arthur - who appears in a deleted scene where the polyjuiced Ron and Harry try to warn him he’s being watched. And since “Mafalda Hopkirk” is actually Hermione for the all the Ministry scenes and Hermione is already on the Minifigure list, I think Mary Cattermole is more likely as the mystery character (although Pius Thickness could also be a possibility). There’s just too many variables to know for sure until we get more info (and quite probably that means waiting for set pictures).

Except that the dementors don’t match Harry’s trial either. They only appear at the Ministry in DH1. The OotP Battle would include the Trio, Arthur, and Lucius - and if we assume the ‘dementors’ are actually generic death eaters then Umbridge is the only oddball. (With the mystery character probably being another Order member) The DH1 scene would include the polyjuiced Trio, Umbridge, and Dementors, with ‘Lucius’ probably being Yaxley and Arthur either actually being Arthur (he appears in both the book and a deleted scene) or the real Reg Cattermole (which could actually be quite comical, since the poor man appears in his underclothes).

So how likely does everyone think it is that the Mrs. Noris in Dumbledore’s Office is a new longhaired cat mold? Because if she is then I really can’t see them finally doing a new cat mold for her, but I can see them doing it to finally give us an accurate Crookshanks (truly the unsung hero of PoA), who could feature in the Shrieking Shack or a potential Grimmauld Place (or even Diagon Alley if they did the Leaky Cauldron or Magical Menagerie), and then recolor it for her in the same wave.

Yeah, there’s still a lot of ambiguity with these set descriptions, and the Shack and Horntail didn’t have proper descriptions at all. For the Shrieking Shack all we can go off of is that the scene depicted had the trio, the Marauders, and Snape, and the 2004 version also included werewolf Lupin. That comes to 8 minifigs, which is the same number the 2019 Clocktower at the same price point comes with (with a considerably larger number of new prints needed), so it’s pretty easy to imagine they could fit them all in there. For the Ministry we basically have to assume that the character line up isn’t quite accurate because of stand-ins/characters that look too similar to tell apart in preliminary images. Promobricks lists Lucius Malfoy and two Dementors, which is impossible if they’re doing a character lineup based off a single movie (which they have pretty much stuck to so far). It only really makes sense if you assume that those two Dementors are actually Death Eaters in an OotP set or ‘Lucius’ is actually Yaxley in a DH1 set (which would make it the first DH1 set ever, since the 2 2011 sets were both DH2). The presence of Umbridge is making people hopeful for the latter, but we ultimately need to wait for more information.

Especially since Lego has a history of giving the location of a lethal climax but based around a different scene - i.e. the Astronomy Tower based on the Slug Club Christmas party or putting 3rd Task Cedric in the first CMF so they could easily leave him out of the graveyard set the next year. It definitely wouldn’t shock me if they gave us a DH1 based Ministry and then did a Order vs. Death Eaters Accessory Pack and/or a Grimmauld Advent Calendar they can sneak other relevant characters like Sirius into, so they could give you all you need for the OotP Ministry Battle without actually having to go near The Veil/Sirius’ death scene.

It does seem weird - I figured with the specific Fantastic Beasts section in the chocolate frog cards collection it meant that Lego was still doing something with that sub-theme. Speaking of the chocolate frog cards, did promobricks mention anything about this summer’s play sets including them? I know the Hospital Wing is coming with two and the trunk comes with one so I was wondering if that would continue through the rest of this year’s sets.

I see a few options: 1. The Ministry is in fact OotP based and Tonks is the ‘mystery character’ 2. The $120 store exclusive is Grimmauld Place 3. The rumored accessory pack (40560) is based off the Ministry battle and features Tonks, some generic DEs and another named character (yes, a lot of people are theorizing a quidditch pack, but we were last year as well) 4. The advent calendar is based of Christmas at Grimmauld and she’s an exclusive figure in that So yeah, plenty of options there

From what I was able to get from the google translated article, they don’t have as much info on the Hungarian Horntail or Shrieking Shack, so their Minifigure list for that one is just an educated guess.

Yeah, I think there’s a strong chance of a Dementors - Death Eaters mix up. They’re both wearing hoods and mostly black after all (and the Death Eater masks wouldn’t look that different from a dementor face in low quality pics either). The golden statue in the set description does favor OotP after all, and that’s much harder to get confused about.

Definitely surprised by this set list, but in a good way. Was not expecting the number of OotP sets, but that’s definitely a fun surprise. So breakdown: - Hogwarts Carriage: excellent, I love it. Can’t wait to get my hands on the baby Thestral. - Hogwarts: Sirius’ Rescue: can’t say I expected it, but we really should have considered that this piece count suggested a large animal too. Sounds like a solid set, and I presume there’s a bonus little classroom/dorm type thing that Ginny features in, because otherwise that’s just a weird inclusion. - Hogwarts: Dumbledore’s Office: looking forward to the new castle modules finally being able to corner. Also looking forward to Mrs. Norris. Kinda curious whether this is based off GoF or OotP - I think either is possible given the character lineup. - Ministry of Magic: definitely can’t wait to see this one, especially since it’s hard to tell what’s going on with the character list. There are two ‘Dementors’ mentioned, but those only showed up at the Ministry in Deathly Hallows, so those are probably actually Death Eaters (although if they are Dementors then that could indicate a DH1 set, in which case ‘Lucius’ would actually be Yaxley). There’s no way the Mystery figure is Greyback though. - Hungarian Horntail: ask and ye shall receive. Clearly the Lego designers heard that the last Horntail was the worst set in 2019, so they set out to fix that. Can’t wait to see how it looks given the proper treatment. - Shrieking Shack: definitely deserves the update. I’m excited to see what they come up with. Fingers crossed for Padfoot and Werewolf Lupin.

Her hair has already shown up after all

$20 - Buckbeak vs. the Werewolf $50 - Merepeople Village (the 2nd task) $80 - The Shrieking Shack $100 - Drumstrang Ship $50 - Buildable Niffler $70 - Secrets of Dumbledore playset $120 - No. 12 Grimmauld Place And to whoever mentioned getting a new Crookshanks alongside Padfoot and the Werewolf - Yes! Fingers crossed.

Do they often do reveals on weekends? Because I have a sneaking suspicion we’re in for two days of torture waiting for Monday.

True, it’s not definitive, but since that particular hairpiece isn’t really appropriate for anything coming up in another known licensed property, the only other option would be it cropping up in an in-house theme – Friends, Ninjago, Monkey Kid, or even City. And the thing that keeps me hopeful is that Lego has full control over those themes, and I don’t think they’d choose to pair that zany a color with that basic a hairstyle for one of their own original characters, so it makes a little more sense for it to be for a specific licensed character.

So with that lavender hair piece hinting at a very possible Tonks coming this summer, where do you think she’s most likely to show up? Personally, I think if we are getting an OotP set that features Tonks it will be No. 12 Grimmauld Place. The reasoning being that we’ve had plenty of years with ‘odd man out’ playset in regards to which movie it depicted (2018, 2020, 2021), but none of those sets (Hogwarts Express, Privet Drive, Hogsmeade) were based around the climax of the movie – therefore, while it’s not impossible for us to get an OotP set in what appears to be a PoA/GoF year, it’s unlikely to be the Ministry Battle. That leaves Grimmauld Place, and the prime candidates for that are 76403 ($100) and 76408 ($120) - the latter of which appears to be a store exclusive. I think the weird thing is that it seems pretty likely that we’re going to get the Shrieking Shack this year, and while the two buildings are definitely different as can be silhouette wise - they are both dark and dilapidated houses that feature Sirius Black. Which makes me question whether Lego would release them both in the same year.

Hmm… it really is hard to tell without the creator telling you the origin - although it’s worth noting that these otherwise appear to be purist customs. There’s a pretty visible molding seam there, but ‘homemade custom’ and ‘rejected off the production line and therefore easier to pocket from the factory’ are both equally good explanations for that. I’m definitely crossing my fingers that it means we’ll get OotP Tonks though. Edit: if you look at the tags on the post they are actually tagged as #puristcustoms 👀

Yeah, OotP Tonks is definitely on my list of most wanted minifigs. And I think she, OotP Sirius, and Werewolf Lupin are probably the character variations that we’re really missing. As far as characters we technically already have go, I don’t think there are any others that make me think “wow, it’s ridiculous that we don’t have that version of them yet.”

I’d say 3+ months was super early to be getting set pictures, but we did get a promo video for the trunk way back at the beginning of December. And if there are Fantastic Beasts set coming in June whose release couldn’t logistically be bumped up when the movie changed from a July to April premiere, then a good way to compensate would be to start promoting (or even offering preorders) on those sets in March - I presume that adding set pictures to the back of an instruction book is easier than moving multiple set release up three months on super short notice.

I decided to do a quick google search to see what sort of official images were out there and found some photos of the partial models used on set. No sign of armor but they’re distinctly horse sized.

Hmm… I suppose that’s also a compelling argument for why a motorized Hogwarts Express is a distinct possibility for the D2C. After all, there’s a solid train fanbase in the Lego community and an even wider one outside of it. From what I can remember it’s been awhile since Lego’s done a motorized steam train - if I recall the Disney train didn’t include power functions and I think it’s off the shelves now in any case. I looked up regular Hogwarts Express models out of curiosity and found a Lionel one with 3 carriages and a dozen track pieces going for $330. Keep in mind that a $470 Lego version would likely include a train station, several minifigs, and a couple other side builds and you’ve got something that could actually put up serious competition against a standard model train.

So, new info suggests the Thor Love and Thunder set 76208 will be called “The Goat Boat” Cue speculation on whether the goats will be a new mold, brick built, or something in between. Personally, I have a sneaking suspicion they’ll be a little too big to pass as system goats, but what does everybody else think?

So the real question is, did the Jurassic World writers actually dig up a fairly obscure dinosaur to add to their pantheon, or did they think they were making up a name? And even if it’s the former that’s no guarantee of anything – it is, after all, appearing in this set opposite Dilophosaurus, which Crichton gave neck frills and venom spitting abilities just for the heck of it.

You mean a set that was less than half the price of the upcoming Harry Potter D2C (and therefore half the size), has a natural cave interior that gives it a lot of wiggle room with the design, heavily features vehicles, and only has a single level beside the entrance? Yeah, not the same thing as far as technical execution goes. And that doesn’t change the fact that the Batcave >>>>>> the MoM as far as significance to their respective franchises goes. People were willing to put up with a less than pretty wall of taupe studs because the whole sliding down the pole to the Batcave thing is iconic enough that it’s been parodied countless times and even non-fans will immediately recognize the reference – the Ministry of Magic will just never have that clout.