Accio Lego

The time period to submit questions is just today, but they’ve probably given themselves a much longer grace period to go through to questions and choose which ones they’re going to answer. With less than two weeks left in July we could easily only see the results of this in August or, alternatively, this is well timed for a July 31st announcement to coincide with Harry’s birthday. Keep in mind though, that the CMF also needs to be revealed (with a graphic designer involved I could see it going either way, both Diagon Alley and a CMF would involve a decent precent of graphic design). We might even see both revealed at once if they’re doing something bigger like this for it.

This basically sums up what needs to be said about the system scale vs. microscale Diagon Alley argument right now. It’s gotten to the point where the same points are just being brought up over and over again. Nobody seems inclined to change their opinions and it’s reached a stage where everyone involved needs to agree to disagree and let the matter drop until the official announcement, or we’re going to end up with the thread locked again when there’s a high chance of more minifigure leaks or official pictures of the advent calendar or CMF could drop any day now.

Except it’s more than likely that the shops in the D2C will be connected to each other given Lego’s current commitment to screen accuracy wherever possible in this theme (and the way they clearly demonstrated their awareness of the street’s construction in the GWP). Not shops floating around wherever you please like in the 2011 set. Lego isn’t going to want to say ‘here’s the official configuration, but this weird little dark arts shop isn’t visible from the front and it sticks off the back of the set in a way that makes it impossible to display it flush against the wall, so if you want to see the whole set on display or your shelves aren’t that deep you’ve got to rip this part off the back and put it somewhere else.’ Personally, I’d rather get a Diagon Alley shop that could never be marketed on its own as part of the Diagon Alley D2C, as opposed to a Knockturn Alley shop that we know could be sold as a stand-alone set because it’s been done before. Just like I’d rather the Ukrainian Ironbelly be in its own set that features some vaults as opposed to getting it perched atop Gringotts in the D2C.

I think the big drawback to Ron with his patronus being in the CMF is that any Gryffindor uniform variation is going to be seen by most people as a wasted slot, especially since Ron isn’t even wearing a robe in that scene like the already leaked Neville with Monster Book is. Back when Hermione‘a and Luna’s patronuses hadn’t leaked yet and we all thought Luna’s hare would just be a recolor of the rabbit mold I thought Ron with an appropriate recolor of the preexisting terrier mold would make for a good polybag, but then the patronuses leaked and they were both new molds so the pieces could be hollow... so now the only way we could ever get Ron’s patronus is a CMF. The way I see it, Lego could have done the CMF trio in three different ways: 1. A matching HBP based trio, with the leaked Harry being the only Harry 2. A matching trio plus another version of Harry from a different movie like they did in series 1, with the leaked Harry being the ‘extra’ Harry and the matching trio being from another movie/scene 3. A non-matching trio with the leaked Harry being the only Harry The only way we’d get Ron’s patronus is with option 3, and I’m not sure I could ever see Lego doing it just because of the outfit :/

I think it’s fairly unlikely that Diagon Alley will come in two parts - simply because it would be hard to market that way. It will probably be like the Hogwarts Castle, in that we’ll only get one side of the street and we’ll know there are more shops they could give us, but the most iconic parts will be covered in the set, making a ‘part 2’ set hard to sell. You’ve got to remember that this is a display piece first and foremost - the price really puts it a bit out of range for a play set. It’s got to look good when you put it on a shelf, and preferably have all its exterior elements easily visible when displayed that way. That’s why I don’t think think we’ll be getting Borgin and Burke’s in the D2C (although I think there’s a decent chance of getting it as a stand alone set in a couple of years), it’s just not visible from the main street, and inaccurately putting it next to the Diagon Alley shops would stick out like a sore thumb and likely irk a lot of fans. It’s also not outside the realm of possibility for Lego to do Gringott’s or WWW separately either, since they both have the power to sell well as stand alone sets. However, the artist in me really hopes they don’t do that, since those two larger, brighter buildings bookending a line of smaller shops would create a really nice and balanced looking piece.

Just because we were lucky enough to get some leaks doesn’t mean we automatically get more. And I was more specifically referring to pictures of the box art leaking, which hasn’t really been happening much with D2Cs lately. The post I responded to specifically said they thought we’d see set pictures leak two weeks in advance of the official announcement and that just hasn’t been happening, so getting hyped at the possibility is a bad idea.

I wouldn’t count on early leaked pictures - just look at the recently announced Nintendo set. Not a hint it even existed until the same day it was announced on Lego’s social media. As it is we’re super lucky to be getting leaked minifigures that confirm the set even exists.

When I saw there were four new pages in this thread I thought for sure that something bigger than another minifigure must have leaked, but nope. I’m not at all surprised to see Harry in his PS/SS outfit, since it’s what he wears in some pretty iconic scenes - most notably in Ollivander’s when he gets his wand. I’m slightly more surprised that we get an exclusive face print for him, but not horribly shocked that they’re combining his first and second movie appearances for the set, since I recall some of us discussing the likelihood of getting PS/SS Harry and CoS Ron and Hermione since Harry’s outfit from CoS is fairly plain. I wouldn’t say the sooty face and broken glasses is a guarantee of getting Borgin & Burke’s though, just like Fortescue isn’t guaranteeing the ice cream parlor. After all there’s a notable scene where Hagrid drops Harry off in the main Alley and Hermione fixes his glasses, and his face remains sooty for his entire encounter with Lockhart. It could also be like Gabrielle’s sleeping face where they plan to possibly use it in another set in the future (we know, after all, that LEGO’s entirely willing to reuse face prints from D2Cs, since we’ve gotten Molly Weasley with Helga Hufflepuff’s face). I’m not too worried about not getting WWW. After all, this Harry figure combines two different movies, and his outfit is automatically not going to match Ron’s and Hermione’s. If Lego isn’t worried about a non-matching trio I don’t see why they worry about Harry’s age matching every single shop on the street - they were never going to give us five Harrys so there were always going to be shops where there isn’t a Harry wearing the outfit from the same movie the shop was in. I feel like this pretty much underlines the guarantee of getting Hagrid and Ollivander, and severely increases the likelihood of getting Lockhart.

I wasn’t aware that Grubbly-Plank had made a cameo in the movies like Vector and Sinistra, must have missed that. I definitely wouldn’t mind them sneaking a Sinistra minifigure in somewhere, her design is so cool.

Honestly, I think Borgin and Burke’s might be a long-shot no matter how many buildings we end up getting. It’s not on the main Alley, making it hard to incorporate if Lego is going with any sort of screen accuracy with their layout. We only got Borgin and Burke’s in the 2011 DA because the buildings were rather inaccurately done as separate entities, and whether or not you think this year’s D2C will be a scaled up version of 2018’s GWP, the GWP is evidence that Lego knows and recognizes the way DA is supposed to be laid out. To put a little bit of Knockturn Alley into the D2C they’d have to have a bit of an awkward footprint for the set, and B&B’s wouldn’t be visible when looking at the rest of the shops. Add on the fact that, as mentioned, it isn’t even in Diagon Alley, and it makes much more sense for Borgin and Burke’s to be made as its own set somewhere later down the line.

Unlikely, Fortescue is relegated to a background character in the movies, and didn’t even get any real dialogue in the books either. In a D2C you can get away with having such a minor character because even people who don’t really recognize him will appreciate having some thematically appropriate pedestrians for their Diagon Alley, but in a CMF every character needs to be popular in their own right, because every figure is a separate purchase.

So since we might be getting more shops I decided to remind myself what Wrebbit3d has considered marketable enough for their Diagon Alley series. The for 3D puzzles are as follows: -Ollivander’s Wand Shop and Scribbulus -Quality Quidditch Supplies and Slug & Jiggers Apothecary -Madam Malkin’s and Florian Fortescue’s Ice Cream -Weasleys Wizarding Wheezes and the Daily Prophet offices notably absent are Gringotts and Flourish and Blotts (although since the WWW set came out over a year after the other three that could be just a matter of time). Eeylops Owl Emporium and the Magical Menagerie also bear mentioning as fan favorites that have enough recognition from the books and theme park to make them potentially marketable without having featured in the movies (note the Fortescue's/Malkin’s 3D puzzle that was apparently deemed recognizable enough to sell despite neither shop even having its name spoken in the films). While I doubt all 12 stores I’ve just listed will appear (Scribbulus, the Apothecary, and the newspaper offices don’t make for the most exciting store fronts and Malkin’s has the problem of clothing store windows being hard to populate without using up precious minifigure slots on manikins), but I would definitely expect all the shops that we do get to come off this list - since it basically encompasses almost everywhere Harry is specifically mentioned to have visited in the books and many of them also appear in the theme park. If nothing else, the ones featured by Wrebbit3d have probably already been focus tested as recognizable names.

Not necessarily unfortunately, Fred and George appeared in the 2012 DA without a trace of WWW after all. And since Florian Fortescue is really only a background character in the movies, Lego could just be using him to bulk up the number of pedestrians without needing a new hat piece, with the added benefit of him having an actual name they can address him by in the set description (they randomly pulled Lucian Boll's name from the books for the quidditch set despite the Slytherin beater never being credited with a name in the movie after all). That being said, I would definitely love it if the D2C turns out to have more shops than the GWP did - and it wouldn’t be completely crazy for it to be that way, since a GWP’s piece count and scale makes it tricky to coherently portray more than a couple of store fronts.

I think there’s a high chance of that being the case. That could also be an explanation for why the ‘smokey trail’ piece that a minifigure can stand in was introduced in Hidden Side instead of Harry Potter. If that piece had first been used in Harry Potter then it would have been established as specifically being for that weird Smokey flying thing (I agree it’s not apparating) that the Death Eaters do in the movies, and there’s a good chance it would have been licensed and only usable in the Harry Potter theme. By using it for their own in house theme first Lego have firmly established it as a piece they can use anywhere they want - be that more Hidden Side sets, Harry Potter, Marvel (I can definitely see recolors being used for characters like Sandman or Mysterio in future Spider-man sets), DC Superheroes (Ted Tornado comes to mind), or whatever takes their fancy.

I’m finding myself in a similar boat. I could buy a box and just sell off the spares but it would be a bit of an investment. I might have to talk myself into it though, since I’m in the US and things are closing down again as another spike hits, so the likelihood of the feel method being allowed while this CMF is still on shelves is looking less and less likely.

How many other threads on this forum could claim to get 10000 post and 400 pages long with so few sets a year and not all of them even revealed yet? Admittedly, the current health crisis has probably left us all with more time on our hands to check in, but still... Of course, some of those numbers are just trolls and meaningless puns - it’s otterly ridiculous.

Is that maybe something that could be attributed to the human malware? Actual photos would require probably multiple people being in a studio. While a digital rendering can be done by someone sitting alone at their home computer. I’m not sure how far ahead of time the box art is finalized, but COVID-19 was becoming a problem all the way back in December-January if I recall, and generally the sets themselves aren’t finalized by the toy fairs in January-February, so I imagine it’s possible that could have affected it.

Honestly, right now I’d be happy for anything new. Seriously Lego, what's taking so long with the other three advent calendars?

I don’t think there’s any risk of Harry Potter becoming like Star Wars anytime soon, since we’ve only been getting one regular wave of 6-7 sets a year. There’s little risk of it getting the over saturation that Star Wars has. As for how long the theme will continue - we’re definitely safe for next year, since that will be when they cover the Deathly Hallows movies on top of being the 20th anniversary of the first film (which will cause a hype for merchandise even if Lego doesn’t go out of their way to do something special). Beyond that, Fantastic Beasts should continue until at least 2025 (possibly longer depending on how the human malware affects filming), so there’s conceivably a reason to continue that long, and Harry Potter definitely has the material to do so (there’s already well over a dozen sets that Lego has ‘skipped over’ making in this run of the theme - and that’s just comparing it to the original run and not counting other scenes that have never been made before). Hard to say whether it will ever be evergreen, I guess it depends if Harry Potter itself remains popular.

Exactly, I can’t imagine we’ll ever see Dumbledore and Maxime in their dress robes again (Fleur and Cedric I can see cropping up again if Lego ever revisits the Ball to make their dates), so it’s not like the Clocktower is lacking in exclusive figures - never mind that the build itself is enough reason to get the set. It bears keeping in mind that Star Wars more often than not in recent years only has one exclusive minifigure, and it only gets two this year because they only have new torsos, not heads and legs. Compared to that Harry Potter is doing really well for itself. And, ultimately, the advent calendars aren’t designed for minifigure collectors - they’re designed so that kids (and kids at heart) can open one door a day and have a new tiny build to play - most people who buy it aren’t going to care that half the minifigures appeared in last year’s highest price point set.

I didn’t count the new McGonagall head because it didn’t feature a new print per se, it was just the same as the Great Hall one minus alternate face. Admittedly that almost certainly does take some amount of budget, but probably not as much as a completely new print, so I decided to be conservative on the number of new prints. As for recolors, I know the beard for the statue was done in gold for the first time in last year’s AC, but I’m not sure what you think the second recolor is? A more accurate Krum face would definitely be well received, and it’s not like there isn’t a precedent for Lego quietly giving AFOLs a little thing they want in the AC - we got McGonagall without the alternate face last year after so many people expressed disappointment about how the witch’s hat didn’t properly cover it up.

Probably should be taken with a grain of salt, but also a pretty obvious inference. After all, we know we’re getting one twin, so it follows that we’ll get the other too. And the twins will take up 5-6 prints between them - plus the Yule Ball poster makes 6-7 new prints, and last year we only had 6 new prints and a recolor, so our sixth minifigure this year will almost certainly be another repeat. And knowing that we’re getting the trio and Harry and Harry and Ron’s dates, it makes sense to guess that our sixth character would be Hermione’s date aka Victor Krum. In short, I wouldn’t be surprised if Legofan_33 is correct, but I wouldn’t take that as proof he’s a legitimate leaker.

I don’t think it’s ever been one of the top 5 themes overall (which makes sense because 1 wave a year vs several larger waves every year plus waves from previous years) but it has had some of the highest selling individual sets, and I recall the Great Hall, CMF, and D2C getting awards back in 2018.

The second thing to get a hole in it when Harry stabs the diary is his face, just saying that allowing for people to recreate that part of the scene would be both a fun play feature and an easy way to make the set version of the minifigure exclusive.

Don’t forget the City, Friends, and Harry Potter advent calendars. We’ve only really seen box art from catalogs for those so far, not the full images that will drop when the get put up on the website. The Star Wars one is already done, so I expect the other three will drop any day now.