Accio Lego

Excuse you, some of us are grown women

No, but everyone who sees that picture presumably has eyes. The hut in that edit is just the 2010 set with the sand green pieces recolored. Odds are whatever source that picture came from either identified the picture as an edit or was called out in the comments on the picture minutes later. And the edit is laid out like an official promo pic but it came out far too early to be from Lego. There are several clues in the picture itself that make it clear what it’s intended to be, if only people would take the time to think about it I know I’m being a tad belligerent, but ever time someone tries to pass that picture off as an actual leak they’re failing to give the original artist credit for thier work and/or implying they created a scam on purpose. I don’t know the artist personally but that’s a horrible thing to do to a person.

Current rumors say dragon

Sigh yes, it’s a very pretty photoshop composite of official Lego elements. But if any of the people so overeager to post it actually looked at it, they’d see that there are small mistakes, like the fact that the wings are all wrong. Anyone who took the time and care to look into the original poster would also see that the artist specifies it’s just an edit. This could all be avoided with proper research, observation and logic

Probably once or twice a week until the actual pics are released it doesn’t matter how much it’s obviously an edit when you take the time to actually look at it. I’m pretty sure the artist wasn’t even trying to make a fake leak.

Oh yes please. The hairpiece used for the Dimensions/cmf figure doesn’t look enough like any of Harry’s hairstyles, most notably it has longer bangs than Harry ever wore in the movies. It worked much better on Ron in the 2010-11 waves and I suspect they only used it in Dimensions because they couldn’t use his original hair but didn’t want to invest in a new hairpiece or recolor something more suitable. So yeah, give me a hairstyle that will actually show that iconic scar, because not being able to see it is kind of a letdown. I distinctly remember grumpily going through hairpieces that would work better for Harry’s long hair than that Bieber one, and thinking a recolor of Lloyd’s would work for GoF. (Also the hairpiece used for Ian Malcolm in the Jurassic Park bricktober pack could work. I’m not sure where it first appeared, but I’ve got one in brown and it definitely leaves the scar uncovered while still being nice and messy looking) What the hell lego?!?

Having 2 sets that could be confused with each other released at the same time could lead to some people mixing them up, and getting upset when they didn’t get what they expected. Yes, Lego has certain things (like trains) that they have multiple sets depicting, but they usually don’t release the ones from different themes so close together. The Hidden Side train for instance, will be released over a year apart from the a Hogwarts Express. (On top of that, the themes’ magical and supernatural basis are more similar than most). I’m not saying that I can’t see them having 2 similar sets out at the same time, I just can’t see them releasing them so close together. As for the Goblet of Fire Death Eaters - repeat after me everyone: Lego. Is. Not. Going. To. Make. KKK. Hoods.

I’m even more skeptical about the graveyard now that it would be coming out in August. Hidden Side is coming out in September, 2 graveyards released within a month of each other? It just seems really unlikely the Lego would risk the sales for both sets/themes and much more likely that someone saw the Hidden Side set before the new theme was announced and mistook it for something it wasn’t. (I seem to recall the source of this ‘leak’ usually reports on Star Wars, and wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell if a graveyard was actually Harry Potter or not) And let’s stop beating around the bush here - I haven’t seen a single person here excited about the possibility of a graveyard set because of the fun and exciting new builds. Everyone’s excited about the possible minifigures, because we all know the actual building elements would be bland and repetitive. Lucius Malfoy is going to appear in future OotP/DH sets (and frankly Lego doesn’t want to make screen accurate GoF death eaters). And I still think Wormtail and babymort would work better in a cmf, with the correspondingly larger minifigure budget. In the end I guess it’s just a wait and see game

Pretty sure the Hogwarts Express is a retailer exclusive. Unless you’ve seen it somewhere other than barnes & noble (and apparently target and Walmart? It’s not available for small toy stores to stock - it’s likely it was meant to be toys r us exclusive). iirc the Quidditch match is retailer exclusive for Target (and maybe Walmart). The news that they were coming last year came out somewhat after the retailer catalog leaks (and maybe even the set names/descriptions?), but exactly what they were remained under wraps for a while. The Quidditch set leaked before the actual release (someone lets slip it was a ‘sporty’ set and some of the figures leaked) but there were a lot of people convinced the second retailer exclusive was a Knight Bus set up until the official press release bitofanastyshockforthemwhentheyfoundout Point is, finding out about 2 retailer exclusives now (since one of those ‘confidentials’ is apparently the Knight Bus) is pretty in line with last year, and it’s likely we won’t get any more info until Lego says so. Note: guys can we please stop arguing about what stores these sets are exclusive to. It’s likely one or both were meant for tRu and that messed up distribution (the entire Harry Potter release schedule got messed up by the shutdown). In any case, I haven’t seen either at smaller toy stores that aren’t nation wide chains and isn’t that who the retailer catalogs are geared towards?

I suspect it’s got a lot to do with keeping it sturdy enough to play with. Thestrals are skeletal by definition, so they wouldn’t necessarily look good with the extra thickness needed for moving parts. The new thestral is still a vast improvement over the old ones - those were just horse skeletons with wings tacked on, I’m pretty sure they featured (and fit) more in the skeleton army of the contemporary fantasy medieval theme than they ever did in Harry Potter. In any case, the vast improvement in the thestral mold makes me really excited for how Buckbeak will turn out :) At the very least, his head needs to be articulated so he can ‘bow’

It’s kind of interesting that we’re app getting McNair, I’ve always thought of him as being fairly generic in that scene, although I suppose the people who MOC medieval settings will like having an executioner. I’m more interested in the rumors we’ll get Fudge as well - personally I’m hoping for another detail from the book getting snuck in and Lego giving him a lime green bowler hat. As for Buckbeak, well, the magical creatures are my favorite part of Harry Potter I wonder if they’ll make it so he can rear, the horse hind legs already exist after all.

It’s been brought up before, but I don’t think it would hurt to discuss this again. Basically, a current running theory is that the licensing agreement for the Disney cmf didn’t allow them to include any more than the allotted 18 characters. Supposedly that’s why we didn’t get any sidekick characters in series 1 - i.e. Pluto with Mickey, Abu with Aladdin, Tinkerbell with Peter Pan, Mallificet’s crow. In particular, Flounder already existed for the Disney Princess line (and was close enough to his movie look to fit with the minifigures) but instead Ariel came with a generic clamshell. It’s possible this won’t apply series 2, or they’ll find a loophole of some sort (for instance, if Cruela appears, there are 90+ dalmatian puppies in her movie that aren’t named characters), but odds are Hades, and all the other characters will be on thier own.

The first 2 Hagrid’s Hut sets weren’t exactly small, neither was the Drumstrang Ship from the GoF wave. Harry’s usually included because he’s present in most scenes as the main character, but there have been notable exceptions over the years.

Perhaps they’re giving such a good upgrade to the shrunken head that he’s being counted as a minifigure

We’re unlikely to see them standard issue in sets, because of the extra printing. But if they really were popular in the cmf then it’s definitely possible we’ll see versions for the other houses in a future cmf. (And I was sort of stumped on who they might use for Hufflepuff, but then my brain said ‘young Newt Scamander’ and now it won’t shut up) Tbh I’m pretty sure half the reason we got such an out of the way variation of Neville is because they didn’t want to overlap with uniformed/casual cloths versions that will inevitably pop up in future sets. Same with Luna, they made her in one of her most iconic casual outfits, as opposed to a uniform, because she only ever appears in that outfit on the Hogwarts Express, and they knew they won’t be doing a HBP remake of that set anytime soon. Basically, I’d expect to see more of both these characters this time around, now that Lego’s had time to realize what fan favorites they are.

Lego usually officialy announces the CMF line up about a month ahead of time right? So we should get promo pics in a month?

The current set list/minifigure line up isn't from the toy fair (there weren’t any Harry Potter releases there) it’s based off of (alleged) insider information. I suspect it’s mostly accurate, but considering that the Great Hall was previewed at Toy Fair around this time last year, and the final set was somewhat different from what was shown then, it stands to reason that any information on the set composition we have right now might not apply to the final product. We just have to wait for Lego to make an official announcement to be sure.

The greenhouse was the only really nice part of the set. The only room in the main castle that’s properly recognizable is Umbridge’s office, and the fact that the designers really didn’t put much thought into the other rooms shows. It’s a decent castle set, but compared to the other large Hogwarts sets it’s not nearly as creative architecturally, and doesn’t have the nearly same number of recognizable rooms or playable hidden features as the other castles. (Say what you will about the 2010 set, it might have sacrificed internal space so the exterior looked good, but all the rooms are still instantly recognizable). I own all the old castle sets, I’ve got them displayed lined right up next to each other. I’m not saying it’s a horrible set, I’m just saying it isn’t as strong - which is particularly annoying considering it was the only OotP set released, and should have had the designers’ full focus. In any case, my original point that OotP has plenty of great scenes and characters that need to be given proper treatment this time around still stands.

True enough, it’s just not something we’ve seen in Harry Potter for over a decade, so a Ministry of Magic set for the 5th movie seems less likely than, say, Grimmauld Place, the Room of Requirement, Grawp or even an Escape from Privet Drive or Dementor Attack.

Well yes, there are some scenes that just don’t translate into Lego - either because of the gruesome subject matter (the scene from DH1 where Nagini eats Charity Burbage) or they take place inside of a magical space that has an interior but no exterior (Ministry of Magic) or both (Horocrux chamber from HBP). Luckily there are plenty of alternatives.

stupid dead sheep shoes, yes. Just a single castle set for OotP, easily the weakest of the old castle sets - The Burrow and a few weak side builds for HBP - absolutely nothing for DH1, and only 2 smaller sets for DH2. The number of significant characters that were introduced from GoF onwards that never got made into minifigures is also distressing, but Lego has already been working on that by giving us Cho, Cedric and Slughorn, so hopefully they’ll remedy the holes in set representation too. It’s not like the later movies don’t have great material for sets. I’ve got a pretty extensive list of theories.

Especially when you remember that Deathly Hallows was split in 2. You can’t pack half the movies into a single wave, particularly since a good part of the reason so many people wanted Harry Potter back as a theme was because they didn’t do the later movies properly the first time.

Well if that isn’t a loaded question considering the last page of posts

There’s the regular hard plastic that most bricks are made out of, the soft plastic that pieces that need a bit more flexibility use (like brooms, some plants, the new wand pieces, etc.), and there are some hairstyles, like the one used by Cho Chang and Susan Bones, that actually are rubber that can be squished. Bellatrix’s hair was made out of soft plastic, not rubber.

I suspect her hairpiece was made of soft plastic because it was too intricate to make out of hard plastic at the time. Whether or not we get an upgrade when Bellatrix shows up again depends on how much Lego’s molding process had advanced in the last few years.