Retro Brick Reviews

In fairness to myself and others, the argument was over a potential motorized minifig-scale Express, not the big boi seen here.

Looking at the close-ups of the three compartment vignettes on the back of the box, it almost seems like there's a light brick in each compartment to illuminate the interior. Note how there's a dark bluish grey 2x element with shallow tubes (the same appearance as the bottom of a light brick) behind the quote tiles, with a glow shining down from each. If this is true, would this be the first ever LEGO set to include three light bricks?

Well, that's definitely a tie-in to the new $500 Express with figures from the epilogue. That said, it's really weird that in general Hogwarts isn't represented (aside from the RoR, but that looks so off that it barely even counts).

I know, but it's odd that she is our only figure for DH1 (and, as you said, pretty morbid as represent for THAT installment) while Half-Blood Prince gets 2 wizard minifigures - Snape and Slughorn. Since that makes for 8 overall minifigures, I was just saying that it would have made more sense for Slughorn to be the sole HBP figure, with Snape being nixed in favor of a DH1 figure so it would have one minifig for each movie instead of 1/1/1/1/1/2/0/1.

It's really strange that DH1 doesn't get a figure while HBP gets 2 (Snape and Slughorn). They really should have mixed the repeat Snape and replaced him with a fig representing DH1 so we could have one character per movie. Imo Hagrid would have been the perfect choice - he would fit with the "7 Potters" builds we get for DH1, he fits the holiday vibes (much better than Snape does), and, while he is still a reprint, he's one we haven't had in a retail set since 2019, at all since 2020 with Diagon Alley. Speaking of stuff we haven't seen since Diagon Alley, why is Hedwig not using her flying piece? It fits the scene depicted so much more, and is just such a nice piece - I don't remotely understand why they made that gorgeous piece for the 2020 sets and then just dropped it.

Well, the Trunk included 6 figures: A Professor (McGonagall), a specific student (Harry), and 4 House students. This (fantastic) hypothetical set could have the same - A Professor (Hooch), a specific student (Lee Jordan), and 4 generic players, one for each House.

No, we see Cedric playing Quidditch in PoA - he's the Hufflepuff seeker who gets struck by lightning.

It doesn't really matter whether I or anyone else consider it "weird", it's your collection. Get whatever sets strike your fancy and inspire your imagination.

Agreed. Now that Star Wars and Jurassic Park are getting great 18+ dioramas, I'd love to get the same for the Gryffindor Common Room and Dumbledore's Office to get versions that are truly accurate in ways the castle interiors can't be.

My only issue with the GWP is that the Fat Lady's portrait can't function as an actual door. Between this and the gargoyle in Dumbledore's Office, I really wish LEGO had come up with some way to implement an actual door into the arched wall element.

Eh, just save two sets from this wave for the 15th.

Wow, that promo is FANTASTIC. Looks gorgeous, finally getting an updated Fat Lady is great, and I love that Hermione gets the skirt and socks - I wasn't expecting to see those in normal sets after they were omitted from Dumbledore's Office. Speaking of, I'm definitely buying that on July 15 to get this promo, probably alongside the Hospital Wing from earlier this year. Heck, I'm tempted to place multiple $130 orders to get multiple staircase modules and even more skirt pieces. I hope there is some way to connect it with all the other Hogwarts sets though.

Promobricks just shared on Insta that Gringotts is "coming, but not in a way we'll like it". Considering what's still on the schedule for 2022, it seems likely that we'll be getting a micro build of Gringotts in the Advent Calendar.

How? The Dark Tower in the movie is a basic round tower with a flat top and a conical prison cell on top. This set is a basic round Tower with a flat top and a conical prison cell on top. I can guarantee that, if we got the Dark Tower in 2019 or 2020, it would look almost identical to this, just with a grey roof. In any case, this is far more obviously the Dark Tower than the 2018 Staircase Tower was supposed to be the Staircase Tower. And then the Courtyard is just unquestionably accurate to the film, it's just missing the inner arches which couldn't really be accomplished with existing LEGO pieces.

You're right, absolutely no resemblance whatsoever...

Honestly? While it's really overpriced, I really love the exterior appearance of the new Dark Tower and Courtyard, I think it fits right in with the accurate castle buildings of 2018-20.

Shrieking Shack and Hungarian Horntail are up for preorder on the US Shop@Home

It looks like the new Mandalorian Starfighter set just introduced a new skin tone between light nougat and nougat: I could definitely see LEGO using it in the future for Cho, so that she can still have a different skin tone while not being so blatantly inaccurate to Katie Leung's actual appearance. (Also, interesting that this year we've gotten two different new skin tones, one in the Hogwarts Trunk and now one for the Mandalorian. I do have to wonder why this new light skin tone wasn't included in the Trunk as well.)

Looks pretty good. The new 1x4 print looks great, as does the hat (which includes the feathers, the lack of which are my only issue with her current minifigure), though undoubtedly the coolest part is what seems to be the One Ring in a standard pearl gold for the first time.

Looks like Promobricks just confirmed on Insta that McGonagall is part of the Teachers Brickheadz pack. Not that there was much doubt, but this could mean that a reveal is forthcoming.

If I had a nickel for every time LEGO released a new tan owl to entice HP fans to waste $10 on a non-HP set, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. In all seriousness, I think there's a good chance of it showing up in the Hogwarts Express if that set ends up being minifigure-scale.

Unrealistic, it would also have to include a UCS Ford Anglia and UCS Viaduct to go with the microscale Hogwarts Express.

The problem isn't that the movie is for adults, there are tons of great adult movies, just as there are tons of great teen movies and tons of great kids movies. The problem is that the movie is bad.

I mean, we got several Last Crusade sets and never got the main villain, so it's not inconceivable that they could do the same with Indy 5.

Welp, I just saw Secrets of Dumbledore, and it is abundantly clear why we didn't get any sets for it: There is absolutely nothing worth making sets on. No interesting locales, no interesting character designs or outfits, no unpredictable plot twists, no epic wizard battles, and (paradoxically) no fantastic beasts. It's a shame: I loved the first Fantastic Beasts, and (despite all the red flags) I was really hoping this would be a return to form. NO SPOLIER Review Ahead, because I'm bored and disappointed That said, it is probably better than Crimes of Grindelwald, because this one is at the very least coherent, but I honestly think I enjoyed it less. For all the problems with CoG, I was at the very least invested in the four main characters from the first movie (which I still maintain to be great), and interested in the Credence/Nagini plot. This movie robs that interest by having Credence be wholly uninteresting, Jacob and Queenie absorbed by that awful Queenie twist at the end of CoG, Newt is borderline irrelevant, and Tina ended up cut from the movie almost entirely (hence her absence from the trailers) due to Katherine Waterson disagreeing with JK Rowling's political views (You know the ones). And that's all I'm going to say on that subject. The only reason to watch this movie is for the fanservice, of which there is an express load. That said, a significant amount of it is already shown in the trailers, probably precisely because WB knew the plot (nigh-nonexistent as it is) wouldn't draw anyone to theaters. If the fanservice you seek is of the "actually acknowledging that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were lovers" variety, prepare to be disappointed. Overall, from the trailers I thought this movie was going to be the HP equivalent of Rise of Skywalker: a collection of awkward fanservice and trailer-worthy shots that are ultimately meaningless, held together by a paper-thin plot. And that's exactly what it is, except instead of feeling like a Star Wars fanfic written by a grade schooler on Adderall, SoD feels more like an alarm clock instruction booklet. There is exactly one thing in this movie I thought was good, and that was the ending. And no, I'm not saying that in a sarcastic way. The last scene was legitimately really nice, and the only time in the 2½ hours that I was wearing a smile on my face. I just wish there had been a better movie leading up to that ending. It almost makes me glad that WB's considering pulling the plug on Fantastic Beasts. We had one good movie, we now have a good (if unearned) ending, and, to be frank, I don't see the series getting better from here. I desperately wanted to like this movie, but I legitimately don't know if it's possible to like. I hate to say it, but... don't waste your money on this. Save it for the upcoming summer sets, or, if your heart's set on seeing a movie, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Sonic 2 both came out only a week ago, and are both fantastic movies. If you really need to see SoD, just torrent it, though honestly I can't even recommend doing that. REVIEW OVER (Thank God) ...Now that I have that out of my system... Oh my golly, those summer sets look AMAZING! Grimmauld Place looks just how I've always dreamed it would for the last decade plus, the Ministry looks super unique and has an incredible minifigure selection, and the new Hogwarts sets look legitimately fantastic in my opinion. The Dark Tower and Courtyard, overpriced as it is, is instantly recognizable (and that Harry face alone is worth the price of admission, lmao), and Dumbledore's Office is a great combo of the 2002 and 2010 versions, and just looks so pretty! (Not to mention that, after all these years, we finally get Mrs. Norris!!!) I've been trying to hold off on buying new sets to get them on discount, but I'll be hard-pressed not to grab most of these on day one. Honestly, this might be the best LEGO Harry Potter wave EVER!!!