Retro Brick Reviews

And, considering that in Year 5 we aren't getting a single straight remake, it's going to be a while before the theme gets stale.

Nice save, @krimimimi

That torso wasn't designed to ever be used on Vernon, it's just a nice coincidence. It should have no impact on speculation.

Honestly? I think they just didn't feel like including a full set of tools just to make the clock hands, so they came up with this other solution.

Probably another DA set with a large 32x32 Gringotts, two more shops, and the brick wall out in front of it all.

That was last year's.

I'm sticking with my Accessoty Pack prediction from a couple weeks ago: A "Battle of the Seven Potters" pack, with Harry, Hagrid, two Death Eaters (one double-sided head with a different mask on each side; one new torso and one reused from Rise of Voldemort), and a motorcycle with brickbuilt sidecar.

Different release schedules. Marvel is April 1, and HP should be June 1.

Welcome! I definitely agree with you on the Chamber of Secrets- I was hesitant at first, but after buying it it's quickly become my favorite minifig-scale HP set ever. It's basically the Hogwarts set I'd always dreamed about as a kid, and the modular system just opens that up even more. That said, #GreenRoofGang In other news, I finally got around to watching the new Fantastic Beasts trailer, and... yikes. I'd already planned on skipping this one for several reasons, but I had still worried that I might be missing out. But after seeing this trailer (and it's godawful color grading), it's made me confident that the $10 I'd have spent on a ticket would be much better used going to see Sonic a second time. Thank you, Joanne.

In any case, while Grimmauld Place is my single most wanted HP set of all time, I don't think we'll get it this wave. They're already doing the Shrieking Shack, and both exclusives being big houses heavily associated with Sirius Black seems unlikely. My money's on this finally being the Durmstrang Ship remake (not with the 2nd Task, that would sell better as a separate set down the line).

That's highly unlikely. The other buildings ARE the iconic part of #12's exterior, and without them it's not large enough to justify a $100+ set unless they made it at a much larger scale than all the other HP buildings.

I have two ideas, but firstly it's important to note that #12 looks a fair bit grimier than the other buildings - play up on that, with spooky details on the exterior and showing through the windows. In terms of the reveal feature, I have 3 ideas, which will henceforth be labelled the "stupid complex" method, the "makes sense" method, and the "realistic" method. The "stupid complex" method is based on a MOC, which iirc LEGO actually shared on social media a couple of years ago. Essentially, there's a Technic mechanism where you have a fully enclosed #12 hidden behind the two facades, and when you slide them apart #12 automatically moves forward to fill the space between them. Then, the fully enclosed #12 can swing open at the back on both sides (think 2011 Gringotts) to both reveal the center interior and have other interior sections fill the empty #11 and #13. Would be awesome, but I don't see it happening. The "makes sense" method is a lot simpler. #12 never moves, and just has two 1-brick thick building facades covering it, which can then be slid out of the way to reveal #12. The interior is as wide as both facades slid together, so there would be notable empty space left. The "realistic" option is that LEGO simply says "heck with it" and completely ignores the reveal function, just doing a build of all 3 buildings with the interior of #12 going inside all 3 of them. This would be very disappointing to me, but I think it would be the most likely course for the set to take.

Because it isn't. Diagon Alley was 5544 pieces for 4 buildings, therefore we can extrapolate that each building was about 1300-1400 pieces. That's already more than the typical amount included in a $120 set. Add to that that Gringotts would need to be significantly larger and probably have a full 32x32 stud base to be accurate, and it would easily be well over 2000 pieces. No chance it's the $120 set.

So, I just watched a review of the Hogwarts Trunk set and noticed that none of the hoods on the backs of the new robe torsos are printed with the colored interior/trim we've been getting since 2018. That's pretty neat, since that detail wasn't added to the house robes until Prisoner of Azkaban. Percy from the upcoming book also lacks the colored trim. Maybe this means that in future sets based on films 1-2 we'll be getting accurate pure black robes from now on.

I remember a decade ago when LEGO announced the CUUSOO Back to the Future set, and it was seen as crazy that they were doing a single set based on a decades-old movie. Nowadays we can't get sets on new blockbuster movies, but we get big waves for films from 20 years ago. How things change...

Yes, very weird logic to not post the trailer for a film making light of the second World War on the same day as the largest hostile invasion in Europe since the second World War. No idea why they'd make that choice.

Theyre the same. Looks like those weren't specifically for the anniversary, and are just going to be a part of all HP sets from now on. Not entirely on the topic of current discussion, but I've created a LEGO Ideas project, based on the classic Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory movie. I've written a full thread on it (linked below), and I'd really appreciate if you could take a look and, if you like it, go over to the LEGO Ideas site and support! https://ideas.lego.com/s/p:d52c3c68543c4e3ea066d5dc0f8c44ae (P.S.: The project does feature a handful of prints and pieces from the current LEGO HP run, so it is tangentially related to the topic of this forum.)

_ Thank you for the reviews. I never Bricklink figures straight from sets, so I plan on getting the Trunk - all those new minifigure prints are worth the price of admission alone, and all the accessories certainly don't hurt. It's unfortunate to hear that the build is apparently only finished around the sides shown in advertising, but I was planning on displaying it like on the box anyway. I'm a big fan of the Hospital Wing honestly. Easy buy, even if the new trio variants will probably reappear in the Shrieking Shack (though, thinking about it, maybe the SS Hermione will have the Time Turner printed on the torso again but with the new dirt and scratch marks - VARIETY.) I have no plans to buy either of the Moments books: I got all 4 last year, and aside from the loose handful of good minifigures I pretty much regret it entirely.

It's important to remember that it is very likely that all the information we're getting on these sets has been gleaned from preliminary or early images, not finalized product pics. For all we know, the inclusion of a gold minifigure statue is just a placeholder - after all, a single minifigure would be a very poor representation of the Fountain of Magical Bretheren, but correct for the "Magic is Might" statue.

...Are you really going to bite the hand that's delivering you from having to bite yours off?

Don't worry, it's been confirmed that Katherine Waterson will be returning as Tina in Secrets of Dumbledore. It's likely that the reason she hasn't been seen in promotional material yet is because her role in the film is very spoilery, and they don't want to show too much this far out from the release date. That said, I definitely agree that Fantastic Beasts should have been a one-off. The first movie was a really great self-contained story, and the sequels both completely destroy the ending and it just seems strange to have these characters shoved in as major players in the Global Wizarding War. Imo if they wanted to do a new Harry Potter series, they should be done the MCU approach: Have 4 or 5 self-contained films about individual characters that slowly build up Grindelwald's rise to power, and then have one movie that ties it all together with Dumbledore bringing together the main characters of all the films to use their individual talents in his plan to defeat Grindelwald and bring peace back to the Wizarding World.

Hold your breath. Make a wish. Count to three. Hello, everyone. I have designed a LEGO Ideas set for Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, based on the classic 1971 film starring the enigmatic Gene Wilder. The model, as proposed, is built from exactly 1400 LEGO elements, and is full of authentic (and delicious) details from the movie. This includes a fully screen-accurate factory exterior, an entrance interior with contract and hand-coathangers, and, of course, the iconic Chocolate Room, filled with colorful sweets and complete with a fully functional Chocolate Waterfall. It would also include the grandiose factory gates with brickbuilt wrought iron lettering, a life-sized Wonka Golden Ticket (featuring 49 drum-lacquered metallic gold LEGO elements), a full case of Wonka sweets including printed Wonka bars, Scrumdiddlyumptious bars, Everlasting Gobstoppers, golden chocolate eggs, and more! The set would also include 7 minifigures: Mr. Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee, Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop, and an Oompa Loompa. I've put a lot of effort into making a set that LEGO would realistically produce while still remaining true to my vision and the original source material, but the fact is that the set needs 10,000 votes. And that is impossible without help. So, if you like the project, please click the link below to see more images and register your support, and then share this project to ensure that we can get to 10,000 votes, and help make this golden dream come true. Support Here: https://ideas.lego.com/s/p:d52c3c68543c4e3ea066d5dc0f8c44ae

The Thestrals appear in several extremely important scenes. They are necessary to both the plot and characters. AND so far they've been relegated to $20 sets. The Quidditch World Cup is an intro hook that has little bearing on the rest of the story, and we don't even SEE THE MATCH. If we did, I would at least entertain the idea of getting a smaller QWC pitch down the line, but even that is extremely unlikely thanks to it being skipped in the movie. There is zero chance they'd pick it for the largest HP set ever.

According to Promobricks's latest story post, we should be getting a black-robed McGonagall in the Dumbledore's Office set.

Probably not, which is honestly surprising- I'd figured LEGO would be contractually obligated to release at least one tie-in set for each new Wizarding World film, but I'd be lying if I said I was disappointed.