Retro Brick Reviews

And in 2018 the only reason there was an equal amount of Hogwarts sets to non-Hogwarts sets was because of the D2C.

That's the main thing that annoys me about these prices. If there's one thing everyone could agree on regarding the 2021- castle, it's that it's perfect for getting smaller, scene-based sets as we saw last summer and this spring. I thought that's how they'd continue on, but this wave most of the sets are very expensive and judging by these prices and piece counts the two smallest sets won't be castle expansions, meaning that at least one large set will be dedicated to the castle once again. My one hope is that, since we already are getting a $50 expansion in spring, this summer we won't get more than one large castle set.

Oh, okay. I wasn't sure. In that case, those last two are probably retail exclusives, which is why they're listed after the D2C and AC.

The buildable creature is very likely to be from FB, and I think it's fairly possible that one of the August/Retail Exclusive playsets will be based on FB.

Definitely somewhat off-topic, but I'm currently working on a LEGO Harry Potter Iceberg (featuring all iterations of the theme, video games, prelims, rumors, etc). Right now it has 229 entries, but I want to push it to at least 250. Does anybody have any ideas for interesting knowledge, details, speculation, etc. I could add?

The difference for me is that all of my issues with the 2019 set are inherent issues that you'd have to completely redesign the set to fix, while my main issues with the new one can be fixed by adding one more layer underneath (modular system ftw) and swapping the arched doorways up top for tan 1x6x5 panels and a handful of bricks. Somewhere between the two sets is a perfect Clocktower, but over the last 20 years the one thing LEGO's made clear is that they have little interest in going for perfection with Hogwsrts (the Astronomy Tower being the one exception), so it's more just a job of picking what you personally prefer: in my case, pretty sand green roofs and great scene-specific interiors.

Well, my options are to spend $50 on a mid Clocktower with figures I want or $90 on a mid Clocktower with crappy sidebuilds and figures I don't want. The choice is obvious.

The 2019 set was proportionally broken, not nearly wide enough and so thin that it falls over if you blow on it. The only part that screams accuracy is the little triangular tower on the left side, the rest is incredibly bland. Neither of these come close to the 2004 version, but if the choice is $90 for the 2019 set or $50 for this one, I'll buy this twice.

I'm not sure how people can honestly say that the 2019 Clock Tower is better than this one. I mean, this certainly has issues, but... y'all have seen the 2019 set, right?

I might end up getting two of the Clock Tower to stack two of the lower level to make a more accurate height, and then use the leftover side roof segments on top of the Girl's bathroom from last year.

Not a fan of DADA, though. Moody looks almost identical to the CMF version, and the students aren't interesting. I don't much like the architecture or the cover color.

So, the Clock Tower looks like a pretty good version...so long as you only care about the top two floors. If it came with another layer, I honestly might prefer it over the 2019 set. Figures are good. Pomfrey looks fantastic and it's great to get that Hermione outfit without the Time Turner. Neat that Ron has one white leg to be a cast, but it looks like this set also has the sand blue owl from the Trunk, or one very similar. Books are mixed. I really like Trelawney's: She is a massive improvement over the CMF and it's cool to get a less formal Parvati (hopefully it's a non-Bindi print), and it's interesting that PoA Harry has his CMF hair rather than the standard piece. The interior looks really nice and unique, my only issue is that I'd prefer if it were lavender.

On this topic and out of curiosity, what do y'all think are the best and worst figures from the theme so far? My favorite is CMF2 Dumbledore, and the worst is Molly (specifically the DA version, though it's not like the Burrow figure is much better).

1. The set I was referring to. 2. A generic piece of Hogwarts architecture that people would whinge about. 3. We got a DADA classroom in the last big Hogwarts set and a Moments version next January. 4. They wouldn't do it out of scale with DA, so it's not happening as a regular set atm. 5. There aren't any builds for that scene, so a set is very unlikely. 6. Generic Hogwarts set that everyone would whinge about. In any case, I'm not saying there definitely won't be some of these sets next summer, what I'm saying is that, as of January 1, the 2021 soft reboot will have 3 PS/SS sets, 3 CoS sets, and 2 PoA sets. It doesn't make sense to me to have the summer wave then be split between PoA and GoF, as that would be 3/3/5/3. What makes more sense is that, with PoA already accelerated along, they'll do only one more set to make it even with the first two films, then move to GoF and OotP (1 PoA, 3 GoF, 2 OotP). Then finish OotP with one more set January 2023, and have that summer wave be equally split between HBP and DH: That's 3 sets for every year, and, considering that LEGO HP has always worked in 2-or-3 year plans, that sounds like a pretty smart 3-year plan to me.

I agree with this for year 4, but I don't see why it's "moving onto" year 3 when by next summer we'll have already gotten 2 POA sets in the new style, one of them rather large, and there isn't much else aside from remakes they can do for PoA (aside from one glaring exception). Seems more likely to me that they'll have the summer wave be primarily focused on GoF and OotP, thus making the last year of this new edition of the line finally open to featuring those hallowed (geddit) year 7 sets. To be clear, this isn't wishlisting as much as it is the fact that LEGO's not going to squeeze out 3 more PoA sets this summer when we already have 2- that would make PoA vastly outnumber all the other films.

Look, generally I'd agree that LEGO's marketing decisions are questionable, but they're not going to pull some big reveal over a small freebie that was meant to be available for under two weeks. I still don't know what this is for, but the GWP wouldn't make sense.

My idea for how they could do Gringotts is that the grand double doors at the front lead into a tall staircase up to the entrance hall. So, the "ground floor" entrance hall with all the Goblin clerks is actually on the second level (about 6 bricks high off the baseplate), and underneath you'd have the "underground" section with a 32-long straight track in front of a few vaults. Plop a dragon on top, and WHAM! Gringotts.

Plot twist: The contest is "Who can be the fastest to purchase a copy of LEGO Harry Potter 76397 'Gringotts Wizard Bank', releasing November 21. Grand-Prize Winner receives 15,000 copies of "Hogwarts Gryffindor Dormitory", previously intended as a GWP."

Counterpoint: Golden Dobby would be terrifying.

Nope, Falconfan (iirc) insinuated that it was going to be the $30 Quidditch set.

Since there's (virtually) no way we're getting another D2C (though I suppose it wouldn't be the first time the HP team has shadowdropped one), what seems most likely to me is that we're getting an 18+ set a la what Star Wars has had and is getting a couple more of next year. Any ideas?

Doubtful, as then the D2C stand wouldn't work. We probably didn't get him just because he wouldn't be as interesting of a design when we already have 3 golden students.

Unfortunately, Dobby's Sock was just a rumor. The Brickbuilt Remembrall was CONFIRMED by our trusted leakers.

HOLY CUNGADERO IT'S THE BRICKBUILT REMEMBRALL

Eh, seems to be a lot of crossover on the LEGO side of things.