Micmac

deleted my image until official reveal

So yeah it looks like you can because the pet shop looks like it lifts off. So you could remove it totally and that will fix the issue of the tiny shop that doesn't go with the rest of the street and the bank is at the right end connected to Ollivanders via the wall section..

It stands out so bad the gap in Gringotts. Thoughts on first look: The vaults are done well but I wish they weren't in the set. I like the interior of the bank downstairs but upstair seems very empty. Is there no interior to the pet shop? It seems sealed on all sides. Dragon head is great, body needs tweaking. I feel like the bank looks very fat in image, it might just be the angle. I thought them might make new piece for the dome of roof but no. Wall on the right is boring, another shop would have been great. The image of it displayed with diagon alley shows all the issues with it. It's not designed to go with it so the wall on the right is all wrong. It blocks off the street. And the pet shop is tiny compared to the other shop. Lots of modification needed to make it right. The bank looks like it should be taller to fit with the street. I'm a bit sad. It looked so promising in the blurry image.

The joy blurry lego pictures brings you. I thought it was fake for a bit. I actually think the underground section looks much better than I thought, how it holds up the bank will be fun to see. Hopefully its easy to seperate. and the best news, we get more shops, pet and broom shop i'd say. Can't wait to see the official pics.

I think everyone is anxious to see what they come up with but like MaxHeadroom said there are a few tiers of sets now and the quality differs across them all. I think all the D2C sets are all very well designed, they are not everyones cup of tea though and the cost of them is definitely a deterrent. I think if you asked the lego community over the last few years what they wanted they would have said the bank that fits with the rest of the Alley with the dragon on top. So I think the main issue with Gringotts will be the underground area. If it consumes lots of bricks but doesn't really add much to the set then i think people will be mad that they have to spend so much when they only really want the top section. It seems from the description that the upper level is compatible with the old set. It may have a plate base but it shouldn't stand out too much. And even if the scales are a bit different between Gringotts and the alley I'm sure it won't be too bad. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do the dome roof and if we will get some new parts designed for the set. So i'm optimistic and hopefully it will feels worth the money but the underground section is my main concern and if you seperate the bank to add it to the alley will the underground section be enough by itself to display. We shall see soon hopefully. And just on Krimimimi comment about them releasing a smaller bank if you don't want the big one. I would have said no but look at the two WWW on sale at the same time. I think it is very likely we get another bank in the next year or two like the new WWW shop. It would have sounded crazy a few years ago but it sounds like a very lego 2023 thing to do now.

target have the new Harry Potter sets in now for the ends of their 20% off sale, they didn't have the train or www at my store. Think sale ends next week

It seems like the big retailers like kmart, target and bigw release the sets later than they used to. Definitely Kmart anyway. The last batch of Harry potter sets took a month to get to some stores in the new year. Kmart only got in WWW set in on time and i think we will have to wait until july for the rest. They definitely have changed their lego buying policies as you used to be able to pick up all the sets a few days early before their official release date. Now they seem to get a few items from all the different themes released and then get different sets in a month. Not sure if it's a lego decision or the stores decision. So if you want them on release day the lego store is the only guaranteed store to have them all which is really annoying because of the price differences.

This one of the few sets that a second set is overkill and i'm not sure it would help really with building the rest of the land as it changes from cliff to grass hills.. A lot of lego sets are buy two and you can make a full building. I've just bought two friends botanical garden set. But this one is missing such a small part of the castle it seems so odd to have eliminated it. This image was just an example of the whole grounds. I wasn't saying lego should have built this. They made the castle section minus a bit of the castle. The clock tower part thats missing would probably have added 50 at most to the set which seems overpriced like all sets at the moment. An original complaint of the first micro set was it was just a bit of the castle so lego heard that and was like here you go but we want it to fit into this price point so we knocked a little bit of the castle off. And I understand finding that middle price tier for certain sets but I think keeping the clock tower in should have overridden that factor.

That wasn't really my point. The last set was half the castle and this one is maybe 90%. Some people would love the rest of the original set, they are never going to make it though. But why would they not finish this version when it was nearly there. Its an odd choice to chop the castle there.

I'm surprised that more people are not annoyed that lego made the castle micro scale and then didn't give us the full castle. I think it looks nice but it's incomplete. I've seen better versions made by fans. I couldn't help myself if i got it, I'd have to expand it like this version which is beautiful. Even a few studs bigger with the clock tower and bridge would have been fine. Loads of people still want the rest of the last microscope castle as a set, lego never learn. I think the figure is great but a lot of people don't even know who it is.

My favourite set being released this year if the friends Botanical Garden set 71757. I'll be getting two and making a double sided greenhouse, I'll give the figures to the two girls living next door to me. It would make a great greenhouse for Herbology class, Its in the style from Hogwarts Legacy and could also be turned into the room of requirements greenhouse that house some of the creatures you capture. The plants in it even look a bit magical. I wonder if there is a market for more obscure builds like this in the Harry Potter theme, Herbology class is a fun scene in the movies and even the a game version could have some new creature builds. I'm sick of banners, cases and books. I want some fun new ideas in the theme.

I even think that if you told them you threw it out they would probably send it to you but I'd go with it being missing to be safe. They are usually great but I have had a few interactions that weren't great. I bought two sets of the third task and was not happy with the quality of some of the figures, there were visible dents and some scratches and i had a smeared cmf face i got that week too. I put them all in a damaged bricks order and it was rejected outright and no follow up. I was told to call if i wanted it resolved. I don't know why me saying it to someone over the phone makes it more trustworthy than me sending it in text form. I had received an brick order maybe 6 months before and they never took payment, their mistake it was in the time they were changing pick a brick, and they held hostage my new order until I paid it off and they were not very nice about it with some of the messaging. I felt like they were accusing me of stealing when it was a mistake on their end. The guy on the phone was lovely but he was surprised by the wording it the email i got. It was like the dept collectors department of lego and they were not on the same happy juice as the rest of the lego group. So if it's a sticker sheet, some missing pieces they will send them out straight away. If your order gets a bit big with unusual parts from a set you will have to call them to get it resolved. Not sure with missing bag but it seems to be a common occurrence so they will probable just send it if the set is still being made.

Is Dobby my favourite? Wasn't expecting that. The Patronus is ugly and not trans, it's a dirty blue. A trans version with a light feature would have been cool. I think the quidditch set is good for what it is. I'm sick of these books, banners and cases sets but it has all the teams colours and capes. The train station look lovely and the train looks good, Are the carriages smaller than the last one? I might just build the station from my own parts. Shame we don't get some better figures in it and Hagrid's dog. WWW is ok, an unnecessary set that has some cool stickers. If you got the sticker sheet and a few of the new figures off bricklink you could easily skip this set if you have diagon alley already. I like the battle of Hogwarts, Its a bit messy design wise but I think its fixable and with some editing it would make a much better entrance to the great hall 2018 set. The door clock part is nice but the sides of the courtyard are all wrong. I'll probably get it to redesign it. All in all, not a very exciting line up, spoiled by repeat sets like the train and www, repeat design ideas like the trunk, a trans build that's not trans and a not very exciting line up of new figures. If the train was the Drumstrang ship, the patrons was trans and lit up and www was some new shops that we didn't get in Diagon alley set i think the excitement level would be high this summer. Shame.

It might just be the entrance to Knockturn alley again

The BoH design looks good for the Hall entrance. I'm building a large version of the great Hall and this ticks a lot of the visual elements for the front anyway. Hard to tell the scale in the leaked image and you can't really make out the courtyard windows details. Might be easy to moc it to fit on the original great hall. Dobby looks a lot cuter than i was expecting, not sure I need it but wait and see. I really thought they would do their own thing with the remake of www but it looks so similar to the other version. The inclusion of another build might be their way of making you buy another version of it. Not sure what the other build is, so hard to make out, it could be the broom shop but it looks like the back of the building rather than the front. Seems a bit small to be Borgin and Burkes but the colours would match it. I'd go with broom shop as it's a grey colour too. Train station looks good but It might be easier to just buy the bricks and build it rather than buying another train. Looking forward to seeing better images. I'd have preferred the ship instead of the train. Too many repeat sets in this wave.

With the new tv series I think people forget facts when their nostalgia takes over. I remember when each movie would come out there was lots of debate about what was left out of the movies and lots of people disliking what choices were made. Now what's in the movies is the story for a lot of people but the books were the story for a lot of other people first. I've forgotten most of the books now so I can't remember but I'm sure there is plenty of new material to pad out a series. Is it necessary, probably not but it will draw in a new young audience again and hopefully they will make some fun decisions with cast and locations and reimagine it to make it feel different and have a place. And it's a perfect reason for lego to make repeat sets again, which they are doing now anyway just to drag the theme out. By the time this comes out I think they will have milked the life out of the current movies, we are getting so many remakes already. They could do a whole new Harry potter tv line and then the movies theme would become another thing like they do with the black boxes and we might get two high quality sets from that a year. If the series is good and does well we may get some of the other ideas made into movies or more tv. I will not be ruling it out like a toddler having a tantrum. Wait and see and hopefully it will help continue the lego theme for years to come.

I'm excited to see the new sets, I always am but the theme is a bit all over the shop at the moment. Set quality is either super detailed and expensive or vague badly designed stuff that's overpriced too. The banner are ok but not really any improvement to the classrooms, the figures are nothing special and Au$50 here in oz. I got mine for 32 each of marketplace and I was never gonna pay full price. The room of requirement is an ugly set in that horrible castle style, can't wait till they kill that off. I opened it, looked through the instructions and decided not to even build it. I liked the new double door in it though. Figures are boring too. I liked the tri wizard set but it's not detailed enough, I bought two full price and I moced mine but I like doing that to sets. The figures are the most exciting part and ideally we could have had another 4 to get all the main characters. I made my own versions but the outfits are hard to match using existing parts. Not sure we will ever see them made if not in this set. And we just got the large Hogwarts express and now we are getting a new one. They could have made the station, the carriage from last year and the gates to Hogwarts as a set without the train and we would have had the two locations of the train, start and finish. I suppose the train is the selling point but I have it already so it will be the figures and the station quality that sells it anyway. Gringotts will look great i think and it should because they are making it one of these super detailed and super expensive sets. I love and hate these sets. Most of them I have to ignore as you could never display them all in your house or afford them all. I love the castle set and lord of the rings but my wallet doesn't seem to want to buy them. Gringotts should have been an add on set to Dragon alley 200 bucks at most and you would have bought it and added it to your dragon alley no problem. And then they could have made the super detailed one with the dragon and the mines as a seperate idea. And we are getting a cheap WWW set now. WWW should have been one of the missing shops instead, The pub really, if we were getting Gringotts and the pub this year I think everyone would be super excited and even more excited at the prospect of getting more of the street. The Battle of hogwarts being the clock tower again, I love that building but we don't need it again. The main courtyard of the hall would have been a much better option and if it's in the new castle style, who knows what it will look like this time. Screen accuracy is well out the window at this stage. The quidditch chest is just a rehash of the last case set. Nothing new there. The patronus could be nice, something different if they use trans pieces. I'm a bit sad for the theme at the moment, design quality is on the low side, the types of sets we are getting is poor, there are so many sets they could be making but the are rehashing old sets instead and repeating the same ideas with small tweaks. People wanted the dorm rooms but did they want them in thin banners? People want Gringotts but did they want it to be super expensive? Nobody wanted another train really and now we will have two. It's no longer a buy ever set theme and it's easy to skip most of the sets being released at the moment. I'm probably in the minority, I know lots of people like the new sets but I miss the early years of the theme when they were really trying to make it last and you could feel the designers passion for the sets they were making. Now if I love one or two sets each year i'm happy with that. I used to love them all though.

Found this today. Some of the prints are really nice. Gave most of the parts to the girls next door though as I have no use for the key rings. Tiles are random so I'll check bricklink for the missing prints eventually. You do get a wrist band but I forgot to add it to photo.

Looking forward to this set in march but there is always room for improvement in the official sets.

I think the Black lake set looks good. A nice reimagining of the original set. I feel like you could easily add more detail to it at not too much of a cost. The rest of the sets are a bit lame. The room of requirements is another addition to the ugly castle. It's nice to see a new ghost though. The "books" or banners are hit and miss, Gryffindor is the best and Hufflepuff the worst i think. The banners seem to have maybe cardboard printed back plates, you can see them on the rotating image on the lego site.

I saw this on Facebook the other day and thought they did a good job of converting it. https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10229116192436051&set=pcb.441481184612349

I don't think it would work really, you want all discussion of the advent calendar kept to a seperate thread and if someone then comes on here, doesn't know the new rule and spoils it, people will get mad at them. It will just lead to problems. And a spoiler warning will be on everything at certain times of the year as new stuff is leaked. If you don't want to know what's in sets you will just have to avoid the site and the internet for periods of time.

I fell like Diagon Alley is the odd one out now in the Large Harry Potter exclusive sets. We have had a miniature version of Hogwarts, a large scale animal and objects and now super detailed version of the train. These are all display pieces rather than a play with set. I'm not sure we will get an extension to the alley in the same way as we did before. I can see them doing a Gringotts set like the Ministry or Grimmauld place price point or going the train route and making it really detailed display piece with the dragon but I'm not sure we will get a bank plus extra shops in the new $500 american dollars or $800 here in oz. I really hope they just do it by itself as a play set as the price of the sets is getting ridiculous. It's such an iconic build and will sell lots at the lower price and they can always rerelease it later as the more expensive detailed set. It would be weird for them to do it the other way, a really detailed one and then a cheaper version a few years later. The Dragon could be a seperate set with some of the vault or mines scene. And I think people would buy individual shops to add to Diagon alley like Knockturn Alley and the Leaky Cauldron that could be designed differently to the alley shops (maybe like the Three Broomsticks) but could still be displayed with it. Also I love some of the torso prints for the trio in the new train set but Lego is really bad at keeping them exclusive to a set now so I'm sure they will turn up in next years sets. A few will stay exclusive like the driver and Trolly lady and the epilogue family.

New train is beautiful but Diagon Alley is the only large set I've ever bought from this theme and that got a $100 increase here in oz with the new price hikes. So this set will be over $700 possibly $800. Crazy. I don't think the figures are different enough for them to be must have figures and it looks like none have leg printing which always annoys me in these expensive sets. The one carriage is a shame and the station is pretty small but the detail in it is great. I'll live in hope that lego sends me this by accident like the leaker but not for me at the moment but there is a market for these sets. I just wonder how high can lego go with pricing before people stop buying these type of sets in the quantities that make them profitable for lego.. I wonder if it doesn't fit on normal tracks will the train fans want it either.

Kmart only seems to have the Shrieking Shack so far, I got it last week and have seen it in another kmart as well, not listed online though. Nothing in Target or BigW yet and nothing on their websites in the coming soon sections either. The official Lego shops in Melbourne (I went to Doncaster) have everything except Dumbledores office and the Horntail set. They had Grimmuld place releasing next week on their website but they have them in today. And on the official lego site they had a bunch of sets listed for 1st August but that just seems to be a random date as some of those sets are available now. I'm sure its stock related so the missing sets might turn up this month.