sebastian666

I guess time will tell, but I think if I was on the LEGO marketing team and selling a $100 set like the Hospital Wing I would want to show a “working” connection point to the existing system to help immediately justify the purchase of the set - especially if I couldn’t reveal the actual intended connection point for another eight months.

I have a strong suspicion that when the East Wing is released, the official instructions for connecting the modular Hogwarts system will change—specifically, the recommended attachment point for the Hospital Wing. Right now, the Hospital Wing is meant to connect to the Main Tower, but that connection simply doesn’t work well: there are two connection points trying to serve a single join, and visually it feels off. If the East Wing is intended to complete the right side of the castle—and if we only get one additional building beyond that (I’m hoping for the Astronomy Tower, but I’m not holding my breath)—then it would make sense to rebalance the overall layout. Attaching the Hospital Wing to the Viaduct Entrance instead would expand that area in a much more logical way and better suggest the Long Gallery. My guess is that the East Wing will form a T-shape, with the Viaduct Bridge and Viaduct Entrance as the main axis. Adding the Hospital Wing off to the side would naturally turn that into more of an L-shape, which would both improve the exterior silhouette and help conceal the exposed interiors.

I think you may actually be on to something here… I just finished building the Hospital Wing and the current suggested connection points to the Main Tower simply don’t work. The Ravenclaw common room section of the Hospital Wing set pushes into the balcony of the secondary tower in the Main Tower set causing friction / separation. I’ve seen people try to simply connect the two sets at the bottom connection point of the Hospital Wing but that doesn’t really work either. It makes that whole side of the castle feel awkward and off balanced somehow. It would make a lot more sense to me that - even if the Hospital Wing doesn’t end up as the right hand side of the Viaduct Entrance - that it is ultimately supposed to connect to the East Wing in some fashion and the marketing team just showed it connecting to the Main Tower for the time being since it was a January release and the East Wing doesn’t come out until August.

At 2,164 pieces the so-called “Hogwarts East Wing” will be the largest of all the new Hogwarts modular expansions to date. I think the name most likely refers to a combination of the Viaduct Entrance and the Long Gallery (aka the Library Annex in Hogwarts Legacy) and I could easily see it featuring the Library, Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, the Slytherin common room, and the Chamber of Secrets. I also think the 379 piece count of “Dobby the Free Elf” is pretty telling. That’s almost exactly the same number of pieces as the (now retiring / sold out) “Potions Class” and I could see LEGO giving us another modular room like that to swap out under the Great Hall. This could be far fetched, but how good would it be to get the Hogwarts Kitchen scene where a now free Dobby has been hired to work as a salaried employee. It would be the perfect thing to swap out under the Great Hall now that the Potions Class is no more.

Titanosaurus, quetzacoatlus, spinosaurus, and brick built mosasaurus just leaked! @collectjurassic on Instagram

I saw that and thought the same thing. This is my biggest issue with the new Barad Dur set. There is no excuse for Sauron not having the long legs and arms. He’s over 9 feet tall in the movies (the same exact height as the N’avi in Avatar who also used the long legs and arms). I think the only excuse LEGO has for not doing this is because of the throne and the throne room in Barad Dur which would not fit a taller minifigure. I am hopeful that we will still get a correctly proportioned Sauron in another set…

I’m not up-to-date on my LEGO leakers / content makers and who is considered trustworthy - but Jedi Bricks just posted a video saying that Minas Tirith has been leaked as the big 2025 LEGO LOTR set. Have any other trusted leakers mentioned this yet?

Nice! Thanks so much. Not a bad idea to keep it and sell it… I see it’s already selling for $200+ on eBay.

I’m bummed that I just missed out on the Fell Beast GWP by a few minutes. Has anyone found good instructions for modifying it online? I’m mainly looking for a good alternate head build. Thanks!

I saw that too, but I disagree. David just put the tan and red Woody legs and arms on Sauron, which obviously looks odd. It also still has the short black cape and the brick built mace. If the long legs and arms were printed with Sauron’s armor and a long, tattered cape and molded mace were included, it would look perfect. I think LEGO’s main argument for going with the standard legs and arms was that a main feature of their Barad-Dur set is Sauron’s throne room. I imagine scaling the throne and the throne room to the longer legs and arms just didn’t work well.

This is the Sauron we deserved… Here’s hoping we may still get a proper Sauron in the years ahead. The road goes ever on…

I’m mostly happy with how Barad-Dur turned out. It’s not perfect and doesn’t have great parts usage - the rock work at the base and around the mid-section of the tower feel particularly lazy - but it’s a set that I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid and will be a Day One, Minute One purchase for me. I’m also disappointed with the fell beast GWP - but, as they say, don’t look a gift fell beast in the mouth. The one unforgivable sin of this set for me is the Sauron minifig. Sauron has been one of the most highly anticipated minifigs in LEGO history… LEGO could not afford to skimp on his design or production. That minifig should have been one of the main selling points of this $450 D2C set. And LEGO had the resources to do this minifig justice. The long legs - which they just used in a standard release Harry Potter set for a half-giantess who is a foot shorter than Sauron - were mandatory in my opinion. Sauron should have also had a long unique cape to add to the feeling of height. And his mace should absolutely have been a new mold. It’s just as iconic as Sting or Anduril. I can understand the need to make helmet and upper body armor one piece, but longer legs would have made the whole thing feel less squat and chonky. As I said, this is still a Day One, Minute One purchase for me - but I can’t overstate how disappointed I am in LEGO’s execution of Sauron. I’d love to hear any ideas folks have for how they are going to customize their Sauron minifig to improve him and make him taller. I’m also quite sure that LEGO knew folks may not feel 100% satisfied with this Sauron minifig and that they may have something else in the works… If the rumors about more non-D2C LOTR sets are true, I could see an 18+ diorama set releasing next year that features a proper Sauron minifig - with long legs, a long tattered cape, and a molded mace - battling Isildur on the slopes of Mount Doom. We may have even been given a clue to that with sticker #6 in the sticker pack that we got with Rivendell…

Wow. This is an incredible build. The design and the scale of it is perfect - anything bigger would have made display difficult. I don’t love the brown bricks at the top of the tower, but I’ll reserve final judgement until I see it in person. Overall, the tower is beautiful. I’m so happy with how it turned out - this is a Day One, Minute One purchase for me (even though I’m disappointed with the fell beast gwp - but, as they say, don’t look a gift fell beast in the mouth). The one unforgivable sin of this set for me is the Sauron minifig. Sauron has been one of the most highly anticipated minifigs in LEGO history… LEGO could not afford to skimp on his design or production. That minifig should have been one of the main selling points of this $450 D2C set. And LEGO had the resources to do this minifig justice. The long legs - which they just used in a standard release Harry Potter set for a half giantess who is a foot shorter than Sauron - were mandatory in my opinion. Sauron should have also had a long unique cape to add to the feeling of height. And his mace should have been a new mold. I can understand the need to make helmet and upper body armor one piece, but longer legs would have made the whole thing feel less squat and chonky. As I said, this is still a Day One, Minute One purchase for me - but I can’t overstate how disappointed I am in LEGO’s execution of Sauron. I’d love to hear any ideas folks have for how they are going to customize their Sauron minifig to improve him.

Interesting to note that The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer was just announced to be dropping tomorrow: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C66SA49LYxE/?igsh=eHkxZ3hnd3NtbWcy The timing of this aligning with the official reveal of the LEGO Barad Dur set can’t be a coincidence. I know that the LOTR merchandising rights for anything that isn’t based on the Peter Jackson films are tied up in a complicated knot right now, but I feel like that knot may be about to unravel… With at least four more seasons of The Rings of Power, War of the Rohirrim, and the new Gollum movies all in the pipeline, there must be some major merchandising negotiations and coordination in the works. Is it possible that this new content will be our ticket to the full-blown return of the LEGO LOTR theme with play-scale sets? LEGO even mentions the Rings of Power TV show on its official Theme page for LOTR. While I would prefer more sets based on the original Peter Jackson films, I wouldn’t be mad if we kept getting one D2C based on the original movies every year, with five play-scale sets based on new content and another play-scale set or two based on the originals. I imagine it may take until 2026 when the new Gollum film comes out to get the merchandising rights sorted, but in the meantime I am placing my bets now on the next D2C set being something related to Rohan to align with War of the Rohirrim - either Helm’s Deep or the Golden Hall of Meduseld.

Has a Fell Beast actually been “confirmed” in the latest rumors? That would be a dream come true. I imagine it will probably be small and brick built, but I would be very happy with something like this: