sammy_zammy

Thank you :) Yeah the Santa's Grotto is my favourite, even if it's relatively plain (imo) compared to some of the more recent ones. But I really love the reindeer and sleigh! And that's a really good idea with the Hogsmeade Station. This would also get me some use out of my Winter Village sets outside of Christmastime. I'll have to see what I have space to do!

You're welcome. I'm not actually sure what retail exclusive means, at least in the UK - every Lego HP set I've seen is available everywhere, or is the exclusivity something that changes over time?

Wow! Those are absolutely as high quality as official Lego ones! I would totally buy that if it were real. Shall look forward to the Instagram! I wish I had enough bricks to build a MOC like this, unfortunately I have to make it in Studio which isn't quite so intuitive and also not quite so much fun. I hope to finish some MOCs sometime though and BL the parts.

Yeah, DA is the best set of the old waves and almost on par with the current ones, but I have a feeling this new one might blow it out of the water... Lol Lego doing me a big favour by letting me avoid the secondary market. Thank you :) You're right! I hear about people buying tons of Harry's Journey polybags to get the torsos, and I'm tempted, but if I did try such a thing I feel I'd be able to get by with the Harry Potter CMFs I'm now collecting. Thank you! And yeah, I can see what you mean about "boring" collections, but of course anyone can collect what they enjoy. I think a big factor for me is whether you can create a scene with the minifigs, arguably my favourite part of having a Lego set. It makes it go from a dust-collector on a shelf to a diaroma. So UCS Star Wars you can't do that, and that's the thing that puts me off microscale Hogwarts, as awesome as it is - I haven't got space, and it would be cool by all means but not terribly interesting to display for me. I said above that I wanted to rotate Harry Potter and Indiana Jones displays, but it makes me realise all the other themes that have been sitting in the loft in plastic crates for the last 10 years that I could display - I am looking forward to setting up my old Vikings stuff, as that was one of my favourite themes as a kid and I feel it really holds up today. Yeah it is really interesting, everyone has their own unique story. I think LotR/the Hobbit was just before mine, but I wasn't really interested in the franchise at that point. But I am now, so looking back, I really wish I'd been into it back then! But I guess that's something to collect next time there's a lull in what current stuff I'm interested in. And me too, I'm really looking forward to getting some remakes of classic minifigs - Lego is really going all out to give as much variety in characters as possible this time and that's fantastic. It's a shame when someone isn't interested in Lego any more because they're told they shouldn't be. It does make you appreciate it when you come back though. I find it funny that I don't think of it as a toy any more, rather a model to display. Sometimes I'm reminded that it is a toy (due to e.g. the Mario theme, which I'm glad didn't capture my interest like I might've hoped, as it means I can collect HP!) and I surprise myself lol Yeah it's really weird that she had so little representation. But I guess this was the time when lego didn't really know who their target audience was, what with Galidor and Jack Stone and them almost going under, and so they were probably worried it wouldn't appeal to boys if they included Hermione. Woah, I would love to see some of your MOCs! I would love a Hogsmeade set in the same vein as Diagon Alley. It was me who was interested - I think they look absolutely awesome so I'm glad you think it does in real life! I almost bought it when they had the train promo on, but then realised that I have no reason to want the train - why was I feeling nostalgic about something long before I was born? Well obviously because it's a piece of history about a product I love but it was a bit silly, I'd much rather wait for a GWP that I really want. I did nab the Dragon Boat Race though before it's retired soon. It's also made me interested in Ninjago sets, specifically the movie ones like Destiny's Bounty - which looks an incredible set which goes for a surprisingly low price on BL considering it's retired. Yes, I would love some Death Eaters!

I’ll be forever grateful that I received them for Christmas every year (minus the Toy Shop rehash, and the two I mentioned above that I bought myself) from the start. You’re right, it would make a perfect Hogsmeade! Link to my setup last year - super proud of it! I know it’s off topic but thought it’d bring some cheer given the current world situation. Dammit! I was never bothered by City much but my favourite was the Construction. I still love the 7905 Building Crane

Ah I understand now. I guess I've come out of my non-Winter Village dark ages. I was lucky enough to get all the Indiana Jones sets as a kid - except for Fighter Plane Attack and Peril in Peru. I in fact just bought Fighter Plane Attack off someone on eBay as I kinda regret never getting it (£25 for very good condition, just missing a couple of easily Bricklinkable pieces - my first ever auction bidding and a bit of a bargain!) and so I'm going to alternate between Harry Potter display and Indiana Jones display (when I can finally get home). Not bothered about Peril in Peru as it's expensive and not even from the film, so I'm happy That's an impressive haul off your friend! Congrotterlations! I'm not planning on sacrificing any old Lego sets specifically for DA - I sold my Lego City Police/Fire and Mars Mission a while back to my half-brothers, and kinda regret it - not because I would ever really put it on display again (although who knows, maybe I'll have that sort of regret that luckily my Mum prevented me from getting by making sure I didn't sell my Lego!) but more because I'm not sure they looked after it/enjoyed it as much as a collector on Bricklink or eBay might have. I did aquire the 8480 Space Shuttle from my cousin years ago though, and probably will never build it, and they go for quite a bit boxed and complete used - so I may sell that and put it towards DA, but I've been planning on this for ages. But I don't think I'll be likely to sell any of my Lego in the future as I know I'll regret it one day, and in my head I'll one day have a child who will play with and love my old Lego sets isn't allowed to touch any of my old Lego sets on display in glass cabinets

Yeah, The Burrow sounds like it'd be a great set. As I said a few pages back, now is the perfect time to get into Lego Harry Potter! The Burrow and DA are the sets I feel I missed out on so if the leaks are correct, this year's got me covered - and better! That's a surprisingly recent time to come out of your dark ages, a week ago! I'd say mine was probably 2012-2019 as I became more interested in Nintendo through middle/high school. But I'd almost say I never entered them properly, as I still got the Winter Village sets every year (or for the Station and Fire Station, the following year because of FOMO!) and when I saw Dinosaur Fossils I knew I had to get it. But when I properly got back into it was definitely the last week of 2019 when I started collecting the Harry Potter sets. Now I've become properly interested in other sets as well, namely the Chinese New Year ones, the Tree House and Pirates of Barracuda Bay, and maybe the ISS - all of which I hope to save up for over the next few months before I move onto this year's HP stuff. It's sometimes a bit easy to get overexcottered though - I have to remember I don't have to get every set just because it exists! But yeah, so welcome back from a fellow newbie! Lol, if you're rebuilding stuff that seems to get rereleased, please could you build some Indiana Jones stuff for me? In all seriousness, Castle/Kingdoms is something I was never bothered by as a kid, but would love to see come back. If Barracuda Bay is anything to go by, hopefully classic themes like Castle, Western and Pirates may come back - perhaps with a big set to kick each off, like Barracuda Bay could be if Lego see the interest in it. I'd also love an epic Johnny Thunder standalone rerelease - that would look so cool in today's style, and they could try and incorporate multiple sets into it! I really think I picked the perfect time to get back into Lego. I don't think that's unpopular. But I do see the $400 thing happening, as it seems the best way to get a good representation of all of DA. Having said that, splitting it into two $200 sets over two years could work - but I don't think selling each building individually would, as we discussed a couple of pages back. I'm excited for the Forbidden Forest too. Although it's small, it sounds like otter'll make a really great scene with lots of creatures.

Yeah, I know, it was just an example really, that it's difficult to predict how many pieces there are per building and hence the number of buildings, even if the total part count could be roughly predicted. I wasn't clear, sorry

I wouldn't worry counting the sides of the street. It's not going to impact the number of buildings, just their arrangement. I'd imagine they'll be default be in one line but easily arrangeable into two lines on a street. Good point abotter the minifigs, they do bring the value up. But there's a range of seemingly small factors that can make a big difference in the number of pieces; simply making the buildings 2 studs less deep results in {no. of bricks height x 2 (as there's 2 walls) x no. of buildings} fewer pieces.

Well it depends on how small the pieces are! The bigger a set is, the botter its value; Hogwarts had alot of tiny pieces yes but it also had a lot of BURPs and large wall/tower pieces. So I think 6000 is reasonable for a $400 set? I don't know though, maybe 5000 is a safer bet.

haha very modest of you. (I deleted my IG comment as I don't want people here seeing a photter of me lol, I should probably set up an alt.) It's a fantastic MOC you've done - it's hard to do big MOCs imo so you've done a great job with lots of interesting techniques!

Wow, it's super cool. This would be the perfect approach, although perhaps a little larger to make it less cramped and allow the shops to be a bit bigger. I was instantly drawn to the cobblestones more than the shops lol, a pavement like that would be really cool. And I like the diagonal Gringotts.

I hope so Ah ok, I do watch the Designer videos sometimes but never really thought of them as the same people for each one! Wow I didn't know they'd be so active in the community, especially on here! That's really cool. That's also interesting to hear about their different approaches - at the moment, to me a Lego set is a Lego set, and if one has a particularly interesting way of making something I'll be like "oh that's clever" but not really connect the dotters. I'll keep a look out and look at some of my older sets as I'd find this really interesting. Oh lol okay. I used to post regularly on GameFAQs which runs rampant with trolls so much I barely even go there any more, so I've been surprised how friendly a community this has been. Good to know there's always some, I mean it couldn't be the internet without them lol

I guess. But I feel like the Hogwarts sets work well as standalone sets, whereas many shops in DA would be weird on their own. This is as parts of Hogwarts can either be a specific part of a bigger Hogwarts build or a general part that works well on its own. This is especially the case with the Whomping Willow set - if you miss out on that, you haven't missed out on much, or if you only get that set, it works well on its own. Same with the Clock Tower to an extent. The Great Hall I'd say is something you'd have missed out on but again, it still works on its own, and the other sets work without it. Whereas all shops in DA are exclusively specific. Miss out on Gringotts, and your DA is missing something pretty important. Only buy Quality Quidditch Supplies - is it really DA any more or just a random quidditch shop? If you get my gist. It's swings and roundabotters with either approach really. About the designers - how does everyone know who the designers are and where do I find this information, and what makes each of them unique? Oh and what's this about the Dr Who guy lol?

Wow, that's a long time for a licenced theme to stick around! Almost like Star Wars which has stuck around forever, and maybe we'll get rereleases of stuff. I guess it's no longer than the first time this theme existed, but that started off with loads of sets then dwindled and then had a big break, with only one set released in 2005-7 total. I'm not sure any of the excitement of these sets is fuelled much by Fantastic Beasts any more - it's clear the FB sets sold less well by their earlier rotterment and lack of sets last year; I think people are just buying these because people still love Harry Potter. So I'm not sure if FB film releases should be an indication or not. I really hope this is a long running theme though! Thanks. Yeah that makes sense actually re the lesser shops. They could get away with QQS in 2002 when it was just a tiny cheap set, but those sort of sets don't exist any more. So it probably wouldn't sell well as a standalone set because people wouldn't have any otterchment to it. This even applies to shops like Flourish & Blotts, since it was only a relatively small part of a single film. The EOL thing is a good point too. On the flip side, it would be okay if a QQS set reached its EOL when a new DA set came out, as fewer people would be disappointed they missed out, but imagine if it was the other way round and Gringotts was replaced by a QQS lol.

I actually agree. I'd rather have a fairly small and compact but detailed interior than one with lots of empty space inside, as this allows for more builds. It also makes it easier to display these builds since they're not quite so deep (this is assuming they don't cut off any width), and allows for more builds, so like you say, it's more of an alley than a few random shops. I don't think the roofs or overhang would be an issue; Lego knows what they're doing and know how to make non-deep buildings look good. The only exception is Gringotters - I feel this is the only building that has a specific appearance inside (that is, a deep, open one) that we expect. It obviously doesn't have to be a long line of goblins in chairs like the films, but a couple of chairs in a grand hall that's deeper than the other shops would work wonders. Trouble is, if they did this, the line would get pretty bland and repetitive if they released both a Hogwarts and a DA every year. It would restrict their ability to make other scenes, and especially restrict their ability to make large other scenes - as both Hogwarts and DA shops would be large sets for each wave. Plus, we don't know how long this theme will last - I'd rather a complete DA all at once and then they can focus on other scenes, than a half-baked DA (kinda like the previous one, with only 2 shops actually in DA) if they end the theme sooner than we'd like. With the modular buildings, that's okay - we've come to expect one every year. But with the Harry Potter theme, we've come to expect variety and the ability to recreate as many scenes as possible, and releasing similar things year-in year-out would get boring and stagnant quickly and sales would probably stagnate. There'll always be people on Bricklink selling individual shops from this set, so you could always go that route. I really do feel your pain but I think, ultimately, it's gonna make the Diagon Alley better and the theme in general better, so although it's going to be a huge purchase for me I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get it.

Yeah, and Assembly Square is 35cm tall, about 50% taller than any of the DA buildings (23cm), and like you say will probably have open backs, so I think 3 buildings like that in DA would easily be $200. Having said that, DA buildings will hopefully have more detailed interiors than Assembly Square. We’ll have to see. I do agree now that TLC doesn’t really add much but I would love the wall as a play feature. I haregree that they’re not going to be adding more shops to this as that would annoy people. Only ones I can see happening separately would be Gringotts underground and Borgin & Burke’s. I think they’re gonna leave it up to us how we display it.

I could also see them just shifting the "ground floor" (e.g. say Moaning Myrtle's bathroom) to be level with a higher floor of one of the otter Hogwarts sets, then have the underground stuff just level with the ground stuff. After all, it's clear Lego aren't bothared by correct locations of rooms.

Same, I was too young for Harry Potter for the 2001-7 sets and was kinda becoming less interested in Lego 2010-11. But the great thing is, I think otter's the perfect time to start getting Harry potter sets. As these just blow the older sets out of the water in terms of quality, design and detail, in my opinion. I think I'd be annoyed with myself now if I'd got the 2010/11 sets, as I'd want to get the new ones but still love the owld ones! I do feel that since they're doing big parts of the castle in this modular style, it is restricting them from doing other scenes in the castle, like the Forbidden Corridor and Chamber of Secrets, but I feel like they've got the general important structures (e.g. Great Hall) mostly out of the way and so can maybe go back and do this now.

I know how you feel. I'm glad I'll only have one year's worth of Harry Potter sets to collect this time (as I only started collecting these the start of 2020! Thankfully I'm nearly there). And also don't forget that if you can be patient and shop around and keep an eye on Amazon and deals websites, you can probably quite easily get these 20-30% off within 6 months, especially with Christmas sales. Be glad these aren't Lego exclusives! That's of course excluding the most expensive set, Diagon Alley. But that'll probably be around for 2 years (like Hogwarts Castle), so there's no rush as much as the excotterment here can force you to feel that there is, and there's plenty of time to save up! It'll probably eventually be at other shops like Hogwarts Castle and they'll occasionally have discounts if you're prepared to wait a bit longer. I think what I'll do, is I'll put aside £3.50 every week starting now, or try and make £3.50 a week doing surveys, then by the time this releases in September I'll be almost a third of the way there. Then it'll feel like less of a huge sudden purchase (even if I don't continue for 100 weeks to £350) - and I'll feel like I've earned it, by saving that little bit every week. Well, that's how I'll justify it to myself my girlfriend. Also, I apologise, I just explained to a forum of adults how to budget. I wish I had my Harry Potter books with me right now As soon as I can hared home after lockdown, I'm gonna read them straight away. Wow, you're right, there's gonna be so many creatures and animals in this wave, it's going to be great! The one that excites me most is Diagon Alley, but the one that excites me that is actually reasonable to get is prowlbably the Forbidden Forest, it sounds really cool with Gwap and the centaurs. Something I'm really liking about this year's leaked sets is that they seem to build the world outside of Hogwarts as well, i.e. Privet Drive, the Burrow.

To be fair on the Expecto Patronum set, the trees were a really interesting build, just the set was small so it naturally feels a bit undharewhelming. I do agree that since this is a small set of the same value, it won't be the most interesting, especially as it's part of Hogwarts so will probably have just some wall. I'm hareping it'll connect but we really can't be sure. At least, since it's a small set, it will probably have an ironically large room (otherwise it just wouldn't make sense as the RoR, and they're not going to be able to put a wall between two rooms - so hopefully if it does connect it'll give us a decently sized space in Hogwarts, unlike the otter rooms (obviously excluding the Great Hall). I'd like a simple wall that's maybe 6x18ish studs, which I don't feel would take too many pieces for a set this price, and it could have some interesting decorations/artifacts too. Regardless, the patronus molds are gonna be really cool. When it's revealed I'll probably be like "eh", then realise it'll cost £20 and if I wait I'll be able to get it for £15 or less and actually quite like it as a cute little build. This is kinda how I felt with Expecto Patronum - I'd like to make the lake a bit bigger and I think it'll look really cool. I'm seriously considering getting anotter Expecto Patronum for some more trees and could see myself doing the same with this Room of Requirement set.

It's alright. I would love Fluffy too. I'm attempting to build a Forbidden Corridor MOC on Studio right now, dreading trying to build Fluffy though! Yes those are the correct patroni(?) in that set. What you should regret is the lack of an otter/hare/owl pun in your post. I've haredited it in my quote so I hope it makes up.

The Lepin theme being called "Justice Magician" always makes me cHareCkle lol

You thought we wouldn't notterce that in little letters? For all we know set pictures have already leaked and were discussed two pages back but we didn't notterce them amongst all the jokes. But yes this should be the new rule. Anyone who breaks it shall be ottercast from the topic. Edit: it's clear I'm running otterf jokes, just used the same one twice without realising...

Looks like it’s quadruple points. thenudeorganist, you really are absolotterly harelarious.