krimimimi

On the back of the box, where the stairs are centred, on the lower right hand wall look immediately to the left of the arch and you can see two technic 1x1 bricks in the usual heights. I'd assume they'd put them in the same location on the left hand wall. If you look closely on the box front, you can see the anticipated location of the upper technic brick is covered by a tile with a portrait. While it doesn't confirm it, it doesn't contradict it either, so I'm going with: two pins on either side on the ground level.

You can display it with the modular sets with no issues, it just sticks out a little more in either direction, which adds nice architectural detail. I attached the staircase to the PPM and Dorm set to try it out, works fine (although obviously you'd want a common room instead of the dorms, but that's a different issue).

Oh, I love this. It's so nicely done, and I really appreciate that they just went for the depth they needed, modular footprint be damned. @TheInvisibleMan, I think you could just put it between modular sections of the castle, with it just jutting out a little more on either side, but that adds visual interest to the façade. I really like that decision. ❤️

You mean to say it doesn't scream "Snape casual" to you? 😆 @THELEGOBATMAN, couldn't agree more about the AC. 😕 I hope they go back to the minifig scale builds next year, ideally abandoning the game concept as well.

Thanks. 😊 Well Remus' blazer certainly seems brown... And we only had one of him this year, I believe. On the other hand you'd be unlikely to mistake his blazer for a jumper. A cardigan maybe. I'd have to go back and listen to what Max called it, but I think he said it was a "Pullover" which should be the same in English. Guess it depends on if promobricks is operating off a description or a picture, and if a picture, how clear of one. (I wasn't always sure I was even seeing Hedwig in the picture we had...) Wouldn't mind a GITD MM, although I'd vastly prefer getting the other ghosts to getting her again. Then again, a friend was saying just yesterday that she didn't have a Myrtle for her PPM, having missed out on the CMFs. I imagine plenty of other people are in the same boat. (Of course that's the same reason I don't understand four Blacks in a year. Why not spread them out so latecomers don't miss them?) All whinging about AC minifigs aside, have to say I'm exceedingly pleased with the showing of Hogwarts staff we've had this year. I absolutely love my growing collection of minifigs.

Well that was painful (I hate podcasts / vlogs / whatever), but you are in fact correct. Max (who I believe we have to thank for the Hogwarts Express D2C info) has a bit of extra info about the calendar: In addition to the Tonks and Harry who we can see on the AC packaging, the AC should include Neville Longbottom from the 7th film with the Sword of Gryffindor, Sirius Black in a brown jumper (Max wasn't sure what scene he's from), Moaning Myrtle (no further details provided) and Voldemort (he assumes it's the one for whom we've seen the leaked head). Myrtle seems the oddest inclusion, the other five can be seen in the BotMoM together. I wonder if it's Ginny or Bella instead... Then again, I'm not sure how a Firstie Harry fits with a seventh year Neville... Oddness of the selection aside, I'll be glad to see Neville in his sweater, as that's one of the variants we're still missing since the reboot. I still think we've had too many Blacks this year; was there maybe someone else who appeared at the BotMoM in a brown jumper? @deskp, that's the sort of thing you usually seem to know... What was Remus wearing?

That would be our fourth Sirius Black in a year we've seen only one McGonagall and Snape (excluding Brickheadz). That would be weird. ETA: For that matter, not counting the polybag many seem to have difficulty finding in stores, we've only had one Dumbledore this year. And no Hagrids. Four Blacks would be really strange in that light.

A wild guess... Cho and Cedric? 😆

Well she wouldn't have made the duck face then (Mimi says confidently despite having not re-watched that scene since the movie first came out) so it's a multi-purpose Tonks. If it is the same Tonks, however, that might just increase the chances of that AP of Death Eaters I've been wanting so badly to round out the fight.

For the life of me I can't fathom why they wouldn't have made a Christmas at Grimmauld Place advent calendar to go with the Grimmauld Place set. It could have included a recovering Arthur in Christmas crown and wheelchair (inclusion is always good), and Ginny and Hermione, all of whom were missing from the 12GP set. I'd have kept the extra Tonks, such an inherently variable character deserved more than one variation, and given the overwhelmingly male representation in the 12GP set (seven of nine), it helps add a bit of balance. Ron and Harry are probably requirements, but at least it gives them a chance for a different outfit. We've got the troll foot umbrella stand and portrait of Walburga in the 12GP set, so perhaps a doxy nest and some spiders instead. They could have included a few small builds, like a writing desk to house the Bogart, a couch for creatures to nest under, and a fireplace (with wreath) to Floo through. That would give us a bit of structure to flesh out the sparse rooms from the set. And If they were clever about them, it could encourage people to get a second 12GP to make a larger MOC to hold them... 😉 Other things found in the house, like snakeskins, bottles of blood, boxes of Wartcap Powder. And there's always a couple of house-elf heads mounted for the walls... (Fine, sure, probably not AC material, but an AFOL can wish.) But most of all what was largely missing last year: a bit of Christmas fluff and frippery.

What a shame about all the micro builds. I really liked the extensions to a set / scene / theme from previous years and have next to no use for these little things. I never got the appeal of them in the Star Wars ACs either, unless you're going to hang it from a tree or something. Purple haired Tonks is nice, but it really feels like they missed a trick not going with Christmas at Grimmauld.

Yes. We don't know which scale or if motorised or which if any stations are included, just that it's an Express.

Not that it's any guarantee, but the 2021 AP was available in Europe from early June, in the US from early July. The 2020 AP was available from early June in both markets. The AC pix were out somewhere around June 1st last year, well ahead of the CON, although I think that was earlier than expected.

I was surprised to see the Ravenclaw torso, too. (And the Hogwarts seal! Unfortunately they froze everything before I could get my order together. Unfortunate timing on my part.) Good point about the change over to PAB. 😕 I guess I'll just have to be patient and wait and see. Thanks for checking. ❤️ I want the owl and that hat/hair piece. I'm trying to expand my wizarding world, and it's usually far too obvious where the pieces came from. Anything new is quite welcome at this point. Very jealous of your Minifig Factory. We haven't got one in our Lego store yet. Not sure we ever will, of course, but one does like to dream. Do they do the design your own printed tiles as well? @BrickBob Studpants Mueller drugery tends to have some of the exclusives, too, but their prices are seldom lower than S@H. @Chinchulate if you're checking German shops as well, I can recommend brickmerge.de for price tracking. We're up to 20% discount now at some stores when preordering most of the summer sets (except for Grimmauld), June 1st expected shipping date. But Shrieking Shack, the Ministry, Dumbledore's Office, Horntail, Sirius' Rescue, and the Thestral set are all there. (I'll note the expected shipping date was delayed by about two months last year, though. Can't guarantee they wouldn't do that to the discounters again this year, and it was very disappointing at the time.)

Build a Minifig has gone live again at least in the German and UK stores, although the selection seems slightly worse than it was during the beta phase. The regular Pick a Brick has been temporarily suspended here, I can't tell if that's true of the UK as well, but both PAB stores seem down to just the Bestseller pieces, which means there's not a lot on offer. Before the beta version was taken down in April, there was a Ravenclaw torso available (although it might have been via the PAB). Anyone still have regular PAB with that torso in their country? I was trying to figure out if it's a part to bricklink, or worth waiting for S@H to offer it again / if they were likely to.

Voldemort doesn't seem a good fit for an Advent Calendar (they didn't even put poor Snape in one 😆), so maybe an Accessory Pack. Who knows, we might finally see some Death Eaters so we can stage the Battle at the MoM, and it would help boost the MoM set's appeal as well. For Tonks I'd bet she appears in the Advent Calendar. An alternative face is also possible, considering they've been more generous with extra minifig parts lately, but if so, I'd have expected to see it on the box's artwork and we haven't.

Thank you, that's much better than "very cool 3D background thing". 😆 Dumbledore (the design is the same as hp303 from CoS, but the colours seem off?) and Voldemort (probably hp197 as Accio Lego said).

Interesting, they aren't showing up in our S@H yet. But they do seem to have recently added some of the Ameet books including the very cool 3D background thing (no idea what they're calling it in English, even with the settings on "en", it reverts to German on that one). https://www.lego.com/en-de/product/ratselbox-fur-zauberschuler-5007355 ("Riddle box for students of magic" lacks a certain... je ne sais quoi. ) I can't seem to find that on the US site unless they're sticking them in some other category. The choice of the booklets is interesting, too, because it makes Cedric in his Quidditch uniform robes and Sirius Black available for comparatively low prices.

@sebastian666 Germany checking in. I can preorder them from a couple of shops here at a 15% discount. They're not available at our S@H yet.

I was thinking perhaps to mirror the Moment sets, but it was still an odd choice. That said, I did like BH Trelawney's head scarf.

I can't believe they went for Trelawney and Moody instead of Sprout and Flitwick. It's like there are only one and a half Houses at Hogwarts. Moody would have made more sense in the eventual OotP or DADA instructors sets anyway. @Yope that was a massive improvement! What a difference that makes. Thanks for sharing it. (I'm still trying to decide how to fix the pink abomination.)

Eh, it's lego, it's representational. I'm not light nougat coloured, my hair isn't dark- or earth- or just plain orange, my eyes aren't black, and I'm definitely proportioned differently (thank goodness ), but I know when a fig comes close enough that my approximate geno-/phenotype is meant. (Oh look, it's mini-mi(mi)! ) And while representation definitely matters (enough for an emoji with hearts even), I'm not sure they'd be doing themselves or us any favours if you end up needing a pantone swatch to colour-match. As it is, I have difficulty determining the colours of some of the heads in the trunk set if some of the others aren't there to make the distinctions clearer. When you consider the memory colour effect, where (neurotypical) brains fill in the assumed or typical colours, it's safe to say we don't even accurately see colour, never mind remembering it. While I truly appreciate the quality of the 2018+ minifigs in this theme, in some ways I can't help thinking something gets lost with the shift from the traditional yellow heads. I'm definitely losing my minifig "colour-blindness".

No, it's 4* because it's BrickHeadz scale. They're keeping us on our toes. 🤣 (sorry, the lego emojis have stopped functioning for me.)

No, no, re-release the globe in an HP colour scheme obviously, perhaps even permitting your choice of House colours by way of customisation... :D

Unless it were super, duper, ultra-nano-microscale. Then they could include England and Scotland, from Jersey to the outer Hebrides. In subsequent years, they could give us Wales and Ireland, so as not to leave anyone out. Easily confused with dust motes, surely, which is a fine statement on a Muggle's role in the scheme of things.