karrit

I'm thinking we need a set of the Frog Choir. Maybe they could make it one of those 4 packs of minifigs.

Dare I hope to one day actually be able to buy a Lilo & Stitch Lego set?

I must be the only one who thinks Fluffy's body is just a huge mess. When I first saw the picture I thought it looked like the body of a Buffalo/Bison. I hope they put a little more effort into smoothing it out a bit. Most of the pictures look like they just threw together the outer shells of the buildings to put something out there for the buyers to see. The Bathroom looks similar to the modular portions they created for some of the Disney Princess sets so you could place them in different configurations depending on how one wanted the build to look. It's possible they decided to do this with some of the new castle portions so we could choose where to attach them to the overall build. Maybe this is what some of the August wave is going to be like. Hogsmeade looks incredible.

If they'd give us the figures we still want in sets I'd be okay with them not doing another CMF set but there are still many figures we need/want including those listed by Textorix. They could always make us the 4 packs of figures like they did the student pack last year to help fill in what we're missing. At least that would eliminate the whole blind bag/box thing. If they keep making sets for a few more years at least we should hopefully get most of the figures we all keep asking for.

While the brick built Hedwig is a nice looking set it is my least wanted one out of last years wave. I'm not really a fan of the brick built animals or people either although that baby Yoda is adorable. The only other one I still haven't bought is the Forbidden Forest one, Grawp just looks very strange to me. I do want it for the Centaurs & Umbridge so will buy it eventually when it shows up locally at a discount.

I would be happy with either of these.

I can see the $250 set being a micro-scale version of Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade to go with the Hogwarts Castle. Maybe even a micro-scale Gringotts incorporating everything everyone been wishing for in a minifig scale version including all the vaults, the rail car with track & the Dragon on top. I probably wouldn't buy it. The one thing that I would hate is if they started using those micro-dolls like they made for the Disney books. Also wouldn't like it if they went with a 4+/junior style wave.

After seeing those pictures I have zero interest in the Beat Boxes. As for the blind boxes I may take my chances for one or two but I'll be looking elsewhere to see if I can get the handful I want at reasonable prices.

You are right that in the past they have not been in boxes with absolutely no way of knowing what you are getting. My point is that unless one was willing to put the effort in in the past to feel the blind bags there was know way of knowing what was in them unless you vandalized them by ripping them open.

But they've already been doing this for years with the CMF's. Look how many of us have bought them anyway. Yes the early ones had different code numbers on them if one knew what to look for. But they eventually changed that. Yes you could feel through the blind bags to have a good idea of what you were getting. I got pretty good at it but I've still made mistakes with some.It's very time consuming to try to feel the bags to get the ones you want. I wish they would do away with the whole mystery/blind bag items but I don't see that happening anytime soon. I most likely will maybe pick up the odd one here or there but I'm certainly not going to try to find complete sets anymore. If it's something I really want I'll maybe buy from a third party but I won't be paying ridiculously inflated prices.

Some printed Castle elements could be nice. I still like the old castle wall elements that have the arched window cutout with the printed stonework around the window. I wish they still made those. I hate the brickwork stickers they give us to put on the castle walls now.

We are already ahead of last year by 17 pages as of now for the same date.

At this point I'll be happy with just about anything that is new to the 2018 reboot.

It would be interesting if they could somehow create a substructure for the Astronomy Tower. In my imagination it would incorporate a Potions Classroom with possibly a Snape or Slughorn office & a Slytherin Common Room and give us some other Slytherin students like maybe a couple of the females.

Totally agree. I'm also sick of Cho variants that really aren't. Totally different outfit is fine but I really don't need multiple versions of her in slightly different sweaters. Give me different sweaters or robes with the head of a student we haven't gotten yet please. I can mix around heads on different bodies but I want different faces & wigs to go along with different outfits. And while I'm at it I hate those cloth pieces they've given us for skirts, they look horrible.

Nice build. I really hope they do another round of Classrooms. I love a Divination one as well as variations on the Potions & DADA ones.

I didn't say LEGO specifically had said anything about the figure regarding it's future availability. It's possible future availability was discussed in the previous HP thread here as well as other fan sites. As for the religious & political aspects some of the discussion has taken, that wasn't me.

I think some of the nuances to this discussion are getting lost in translation because some of us are saying similar things in slightly different ways. I personally never said there shouldn't be any exclusive figures. If there weren't what would be the point of all the CMF series. My whole point is the particular Harry Potter variant being brought up as exclusive throughout this discussion was never to my knowledge advertised as an exclusive figure. It was one of the first figures leaked and then it was purposely not officially listed as being in the DA set or anywhere in last years wave of sets which drove the frenzy of what the heck was the leaked figure meant for. It was a gift from Lego to the fans but somewhere some people have decided it should have been an exclusive and seem to be getting quite upset that it will now be more easily available. If I remember correctly it was even discussed at the time that the figure would appear elsewhere eventually.

Thank you for being able to express my whole point so eloquently. At the end of the day the exclusive elements of a set aren't what make or break it for me. I want the whole package to appeal to me. Slapping the term "exclusive" on something is purely a marketing gimmick. It's a toy, a very expensive one but in the end still just a toy.

DA Harry Potter also isn't a good example either. Until the set was actually released we didn't even know he was included. LEGO advertised 4 exclusive figures in the set and as of now that is still true.

Exactly. If people are spending $400 on a set just to get a couple of "exclusive" minifigures that is the prime example of first world problems.

Just because a particular figure is exclusive to a specific set upon release doesn't mean the figure should never be used again in the future. If someone is just starting to collect now should their only option be to buy a retired set third hand just to get a particular variant? That doesn't make any more money for TLG. I'm not saying there shouldn't be exclusives at all but you can't always have it both ways. People complain about all the variants of the main three as well as a few other figures but the minute one of them gets used again others who thought they were exclusive complain about that. They complain when we get yet another variant of Luna or Neville but then whine that we need another version of Lockhart or Lucius or Snape. Meanwhile we each have particular other characters we want that have yet to be made.

This is my thoughts too. Look at how many people get upset when what they believe is an "exclusive" figure attached to a book ends up being part of a set at some point or already was. Did anyone really think that the Tom Riddle figure that came with the overpriced already out of date HP character encyclopedia would remain the only way to get that figure? I bought the book but I knew the figure would most likely end up in a set at some point eventually.

I'm glad they are trying to include some more obscure characters with some of the sets. I need more people to populate Diagon Alley so the obscure Teachers & Shop Keepers can be used for that along with some of my extra CMF's rebuilt to seem like different characters. I'm also impatiently waiting for the rest of the Weasley family. I'd love a non-prisoner version of Sirius so I hope we get one at some point, if not I'll try to put together something with a more regular torso. Since I have extras of the CMF's & multiples of the Student Pack at least I can create some more generic students. I also got some extra red head wigs so theoretically I could try to create my own missing Weasleys as well as Gryffindor versions of Fred & George for now. The more I imagine what these sets are going to look like the more I can't wait to see them revealed.

I hope not. There are plenty of other sets I'd much rather see them make than another Quidditch Pitch. I don't even think I would buy it were they to make it and I doubt it would sell well as an expensive set. I bought four of the current Quidditch Set to build my own. I was going to build more towers out of bricks I already have but Target had them on sale so it probably cost me a little over $100 for the whole thing including enough figures for full Gryffindor & Slytherin teams. The only thing I may do is get some green plates to set up the whole thing on.