PsychoBuilder

Wait, what did they do?

Wait, WHAT? Do you mean we have confirmed Gringotts? I have not seen anything about that on JJP's Instagram, did he really say that?

No, I actually have not. Thank you, I will check that out!

Has anyone happened to have found a review that shows the combined City of Lanterns and Monkie Kid’s team hideout? For the life of me, I can’t get a good look at the two of them.

1. Diagon Alley 2. Attack on the Burrow 3. Hogsmeade 3. Astronomy Tower 4. Grimmauld Place 5. Clock Tower 6. Hogwarts (D2C) 7. New Horntail 8. Hagrid's Hut 9. Shrieking Shack 10. Hedwig 11. Great Hall 12. Great Hall and Chamber of Secrets 13. Dumbledore's Office 14. Quidditch Practice 15. Newt's Case Edit: Rearranged a couple things and added the Shrieking Shack

Promobricks has put what are apparently the piece counts on their story. It does look like the Brachiosaurus and t Rex will be molded based off of that, but I do not like the idea of a less than 700 piece visitor center--that is ridiculously tiny, I do not think you can even make a façade with that.

I'm not so sure about that. The trilogy has only got three movies, and it would absolutely not be sustainable to do an Evergreen theme based around just that--hell, even with the Hobbit trilogy and Rings of Power it might not be enough. Just take a look at our modern major evergreen film themes--Star Wars has 11 films and several shows with new stuff coming out all the time, HP has 8 films (plus Fantastic Beasts), the MCU has what, 30 movies by now(?), at least 6 shows, and is constantly releasing new stuff. There is of course JW and Avatar, but they really do not get anywhere near as much content per year as the first three. I would love and expect a focus on the trilogy, but I think only doing that will kill the theme pretty quickly.

I still don't love all of the design choices, but yeah, it looks a lot better here than it did on the box. I honestly think it might actually have surpassed the Ultimate Quinjet for me, it looks a lot like the real thing.

Hmmm. I gotta say, I don't love the recent price trends of HP. I've always felt that it is one of the most reasonably priced themes, especially compared to other licensed ones such as Marvel or Star Wars. It was undoubtedly starting to go up this year with examples such as the Shrieking Shack and Grimmauld Place, but with the May wave and some of the leaked prices, I am concerned we are going to start seeing sets with worse and worse ppp ratios.

I feel like we’re all just a wee bit too quick to jump to it being the gunship. Obviously I’d like one, but it’s rather difficult to base our new assumptions based off of older waves—things have changed so much since 2013, and there’s not much rhyme or reason to what Lego does when they aren’t making something new. I’d quite like a gunship, but it gets risky banking on things like this, especially since we have really no clue at all what’s coming next year. At this point in the year, I’d bet more money against it being a gunship than it being a gunship. I could easily be wrong, but it’s just dangerous to get into hard assumptions at this point, even with the couple clues we have.

Ayo what? I have not heard about this before. Also, concur with the above two to wish you all Merry Christmas!

I would absolutely agree with that on a moral stance. The good news is that I really doubt Microsoft has not considered this, and are probably planning on fixing up the company if the buyout goes through. They're planning on firing Kotick, right?

uhhhh....not enough money

Alright, short thoughts: The lake builds are really quite cool, but it feels kind of small and incomplete, like it needs one or two more figures. The number of new molds doesn’t really seem proportional to the price and cost, but it’s a neat little build. Still, this would have been a really good opportunity to introduce one of the last missing figures: Barry Crouch Sr. The room of requirement is neat, I like the way they have the fiendfyre. I’m still not sold on the new castle style, but it’s nice for what it is. I’d kind of like a definitive room of requirement set at some point, however, not just a segment. Banners are alright. Pretty much just the books really, but I like the detail they have. I’ve always liked the original Griffindor quidditch team, so getting Angelina is nice, but I almost certainly won’t be getting these just cause I’m not interested. I suppose it’s not a bad wave, but nothing particularly special for me—I’ve still gotta get Grimmauld Place and the Shrieking Shack. Also, who are the new students? I don’t recognize them, are they book characters that didn’t get featured very much? If so, that’s kind of cool, definitely neat since I’ve always kind of fixated on background characters.

I mean it's low, but not much worse than last year, so I really would not worry about that.

I mean the fact that Lego ignored where it’s placed in the first place means they do not care about the people that will get angry online, so I can’t imagine them adjusting it just to make it look a tiny bit better to that group. And for that matter, did that sway anyone who was going to buy that set not to get it? I don’t think it makes much sense to them to do that. Regarding waving at our crystal balls and maniacally cackling as we predict the future, I’m unsure about a Muunilist gunship. I suppose it could happen, but something tells me a regular one would be more popular. Also, you all know that I’m the last one to jump to conclusions about future clone sets (other than that one time, I’m still sorry about that mods), but I really wouldn’t be surprised if we got a Bly or someone similar sometime down the line given we’ve got that piece—it seems really strange to just use a one off for a battle pack. With that said, stranger things have happened. I wouldn’t put money on it either way though, I could see Lego forgetting about it. Back on topic, I quite like the battle pack. I’ll probably get one since I started playing BF2 this year and I quite like it.

Looks good. I wasn't really thinking about getting this, but at this point I'm tempted since I quite like it and I still don't have the new version of Vader. In addition, I'm really happy to see new (relatively) stuff from Empire, I think that's a good sign.

Haven't seen Temple of Doom or BvS, but yes, LotR is absolutely darker than the rest of those films. It's stupid to get wrapped in how dark movies are, but RotK gets pretty dark--they straight up catapult severed heads into Gondor, and even if it's not shown, it's absolutely a little unsettling, especially for 7 year olds.

Kind of a crucial part here though, I must admit. I'd love a full theme, I would probably even trade in Star Wars or perhaps a couple toes for one, but I don't think it has the same cultural appeal with younger kids. I didn't get a chance to watch to watch the trilogy till I was a teenager, whereas I have always loved HP and SW and even wanted Super Heroes sets before I had seen the movies. I think Lego's hesitance to make a full castle theme may speak to the fact that they are worried classic fantasy selling well with children, and they have largely gone adult with that era. LEGO is probably pretty hesitant to make themes that are aimed more for teens, rather than all ages--just look at the difference between Overwatch (even ignoring Blizzard being filled with scumbags) and Minecraft. Then again, it's entirely possible you are right here, maybe kids just have not been given a good chance to get fantasy sets and have not really explored it yet.

I don't know, it kind of depends on how big the theme goes. I know the movies were not particularly loved (though Lego constantly makes sets based off of bad movies, even old ones), but I also feel like they lend themselves pretty well to sets. I don't think the 2012-13 Hobbit sets were particularly good, but there is a lot of potential for improvement to do more. In addition, the figures are insanely expensive, so even if that's not a great metric, it certainly shows there is some demand for more. Now, if Lego just goes the route of one set a year or so, I can see them ignoring the Hobbit, but if we get a full reboot like HP I doubt they would ignore the Hobbit, particularly considering that I really doubt LotR can last for more than 4 years on just the trilogy alone. I know Fantastic Beats (typo, but a hilarious one) was relatively ignored, but the HP films on their own have almost three times as much content to make things off of than the trilogy. I also feel like its worth mentioning that although the Hobbit wasn't loved, it certainly was not absolutely despised or just straight up hated, at least not the way some mediocre franchise films are. Given it's an adaption of a book, it still is an integral part of the LotR universe, and it seems to be for better or for worse, getting the Reddit-Prequels treatment.

I'm worried this got lost, but I was joking when I said it was an Among Us reference.

I would say they are closer to Among Us than anything. Anyways, the trailer. I don't actually love the Bowie--maybe it's weird, but I kind of just prefer the regular Ravager birds. With that said, if the set looks cool, I might be interested. Regardless of how good the movie is, a well built lego spaceship is a well built lego spaceship.

One of the angles on the quinjet makes it look like it's the best version of it ever made, but the other angle makes it look absolutely terrible, and I cannot decide which one it is... I think I need to see more photos to decide, but I'm leaning towards not getting it. The Morbius set is of course absolutely necessary, I might grab the Ghost Rider one if I get a chance and have the cash, and although it's neat, I already quite like the old Hulkbuster, although I must admit, the Bruce is quite good.

I wasn't on EB then but I was paying attention, and IIRC this is correct. We knew the Final Duel was a retail exclusive and had piece count, price, and number, but did not know until it leaked, and we had no idea that there even was something coming for the Transport.

Generally. He doesn’t usually get big scoops, but sometimes he gets things before everyone else does, and doesn’t usually seem to just make random stuff up. I’m willing to buy into it for now, considering no one has disproved it yet.