BrickMatit

I don't know if the price in euros will be identical to the one in dollars, so I'll limit my little analysis to last year, taking into consideration only the Hogsmeade set. Here how much it should have cost Hogsmeade using other sets price per piece ratio. Diagon Alley (2020) -> 232€ Diagon Alley (current price) -> 262€ Hogwarts Express (2022) -> 314€ Gringotts (2023) -> €289 The Burrow (2024) -> 349€ The increase ratio between the first one and the last one is 64%, while the cumulative inflation was 25% in Eurozone. LEGO may have had to bear costs higher than average inflation, for example for raw material or transportation costs, but the fact its net profit continues to grow in percentage terms year over year suggests than only a part of the price increases are due to costs. Anyway, whatever the cause of the price increase, in the end you receive less than before for what you pay. And if your earnings didn't increase by 64% in these years - likely - well the effect will be even bigger. LEGO is squeezing AFOLs, but it's not that many of them aren't happy to be squeezed. As @RODDY says, the fear is that Harry Potter was Starwarsified.

The start of a new castle system - the fourth since 2018 - doesn't surprise me: the three-year scheme -is quite established, and while I still have some hopes that LEGO will surprise us with an Astronomy Tower set, I don't actually believe it a lot. I don't know how trustable the source describing the set is, but both him and Unibrick said that 76483: First Year at Hogwarts Castle set is movie based and we can assume also 76479: Harry meets Dobby set is, considering the series won't show that scene before the second season. Price point for the first set is said to be 109,99$ and using the price per piece ratio of the last Great Hall, we can suppose that the First Year set should have nearly 960 pieces. Just as a comparison, the 2018 Great Hall had 878 pieces, the last one 1732. So, assuming the set is a playset and not something else, we can conclude that this could easily be the starting point for a new Hogwarts system - even if it's strange for LEGO to start it in January and not in summer, like it used to since 2018. The only reason for this, I think could be the put on air of the TV series, so It will be interesting to see if there will be also series based sets - at least to give old collectors some not appeared before characters or locations and of course something series related for people liking it. The fact that LEGO sticks with the very first movies when launching a new castle was discussed a lot in the past, but it's perfectly understandable. Considering the probable number of pieces this Great Hall would be a downsize version of the location, compared with the last one from the most detailed Hogwarts castle and, by the way, it's understandable too: it gives people a more affordable castle both in price and in space requested. Certainly, this will pretty likely rule out the possibility to add new sets to the current layout without a heavy moccing work.

Unibrick on IG has this update on creator ship: "The Pirate ship is a near spitting image of the last Creator Pirate ship". It's hard to imagine how much a spitting image is spitting, I suppose.

I perfectly know that I will never be able to display all the sets together in the suggested way and there's no way I can have more than the front line of the layout - so no Hospital Wing displayed. Living with a family means making compromises on the use of space. Anyway, I and my brother - with whom I share the collection - think that this will be the definitive Hogwarts Castle - at least for us. My Great Hall, Boathouse and Main Tower stands at the top of a living room cupboard and the Main Tower is missing the top, 'cause there's the ceiling. I have space at least for the Viaduct Entrance section, not aligned correctly with the rest of the castle and maybe the Astronomy Tower, reduced in height. In future, we're thinking about making room on a square coffee table in the living room, next to the sofa and put there all the castle.

On contrary, I don't see the Astronomy Tower has a D2C set. It has a different shape from the main tower, but its size isn't so different, so it could be simply part of the regular sets. Furthermore, having a black-box set to complete a regular set is not something we've seen until now for LEGO Harry Potter. Usually they're set that stand on its own - being microfigure, so really different from playsets (Hogwarts Castle and Grounds or Diagon Alley) or being targeted at adult collectors more than to Hogwarts castle completist (Hogsmeade, Burrow, Gringotts, Hogwarts Express).

At this point, I'd say it will likely have both Viaduct Entrance and Astronomy Tower - set CoS based.

A good remake, of course for people who have not the 2022 previous one, would be a Shrieking Shak + Whomping Willow. It could easily merge with the Hogsmeade set and add the tree as part of Hogwarts fields.

On Tiago Catarino Youtube channel a 30 minutes long review of all january wave.

The retiring of the Great Hall would certainly be indicative.

On Cheesey Studio youtube channel there's a video with all the sets put together.

Oh, thank you. I had no time to search the source of that image, but I still considered it too strange for Hogwarts - really nothing I would have called Hogwarts.

@krimimimi in general, I can think to a lot of features that a smart play system and smart bricks could add to LEGO Harry Potter and I'd likely not appreciate any of them Cost of having them in sets is, in my opinion, the main limit on what LEGO could and would put inside. We've already seen a sound brick in the Sorting Hhat set. My main fear is, of course, that future sets - not only Harry Potter's ones - will cost more and offer less than today in term of bricks, buildings, structures and minifigures. The idea of future sets being connected through an online application or that need an application to perfectly work is not something that excites me. I buy my set to build them - well, of course - to expose them and to play with them and I don't think this smart play system would add something relevant at my relationship with LEGO.

From here: LEGO Smart Play: What to Expect from LEGO’s Main Selling Point in 2026 LEGO describes it as "the smartest LEGO brick we’ve ever built." The Smart Brick reacts to everything builders do, from how it is held, moved, or incorporated into a build. Its main features include: LED Lighting and Sounds: The Smart brick adds a new dynamic to play with lights, character sounds and environmental effects. Sensors and Scannable Tags: Much like the technology used in the LEGO Super Mario theme, the Smart Brick will be able to detect colours, barcodes and RFID-enabled LEGO Minifigures. Electronic Minifigure Integration: Certain Smart Play Minifigures will be fully interactive, triggering effects on the Smart Brick and possibly responding to app-based events. These figures will have completely modified parts compared to standard LEGO Minifigures, resulting in the torso and legs being permanently attached. Wireless Charging: Smart Play and the Smart Brick will feature wireless charging, ensuring the brick can be used for extended periods of play. Reports claim this will involve a charging pad which creates a charging field, allowing built models with the brick to be placed on the pad.

Yes, not sure how much of a hint is the LEGO box, but I think at least Viaduct Entrance is pretty certain. Not sure about Astronomy Tower: the 71043_Hogwarts Castle hadn't it and it doesn't appear on the background silhouette you find in instruction booklet, but it appears in the background of the Main Tower box. Probably 'cause it would appeared too much out of position, considering they're trying to give us "the most detailed Hogwarts castle" and following the real castle silhouette.

It's the central part of the Viaduct Entrance. You can see it in LEGO form in Castello di Hogwarts™ 71043 | Harry Potter™ | LEGO® Shop ufficiale IT.