BrickMatit

You can see three singing ghosts here for a few seconds from 0.16. Christmas Preparations at Hogwarts | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (youtube.com)

Yes From what I've seen until now, no.

Agree with you.

Starting from march 2024 LEGO has launched a new Hogwarts modular system; this is the third one from 2018: from 2018 to 2021 the first one, from 2021 to 2023 the second one. This third modular system is marketed by LEGO as "the most detailed LEGO brick-built Hogwarts Castle scene ever": the Owlery set and the Castle Boathouse set are part of this scene, as well as the summer 200$ Great Hall. Hagrid's Hut, Ford Anglia, Forbidden Forest and Draco Malfoy in the forest polybag are not marketed as part of this scene, but are in any case part of the new system.

Yes, I didn't remember it

I imagine any of the March sets is part of the new system. And for the Great Hall I expect it to be open on the internal side, like the 2018 Great Hall... and for stickers, well, there are even in the Gringott's collectors set, so it's an educated guess to expect them even in the Great Hall.

I think Potion Classroom, mainly its outside part, will be interesting from this point, considering the fact, as suggested, that this set could be switched with part of the Great Hall underground section. Will it have an outside part or will it be more a open space set? Will it have rocky outside? Or the rocky cliff will be part of the Great Hall only?

That's an interesting idea: leaving the rock exterior part in the bigger and high price set can save pieces in minor sets instead of need to increase prices or reduce details.

Well, it could be possible that the Potions Classroom set has the dimensions to both go under the Great Hall or under future sections of the castle. If it's true that one can switch rooms under the Great Hall, Potions Classroom has to have a full rock exterior, I imagine, and this could work as underground section of others buildings.

Thanks! I should had imagine it

The fact that the Snape's Classroom set is said to have the same dimension of one of the room under the Great Hall set could even suggest a sort of modularity so that one could rearrange Hogwarts sections like in the last 2021-2023 castle.

For what I understand, the dungeon will have a secret passage, Hufflepuff common room (maybe the secret passage is the entrance to Hufflepuff section), a corridor and a bathroom (for the Troll scene I imagine).

This is really interesting. The Great Hall promises a lot in term of building. I hope the ghost will be one between the Fat Friar and Bloody Baron (the other hopely will be in the Advent Calendar) and it's good to see the return of the Troll. My polish is not so good... I don't know a single word , and Google doesn't help me to totally understand the description (what's the meaning in the context of latające świecie?) It will be interesting to see the Durmstrang Ship return, but I would have expected more in term of minifigures: really lacking. The price is bring up by sails, I imagine. As a long time playset collector I'm not interested in the other sets (just how the Potion lesson interact with the new Castle design and if Advent Calendar have something to justify a purchase), but I gladly give way to new collectors

In the comment section of his last video Brick Clicker suggested that we could have updates on Harry Potter sets probably sometime this month.

It's so... I would say strange... seeing people debating wheter a 180$ set like the Blacksmith or a 400$ set like the Lion Knight's Castle is aimed at kids... I was born in 1990 and as a kid I would have never been able to buy anything so high priced with my money and in no way my parents would have bought it... but probably nowadays kids has better syndicates and higher pocketmoneys . Seriously, I think the Lion Knight's Castle is more a playset, while the Blacksmith is more a display set. I will say that the castle is aimed to adult wallets with kids style while the blacksmith to adult wallets with adult style . And don't forget the black box!

I've just finished building it and, while I would had prefered something different, being not really interested in the massive underground section, this set is really well done. I really appreciated the building process and the ending result is impressive. As a set I would give it a 9.5/10 rating: it's gorgeous, apart for some minor issues like the "Gringot ts" sticker. Rating decreased to 8.5/10 just for my personal taste. In any case, this set stand over other 2023 sets. Count me too Really interested in seeing what LEGO has reserved for the 200$ Great Hall, even to try to understand what LEGO decided for the following years in term of recreating Hogwarts castle. The return of Durmstrang ship, but I haven't the 2005 one so it wouldn't be a return more a first time for me, is intriguing too. I admit that the Burrow, while being, by the survey, visually appealing, and likely having all the Weasley family, is not something I'm tempted by so much as by Gringotts when we heard about it.

I haven't built it yet, but I agree with you. Already having Diagon Alley, I really would have prefered if Gringott was paired with other buildings at street level, like Leaky Cauldron and Borgin and Burkes... For this reason, for me, while Diagon Alley is a 9/10 rating set, Gringotts is a 7/10 rating set.

The last week I built some sets I had not time to build before; in those there was also the 76423_Hogwarts Express and Hogsmeade Station. Originally I was not sure about purchasing it. I already had the 2018 75955_Howgarts Express and I was not convinced enough by the new set. In the end, I was gift with this set, so I can't compain too much, but I'm not really satisfied by this new Hogwarts Express. Hogsmeade station is a pretty, neat building, for me it's the strongest part of the set. There one minor defects, unavoidable: using glasses for two windows break the harmony of the building, but there are no grates for the 1x2x2 frame. Minifigure selection is obliged by the scene (Philosopher's Stone ending). Nothing special. I appreciate the new Train conductor, but for a long time collector like me minifigures don't justify the purchase of the set. Rails pieces inclusion could be appreciated for exposing purposes and to push parents into buying more rails for their kids but the fact that you can't even put the entire train on the rails is a small minus. What I find really lacking in comparison with the 2018 set is the train. The new locomotive seems, at least for my unexpert eye, more faithfull to the original train but the space for the conductor is so small that not even a kid minifigure could stay in it unless without hairpiece. For playability this is a strong minus. Even the tender has less playability than the 2018 version, in which this part can be opened. And for the carriage... I've read one of the designers saying that roof is lighter in a new train and becames darker for smoke, but I wouldn't have change a long time element of this LEGO train, that has black roof since 2001... and I don't remember ever having seen this light grey for the Hogwarts Express even outside of LEGO. Even the decision of having two carriages instead of one, driven by the request of LEGO fan, while appreciable in theory doesn't end very well in practice. In my opinion the final result is like having a modelling locomotive pulling two toy carriages. I find it really out of proportion in the end, even for a playset, both as a stand alone and in comparison with the 2018 train. Concluding, I find the train a worse version of the 2018, both in term of playability and representation. I save the Hogsmeade station. Probably buying pieces to build the station and purchasing only the train conductor would have been a better idea. But, as I said, it was a gift, so really I can't complain too much Now the 2018 Hogwarts Express is near the Hogsmeade Station in my Hogsmeade section, while the 2023 locomotive and tender with no carriages in King's Cross.

Well, not so out of logic, considering that LEGO put Eldorado Fortress in its Medieval dedicated sets category on LEGO.com

Front and rear of the box on IG.

@krimimimi anyway, for a white unicorn I would accept also a Grubbly-Plank lesson set with a tree, a unicorn, the professor and Hermione While Firenze could appear with Harry, Fang and Quirrell/Voldemort in a different Forbidden Forest set. LEGO, take note!

The unicorn is always alive, of course. You can see it in this video ( Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4: Level 5 The Forbidden Forest STORY - HTG (youtube.com) ). Minute 1:40 the initial clip, with Quirrell/Voldemort with knife and fork and 9:15 the ending video with the arrival of Firenze. I think it would be a nice idea: dementor lower body, black torso, cape and hood. The head, of course would have to be really different from the movie one, in which unicorn blood dripps from Quirrell/Voldemort mouth. And while I would really appreciate having a unicorn, the movie scene make it unlikely, in my opinion, that LEGO will produce it.

For Durmstrang ship and Beauxbatons carriage I would expect from 7 to 11 minifigures. 7 is the minimum acceptable, I think: Crouch sr.; Karkaroff, Krum and one student for Durmstrang; Md. Maxime, Fleur and one student for Beauxbatons. The presence of Crouch sr. is really interesting and I'm wondering if he would be put simply on the ground with no context (like Hagrid in Beauxbatons carriage) or if LEGO would put in the set a small side build, like a little piece of lake and terrain (something like the lake+ground+tree of 2019 Expecto Patronum set). Increasing the number of minifigure from 7 to 8, I think Gabrielle Delacour (maybe in her entrance dance outfit) would be a logic choiche. And two other students, one for each school, would bring the number of minifigures to 10. I admit that the presence of Crouch sr. give me not only the idea of the terrain side build, but also of the possible presence of Moody/Barty, from the scene in which Crouch sr. understands who Moody really is. That would bring the number of minifigures to 11 or, with less students, to 9. Or to 8, with Moody/Barty and no Gabrielle. But I don't really believe in Moody/Barty scenery too much.

It's a strange statement, isn't it? There's no a specific Great Hall for every movie, but it changes scene by scene even within the same movie (in Philosopher Stone we have Sorting Ceremony, Halloween feast and and End-of-term feast). But giving credence to the statement the only thing I could imagine is LEGO making tables easiliy movable and removable and maybe giving further pieces to create other scenes. For example the Dueling Club platform or the Goblet of Fire number ... how many of this we already have? Or pumpkin decorations for Halloween and four Houses banners. People that collect the theme since 2018 already have some objects to recreate the Yule Ball (Advent Calendar 2020 and Clock Tower) and Christmas Scenery (Advent Calendar 2019 and 2020). The PoA specific night scene needs something to recreate sleeping bags, while the OWL exam scene could be probably simply made by rearranging pieces from Great Hall tables, but there's also the big pendulum... Different pieces of forniture and decoration is what you need to change Great Hall appearence beyween different scenes and movies.

If LEGO believed that small LOTR sets could be profitable and compatible with their enterprise strategies, they would have done them. Try look at Harry Potter as a comparison of two themes covered by LEGO in very different way since the beginning (and Harry Potter have its big, adult and pricy sets like Microscale Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Icons, Gringotts... probably the Burrow) and so on. When LEGO started investing in LOTR, designing Rivendell and Barad-Dur, they likely had an idea of what the market could be and how to invest in it. I imagine at that time they had done some surveys before and found out what was the most interesting target considering, for example, age, willing of pay, what they expected by LEGO and valuing other themes active or in developement. And LEGO produced what they thought would fit the market: big, detailed and, on consequence, pricy sets, targeted to adult and something small and collectable like Brickheadz. I'm not saying we won't ever see an entire wave of playsets or something more affordable (not considering Brickheadz) than Rivendell and Barad-Dur, cause strategies can change, but I won't hold breath waiting for them.