brickbride

We can argue all day if Drum Island will be a playset by anyone's definition but my point stands regardless: The cheapest set likely to include Luffy will be EUR 50 or so, this is clearly more of an adults/display theme than a kids' theme. Does your idea for collectible Baroque Works members include Mr 7, then? Because given his only full appearance in the live action I very much doubt LEGO would go there.

Buildable Chopper. Buildable Gum-Gum Fruit. Buildable Giants have also been reported before and we don't really know that the Little Garden set will contain anything else. That would be three out of seven, nearly half. And we've had this discussion before in the HP forum but large sets like Drum Island and the Marine Ship that are clearly aimed at collectors in terms of price, minifig selection, and subject matter (what kid wants to play "Marine Ship"?) I don't count as playsets. This wave will likely have two sets, tops, that could be of interest to your average kid (the Loguetown chase and Chopper with Hiriluk). And that only with qualifications. Like with the first wave, the smallest set is not really an "affordable set for kids", giving us, say, Luffy and Zoro (the most popular characters) for a small price the way it would be in other themes (even with a really stupid execution like a Luffy mech or Zoro in his racecar chasing Luffy or what have you). It's really more of an add-on for adult collectors, giving us characters that aren't in any other sets so you have to pay extra for them (Shanks and Makino, and now Hiriluk). Don't tell me that your average kid that enjoys One Piece but whose parents are on a budget would be happy playing with just Young Luffy, Shanks, and Makino, and now Chopper and Hiriluk. All in all, despite the overall family appeal of One Piece (there's a kids' dub, the manga is popular amongst kids, the first Netflix season somehow managed a PG-13 rating mostly on technicalities and even won two Kids' Emmys), LEGO seem to treat it more like an adults theme IMO. EDIT: I've found it a common misconception on this forum, and in other forums, that LEGO (or any large business really) would put the customer first. They do not. Of course they advertise it that way, but they do not. In this case: Some people seem to think that LEGO would have any interest in giving us a complete line-up of One Piece characters. But really why would they? What they want to do instead is pick whatever they think sells best. They won't give us a third wave with all the stuff they've left out of the first two, since all of that would be a bigger risk (in terms of whether it would sell) than just going with the staples. Which means we'll continue getting the most iconic and well-known stuff (Merry, Baratie ...) and the more popular and marketable stuff out of the rest (thus three sets out of seven with Chopper because he's cute). But Kuro, Kuroobi, Kaya, and various assassins aren't particularly popular or iconic so LEGO doesn't care if we miss out on them. It's like people constantly clamouring for playsets for LOTR. I keep pointing out that no kid these days is interested in LOTR, thus no playsets. Mostly what those people really mean is that they want LEGO to make cheaper sets for the theme, but again why would they? LEGO don't care whether you can afford to only pay USD 50 but would love to have a LOTR set. Sure, if they don't make one, they'll miss out on your fifty bucks. But there are probably more people who would also like to just pay fifty bucks but instead grit their teeth and buy Bag End instead since there's no other option, so overall LEGO make more money by not giving us mid-size LOTR sets. They aren't obligated to make the theme accessible to those on a small budget, and they don't care to do so because for all their marketing they don't really put the customers first, they put themselves first. We will continue getting what sells, and if it's stupid Gum-Gum Fruits than it'll be stupid Gum-Gum Fruits galore. And not just in this theme, either - like I've said "round shapes with a scene in it" are a thing these days. If they do well overall (Gum-Gum Fruit, HP Cauldron, football stadium ...), we'll have a miniature Death Star with Palpatine in it over at SW in no time. Just like we're now getting Chopper after the (presumed) success of HP Dobby and Marvel Groot.

I doubt it, though. All the stuff they left out is less iconic and/or family-friendly (creepy Kuro, Whiskey Peak, various assassins). And given how much even the Merry and Baratie get discounted these days, and how the second wave will mainly consist of buildable figs and large collectors' sets, LEGO don't seem confident in the theme's overall mass appeal. Again this is quite independent from the Netflix series' success. Avatar 2 is a good example (a terrible movie IMO but a good example) that a property's success and a LEGO theme's success don't have to go hand in hand. (Though One Piece definitely has more collectors' potential than Avatar 2 in terms of merch, but that also means more competition for LEGO.)

Did we really need the Gum-Gum Fruit (which I predicted would come at the expense of Whiskey Peak and/or Loguetown) and two Chopper sets? But LEGO don't care about accurately representing the entire season or anything like that. Every theme these days gets cute buildable creatures galore (Dobby, Groot), so Chopper it is. Every theme gets stupid buildable round shapes with a scene in it (HP Cauldron, soccer ball with a stadium in it), so Gum-Gum Fruit it is. To round out the wave, even more buildable creatures and then the big, minifig-laden sets collectors buy. Oh, and motorbikes. LEGO has a thing about those, too.

I think the show is doing fine but that doesn't always have to translate into set sales. For example Avatar 2 was a huge box office hit but the sets were shelf-warmers. With One Piece I got the impression that a lot of fans bought the whole set wave right away in order to show support, but the sets themselves aren't all that attractive to casual viewers (pricing, figure selection, design), thus the recent discounts. Which is probably why they're going in a different direction with the season two wave (fewer playsets, more buildable objects/creatures). We'll see how this pans out. Netflix: build sets for Loguetown and Whiskey Peak LEGO: make a purple orb and stick two season 1 minifigures of the same character next to it (one with a new face print but still) Also it's EUR 70 for 482 pieces AND part-exclusive? Yikes. It's like they WANT to kill this theme.

I still think we might be due a new Hogwarts Express. The last one (Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade Station) went EOL in 2025 and was part-exclusive as well. Though USD 130/1182 pieces is actually kind of cheap for one - the last one had slightly fewer pieces and was EUR 130 so with LEGOflation I'd guess we'd be up to EUR 150 or so by now.

I don't think it is. I mostly agree with you that, say, 20 or so minifigs would be unheard-of for a playset. And that the number of figs decreases with bigger sets. But until a year or so ago it also used to be unheard of for a so-called playset to cost EUR 250, and as that seems to be the new norm it doesn't seem unreasonable to me to expect at least a couple more figs for a set this expensive. It's not like they'd run out of characters; so far most every bigger set in the new system had noteworthy omissions, plus there's still missing characters like Burbage which have never been made. Actually I've just looked it up: The old Chamber ended up being EUR 150 (it used to be less before at least one price increase, possibly two (I can't remember exactly), but let's go with that). It had 11 figs, one of which was a golden anniversary figure so let's not count that, too. That would give us one fig per every EUR 15 spent. In terms of the East Wing that would amount to 16-17 figs. I'd expect most people would be happy with 14-15 (which would at least give us Pince, Filch, and possibly Trelawney for a more complete Hogwarts roster). Do you really think that unreasonable? For comparison, Ninjago City had 19 figs and was EUR 300. Ninjago City Gardens had 22 figs for EUR 350. The Daily Bugle (a licenced set from a fairly expensive IP) had 25 figs for EUR 350! Granted neither of them are playsets but again, we're far outside of what used to be playset pricing here.

If you want to call a decades-old spectre of the Dark Lord and one of his undead victims students, then sure I guess. ;-) I don't even think it holds up in terms of minifig parts since Tom's uniform would likely be too old-fashioned to be of much use for modern-day students, and Myrtle would have ghost colouring.

You say that. I say that EUR 250 list price is nuts for a regular retail set. I guess technically Tom Riddle could be among the "3 students", leaving a spot for someone else, but I doubt it - his uniform should be noticably different (if we go by the 2021 version) and he should have "adult" legs, so overall would be hard to mistake for a regular student. So 3 more students (likely including Justin, Colin, and maybe Millicent or Blaise Zabini) plus Tom Riddle would be my interpretation/guess.

So to recap the lineup is: basilisk + 12 minifigs (which isn't that much really - the last Chamber of Secrets from 2021 had 11 figs + basilisk and cost EUR 120 less): Bloody Baron, Myrtle; Harry, Ron, Hermione; Ginny, Draco; Lockhart; 3 other students. Unless the basilisk counts as a minifig, there should be one other, and Tom Riddle is the most noteworthy omission (he was in both the 2002 and 2021 Chambers). I'm glad to see (hopefully Cat-Headed) Hermione and also Draco. I don't expect more than one Slytherin among the other students, if that. (Colin and Justin are likely choices.) Also this means that we'll likely get no Pomfrey (which was always a long shot), Pince, Filch, or other teacher. I agree that it's weird of them to call it "Knockturn Alley shops" and then only include a single Knockturn Alley shop. But I expect the second shop to be a cheaply made afterthought (like the Owl Post Office in WWW or Madam Malkin's with all the stickered panels) so I wouldn't expect much from it no matter what they picked. Divination in the dungeons wouldn't have been so great either. But I can't understand why they don't include it in the East Wing. Like I've said before, all you really need to do is cram a crystal ball into one of the towers and add Trelawney to the line-up with a teacup in hand. Also while I thought Lupin's DADA was really disappointing, I wouldn't call this redemption. Lupin's DADA is still the most boring possible iteration of that scene (no Snape Boggart), and while the East Wing presumably includes the pixies, Lockhart would have to have been included anyway because of the Chamber so unless you're particularly attached to the idea of pixies you don't get anything new out of this.

Where was that person when they used bright light orange as a stand-in for gold on all the Moments books? ;-)

EDIT AFTER BRICKMATIT'S ANSWER: Never mind me, I stand corrected. I was wondering why the Main Tower would have a new Slytherin Quidditch torso for Marcus Flint of all people but it's been pointed out that the torso isn't new, just the combination with the hands. And here I though there might be Great Lego Quidditch Conspiracy LOL. ;-)

The Hospital Wing had Penelope Clearwater as the sole Ravenclaw. The Great Hall had Leanne Nolastname as the sole Hufflepuff. The Main Tower is the outlier but then again Gryffindor always gets special treatment (and the random Gryffindors in there were Percy, Neville and Dean, so no females). We've already had Daphne Greengrass in the Great Hall and a completely out-of-place Markus Flint in the Main Tower, so it's not like you couldn't populate your Slytherin Common Room if you bought all those sets (which LEGO clearly want you to do). There might still be more than one Slytherin especially if they want to include Draco for plot purposes and also bait people who collect new characters (like Millicent), but it's not a guarantee.

Which sets are you looking forward to buying? My answer is: none. I already own the old Expecto Patronum, and anything else is out of my price range or just not interesting to me. I'm pretty sure 4730 will forever be the definitive Chamber of Secrets set. (If by that you mean the Chamber as a location, not CoS as a book/movie.) The flagship set of the 2021 system did a good job overall but I can't really count it given that Myrtle's bathroom was a separate set you had to buy extra in order to make the slide function work; if you combine those two you'll come pretty close, though. I wouldn't expect much from the East Wing in terms of Chamber design given that it's said to only include a "small" chamber. You need enough room for it to have a certain grandeur.

For easier reference I've compiled a current list of all the summer wave sets - hope I haven't forgotten anything: - 76462: Buildable Hogwarts House Crest (14+, 542 pcs.) USD 50 - 76469: Buildable Dobby the Free Elf (2-in-1 with Kreacher) (8+, 379 pcs.) USD 25 - 76471: Playset Diagon Alley Series: Knockturn Alley Shops (8+, 788 pcs.) USD 100 - 76473: Hogwarts Castle Series: East Wing (10+, 2164 pcs.) USD 250 - 76474: Buildable Herbology Class Plants (comparable to the Tiny Plants* set from Botanicals) (14+, 817 pcs.) USD 100 - 76475: Playset Expecto Patronum (Harry+Sirius+Dementors+stag) (?, 244 pcs.) USD 30 - 76477: Buildable Baby Dragon Norbert (?, 480 pcs.) USD 50 - 76478: ? (?, 1182 pcs.) USD 130 - possibly part-exclusive (otherwise we'd probably have more information at this point) No advent calendar this year. Seems like the only important missing information are the identity of 76478, the price for the East Wing (I'm thinking at least EUR 250 - EDIT: I've now indeed seen it leaked as USD 250), and any possible D2C. *BTW, the Tiny Plants set (10329) has 758 pieces for only EUR 50 which makes me wonder if we'll get any large specialised prints or so (Mandrake?) in order to make up the huge price difference. Then again, the previous Mandrake had those huge, awful stickers and was also ridiculously expensive so they might just slap a "nerd Botanicals" tax on it regardless of contents.