brickbride

Sure, but that's not what we've got. What we've got is an empty-looking atrium that you have to spruce up by adding elements that should be in the set and instead have been made available only as a limited GWP. If that's fine with you, great, but other people are allowed to have a different opinion. If anything the combination of the Ministry being massively overpriced and the treshold for the GWP being much lower makes it worse IMO. A lot of people are going to hold off on buying the Ministry and a lot of people buying other stuff will sell the GWP because it's no use to them. From what I've previously seen I also expect a lot of people will buy random stuff for EUR 130, resell it slightly cheaper (taking into account that they've gotten points so it's not a loss), and scalp the GWP. It's like LEGO want to encourage that practice.

I'm pretty sure you'll be disappointed on both counts, but here's to hoping.

The design just looks so messy. Like all the stacked plates in different colours going from the Ministry to the street level, and all the black surfaces with no tiling. I like the look of the Hall of Prophecies, and the basic level structure, but overall the set doesn't look finished. I've had the same problem with the recent Hogwarts system, you're supposed to pay premium prices for something slapdash and unpolished. Also: Sirius in the veil scene but no Bellatrix? At least Malfoy Manor included her.

They made a ton of sets for Avatar 2 which became shelf-warmers, of course they wouldn't repeat that mistake (and Avatar 2 actually performed well at the box office but come on. Sets for kids. For that movie!). The same goes for Wakanda Forever - decent box office, bunch of shelf-warmer sets. Pretty much every Marvel movie since that and Eternals has had much more limited LEGO releases. Meanwhile Thor's Goat Boat from the dreadful Thor 4 movie is apparently still popular enough in LEGO form to get a polybag even now, several years after the movie and the set. Box office and set success don't always go hand in hand. You also mentioned Thunderbolts but that movie did at least well enough to allegedly get a sequel. Which is more than can be said for BNW. (To be clear, I do expect there to eventually be a new Cap movie. But it would either have to have Steve as the lead, or Sam would have to team up with a truly popular character who'd have to do all the heavy lifting.) Did it? Isn't BNW the one where everyone thinks they massively underreported their budget in order to show a profit?

That's also true for HP. The 2018 to 2020 rebooted Hogwarts Castle was fairly good value for money - for a licenced theme, that is - and every system since then has progressively gotten much, much worse. Again, the 2018 Great Hall was EUR 100 for a substantial build and ten minifigs. I know some then-children who got it for Christmas, as their big gift, maybe with assistance from the grandparents chipping in. But back then it was one big set a year and none of them went over EUR 100. And it was Harry Potter! Imagine having all your beloved characters in minifig form! And a D2C set for EUR 400 was something very substantial with many, many times the amount of pieces of a playset (again, DA had 5,544 pieces and the microscale Castle had even more) so if you had to save up for it it would totally be worth it. You'd get days and days of building fun and a truly spectacular display out of it. They also were available for a long time so you could spend literally years saving up while dreaming of them. If anything, the D2Cs were much better value for money - in terms of pieces, building time, and end result - than the playsets so you were truly lucky to be able to afford one! Nowadays LEGO are churning out sets and sending them EOL at an alarming rate. The focus has shifted from children to adult collectors so it's no longer "Harry in minifig form" but more like "1,000 variants of Harry Potter, collect 'em all". As a result, EUR 100 in the last system got you a small add-on set like the Hospital Wing that would look pathetic on its own, and D2Cs are no longer all that much more substantial than playsets, or good value for money. (One Piece, I think, is a slightly different case in that it is already a collectors' theme. The line-up makes it obvious; i.e. the smallest and most affordable sets for both waves are both utterly useless to kids who just want stretchy-armed Luffy, they're meant for collectors who want the rarer characters. Also LEGOflation has come a long way since 2018 so that instead of a EUR 100 set with the ten most important characters you now get a EUR 130 set with only five. But overall the somewhat reasonably-priced sets serve the same function as the HP reboot of luring people - in this case, adult collectors - into LEGO.)

So in other words it's like a D2C and thus perfectly comparable to the D2C sets I was referring to? Are you seriously telling me that LEGO would be perfectly happy to give us another Diagon Alley (EUR 400 for 5,544 pieces) if only those greedy licence holders didn't demand a bigger cut? 'Cause that's plainly not true. I can't speak for Disney but I very much doubt that Warner Bros demanded that HP D2Cs go, within a few years, from very good value for money (Diagon Alley) to worse but still okay value (Gringotts) to bad (Hogsmeade) to very bad value for money (Ministry). One indication that I'm right is that LEGO have been jacking up prices across the board. Yes, even in non-licenced themes with no greedy licence holders to pressure them. Yes, even for modulars which as you say are still fairly good value for money. The difference is that usually in non-licenced themes (and especially modulars) there's more competition, whether from other brands or from moccers selling parts lists and instructions. So LEGO can't be as greedy as in licenced themes like HP and just jack up prices every year with no explanation because the fans will buy it anyway. If you look at the modular series, prices remained very palatable for a long time before a price jump in 2019 (from USD 160 to USD 200 - though to be fair the earliest modular sets had considerably fewer pieces and next to no interior design so it's not as egregrious as it sounds) and then another in 2022 (to USD 230). This year's shopping street then gave us another price jump to USD 250 which is reportedly also the price for next year's modular set. (I'm not counting the bigger anniversary sets like Assembly Square and the Museum which were one-offs at USD 300 but a considerably bigger footprint.) So you can see that they've increased prices at a much higher rate than in the past recently - and without any licence holders to push them - but still can't justify a price increase every year with no perceived increase in value lest people go looking elsewhere. Bottom line: LEGO increase prices wherever they feel they can get away with it the most. SW and Marvel are prime candidates because of their obsessed fanbases; if people are willing to pay moon prices on ebay for a clone trooper with slightly different printing or for a spiderman costume variant, obviously LEGO will notice. But HP is catching up fast thanks to, again, all the minifig collectors and completionists and people willing to justify any price because of a unique fabric piece or recoloured mould or whatever. It's different with non-licenced themes where minifigs tend to serve their original function of just decorating the setting (few people obsessively collect modular set minifigs and even fewer, I'd guess, obsessively collect City policemen and crooks) and where if people don't like a set they'll simply forego it. I.e. many modular set collectors left out the Jazz Club and/or Museum because they didn't like the colour schemes used. Whereas fans of licenced themes are much more attached to individual locations and just have to have the Ministry, Oscorp, the Baxter Building (if that one ever gets made), you name it. And LEGO's taking full advantage of it.

I was waiting for that comnent! Sure, fabric is expensive, but we're talking a couple dollars, not literally hundreds of dollars. The Lion Knights Castle a couple of years ago had over 1000 pieces more than the Ministry, all prints no stickers, custom printed fabric pieces, and it cost USD 400 (which was already considered very steep and not really justifiable). It wasn't licenced but it's comparable IMO because Castle fans are willing to pay whatever, and LEGO know it. We've even had custom fabric pieces in licenced GWPs like the LotR Fell Beast, not to mention Harry's invisibility cloak in playsets. So I really don't think the fabric pieces add that much to the budget.

The new modular building has been leaked (clock tower). It reportedly has 3264 pieces and will cost USD 250, making me question the Ministry's pricing even more.I know yada yada licencing costs but USD 200 more for like 200 pieces more?

The overall reception of the microscale Hogwarts seems to be positive but I'm really underwhelmed by it. Maybe it's because I've seen that silhouette in LEGO form so many times. I also think that Harry and Hedwig are a truly uninspired choice. Not only would Dumbledore have been more appropriate IMO, but Dumbledore (maybe in Blue Violet) and Fawkes flying overhead would have been some much-needed pops of colour. As for the Ministry, it does look more substantial than the sketch but I honestly cannot see it selling well. Frankly I think the playset did the material more justice given the difference in price points. I wonder how hard it would be to moc the playset into something more resembling this (adding a rock base and street level). Yes it would be much smaller but the space here doesn't always seem to be utilized well. I don't see USD 450 worth of stuff here especially given how empty the street and middle levels look. The black street also doesn't match the cobblestones of the DA at all, nor does it seem to be on baseplates for connectability. EDIT: It's hard to count but I'd say the entire thing is roughly 32 studs long, and maybe something like 10 studs deep?

TBF Ron's in a lot of the more affordable sets (Ford Anglia, Aragog, and so on). And we've had a whopping TWO female polybag characters since 2018 and now get yet another male. It's mostly been Harrys but also Draco, Dumbledore, and Neville. Why not Luna or something for a change so that girls can have some representation too?

Yet another microscale Hogwarts Castle but this time with a giant monster owl carrying a giant monster broom flying over it, no thanks. I assume they're trying to do the forced perspective thing from the Cho polybag but it's not a great attempt IMO. Couldn't they have at least built a Thestral or something to scale? Also that Harry looks both boring and familiar, is it really new and exclusive? Ministry looks like it should topple over any second. At least Malfoy Manor had those stairs keeping it upright, and the 2021 Hogwars system had space for the figs - here the lowest level doesn't even. I doubt the GWP will be this Ministry-specific (as in an actual Ministry room), more like vaguely connected - Umbridge's Hogwarts Office might be a possibility. Last I checked there should be a GWP (set) and then another Ministry-specific GWP that's not a set like the Weasley Clock for the Burrow.

And the entire thing comes to only 3,491 pieces? Gringotts (which can be said to also have three levels if you count the dragon as one) had around 4,800. The sketch also looks much narrower and longer than a 16×32 baseplate. Maybe 8 studs deep or so.

Yes that's what I meant, Thor 4 sucked so why remind people of it? As for the polybag, the Dr Strange one had 44 pieces. I guess you could build a small goat boat and have Thor stand by it? Harry Potter had 30435 (a microscale Hogwarts Castle and a fig to put next to it), and 30651 (using forced perspective like the Dr Strange one) so maybe it's something like that? Thar's the one I meant. It's close enough to a spaceship, makes noise, and has minifigs of desirable characters (especially Cyclops) so I'm half surprised they didn't stick a smart brick in it and mark it up by EUR 70. ;-) Though I guess limiting a Doomsday set to just a few countries wouldn't have been in their interest either.

Well it does have three distinct levels which corresponds with previous information. But how would that be compatible with either DA or Hogsmeade, as has also been claimed?

That's one way of reminding people who Thor is. Not the way I'd have chosen but a way. As an aside, I watched "Crime 101" the other day and was baffled by how well Chris Hemsworth can act. I've only ever gotten glimpses of that from his Thor (mostly in the Bro Thor scene TBH). They need to give him more to do other than looking muscular and heroic, but from the poster I doubt they will.