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Quoting from earlier this year because we've already discussed this - the Flying Lesson does indeed seem to be a retail exclusive set, with Amazon. I'd expect the other set to be with a different retailer. I'm not ruling out another castle expansion either.

Isn't this year"s Flying Lesson a retail exclusive? Given how many slots they'll need for the "most complete Hogwarts ever" I wouldn't rule out another.

Same problem, though - that's just a tree. It doesn't really gain from the UCS treatment in terms of LEGO being able to splurge on details. And it‘s probably not iconic enough that people would want to spend EUR 200+ on a large Version. We only got Gringotts after a multi-year wait, as an add-on to an extremely popular set, and Gringotts itself is very iconic, and yet I don't think the set sells anywhere near as well as the D2C DA did. I wouldn't get my hopes up.

The UCS Burrow had only 2.405 pieces, Hogwarts Icons had 3.010, so that would fit. The baffling bit is that this is supposed to somehow cover Hogsmeade village while being the size of the D2C DA buildings. I cannot see a UCS Shrieking Shack on its own. It's just a shack, not an iconic building like Gringotts or even the Burrow, and its story importance has to mostly be represented by play functions (werewolf transformation, hidden entrance) rather than architectonic details. I do think they'll leave it out this time but I don’t expect us to ever get it then.

I've edited @MaxHeadroom's list with what we now know: 1st june 2025 (rumored) 76445 Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class (59,99$) EUR 49.99 according to StoneWars, could still be the same USD price but I don't know 76448 Dumbledore’s Phoenix (19,99$) 76449 Book of Monsters (59,99$) 76450 Book Nook featuring Hogwarts Express (99,99$) 76451 Privet Drive Aunt Marge’s Visit (89,99$) 76452 Quality Quidditch Supplies & Ice Cream (99,99$) 76454 Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower (249,99$) 76458 (Retail exclusive) ?? (548 pieces) (69,99$) according to Reddit 1st september 2025 76456 Advent Calendar (278 pieces) (7+) (??) listing from BrickMerge, can pretty much only be the AC based on the piece count, age group, and the fact that its EOL date is given as 12/25 76457 Hogsmeade Village Visit D2C (3.228 pieces) (??) according to Reddit

The free-for-all section of the usual place also has 76458 as a retail exclusive (not D2C) with a list price of USD 70 and a piece count of only 548. That doesn't imply buildable crap creature/object IMO, as in that case the price would probably be less than .10 per piece. Might be another part of Hogwarts Castle?

Huh. The DA had something around 5.500 pieces for four "buildings" (actually mostly two buildings per plate), so around 1.400 pieces per plate. Hogsmeade village IMO should at the very least include the Three Broomsticks, Honeydukes, the Shrieking Shack, and probably the Station, the Hog's Head, and Zonko's as well. But there's no way they manage that at DA size with this piece count. So let's say one plate Three Broomsticks/Honeydukes, another plate Zonko's/Hog's Head? (unlikely because it's a pub but we'll see), and that might leave some pieces over for another small build? We'd miss the station (but that's the only part of Hogsmeade still currently on the shelves) and we'd miss the Shrieking Shack which is arguably the most important part of Hogsmeade but doesn't fit in with the architecture or the cozy village vibe. Honestly it will depend a lot on how they build the roofs. While the DA shops are mostly two to three storeys with flat roofs, and thus rather elaborate fronts, the Hogsmeade shops are mostly one visible ground floor from the front, another storey right above with the curved window, and then a high, narrow roof which includes another window. If they do the roofs with large plates like for Honeydukes in the Hogsmeade Village Visit set, this would not look as good but would massively save on parts, whereas if they do the roofs with slopes it would up the parts count (like with Fortescue's and the bookshop in the old DA). I'm also not sure if those of us wanting a DA expansion would be happy with the Hogsmeade set based on the very different look of the buildings; they might simply not look good together (and not only because the Hogsmeade set would probably have snow for a winter vibe to go with the theme park). Also what price are you expecting given the piece count? I'm thinking something around EUR 350.

Meh, I like the older sets, they have character. And you really cannot go by the .10 rule with them either because the pieces were much larger back then. A small old set like 4735 Slytherin (90 pieces) has about the footprint of 2021's PPM (more than twice as many pieces).

There's also the fact that the sets are getting worse. And I'm including Lego's tendency towards bigger and bigger sets in this trend, as well as their annoying sales system. Like - is the new First Flying Lesson an improvement on the one from 2021? In absolute terms, yes, I guess, since it's bigger and includes more minifigs. But it also costs nearly three times as much. So a) it is way more expensive in absolute terms. b) It isn't that good a deal, relatively speaking, either (if anything it should include even more minifigs for that price). c) It takes up too much shelf space without a real payoff, as the scene takes place outside and a single castle wall is really all you need for play purposes. d) Since that's the only Flying Lesson currently on the shelves AND it's a LEGO exclusive to boot, a large number of kids are now denied the chance to replay this particular, child-friendly, play-friendly scene (since either their parents can't or won't afford the EUR 80 set or they have no idea how to order from LEGO directly or even that there are sets not found in the regular catalogue). An affordable playset has become an outlier in this theme. Before the reboot, unless I'm mistaken we had fourteen different sets priced from USD 7 to USD 13 (not even counting the smallest sets like the Lab and Flying Lesson). I wasn't into LEGO at the time but that's a number and a price range where you could have saved your allowance and gotten something to show for it. You know how many sets up to EUR 20 (not counting polybags or accessory packs) we've had for this theme since the reboot in 2018? A whopping eleven in seven years. For a childrens' theme. And nearly all of them are at the high EUR 20 price point. Instead of the range we'd had before (mostly parts of the castle and grounds and Diagon Alley shops) these tend to be worse value, often consisting of like the figs and a single small build. In addition, some of them are probably too dark for your average kid (Rise of Voldemort and Grindelwald's Escape), there's that useless Hedwig in Privet Drive set with no play value unless you want to move her wings or something, there's the Ford Anglia where you might as well get a cheaper City set instead if you want a car and two male characters. It doesn't get much better from there, either. There's only four more sets for the category of up to EUR 30, plus the Moments books some years back. And those are all outliers, too - Dueling Club, Hermione and Ron in the Forest, Umbridge Encounter, Triwizard Tournament. Not a single castle wall anywhere to be seen. Parts of Hogwarts Castle now start at EUR 38 with the Boathouse and then you only get a teeny-tiny build. (The Polyjuice Potions Mistake and the old Room of Requirement were laudable exceptions here but neither of them's available any more.) In effect, many kids have pretty much been priced out of Hogwarts in the HP theme. For short: There's way too few affordable sets, a lot of those are either not kid-friendly or not really what the series is about, and your average childrens' birthday present budget will get you a tiny part of the castle at best. I'm sure there are plenty of adult collectors yearning for a EUR 250 Main Tower, and some parents who can afford it in terms of shelf space and money, but for a lot of people LEGO HP simply is no longer an option.

What movie will the tower set this summer be loosely based on? CoS Will LEGO actually complete the 2018 micro castle front with this line? If so, will we get any bridges? Nope. Will we get a Clock Tower set in this cycle? There'll probably be a clock added somewhere, like there was in the 2021 system on top of the Hospital Wing. What movie will the inevitable playscale Gringotts be based on? DH. One tiny building with one tiny dragon, cost of at least EUR 100. What surprise set that we haven’t had yet in the revival (or ever) do you think will come next? Lovegood House. Might be another two or three years, though. What remakes are we expecting next year? Hogwarts Express? Hungarian Horntail? Hogwarts Express within the next two years. And if we're (un)lucky a Hungarian Horntail to go with this year's Fawkes and last year's Hedwig at Privet Drive (meaning around EUR 20 and looking bad). Will we ever go back to sweaters or will Hogwarts torsos always be robes now? Don't know, don't care. Will we ever get a Deathy Hallows Ron not wearing a polyjuice costume? Probably, but he'll come with an expensive set.

Thor? Absolutely not. Thor's entire character arc in his own movies consisted of his realizing that Loki was right from the beginning, he sucks as a king, and his finally handing over leadership of the Asgardians to Valkyrie. (Who IMO isn't a much better choice but they were kind of out of Asgardian options at that point.) All Thor can do is bust heads and he's not smart either. Star-Lord would be a much better choice. He actually has social skills, he's cunning, he's fun, he has leadership experience of a very diverse team, and also he's of Earth yet open-minded enough to work with aliens. Having Team Let's Save Earth led by an alien would kind of defeat the point. The only other options I can think of are Captain Marvel (which isn't going to happen) and Dr Strange (who probably works better in a sort of advisor/wild card role). As for box office figures, again they had to have known why they emphasized the entire Harrison Ford/Red Hulk thing in their marketing for BNW. It's because no-one's invested in Falcon. And they brought back RDJ. They know we're more invested in the original cast (not necessarily only the six original Avengers, but everyone who had a large role up until Infinity War) than in anything that's come after. Star-Lord has already carried three successful movies (okay, the third one was more about Rocket, but still) and unlike Strange he's not so powerful that they constantly have to come up with reasons why he doesn't just do all this stuff by himself instead of needing a team. He'd be the best choice IMO.

Honestly, I think the opposite. I don't hate Tom Holland's Peter but I'm not invested in his problems (My friends didn't get into MIT on the first try! We must brainwash the entire world in order to fix this!). Dr Strange is both out of character and severely underpowered just so we can have Peter and his friends lording it over him, and the ending feels ridiculously contrived. The multiversal fan service stuff, nonsensical as much of it was, was the highlight and for me the backbone of the movie. I might be in the minority, but the last thing I want is X-Men in the MCU. Not because I have anything against the X-Men but because ever since "Endgame" we've been swamped with underdeveloped characters who briefly showed up only to immediately be shoved aside. So let's get a ton more of them! That might make for good merch but I really cannot see how it would make for a watchable movie.

All of this! The thing about fan service is that it needs a solid base. By the time "No Way Home" came out, each of the Spidermen had had at least two movies of their own to get the audience to like them and connect with them. (I actually don't think that you can only watch it once - the novelty might no longer be there but Andrew Garfield's reaction to MJ pelting him with bread is still my favourite part even after a handful of watchings. Though that might be in part because I find MJ extremely obnoxious and it's so refreshing to see a Spiderman who's not in love with her reacting to her.) Similarly, a lot of "Endgame" reads like self-indulgent fan service, especially the scene where Tony finally gets to have a heart-to-heart with his father. But that was okay because those characters had earned the self-indulgence, because we'd stuck with them for so long and had gotten so invested in their fates. I'm not interested in fan service about characters I've only seen like once and have no particular reason to care about. For the sake of the continued existence of the MCU, I do hope they'll come up with a good story (not necessarily a logical story as that would be a first for the MCU, but at least a gripping, high-stakes tale) for "Doomsday".

StoneWars has an article up about current HP rumours. The only thing new to me is that it gives the list price of the Herbology Class, in EUR, as EUR 49.99. This is less than I'd have thought given the previously mentioned USD price - however I would not expect a Greenhouse at this price point, given that the Potions Class, a mere interior module, was already EUR 40.

I think most of the HP sales are still accounted for by people outside our AFOL bubble. For every @BrickBob Studpantswho wants to collect all the new minifigs there's ten kids who just want HP stuff - new minifigs or not, doesn't matter. So what we do here doesn't really reflect on sales at all, and most customers learn about the sets when they are either in the catalogue or on the shelves.

Yep.

Just watched the story. It's a picture of two signposts, one for Hogwarts (pointing left) and one for Hogsmeade (pointing right) - from the Orlando theme park I'd assume - with the Hogsmeade one circled and a caption saying "Our next destination". It doesn't mention the set number. Though I agree that @calebcold3's interpretation sounds likely - in fact I've already discussed the possibility here at some length. There's also a bunch of Star Wars leaks and a rumour for the Simpsons in this story, but I don't know enough about either theme to judge them. Sorry not sorry to all the Quidditch fans if the HP one turns out to be correct.

Would make sense, though, given how poorly last year"s Spidey-themed AC was received. They might want to wait for that extra marketing push

They already tried that with HP (76429). :-)

The problem with Fantastic Beasts wasn't so much that it was a prequel (apart from the fact that we knew in advance about some people's survival but that alone would hardly have tanked the series). It was more that the plotting was idiotic even by HP standards (with numerous internal retcons, too), that the main character was quite unsympathetic even by HP standards (the entire first movie can pretty much be summed up as "Let's watch Newt be an irresponsible pet owner who racks up tons of property damage through his negligence, and then let's watch Our Heroes mind-rape Muggles"), and that the series could never decide whether it wanted to be a light-hearted romp with magical beasts or a gritty war drama with Grindelwald. If they had committed to one or the other, given us someone other than Jacob to root for, and had their plots actually make sense (with less of the "Dumbledore's the greatest and Hogwarts is sooooo coool!" nostalgia to boot) I think it would have gone differently. Because really, the idea of exploring what the wizarding world's like for adult characters, and away from that one school everyone in the HP books is obsessed with, is a no-brainer with a ton of potential.

There's also absolutely no way you could get around Hogwarts in a wheelchair unless it could fly.

That's LEGO's new thing. It's even more prevalent in the Friends and City sets where heads with hearing aids, a main character with only half an arm, and a dog in a wheelchair abound. Because we clearly need minidoll/minifig representation for all of that and for every conceivable skin tone and hair type, but at the same time God forbid we get any minidoll representation for any body type other than stick-thin. But that's a rant for another time.

Let me spare you the wait and give you the minifig list right now: 76445 Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class (59,99$): Sprout, Cedric, Neville, random student that's either not white or has a physical disability or both 76448 Dumbledore’s Phoenix (19,99$): none 76449 Book of Monsters (59,99$): hard to say since we don't know what it is. If it's something like I suspect (kind of a trunk thingie with buildable monsters) I'd say one minifig, most likely Harry or Hagrid. 76450 Book Nook featuring Hogwarts Express (99,99$): none I'd say 76451 Aunt Marge’s Visit (89,99$): Harry, the Dursleys, Aunt Marge (minifig plus a brickbuilt inflated version), Ripper the dog 76452 Quality Quidditch Supplies & Ice Cream (99,99$): Harry, probably Ron, Fortescue; one or two Quidditch-associated students (likely Angelina, Lee Jordan, or Cho Chang); unnamed QQS shopkeep; one or two more customer for the ice cream shop 76454 Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower (249,99$): yeah not touching that one

I cannot see a HBO show targeted at kids to be honest. I'm of the minority opinion that Alan Rickman was actually a bad casting choice for Snape. I loved him as an actor but he was way too old - Snape's supposedly in his thirties and angry before everything else, not terminally bored the way Alan Rickman did portray his characters so well. That said, I don't think the new Snape will be any more accurate. Maybe his race was never literally defined as "Caucasian" in the books, but given how often JK described him as "pale", "pallid", "sallow-looking", with "marble white" skin "the colour of sour milk", it's quite obvious that he's not supposed to be Black. I would have less issues with literally any other character being given a race change because it just goes against any headcanon I have for him. If anything, the Disney example has probably shown us that sets of reboots do worse than sets of originals. I don't have any sales figures obviously but the Peter Pan Flight Over London set could often be found on clearance (where it was STILL overpriced but that's another matter) and like it has been mentioned here, Arielle's Shell (actually a pretty good-looking set in my opinion) doesn't seem to have been well-received either. So even if LEGO are somehow forced to make sets for the show I don't think they'll make many - simply in order to protect their bottom line.

That's not really a surprise, is it? The only set I can remember that has ever been confirmed in interviews to be the designer's idea (Mark Stafford's) was the Daily Bugle. Some of the worse ones practically scream "marketing decision". Like the Black Panther bust. Sure, let's randomly feel the need to "honour" a random superhero whose popular actor has "coincidentally" just passed away. In other themes it's also becoming more and more apparent that LEGO are looking towards the competetion these days and copying their ideas (not the set designs, mind you, but subjects that already sell). Off the top of my head there's recently been the working model of the solar system (which CADA had first), Notre Dame (done by several competitors while LEGO doesn't do churches, no sir!), the microscale Hogwarts and Grounds (yes LEGO had a microscale Hogwarts in 2018 but the later one including the grounds came after several competing unlicenced products), booknooks including a Hogwarts-themed one based on the Hogwarts Express (which Reobrix already has), Star Trek (for which they took over the licence from Bluebrixx), and Neuschwanstein Castle. Again I don't think that one day a designer just came in to work and went "I want to do Neuschwanstein Castle"; more likely the marketing department went "We're losing market shares in architecture because our customers buy competing products, how can we bolster our portfolio so our customers won't feel the need to buy from other brands? Let's see what the bestselling competing products are and make our own versions." Well could you blame LEGO if that were the case? I agree that Doomsday sounds like the current MCU's biggest hit-to-come, given RDJ's return and the fact that as an all-cast Avengers movie it should at least have SOME characters that any given moviegoer wants to see again. But "Fine, maybe I'll catch that one at the cinema instead of waiting till it goes to Disney+" is still a far cry from the hype we had for Endgame. As for LEGO, on the one hand Doomsday sounds like an even better bet for sets than Endgame because it would feature lots of characters who we haven't had minifigs for, or at least not many. Whereas Endgame had the same bunch of characters we'd already known just in different suits, a plot no-one was allowed to reveal, and a setting based mostly on a) recycled previous locations and b) a bunch of rubble. But on the other hand, a) I think the less-than-stellar reception of the latest Marvel/Disney+ CMF series has shown them that if people don't care for a character they won't want to buy the fig and b) if you want to sell today's overpriced, increasingly crappily designed sets you need to at least include really popular minifigs. I feel like they've been experimenting with this for some time. The only Falconcap set is pretty overpriced but presumably still sells because people want a Red Hulk bigfig. The Hoopty, on the other hand, was ridiculously overpriced and also the only set you could get Monica (apart from the CMF version) or MCU Kamala in. It didn't do well, I think, because not many people want Monica or Kamala to begin with. Eternals had its overblown cast spread out over several sets but most people didn't get into a "collect them all" frenzy because they didn't care about the Eternals in the first place. So even though Doomsday offers, in theory, unlimited possibilites, I can see LEGO still sticking to minifigs of characters that have done well in the past, such as Star-Lord who's been in multiple sets or Doctor Doom whose only previous fig fetches high prices on BL, and rely on those in order to sell the sets. Sure some of us might want a Wiccan minifig and he might well be added to a set because of this, but do you think enough people want a Wiccan minifig that they'd buy an overpriced set just for him?