brickbride

Assuming that the Baratie set will include the duel with Mihawk, this would give us at the very least the following characters and outfits: Mihawk (presumably exclusive to this set) with dashing feathered hat, open black-and-red coat, and no shirt wielding sword Yoru (and small knife? The standard LEGO knife is a different shape but they might well include it. Or they might just print the knife on Mihawk's torso I guess.) Zoro in duel outfit (dark pants and boots, dark red striped haramaki sash, dark blue shirt, black bandana) with all three swords (and some way to carry Wado in his mouth, i.e. a trans-clear neck brace or something) Luffy in Baratie outfit (red shirt with green dungarees or possibly the blue-white shirt from the Arlong fight but I'd expect the former, and of course the leaked straw hat/black hair piece) Usopp in dark red coat with no shirt and then either the dark red tricorn hat from the first day or the red bandana hairpiece that's already leaked from the second day, I'd expect the latter Nami in Baratie outfit (pink shirt, short orange skirt) Zeff (presumably exclusive to this set) with peg leg in chef's outfit with towering hat (he doesn't always wear it and at one point he wears a red-and-white striped shirt, but the chef's whites and towering hat are too much fun to leave them out) Sanji (black suit, striped shirt, black tie - though he doesn't always wear the suit jacket so it might be missing) Other than that, there's some cooks or pirates (say, the two whose fight in the dining room Sanji breaks up), the fishman host, Gin the shipwrecked pirate, or of course Arlong harrassing some fancily-dressed diners to chose from. Another option might be the visit by the marines in episode 7 (Garp, Kody, Helmeppo).

Do you mean the EUR 130 set, or did the price change? Makes sense, though, because like I've said the Baratie is a lot bigger than the Merry and displaying both would otherwise be awkward. Plus that way they can lock Mihawk behind a EUR 300 paywall. *sigh*

I'd love to see LEGO's marketing description of this set and its play features: "Cook up poison soup in the kitchen and serve it to the mistress of the household in the dining room!" "Murder your guests and throw them in the well!" "Stalk the mistress of the household through the secret passageways in order to take away her inheritance!" (I'm assuming they wouldn't actually include the wine cellar because, well, wine. Even Malfoy Manor's cellar only had trans-light blue liquid coming out of the barrels.)

Interesting predictions! I don't really think we'll get Syrup Village, and what would Garp and Koby do at Arlong Park? (Round up the beaten fishmen presumably but this was never shown in the actual episode.) On the other hand I can't really see an Arlong Park set with Zoro but not Sanji, since their team-up was pretty epic. Your argument for the Merry being the biggest set certainly has merit (though the Merry isn't such a big ship and if it dwarfs all the various buildings from the other sets, as well as the Baratie, it would make it harder to display). Another thought that occurs to me, what if the biggest set is two ships, i.e. Garp's ship and the Merry? Though as I've noted above, Luffy's leaked torso at least doesn't fit his outfit during the one time the ships have so far met on the ocean. In other news, Netflix have officially announced that they've finished shooting season 2, and have posted a pic on Instagram showing the main cast's outfits in Loguetown. Zoro is wearing the exact same thing from the barrel scene in episode 8, I think, and Luffy the same (or a very similar) vest which also corresponds to the leaked torso. But Nami and Sanji have different outfits, and Usopp is wearing a pale lilac sleeveless shirt and matching bandana. The last fact makes me think that we can rule out a set based on Loguetown since, if it involves Usopp, they'd have to recolour his bandana again (and a colour normally reserved for Elves and Friends sets, too, so you'd think this recolour wouldn't see much use). Other than that, current articles about season 2 mention Tony Chopper (who'll be animated), Nico Robin, King Wapol, and the fact that the Alabasta arc won't happen this season.

Actually we have. 4722 Gryffindor had both the common room and the dorm, though a barebones version of both.

See, that's where you're wrong. The current price for a LEGO Marvel set with three figs is EUR 95 (and you even get three cats thrown in for free!). Though it goes down EUR 10 with each extra minifig, so a four-fig set is only EUR 85. By this logic a five-fig set should be EUR 75 so EUR 55 is actually a bargain. (I'm open to being hired by LEGO as a Pricing Manager any time.)

The last Fluffy was just fine except for the crappy light bluish gray parts, but that's not a problem of scaling. And if anything it was too big - the only way you can cram it into one of the 2021 Hogwarts modules is if you pose it lying down (i.e. sleeping). A Fluffy of that size would work well for the current system, I think. Also, LEGO seem to have a thing for both vehicles and animal characters even in themes which don't have many of either (hence the fixation with the otherwise not very important Ford Anglia) so I think Fluffy's probably a given.

Well, the good thing is, both of them can fly. So - ceiling space?

So here's a summary of one piece leaked minifig parts so far and which episodes/locations they correspond to: 1) Luffy, torso with (dark) red vest and stretched arms: episode 1 (Shell Town), not episode 2 (Orange Town - he's wearing a white T-Shirt), not episodes 3+4 (Syrup Village - he's wearing sort of a Hawaiian shirt and a black vest for dinner), not episode 5+6 (Baratie - he's wearing dungarees and a red T-Shirt and a mostly blue T-Shirt later on), episodes 7+8 (Coco Village, Arlong Park; also on the Going Merry though his arms wouldn't need to be stretched then) 2) Luffy, black hair/straw hat combo: well that doesn't narrow it down at all 3) Luffy? or Shanks?, straw hat with a way for minifig to grip it: could be Windmill Village (Shanks handing young Luffy his hat) but there's other options as well 4) Buggy: blue hair/hat combo: episode 2 (Orange Town) (Buggy appears also in episodes 3 and 8 and his head appears in several other episodes but always without the hat) 5) Usopp, hair/red bandana combo: episodes 3+4 (Syrup Village), episodes 5-6 (Baratie - though not during the initial dinner and bar visit there) 6) Usopp, hair/green bandana combo: episodes 7+8 (Coco Village, Arlong Park; also on the Going Merry) 7) Shanks, (dark) red hair/straw hat combo: flashbacks in episode 1+2 (Windmill Village including bar fight and Lord of the Coast fight, giving young Luffy his hat) Did I miss anything? If I'm correct then we can deduce a couple of things: - Merry is probably a given anyway. - There's going to be a fight scene set of either Shell Town, Coco Village, or Arlong Park. (I also assume that the same Luffy torso, with normal arms, will be used for the Merry.) - There's a set with Buggy in Orange Town. - There's a set with Usopp in either Syrup Village or Baratie and another one with Usopp either in Coco Village, Arlong Park, or on the Merry. - There's a set with Shanks from one of the flashbacks in and around Windmill Village. Personally I think the Lord of the Coast fight is likely but it could also be Shanks giving Luffy his hat. This in turn gives us the following locations: Merry, Shell Town/Coco Village/Arlong Park, Orange Town, Syrup Village/Baratie, Windmill Village. The ones I've put together are mutually exclusive so we'd either get one or the other. Personally I think the Baratie is more likely than Syrup Village and Arlong Park is the most likely out of the other three but you never know. Coco Village, on the other hand, could give us Garp & Co. So here's my best guess: 75636 - 301 Pieces, $29.99 - Windmill Village/whatever with Shanks (Lord of the Coast fight?): Shanks, young Luffy, Makino? 75637 - 573 Pieces - $49.99 - Orange Town: Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Buggy, Cabuji? 75639 - 1376 Pieces - $129.99 - Arlong Park/Coco Village: Luffy, Nami, Zoro, Usopp (green bandana), Sanji, Arlong, one or two of Arlong's henchfish? Alternatively Garp & Marines (Kody, Helmeppo, Nezumi)? 75638 - 926 Pieces - $79.99 - Merry: all the Straw Hats possibly including Kaya 75640 - 3,402 Pieces - $299.99 - Baratie: all the Straw Hats, Mihawk, Zeff, Arlong?

I can't see that. The Red Force is only shown in flashbacks in season 1 and that hardly at all. We have two major ship locations (Baratie and Merry) and a bunch of others that get more screentime than the Red Force (Alvida's ship, Nami's sloop, Garp's ship) not counting the land-based locations. I doubt they'd waste one slot out of five on it. Themes this small don't usually get polybags. But you never know.

Consensus seems to be there won't be any because a) there's a lot of D2Cs on the shelves already (though the Hogwarts Express has retired, that still leaves the 2018 microscale castle, 2020 Diagon Alley, Gringotts, Hogwarts Icons, and the Burrow) and also because by now we're getting regular sets (like the microscale Diagon Alley) and even regular playsets (like the Great Hall and the rumoured Main Tower) at a price point previously reserved for D2Cs. But you never know.

Thanks, I hadn't known about that one. It seems to be the same hat/hair combo as Luffy's with the hair recoloured a dark red. And honestly that's baffling to me because Shanks' and Luffy's hair looks completely different in the show - Luffy has curls and much shorter hair, Shanks has straight and longer hair. It makes me wonder if they're trying to save money by using the same mould for both. Hey, maybe they'll use a recolour of the leaked Usopp hair/bandana combo for Zoro as well! (Also the red is way to dark for Show!Shanks, but there's already been a leak of Luffy's torso piece and the vest is also a much darker red than in the show, so that's apparently what they're going for.) If the hat/hair combo for Shanks is legit then I do think we might get a set for Shanks, young Luffy, and the Lord of the Coast for the reasons outlined above.

Do you have a source for that? The only leaks I've seen are a hat/dark hair combo (for Luffy) and a hat without hair but which would allow a minifig to carry it in its hand. This might point to a scene of Shanks handing the hat to little Luffy but not necessarily so (i.e. Luffy takes off the hat and gives it to Nami in Coco Village, Nami takes the hat from Luffy and throws it in the air in the Big Top ...). If there's an actual hat/red hair combo for Shanks I couldn't find it.

Honestly it's more a question of tone than actual plot. Harry's abuse at the hands of the Dursleys is played for laughs, Harry's abuse at the hands of Umbridge is not. The basilisk being butchered is presented as no big deal ('cause Slytherin = evil), but other creature deaths like Hedwig's are played for drama. Harry as our viewpoint character doesn't seem to care about the traumatizing ordeal of murdering Quirrel, in fact he can't even see Thestrals until after Cedric's death. So yeah, in terms of tone the first, second, and even third movie are considerably lighter and more child-friendly, and the books only reach doorstopper-lenght with GoF, too.

It's almost as if LEGO were trying to appeal to children who want fun magical shenanigans instead of murder and outright war ... I do feel your pain, though - I've pretty much come to terms with the fact that we will never get Spinner's End as a location set.

The most likely scene, then, would be with young Luffy and the Lord of the Coast. Since anything later and he wouldn't be wearing the hat. Plus like we've seen with Avatar 2, LEGO love their buildable sea beasts.

German YouTuber Held der Steine has a review up of the microscale Diagon Alley. Two noteworthy things for me: one, the box art depicts Gringotts in the middle and the sides of the Alley each at an angle but there aren't any hinge plates or hinge bricks so while you can arrange the modules like that they don't really hold together. And two, the entire thing is tiny! Near the end of the video he shows it next to the new Great Hall which, at the same price point and far fewer pieces, looks gigantic in comparison. I really think we need to come up with a better measurement than price-to-pieces ratio given LEGO 's recent tendencies to stuff even playsets and display sets full of 1x1 plates (Friends had another recent example with the Beekeeper's Garden).

Technically Arlong could also be included in a Baratie arc set (as could Don Krieg though that's not likely). Why would Shanks be included in a Going Merry set? Kaya would fit better. Another possibility for Romance Dawn would be a small location set of Windmill Village (Luffy, Shanks, possibly Makino) or a creature set of the Lord of the Coast (Shanks, Luffy) akin to some of the Avatar 2 sets. Though this would be pretty dark given what happens to Shanks in that scene, but really no worse than some of the recent HP sets. Also all of these arcs were covered in Netflix season 1. If season 2 comes out in 2025, wouldn't at least some of the sets be based on it?

Might be variations of the main characters, though. Such as different outfits, Zoro with bandana/green hair, and so on. Or secondary characters from the show like Mihawk or Shanks.

Well, back in 2018 EUR 100 got you Peter's apartment, the deli (or in that case a pizzeria) downstairs, AND the Sanctum Sanctorum. Now EUR 100 will get you only the deli and Peter's apartment. And a car. But still not great value for money. Though if you look at, say, the Friends theme, there's a tiny Beekeepers' House and Flower Garden (42669) for, again, EUR 100. Unlicenced even! 'Tis the new normal it seems. That would seem strange to me. Thor 4 came out in 2022, so it's hard to see why its critical reception would influence LEGO's 2025 portfolio, and also it did pretty well at the box office which is more than can be said for Marvel's more recent efforts. Personally I do think that Thor is one of the weaker MCU heroes in terms of characterisation (nothing to do with Chris Hemsworth's acting, it's just that he's given little to work with) but again, commercially he's done fine. And a potential Asgard D2C set would not only be about Thor anyway but would include fan favourite Loki and whoever else they could cram into it.

German YouTuber Held der Steine has a review up of the Hagrid motorbike. The bike itself is definitely the best part of the set and that's not saying much. The figures are even more hideous up close, the back of Hagrid’s coat makes him look like he's got a dinosaur tail, and Harry has too-long hair and ugly arms in addition to the weird mirrored glasses. I really have no idea what they were thinking with this one.

So how much train are we actually expecting in the train battle set? 393 pieces really doesn't sound like a lot.

True, but these days I see a lot of people differing between "Raimi" and "Sony" movies so I figured you meant the latter.

I'm not so sure about that. There's already one current set (two if you count the Spiderwoman one), there's the rumoured minifig series, and last year"s Spider-Man themed AC did badly enough to probably kill this year"s Marvel AC entirely. Sure, Spider-Man is still a huge draw overall but would LEGO stake that much on the Sony version as opposed to the Raimi movies (which tick the box for 90s kids nostalgia bait, LEGO's most favourite thing ever)?

Yeah, I certainly wouldn't expect an entire round tower. More something like the Owlery (two walls in a round-ish shape).