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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).

The German LEGO store had a bunch of Dreamzzz sets for 40% off on Black Friday, too. I'm still not sure who the target audience is supposed to be, to be honest. The cutesy dream creatures and the nightmare stuff don't really seem to fit the same age group imo. The nightmare stuff also looks a lot like Ninjago and the dream stuff looks a lot like Friends right down to the colours, so there's some obvious in-house competition there. And while LEGO has shown an annoying tendency lately towards really expensive playsets across several themes (like the Friends buildings and the new modular Hogwarts), Dreamzzz is by far the most parents-unfriendly of those themes. You know what parents like even less than their children being into nightmares? Their children being into video games!

I'd consider a 20% discount for a part exclusive set with Amazon as the partner fairly unlikely. Unlike most chain stores, Amazon doesn't really do store discounts like the "20% off all toys" that you might get otherwise before a major holiday. Rivendell (also a part exclusive set) has occasionally been discounted to something like EUR 410 or EUR 420, but a) that's still less than 20% off the EUR 500 list price and b) those instances were few and far between and it always sold out quickly. And that's a massive, high-price set with a fairly limited target group (basically AFOLs who like LotR and have a lot of money and room to spare)! The Flying Lesson has a broader appeal (both kids and AFOLs), a lower spending treshold, and it's part of the new system so a lot of completionists are going to want to get it whether it's good or not. So those are all the more reason for Amazon not to discount it much in my opinion.

Huh, Amazon Germany sells it at list price, too. Which - this set would already have been overpriced with the usual discounts factored in, but without them? No, thanks. Do you think that it's going to be the only (part) exclusive module of the new Hogwarts?

German YouTuber Brickstory has a video up where he walks us through the latest LEGO catalogue. The HP section includes all the known January and March sets except for the Flying Lesson. Is that one going to be exclusive or part exclusive (with one retail partner), then?

Yes, I know. I meant it's weird for me because that's not how I'd have depicted the scene based on the book at all. Most of the time the disconnect isn't so great. And on a practical level, this polybag seems considerably less useful than the Cho one which allowed you to army-build an entire Ravenclaw team with uniforms and brooms (and you got snitches to spare, too) whereas here you don't even get a Gryffindor uniform torso and no brooms, either. Sure, you'll have beater's bats, snitches, and quaffles, as well as enough statues to populate your castle, but it's a weird choice nonetheless.

As someone who read the books but only sporadically watched the movies, the polybag is hilarious to me - Seeker Harry has a beater's bat but no broom, WTF? Still, two minfigs and parts like the snitch make it better value for money than the previous ones. The Marvel polybag this year also has two figs, I don't think licenced themes used to do that (though City and Ninjago did), which is a welcome change.

I've said it before but a competitor has already done a book nook with the Hogwarts Express as its subject: Reobrix 66031. There's also others not made from bricks. Though the Reobrix one has about 3.000 pieces and the LEGO one is said to have less than 900, no idea how that'll work.

A lot of HP sets went EOL per the end of 2024. This included - no big surprises there - the last remnant of the 2018 modular Hogwarts system (Astronomy Tower), all the remaining sets of the 2021 modular Hogwarts system, and both Hogsmeade sets (though the Hogwarts Express with Hogsmeade Station remains on the shelves, but I guess that one counts more as a Hogwarts Express set than a Hogsmeade set). A slight surprise to me are Expecto Patronum and the Quidditch trunk, both from 2023 so they really didn't last long. The UCS Hogwarts Express also went EOL while much older UCS sets (microscale Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and Hogwarts Icons) remain available but then we knew that this set hadn't been well-received. The EOL list also includes, and that's more of a surprise to me: all the connectible Forbidden Forest sets from 2024 (the Draco polybag and the cobbled-together Ron and Hermione one) excpt for the Aragog one; WWW (from 2023, with Ollivander's still on shelves and another playset DA set coming in Summer), and the Triwizard Tournament second task (from 2023 and with the Triwizard Tournament Arrival set still available). WWW especially puzzles me, as it seems to have been fairly well-received (given that LEGO are continuing with the playset DA line and especially its wacky pricing) and it's an integral part of DA which would hardly feel complete without it. And the Aragog set now contains a pitifully small slice of forest with clips but no more chance for expansion (since I don't think there are any Forbidden Forest sets planned). Has LEGO been that eager to break up lines in the past?

And how would that be a bad thing?

Presumably there will also be an advent calendar. We already have a strong indication that LEGO won't completely stop doing them (a Minecraft one has already been rumored), and the HP one was pretty much the best-received and (presumably) best-selling one this year (in contrast to the Marvel and Disney ones, which ended up being quite heavily discounted even by LEGO's own online store). Plus like I've said before I'd except the Main Tower to be similarly empty as the Great Hall and to need beefing up.

Ugh, 90s kids nostalgia bait winning out again. I suspected as much because most AFOLs are the right age, but was sort of hoping LEGO'd go for the broader appeal of TOS regardless. I mean I actually am from that 90s kids generation but TOS was vastly superior to TNG in terms of characterisation and storytelling. There goes the last of my interest.

I think 76389 was quite decent for what it tried to do (overpriced, yes, PPM should have been included, and the Great Hall was way too low) but yes, 4730 was the best representation of the Chamber ever. It also had what I still consider to be the best basilisk. They just don't make 'em like they used to!

Please watch RDJ's Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies, he's excellent in those and they were box office hits, too. Tropic Thunder, meanwhile, got him an Oscar nomination (though I haven't seen it).