brickbride

Thanks for the help, @mark1991tand @Black Falconand @Accio Lego! I've edited my earlier post in order to include your findings. So to recap, the microscale Diagon Alley seems to consist of: Left side: Leaky Cauldron with the Knight Bus, Magical Menagerie (available as part of the Gringotts D2C set), Madam Malkin's (available as a playset with Ollivander's), QQS (available as part of the 2020 D2C set), Eeyelops, Fountain of Fair Fortune? (or apothecary, possibly Slug and Jigger's or Mulpepper's, according to @Accio Lego), Sugarplum's?, Borgin and Burke's (has not been available as part of a larger set since 2011, though there was the recent floo GWP) Middle: Gringotts (available as a D2C set) Right side: Owl Post Office? (available as a playset with WWW), Scribbulus (availale as part of the 2020 D2C set), Ollivander's (available as a playset with Madam Malkin's and also as part of the 2020 D2C set), Wiseacre's, Fortescue's (available as part of the 2020 D2C set), Flourish and Blotts (available as part of the 2020 D2C set), entrance to Knockturn Alley (available as part of the 2020 D2C set and also: This doesn't correspond with Borgin and Burke's location at all!), WWW (available as a playset with the Owl Post Office and also as part of the 2020 D2C set) So the following sets are included but not available in a larger version: Leaky Cauldron, Eeyelops, Fountain of Fair Fortune?, Sugarplum's?, Borgin and Burke's, Wiseacre's In addition, the following have not been made into playsets: Magical Menagerie, QQS, Gringotts, Scribbulus, Fortescue's, Flourish and Blotts, entrance to Knockturn Alley Honestly, I'd be surprised if we got any of the missing sets as playsets anytime soon, with the exception of Borgin and Burke's and possibly (but not that likely given that it's a pub) the Leaky Cauldron. (Though I'd find it sort of hilarious if LEGO balked at making a pub but happily gave us a shop selling dark artefacts, including but not limited to a murderer's cut-off hand, instead.) The other four have no iconic scenes taking place there (granted, neither had the Owl Post Office, so we cannot completely rule them out). Flourish and Blotts has the Lockhart book signing so I'd expect them to get around to that sometime soon (if they even continue with the series - I'd not be surprised if they wouldn't), same with Gringotts. And most of the others from the D2C sets with the exception of Scribbulus at least have interesting wares to offer (Magical Menagerie - animals, QQS - Quidditch stuff, Fortescue's - LEGO love their cafés) so they'd make good side builds despite their lack of plot relevance. Also I still have no idea what the actual scale of the microscale Diagon Alley is supposed to be. Like, why are the owls "Z-Blob" pieces but the frog is an actual, minifig-scale frog? Edited just now by brickbride

Since we now have pics of the interiors of the microscale Diagon Alley set (which are nothing to write home about, seriously, they don't look great), I've tried to identify the previously unidentified shops. I could use some help, though. So far we've had: left side - Leaky Cauldron with the Knight Bus parked in front. EDIT: @Accio Legohas identified the white "Z-Blob" piece upstairs as Hedwig, honestly I would have taken it for a table lamp. ;-) - Magical Menagerie with the oversized kitten sign. The interior includes a pink frog which, given the scale, ought to be some giant mutated killer frog. (The scale seems to be to be way off with many of the interiors in general.) - Madam Malkin's (not really recognisable as far as the interior goes, either) - QQS (Quidditch colours and a golden trophy statuette that could be a mannequin, I guess. Though it's golden which is an odd choice.) - small blue unidentified building, possibly Wiseacre's? Your guess is as good as mine. I cannot identify the interior either. It has a decorative gray owl outside. EDIT: Identified by @Black Falconand @Accio Legoas Eeyelops, with the "Z-Blob" pieces representing owls. - two buildings with medium pink and dark pink downstairs fronts and surprisingly identical upstairs rooms; I think the medium pink one is Sugarplum's and the darker one is the Fountain of Fair Fortune, but that's mostly based off Wizarding World Orlando street view pictures I found online. The unicorn horn could represent a fountain of some kind, I guess, and the flower pieces could be taps, and the tiles on the other side of the wall could be shelves full of candies, but again that's just guesswork. - unidentified dark green building with a jewel displayed upstairs, no idea. The shop sign is a yellow 1x2 plate. EDIT: identified by @mark1991t as Borgin and Burke's. middle: Gringotts (the only one whose interior looks decent, in my opinion. Though I'm no fan of the straight columns on the exterior) right side: - tall building that I suspect is the Owl Post Office, with some sort of kiosk next to it. I couldn't find interior pictures. EDIT: Found one (see below, on the lower left), though I still cannot make much out. What's the white statuette representing? - Scribbulus - Ollivander's - another unidentified blue building that could be Wiseacre's I guess. Interior pictures include a golden spigot downstairs and a water-coloured jewel upstairs. Wiseacre's sells telescopes if I remember correctly, so maybe that's what the spigot's supposed to represent? EDIT: Confirmed by @mark1991tto be Wiseacre's. - Fortescue's - Flourish and Blotts - entrance to Knockturn Alley - WWW The last four are all pretty unrecognisable, too. (EDIT: Ollivander's looks more like a bookshop than the bookshop does.) I have no idea what the green jewel in the bookshop represents. WWW has the colourful stairs and what I guess could be like a galleon-sized bottle of love potions (with the heart stopper) if you don't mind the fact that the stopper is at least the height of the bottle. Outside WWW is what @Accio Legohas identified as a phone booth. Though if that's supposed to fit a human, again, the heart-stoppered potion is nearly the same size! Any guesses as to the remaining shops? -

That's what I mean - it should have been in the Great Hall. All the other versions so far have had one, even those with way less pieces. It's an essential piece of the Great Hall and it has nothing to do with either the Dueling Club or Christmas (there's one in the Advent Calendar as well). It's just LEGO's way of upselling, which I hate. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for modular systems where you can buy different sets and connect them, but the sets themselves ought to be able to stand alone, and these days they can't. I also don't get who exactly the new modular system is meant for. Yes, it allows more space for play than the previous one, but it's also ridiculously expensive. I don't know many kids with that kind of budget even for large gifts! And it's such a weird mixture of display and storage, like, why do the slide-in modules have to be enclosed, why can't they have a plate at the bottom and an open wall so they at least have some display value as well?

To be honest, my first impression was: "Great, empty rooms I'd have to buy another set for (each) for EUR 80, that's what I have always wanted for Christmas." I really hate how unfinished every set in this new system looks. On purpose! Like, say, thr Fluffy Encounter looked bare and unfinished, too, but that ws bad design. Now they just want you to have to buy the interiors extra.

Notre Dame: LEGO has always been adamant that they won't do churches. This has allowed competitors a niche for producing famous cathedrals and the like without stepping on LEGO's toes. Notre Dame has been done by several of them as far as I know. Now LEGO come out with Notre Dame and completely ignore their own policy on churches in the process. If that's not adopting a competitor's idea, what is? Solar System: Cada has had one for quite some time now, from the same designer as the safe, I think. Microscale Hogwarts and Grounds: Yes LEGO did the castle first in 2018, but when the castle and grounds was announced a lot of us immediately pointed to competing products that were already available. And now the booknooks. Again, not an original idea! To be clear: I don't mean to imply that LEGO are doing anything untoward. They don't adopt other companies' designs, just their ideas which to the best of my knowledge cannot be copyrighted. But it's not longer the case (if it ever was, I don't really know enough to tell one way or the other) that LEGO pave the way and the competition follows. LEGO clearly are looking towards the competition these days, gauging what works and what they can adopt into their own portfolio so as to prevent customers from straying. Again, the LOTR one is supposed to be USD 120, so I'd assume it's at a similar price point. The Reobrix one I mentioned above is about that price, but it has over 3.000 pieces. I guess we can all agree that a LEGO set with a list price of around USD 1200 won't have much more than 1.200 pieces. Diagon Alley, though, is another good possibility. I recall a MOC of a booknook from Rebrickable that looked really cool.

The LOTR one has been leaked in the usual place, it's reportedly the Gandalf vs. the Balrog scene for a list price of USD 120. I'd assume a similar M.O. - same price and also an iconic scene with limited amounts of characters - for HP. Any guesses as to the subject matter? The Forest Scene (Harry vs. Voldie) comes to mind although it's pretty dark. Or maybe the Astronomy Tower, but that one's even darker. Or maybe just the Hogwarts Express, since that definitely has been done as a booknook before and LEGO seem to be adopting their competitors' ideas a lot these days (Notre Dame, working model of the solar system, microscale Hogwarts and Grounds just off the top of my head).

We haven't yet. It's 76443, buildable Hagrid and Harry on the motorcycle, with Hedwig included.

Box art for the microscale Diagon Alley is out as well. For me it looks better fully closed, as a real alley, but I still don't like that it's microscale. That might work for Hogwarts which is really all about the silhouette but to me DA is about the fun details, and shop signs consisting of, say, a 1x1 plate with a clip don't excite me. There's certainly a market for it, though.

A leak of the Marvel logo including the box art is up at the usual place. The logo itself with the font looks okay, but the placement of the minfigs is too static for my liking and the pop-out feature is just silly. The target age grup is 12+. I'm having a hard time picturing a consumer who buys this. It's over 900 pieces so not for novices, and I'd expect an expert builder to routinely build "12+" sets at age 7 or 8, but what kid that age wants a logo instead of a cooler set with more play features like, say, the Spider-Man showdown? So that makes me think they're aiming for actual teens. But in that case the pop-out feature feels too gimmicky and childish - the same for adults. I wouldn't complain about it if it didn't detract from the set itself, but I do think the feature comes at the expense of less static, cooler looking figure placement. And of course, again, WHERE IS HAWKEYE? Also, Black Widow bursts out from the logo brandishing her gun at you, and is prominently pictured on the box art with it, too. Thor's magic hammer ist at least fantasy-based but given that Nat has no superpowers, LEGO seem to be endorsing some real-world violence here.

Yeah, I'm surprised by the positive reception here especially among fig collectors. Does the set look nice at first glance? Yes. Does it look EUR 150 nice? No. (And does anyone but me find it hilarious that the Malfoys have a cellar full of water barrels? Just make the trans pieces red and tell the kids its grape juice or something! Also, wealthy society lady Narcissa who has servants still does her own cooking!) The figs, meanwhile - for a different location and such a dark one I find the selection boring. Harry, Hermione, Draco, Luna, Voldie are pretty much staples these days, different prints notwithstanding. No Ollivander, no Griphook, no background Death Eaters or DH Snape. (Or Ron. Again.) There's unprinted legs all around. And the large stickers put me off, too. Also, the toilet. I know LEGO loves its toilet humor but if I were to pay EUR 150 for a new location I'd want something more interesting, like, say, a library full of dark books or Lucius and Narcissa's bedroom. Overall, I think the Ministry of Magic did a better job giving us a new location with new figs and built details. And a lot of people were complaining about how small and cramped it was! But now, at EUR 50 more than what it cost back then, a surprising number of people go "Looks great! Facades are the best for display purposes anyway". This is cleary what LEGO are aiming for these days in both playsets and display sets (just look at Gru's family home, the Emerald City, or Ollivander's), but I can't say I'm a fan.

Or maybe it's just brick-built Aunt Marge as a stand-alone set akin to Dobby with the cake. Did the leaker actually mention Privet Drive? I thought maxifigs were the oversized buildable "minifigs", like Harry and Hermione some years back or the LEGO House exclusive pirate Redbeard one? That seems like an odd choice.

Hagrid from HP?

Yes, I'm not saying I'd have expected WWW to make it as long as the D2C. The latter has had an extraordinarily long running time and I think it was extended because of Gringotts, too. But like I've said, WWW started off a modular series which was continued in 2024 and which I guess most of us would have expected to further continue in 2025, and now it's going EOL. If you look at, say, the modular Hogwarts system, 2021's Chamber of Secrets is only going EOL now that the 2024 replacement starter set (the Great Hall) has arrived. And all the remaining expansions for the 2021 system are going with it, even the recent ones (which gives some of them a pretty short running time, but I can understand retailers not wanting two different modular Hogwarts systems competing for shelf space). That makes sense! What wouldn't make sense to me would be continuing with a modular Diagon Alley system where one of two existing sets (and the one that started the series) is already going EOL. The more I think on it, the more I expect that both the playset Diagon Alley and the playset Hogsmeade Village are over and done with. Which in the case of Hogsmeade might well be because they hit the end of their planned run. I know a lot of us expected another expansion with Zonko's and the Hog's Head, but that might never have been in the works given Zonko's not that iconic and the Hog's Head is a pub (which LEGO doesn't like). But in the case of Diagon Alley I'd rather expect it to be because of poor sales, as starting the series in 2023 and adding to it in 2024 and then pulling the plug on WWW by the end of 2024 while there's still so much ground to cover seems pretty odd.

I've posted earlier about WWW being on this year's EOL list and what this might mean for the future of the playset Diagon Alley series. For what it's worth, both Hogsmeade Village Visit and the Shrieking Shack (with the Whomping Willow) are on the EOL list, too. This probably means the end of further Hogsmeade expansions at least in the current iteration (since three of the most popular locations go EOL and one of the remaining ones is a pub which LEGO seem to have serious reservations about). Currently, all that's left on shelves of Hogsmeade will be the station (with the Hogwarts Express). Also on the list are the cobbled-together Forbidden Forest: Magical Creatures set and the Draco polybag, both of which didn't even make it a year from their March 2024 release date (though I'm less surprised by a polybag not having a long shelf life). Expecto Patronum, the Quidditch Trunk, and the Second Task from the Triwizard Tournament didn't make it all that much longer (as did the latest expansions to the 2021 modular Hogwarts, but in their case it makes sense to clear the shelves for the new system).

'Tis the time of year again for Christmas wish and EOL lists, and 2023's Diagon Alley: WWW is on the latter. I wouldn't have expected this. Shouldn't a Diagon Alley set have a longer running time? The 2020 D2C is still on shelves! And WWW was followed by Ollivander's and Madam Malkin's just this year! If the information is right, I can think of three scenarios: 1) LEGO are continuing with the Diagon Alley playset series but are weaponizing FOMO (Fear of missing out), wanting us to buy each new entry as soon as it hits the shelves instead of stopping to think of the price or how the end result (the completed Alley) might look. If you're a latecomer who only starts collecting in 2025 and therefore misses out on one of the most iconic shops? Tough luck. 2) WWW sold way below expectations and they are discontinuing the series. One piece of evidence for this might be that the newer set is in fact just called "Ollivander's and Madam Malkin's", not "Diagon Alley: Ollivander's and MM's" the way WWW was. 3) They are going to reboot the Diagon Alley playset series already starting (again) with WWW, the most iconic location next to Gringotts. 3) sounds unlikely to me, since that would mean we'd either get two different WWW's within the space of three years or there'd be no WWW on the shelves at all despite Diagon Alley sets doing well (since if they were intending on redoing it later than 2025 they could push back the EOL date by at least a year). 1) and 2) sound about equally likely to me, leaning slightly towards 2) based on purely anecdotal evidence. It's worth noting that WWW is among the sets currently discounted for LEGO's Insiders Weekend at least in Germany. This might point to it not selling that well, though it's currently one of only two discounted sets that have sold out (the other being the beloved Ninjago City Gardens). What do you think?

I think it's an amalgamation. It certainly doesn't match the layout of the newer LEGO sets (for example the Magical Menagerie came with Gringotts in 2023, but is now located elsewhere, and Madam Malkin's came with Ollivander's in 2024 but they're not even on the same side of the street) and only partly matches the layout of the 2020 one (for example Fortescue's is still next to Flourish & Blotts and Ollivander's is next to Scribbulus, but QQS looks completely different now and doesn't seem to adjoin the Daily Prophet either). Nor does it match the layout of Wizarding World Florida where, for example, QQS would be located next to WWW. That said, @Accio Legohas already identified a lot of the shops. If I'm right about the Owl Post Office that would mean all the playset shops starting from 2023 are in there, and it would then make sense to me that LEGO are using the same layout here that will be the eventual endgame of the playset line. So we should definitely get Sugarplum's (which has been teased in the WWW set) as well as the Daily Prophet (which has not yet been identified here but was in the 2020 set and should therefore eventually show up in the playset line. Plus then they could reuse the existing Rita Skeeter figure).

Sugarplum's (for which we had a sign in the 2023 WWW set) is pink at the bottom according to photographs, so I guess it could be one of the unidentified buildings to the right of QQS. Another one that's pink at the bottom is the Fountain of Fair Fortune, I guess that could be the one next to it? Wiseacre's is indeed blue and could be either of the unidentified blue buildings (next to either QQS or Ollivander's). The Owl Post Office could possibly be the tall, narrow facade next to Flourish & Blotts. The gold in the windows would fit, though I don't actually see any owls in the microscale set. https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-owl-post-in-diagon-alley-at-the-wizarding-world-of-harry-potter-expansion-73591439.html We're also missing the Daily Prophet from the 2020 DC, though that building's fairly inconspicious (I'm always going by the previous set/Florida Wizarding World versions). Any ideas where it might be?

Nope. For the record I wouldn't have bought it with minifigs either, vehicles simply aren't my thing. But given that minifigs are LEGO's best argument against people turning to other brands I don't understand their reluctance to include them in sets from a business perspective. And the Icons Hedwig looked great and I actually own the Hungarian Horntail, I'm just against LEGO flooding us with brick-built crap that either doesn't need to be brick-built or should never have been made, period (like the Sorting Hat) at the expense of everything else. The set is plain ugly. It looks like a cheap knock-off. We're allowed to feel this way.

Thank you! Good spot on the kitten, too. The gray made it hard for me. And that's supposed to be a phone booth? Honestly I wouldn't have guessed but it makes sense. Going by the sets we have had so far, the Daily Prophet (from the 2020 Diagon Alley set) and the Owl Post Office (from 2023's WWW) should be somewhere in there as well. As well as Sugarplum's based on a sign in the WWW set.

I'm baffled that it's 2.750 pieces, from what it looks like it feels like a lot less. @Accio LegoCould you tell me which shops you can identify? I'm especially curious which one's QQS, since the pink front from the 2020 Diagon Alley set seems to be missing entirely.

It's not stylish, just horribly inconsistent to me. Hagrid has proper hands, Harry has 1x1 round plates/tiles instead. Hagrid has a brick-built face with no printing, not even for the eyes; Harry has a single piece with an awful eye print on it. They're both ugly in my opinion, but they also don't even look like they belong in the same set. And to make it worse Hedwig not only looks just as bad but has a much more elaborate print than Harry (he doesn't have a nose or mouth but she has a beak) for yet more inconsistency. To me it appears like the designer was completely overwhelmed by the task of designing three vastly differently sized brick-built figs, and the result looks like a hot mess. Hagrid alone wouldn't have been nearly as bad.

My first thoughts: hahahahaha they can't be serious. Those faces! Whoever thought this was a good idea? A better idea than the Battle of Seven Potters with actual minifigs? On the bright side, Hedwig at Privet Drive is no longer the worst version of Hedwig ever. And I'm baffled they even included her given what happens to her in that very scene.

Honestly I cannot believe that anyone doesn't think this set is overpriced. Compare it to the Natural History Museum if you like that better - yes that one's not licenced either, but it's way bigger and just looks way better, too. Or else compare it to other licenced sets like the UCS Burrow, the result's the same. I've seen the X-Mansion in person next to other sets, it's tiny and the back looks really cheap, all stickered panels. I know that LEGO like to increase prices for licenced sets, especially for Disney Princesses and Marvel, and blame it on licence costs. That might very well be true but it doesn't always mean they're worth the extra money (in my opinion, of course yours may differ) and it doesn't mean we as buyers should encourage it. If you always pay for what you get, you'll always get what you pay for. Or, if enough Marvel fans keep buying overpriced Hoopties and X-Men-Jets and X-Mansions because "licenced sets just are this expensive", don't be surprised when LEGO continue seeing what they can get away with during the next wave.

2025's modular building (Tudor Corner) has leaked. It has about 200 pieces more than the X-Mansion and costs EUR 100 less, just in case anyone was still wondering whether the X-Mansion is overpriced.

For a little variety, the beanie-and-hair combo is also available in red-and-blond (6490731). (Sorry @Yperio_Bricks, now you have to edit the smilie again ... ;-))