brickbride

I'm glad you enjoy it, but I genuinely have no idea what they were thinking - not only in terms of not including any new characters, or the giant turd that is the Sorting Hat. Like, does anyone genuinely want a set consisting only of the Ford Anglia? I mean I can see why a car stuck up a tree would make a fun addition to a castle set (like the Whomping Willow one in 2018 or the Microscale Hogwarts and Grounds), but just the car? Lego already has tons of cars in their catalogue, and most of them are nicer cars that actually appeal to a car-loving audience. Somehow I doubt that the people who enjoy stories about kids attending a magic school and battling an evil wizard dream about Lego sets of rather ordinary-looking cars. Or: So far we've had a buildable Hedwig that can flap her wings, a giant buildable Hedwig on top of the Hogwarts Icons sets, another buildable Hedwig as a pencil holder (from the HP Dots line) - so what do they give us this year? Buildable Hedwig. Yay.

What do you mean that ship has sailed? We're talking about the third highest grossing MCU movie ever, and the only one in the top five that wasn't an ensemble cast Avengers movie! Even more importantly, this was after Endgame when most MCU movies' ticket sales (and corresponding merch sales) must have been somewhat of a disappointment. And with the current strikes and future movies being delayed, what else is Lego supposed to base its Marvel sets on in the meantime - Ant-Man 3? (Which did even worse at the box office than BOTH Ant-Man 1 and 2, and that's REALLY saying something.) Mind you, I haven't seen any Spider-Man movie since the one where Willem Dafoe played the Green Goblin in like the 90s, so I don't care either way. But if you ask me, between what I've written above and the fact that Spider-Man is probably the most successful Marvel Lego character, we could be seeing NWH sets for a LOOONG time.

Yes, that's kind of my point. We know she isn't at the Boathouse when the new students arrive, because Hagrid takes the firsties up to the Castle and then she takes over from there. Nearly any other staff member could be at the Boathouse at nearly any other time, so why would they pick the one person at the one time when we know she's not there? It's just baffling to me, and the recent false rumour of McGonagall appearing in the Battle of Hogwarts set makes it even weirder.

Just got back from holiday, caught up on the 2024 rumours, and I have to say I'm not at all excited. Harry this, Ron and Hermione that, meh. I can't believe they're actually making the buildable Sorting Hat - as others have pointed out, it basically looks like a dark brown turd, and who wants that on their shelf? And just how many buildable Hedwigs do we need? No Snape or Slytherin stuff to tempt me with, either. ;-) Also, what would McGonagall even be doing at the Boathouse, especially at a time when new students arrive? Shouldn't that be Hagrid there? I guess they didn't want to have too many Hagrids in this wave, but still. To me that's weird especially because the Battle of Hogwarts set this year was rumoured to include McGonagall but then didn't. Could there have been a mix-up of some sort?

Quoting myself because HP mechs? Yikes. Quoting myself again because someone asked about possible remakes in the March wave.

@Alas_EarwaxIf the current WWW set sells well, I expect them to do more Diagon Alley buildings in that style, and there aren't actually that many options to chose from. Gringotts is way more iconic than most, so I think we will definitely get it sooner or later. I doubt it would have an underground section, though. Maybe just a lower level (at street level but made to look like a basement from the inside) with like a slide and a vault or two.

Just out of curiosity, do we actually know that? I mean both the Bugle and the Sanctum seem to be popular with fans, but the Sanctum at least also seems to be on sale a lot.

Sure, but why that one? To put things in perspective: 1) MOM did decently at the box office, and that's it. On BusinessInsider's list of MCU movie box office takes it's ranked 11th with a little less than a billion dollars. Not bad, but you have to keep in mind that most movies on the list are older, so you'd need to account for inflation. Given that, I'm not sure how MOM's take would hold up to, say, both the first and second GotG movies or even the first Iron Man. 2) Even in absolute terms, disregarding inflation, MOM did not do as well as the first Captain Marvel and Black Panther movies. Given that Wakanda Forever's sets seem to all be warming the shelves (and the movie itself is ranked 14th, not so far below MOM) and given that LEGO has no confidence whatsever in The Marvels as evidenced by its single, massively overpriced set, why would they count on MOM's appeal to buyers? 3) Also to put things in perspective: MOM and No Way Home came out almost simultaneously, and No Way Home made roughly TWICE what MOM made. Plus, it's the more kid-friendly film. If LEGO are looking at those two side by side, they aren't going to lose sleep wondering which movie they're going to be making sets about for the next couple of years. If nothing else, the figures prove that while Dr Strange may be popular, he's MUCH more popular in a kid-friendly, Spiderman-y context, especially with Spiderman to back him up, than in an almost-horror MOM context. So again, if they decide on revisiting Strange, why would they pick his MOM appearance as opposed to his No Way Home appearance? So basically, if they decide to revisit the older movies, I'd expect a) more No Way Home sets (these might figure Dr Strange, as they have before), b) more sets with old favourites like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, etc. from the MCU's heyday (these might possibly include Dr Strange especially if Inifinity War-focussed), and c) certainly no Ant-Man sets. ;-)

@NoOneOfImportanceThe Fantastic Beast movies were rated PG-13, the set was 7+. Most likely, therefore, the target audience would not have known the scene. And between the title and the fact that the entire set was focused on Grindelwald, it made him out to be the viewpoint character. Look at all of those City sets with law enforcement vs. crooks for comparison. They could easily have called the set "Chasing Grindelwald" and given Serafina at least a side build to keep some focus on her. Instead, they made it entirely about the guy in the cool carriage trying to escape. The official description even invited kids to "role-play a mighty battle" and "flap the Thestral's wings to make a flying escape". Not to, you know, stop the villain from escaping. You as the kid were Grindelwald! Why is anyone expecting more MOM sets to begin with? The movie did decently at the box office (especially for phase 4), but nowhere near as well as, say, the first Captain Marvel or Black Panther or the phenomenon that was No Way Home. I can see them doing additional No Way Home sets given that Spiderman is their most beloved character AND given that No Way Home is in the top three of the MCU movies earnings-wise, the only none-Avengers film to make it into the top five (and in phase 4, too, though the post-pandemic release certainly helped). Dr Strange and MOM are nowhere near that, the MCU on the whole is on the decline, and one set per movie seems to be the new standard (see: The Marvels).

To be fair, though, LEGO also seems to have thought that kids would want to be Grindelwald. See: 75951.

Brick Clicker's latest video, at 3:39, has pictures of the new CMF boxes (including the back). There's going to be a six-pack as well.

The closest HP had to a battle pack was 40419 Hogwarts Students Accessory Set (there were others of that kind as well). This one's from 2021 with a list price of EUR 15 and far fewer pieces (53 according to Brickset), so, sure, only three instead of four figures and some more pieces for roughly the same price seems doable. Those sets had 40xxx set numbers, though. Which is why I don't think 76424 is one of them. Other than that, the 76400 Thestral Carriage had 121 pieces, 2 figs, and two thestrals (with the baby being a new mold I think) for EUR 20 list price. Which is why I said I expect 76425 to have about 1-2 figures and maybe an animal or two (probably not as large as the thestrals, and possibly no new molds either), keeping LEGOflation in mind. The Forbidden Forest detention might actually be a good fit if you downsize it - say: Hagrid, Harry, Fang, and half a tree or so. Though that doesn't add up given the piece count, so I'm leaning towards maybe only 1 fig and 1 animal or 2 figs and no animal. A remake of 4750 (Draco's Encounter with Buckbeak)? Or 4751 (Harry and the Marauders' Map), since that one lends itself to sizing it however you wish (amount of corridor and statues ...)? The Chamber of Winged Keys might also be a possibility. Or maybe a remake of Aragog's Lair: Harry, Ron, a bunch of spiders (those are cheap), and the giant buildable spider might explain the piece count (though the previous iterations weren't as elaborate). For 76424 I'd expect something REALLY small. The Final Challenge seems doable if barely (Harry, Quirrell, the Mirror, and not much else). Or the Sorting Hat (based off the original 4701 set, though I wouldn't expect them to do that if they're doing a buildable Sorting Hat as well). Of course, I wouldn't rule out something entirely useless like , say, a buildable, customizable (DOTS style) wand with no minifigs, either.

76425: The Polyjuice Potion Mistake in 2021, which already had a ton of small parts, had about 100 pieces less and four minifigs - three of which had the exact same legs and torso, and the fourth of which had a standard golden anniversary torso and legs. And that was three years ago! No way are we getting, three years worth of LEGOflation later, a set with 100 more pieces and four more elaborate minifigs for the same price. I'd expect about 1-2 figs and possibly an animal or two. 76428: DADA doesn't even HAVE a tower, and where would you put this in the official modular Hogwarts layout? I doubt they would have released the picture if they had been planning on such a large addition afterwards. 76432: To answer your question, have a look at the Marvel theme: 76232 The Hoopty, 3 figs, 420 pieces, 95 EUR (2023); 76281 rumoured X-Men Jet, 359 pieces, 80 USD (2024, not confirmed so far).

Believe it or not, I did consider writing "HP mechs" on my list of what to expect. Ultimately, however, I could not see how they would make that work with this theme. Not that the Marvel and Star Wars ones work all that well to begin with, thematically, but still - I can see more kids wanting to swoosh around their Marvel and Star Wars action figures than to want to play "Harry vs. Voldemort: Battle of the Mechs". That said, if there WERE mechs, I'd expect them to be priced at $ 15.99 like in the other themes. So I don't see any here. Unless of course we're talking about a two-pack or something. Wow. After I've been ranting about the lack of allowance-friendly sets in a supposed kids' theme for all of last year, can it be that LEGO is finally listening? I'm especially curious about 76425 given the price-to-pieces ratio. I do hope, though, that these are "proper" playsets with minifigures - not buildable objects/figs nor the last death throes of HP DOTS.

Quoting myself from like a dozen pages ago because @BrickBob Studpants asked. ;-) Though most of them probably would be more likely for a second wave than a first. In addition, I've made a couple off-the-wall suggestions for gimmicky sets in the last couple of posts (HP forearm collection, Harry's hair), but the only one I could possibly see them using is a Diagon Alley trunk to keep the trunk collection alive ("Cobble together your own stores, shopkeepers, and customers!"). Also, did they actually use the Dumbledore hair for Aberforth? If so, I'm disappointed. He needed wilder, more flowing hair in my opinion. He looks entirely too polished this way.

If they wanted to include minifigs with those, why wouldn't they have included Lucius and Harry with Dobby? Also I'm not putting a mandrake the size of Dobby on my shelf. But sure, anything goes with LEGO these days.

Yeah, that's why I was confused when Brick Clicker mentioned both these sets as if they were for sure happening in 2024. Of all the leaks, the Sorting Hat was the one where my mind immediately went "Who'd pay for THAT?" I'm not even interested in half the themes covered by the survey (like buildable Disney figures and Zelda), but this was the only one which I could not see appealing to anyone. That said, I thought (and still think) the same about, say, the pricing of the coming The Marvels set, that ridiculous (and frankly insulting to actual artists) Modern Art set, the new Friends Dog Rescue Center with the eye-hurting colour scheme, and the buildable Chewbacca. And those are all actual sets, so clearly LEGO and I are not on the same page as to what appeals.

In case anyone's interested, Brick Clicker has a new video out. It's mostly about Star Wars but it does give us a first look at the new boxes for the CMF series.

Another gimmick idea: We could do hair to go with the Marvel and Star Wars helmet collections. Build yourself a Harry Potter wig out of LEGO! It's a 3-in-1 set. Well, all three models are just Harry's hair, but the alternate instructions for the B and C models (only available online, of course) cover a different head size each so that the wig will fit most customers. I'm onto something here, ain't I? On a more sensible note (referring to my gimmick idea, not Accio Lego, just in case this wasn't clear), apparently Promobricks are currently teasing leaks for Technic, Dreamzzz, and Ninjago. Not HP as of yet, so I doubt we'd get something as early as tomorrow. Brick Clicker in a recent video mentioned both the buildable Sorting Hat and UCS Burrow from the survey as 2024 sets, but I'm not sure if he has any actual information on whether these sets are going to be released at all (let alone when). Personally, when I read about the survey leak, I thought a buildable Sorting Hat was a terrible idea. If nothing else, it's an unattractive colour for a display model and probably hard to get even somewhat organic-looking. But given the awful-looking buildable Chewbacca over at Star Wars, clearly neither of these concerns would discourage LEGO, so yeah.

If you can even call that a courtyard. Most of the excitement seemed to come from the initial description which made the set sound much better than it turned out to be IMO. But to each their own. Meanwhile, I've come up with the perfect new gimmick: a HP buildable forearms collection to go with the Marvel glove collection! For starters, Snape's forearm (black robe sleeve, white used as a skin tone, Dark Mark), and Dumbledore's cursed blackened hand (garish robe sleeve, Horcrux ring). Next wave: various animagi and werewolves caught in mid- transformation. Watch out for James Potter's half-human, half-stag forearm! Who needs decently priced playsets when we all love buildable display objects just that much?

To be fair, that's the same as the current confirmed HP list for 2024. Don't give up hope yet is all I'm saying.

The main draw of this Gringotts is that it is compatible with the 2020 Diagon Alley set, hence the odd decision to balance a baseplate on the lower part (the 2020 Diagon Alley had baseplates). Making Gringotts a shadowbox would have defeated the purpose.

I don't have the set, so I don't care either way, but everywhere it was discussed, people went: "Yay, a DH set! Finally we get a minifigure of Scabior/an updated minifigure of (whoever)!" I didn't notice anyone going "Wow, that build looks great, I'd have to get it no matter what figs came with it!" Nah, not potions bottles. Those don't lend themselves to including enough Gryffindor minifigs. Other than that: Please don't give them ideas! Those wouldn't be compatible with WWW, so I very much doubt they'd give us two new DA series at the same time (plus Gringotts). I mean everyone argued that the Moments books were the reason the modular Hogwarts has next to no classrooms. I could see something like a DA trunk though (to keep the trunk line going) where you can cobble together your own shops.

I strongly disagree. What about the recent Battle of Hogwarts? No-one bought that one for anything but the figs (or completionism). And what about the Fluffy Encounter and the new Sirius' Rescue before that? Or the older Expecto Patronum with like one single tree cut in halves, or the Forbidden Forest set before that? Those were all about the figs, too. Or the Thestral Carriage. At least Grindelwald 's had a roof! (I mean I can see why they'd have traded that in for a baby thestral, but it's still a weak build.)

First of all, there's no need to call people "completely delusional" just because you don't agree with them. Please be civil. Second, as for diversity in terms of skin colour, race, disabilities, and so on - yeah, I might agree with you. That's something that LEGO pays attention to. But it's also plain that LEGO still doesn't like female characters. Or girls for that matter. They've only recently rebooted their only (non-licenced) girls' theme into no longer a girls' theme because of, you know, inclusion. Mind you, the old Friends had boy characters as well, but those weren't the main leads and therefore that's no longer allowed. Wouldn't want those poor underrepresented boys to feel like there's even a single theme without them in the limelight, would we? Also, just for fun, count the girl protagonists of the new Dreamzzz theme. If LEGO's so desperate for "diversity" (referring to gender equality, here) as you say, we should at the very least get a 50:50 split, shouldn't we? I could go on about this for some time but I won't because it's off-topic. But basically, LEGO absolutely does not treat girls as equal to boys, and I cannot really fathom why anyone would argue otherwise. I guess what you refer to is: Sure, LEGO in recent years has become somewhat better about including a token female minifigure in many sets (which is probably why Luna is in so many HP sets despite really not being an important character). But here we are talking about a set with an all-female minifigure line-up (minifigures, mind you, not mini-dolls). In a tradtional "boys'" theme like Superheroes. You really think that if this set fails - which it will, thanks to the pricing if nothing else -, the minifigure selection won't be blamed?