brickbride

I'd expect the latter. People around here report that the Stranger Things set (Creel House) sold out within minutes and is now on back order. Even though Stranger Things is huge at the moment, plus there's an exclusive GWP with two figures that are missing from the main set, so they should have expected a large amount of demand during the first couple of days. Also this may be a regional thing but I doubt many people would have wanted the specific sets you mention at midnight on New Year's Eve of all times. None of them seem to be exclusive, or enough to qualify for a GWP or even free shipping, so I'd expect most to wait a bit for a chance at a discount, or just to pick them up with another order sometime .

I wonder how well the X-Mansion (latest Marvel modular), the Spiderman CMF series (indicator of Spidey interest among AFOLs), and playset Oscorp sell. If all three are doing terrible that might well be it for Marvel modulars. If not they mighr just give us Oscorp a year later (i.e. so as not to coincide wirh the playset) or maybe something from Doomsday (though surely not without gauging interest by giving us some Doomsday playsets first, given the currebt state of the MCU).

On Halloween Eve? Except that for some reason it's not evening in the Hall at all. Again, this makes no sense and would have been so easy to rectify. Even the old "Troll on the Loose" set had a (single) pumpkin decoration to signify that it took place during Halloween. If LEGO Hogwarts can decorate the toilets for this occasion surely they can decorate the Great Hall. Or would, like, a pumpkin and two bats have blown the budget for this EUR 200 set?

I still think the missing fireplace is a no-go. I cannot remember a single Great Hall so far that didn't have one, and for the Most "Detailed" Hogwarts Ever that's a really bad look. And yes I know it would technically be on the "open" side, but again LEGO has alway put it in before and has now offered it for an upgrade TWICE (with the Dueling Club and with the 2024 AC) so clearly it's not a matter of being true to the source material. Also what's that nonsensical secret passage doing here? And why is it Christmas in the Hall but Halloween in the dungeons right below it? And why is the sky during the Halloween/Christmas/whatever feast blue with antistud clouds? It would have been so easy to add a small fireplace (even if it's on the short side of the hall near the Gryffindor banner, better that than none at all), decorate the Hall with a bunch of pumpkins or bats or whatever, and make the sky black with glow-in-the-dark stars. But this feels like no thought at all went into it. And I haven't even gone into the portrait corridor (we're still missing a bunch of classrooms, why are we wasting space on that) or the pathetic Hufflepuff Common Room. Oh, and the terrible official connection to the Main Tower. I've said this before but if I'm to pay Modular prices I want Modular levels of design and detail. Just compare this Great Hall to the Tudor Corner which is well and coherently designed and crammed full of detail!

Hard to say. Their track record's kind of wonky there, though IMO they seem to skew towards the darker end in recent years. Over at HP, the set 76413 from 2023 depicts a scene where a student dies, but the LEGO set omits that particular student. Meanwhile the Malfoy Manor set from 2025 includes Dobby (who is mortally wounded in the scene depicted) and the Hagrid's Motorbike set also from 2025 included Hedwig the owl (who dies in that scene - she's technically just a pet but her death is played like a person's).

Have you seen their latest "Dreamzzz goes to war" wave of sets? Including an actual tank! Though they euphemistically re-named it a "Tiger Shark Vehicle" (translated) for the German-speaking market (the English name is "Tiger Shark Tank").

I'm assuming the biggest two will be the ship and castle.

How much are you willing to pay? These days LEGO HP buildings only come in two options: overpriced facades (i.e. Malfoy Manor for EUR 150, D2C Hogsmeade for EUR 380), and small/enclosed. In the latter version, Privet Drive, which is one small bungalow, was already EUR 90. Grimmauld Place would essentially require three large townhouses so we're probably talking at least EUR 400, and that's without counting in LEGOflation. So here's a recap of what we have so far including previously mentioned guesses: 76462: 14+ (545 pcs.) probably buildable creature/object (think the new Expecto Patronum). Any guesses what they'll come up with for that? I won't pretend to know LEGO's mindset when it comes to buildable creatures/objects, there've been so many lately where my mind just went "Yikes! Who on earth okayed that?" 76469: 8+ (379 pcs.) probably a class module (interior-only) for the modular Hogwarts the size of the Potions Class; Divination seems likely because it was such a glaring omission in the PoA-based Hospital Wing and is the last class missing from the Moments Books. Though I could also see them going with something else and keeping Divination for a Charms Class replacement as it's not a very substantial class in terms of builds; basically throw in a teapot, one or two teacups, a crystal ball, and if you want to be fancy a curtain or two, and you're good. But I'm not sure which class they could pick instead as we seem to have covered all the popular ones, and Care of Magical Creatures takes place outside. 76471: 8+ (788 pcs.) probably playset Diagon Alley expansion - if so probably Flourish and Blotts, which is the last "big" shop from the D2C set still missing and would feature Lockhart (to go with this year's likely CoS theme from the modular Hogwarts), with a more obscure shop on its side. Might be Magical Menagerie which I think we'll get to sooner or later because animals. The other option is Gringotts but I could see them doing F&B first. Unless they want to spread out the Lockhart appearances. 76473: 10+ (2164 pcs.) probably Hogwarts Expansion (Viaduct/Chamber of Secrets seems likely) 76474: 14+ (817 pcs.) possibly book nook although I'm not sure how well-received the last one was; it was discounted pretty heavily as far as I could see 76475: (244 pcs.) Are we sure that's not the advent calendar? We already have two smaller, affordable sets in the January Wave (Sorting and motorbike) which has to be some kind of HP record, I wouldn't be surprised if we got zero in the Summer wave(s). 76477: (480 pcs.) The piece count is about on par with the Knight Bus Adventure or Book of Monsters, it seems a tad much for a buildable creature in the style of Dobby and the Demon Pixie (plus I wouldn't expect two of those within the same year). So for now I'm going to say that it's something stand-alone, not belonging to the modular system or Diagon Alley. Any ideas? Another option would be an outside addition to the modular Hogwarts, i.e. Care of Magical Creatures, or the start of yet another gimmick series like that Cauldron thing from the January wave. Also: We could do with a new Hogwarts Express (the current one goes EOL in a couple of day) but the current one's twice as many pieces so that would be a significant downgrade. Still I'd be surprised if we ended up without an iconic red train on shelves in 2026, so either there's still lot of leftover stock from the current one or there might be a (partly?) exclusive new Hogwarts Express that's not on this list? Set numbers 76472 and 76476 are unaccounted for as of yet.

Because it's been discussed here lately: StoneWars has a comprehensive article about smart play rumours up (solely regarding the SW theme so far, but it gives a good overview of what kinds of sets to expect).

- Are we supposed to accept the brainwashing as an excuse then, and to think that Bucky really did nothing wrong? I'm asking because Marvel Studios cannot make up their minds on that. Half of TFATWS was Bucky having to apologize and make amends for crimes he'd committed while brainwashed. Why would he have to apologize and make amends if he were blameless? Bottom line is you cannot fault Tony for being angry at his parents' murderer and you cannot fault him for for holding Bucky responsible if Marvel Studios do it, too. - Also Tony was Steve's teammate who'd saved his megablocks on more than one occasion, and Bucky had been his best friend a looooong time ago but had obviously changed since then. Yet you think Steve was in the right doing what he did? Again, this was not about incapacitating Tony so he couldn't kill Bucky based on possibly faulty or incomplete information (re: the brainwashing) and so they could then talk it over. Tony was already incapacitated! This was about revenge plain and simple. They quite happily would have killed him. - Again you "assume" that Steve had anything to do with Tony's rescue but there's no indication whatsoever that he had. They could have shown a shot of his seeing the jet, of his calling anyone and saying something as simple as "Get him out", or even a quick convo with Bucky about how Tony surely had a plan in place. (And why would he have? Steve must have noticed that Tony was extremely distraught, not thinking clearly. That he didn't have a backup since otherwise he'd have deployed it already given the situation. And that he could not rely on others since, you know, his team leader had turned against him.) There is nothing to support your assumptions other than the general feeling of "Cap wouldn't do that". All the evidence on screen shows that, in fact, Cap would do exactly that. - Add to that the facts that Steve had been extremely (and needlessly) antagonistic towards Tony from their first meeting onward. Also add that Steve was the leader of the Avengers. Also add that Steve is responsible for creating this mess in the first place because he knew that Bucky had murdered the Starks but had deliberately withheld that information from Tony, probably in the futile hope that Tony (the guy with all the tech!) wouldn't find out. Bottom line: If Steve had acted like the leader of the Avengers that he's supposed to be, and had addressed the issue previously, the entire mess could have been avoided. If Steve had acted like any halfway decent person and teammate (I'm not even going into the "paragon of morality" thing) he'd have stopped at incapacitating Tony but not actually left him to die. He also never apologized for either of these failings. YMMV of course but like I've said this made me lose all respect for Steve.

You don't have to try and make Siberia sound bad, though. It just was bad. I lost all respect for Cap in that moment. And again there's no indication that he planned on any sort of rescue for Tony. Tony's a public figure, the fact that he did not die would be public as well, so his sending the phone afterwards means nothing. Of course I approach these movies like a rational human being, and I don't quite think Marvel Studios does; potentially lethal fights between teammates seem to be just a sort of filler to them. Like Cap, Thor, and Iron Man getting into a three-way fight to the death in "The Avengers" for really no good reason, or the stupid airport battle in "Civil War" that against all odds ended with barely any casualties. (Or even the Guardians vs. Strange/Iron Man/Spidey on Titan, though that's my favourite and at least neither party had reason to believe the other would be on their side at first glance.)

My best guess? 1) Because the competition can do that, too, and often in similar quality and for a more reasonable price. 2) Because the target group keeps getting older. I'd guess that by now most LEGO buyers are adults in their fourties or thereabouts (hence the huge amount of 90s and 2000s nostalgia bait sets that keep getting developed). LEGO isn't as ubiquitious among kids as it used to be in the 90s, personally I know a fair number of kids who don't care for LEGO and only a handful who do (and those usually have at least one AFOL parent, but even so not all kids of AFOLs are interested in LEGO). Add to that point 1) above and LEGO must wonder who they are going to sell to in the future. So they want to become more relevant to a younger audience which means video games, streaming shows, lots of licensing currently relevant themes (like Wednesday and One Piece), and electronic/app-based play.

Doesn't the 76261 version count as a Raimi Goblin? He's very definitely the Goblin in this scene, not Norman. Or do you just mean with the mask? That would be ... something. Epic Moment! A bunch of anti-heroes saving the day with the power of love! Epic Moment! A superpowered hero and his superpowered buddy teaming up in order to beat their none-superpowered hero teammate to death (he absolutely would have died if Black Panther hadn't shown up, which neither Cap nor Bucky could have anticipated)! As for the third, I'm not so sure LEGO (or anyone really) want to remind people of the mess that was Amazing Spider-Man 2. I still want Strange vs. Dormammu, though. ;-) Iron Man with a nanobot sword vs Thanos on Titan would be pretty epic, too.

Like I've said: The "smart bricks" are supposed to be just a part of "smart play", as are the "electronic minifigs". "Smart play" will include apps based on what we've been told so far.

That's what I've said from the start! No adult is going to make the hat say "You'd better be Gryffindor!" all the time, you'd go crazy. I'm vehmently against the smart play thing myself for a number of reasons. One, there are so many electronic toys for kids, and so many toys these days that require spending time on your phone, that we don't need LEGO to add to them. I also suspect that even if LEGO themselves don't see it, a large part of why parents would fork out so much money for so little plastic on a regular basis is that at least it gets the kids off their phones and encourages creative play. What @krimimimiproposes sounds neat in theory but I'd rather the kids make up their own exploding cauldron noises. Two, there are certainly enough reasons for me as an adult with an office job to spend time in front of a screen. I'd like to keep a hobby that doesn't add to it. Three, LEGO has a bad track record both with what their apps do and whether they work, especially in the long run. I love the Hidden Side sets but what little I've seen of the app was f'''ing annoying, I'd never have permitted that in my home. And it got discontinued very quickly and apparently even during its short run it only worked on the (then) latest smartphones even though the target group for the sets was kids. What kid has the latest smartphone? So that didn't seem to be well thought-out. Four, again I buy most of my LEGO used, often with parts missing. And getting spare parts for the older sets is a pain as it is. I don't need electronics added into the mix. I think most budget-conscious parents don't. (So the set is advertised as including all the parts. Great. But do the electronic minifigs still work? Even after I wash them? Do the smart bricks still work? Does the app run on my kid's phone? Is the app even still supported? And so on. No, thanks.)

@krimimimiFrom what I've read so far, basically there is the smart brick (light, sounds, can scan codes and tiles). There's electronic minifigs (more below). There's also an app or multiple apps where apparently you can control your (smart) bricks with an app and/or you do something with the (smart) bricks and this is shown in the app. The overall name for it all is "smart play", the smart brick is just part of it. So, in the future, if you buy LEGO for your kids you essentially buy them more time on their phones. Fun! Star Wars has had a couple leaks for sets with horrendous prices (even more so then usual in SW, I mean) with smart bricks. I.e. Luke's X-Wing, 584 pieces, USD 90. The usual place also had a leak for electronic minifigs such as Farm Boy Luke Skywalker. They mostly look normal at first glance but the torso is permanently attached to the hips, they're said to be heavier, there's a printed warning under the arms, and they can be recharged wirelessly (not sure how or what happens when the tech inside fails. Also not sure how durable it is, i.e. many people who buy used LEGO sets put them in the washing machine, what would that do?).

What do you mean? We haven't even gotten to Baby Groot dressed as Wolverine! Buildable Baby Groot in a buildable Hulkbuster! Buildable Baby Groot with a smart brick function and a tiny little smart brick baby groot minifig inside! The possibilities are endless! So far.

Does that mean you think that without smart bricks, the price per piece ratios won't get worse every year? Because I'm pretty sure they will. Anyway, to be honest I don't really care either way. HP is not my only theme. I'm running out of display space as it is. And I find myself less and less interested in the new, expensive stuff with an overinflated piece count (how many 1x1 tiles do you actually need in a set?) LEGO brings out every year when there are so many good, older sets still available on the secondary market. I have completely skipped the One Piece theme so far - and I can't wait for season 2 of the Netflix series! - because while I love the IP I simply don't love what LEGO did with it. If they want to put electronics in everything from now on and make us pay through the nose for them, they absolutely can. I just won't buy any of it.

To be fair, anyone who's into LEGO could see the writing on the wall. Given how big Hogwarts is, how small a part of it the Great Hall is, and that this small part was already EUR 200 without any of the add-ons (the Potions Class was in the first wave, too, so it's not like you didn't know those were coming), no-one who follows LEGO could have thought they wouldn't spend hundreds if not thousands of euros on it. I doubt that. I mean I'm sure we'll eventually get some smart brick crap in HP too, but an entire castle system? They've priced out so many people with this current iteration already, I doubt they'll go even bigger again next time around. Especially in a transitional period (between the movies and the series). They must know that most AFOLs (read: big spenders) prefer the movies for nostalgic reasons if nothing else. Then again, a Pokémon house shaped like Pikachu with a Smart Brick Pikachu inside has just leaked, so what do I know about whatever goes on in their heads.

That doesn't really make sense. It would be one thing if we didn't get anyone else's Common Rooms because they're not that important. But us getting them and them being half the size of Gryffindor's is just odd. Do you, like, work for LEGO Markting and Sales? We never know what comes next but this is the first time where I feel that the next iteration of Hogwarts Castle pretty much HAS to be better. At least for me personally (in terms of space, budget, how much I like the individual sets, and so on).

This. The last Hospital Wing was already way overpriced at EUR 50 (I do own it, but I bought it used for cheaper) and this one looks to be even more so. Sure it now has Ravenclaw and DADA included - and further proof that Hogwarts gives Gryffindor preferential treatment all the time, just compare the three Common Rooms we've got so far! But no way are those additions worth EUR 50 and that's not going into the massive downgrade on the Hospital Wing part itself (including the lack of Pomfrey), or the missing clock function. The big stickered panel on the DADA room feels like a total cop-out, the detailed wardrobe without a Snape Boggart doesn't feel satisfactory, and the spider looks sooo bad. Now that you say it: That set included both DADA and the Hospital Wing part, and a bunch of other stuff (Prefects' Bathroom, dancing stage, Dumbledore's Office ...), and the Clock Tower part, and a whopping eight figs, all for less money than this new Hospital Wing. I don't think it looks great overall, and the fig selection is kind of stupid (no Pomfrey or Moody, and despite the Yule Ball focus you don't even get enough dancing couples for the stage), but it really drives home how much more Hogwarts you used to get for your money just a few short years ago. It also makes me wonder why they didn't just include a clock outside Ravenclaw in this new Hospital Wing and call it a day.

Yes, the Polyjuice Potions Mistake was great! Personally, the new Duelling Club has always seemed overpriced to me. There's absolutely no reason why it should have been EUR 25 instead of EUR 20 at the most, and LEGO have themselves kind of proven this now by giving us a four-fig set (including Hagrid and two sought-after Death Eaters!) for EUR 20 and another four-fig set from the same system as the Duelling Club for EUR 15. I actually think both of these are better than the Duelling Club in their own way, too. The Sorting Ceremony offers some great play value for kids, not to mention I've been advocating for a gender-equal allowance-friendly set for AGES (even though the build looks too cheesy for me as an adult, like McGongall's inviting everyone to come play Wheel of Fortune; Ravenclaw has the wrong colours, and the fig selection is really boring) and the Hagrid's Bike set gives us our very first minifig set of a coveted DH scene (even though the build itself and especially the play function are pitiful and Hagrid looks so stupid with the printed googles). I'm not looking to buy either but they have their justification. That said, in order to find my favourite small sets you'd have to go back a while. 4865 Forbidden Forest is great for the figs, including our only decent version of Narcissa up to this day. And I love 4736 Freeing Dobby especially for its Lucius fig, his alternate headprint cracks me up every time. Like "WHY are you wearing your Death Eater mask while on an official visit to Hogwarts?" and "Do you REALLY think no-one would recognise you with that mask, no hood, and your long platinum blond hair?" ;-)

So far we've already had a Hospital Wing without Pomfrey, Ravenclaw on the first floor, DADA in the dungeons, and the utterly nonsensical layout of the Main Tower where you battle your way through all the underground challenges and then walk up to Dumbledore's Office in order to get to the Mirror. Oh, and Quirrell wasn't even included in the set which had all the challenges and the Mirror, but in the Great Hall instead. Also the bizarre inclusion of Marcus Flint in his Quidditch robes in the Main Tower, where he feels utterly out of place - he would have made a ton more sense in a Slytherin Common Room. I wouldn't, therefore, be at all surprised if the Slytherin Common Room is now located up in a tower and/or if characters importan to CoS or intrinsic to the location (like the Bloody Baron) deliberately show up in another set. (Or even if they keep the Bloody Baron back for another bloody GWP since they know people want him, but let's not give them any more ideas.)

At this rate nearly all Hogwarts classes are going to be taught underground. :-) Though I guess for Divination and Astronomy they could just cram a crystal ball or a telescope into some roof area and call it a day.

Harry and Ron (and Penelope) in robes and Hermione in post-Timeturner antics clothes seems like such an odd choice. And adding Lupin's transformation to the whole mess? They should have paired the Hospital Wing with Sirius Black's Escape instead of DADA and (randomly) Ravenclaw, that would have made so much more sense.