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Meh, I totally get that. From what it looks like, the only set I MIGHT get of this year's waves is one of the House banners, and those seem way overpriced. I wish that we'd get more affordable play sets that also look good when displayed! The trunk likely won't deliver - I mean what's there to display, if it looks anything like the magic trunk we know -, and the House banners look none too great either opened or closed. That pretty much leaves the Lake Task, the RoR, and a bunch of even more expensive sets to come. Also, I've never understood why LEGO Harry Potter, despite being mostly aimed at kids, is so un-affordable TO kids. The cheapest sets currently available are the Polyjuice Potions Mistake and the Thestral Carriage, and both of them are from previous years AND have a list price of EUR 20 each, which is not cheap, period. Star Wars gets all those microfighters, Marvel gets affordable EUR 10 sets with two minifigures (like Shuri's Lab and the upcoming GotG sets) - why can't there be something similar with Harry Potter? Heck, I'd gladly buy a smaller add-on for the modular Hogwarts (a single room on a plate with 8x8 studs) based on, say, the Final Challenge from 2001. Instead, all we get are more and larger sets that I doubt any kid with an allowance and an interest in the theme (say, aged 8 or so) could afford. I thought the crossover with Dots would change things up a bit. But no. Despite Dots having plenty of affordable sets (all those individual bracelets!), none of the three HP sets were particularly affordable for kids either. I just don't understand this.

Sorry! I was referring to Roebuck's and Yperio_Bricks' comments about the goat.

I guess a lot of this depends on just how popular the newly reinvented Friends theme proves with boys. Pirates is typically thought of as a boys' theme. The only movie I can recall with a female lead, Cutthroat Island, did not do well, I think. The old Friends theme occasionally ventured into the adventurous (there was a jungle subtheme and a marine rescue subtheme), but those were still centered on the girls' theme of helping/saving animals. The closest we've come to a typical boys' theme was the kart racing subtheme, and while that wasn't bad (the Drifting Diner is an excellent little set, definitely my favourite among Heartlake City's many eating establishments), I would be surprised if it did all that well. Basically, I think TLG will shy away from combining (girls') minidolls and (boys') pirates unless the new Friends theme becomes a hit with boys more than it does with girls. But I'd be glad to be wrong on this, and your ideas sound excellent!

According to Promobricks (https://www.promobricks.de/lego-leak-umfrage-2023/157463/), a recent leak by JeanGreyForever (first here on Eurobricks, and then spread elsewhere) includes a potential Medieval Village set. With a goat. Google translation of the relevant part of the article: Continuing with the adult sets with the Medieval Village! This set is expressly intended as the successor to 10193 Medieval Market Village from 2009. The set contains four medieval houses in the form of facades, which can be folded up in the same way as 10305 Castle of the Lion Knights. You can either display two closed houses or play with four houses that are open at the back. The houses are cleverly built, a small watchtower is part of one of the houses. The houses are then framed by four trees, which can also be built. The set contains at least eight minifigures, from the city guard to the court jester to the common people. A lot of animals should also be included: two sheep, a cow with calves, a horse, a cat, various birds and squirrels - and yes, the goat should also return in this set according to the picture available to us! There is also a beehive. Parts: 3200 Price range: $190 to $310 Most Likely Price: $240 Now, as the leak is from a market survey, this set may or may not ultimately be produced (even assuming that the leak itself is legit, as it seems to be), and if it is produced it may or may not have been changed from what was shown there. But the potential for a Return of the Goat exists.

It does, doesn't it? :-) I'm not particularly into Disney so I won't get it, but I wonder if TLG will consider making adult displays for other themes in a similar style. That's a great idea using the centaurs (from a set that doesn't seem all that popular otherwise), and good call on Hermione's torso, too! I'm amazed that the pink matches so well, you'd never guess the skirt and torso were from different themes. To add to a previous post of mine, here's Spider from the Avatar set (source: Bricklink): Is it just me or does he have a recoloured version of Thor's hair?

To add: The Arielle/Ariel set I've mentioned above is 43225, about 1.800 pieces according to Brickset. There are no official images as of this moment, thus I cannot link to anything, but it should be easy enough to google the set number and "leak". (It's the picture with the huge clam shell.)

The sequel to the movie Avatar, The Way of Water, currently has five sets out: 75575 through 75579. I hope it's okay to link to a StoneWars article? (Simpler than linking to all the individual pics.) https://www.stonewars.de/news/lego-avatar-2023-januar/ I guess the blue minifigs aren't that useful unless for a really fantastic setting, but there's plenty of fantastic sea creatures and unusually coloured plant life to be had. Spider (the human from the 75577 set) would make a good shipwrecked pirate who's been living on an island for some time. (Though you might have to replace the head because of the breathing mask, which unfortunately is printed on both sides of the head.) I also like the fabric sail thingie from 75578. I could see something like a colony of shipwrecked pirates who've cannibalized parts of their ship to make a shelter.

I'm not in any position to confirm this, but I wouldn't be surprised if the current iteration of Hogwarts (the modular system) got replaced next year. The last one ran from 2018 to 2020, so it would make sense for this one to run from 2021 to 2023, and for them to start anew in 2024. Plus, in 2021 we got the huge Chamber of Secrets, the Polyjuice Mistake as a smaller, add-on, and the Fluffy Encounter. 2022 brought us the Hospital Wing, Dumbledore's Office, and Sirius Black's Rescue. This year so far we've only got the Room of Requirement, and there's possibly the Battle of Hogwarts (this is the only of the leaked sets I could possibly see fitting in with the modular system, but we don't even know for sure if it will). That makes only 2 sets maximum in 2023 compared to 3 in both the previous years. Personally, I cannot understand why they wouldn't have seized the chance to do many smaller sets like the Polyjuice Mistake, but I think it's fairly clear by now that they won't. So yes, I do think that the current Hogwarts system is on its way out - but like others have said, I'm pretty sure we'll get some new version of Hogwarts instead. You can't really call the them "Wizarding World" without some Hogwarts sets each year, can you?

Harry Potter redid the old Lake Task set this year (76420). I'm not crazy about it - both Harry and Krum really should wear swimming trunks -, but it does contain a mermaid minifigure. The hair piece for it is from Vidiyo, I've heard ... Krum's head, hair, and torso might also work for a pirate? EDIT: Picture by Promobricks included Also, there's already leaked pictures of a USD 170 Arielle display based on the upcoming movie. It has several merperson minifigures. It's probably too pricy to buy it just for those, but they might be worth looking for individually. Plus I like the construction of the upside-down ship hull. I think that could easily work for a treasure island or something similar.