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Finally watched "F4". It's not the worst movie Marvel Studios have put out lately, but then "Qantumania" and "Thor Love & Thunder" set that bar really, really low. I was disturbed that every single person in the world seems to be merely an extra in the F4‘s lives. None of them have characterisations or agendas of their own, they basically serve as a faceless adoring mass (that turns briefly hateful but then just as quickly returns to its regular adoring state). And then there’s the fact that the entire movie feels like a throwback to the 60s but not in a good way. So much cringy pregnancy humour! (I was extremely glad when the Silver Surfer showed up half an hour in just because she put a brief stop to that.) So much unrealistic birthing! TWO female characters in a main cast of seven who BOTH solely exist to be Mothers (and in one case, to be sexy and flirtatious at the same time) and who BOTH get to sacrifice themselves! Yikes, was that thing actually written in the Sixties and sat in a time capsule for the last couple of decades or something? Other than that, wow does the LEGO Galactus look bad in comparison. The scale is way off and the colour scheme does him no favour at all. And Johnny really really needed to be in his torch form while fighting him. Also where's Franklin? They could have used the existing baby and recoloured it. I think the scene might have worked better as a diorama of Galactus and a slice of New York (Times Square with the Bridge, little skyscrapers for him to smash) with the Four to be displayed on the side. Or just one of those "rubble" sets (á la "Endgame") that LEGO likes so much, with maybe Sue in the crashed car, Johnny pursuing the Silver Surfer, and the remaining F4 in there, too. People would have bought it solely for the figs but then I guess that's the idea of the existing set anyway.

The Dueling Club was featured, sort of, in the 2021 Chamber of Secrets set. A better comparison would have been the troll set from 2001 which we genuinely hadn't gotten since then (and no, microscale doesn't count). But I think more people wanted a remake of that than Umbridge's office. As for the many Great Hall add-ons, that's why I said they wasted so many slots and now have to scramble in order to complete the castle. I doubt they can afford duplicates from now on.

Let me talk about a little set called the Hoopty ... As for epic moments, I'm voting for Loki vs Hulk (The Avengers movie) or Strange vs. Dormammu. Or even just God Loki, a catwalk, and the Loom. But then again my understanding of "epic" is probably different from LEGO's.

Well it either counts as a Headmaster's office (and we got Dumbledore's) or, if you go back in time a bit, a DADA teacher's office (and we got DADA with Lupin). I don't care about its location since LEGO clearly doesn't care either (see DADA in the dungeons or the bizarre location of the Mirror in the Main Tower set), so I just filed it under "duplicate". The only time Umbridge's office has so far been made by LEGO was in the explicitly OotP-based castle that didn't have Dumbledore's office, and that was nearly twenty years ago so most people won't even remember. I wouldn't expect its inclusion here. I agree that it's not that important story-wise, but it's important (or picturesque) enough for LEGO to have included it in the Clock Tower set. That set is recent enough that people remember it, and the "Most Complete Hogwarts Ever" should probably cover at least all the recently included locations. The same goes for the library which isn't that important either but was prominently featured in the Dumbledore's Office set. Again, my list of locations to be covered is simply based on what LEGO has given us over the years, and the fact that they themselves call this the most complete version of the castle. Something else to think about: If the big summer set is the Chamber of Secrets (as pretty much everyone seems to assume) with the Slytherin Common Room and Myrtle's toilet, how much room is there for anything else? Especially minifigure-wise. In order to do the three locations you'd already need at least Draco, Harry and Ron (polyjuiced as Crabbe and Goyle), Hermione/cat, the Bloody Baron (since he's the only House Ghost we're missing), Myrtle, Lockhart, Ginny, Tom Riddle's shade, and of course the basilisk. I'm assuming that the Slytherin Common Room will (incorrectly) be on the first floor with Myrtle's toilet next to it. So they can cram something else into the top part but it won't have much of a figure count since we're already at nine at the bare minimum (without any additional Slytherin students). Thoughts?

Care of Magical Creatures should mostly take place outside, I wouldn't expect that to be included. Also not Umbridges's Office since we got Dumbledore's. In general I think a lot of people are expecting way too much of this Most "Complete" Hogwarts Ever, i.e. multiple iterations of DADA Class (and even of just Lupin's Class, i.e. the belief that the Snape Boggart might show up later), of the RoR etc.. I think we'll get one of each and IMO they opted for the lamest possible version in both cases (no Snape Boggart, no Lockhart and pixies, no Moody and trunk, no DA training or vanishing cabinet or Fiendfyre) just so they could say they did something new. We're still missing at the absolute minimum the Slytherin Common Room, Myrtle's bathroom, and of course the Chamber of Secrets all from CoS, Sirius Black's Rescue and Divination from PoA, the library (which was included in the previous iteration), the Prefects' bathroom from GoF (which was included in the previous Clock Tower), the Clock Tower, the Astronomy Tower, and the Viaduct Bridge. And that list already excludes all the doubles (i.e. anything relating to Lockhart's or Moody's DADA classes since we got Lupin's, or to Slughorn's Potions class since we got Snape's) and all the ones fans have been asking for that have never been made (i.e. the Bell Towers and the swamp corridor). There's no way they can wrap all of that up in one summer wave. But at the same time they might have to call it quits after next year especially if the current sets don't meet their sales targets. Which I don't have any real evidence for (except the surprisingly large discounts on Amazon) but still consider likely. A lot of adult collectors have "Hogwarts fatigue" (the overwhelming reaction to the Great Hall was " ANOTHER one???") and the system's just too expensive for many kids. So they might want to start again soon and smaller this time. I doubt that was the original plan, though, otherwise they wouldn't have wasted so many slots on irrelevant outside buildings, multiple Great Hall add-ons, and the like. If so, then the Hospital Wing's nonsensical layout might partly be the result of last-minute scrambling, i.e. Rawenclaw and/or DADA might have been shoehorned in there because their own module got scrapped.

4704 used one of those Belville crowns for the queen, I liked that better. And yes, Snape in the books can fly, that's why I said "most of them". Death Eaters somehow turning into mist in the movies is just an annoyance that makes no sense.

Sorry, I mixed them up. In my defense, canonically most Death Eaters can't fly. 😉 You're also right that you can technically cram the tea party inside the house, though that reminds me of those stackable pieces of furniture in the Moments books more than anything else. Maybe I'm just nostalgic for the good old sets before shrinkflation where you could fit all the figs and side builds into the main structure and still have studs to spare.

@krimimimiI found seven pics and only one side view of the car has what appears to be a gray half-dome in the backseat, is that supposed to be Hedwig? She is not even gray!

Philosopher's Stone: Hedwig looks decent (which is more than you can say for the last couple iterations of her) but not as good as she would have to as a centerpiece, especially compared with the Hogwarts Icons set. My favourite build might actually be the candle. The vignettes look better than I expected but that's because of so many stickers, no points here. Is that supposed to be Harry's trunk? 'Cause it looks like a suitcase, not a trunk. And didn't the leaks say the chess piece would be the queen? That doesn't look like a queen to me, it doesn't even have a crown. Also people in the usual place are already speculating that there will be one of these for each year, that sounds plausible. Luna's House: That's ... a compromise for sure. On the one hand it looks kind of like the Rookery in the style of the playset Diagon Alley, or like those 4+ Batcaves and Arkham Asylums over at Superheroes, just very junior overall. And what's with the tea party outside on the lawn, couldn't LEGO make a house where you can fit two chairs and a table inside? On the other hand I do like the light brick and its use, and it's just something different. And Xenophilius actually looks good, though the Dementor has nothing on the old ones with the sand green faces and capes, those were way creepier. I won't buy it and I don't think it would look good next to more "adult" buildings like the Burrow or even Privet Drive, but I don't hate it either. Also: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (re: Ron)! Motorbike: Hagrid with the goggles looks beyond stupid and the play feature is ... let's say lacking, but I might still get this at a discount if only for the Death Eaters. Or maybe not. I really don't want or need anything else about it other than the Death Eaters and maybe the broom, and EUR 20 minus a discount is too steep for that. We'll see. Sorting: Okay the spinning wheel is a disaster, this was so much better done in 4701. Also the colours for Ravenclaw are entirely wrong, should be dark blue and gray! Surely LEGO know this by now. I might have considered getting it but now I don't think I will, it just looks too cheesy overall. The hourglasses and of course the cat are the best part. Finally a gender-balanced and affordable set for kids, though, so I'm not complaining. Pixie: Wow. That looks even worse than Dobby which is saying something. Ford Anglia: The car is not too terrible (apart from the fact that we've had it like a hundred times already) but yikes those faces! Mine probably sported the same expression like either Ron's or Harry's when I finally found the pic. Also the leak said that Hedwig would be included but she's missing here. I'm kind of tempted to think she looked so bad they had to omit her at the last second, but given that they actually released drone Hedwig in Hagrid's Motorcycle Accident that's probably not the case. Do we know any definitive prices for any of them yet? I'm asking because the Marvel January sets just got officially revealed and apparently the Daily Bugle is USD 100 but somehow EUR 110! Is that going to be a regular thing? Whatever happened to the tarriffs excuse?

The usual place (and also Jay's Brick Blog) says the Bugle is USD 100 but somehow EUR 110, is this a mistake or true? Whatever happened to the tarriffs excuse?

Maybe you could forego the personal comments and focus on discussing the sets in the future, or is that too much of an ask? Just a suggestion. Plus as krimimimi has pointed out, HP canon is rife with child abuse and unsavoury situations. I wouldn't have a problem with this kind of "secret class" in a more wholesome setting but given all the rampant power and authority abuse within Hogwarts, the idea is frankly disturbing (and not in a "Victorian chaperone" way - again, Snape's gender is not the part I have a problem with!). The closest canon analogy I can think of is Harry's Occlumency lessons with Snape, and I don't really see Potions with Hermione going much better. Again, they could easily have made the two figures peers instead and avoided a lot of disturbing implications.

Huh. That does look pretty nice (if not EUR 60 nice). Though I'm still baffled by the idea of a "secret potions class" INSIDE A CAULDRON, I mean WTF? It's like the old Snape's Class set (4705 I think) where he keeps his secret scrolls UNDERNEATH A BUBBLING CAULDRON. That seems like such a terrible idea on so many levels. Also I realize that LEGO probably just wanted to up the female characters quota (and was limited to picking one with a known patronus who's also Snape's student and not already featured in the Lovegood House) but the idea of just Snape and Hermione having a "secret potions class" together in such an intimate setting gives me the creeps. Especially with the Snape minifig's alternate facial expression! Imagine being locked in there with your abusive teacher (who's also a genius with a wand and a very experienced duelist, so it's not like you could best him) and no way to call for help. McGonagall would have been a much, much better choice for privately tutoring Hermione one-on-one (she canonically gave her the time-turner and she's Hermione's Head of House, whereas Snape hates all his Gryffindor students and thinks of Hermione not as a brilliant mind but an annoying know-it-all who helps Harry cheat) and Draco, who legitimately is some sort of protege to Snape, would have been a much, much better choice for this set. Of course the the best choice by far would have been Teenaged Snape and Teenaged Lily but I don't expect LEGO to put that much thought into it.

Netflix has (finally!) announced the release date for One Piece Season 2: March 10, 2026. In other news, given how much I love this theme I'm kind of surprised myself by how indifferent I have become to the sets. I've recently seen all of them, including the Baratie, in a local store and just gone "Yeah, no". The Arlong Park set was on sale for like EUR 51 on Amazon lately and I was briefly tempted, but with it having just three of the East Blue Crew instead of the required five (and my favourite missing) it just feels so incomplete. And I refuse to get either the Merry or the Baratie because both are out of my budget and a ship doesn't fit in with the rest of my stuff (also because I refuse to humour LEGO's cash-grabbing and because of my numerous other issues with the Baratie especially). I'd hope they'd do a better job with season 2 sets but I don't really expect it. On the plus side, since I don't care about the only new crewmember from that season I won't have to be as annoyed about getting an incomplete crew in a set. On the other hand there's a bunch of new characters which will surely be spaced out in such a way that there's even less chance of an affordable set having the ones I want. And One Piece is primarily about the Straw Hats, so unless your favourite happens to be someone else (but Law and Ace probably won't be introduced for a while and I don't think anyone other than them is this popular) it seems kind of pointless to me to collect them as minifigs while missing out on the main characters. Luckily there's a ton of One Piece merch (mostly manga & anime but that's fine with me as well) available other than LEGO. But it's still baffling to me how LEGO could turn me off something that combines two of my favourite interests so quickly. If there's a decent and (very) cheap set coming with just Usopp and Sanji I might get that and the Buggy the Clown one, but again that would actually be a customer-friendly move so I doubt it.

Wasn't the last one half based on FB? I can't imagine it sold all that well and if it didn't, that would probably discourage them from giving HP another series. 'Cause let's be real, LEGO don't care whether there's cool figs (such as the Snape boggart) that have not yet been updated and/or were only ever available in a very limited way. All they care about with a CMF series is that there's a large enough target group for the individual figs. A lot of casual viewers would not know what the Snape boggart represents and would be like "Huh, a male Hogwarts professor in women's clothes. Do I need this? I guess not" I think quite a few of the recent CMF series might not have lived up to their sales targets (the Space one got a mixed reception despite a lot of pre-hype, the F1 one seems to be pretty universally considered a dud and as much as some people over at Eurobricks Marvel balk at hearing it, the Spiderman animated movies are fairly niche - only the D&D one got an overwhelmingly positive reception). I'd except them to bank on safer prospects (i.e. a second D&D series) going forward. That's of course based on the current status of the theme. If the HBO series comes, if it does well, if it devotes like an entire episode to the boggart thing so that even casual viewers can instantly recognise the Snape boggart then that would be different. But at the moment I cannot see it. LEGO aren't interested in what children would like these days. Not including Pomfrey here and then including her in another module would be yet another blatant cash-grab. Like having Quirrell in the Great Hall (where he's not that necessary) but not having him in the Main Tower with all the Challenges, including the Mirror. Or all the crappy slide-out placeholders which are then to be replaced by proper modules. They don't want you to be able to pick and chose which sets you buy, they want you to feel like you have to buy them all otherwise they'll remain incomplete. Same with the GWPs lately - those used to be a fun but not necessary addition to the main set, but these days they're more like parts taken out of the main set that you need in order to complete it.

Hahahahahahaha I'll give you a free preview of the polybag figs for the next five years right now: Ron, Harry, Harry, Draco, Harry or Ron. (Okay, that's maybe a bit mean but I don't think I'll be 100% wrong either.)

The official description says "Join Penelope Clearwater and the Grey Lady in the Ravenclaw Common Room", that's why I put her there. Though yes, they might count her as one of the mystery "patients" at the same time.

Thank you, that actually makes sense. I was thinking of them in terms of descriptions written by people for people, not by AI for SEO and data mining purposes, and I just found them really, really bad. Though of course they'll still show up on LEGO's own shop and everywhere else just like that. I think Harry and Ron at least are supposed to be part of the DADA lesson (with Harry's boggart being the Dementor and Ron's being the spider). And Hermione on her own in the Hospital Wing would make little sense, she should be with them. But then we'd have five figs for DADA (and there's no way one of those crappy slide-out modules holds five figs), two for Ravenclaw, and none for the Hospital Wing. Which makes little sense as well, especially for a set called the Hospital Wing. And the official description talks of "patients" in the hospital wing (in plural). So I honestly don't know.

I meant in terms of displayability. The set came with Pomfrey and her little cart but with the way the beds were arranged there was nowhere to actually put either of them in the set. The pics show them in front of it but If you stack up your modules the way you're meant to that's not an option either. None of the other sets had that problem except the Chamber of Secrets, but that was supposed to be a base module so it didn't matter. In other news, is it just me or do those official set descriptions sound kind of desperate? All the assuring us how much fun we could be having with the app (if we liked playing around with digital bricks why would we buy the sets? We could do that way more cheaply!) and all the awkward "highlights": the first ever brick-built Hedwig with closed wings, the first 1:1 scale model of a pixie, and so on. You can put the pixie on its stand but you can also take it off the stand! You can put Hagrid on Hagrid's motorbike! The Sorting Hat references a set that's 24 years old and which surely none of the grade schoolers this one is allegedly aimed at care about! Most of it reads like a parody to me but unfortunately I think it's the real deal. New things we've learned: - The DADA lesson in the Hospital Wing is probably the boggart one (Ron's spider and a Dementor). So there's pretty much zero chance of us actually getting the Snape boggart in this system. Again, they went for the lamest possible iteration especially with the spider. - Yes, DADA now takes place in the dungeons ("the rocky foundations"). Whyever not. - The Ford Anglia has brick-built Ron and Harry and also Hedwig (no mention of Scabbers). Cause what we really need is another awful-looking, brick-built Hedwig or Harry. (Or Ron but at least he hasn't been done before.) The only set I'm somewhat considering getting is the motorcycle for the figs. And only if that one truly is listed at EUR 20 (I'll believe it when I see it) and comes with a decent discount. As for the rest, just no.

I'm a little late to the newest set description and also, like most of you, underwhelmed. I did say that at EUR 100 we probably wouldn't get much of an addition to the Most Expensive Hogwarts Ever, but this? The Hospital Wing giving the set its name yet only making up a third of it. And the last one was already quite cramped and really needed an office for Pomfrey or storage facilities, so this sounds like a distinct downgrade. No Pomfrey but another random student to keep baiting the collectors instead. Sure, the last version would be hard to top, but that's not what "most complete" means. The lamest possible iteration of the DADA classroom: no Snape boggart, no Lockhart and no pixies, no Moody - and while we might get some of those eventually, I think we can pretty much rule out the Snape boggart for this system since they're not likely to release another Lupin's Class for it. The Ravenclaw Common Room on top is so much lamer than the genuinely cool clocktower build from the last system. And if it's a slide-out it will probably look a lot more like the Hufflepuff Common Room than like the Gryffindor Common Room, i.e. crappy. Also now I'm wondering if we'll ever get a proper Astronomy Tower (where the Ravenclaw Common Room should be). If this is true it sounds very disappointing.

But then your Most Complete Hogwarts Ever won't be complete! /s Not that it would anyway unless you want to cram all the Great Hall add-ons into the Great Hall at the same time, but I guess for LEGO it's the thought that counts or something.

Well downparing things is what LEGO do these days, so that fits.At least it's going to be significantly cheaper than its predecessor - not like, say, Hogsmeade which costs almost as much as Diagon Alley but you only get a fraction of its value.

Thanks for thinking of me! 😉 That said four figs in a EUR 15 set sounds like wishful thinking, I'll believe that when I see it. Again, EUR 20 list price and four figs, one of which is Hagrid? I'll believe that when I see it. Quoting myself because if this is true then HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

That's a lot of in-story detail. I doubt your average grandparent buying a HP set for their grandchild would know or care about any of it. The kid wants "that Hogwarts set with the really tall tower", so "Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower" it is. Anything more complicated would, again, IMO only lead to customer confusion.

I kind of doubt that since it would lead to customer confusion if the "Main Tower" isn't the tallest one. But yes, you never know.

To be fair, the MCU would like to be able to manage that too.