brickbride

We don't know if next year is the last one for sure. I just said that if the system isn't doing well by now, already-planned sets might get canceled and we may not get the full silhouette. If it is doing well they'll likely see it through to the (planned) end - whenever that might be. Called it that the dragon wouldn't look good! And neither does the Thestral for that matter. Or Fleur! The rest are okay I guess. But honestly they should have foregone the animals and gone with Fake!Moody or even Baby!Voldie for the fifth one. I like the accessories for the champions, though. (Not Luna's apple. WTF?) Have we seen that before with Brickheadz? And does the Thestral have glow in the dark eyes?

I normally don't even care about arm printing on figs. But this looks very odd to me, less like a winter coat and more like she's wearing a sleeveless vest belted over a shirt of a different colour. That's why I said it needed arm printing.

Well I'm expecting at least the Three Broomsticks to be HBP-themed. I'm not so sure the legs truly belong with Hermione. Like I said she's wearing blue jeans and boots, so dark blue legs or possibly dual-moulded ones (but I doubt that) would make more sense. If those are indeed her legs the outfit looks even less movie-accurate. I'm expecting another Leanne, yes, and obviously Madam Rosmerta. Draco from HBP also seems likely to me.

There's a newer subreddit where everyone can post rumours (hence "free-for-all").

Yeah, it's not a great likeness. The jacket needs some brown or black, and arm printing, and the scarf needs some dark green IMO. But at the same time it's too close to be a coincidence, you know what I mean? It looks like a lackluster attempt to recreate Hermione's outfit in the scene, so I'm assuming that's what it is.

The free-for-all section of the usual place has a bunch of minifig factory leaks. On the very right of the first picture is a fig with no head or hair, dark bluish gray midi legs, and a torso with a dark and light bluish gray checkered jacket, light bluish gray belt over it, and blue-white-gray striped scarf. The arms are dark bluish gray with light bluish gray hands (presumably gloves). This could be a Ravenclaw student in winter wear for the Hogsmeade set, and from the shape I'd say it's a girl, but I can't find any clear picture matches from the movies. Thoughts? If it's indeed from the set then this all but confirms the winter theme. Which was kind of expected with Hogsmeade anyway but also kills a significant part of my interest (I don't like winter kitsch) and means it probably won't go that well with the D2C Diagon Alley. EDIT: Found her! I did some more digging and I think it's Hermione during the Hogsmeade visit in HBP! Though she's wearing blue jeans and boots but the jacket, gloves, and scarf look close enough. If I'm right this would point to the set being HBP-themed.

I've just realized (not for the first time) that I'm in the minority here. If LEGO happen to read our expectations they'll do pretty much the opposite from what I want, i.e. more Most Expensive Hogwarts Ever EUR 200+ "playsets" and classrooms designed for the slide-out system. Of course this is an adult forum. I really think that what used to be the actual target group's (children and their parents') expectations align more with mine, i.e. more cheap sets that aren't buildable creatures or designed for the Most Expensive Hogwarts Ever system or solely targeted at boys. I'd love to see some sales figures for the new modular system - obviously earnings will be high at those prices (since any discounts are given by the resellers, not LEGO itself) but does the number of sets sold live up to expectations? @Gorilla94'Cause that will also determine how long the system sticks around. If it doesn't hit its sales targets by now, I doubt they'll really go for the complete silhouette no matter what their marketing claims are.

- Reasonably priced, with plenty of allowance-friendly sets and no EUR 250 "playsets" - Playset-heavy with little to no buildable crap thrown in - An equal gender ratio for minifigs especially in the lower price range so girls will get some characters to identify with too - For once not a single fricking car or motorbike in what is supposed to be a magical theme instead of City 2.0 ... Yeah, I don't have high hopes overall. As for what sets I would like, honestly I don't even know anymore. These last few waves, the sets whose concept I liked (such as Malfoy Manor) were way out of my price range, poorly executed, and just not worth the money IMO. And prices have gone up so much, as evidenced i.e. by the playset Diagon Alley which costs almost as much as the D2C version but you get so much less for your money. And the Most Expensive Hogwarts ever will stick with us for at least one more year and if people buy it I don't think the next iteration will be any more reasonably priced. I'd like a proper Ministry in the style of the D2C Diagon Alley but not for EUR 400 and I'd like small classroom sets but more like we used to have them in the 2000s, not full of stickers and made for that stupid slide-out system with not even a plate to stick things on. Honestly, at this point all I'm hoping for is a set that'll make me go: "Wow!" instead of: "Really now? And for how much? Are you serious?"

@BrickBob StudpantsOuch. Going by the Brickheadz Balrog and lately the Fortnite banana that dragon's not going to look good. Not to mention the size difference between a bunch of teens and an adult dragon.

Then a lot of people are going to be pissed who bought the Galactus set with its sub-par figs because they figured it would be the only one we'd get.

That seems to be a cultural thing, then. I'm European and a toy tank would be an absolute no-go for most of the parents around here.

Could be the reason. Or maybe LEGO just figure that the HP fans, along with the SW, Superhero, and Disney fans, will pay anything. Certainly the first wave of Wicked sets was heavily discounted around here where Wicked/Wizard of Oz isn't really a thing. Other recent licences like Netflix' One Piece also have a much more reasonable PPP ratio than HP lately. In other news, Arkham Asylum has been revealed and it's EUR 300 for what amounts to a 32x32 modular plus a vehicle. The D2C Diagon Alley was EUR 400 (now EUR 450) for what amounted to two modulars and Gringotts is EUR 430 for what amounts to maybe one and a half (depending on how you count the dragon and lower levels)? I'm curious how much content we'll get for Hogsmeade!

I'm glad you like them! Personally I find Bunchu quite hideous but that's of course just my opinion. However it's not just my opinion that we get a lot of Bunchu sets for Izzie and little else, that - as you yourself point out - the girls get fewer sets than the boys, that the girls' sets are more often found on sale than the boys' (including the Bunchu 10-in-1 set whereas the Z-Blob one was well-received, and the Izzie Narwal one which went EOL in December 2024 and therefore shouldn't even be in stock anymore in mid-2025), and that nothing in this last wave sounds like it would particularly appeal to girls who, again, don't get many big sets anyway. So my point about Dreamzzz being unable to appeal to many girls still stands.

Wicked sets have leaked. They're licensed, well under or around .10 per piece, and even include a brand new lion mould! Just to keep in mind when judging HP's recent prices.

Has anyone seen the new Privet Drive in person? I think it's great that they gave us a closed build but on pictures you also see how they skimped on parts in order to do so, i.e. the roof looks really bad compared to the previous version. It almost makes me hope that the Lovegood House will be just a facade like Malfoy Manor because I don't think a closed version at this price point would look good at all.

That's what I was referring too. I did count the Balrog as a brick-built fig. ;-) The HP one had two figs as well, the Sherlock Holmes one with five figs seems to be the outlier so far. I guess you could count the Wicked one but that's clearly bookends, not a book nook, and in a completely different style.

With two figs and the back and sides all made of portals and empty air?

January 2026 set names and prices have leaked. Not one of them's below EUR 50 and one is an actual tank. Way to be child-friendly, LEGO. Are there really parents out there who'd buy their child a EUR 130 LEGO tank? It's like they want to doom this theme. Also I've said it before, but LEGO has soooooo many boy-centric themes and instead of being somewhat gender-equal with their latest in-house theme they've fallen into the same trap here. We get a lot of cool stuff designed to appeal to boys but for girls it's mostly the same (butt-ugly) monstrous bunny thing over and over again. Amazon has lately had Izzy's narwal balloon and and Zoey's cat bike on sale for up to 60% off and I wasn't tempted to buy them even then, the figs and builds really aren't attractive and don't fit in with anything else. (The only cool aspect of the bike is the dual-moulded raven.) And now this latest wave is mech, croc, nightmare scorpion, dino, tank all over again. I'm wondering if LEGO are actually going to take something away from their failure to get enough girls into this theme. Other than "I guess girls don't like action themes/LEGO/minifigs/whatever". 71508 Fox Guardian Mech, USD 80 71512 Crocodile Submarine, USD 70 71513 Nightmare Scorpion Digger, USD 50 71514 Dino Jet, USD 100 71515 Tiger Shark Tank, USD 130

Yeah, I don't think they use in-story logic when designing these things. Like some time ago we got a Rocket mech, and when it was announced many people said that it would be hilariously appropriate if Rocket's mech were Groot. But no, we got a generic raccoon mech instead. And over at DC we have Superman - Superman! - attacking poor Lex Luthor with a Superman mech when the opposite would make a deal more sense. So basically whichever character the audience likes well enough gets a mech regardless of whether that makes any in-story sense. The bar for getting a symbiote version is, presumably, whether the character is well-known enough and whether the Venomized version would look good.

Printed windows are kind of a must. If they use those awful window stickers from the Hogsmeade Village set for a EUR 380 D2C, that would be a new low.

The weird thing is that Gringotts did have large rollercoaster pieces, the printed dragon's head, the fabric wings etc. and still managed to come in way below .10 ppp. So this here might just be the new normal for large HP sets; both the Great Hall and the Main Tower are well over .10 ppp, too. I'm still not convinced and I especially don't think they'd put a Death Eater into what is shaping up to be another allowance-friendly set for boys. Like I've said before, these low-cost sets very much feel like HP's "City" line (two boys and a car, two guys and a motorbike), and a Death Eater would ruin the vibe. Maybe Voldie instead since while he's more fearsome than his Death Eaters in the source material, LEGO tends to treat him simply like someone for Harry to duel.

According to Brick Clicker's latest video the price for the D2C Hogsmeade set is still USD 380 (we've had a couple sets change prices lately). Piece count is 3,228 so well over .10 per piece (as opposed to the big DA or Gringotts).

Exhibit A is from 2011, I think we can discount it for that reason alone. Exhibit B might ve more relevant, being from 2022, but like I've said I don't know. They seem to be getting more stingy with the figs lately (case in point: exhibit A's Narcissa looks way better than the one in the recent EUR 150 Malfoy Manor). The recent Charms Class does have three figs at EUR 20 but none of them are Hagrid so while it's not impossible I just don't think it's likely.

They could, but Hagrid probably already counts as more than one minifig in their budgeting (new face print or not) so that would make more than three for a EUR 20 set which seems unlikely.

EUR 20 list price and three figs, one of which is a new Hagrid (goggles)? I wouldn't get my hopes up.