Black Falcon

That doesn´t really answer the question. Where is it even mentioned what it is supposed to be? Can´t find it on the official Website, and unlike you said I didn´t found any source that would make a wolf pup a typical companion for Aarakocras. Which wouldn´t make sense anyways technically since wolves can´t fly ;).

Again, how is that an idea? It is an Architecture Set, the choice of a building in itself is not an idea. It is a Moc that was avaiable on Rebrickable for a long time before Cada decided to make a Set out of it. And what exactly is the point here? Lego did Harry Potter Sets before, and even Micro scale ones, like the old Diagon Alley Shops. If every location you could do is an unique idea to you, then yeah, others have done it before. But to me it just isn´t. On a side note, this unique idea from Lego´s competitors was already on ideas as of 2012. And again, has been long ago on ideas, There is hardly any proof any of this is true. If anything Lego designers are Lego fans and as such of course they also look at Mocs and such, or maybe even have build something like that before they even worked for Lego. Who knows. Everything you mentioned was done before as a Moc and honestly it is kinda hard to come up with anything that wasn´t done as a Moc before, because there are just so many Mocs out there nowadays with tons of creative ideas.

What bothers me most with the skull is the eyes. I mean given where they are I see why they had to make them that way instead of having holes for it, but still it just doesn´t look good to me.

How is any of this adopting an competitors idea? Solar System was first on ideas, Notre Dame is a building and Lego has been doing those with the Architecture line for years and Hogwarts isn´t the first microscale Set they have been doing, let alone for the Harry Potter theme. Nothing of what you mentioned is an unique idea where you would need a competitor to get the idea from ;). Aside from that, we got enough Hogwarts Express Sets, so I don´t think we will get that. Though if they would do two bookends actually, the Express would be a good model for it since you could either make one end Hogsmeade Station and the other Kings cross (9 3/4), or one side Kings Cross and the other 9 3/4. In the end it also might depend on what we are getting if they think kids will be interested in something like that and given a lot kids do have the HP books, it doesn´t seem unlikely to me that parents would buy something like that for their kids to put next to the books - so I don´t think we will see any to dark scenes done. But that basically still leaves more than enough scenes to be displayed.

Well, the set reveals are aren´t really surprising, especially in the part that there are no dinosaurs included. Probably will skip both Sets, although have to say the minifigure torso is good.

If I remember well in the source we got that info from they said they would check them after that period and not just discard them, whatever the mould is.

Well, then we probably can expect them for other themes too (Jurassic Park for instance)

It was posted on the legoleaks reddit, with two sources, so I guess we will get it. Honestly, not that thrilled about it, since many parts will go into the bookends, which just makes the set more expensive. Though just the Balrog on one end and Gandalf on the other would probably look pretty boring so I am sure they will make the bookends look like walls of the cave for instance. Will judge it when we get the pictures for it.

Source? Bookends probably is something noone had on the list. Wonder if (if it is true) one bookend has a Balrog and the other Gandalf.

In Harry Potter they repeat the castle locations every three years that limits other locations they are doing each year - that and the fact, that Lego focuses more on locations from the first films since most kids have seen those but not all of them the later ones. In Lord of the Rings, aiming it at adults, Lego wouldn´t have to worry about that. And even if we just consider all locations they could display without worrying that much, I couldn´t tell which of the themes has more locations - probably you are right and it is Harry Potter, but even then I don´t think it is that much more, Even though there are way more films. In the end it also depends on how big or small you want to place it. Like, for Harry Potter you could probably have 100 locations from the castle alone, with all the classrooms, common rooms, offices, toiletts ;), tasks from the philosopher stone etc. etc. If all of those would be worth displaying is another thing. But if we consider every location in Hogwarts an own location, we can´t really count something like Moria just one location for instance. You have the gate, the chamber, the bridge and the top of the mountain. Again, not everything would become a set but there a plenty locations in Lord of the Rings too - but overall Harry Potter surely has more, with all the Diagon Alley shops and Hogwarts rooms. Well basically they can do everything shown in the films. Though they won´t make a set with to many unknown characters ofc.

I wouldn´t say they won´t do it themselves. IMO it is still the most iconic location of the whole franchise. Maybe they thought it would be to soon after the playset Eitherway if the theme keeps staying around sooner or later we should get it, unless the other UCS sets don´t sell and they decide to only do playsets.

Honestly, I didn´t even consider what film that is from. I am just not interested in it at all.

Maybe I am missing something here, but when did we get a set of the Battle of the Seven Potters?

Called by whom? In the describtion of the Set there is no mention of it at all as far as I can see. Aside from that it just doesn´t look like a wolf. The ears are way to big. As far as I know that 5 year period isn´t a rule, where they just discart everything once it reaches that age. And as long as the Jurassic World theme is still out there I don´t see them throwing away the dino moulds, unless they think they wouldn´t use one of those again and rather make a new one if needed.

Was always hoping we would get a big D2C for Jurrasic Park, but surely not a T-Rex Skeleton. Wondering if that will really be just the skeleton, since I am not sure if that one would sell that well at that price point, or if there will be something else included. Eitherway I was rather hoping for a Visitor Center as D2C.

He wasn´t named in the Film, if I remember correctly he was also just named Old Dwarf or something in the credits. Though in the end "everyone" knows who it is, so it doesn´t really make a difference if he is named in the set or not. Actually happy he got added anyways. Well everything has pro and cons, in the end if they would make normal Sets again they would be wider avaiable to more people and I wouldn´t mind that there would be new Sets of the same location after a few years. And unlike Harry Potter, where most of the sets are taking place in Hogwarts LotR has more locations to offer, which probably wouldn´t repeat as fast as the Castle Sets do - especially since one of the main reasons for the 3 year circle is so kids that come into the theme already missed out some parts of the castle.

You could also put it in the great hall small corridor between the other two rooms - but there should definitely be more places for both swapable room sizes in future sets. Next big one should be the flying lessons and given the price it should include a part of the castle. The difference there is IMO, that while the Castle parts usually had one big Sets that was kinda the main point of the castle, which stayed around longer than other Sets, with some other Sets retiring pretty soon - Diagon Alley doesn´t have such a main Set, just different Shops, where there is no reason really for one of them to stay around for to long. That beeing said I would be surprised if we don´t get a new shop next year, and would guess they will have two of them avaiable, with one coming and retiring every year. Could aswell be a quality issue with a part that needs to be replaced. But I doubt we will really find out what the real reason is.

The Big Diagon Alley Set and WWW are two completely different things and I think you are putting to much weigth on the location it is displaying. Big D2C-Sets are more likely to get longer time in production and WWW is just a normal playset and the time it was on shelves is actually normal for those. Aside from that, if I am not mistaken, the retirement date for the set was the same from the beginning and wasn´t changed. To me the retirement looks pretty normal actually.

I see no way they would reuse it for a T-Rex, it just doesn´t work at all for me. They might reuse the Stego however, though same as the Pteranosaur it looks different from the normal Dino moulds.

Shocking

I´m kinda missing best GWP here ;) Best GWP: 40712 Micro Rocket Launchpad Best D2C?: 21348 Dungeons & Dragons: Red Dragon's Tale Best set under £50? : Dungeons and Dragons CMF Best theme? Dungeons and Dragons (even if it is not a full theme) Best Minifigure? Dragonborn Paladin. Just love the Torso and Leg printing so much. Best Set? I would say the D&D CMF makes the run here aswell

I still wouldn´t rule out an hideout for them completely - and I especially don´t think that the BDP has any influence on whether or not they would do such a thing. Aside from that, they can also still make a non-retail Set with them in form of a GWP. Well I agree that they wouldn´t make a castle for them, but a ruin or a tower would still work well. And yeah, they are bandits, though I have to say, unlike the forestmen you could also see them as a band of robber knights. That is still the set I am hoping they would make as a GWP (was my hope for Black Friday this year, though castle two times in a row was kinda unlikely to happen anyways). Chances to get it as a retail set are almost zero anyways I guess, unless it would be included in a bigger castle set.

There can be plenty reasons behind it honestly. I could also see them doing it, to make sure everyone knows they are not actually classic space minifigures and as such not part of the classic space theme, like the Galaxy Explorer was. At least that would be a reason that would make sense to me, but ofc there can always be plenty of other reasons for it.

No idea why they aren´t just using the classic figures like it has to be, but aside from that, I am actually happy they used the right helmet. On the first bad quality pictures you could see the visors so, that and not including the air tanks isn´t really a surprise anymore. Eitherway because of the visors I was afraid they would have used the normal helmets aswell.

The main point is, that with no other Set having the sheep included next year aside from new sets, it would have been easy for them to just produce a new colour, without the need to produce two different colours at a time, let alone to have them stored. So the only difference where they safe something by using the old one, is that they don´t need to hold more sheep as replacements parts.