Virginia_Bricks

How does everyone buy their spare bricks for MOCs? Debating between buying specific sets that contain mostly the pieces I need and selling the minifigures or buying pieces in bulk from Bricklink. Looking to MOC up the Black Lake set to have all 4 prisoners, but don't really need the minifigures besides one set.

75159 was $500 in 2016. That is $650 today. If it is Death Star I, the set won't be likely much larger than 75159, but likely a detailed exterior and better detailed interiors. That would be easily enough to double the part count. And they could get to 30+ minifigures, but it will mean a lot of troopers For those getting their expectations up about a much larger set, don't have Lego to be upset at but themselves.

Dobby wasn't present at 4 Privet Drive during Prisoner of Azakaban, so the Dobby in Malfoy Manor is the only one we are getting this year.

4 minifigures, 1 exclusive, 158 pieces, and 2 exclusive pieces makes the price point very reasonable. Most Star wars battle pack have the same number of figures, rarely exclusive pieces, and less pieces overall and only retails for $5 less. If this set had four non-named Hogwarts students it would be effectively a Harry Potter battlepack.

The hut and the polybag weren't the modular castle sub-theme. Only including the owlery, boathouse, great hall and potions class that were specifically branded Hogwarts Castle: XXXX.

Underrated thing from this year's wave of modular castle sets: Only Harry and Hermonie had repeat minifgures. As for next year the only repeats so far are Harry and Draco (who we didn't get at all in the first year), but likely guaranteed Neville repeats with Herbology and Ron and Hermonie will be in the large set most likely.

Its 50% more expensive than the Potions class, so I expect one but noticeably larger than the Potions class. Or maybe its not a Greenhouse at all and the small tower on the edge of the castle with a greenhouse for a top. That would more easily connect to Flying Lesson

There was a good post on the Reddit community about sets per movie since 2018, but POA has had 9 since then only one less than COS and Goblet of Fire at 7. Its just castle based sets that lack in the later movies, but that isn't Lego's fault but rather the most exciting scenes later in the series happen outside of the castle.

Its the minifigures that present the biggest problem. I expect the show will have similar designs for the castle and most classrooms with minor variations and modifications but not enough to matter for lego sets, but no matter how they cast characters will look different.

Hogsmeade, 12 Grimmauld Place, Shrieking Shack, Hagrid's Hut, Quidditch Pitch, Ministry of Magic, etc. Honestly any playset can be done as a D2C set

Wondering if this year the promotional set could be another classroom module. Would love a History of Magic with Professor Binns and clearly if Charms is $20, the price range is fine for a promotional set.

I hope not. Canonically it shouldn't, but till the instructions leak we won't know.

You are right and that was leaked so long ago I forgot.

The spring SW UCS set hasn't leaked yet either, so not ruling out a HP D2C.

I'm assuming the Great Hall has been selling well and that is why they are doubling down on the expensive playsets. As for comparing in price to the D2C Diagon Alley it is a decent comparison volume wise (piece count is radically different given the size of pieces). Both are 16 studs deep and DA is only a few studs longer, while the GH is taller. I'm expecting the GH and MT will also have more minifigures overall.

Prices leaked. Herbology is supposedly $60 and main tower is $250. If these are true, this is a big win for the modular castle and big L for wallets (and a L for children/parents since that is D2C pricing for a playset). Seems Lego has taken a drastic change in strategy with price for HP this year.

I'm content in a good way. Greenhouses are "new" (I'm ignoring the Hogwarts Moment set because it wasn't a greenhouse) and have been the portion of the castle I have been wanting most since it breaks up all the tan, green, and grey (and need a Professor Sprout). The Main Tower is expected and I think the name instead of Grand Staircase is simply because most people probably don't know its called the Grand Staircase besides Harry Potter superfans. The others while remakes (besides the Book Nook) are understandable. Fawkes has been retired for 3 years, Private Drive retired at the end of last year, Book of Monsters 4 years ago, and QQs/Ice Cream made sense to continue the playset version of DA. Without new HP content (and the lack of buy in behind Fantastic Beats), they will have to repeat sets and they know what sold well before.

Just a really popular wizarding apparel company is all...

If you look at the minifgure graphic, the newspaper graphic goes very close to the edge compared to the other stickers in the set.

Its a hard line for Lego Designers to walk. If you remove one wall, the set on its own seems lacking. But with the extra wall when added to the main framework it hides the beauty. While sets should not require MOCing to be worthwhile, the good thing is at least for Potions removing the entrance wall is easy. We will see on Charms

For me 3 studs longer, a new printed newspaper piece (likely), and the sleeping witch makes it an easy choice. But if I already had the Knight Bus I would skip it. I also strongly prefer the new chest piece which feels like luggage and not a pirate chest.

As for the fire place, if it was in the original great hall you would not have had space for two rows of tables. But with the dueling club it will fit. And the new wave is clearly mixing AFOL desires with playsets for kids desires. Feels very similar to Star Wars which releases $150-200 playsets regularly that a kid can save up allowance for and an AFOL would enjoy having

My thoughts: We have three clips in this set. Two on the smaller tower and one behind the larger tower. Personally this feels like the chance to expand beyond the silhouette of the microscale Hogwarts is possible. Otherwise Lego is really butchering the layout or either the DADA tower or Viaduct entrance. For a lot of fans here that should be very exciting. The McGonagall figure choice is odd since the dueling club uses the better Snape. Only the head is a better representation since he does not wear her hat during this scene. Otherwise the figures are as expected with Oliver Wood as a nice surprise inclusion. The choice to do small interiors with the main component sets is clearly intentional and I like it. It keeps these sets a tad bit cheaper and gives younger fans the chance to get a set without a large price point. At the end there will be a lot of leftover modules, but it is a perfect chance to use the parts to MOC up parts of the castle they didn't include or beef up parts they did. The alternative is just less sets in this wave. We won't be getting a transfiguration classroom it seems, which overall isn't bad as that classroom is overall boring compared to other options. We definitely will get DADA, but this makes me feel like we have a chance at Divination and Herbology. There were leaks that a new Private Drive is coming out in the summer wave. One minor leak, nothing substantial though

If I did my math right, the charms class will be 8 x 11 studs, which while the correct width for the middle portion of the Great Hall would be 1 stud not deep enough (possible 1 stud is hidden in the pictures). Therefore, there is the possibility the Charms classroom will go under the Flying lesson. And if I put my tin foil hat on, I believe Lego not only likes these leaks but is directly responsible for them and intentionally made sure the picture showing where it inserts was not leaked because it is related to an unleaked set.

If they make it possible to expand and collapse that would add a new element.