Elrond

Thanks for the great review! I'm on the fence about buying this one. The minifig is fantastic and is a must have for fans of the Arkham games but the batmobile model looks too bulky. It's more of a bat tank than a car and the gigantic size of the wheels and how close they are to one another makes it even look a little cartoony. I might pick it up on BL if I find a decent deal but the retail price is way too high for me.

There's one in the Detective's Office set. There's also a few cantina sets in the Star Wars line if that counts. I don't think that would be an issue really.

To be fair, there aren't that many locations they could base a D2C set on besides Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. There aren't that many locations to begin with, pretty much all the story happens between the castle walls. The only new place they could maybe focus on is Hogsmeade but I'm not sure there's enough interest in that place to warrant a big pricey set. The Ministry of Magic maybe? But that's got to be tough to represent correctly. Don't get me wrong, I would be all for several smaller sets of Diagon Alley. Might even allow for a bigger Gringotts set in 2021 with the dragon and all.

The pin does have "prefect" written on it. It's not easy to see but that's the best pic I could find.

There's this one I found on Flickr some time ago: I think it works well. Dark gray legs would probably be better and I would try the new Flitwick hair perhaps, even if this one is fine.

Yes, the Quidditch outfits for the 6th year also look completely different. They already changed them in PoA but the change was rather subtle and you didn't see them much in that movie anyway. I also wouldn't mind seeing the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw torsos with the capes That really would be great. The Tom Riddle however would need a new print imo. He appears in the 2nd and 6th movie and is wearing a different uniform than the students during Harry's time at Hogwarts. The Half-Blood Prince flashback version has no cape but is wearing a blazer above his vest. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Secrets version is wearing an open cape but you can see he still has a blazer underneath it. For maximum accuracy and attention to details, he should also be wearing a prefect pin on his cape as well as the Hogwarts crest (instead of Slytherin) and his pants should be gray instead of black... but maybe that's a bit too much. The CMF Harry body in the Slytherin colours could still work for this one but it would be lacking a couple of details. Hopefully TLG remakes the old Chamber of Secrets set and we get a unique version of Tom.

Oh definitely, I still need to buy the bigger one though. It's just that they don't seem to have the same appeal and are not selling nearly as fast, but yeah it has nothing to do with the builds. Seems like TLG realized it too because this year's wave had nothing but HP. Maybe they were just testing the waters with those 2 sets.

I think someone else said it before already but I'm not even sure people expected the visitor center because of rumours. It seems they just expected it because it's what made sense. When I saw a big set was coming and it was most likely gonna be a JP set, the first things that came to my mind were the visitor center, the T-rex breakout or maybe even the raptor paddock. But really I think most of us are just disappointed by the lack of vehicle. I'm sure you'd have seen less negative comments if this set had included at least one of the main cars. I can do without the visitor center no problem but JP sets without the cars just feels like something major is missing because of how central they are to many scenes.

Yeah, the HP sets have been flying off the shelves here while the FB ones are left behind.

Regarding the students, one thing I really hope they make is this torso + legs combo but in the Slytherin colours so you could 'army' build it. A CMF Draco or Polyjuice Harry and Ron as Crabbe and Goyle would be ideal.

That makes sense. I just remembered the first wave really was a surprise and was announced rather late in the year, so I kept a little bit of hope. Oh well, at least there are plenty of sets I still need to get and hopefully more to look forward to next year.

So what are the odds we get a second wave of HP collectible minifigs at the end of this year? Or is the Advent calendar pretty much replacing that?

Meh, seems like that person is overdefensive of the set and TLG as a whole and doesn't seem to try and understand where the criticisms are coming from. It doesn't send the right message when you'd rather mock them with that checklist in the same message you ask for answers. Same thing when you ask questions like "So, why is there such negativity? [...] Because people think that every set released should appeal to them?". That little jab only shows you've already made up your mind and aren't really open for discussion. Why so much "negativity" for D2C sets? Maybe because they're really expensive. 250 bucks is a lot of money for a lot of people, some will save up for a few months just to buy that set. For that price we're expecting the very best, especially for a license like this which might not get many more sets in the future. If people are going to drop 250 euros or dollars on a single set, they might have a number of expectations. If those expectations aren't met it just feels like a wasted opportunity. You could say everyone has different expectations, which is true, but looking at the complaints they're also pretty much all going in the same direction. As for how to deal with this "negativity", why would we need to stop it? First I'd rather call it criticism and as long as it's constructive, I don't see the problem. Pretty sure a company would rather have feedback from their customers so they can improve in the future instead of people who will keep their opinions to themselves but still won't buy the product. I also didn't see anyone attacking the creator personally (which obviously would be really wrong and shouldn't be tolerated), quite the opposite. I criticized the set but I still think its creator is very talented, there's no doubt about that and he obviously put a lot of work into it. So what exactly is wrong here and needs to be changed? We're consumers, we have the right to express an opinion on an expensive item and I'd say it's rather healthy to do so and even helpful for the company. Finally about the checklist and the complaints towards the D2C sets, I'd say it really varies from one theme to the other. For instance, you can't really make a genaral rule about vehicles. In the Star Wars theme where there are hundreds of sets, complaints about the inclusion of a vehicle in a D2C set might be justified because you're wasting a lot of pieces on something that has already been made in another set (for example, the snowspeeder in the Hoth UCS set). In this case, complaints about the lack of vehicle in this set are also justified because this is only the 2nd one for the JP theme and it might be the last.

JW yes, but there is only 1 JP set on the market so far. The upcoming one will only be the second one and neither have vehicles in them. I'm assuming that's mostly for the Creator Expert and UCS Star Wars stuff where similar or even better versions of the vehicles can be purchased separately in the regular City and SW lines.

I think that's a pretty good summary. We're also not at all hating on the builds, I think the creator made a fantastic job with them and it's far better than anything I'll ever be able to make. It's just that I feel we might have a very limited amount of JP sets and we need to make them count. I expected the visitors' center because I expected a big pricey set but I would have been more than happy with the gate and the 2 iconic cars. I know a JP set without dino might sound odd but this one could have been more character- and vehicle-oriented and maybe one or two of the existing dino figs could have been thrown into it. This is almost like getting 2 Ghostbusters sets and neither of them contains the Ecto-1.

Meh, I'm disappointed. No visitor center, no vehicle, no Muldoon. Missed opportunity. 250 bucks for an oversized T-Rex and a door... not sure about this one.

250€? That seems really expensive for what we're getting. The brick-built Rex and the little vignettes are nice and clever but it's not the visitors' center everyone was probably expecting. The minifigs look great too but really sad we're not getting Muldoon or Gennaro instead of a second Ellie and Allan.

Makes sense yeah, I was just worried because those new action battle sets look rather minifig-oriented. 2 of them almost look like BPs where they replaced 2 of the minifigs with a couple of giant cannons to save money.

Probably late to the party again and I assume some of the things I have to say might have already been talked about in this thread but here's my 2 cents on the newly revealed sets anyway... - That might be old news but are those 'action battle' sets replacing battle packs now? I was surprised I didn't see any new BP in the next wave of sets. It would be a shame if that's the case... those builds for the action battle sets are pretty horrendous and the giant cannons are a relic. It's something I never liked even as a kid, but maybe I was in the minority? - I love the new scout trooper helmet, I think it was one of the last specific pieces for the OT that was in dire need of an update. Not so sure about those new legs and torso prints however but I need to see it from the front to compare it to the previous version. - Speaking of new prints, I'm on the fence about the new rebel Hoth trooper torsos. While I do think the prints themselves are a slight improvement over the last version, I think the lack of leg prints and the darker caps make them look a bit off. That can easily be fixed however. - The same can be said about the new snowtrooper's prints. The tan hands look weird as they're the only parts of that minifig in that colour and I'm not sure why they chose to make the pouches on the belt grey. A quick Google search shows me those are either white or a very light shade of tan. While the minifig doesn't look bad overall despite all that, I think it's a downgrade compared to the previous version. - The Starkiller duel set is a good and cheap way to get those 2 characters but it will be a pass for me. That Rey is pretty common and the prints on Kylo are very scene-specific. Can't blame TLG at all for offering something new of course but I'm just more interested in the regular 'clean' outfit for custom minifigs. - The 2 SW Resistance sets look pretty decent and have a nice selection of minifigs. I'm not too interested in the show but I might get the red TIE interceptor... and I gotta admit Vonreg and that other pilot with the imperial helmet look pretty cool.

Oh I'm sure they will all have the angry clone face, that's to be expected from every trooper now. Didn't know a book even existed, I admit my knowledge of the new canon EU is pretty limited. Still, the game most likely has a larger target audience and the set is based on it rather than the book, so I still think Admiral Versio might have been a better option. Oh well, I'm fine with the 4th trooper still, I'll give his helmet to iden and use the body for a custom minifig.

A few thoughts about the first wave sets... - The new walker looks way too similar to the previous version, just with a worse minifig selection - It's great to see new prints for the rebel fleet trooper. Hoping to see a battle pack for those guys somewhere down the line - I'm not sure I like the new stormtrooper helmet mold. While it is nicely detailed, the "mouth" part seems to be hanging too low and makes him look more cartoony. It also didn't really need an update imo, other pieces like the scout trooper helmet or rebel backpack should have gotten the priority - I just noticed they went from the new skirt piece to regular legs for the praetorian guards. Also a shame we get yet another First Order stormie, starting to get a lot of those... - Odd choice to include 4 Inferno Squad troopers while there are only 3 in the game. They could have included Admiral Versio instead of the 4th one by reusing Krennic's torso. Also, based on the torso prints, we're getting 1 Iden Versio, 3 Gideon Hasks (!) but no Del Meeko. I get we don't get more than 2 new prints/battle pack but it's a little unfortunate All in all, nothing too crazy for a first wave but I'll get both battle packs and the Death Star Escape set. I'm still hoping for a Mimban set or battle pack next year however.

Considering the movies rely heavily on the Hogwarts castle, I don't know if they can still make a lot of decent sets without it feeling a bit repetitive. Maybe we can get a 3rd portion of the castle (maybe the clocktower) but not sure if that's really needed. There also aren't many professors who still need updates aside from Sprout and Lockhart. Speaking of minifigures, I feel like we could pretty much get all the characters we still need from a second CMF series. If I were to make one, it would include: 1) Bellatrix Lestrange (with the new dress piece) 2) Lucius Malfoy 3) Peter Pettigrew (Maybe with "baby" Voldemort) 4) Death Eater (ideally including 1 or 2 double-printed heads for army building purposes... we are in dire need of basic villains/cannon-fodders) 5) Fenrir Greyback (or one of the random Snatchers) 6) Harry Potter (Triwizard Tournament) 7) Ron Weasley (Quidditch) 8) Ginny Weasley 9) Fred/George Weasley 10) Luna Lovegood (Student version with blue necklace) 11) Sirius Black (preferably the Order of the Phoenix version) 12) Gilderoy Lockhart 13) Nymphadora Tonks 14) Pr. Snape (black outfit) 15) Pr. Sprout 16) Draco Malfoy (Black suit) 17) Pansy Parkinson (or any other Slytherin student like Crabbe or Goyle, just a way to get several of the now rare Slytherin torso easily) 18) Fleur Delacour (Triwizard Tournament) 19) Victor Krum 20) Tom Riddle (Slytherin Student) Some of those could be part of a set, I can for instance imagine a set of the Ministry of Magic battle including Bellatrix, Sirius Black and a couple of Death Eaters but I feel the set would be quite bland aside from its minifig selection. That's why I feel like another CMF series is the best way to go.

Maybe, just maybe this was part of a doomed CMF series meant for a limited release, much like the German Mannschaft series we got a few years ago. Maybe it got cancelled because Ronaldo rather unexpectedly left Real Madrid for Juventus this summer, making this minifig outdated. However I suppose the possibility of it being an obscure Chinese knockoff or a custom print is much more likely.

That's a good point for Malcolm's skin tone, although I feel it's still going to stand out a little too much compared to the other characters we already got. I'm still somewhat hopeful for more JP sets next year but the chances are very slim indeed. A Jeep Wrangler set would have been amazing. As minifigs, we could get an injured Malcolm and Ellie and Muldoon with the yellow raincoats (although I would prefer a regular version for Muldoon). They could even throw in 1 or 2 additional minifigs like Hammond, wouldn't be the first time they include a minifig that isn't exactly in the scene but still somewhat relevant.

Definite buy for that set. I didn't buy set 4737 (Quidditch Match) when it came out and by the time I was finally ready to get it, it was going for an insane price on Bricklink so I never got a Prof. Hooch minifig. Same thing with Umbridge, although I despise the character (like I think everyone else does), it's still a welcome addition. I absolutely love the fact we're getting a Slughorn minifig, the character was really missing from the original waves of Harry Potter sets. Not so crazy about the Snape-boggart though, that's the second minifig we get of that and it's way more representation than what that particular scene deserves imo. It's well-made but still a wasted spot. I'd rather have had a generic death eater instead or a new Bellatrix.