Clone OPatra

Out of the examples you have listed, only Sandy fits the so-called theory because it's the same exact property with the same other characters (unless he has changed sizes in the show too). The one big fig Green Goblin was based on a particular Ultimate Spiderman appearance that hasn't been made again, while minifig versions are based on normal human-sized appearances of the character. Hulk has appeared as a minifig only in polybags (at the same time and prior to bigfig appearances), for the Spidey & Friends show, and for mechs - not in any MCU-based sets where he's obviously huge and beefy compared to the humans. Thanos did appear as a minifig in one MCU set at the same time as appearing as a bigfig, mainly due to coming in a miniature version of his gigantic ship. Since then, he has been a minifig in a mech set, which all don't play by any proportional rules. So the theory doesn't hold much water other than the fact that LEGO hasn't put one in a set released "recently", but that doesn't signify a trend. After the first You Story sets and no appearances of long arms and legs, we all thought those were gone for good. They weren't, and that was with a much longer gap. Plus, people with good access to info have said bigfigs aren't going away. LEGO never announced this. One or two designers explained, after sustained fan questions about it, that the mould had been destroyed because it hadn't been fit for long term use (which is still no reason why they haven't remade it though, since they have designed plenty of entirely new animal moulds since then).

I am also wondering why that Friends set is priced so comparatively high relative to what it is, when so many of the Friends sets are very decent value. The store does look like it's an improvement on this City one on the inside, with more sensible placement of items and proper fridges using the new cabinet piece. The sliding door mechanism also looks fun. Still, I'm not keen to run out and buy it at full price of A$140 myself, and even if some stores here sell it for 10-15% off that right away as they usually do, I'd be waiting for a larger discount before I'd buy it to review personally.

Arc trooper helmet says hello. That being said, they do seem ever so slightly attuned to sort of giving people different clones at the moment, so hopefully they will do Bly. The rangefinder in the predictably wrong spot looks pretty awful. It won't look right when folded down for its actual use as a rangefinder either. The clones that use the visor attachments look fine, so I will probably get one copy of the set, but the officer helmet is bad.

I think Lemerbrix is talking about the previous 501st set being on Walmart clearance, for plain 501st figures. It has been on clearance, or at least discount. This one could go on clearance too, you never know. If LEGO supplies as much to the US as they tend to, and keep it on shelves for a year or more, the average consumer will have gotten it and there will be plenty left. Here in Australia I guarantee it will be on shelves for less than a month and then never again, just like the previous 501st set and Mace's non-canon purple Clone tank.

Very keen to know what's going on with the helmet for the Officer. In the images the rangefinder is attached where the old helmet bumps on the side are, and not at the new holes above that. However, LEGO's clone helmet product images have been wrong before, like with the 212th. Overall, it's cute. Still odd they went with more 501st instead of something else, but I might pick up one to work into my display.

Puppy! Otter! Hooray!

Wow all of these set designs look pretty good, and the Quinjet is pretty good value even with a low-ish piece count. Looks great. Some of the typical Superheroes line cut corners on the minifigures show frustratingly. I love the new Bruce Banner head, but that Thor head doesn't work for Avengers Thor at all. And the bare minimum of leg prints of course. Also unless there are any more sets yet to be revealed, it's a shame they didn't just throw Hawkeye into the Quinjet so you could get the whole team across that and the Hulkbuster sets.

Weird that standard is still open for the US but nowhere else, given that standard all comes from the same place. But if it's just an issue of cutting down on workload/orders, it does make sense to keep some markets open and not others. Now I feel good that I didn't redeem any Black Friday VIP vouchers, since I very likely wouldn't have been able to use them on PaB within 60 days!

It's likely because they've paused standard parts until mid January. Perhaps they haven't rolled out that message to your region's site yet, even though the back end is already not allowing standard parts to be sold.

LEGO finally released its first ever Deathly Hallows Part 1 set this year! But is it worth it? Or should you drop a little more on 76408 12 Grimmauld Place? SET INFORMATIONNumber: 76403 | 76408Name: The Ministry of Magic | 12 Grimmauld PlaceTheme: Harry PotterReleased: 2022Part Count: 990 | 1083Minifigures: 10 | 9Set Prices (RRP): 76403: 99.99 EUR / 89.99 GBP / 179.99 AUD / 99.99 USD / 129.99 CAD 76508: 129.99 EUR / 114.99 GBP / 199.99 AUD / 119.99 USD / 149.99 CADLinks: (76403) Brickset, Bricklink; (76408) Brickset, Bricklink Flickr set INTRODUCTIONAfter 2021's Harry Potter line took an abrupt turn away from the 2-books/films-per-year model the theme had been doing since 2018, some of us fans were worried the theme was headed in an unappealing direction plagued with ugly Hogwarts and gimmicky non-playsets. We needn't have worried, as June 2022 brought us not one but two sets covering all new ground for LEGO Harry Potter, in the wave's highest price-point slots to boot. For a LEGO Harry Potter fan these are essential sets by default, but I thought I'd pit the sets against each other and answer the question: if you could only buy one (or are looking to give one set around these price points as a gift), which one should you choose? I bought these sets with my own hard-earned cash. THE BUILDSHaving bought these sets for my own enjoyment and built them before deciding to write this review, I didn't take any pictures of the build process or the parts. As a brief comment on the build process and experience, The Ministry has quite a tedious and repetitive build, as if it wasn't obvious from looking at the set itself. Its four offices all share the same external structure, and while interior details set them apart, they are still a bit of a slog to get through. Grimmauld Place by contrast has a much more varied build, though it too has some repetitive features. Its sliding ability is the most interesting single thing to build out of either set, and it is fun to see that fully come together over the course of building the set. THE MINIFIGURESThe sets contain nearly equal quantities of Minifigures, with the Ministry having just one more than Grimmauld in the form of the monochrome wizard statue. In terms of raw stats, both minifigure completements contain astonishing quantities of new prints: the Ministry has 8 new torsos, 1 new leg print and 5 new heads while Grimmauld has 7 new torsos, 4 new leg prints and 2 new heads plus a new moulded head for Kreacher (and Sirius' head is new this year but shared with other sets). In terms of raw data, these Minifigures have the high level of care and attention to detail we have come to expect out of the Harry Potter line. But raw data isn't everything. How are the actual designs and choice of characters, you might ask? Starting with the Ministry's Minifigures, it has to be said that, with a few exceptions, these characters feel rather specific if not borderline niche. I absolutely love how DH Part 1 rendered the trio's mission to infiltrate the Ministry of Magic - it's probably my favourite sequence in the film - but I doubt many people were jonesing for a Mary Cattermole Minifigure, and one on which LEGO has lavished a leg print to boot. Even Yaxley, who makes a memorable menacing impression and plays a bit of an important role, isn't the most integral character to the broad story. Speaking of Yaxley, his Minifigure has one of the several details across this lineup that let it down a little, being his reused face print with eyebrows that contrast too heavily with his exclusively recoloured hair. The decision to render Reg Cattermole (dark tan mustache) after his run-in with a rainy office also spoils the usefulness of the minifigure prints; it's fun attention to detail, but a light gray suit with wet splotches isn't of much use. The hairpiece chosen for Hermione's disguise, Mafalda Hopkirk, also it's right and the "bride" hairpiece should have been used as it's almost a prefect match apart from the front part going the wrong way. I am regularly perplexed by minor design decisions like these in the Harry Potter line, as well as the choices for which characters should receive new face prints and which shouldn't. Umbridge's smiling face is so remarkably similar to her previous incarnation, I wonder why they didn't simply use the old head and give Yaxley a new one instead. Meanwhile, they gave Hermione and Harry new prints for their un-polyjuiced faces, yet printed an existing bemused one for Ron when he could've used a new one too (perhaps depicting painful agony after splinching). All-in-all, I am pleased LEGO went to the lengths they did and provided us with all of these new characters to re-enact the Ministry infiltration, despite several bothersome details and the fact that few of them besides Umbridge and Arthur Weasley play that much of a role in the Harry Potter story overall. Grimmauld Place is chock full of important characters, by contrast. Though only Kreacher makes a first appear in the line, this is the second 2018- appearance for many: Tonks, Mrs Weasley, Kingsley, plus the first appearance outside of Azkaban clothing for Sirius. Fred and George maintain their unique sets of face prints from their previous appearances in Diagon Alley and the second HP CMF series, and I applaud the detail put into their and Ron's movie-accurate yet basic clothing, along with everyone else's. Tonks comes with an alternate piggy face and red hairpiece to demonstrate her magical abilities, and her regular face looks much more Tonks-like than her previous one. I slightly prefer the CMF series 2 Kingsley due to the printed hat especially, but this makes a decent alternative for people who missed that one. The set also contains a bright orange cat, which looks just as little like Crookshanks as the one included in CMF series 1. Overall, I'd say that Grimmauld's minifigures are slightly more must-have than the Ministry's due especially to Kreacher and Order of the Phoenix members Tonks and Kingsley, and the roles they all play in the series. Apart from Kingsley's hat lacking a print and Mrs Weasley continuing to use a face that doesn't quite suit her, I'd also say that I can find no flaws with the designs, while there are some noticeable ones in the Ministry. EXTERIORS For sets priced $20 apart, the sets have similar visual impact overall, given that the Ministry goes tall and makes use of negative space while Grimmauld packs in the detail more densely. The Ministry might even be more striking due to its gaudy colour scheme and overall footprint. And boy what a colour scheme. I know a lot of that comes down to the dark and moody colour grading, but this set looks a whole lot more like LEGO's imagining of a Ministry amalgamated from books and movies rather than something pulled off the screen. Pausing film clips, vertical lines of brick past the office windows are red, but they don't look as bold as these red lines, and of course they are brick with brick patterning. This isn't terrible, but something about it doesn't quite capture the true feel of the Ministry in the films. Grimmauld Place also has had some visual liberties taken, but looks more similar to its film counterpart overall. In the films, Grimmauld Place is the same colour as the surrounding town houses, but for a toy and display piece I think making it stand out with a distinct colour scheme was a good choice. It also just generally looks good and would work outside of the Harry Potter context. Both sets have the option for multiple configurations in which to display them. The Ministry's sections are modular, meaning they can be rearranged like in the image below, or in further different ways. Their modularity has the drawback of compromising the structural integrity of the model overall, so you have to be very careful when moving it. Grimmauld Place has the massive, set-wide play feature of being able to hide Number 12 away via a smooth and simple-feeling sliding mechanism. No complex gearing or anything of the sort; simply pull at the lampposts to reveal Number 12, and conversely push there to hide it back away. This allows for the set to be displayed mid-transformation, which could be a good way to show off the set's feature even while static, or it could be displayed with Number 12 hidden altogether. INTERIORS | Ministry of Magic Each module of the Ministry of Magic set is pretty much made to be played with separately, and the modules don't amount to much when viewed all together from the back, like this. Nobody would display this set from the back. It's impressive that the Ministry looks as sizable and impressive as it does while still managing to have side builds. In the films, the Fountain of Magical Brethren is split into two sections: one of just the wizard, and the other containing the centaur, witch, goblin and house elf. In Deathly Hallows, the wizard statue remains while the other one is replaced by the fascist statue of wizards crushing muggles, so including the wizard here is technically accurate to the scene. It's much much smaller than it should be, but that's ok. The phonebooth visitors' entrance doesn't make an appearance in Deathly Hallows, but is a fine inclusion anyway and allows for more Ministry of Magic scenes to be played out. It's very nice that the door is printed and not stickered (and also available on Pick a Brick). Fun fact: the phonebooth can also just barely fit all of the set's spare parts! On ground level we have one of the many magic fireplaces, and a decorative section with stacks of printed Undesirable No. 1 newspapers featuring Harry. The reverse sides of these sections don't look like much, but it's fun how the designer has used gems for the handles of play function actuators. The fireplace can be tipped back to make a minifigure "magically" disappear, while the newspaper stacks on either side can be shot off with decent force, sort of mimicking when Harry flicks the newspapers as a diversion while the trio tries to make their escape. On the next level up we have rooms that don't really make sense in this context. On the left is the courtroom chair where Umbridge sits to interrogate people, while on the right is a shelving unit of prophecies from the Hall of Prophecies (which Harry and co destroyed in Order of the Phoenix). Both of these scenes take place in their own massive rooms in the basement level of the Ministry, and there's no room to put minifigures with them anyway, so they feel quite shoehorned in. For play it's almost essential to take these rooms off and put them on the ground so that the courtroom furniture can be taken out and displayed separately, but then you're left with an empty office room. The prophecy shelving has a decent play feature to simulate knocking it over, but again it's forcing you to play outside of the included room, rather than actually having enough space for minifigures to interact with the room properly. Unfortunately the same problems persist in the actual offices. Umbridge and Arthur's offices have great detail packed in, but once again there is no space for minifigures to interact with the rooms apart from sitting in the seats. I have tried placing a second figure in Umbridge's office, but there's no space at all in Arthur's. The bridge section that links the two towers has a nod to all the desks where workers sit typing. The placement of this desk seems odd, but the detail looks good, and there is actually space for minifigures up here. The set also contains some printed 1x1 accessories, which I haven't shown yet. There's Slytherin's locket (the object of the trio's infiltration), a bumblebee in Arthur's brief case for some reason, and a Time Turner in Thicknesse's briefcase. INTERIORS | Grimmauld Place Unlike with the Ministry, you could potentially display Grimmauld Place from the back because it has a doll-house style interior with lots of details that ostensibly fit together. For fairness, we'll explore each room and test how will the rooms fits minifigures. The main, central room contains the dining room/kitchen with banquet table. This placement is awkward since of course this should be entrance hall, being near the door. This room also contains another instance of a set suggesting you pop something off to play with alongside the actual set, being the little stove build. It can be left on the set, but doesn't interact with figures well in that position. Otherwise, there is ample space for figures in this room. Off to the right we find a room containing actual entrance hall details, in the form of a small table and an umbrella or broom holder made out of a severed troll foot. There's also the portrait of Mrs Black, covered by a curtain so she doesn't scream. Given all of the builds here, there is not much room for minifigures. Over on the other side is merely a storage closet, which can fit a whole figure, like Kreacher. One level up, we find two sitting room-like rooms containing a large armchair and a piano, and then off to the right is the room with the Black family tree. These rooms contain enough space for figures, and I love the attention to detail with the relatives blotted out from the family tree. The top floor has bedrooms and an empty space portraying something that I do not recall from the films. Some sort of empty attic? On the right is a fairly generic bedroom, where Fred and George can hang out. Slytherin's locket sits on a shelf, so is this Regulus' room? On the left is Sirius' bedroom, complete with patterned bed and bat "skeletons". I love seeing this old bat mould in tan, though they do hang awfully low. CONCLUSION While it's fantastic to get a Ministry of Magic and Deathly Hallows-based set, both thing for which fans have been clamoring for quite some time, 76408 12 Grimmauld Place is the better set of these two. It matches the movies reasonably well and has the fantastic mechanism of hiding Number 12, while the 76403 kind of matches the movie design for the Ministry but looks a bit off. Grimmauld Place has detailed, limited but at least usable interior, while the Ministry has a couple of ok rooms and a couple that shoehorn in different locations, while leaving no actual interior space for play whatsoever. Both sets include very details minifigures with heaps of new prints, but Grimmauld Place contains the more important characters of the two, and has fewer flaws in its minifigures' details than the Ministry, even if the flaws I pointed out are minor nitpicks. Finally, though I didn't really touch on all of the accessories given this review is already so long, Grimmauld Place strikes me as the better parts pack, at least for interesting recoloured parts like the tan bats, sand blue barrel, new brooms, (not) Crookshanks and more. SCORE | 76403 The Ministry of MagicHow do I rate this set? 9 MINIFIGURES Despite their flaws, it still is an awesome minifigure lineups with many characters I never thought we'd get, and lots of new prints. 9 PIECES There's nothing especially fantastic here, but there are plenty of parts for the price, which is good. If you like dark green panels, this is the set for you. 6 DESIGN It doesn't totally capture the feel of the Ministry of Magic from the films, and the interiors are way too cramped. 6 PLAYABILITY Hand-in-hand with the design, playability feels severely compromised by the design of the interior rooms. While there's certainly play to be had around the set and with all of the included minifigures, the cramped rooms would still hamper play. 10 PRICE The set has shelf presence going for it, and plenty of parts and minifigures, so I can't fault the price. 8 OVERALL - 76403 The Ministry of Magic isn't a bad set by any means, and the novelty of it certainly makes it attractive, but it could be better with more interior space and a more restrained colour scheme. SCORE | 76408 12 Grimmauld PlaceHow do I rate this set? 10 MINIFIGURES A fantastic lineup of important characters, done well in new outfits. 10 PIECES Lots of good accessories and generally good stuff to be had in this set. 9 DESIGN The sliding mechanism for Number 12 is wonderful in its simplicity, the exterior looks good, and the interior is packed with details. Only the arrangement of some of the interior space leaves a little bit to be desired. 8 PLAYABILITY The hiding function is a massive thing for play in and of itself, while the interior also has pretty good room for play, but some cramped spaces and rooms that lack enough available floor space bring this score down. 9 PRICE While the set feels heavy and dense, it's overall footprint feels just a tad small for the price, so I can't give the RRP full marks. A slight discount would make it a no-brainer. 9.2 OVERALL - Like 75980 Attack on the Burrow before it, 76408 12 Grimmauld Place captures a magical home with plenty of detail, fantastic and appropriate minifigures, and of course the core house-revealing function. GIFT GUIDE For a kid... both of these sets would provide good fun, but the sliding function and better space for place in Grimmauld Place edges out the Ministry for me. For an AFOL... Grimmauld Place provides the more intriguing building experience and could also fit into displays outside of Harry Potter. Its colour scheme is also more suited to being a parts pack, for AFOLs that like earthy and grey tones anyway. For a casual LEGO fan... I would still recommend Grimmauld Place for the build and the fact that it looks more recognisable on display. For a Harry Potter super fan... both of these sets are essential buys for a Harry Potter collection, though if you had to get just one, the characters and sentimental value of Grimmauld Place might make it slightly more essential. But what do you think? Ministry of Magic, or Grimmauld Place?

In terms of being something that could/would come in sets, I'd argue Lloyd from the LEGO Ninjago Movie series is actually worse. The only thing exclusive to that figure, even at the time it was released, is a 1x3 printed tile. The head is only exclusive because it doesn't have the reverse side, so is actually worse than equivalent heads in the sets. However, it's a much more attractive figure by itself IMO, and even massable. Popcorn guy from the last series was pretty bad too, but at least had recoloured legs. A simple recolour of a more rare hairpiece would elevate rocking horse girl a lot.

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. It was fun doing the comparisons, and I'm glad to have provided something useful or at least entertaining with the review. And yes, it was a lot of work! And yet I love them anyway... I have collected every single "cursed" Jedi, except Eeth Koth who just looks downright ugly, and is now more expensive than I'm willing to pay given the ridiculous, skyrocketing aftermarket prices for Star Wars particularly. In fact it's the Clone Wars faces that I choose to display in my Star Wars display! I'm weird... While the Scythe might be technically better, 75094 Imperial Shuttle Tydirium is my favourite $100 SW ship. It distilled the techniques of the UCS version into playscale and was SO far beyond the original LEGO version of the ship, plus had a great crew of Minifigures with outfits for Han and Leia that still haven't been redone (not enough Endor love from LEGO in general tbh). That might have been the last time we saw Endor Rebel troopers too? And they were much better than previous versions. Sure the proportions and everything on the ship aren't great, but I still love that one.

I don't really get criticism of the details of Spaceman. Classic spacemen have become their own sort of icon, and LEGO has finally realised their true appeal in recent years starting with the LEGO movie. Even before then they did those "classic Minifigure" packs, but with the motorcycle helmet for the classic space figures (and misaligning the logos in some cases), those didn't really satisfy the tingling nostalgic feels. The figure does exactly what it's supposed to do, which is be a new colour of retro classic Spaceman and that's it. It isn't an update or tribute like the CMF Johnny Thunder or updated Space Police figures; it isn't supposed to "make sense"; it's just a new colour of classic Spaceman. I guess the colour choice is questionable only because brown is drab and they could've picked anything, but they have already covered the rainbow, so might as well do brown instead of merely a different shade of colour that has already been done IMO. We still lack a proper grey one as well though.

Her torso is the new neon yellow though, not just yellow. In person it will look noticeably different.

I'm confused - what are you alleging is printed on the carrot guy's legs? No part of the carrot itself is on the legs. I see dual moulded dark green and black legs, possibly with some print on them (looks like it on the leaflet) and possibly not (looks like not on the Brick Clicker image), but either way, there's no orange carrot on them.

I'd say they need to release the updated classic helmet mould in green, as the existing green ones are incomplete otherwise. Likewise we need a proper light gray one. There's the classic helmet and airtanks in old grey, a light bley torso with the right print, and a dark bley updated classic helmet. Also purple, while it will soon be possible to scrap together, could be released properly. Personally I'd love to see gunmetal grey or pearl gold. Might as well be outlandish.

Well, I have separate US and Australian accounts, both of which I use periodically, so possibly one in each of those. It's good enough to cover shipping and all or part of tax in the US, and 3/4 of the astronomical shipping in Australia, so that's better than nothing. A $7.50 voucher for Australia is enough to convince me to order when there are parts I want.

In this interview, Denise Gough (who plays Dedra on Andor) says they made a LEGO version of her. Is she just joking and/or confused? Or does she know about something and doesn't know it actually isn't out yet? https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/andor-denise-gough-interview-tony-gilroy-game-of-thrones-1235266613/

I count at least 12. The only figure with no new ones is the referee, and I think the T.rex might have a new mask and new tail. The baby astronaut might also be more than just one new mould, but we'll see. Hard to tell if the space robot just has one new mask that includes those shouldery bits, or if the shoulder bits are underneath the head?

We'll know as soon as the reviews come out, which I think will be quite soon. It could be anywhere between one piece and four really!

It's not a knock against the piece for me at all. That piece has only ever appeared in the one set (though was on B&P, but I skipped it because it struck me as too expensive...), and looks great. I'm always in for recolours of hat-hair pieces. The only one that's boring at this point is the cap with ponytail because it has been done SO many times. Yeah I prefer it the way we're getting it too. It just looks slightly off for the figure, but is great for the part. Ever since moving to Australia I still can't get over how tradies and some other professions wear short shorts here even through slightly chilly winter.

Is the hat-hair on Zookeeper mate definitely new? The flow of the hair looks quite similar to that kid's from Stranger Things. Also he really should have a strip of yellow printed around his legs because he would 100% be wearing cargo short shorts in real life. I wouldn't really count the Classic Policeman personally. He was a tribute/remake fig that was a chase extra to the actual CMF series he came in. But that's just me.

Yes I agree, and this would have been my exact reply to @Robert8. The foal girl had great, detailed and recoloured parts. The medium legs were also new in that colour I believe. The rocking horse girl has got literally nothing to her of interest. They could have at the very least picked a rare hairpiece and recoloured it, like Ms Marvel's from the Spidey 4+ sets, or a ginger recolour of the Hermione hair. Something. Anything! Fair point there. Closed-wing bird moulds are definitely more useful overall. We could do with a closed wing seagull for that matter. For MOCs based in reality, Koalas are native to and online live in Australia, that's why. The classic smile is the territory though. Anything else would be blasphemous.

Alright alright alright! Spaceman, Zookeeper mate, pottery maker, and surprisingly newspaper boy given his details are absolute musts for me. The Black Falcon, Orc and "French Queen" are a close second tier - not all their details wow me but I'll almost certainly get them. Carrot guy looks like something interesting is going on with his legs, so I'll wait to see the torso as well before making a call on him. The rocking horse girl and referee aren't great despite having a couple of good parts each. Really wish the rocking horse girl came with something else exciting besides the rocking horse, since the figure herself is so run of the mill. At this point, the only ones I definitely will NOT get are the T. rex guy and space robot alien.

Wowee what a list! At least if they have to force me to stop buying CMF, they do it with a bang (unlike S23's whimper). I can't wait to see all of the details soon, but I can't imagine there's anything that would make me NOT want to buy the orc, the zookeeper, the Black Falcon, and the Spaceman. Potter, newspaper boy, lady with dog and girl on rocking horse most likely as well. I'm never keen on the costumes and I don't care for that leaked space robot thing, not the referee really, though I like the recoloured hairpiece. Hopefully it'll be on PaB.