MaxHeadroom

I’m on the fence with the greenhouses. I’ll probably get one once they’re on sale. I’m very glad they’re including the building to the side of the tower, as long as the tower itself is still substantial enough. Seeing this is giving me some hope they’ll actually be able to recreate the 2018 mini set in full minifig scale.

I’ll take my own bait lol

Aside from our spring wave becoming a January winter wave, Minifigure leaks are gone and we don’t seem to get text description leaks anymore. The HP line is also incredibly structured now even if the individual years aren’t as structured. Every three years the castle resets with a Great Hall set and we go back mostly to the first movie or two, then we go to a bit further to the middle of the series in year two, and finally everything is thrown out the window in year three. Not to mention stuff like always getting a potions set and training grounds set early on. There’s the formulaic Diagon Alley line too, there’s the buildable stuff no one cares about, and at that point there are only so many sets left and we all can predict generally what remakes are next. Occasionally we’re surprised with something like Malfoy Manor but I don’t think we can really predict stuff like that. So heres discussion topics for those inclined: What movie will the tower set this summer be loosely based on? Will LEGO actually complete the 2018 micro castle front with this line? If so, will we get any bridges? Will we get a Clock Tower set in this cycle? What movie will the inevitable playscale Gringotts be based on? What surprise set that we haven’t had yet in the revival (or ever) do you think will come next? What remakes are we expecting next year? Hogwarts Express? Hungarian Horntail? Will we ever go back to sweaters or will Hogwarts torsos always be robes now? Will we ever get a Deathy Hallows Ron not wearing a polyjuice costume?

Calling it now that a normal Marge will not be included. It’s easy bait for hardcore collectors to buy another remake in 5 years time.

Hmmm. The house being 360 does make this tempting. Maybe I’ll get it if there’s a sale. Can’t wait to see the rest of the sets.

They’ll want to keep the theme parks current and want to hold on to the already iconic movie designs for major things. They’ll probably want to keep the iconic score and I’m sure some of the branding. Changing the actors has to happen anyway of course so you might as well make significant visual changes so there’s at least something making this series look different. Finding actors who are willing to be compared to some of the best British actors of the 2000s, willing to spend probably a decade tied to this project, and willing to be publicly tied to JKR can’t be easy so it helps to open up their casting pool more. I love seeing alternative versions of characters and since we already have the movies with their relatively true to book castings (Snape and most of the parent’s generation probably being a bit too old aside) I’m all for mixing things up this time around, especially since I’m sure the movies will remain the most iconic versions. I’m a bit iffy on the Snape casting though only because depending on their other casting choices certain scenes could come off very poorly as people have already discussed elsewhere. The streaming series probably won’t immediately take over the normal line. Lego will wait to see how the show does and test the waters with things like show based D2Cs or buildable creatures based on newer designs. I think little things will probably seep into the movie sets though, for example a future Great Hall may include a build of the kitchens from the show assuming the show makes it to a fourth season. Or maybe I’m wrong and Lego will do a whole HBO series based reboot of the castle simply to mix that up for our fourth (or fifth depending on how long the series takes) 2018+ reboot of the castle line. In the meantime since it’s being brought up as long as the core characters in scenes are covered, I’m all for LEGO including more diverse background fodder. Preferably characters with a name or something like Leanne last year. It’s just more visually interesting and it gets more options into kids’ parts collections.

I’m guessing we just aren’t getting anything at this point until we see pictures in… is it still April nowadays?

You’ve got a point but the Great Hall has a totally throwaway little collection of arches and paintings and the flying lesson set has a room which is just accessories all in a row. Both are screaming for disposal and could easily be replaced by the charms class set with nothing lost. Potions doesn’t really have a place to go still and I doubt they’ll include large size rooms which are totally useless though. I don’t plan on empty rooms but I’m sure if Lego continued this castle system for long enough there would be plenty of disposable rooms which could be removed to make space for all the actual core rooms.

It’s a massive improvement, the kind that makes you wonder how the 2019 one was ever considered solid. That being said, I’m passing on it unless I find it on clearance like I did the last Hogwarts Express. These days I find the castles, D2Cs, and figures. are the only things I really display. Maybe I’ll get the next remake in 2030 or whatever

It doesn’t. It’s a part of the castle which doesn’t connect to anything we have gotten yet or will get this summer. Chances are it will never actually get a canonical connecting point.

When I was a kid growing up I remember always finding the first two movies the friendliest but still loving 3-5 and watching them religiously. 6 was too visually dark and I wasn’t allowed to watch 7-8 as they released. OOTP was still bright and colorful with the fireworks sequence, Umbridge’s office, and all the ROR stuff. I’d be tempted to say it’s not even as dark of a movie as GOF which Lego has made plenty of sets for. As we enter year 8 of LEGO HP I find it bizarre that we’ve only gotten 3 OOTP sets, two of which were quite small and released half a decade ago too. It’s overdue for some attention. What is LEGO HP’s target demographic now anyway? Age ranges aren’t always a perfect indicator because 2018-2023 castles were always 8+ for most sets then 9+ for the largest sets (including for the DH2 sets) despite the 2021 reboot of the line being noticeably more kiddie and focusing on the younger audience at least with stuff like the Moments books and the… more play focused new castle system. Last year’s Great Hall is 10+ and because of the price I can’t imagine that many younger children are buying it. Can 10 year olds in 2025 really not handle OOTP? (even ignoring that 8 year olds in 2023 can handle DH2). The classroom sets are still play focused but it seems like the HP line in general is a bit more grown up now than it was a few years ago. I understand why Lego focuses on the earliest movies when doing more kid focused product lineups and when restarting the line and trying to attract new kids, but surely OOTP is fine by year two? Especially for a $250 set that will almost certainly be 10+ at least. I think an OOTP focused tower would be great. There’s a big memorable Dumledore’s office sequence so that’s covered (which could also be an excuse to include a few more interesting figures as bait for figure collectors). The griffindor common room has some notable moments and they could do the Sirius fireplace which we haven’t seen since 2010! The ROR is an obvious inclusion too and works perfectly for the barebones modules they like to include in castle exterior sets. I’d love an Umbridge office too with at least some stickered walls full of plates but I don’t think it would really need a full potions module size room.

I think the figures included really depend on what the interiors will be. The main tower could honestly be anything, the only thing I’d expect is the Griffindor common room (it’s located there in the movies isn’t it?), some staircases, and maybe Dumbledore’s office although that could be sold as its own thing. I’m sure there will be a large potions sized sliding interior in the basement but will the rest of the tower be large or small sliding interiors? Or since this is a cylindrical tower will they be stuck in default rooms/positions? Personally I don’t think this set needs to have a student from every house. The Great Hall did because it was the Great Hall and included one hufflepuff common room but I think they could get away with excluding Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin students only there for the sake of representing their houses.

Here’s the list of sets for the year to start the topic: 1st January 2025 76441 Hogwarts Castle: Dueling Club (24,99$ - 158 pieces) 76442 Hogwarts Castle: Charms Class (19,99$ - 204 pieces) 76443 Hagrid & Harry’s Motorcycle Ride (49,99$ - 617 pieces) 76447 Hogwarts Castle: Flying Lesson (79,99$ - 651 pieces) 76453 Malfoy Manor (149,99$ - 1601 pieces) 1st march 2025 76446 Knight Bus Adventure (49,99$ - 499 pieces) 1st june 2025 (rumored) 76445 Hogwarts Castle: Herbology Class (59,99$) 76448 Dumbledore’s Phoenix (19,99$) 76449 Book of Monsters (59,99$) 76450 Book Nook featuring Hogwarts Express (99,99$) 76451 Aunt Marge’s Visit (89,99$) 76452 Quality Quidditch Supplies & Ice Cream (99,99$) 76454 Hogwarts Castle: The Main Tower (249,99$)

Honestly I stopped buying the Advent calendars after the second one, and I’m good having a year without a D2C too. What would they even do for a D2C at this point? If they do one, hopefully it’s another easily skipped out of scale with minifigures thing.

I’m really looking forward to the main tower. The rest? Not so much. I’d be into the greenhouse but I’ve got a sneaking suspicion based on its placement in the list that it’ll be a smaller sliding interior based set like the Charms class and not an exterior set. If the Marge set is a Privet Drive remake I may get it once it’s on sale. Honestly I don’t mind. I haven’t gotten any of this years castle sets yet (I’ll get the exteriors at least), Hagrid’s Hut, or any of the tempting smaller sets like Aragog or the car, plus there’s the whole winter wave too. It used to be that the winter wave was full of little gimmicky junk and the summer wave would contain all the proper playsets but that’s not the case anymore. Flying Lesson and the Manor are big exterior sets. Knight Bus is a solid if skippable remake at an appropriate time and then there’s the dueling club and charms class which are solid optional interior playsets (although charms really comes close to the gimmicky category). Now this summer is looking like it’s just the massive hogwarts set, big DA set, herbology, and whatever the Marge set is. The winter wave is now outnumbering the summer wave for standard minifig based builds.

I like these sets but apart from the pillager raid there’s nothing I’m hoping to get so far which is good since I’m interested in a lot of this year’s sets.

Honestly I like this new castle setup with interiors available separately. It means we get to have more detailed interiors while still keeping prices down on the main exterior sets, which is incredibly useful for all the people who are mainly only into the exteriors. Plus kids who just want to get some smaller rooms to play with benefit too.The interiors they do include are easy to dispose of but even then they’re not that much worse than what we’ve seen in the past. I think a lot of you have forgotten just how awful the 2021-23 interiors were half the time because it’s not just the forbidden corridor. Sirius Black’s Escape and the Battle of Hogwarts were practically empty room battle packs and most of the sets came with at least one or two modules of stuff like a random sink. The last flying lesson had a room which was just one barrel of brooms on a grated floor, I’ll gladly take the shelf of bats and balls on a complete floor over that. My only issue is that while the potions class was solid, our other interior set is pretty poor! Not every set needs to have four walls blocking the view in the castle and they should never require the set to be unfolded out of the castle for the furniture to look decent.

Retail price which is $200 (190 euro), although I’ve occasionally even seen Amazon selling it for above that retail price. I have never seen it below that retail price and I’m regularly watching Amazon and places like the Lego deals Reddit. If I could get that set for $150 (euro or dollars) I’d buy it in an instant but in the meantime I’m still waiting.

So far the Great Hall has never gone on sale anywhere in the US AFAIK

I just think they don’t have the same charm and somehow look cheaper than a fabric cape. I’m all for them when it’s superhero figures that will get bashed around and have rubber looking capes in the source material, but Lockhart is meant to be luxurious.

Oh no not a rubber cape. This is meant to be the detailed collector castle. The set is fine otherwise. Charms looks awful.

So now Ron is conspicuously absent from the DH2 final battle lineup AND the DH1 climax lineup. There’s room for Luna and Voldemort but not Ron? What does Lego have against Ron? It makes the scene and figure lineup feel so incomplete. Having only 2/3rds of the trio is so awkward.

I always forget it takes Lego weeks to ship orders. I’m ready for my Burrow now lol.

Did the US store have double points? I didn’t see anything about it. Ordered the Burrow and the Durmstrang Ship sets. Both separate so double the GWPs which will be nice.

That’s literally not a claim I made though. I just said that scene specific interior rooms seemingly weren’t the focus this time around and that they were focusing on rooms that are a permanent part of the castle. Aside from the destroyed sink in the bathroom, all of the rooms in all of the 2024 castle sets are implied to always exist in those forms and get visited regularly by the characters both onscreen and offscreen. When it comes to new sets charms classes and flying lessons are both things that happen regularly and we can assume the builds will be things that are permanent parts of the castle. The Hufflepuff common room isn’t ever even seen onscreen and has no scenes but gets included because it’s a part of the castle that is always there even if it’s offscreen. The dueling club seems more like an accessory pack to me on the level of this year’s advent calendar and probably won’t include an actual section of the castle. Even if it is, scene specific rooms are still the exception in this castle. The exterior of this castle is trying to be the opposite of the last one with modularity and interchangeable designs generally being abandoned in favor of a more accurate exterior. The interior is similarly going the opposite way with permanent parts of the castle like the classrooms and common rooms the last system ignored getting prioritized over the scene and story specific rooms like the stone challenges and Sirius’ prison cell .