sammy_zammy

I’d say it all just depends on how well it sells. If they can’t shift stock, it’ll go on discount. If it goes flying out the door, they’ll be few and far between.

That’s normal for non-D2C sets that are retailer exclusives. It only tends to be D2C sets that are Lego exclusive before becoming a retailer exclusive. This is just a standard set.

I feel like they just forgot to retire this one lol I wonder if part of this is because the D2C Diagon Alley is still on shelves - if three smaller Diagon Alley sets are on sale at a time and maybe have a discount, people might be less inclined to buy the D2C set. Instead they have a rotation of Diagon Alley shops. This is different to Hogwarts sets, as Diagon Alley won't make a "complete system" - they are just shops that can be lined up next to each other. If someone wanted to make a Hogwarts and the Great Hall had retired, that wouldn't work - but if someone wants to make an alley, they don't need WWW to make a functioning alley (even if its absence would be noticeable). Tbh none of the HP retailer exclusives seem to last long. Grimmauld Place, the Burrow, First Flying Lesson (the previous one!), now the Durmstrang Ship...

Hmm it seems fine… at first I thought it was an amazing set. Now when I look at it it is pretty must just generic castle. It certainly looks really nice in that regard but doesn’t really stand out in any way either It’s very much the 2018 Whomping Willow of this line, but without the amazing potions interior, IMO.

Yes. There’s not much to be confused about - every set will have something that budget constraints have limited, be it a character with a reused torso in a cheap set or the GRINGO TTS BANK in the Gringotts D2C.

I saw this the other day and did think it was probably expecting a bit much, based on the size of the 90€ DA playsets… I’d anticipate very similar size to the 2020 set. It seems ironic that we are now at the point where playsets are more expensive than the D2C / Collectors Edition sets… for example the Hogwarts Main Tower is more expensive and has fewer pieces than the Burrow D2C set. I Imagine that’s because the Main Tower will have more large pieces, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Burrow looks a more impressive, accurate and detailed model!

Accuracy excluding the shrunken head, that is…! ;) When I think of the Knight Bus, I don’t think of the exact dimensions of the bus. I think of the fact it’s purple. I think of the fact it’s triple decker. And I think of the funny head saying “Old lady at twelve o clock!” “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride…” “Hey guys? Why the long faces?” Lego have missed out a defining feature of the scene in pursuit of this vehicular accuracy, it appears. Seems a strange choice to me.

Interesting that the closed-up configuration appears to be the “official” one.

Well they could always do UCS Dobby’s sock at long last…

Tbf a lot of the cheaper sets seem to be coming in the January wave. That used to be reserved for Hogwarts Moments-esque things - now, that seems to be standard play sets. We have two <€25 standard sets coming in January 2025. Compare that to the 2021-23 green roof era, where in all of 2023 we got zero(!), 2022 we got one, and 2021 we got two. And in the 2018-20 grey roof era, we had two <€25 sets a year. To me that suggests a return to form, with standard cheap play sets becoming more accessible again, just with a different release schedule.

Also revealed from the boxart, how the Charms lesson fits in the back of the Flying Lesson! And a new Transfiguration lesson too. Flying Lesson in general looks a really fantastic substantial build - the way it folds in is super cool. I'm really liking how this new Hogwarts line is shaping up!

What about Buckbeak in the 2019 Hagrid’s Hut with executioner? He died in one timeline, at least.

It wouldn’t be a Harry Potter leak if we didn’t end up discussing how much of unrelated London they’re including in a microscale set after all!

That’s a good point about interiors. In the past, to have an interior, you had to also have an exterior wall - which meant you ended up with very long (and for the Green roof line, featureless) Hogwarts displays. But now it can be like a little top-down view of what happens inside without wasting exterior space (and also without wasting pieces!).

That Potions Class! Wow! Not the set I was expecting to be most impressed by!