Virginia_Bricks

It would have required a new mold and they already did that for Neel so a second new mold was probably not in the budget.

4 vs 3 minifigures and especially 1 professor minifigure vs 2 professor minifgures. Common interpretation is a minifigure reflects $5 in value for Lego pricing

Because is its gritty and dark. It doesn't lend itself well to toys.

I didn't pace myself well and all three new Castle sets were built in 3 days. But here are my short thoughts: Dueling Club: Compact build and good minifigures. Looks very good in the Great Hall. But probably my least favorite of the 3 Charms Class: Comparing to Potions, feels less crowded and more refined. My favorite set of the wave and I really hope we get at least 2 more classrooms in that style. Flying Lesson: Solid exterior build and I like the modules. Personally I don't think Transfiguration could be done much better (granted the same could be said for Charms) so I'm happy to see it included. Nice volume to the silhouette also.

It was a month delayed then because of when they reviewed the rest of the Jan 1 wave. Maybe Lego just didn't want to release it in February.

Maybe, but I feel like we might get 2 medium sets next year each with a Common Room. Like take the Malfoy Manor price point for a Castle Set and exchange it with the Flying Lesson set's price point. I'm also trying to manifest they will do 4 years for this modular wave and then each year will need the flagship modular set.

If they include the Gryffindor Common Room, I would then say Nearly Headless Nick over the Bloody Baron. I just think Lego plans to include all house ghosts with their respective common rooms. That and all the first 5 DADA professors. I was speculating on them including the Slytherin Common Room instead. As it stands, we only have 1 Hufflepuff student, 2 Ravenclaw students, and 3 Slytherin students so far in the 7 castle sets. I don't think the Greenhouse set will include any non-Gryffindor students, so if the Main Tower doesn't we would be 2/3 of the way through the castle with little besides Gryffindor. And Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students are cheap enough to produce since they don't need new molds or prints. I would expect the dungeon module and module between Dumbledore's Office and the Grand Staircase are both removable. I expect there just to be a void behind a square module, similar to in the Great Hall there is space between the modules and the rock wall.

Since we won't get much more in terms of leaks for a while, I have been dreaming up the expected minifigure lineup for the Main Tower. Assuming its either COS or POA based and has 13 minifigures (25% more cost = 2 more minifigures): COS: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Lockhart, Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Random Hufflepuff, Random Ravenclaw, Bloody Barron, Moaning Myrtle, Big Fig Basilisk POA: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Lupin, Sirius, Fred W, George W, Random Hufflepuff, Random Ravenclaw, Bloody Barron, Professor Binns, Hippogriff

I get that, but I don't think those two modules are worth more than $10 combined and probably around 100 pieces total, so Flying Lesson would have likely been $70 at the cheapest.

One June wave, with two castle sets: Main Tower and Herbology. The owlery won’t connect to the main castle since it doesn’t canonically connect.

They could have made better modules and then charged $100 instead of $80. Some fans might not like it, but Lego made the right decision. Now a kid can use their allowance money and get Charms on their own instead of it being paywalled behind a $100 set. And an adult can get both and use the bricks from the less detailed modules to MOC up the main set or display them separately.

I don't think they think they are the same. They just don't want to create another torso only for a polybag. Even though it could be easily used for other sets in nearly all themes.

FIFY. There is a large segment of consumers who don't mind the prices, so why wouldn't Lego release higher get the extra profits and then discount it for the rest of the market.

Poly bag image leaked and Harry is the minifigure (unless you count the statue). Not sure if the torso is new, but overall a meh polybag. Edit: Torso is the Oliver Wood torso from Flying Lesson

Those are all great sets for a younger audience getting into Lego and/or Harry Potter for the first time Battle packs are more geared towards those already into Lego looking to beef out their displays.