Harry Potter 2020 - Rumors & Discussion

[Roebuck]

2 hours ago, Metanoios91 said:

I was talking about retailers selling the product a few days early, not leaks about an upcoming product a few months before release.

OK, if it is a normal retail set that the shops put in the shops when they get it, it is probably not much of an issue, however if they put out something like DA D2C before the deadline they would probably be in some kind of trouble

2 hours ago, Metanoios91 said:

One last point: lowering prices while keeping the same quality (by cutting back on costs like lawyers and marketing) would be the best strategy against Chinese copycats

AFOLs coming with advise on how TLG should run their business is just as stupid as football fans screaming at the TV what the players should do in the game. It is a reason why fans are sitting in the sofa watching and not paid huge amounts of money for playing. The same goes for us it is a reason why we are posting comments here and not running one of the biggest toy companies in the world

[hoiharry]

We have new minifigures here in the Netherlands and I got them today. I love them so much.  It's hard to choose a favourite. 

[Metanoios]

36 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

OK, if it is a normal retail set that the shops put in the shops when they get it, it is probably not much of an issue, however if they put out something like DA D2C before the deadline they would probably be in some kind of trouble

AFOLs coming with advise on how TLG should run their business is just as stupid as football fans screaming at the TV what the players should do in the game. It is a reason why fans are sitting in the sofa watching and not paid huge amounts of money for playing. The same goes for us it is a reason why we are posting comments here and not running one of the biggest toy companies in the world

Funny part is my job is managing product development projects with suppliers from the plastics industry. Mostly medical products though, not toys. A small part of my salary goes into this hobby and I get actually paid for knowing stuff about analyzing market research and international market approval and distribution systems. TLG are one of the biggest toy companies but are still running their internal processes as if they were a small town Danish toy producer. So I think I am allowed to share my opinion. They faced bankruptcy just 15 years ago and they found there way out of that hole. The (cheaper) Lego Star Wars sets and Bionicle saved them back then. Now they are  on the edge of loosing the cow they milked for too long. Star Wars toy sales have been declining and Disney itself is facing massive financial trouble due to Covid-19 and the mismanagement of the Star Wars sequels. The Lego Star Wars prices have become ridiculous for the amount of stuff you get and the brand itself isn`t what it used to be. With all the paused entertainment productions (also concerning Marvel) and only a handful of new stuff scheduled for release the Star Wars brand and therefore Disney is loosing value fast.

Lego Harry Potter has been a ray of hope among the other licensed themes, because so far it had been spared by the high prices or lackluster design like Star Wars or Marvel/DC. But with Diagon Alley I feel like they began to cut a lot of corners and are slowly increasing the prices of Harry Potter as well. Monkie Kid and the increase in China focused sets shows how scared TLG is to loose the Chinese market permanently to Chinese competitors.

 

[CLK143]

2 hours ago, Bugbot20082 said:

That’s the first I have heard of the series being on shelves in the U.K!

I’ll keep an eye out next time I go to the shops, can’t wait to finally have a perfect Professor Sprout :D

They are all great to be honest, loads of detail. It was Bexleyheath, SE London by the way.

[Roebuck]

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

So I think I am allowed to share my opinion.

Everyone is allowed to share their opinion here

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

They faced bankruptcy just 15 years ago and they found there way out of that hole. The (cheaper) Lego Star Wars sets and Bionicle saved them back then.

The main thing that saved them was that they went back to basic , but SW and Bionicle was part of it..

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

Now they are  on the edge of loosing the cow they milked for too long. Star Wars toy sales have been declining and Disney itself is facing massive financial trouble due to Covid-19 and the mismanagement of the Star Wars sequels. The Lego Star Wars prices have become ridiculous for the amount of stuff you get and the brand itself isn`t what it used to be.

I 100% agree with this
 

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

Lego Harry Potter has been a ray of hope among the other licensed themes, because so far it had been spared by the high prices or lackluster design like Star Wars or Marvel/DC. But with Diagon Alley I feel like they began to cut a lot of corners and are slowly increasing the prices of Harry Potter as well

Well 400$ for 5544 parts is not bad, but 2-3 more minfigs would made it even better

Sorry for OT

18 hours 45 minutes 45 seconds left

[sammy_zammy]

4 hours ago, CLK143 said:

Sorry if this is old news but I picked up a full CMF2 set in Sainsbury's here in the UK yesterday. The box was just on the shelf so I could feel the bags. Used hand sanitiser before and after of course.

Haven’t heard of or seen any in the UK!

Still hunting for Mad Eye Moody, Harry and Hermione from the first series... but they’re getting rarer argh

[Ringwraith]

This is probably the wrong chat but has anyone actually come up with a good reason why the Star Wars prices are rising. I've heard some say that it's licensing, others say Disney is just pushing for profit and so on 

[sammy_zammy]

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

But with Diagon Alley I feel like they began to cut a lot of corners and are slowly increasing the prices of Harry Potter as well

I completely disagree. Diagon Alley is a huge set, of course it’s expensive - it’s like 4 Hogwarts expansions in one. And in terms of the Main theme sets, they all seem roughly the same value as the 2018 ones For the amount you get for the price. And I think they’re cutting less corners - compare the interior of the Great Hall Tower to the Astronomy Tower, the difference is stark.

[BrickBob Studpants]

I hope this thread doesn't turn into endless price discussions too  I only very rarely visit the SW thread any more since that seems to be the only topic left  I'm here to discuss news and rumours, not price policies. Aren't there specific threads for that?

[Metanoios]

1 hour ago, sammy_zammy said:

I completely disagree. Diagon Alley is a huge set, of course it’s expensive - it’s like 4 Hogwarts expansions in one. And in terms of the Main theme sets, they all seem roughly the same value as the 2018 ones For the amount you get for the price. And I think they’re cutting less corners - compare the interior of the Great Hall Tower to the Astronomy Tower, the difference is stark.

I said it began with Diagon Alley (so this means excluding the summer wave). Mainly what I meant with cutting corners was in reference to the lack of prints - minifigs but also the record number of stickers and the only printed parts we get are reuses. I hope to the high heavens that the windows are prints but they could also be on a clear-backed sticker sheet that we haven`t seen yet (the other 4 sheets were on white paper). That`s what I am most interested to see in tomorrows reveal - whether those are prints or stickers. The price of 400 $/€ is a bit steep for a set that has the same amount of new prints as the Astronomy tower or the Burrow. The rest is just normal bricks which they produce at a cost of less than 1 cent (averaged) per piece. Naturally they have to add overhead expenses to that (like marketing and licensing) but they would still turn a profit if they sold this set for 350 $

Although, since you are specifically mentioning the AT interior: the white frames are definitely cutting corners, because the two tan 1x4x6 frames that are used in the greenhouse could have been used for 4 of the 7 ugly frames, but the designer decided to go all out on white.

1 hour ago, Lego-Freak said:

I hope this thread doesn't turn into endless price discussions too  I only very rarely visit the SW thread any more since that seems to be the only topic left  I'm here to discuss news and rumours, not price policies. Aren't there specific threads for that?

This should be concerning if the price is an all-encompassing topic in a thread about new products. And you can`t deny that at least some of the pricing is ridiculous (Grievous starfighter, Knight`s of Ren transport shuttle just to name a few). Children should be able to purchase the sets with their pocket money without having to start a new credit account (at a Swiss bank )

Also most rumours and news about sets of upcoming waves start out with price lists. That`s why MandR, Just2Good and others are already talking about the "rumour" that there won`t be any more battle packs in the next wave because the price list doesn`t show any sets with that price point.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Metanoios91

[Juturna]

On 8/27/2020 at 7:45 PM, RODDY said:

Personally I don’t believe that Diagon Alley will be as popular as the Falcon. LEGO and Star Wars are like bread and butter where LEGO and Harry Potter don’t intersect nearly as much. Will it sell out on Day 1? Probably but I don’t think we are going to see month long shortages. I’d wager it would run similar to Pirates of Barracuda Bay, sell out Day 1 but eventually come back to normal by October. Me I like to stay on safe side and I’m going straight to my closest LEGO store once they open on 9/1. Buying sets in person is so much more fun than online. 

Oh yeah man, I'm doing the same thing. I have really bad anxiety and LEGO has always helped me cope with it, but I do have a tendency to get worried from time to time, especially if it's a set that I'm getting on day one, hence why I've been asking questions, and possibly repeating myself a couple times, it's like s mental disorder or something. Yeah I'm planning on going to the fashion show mall in Vegas at around 8-830 am, just so I can wait by the closet door to the Lego store because according to mall security, those door auto unlock at 10:00am, 1 hr before Lego opens. So as soon as that happens, I'm running straight to the Lego store so I can hopefully be first or second in line (I hope there's not two lines that day, even though it would streamline the process, one line for people who want to look, and one for the people who know 100% what they want to buy). I guess I'm anxious/worried about this because you know, I know it will be on s@h on Tuesday morning around 12:00am, and for some reason or another if I happen to be unlucky with running to the store, I want to make sure that the website will still have some available at 11:15am or later on in the day just in case I can't get one at the store. Do we have like a ballpark figure or confirmation on how many sets the Lego stores generally get when a new set releases?? A handful of pages back, I know someone said that they called their local store, and the rep said they would have 4-5 sets available, so does that mean that all the stores will have that many, or only that store??

[Mariella]

In case any fellow Germans missed out on the Promobrick article, the CMF is already available at several Galerias and other toy stores. I picked up Dumbledore, Myrtle and one of the twins on Friday.

[Modal]

It’s finally here tomorrow! So excited 

[BrickBob Studpants]

1 hour ago, Metanoios91 said:

This should be concerning if the price is an all-encompassing topic in a thread about new products. And you can`t deny that at least some of the pricing is ridiculous (Grievous starfighter, Knight`s of Ren transport shuttle just to name a few). Children should be able to purchase the sets with their pocket money without having to start a new credit account (at a Swiss bank )

I‘m not saying that pricing isn‘t a valid topic to discuss, HOWEVER, it usually gets out of hand easily. This isn‘t a new thing either, especially for the SW threads, where it‘s been a prevalent topic ever since EB started. I just don‘t want this thread to drift off the same way 

Besides, price discussions tend to be a bit pointless in the end, not sure what they’re trying to accomplish apart from letting off some steam. Don‘t like the RRP? Wait for a discount or don‘t buy the set, simple as that. TLG won‘t adjust prices just because of a couple of AFOLs on the Internet. Vote with your wallet instead 

[klinton]

1 hour ago, sammy_zammy said:

I completely disagree. Diagon Alley is a huge set, of course it’s expensive - it’s like 4 Hogwarts expansions in one. And in terms of the Main theme sets, they all seem roughly the same value as the 2018 ones For the amount you get for the price. And I think they’re cutting less corners - compare the interior of the Great Hall Tower to the Astronomy Tower, the difference is stark.

The Astronomy Tower cuts a few corners, but I don't really mind. If the use of the window frames allowed them to release it on budget, I don't mind chipping in pieces from my own collection to fill in the gaps. The structure is otherwise on point. That's the only set in the line where I feel it's a bit lacking. The other sets have all been brilliant.

[Modal]

Which size base plates should I use if I want to extend the cobblestone floor a bit more? Just want to have a bit more “street” to put things on, and I really love the small amount of cobblestone in the set already.

[lego_guyon02]

6 minutes ago, Modal said:

Which size base plates should I use if I want to extend the cobblestone floor a bit more? Just want to have a bit more “street” to put things on, and I really love the small amount of cobblestone in the set already.

The baseplates used in the set are 16x32 so 32x32 would be the next step

[Metanoios]

There are smaller base-plates than the 16x32 for example the 8x16 but they only come in the old dark grey not dbg:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3865#T=S&C=10&O={"color":"10","iconly":0}

[Modal]

2 minutes ago, Guyon2002 said:

The baseplates used in the set are 16x32 so 32x32 would be the next step

Is 16x32 the smallest it can go? I feel I really only need to extend the street like 8 more studs.

Just now, Metanoios91 said:

There are smaller base-plates than the 16x32 for example the 8x16 but they only come in the old dark grey not dbg:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=3865#T=S&C=10&O={"color":"10","iconly":0}

Awesome that’s perfect! If old they had it in the same color...

[Metanoios]

11 minutes ago, Modal said:

Which size base plates should I use if I want to extend the cobblestone floor a bit more? Just want to have a bit more “street” to put things on, and I really love the small amount of cobblestone in the set already.

Since most of it will be covered by cobblestone like bricks I think the old grey could work

[Modal]

Just now, Metanoios91 said:

Since most of it will be covered by cobblestone like bricks I think the old grey could work

It says there’s dbg in the link? Or am I reading it incorrectly.

[Metanoios]

Oh you`re right I must have skipped that while reading

[Wimmer]

9 minutes ago, Guyon2002 said:

The baseplates used in the set are 16x32 so 32x32 would be the next step

Or you can get more 16x32 and turn them 90 degrees while you build the set. 

[Metanoios]

Maybe the new ones (32x16) from the DA set will be added to bricks and pieces for a reasonable price. Then you could saw cut them into quarters which could propably be cheaper than buying 4 of the 8x16

Edited August 30, 2020 by Metanoios91

[Modal]

21 minutes ago, Metanoios91 said:

Maybe the new ones (32x16) from the DA set will be added to bricks and pieces for a reasonable price. Then you could saw cut them into quarters which could propably be cheaper than buying 4 of the 8x16

I just ordered 4 for about $6, so not too bad! Want to try to grab them before everyone else gets the same idea