Wizarding World 2023 - Rumors & Discussion

[brickbride]

5 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

5 play sets - RoHT / RoR, 2nd Task, BoH, [remake] HE and [remake] WWW. (Does D2C Gringotts not count? As for the Express, it's not primarily about improvements, it never was. A regular HE has never been off the shelves for more than 1/2 a year whenever there were HP sets, so it seems an unreasonable complaint.

Gringotts does not count to me, any more than the Lion Knights Castle would. Playsets are aimed at children, and a EUR 430 set clearly isn't.

 

I don't think MaxHeadroom's point about the HE unreasonable either. Sure, there has to be a HE on the shelves, but if it's not about improvements they could just not have retired the previous one.  

 

 

[BrickMatit]

19 minutes ago, brickbride said:

Sure, there has to be a HE on the shelves, but if it's not about improvements they could just not have retired the previous one.  

Imagining that Hogwarts Express (or Great Hall or Hagrid's Hut or...) is an evergreen theme that has to be always on shelves, LEGO could keep the original one, example the 2018 version, on shelf and sell it to new buyer OR produce a new version, different enough (minifigures selection and scene depicted, example adding the station) to sell it not only to new buyer but also to people which already have the past one. Of course, for a buyer that already had the older version, it's usually better that LEGO dedicates resources to something new, but for LEGO producing a new train probably is a winning bet (or at least they believe it).

Edited April 20, 2023 by BrickMatit

[krimimimi]

17 minutes ago, brickbride said:

Gringotts does not count to me, any more than the Lion Knights Castle would. Playsets are aimed at children, and a EUR 430 set clearly isn't.

 

I don't think MaxHeadroom's point about the HE unreasonable either. Sure, there has to be a HE on the shelves, but if it's not about improvements they could just not have retired the previous one. 

Fair enough. (And also the reason I'd argue against the inclusion of rails and cars in a 430 EUR Gringotts, but that's another issue.)

Interesting point. The 2018 HE was on the shelves for 4 1/2 years, which is the longest run of an Express set by far. Previously they've been available for 2 1/2 years, 1 1/2 years, 1 1/2 years, and 1 1/2 years, always picking up half a year after the previous set's retirement if the theme was still in active production. What is the longest a play set might be expected to be on the shelves for?

I don't follow SW, so I'd be curious, as a "road map" for evergreen themes, how they handle things like this. I can imagine there are certain sets you always have to have? What are typical intervals between them and typical shelf times?

Edited April 20, 2023 by krimimimi

[BrickBob Studpants]

42 minutes ago, krimimimi said:

"weakest Hogwarts set ever produced" Do you mean the RoR? 😐 I love that set. 

Same! Very enjoyable build, cool minifigs, nice part usages throughout, and Goyle’s Chair of Doom is the cherry on top  Speaking of doom: Sadly, my enjoyment of the building experience was tainted by the sudden news that 77014 had been cancelled

Funny how memory encoding works.

[Seaber]

2 hours ago, krimimimi said:

 

I don't follow SW, so I'd be curious, as a "road map" for evergreen themes, how they handle things like this. I can imagine there are certain sets you always have to have? What are typical intervals between them and typical shelf times?

Star wars is tricky as you have several key ships in different scales/price categories, such as the huge UCS models, standard system scale sets, 4+ kits, Microfighters, mini models... 

Most common/popular/key sets are the Imperial TIE Fighter (12), OT Millennium Falcon (16) and Rebel X-Wing (17). There are other common sets like the Snowspeeder and Luke's Landspeeder, but these are often smaller, so easier for kids to afford. 

I think at least one of those key sets has been available in some form for the last 20 odd years. 

[BrickBob Studpants]

On 4/13/2023 at 8:24 AM, BrickBob Studpants said:

Can‘t wait for the Twilight and Hunger Games remake series this will inevitably inspire.

Trelawney’s newest star pupil has spoken  

God, they’ve become so predictable it’s not even funny anymore. The announcement of the Hunger Games remake series can only be days away.

On a lighter note, the fact we received details on the Ninjago sets and official pictures of a Disney set (all scheduled for June) has me confident we might hear something soon  Maybe not the official reveal, but a teaser or more leaks would be nice

Edited April 20, 2023 by BrickBob Studpants

[krimimimi]

3 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

cool minifigs [...] and Goyle’s Chair of Doom is the cherry on top Speaking of doom: Sadly, my enjoyment of the building experience was tainted by the sudden news that 77014 had been cancelled

My joy at the Grey Lady nearly matches that for Pomfrey and Pince. They've given us some lovely minifigs lately. (I'm still hoping for the other two ghosts. pleasepleaseplease) I was also exceedingly pleased to see Zabini. (And elsewhere Angelina, Corner, and Pansy.) Rita Skeeter is lovely... Now they just need to do Narcissa Malfoy justice. 😁  

Chair of Doom! Yes! Henceforth: CoD. 🐟

77014: postponed. Surely. (Not to say "doomed"... https://www.brickmerge.de/77014-1_lego-indiana-jones-the-temple-of-doom still some hope left.)

re wait: I'm thinking twelve days at the worst for news. It's not long now.

 

Thanks, @Seaber. As a non-SW person, except for the Falcon and Death Star, they all sort of blend together. (It's a lot of grey. 😆) Wow, that really is a lot of the same ground covered. I think if a theme goes evergreen, you either have to accept you won't own all the sets, or if you do, there will be repeats. Simple as. Re-issuing them instead of extending shelf time at least gives you a chance for new figs and add-ons. I admit to some curiosity about how that works out in terms of cost / benefit vs. issuing altogether new sets, but accept we'll never know and of course they're best positioned to have accurate feedback. The departure with the extended shelf life of the 2018 may have been a test.

 

So I guess the questions are, if some of you are unhappy with WWW or the new HE, did you not collect HP lego back in its original ten year heyday of four Hogwarts Castles and four Expresses and three Hagrid's Huts and two Knight Buses, so the present redundancy feels new to you? Is this your first evergreen theme? Or are you just as unhappy with the others when they re-visit sets? Is the progress in covering the HP theme too slow for you? Do others (realistically) do it better?

Subjectively I feel like few other fandoms can boast such thorough character coverage, for example. They've done a decent job tackling most of our wish lists, enough so I feel with time (although perhaps a lot of it) they'll get to many of the rest. So what is it that's bothering you about the theme?

Edited April 20, 2023 by krimimimi

[Vindicare]

I was finally able to get my hands on the Quidditch polybag...and I didn’t even notice in the pics that she doesn’t have white legs or a cape. It bothers me more than it should because all the others(sans the DA uniform capes) have both. 

[krimimimi]

1 hour ago, Vindicare said:

I was finally able to get my hands on the Quidditch polybag...and I didn’t even notice in the pics that she doesn’t have white legs or a cape. It bothers me more than it should because all the others(sans the DA uniform capes) have both. 

Well she's a Ravenclaw and they don't wear capes, don't you know. Capes only get in the way, flapping about inconveniently when you're trying to play some serious Quidditch, and anyway there are Spells for that kind of thing, Warming Charms to combat the cold, Tergeos and Imperviuses to sort the rain... It's just that the other Houses simply aren't studious, sensible or creative enough to come at the problem that way. 😉 

(I agree, the lack of a cape was annoying.) 

[Vindicare]

4 hours ago, krimimimi said:

Well she's a Ravenclaw and they don't wear capes, don't you know. Capes only get in the way, flapping about inconveniently when you're trying to play some serious Quidditch, and anyway there are Spells for that kind of thing, Warming Charms to combat the cold, Tergeos and Imperviuses to sort the rain... It's just that the other Houses simply aren't studious, sensible or creative enough to come at the problem that way. 😉 

(I agree, the lack of a cape was annoying.) 

Hehe, Ravenclaws are a resourceful bunch. They don’t wear capes while playing, but they already gave us capes with Gryffindor & Slytherin, as you know. It’s just the uniformity of it all. It’s an easy enough fix...a little Brinklinkius Orderum & the parts show up. Dark blue spongy capes are a tad rare though. 

[Kaijumeister]

6 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

On a lighter note, the fact we received details on the Ninjago sets and official pictures of a Disney set (all scheduled for June) has me confident we might hear something soon  Maybe not the official reveal, but a teaser or more leaks would be nice

Definitely! June is just over a month away so the barrage of pictures should begin pretty soon I’d hope. 

Of all these upcoming sets, I’m probably most excited for the Battle of Hogwarts and, of all things, the Quidditch Trunk. The idea of the set just sounds like a lot of fun.

[Slytherin Alumni]

2 hours ago, Vindicare said:

Hehe, Ravenclaws are a resourceful bunch. They don’t wear capes while playing, but they already gave us capes with Gryffindor & Slytherin, as you know. It’s just the uniformity of it all. It’s an easy enough fix...a little Brinklinkius Orderum & the parts show up. Dark blue spongy capes are a tad rare though. 

If the Hufflepuff team have capes and the Ravenclaw team doesn’t, that’s okay by me. I just need each team as a whole to match. Curious to see what they do with the trunk. Will it be white pants/cape (like previously) or full team colors/no cape (like the recent polybag). I imagine all 4 uniforms in the trunk will be the same…whether it’s the old or new style remains to be seen. Also, I’m personally confused about the brooms. They had the new style for GP last year, then the old style was back in the polybag. Does anyone know what happened there?

 

2 hours ago, Kaijumeister said:

Definitely! June is just over a month away so the barrage of pictures should begin pretty soon I’d hope. 

Of all these upcoming sets, I’m probably most excited for the Battle of Hogwarts and, of all things, the Quidditch Trunk. The idea of the set just sounds like a lot of fun.

If we actually have to wait until May to see full details and official pictures, it would be the latest since the theme returned, correct? I hope we get new info this week. Even seeing 1 set would be great. They are more cruel than Umbridge making us wait this long! (jk)

I’m most looking forward to:

1) BoH: I think it’ll be the highlight of the summer wave due to the minifigure lineup alone.

2) WWW: it was the only shop in DA I really wanted and I’m so happy they made a stand alone set. I hope it will lead to more stand alone shops like the Hog’s Head, Leaky Cauldron, Zonko’s and a B&B remake.

3) Quidditch trunk: It’s possible there could be an appropriate hair piece/face print/skin tone for us to make a Lee Jordan. Then, they could include him in the next Quidditch set without using too much of the budget.

[Vindicare]

1 hour ago, Slytherin Alumni said:

If the Hufflepuff team have capes and the Ravenclaw team doesn’t, that’s okay by me. I just need each team as a whole to match. Curious to see what they do with the trunk. Will it be white pants/cape (like previously) or full team colors/no cape (like the recent polybag). I imagine all 4 uniforms in the trunk will be the same…whether it’s the old or new style remains to be seen. Also, I’m personally confused about the brooms. They had the new style for GP last year, then the old style was back in the polybag. Does anyone know what happened there?

I’m wondering if we’ll see a reuse of the Banner Quidditch sweaters. Or maybe they’ll be extra generous & either give us two Quidditch torsos for each house or a sweater & regular. The other trunk came with 6, so two more isn’t unreasonable. The broom switch is definitely an odd mystery...I like the new ones. A good selection of heads will be nice, since I have a bunch of Cho Changs that need replacing  

More personally, since I already have a full team of Ravenclaw & Hufflepuff I’d like to see just Gryffindor & Slytherin as I stil need to fill out those teams. 

[Clone OPatra]

1 hour ago, Slytherin Alumni said:

They had the new style for GP last year, then the old style was back in the polybag. Does anyone know what happened there?

Old style is also back in the Room of Requirement.

Perhaps they deemed the new two piece type not actually suitable enough for play, because it could keep breaking when being swooshed?

While I personally like the new ones, they don't solve the core issue of a Minifigure awkwardly straddling the broom. I've long felt they need a a specific piece with a stick front, then a thin dimple you can slide between the minifigure's legs, then the broom tail. Only issue would be that the Minifigure then wouldn't be able to hold the broom in its hand, but I still think it'd work better for stuff like quidditch.

[chris6507]

What is it about the line up of minifigures that has everyone so excited? There's only like one new character whom to me is a bit "meh" and the rest are all characters we've had at least 3 times each before and I don't really remember any of them wearing anything particularly exciting during the battle. I was disappointed when I read the line-up, but maybe I'm missing something and maybe someone can explain the excitement so I can have something to be excited about other than Gringotts which is forever away! Lol.

[brickbride]

11 hours ago, krimimimi said:

So I guess the questions are, if some of you are unhappy with WWW or the new HE, did you not collect HP lego back in its original ten year heyday of four Hogwarts Castles and four Expresses and three Hagrid's Huts and two Knight Buses, so the present redundancy feels new to you? Is this your first evergreen theme? Or are you just as unhappy with the others when they re-visit sets? Is the progress in covering the HP theme too slow for you? Do others (realistically) do it better?

Subjectively I feel like few other fandoms can boast such thorough character coverage, for example. They've done a decent job tackling most of our wish lists, enough so I feel with time (although perhaps a lot of it) they'll get to many of the rest. So what is it that's bothering you about the theme?

Well since you've asked (WARNING: LONG RANT TO FOLLOW):

Not all of us care that much about minifigures to begin with. Sure, I need some to populate my Hogwarts Castles :-), but I care much more about builds. And play functions. I prefer the old yellow-headed figs anyway. I don't need a complete line-up. I don't care that like two-thirds of them were Harry in the exact same outfit. Those were sets that were fun to build, that look good on the shelf, and that had a decent amount of parts for their price - especially since the parts were much bigger then. And if you got lucky they came with functions where you'd use a rubber band to turn a column and show the treasure chest behind it, or the genius clock-and-door mechanism from the 2004 castle. (Yes, I'm an adult. So what? :-))

Now, I realize that this was like twenty years ago, but that's kind of what I'm looking for now. Sets (in the sense of classic LEGO sets, not buildable creatures or objects or weird banners wiht like one stud breadth) that are fun to build, that display well, and that - if possible - have decent play functions. And there aren't many of those around these days.

Plus, LEGO has gotten REALLY pricey. Even the big and expensive flagship sets these days feel like they're cutting corners. Like, they'll make a EUR 500 Hogwarts Express but can't afford dark red pieces? Or they'll make a EUR 150 Chamber of Secrets with those weird lattice 8x8 plates where you cannot pose anything because they won't afford a regular 8x8 plate? The parts counts may have gone up, but the parts have gotten so much smaller, and I often don't see the value in them. You spend such a lot of parts on small details and decorations, and the rooms are so small and overcrowded. Or, in the case of the worse sets like Fluffy Encounter and Sirius Black's Rescue, completely empty. :-)

So, basically: I won't buy new sets unless I feel like the end result is worth the money, regardless of parts count or "But there's an exclusive new minifig in it!" And I'm not interested in non-sets like buildable patroni, buildable Dobby (plus I hate Dobby), and stuff like the Quidditch Trunk you cannot display. If TLG cared about making me happy, they'd just continue making play sets with functions that also look good. They don't have to be big. They shouldn't be that expensive. They don't have to be all new stuff - like I've said, you can never have enough Hogwarts Castles -, but the 2018 series overall looked way better than the modular one and that's not that big an endorsement either. I don't mind them re-doing stuff so much, but more often than not the end result doesn't work for me. With the way the prices are going up and the way they've been cutting corners, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

And given that Harry Potter is a series still supposed to be mostly aimed at kids, I frankly don't understand why they keep doing what they're doing. I mean, I suppose that many kids would look for the same stuff I'm looking for! Like with the modular system: If they re-did some of the old sets like the Final Challenge or the Chamber of Winged Keys or the Troll in the Bathroom in a fun, affordable way as single rooms, I would buy it. Marvel regularly gets EUR 10 sets with two minifigs and a small build. I've been tempted to get some of those and I don't even collect Marvel. I own a Millenium Falcon microfighter with stud shooters (again, with a list price of EUR 10) and I don't even care for Star Wars. It still looks good on the shelf! Why doesn't Harry Potter ever get EUR 10 sets? There's only two with a "cheaper" price point (EUR 20) and those have been out since the start of 2021 and the start of 2022 respectively, which as you've said is a long time in LEGO terms! Those are at least sets that kids might buy. But no, all I'm hearing is "Have another EUR 90 addition to the modular Hogwarts - it has exclusive minifigs in it!"

[Seaber]

Regarding the cape/no capes discussion... 

The cloaks are printed on the figures already, so I don't think a cape piece over the top looks right at all. A cloth piece on the legs would look good though, which could then be swished out. 

The Quidditch jumpers that come in the banner sets would look fine with the capes however. 

I guess it's up to personal preference, but the lack of cape in the polybag is more accurate. 

[Slytherin Alumni]

Over time we could get other key minifigures to fill out the BoH set a bit more. Aberforth and Ron could come  in a Hog’s Head playset. And, what’s the chance Fred and George could have their BoH outfits in the new WWW set, as their outfits from HBP have been done twice (DA 2011 and the most recent DA)?

A troll/giant/acromantula battle pack would be great to pair with the BoH…And we’ve been asking for a DE battle pack for years. It baffles me sometimes how LEGO completely ignores the smaller sets we want that would sell great.

[MaxHeadroom]

20 hours ago, krimimimi said:

5 play sets - RoHT / RoR, 2nd Task, BoH, [remake] HE and [remake] WWW. (Does D2C Gringotts not count?) As for the Express, it's not primarily about improvements, it never was. A regular HE has never been off the shelves for more than 1/2 a year whenever there were HP sets, so it seems an unreasonable complaint. It's one of four sets that newcomers always "need" access to. (The Castle itself, Hagrid's Hut and the Knight bus being the others, the last two in less frequent intervals than the first two.)

"weakest Hogwarts set ever produced" Do you mean the RoR? 😐 I love that set. Small footprint, clever building techniques (for a play set), piles of dangerously stacked stuff, Lupin's phonograph, the trophy room set!, creative ways to have the fire torch the lot... The walls are no less substantial than all the rest in the 2021+ modular style, which is always an issue, but no worse here than in the others. I find Fluffy Encounter far weaker, and Sirius' Rescue little better than that. Dumbledore's Office has good interiors (Library! Pince! Book action!) but the castle itself continues to be a hot mess. (How hard can it be to make a good castle?) Fine, the RoR sink is odd, but the 8x8 format is the plague. They should have included humpbacked witch's statue (or something else), but then that's more expensive. It felt like they tried harder than simply banging a turkey leg in the corner (and I really felt for that poor designer; the room is literally empty save the dog, instrument, and trap door).

Plus the 2nd Task is a gorgeous little set. That was worth it all by itself. 

OP didn’t count D2Cs so I didn’t either. To be fair they’re always a bit more dense than most playscale sets and the high prices make them inaccessible to many potential buyers. 
 

Personally if a remake isn’t going to make notable improvements I’d prefer if they just left the older one on the market but that’s a LEGO-wide issue that’s been a round for awhile and I appreciate the HP team sticking with the 2018 model as long as they did. I completely understand the need for the 2023 HE, as awkward as it is following on from a D2C less than a year ago and as awkward as it is for collectors who want the Hogsmeade station but don’t need another train. I think it was a solid and expected pick for 2023 but I also won’t pretend it’s an exciting one and since users here seem only interested in the set’s figures I don’t think that lack of excitement is exclusive to me. WWW meanwhile is a remake that definitely didn’t need to happen already this year, although I appreciate the new design lead starting a new system and I’m interested in seeing it. So yes while we still have 5 playscale sets which is the norm most years, two of them being our first real remakes of 2018+ stuff does understandably decrease excitement from collectors a bit. 
 

I’m sure I’ve already written a post about all the issues I have with the ROR but the pillar cabinets not having any framing is odd, the pixie sticker is out of place and tacky, the opaque friendlyfyre doesn’t quite work, the technic holes only add to the already messy build and textures of the walls/windows, and the color choices  only make things more overdesigned. Some of those issues are widespread across the 2021+ system but that doesn’t make them less of a problem here. If it was just the lower section I could see it not being considered any worse than the other weakest entires into the 2021+ format but the set doesn’t end there. The sink is bad like you’ve said and could’ve been replaced with something more interesting but I do think they could’ve done better. They’ve got a superfluous side attachment turret that wasn’t needed they could’ve taken parts from, although really all the roof and sink builds were unnecessary. They could’ve just made one decent roof module or used all the parts to give the ROR a more complete wall. Even the RoR was on the level of the rest of the 2021 castle line, it and the BOH still would be part of a system that isn’t for everyone knocking off another two sets from the five we have. 
 

Yes, the second task set is great. Comparing to 2021’s lone standout the second task is half the size though. It alone can’t really compete with last year’s trio of large new desirable playscale sets or the first three years of the reboot. So yeah going back to OP’s point while we do get five playscale sets which is the norm, they’re just not as interesting and enticing as previous years. It’s nice to see the new design team mopping up things we didn’t get like Gringotts and DH2 stuff likely to varying degrees of success but I generally think this year isn’t the most exciting and was dampened quite a bit by the sets that weren’t playscale and the playscale sets themselves being a mixed bag. Looking forward to seeing what they do once they’ve found their feet a bit more beyond getting DH some representation and starting a new DA system. 

[MaxHeadroom]

16 hours ago, krimimimi said:

So I guess the questions are, if some of you are unhappy with WWW or the new HE, did you not collect HP lego back in its original ten year heyday of four Hogwarts Castles and four Expresses and three Hagrid's Huts and two Knight Buses, so the present redundancy feels new to you? Is this your first evergreen theme? Or are you just as unhappy with the others when they re-visit sets? Is the progress in covering the HP theme too slow for you? Do others (realistically) do it better?

Look at the levels of improvement on previous HP remakes. The only Hagrid’s Hut that wasn’t a complete redesign from the previous version was 2010, and even then that set feels relatively different to me. 2004 is the only Hogwarts Express that doesn’t seem like a substantial upgrade, and notably aside from a casual Ron all the other figures were available in other sets for collectors who were into figures making it a relatively easy set to skip. Aside from HH2010 and HE2004, are there any Harry Potter remake sets which aren’t substantially upgraded from previous ones? Of course there have been remakes in the past but the builds themselves are almost always worthwhile with LEGO HP. Yes Star Wars has tons of lazy remakes sometimes with new figures thrown in to entice collectors but do we want LEGO HP to become LEGO Star Wars? 

[Ondra]

Im looking for microscale Hogwarts, promobricks show some knock-off, but that knockoff is around 6000 pieces according to internet.

So how lego will manage same look with 2260 pieces will be very interesting.

[BrickBob Studpants]

7 hours ago, chris6507 said:

What is it about the line up of minifigures that has everyone so excited? There's only like one new character whom to me is a bit "meh" and the rest are all characters we've had at least 3 times each before and I don't really remember any of them wearing anything particularly exciting during the battle. I was disappointed when I read the line-up, but maybe I'm missing something and maybe someone can explain the excitement so I can have something to be excited about other than Gringotts which is forever away! Lol.

Scabior is the clear highlight for me here. I like the costume he’s wearing, Nick Moran did a good job portraying him, he’s got a fair amount of screentime in both parts of DH, and he had a memorable death scene. So I’m very happy to have a minifig of his in this set 

Then we have the DH version of McGonagall, plus Molly and one of the statues, representing the piertotum locomotor scene, which is one of my favourite moments in the entire series. Another win in my book.

Another Bellatrix is also exciting, especially since we could get a printed skirt this time!

Voldy could theoretically come with a new facial expression (like an angry one) and a new Elder Wand, if we’re lucky.

Harry and Neville are most likely just repeats, but it’s still nice to have them.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Would a recolour of the boxer’s headpiece not be a good representation of Ron’s quidditch headgear? I’m surprised that we’ve never had it in any set yet…

[mark1991t]

16 minutes ago, TheInvisibleMan said:

Would a recolour of the boxer’s headpiece not be a good representation of Ron’s quidditch headgear? I’m surprised that we’ve never had it in any set yet…

That could work yes, but we than also need Halfblood Prince Quidditch torso's (actual game ánd try-outs are different), because the ones we currently have are based on the first movies.

Ron's only seen playing Quidditch in that movie.

I personally hope the Quidditch Trunck gives us one of those outfits.

Edited April 21, 2023 by mark1991t

[krimimimi]

@Slytherin Alumni, yes, that would be the latest yet. 

Couldn't agree more about the small sets. Where are they? We need a buildable giant (or Acromantula or ogre; stuff like the Grawp set) attacking a random small bit of castle / courtyard. They could have sold them bit by bit and if you collect them all you'd have a decent courtyard to show for it (which you could then proceed to destroy in the BoH).

They could alternate those with small segments / classrooms they really should have been giving us all along if they were going to go the modular route, instead of always making HP play sets so expensive. The Moment sets at least did provide a lot of detail to stick in MOCs without wasting too much, so at least there was that, but how expensive should a playscale Hogwarts classroom have to be?

As for the brooms, the RoR and Gryffindor Banner both used clips to hold the brooms in place on the build, something that would matter for each (in the first instance so you don't lose an important part of the story, in the second as it's its design philosophy), and I think the new brooms don't lend themselves to that as well as the thinner, less likely to fall apart old ones. @Clone OPatra, not being able to hold onto a new broomstick (or broom, whichever) shape wouldn't even be so noticeable as most of the team have bludgers or quaffels to swing so there's a "hands full" feeling to them.

@mark1991t I love your eye for detail. Holy cricket, as Hermione would say. 

Edited April 21, 2023 by krimimimi