Barnes and Noble Offering Monster Book of Monsters (30628) as Promo!

[gingerwitch]

The Monster Book of Monsters is finally putting in an appearance! With qualifying purchases of $75 or more, Barnes and Noble will include an MBM with your order. Set includes a Draco Malfoy minifigure. No word yet on if the MBM will be available in other countries or from other stores, either as a GWP or for purchase.

Hogwarts Moments Classroom Sets

[gingerbredrules]

Repost from gingerbred, 16 November 2020.

Lego has finally officially announced next year's new Harry Potter classroom sets, and they are much better than I was expecting. (Some squeeing may have taken place. Only to be expected really.) We're getting new Minerva, Filius, and Pomona minifigs. (Filius, in particular, is a real departure, representing the much older look actor Warwick Davis wore for the first two films and the first three video game adaptations of the series.) Strangely, Severus seems to have stayed much the same, with the exception of a new waistcoat with collar, but mysteriously sporting even fewer buttons than usual. 😐 (Pfft. They fundamentally fail to understand shippers.)

( Read more... )

They'll be available come January 2021 and retail for $29.99 in the US, 29.99 EUR in Germany, £27.99 in the UK.

Chamber of Secrets' Door

[gingerwitch]

A detail from blockwarts' Chamber of Secrets MOC, the sealed door to the Chamber itself. Looking at it makes me realise how dissatisfied I'll be with a sticker if lego ever releases a version of this set. I especially like how the Snakes intertwine. It's a very nice touch.

Aunt Marge Miscalculates

[gingerwitch]

Uncle Vernon's sister Marge (if possible, even less charming than her brother) visits the Dursley home during the Summer of 1993, between Harry's second and third years at Hogwarts. A few insults too many, she's considerate like that, and Harry (never the most even keeled of wizards) loses his temper and with an amusing bit of accidental wandless magic causes Aunt Marge to inflate and just... float away. Harry grabs his trunk and storms from the house while Vernon tries to hang on to his... flighty sister.



picture by BonkersBricks

4 Privet Drive 75968 and the Knight Bus 75957. Nice detail: the inclusion of Marge's English Bulldog Ripper. (Another good option would be the this guy.) In fact, the only thing missing from this vignette is Sirius Black in animagus form. (Suggestions for your own MOCs: the Grim, Alsatian)

BonkersBricks has made the plans for their clever MOC of Aunt Marge (shown above) available on Rebrickable, parts list included.

The Tasks...

[gingerwitch]

Instagram user AhoyBrickBoy has made a lovely digital render of his MOC of the tasks from Goblet of Fire.



A couple of nice details from task 2: the way the hair seems to "float" (excellent piece choices!) and the way the chains on Hermione and Ron are drawn taut. (I can't quite see how the latter was achieved, to the extent that I asked myself if it was "photographed" upside down. It might be the same mechanism that keeps Harry suspended, however, and simply not more visible from that angle. Either way, I like the result, as well as the idea that a digital set might not be subject to the same restrictions a physical one might. Why *not* display it upside down?) The blue branch pieces (plant leaves 4x3 medium azure) also work a lot better than I expected. (Live and learn, lol.) But if I should happen across a batch, I now see their usefulness... 😉

Not sure which modelling software he's using, but in a perfect world, the "sleeping" faces from the original second task set 4762 Rescue From the Merpeople lend it an extra something if you're trying to recreate it at home. Hermione's face appeared in two minifigs from a total of three sets in 2005 and 2007. Ron's face appeared on one minifig in the same three sets. Caveat: those figs' waking expressions were a bit of a letdown, and I much prefer the current series of minifigs (they've done some great work with them), but it was definitely good for this scene.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[gingerwitch]

In honour of the event, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington took the liberty of decorating one of the castle's roomier dungeons (some liberties may have been taken in the depiction) with black candles, which gave off an eerie bluish glow, and a haunting of black hangings to set the mood. He further hired a ghostly orchestra to play the musical saw for the festivities, and - not to be outdone - ordered a variety of food that had been tainted to make it stronger, increasing the likelihood his ghostly guests would be able to taste and thus partake of the meal. The repast included large, rotten fish on handsome silver platters, cakes burned charcoal-black and heaped on salvers, maggoty haggis, mouldy cheese, and, in pride of place, an enormous grey cake in the shape of a tombstone, which quite naturally displayed his name and date of death in tar-like frosting. As though there could have been any other choice... Pfft.

I figure this should suit both those pro- and con- marking the day, depending on which aspects you choose to focus on... 😐 Eurobrick's forum user Micmac created this cute MOC scene representing Nearly Headless Nick's 500th Death Day celebration feast. (I particularly like the ghost with the party hat and his MOC Bloody Baron. lol)

Happy Thanksgiving to those observing. 😊

Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests Announced

[gingerwitch]

Lego has finally released pictures of the assembled Hogwarts Crest, and it's a good deal more colourful than the individual House crests might have led one to believe.



Ta da! It's made from four of the Harry Potter Hogwarts Crests 31201 (US / DE / UK) sets put together. Alternatively, they can be displayed separately in a more subdued arrangement, like so...



The set will be available from 01 January 2021, and each module will retail for $119.99 / 119.99 EUR / £114.99 making the combined build a pretty serious investment. Out of my budget, for sure, but I do like what lego is doing with their art line. As with the other art sets, all four versions can be built from the same set.

Retiring Sets From the Current HP Series (2018 - present)

[gingerwitch]

Given the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales and Christmas shopping, this seems a useful list to cobble together. This is an attempt to list all the sets from the current series of Harry Potter lego, by year of release, with notes as to which sets are officially retired already or should retire soon, the books / movies they represent, and the minifigs included in the sets.

As for anything that hasn't been listed as "retired" or "retiring", I'd still prioritise buying the older sets off your wishlists first. Stonewars.de is the source for the information on which sets will be retiring soon or in 2021, as for the ones marked "RETIRING NOW" they are currentlydisappearing from lego stores around the world, and brickset lists them as no longer available in some countries' online lego stores. Don't panic, often you can find a recently retired set in toy stores near you, but if you want one, you need to act soon so you won't find yourself paying exorbitant prices on the resale market.

( Read more... )

The Advent Calendar!

[gingerbredrules]

Well, I'm not sure if LJ is going to straighten out the banning with regards to the comm. At the moment I might be the only one who can post here, which sort of defeats much of the point of making this a comm... (Issues...) Hopefully we can get this cleared up soon. 😊 (And if somebody would care to try posting, go right ahead. That should help answer if it's possible or not. (Just don't put a lot of effort into it, because I'm betting it fails. You can always delete the post if it doesn't.) ETA: MW was so kind as to test it, and it did in fact fail. 😕 (Please help us, LJ.))

In the meantime, I guess I'll just get started with the advent calendar... 🎄🎁



Goblet of Fire. Harry's, Hermione's and Ron's fourth year, students from rival schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive at the castle to compete in the Triwizard Challenge, taking place after a roughly two century long hiatus (for safety concerns) to help commemorate Hogwarts' 1000 year anniversary. The Yule Ball is the highlight of the festivities that year, a formal winter dance for all students fourth year and above.





Clock Tower 75948

The 2020 calendar 75981, centres on the Yule Ball and is a nice compliment to the Clock Tower 75948 set. (Worth noting, the calendar basically retires now. As with all the other advent calendars lego makes, if there are sets left over, obviously you can pick them up later and often cheaper, but no more are in production, so if you want it, get on it, or resign yourself to picking it up off ebay / bricklink / brickowl / etc. (You can sometimes get pretty good deals on auctions of used past years' sets.))



The pictures above is from the inside of the calendar. To play along at home, try to find the door you'd need to open in the picture. The pieces behind the doors are visible below, go ahead and take a guess what they'll build, and you can "unfold" parts of this post to see if you're right. (Note: the folds only work if you haven't clicked through to the post itself.)


Day 1



( Read more... )

Day 2



( Read more... )

Day 3



( Read more... )

Day 4



( Read more... )

Day 5



( Read more... )