accio brick - the lego harry potter comm

Just in time for the new school year, lego has released the new D2C (direct to customer) Hogwarts Express, and it's a cracker. It's one of the last sets Marcos Bessa has designed for the theme (the other being the Harry Potter 2022 Advent Calendar), and the most expensive the line has ever seen. Technically it's also the widest / longest set in the theme, but as that's almost definitely a design choice driven in part by marketing, I'm somewhat cynically going to (mostly) overlook it. In a bit of a departure, it's only "sort of" minifig scale, which is to say the minifigs fit in there quite nicely, but with a good deal more room than we're (they're?) accustomed to. Aside from width, it's also a fair bit larger than the Hogwarts Expresses we're used to (boy is it ever!) and doesn't fit on the standard track pieces. In fact, that's enough of a design issue that the tracks for this massive display set are brick built.



Brickset has put the 2018 and 2022 sets side by side for comparison. Wow.

The engine, tender and one carriage stand in front of a section of Platform 9 and 3/4, with four scenes from different years / books / movies re-created throughout the model. There are four quotes to accompany those scenes, three light bricks to illuminate them (in a lego first) and a massive ticket for the Express.

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Bottom line: this is a beautiful set, if not for everyone, but that's alright; the price tag alone would have seen to that. It's not a bad thing to design for a more diverse set of customers, it can only strengthen the theme. If it's not the set you were hoping for, no worries, experiments like this only go to show they're very likely to get to it eventually. Anything is possible, just have some faith. Luckily for us, this is shaping up to be a marathon and not a sprint. All in all from this fan's perspective, a very welcome addition to the lego Harry Potter theme's product line. Well done! Keep up the good work.

After the success of last year's lego CON, it's back again, and you can watch live here later today. Like last summer's, it's a virtual, streamed 2 hour event starting in three hours - 5PM in London, 12PM New York, and 9AM Los Angeles.( Read more... )


Is it worth watching? Let's face it, we aren't the target audience.

Fair enough.

Additionally, at this point, the only sets they could reveal for the Harry Potter line are the D2C 500 EUR Hogwarts Express (for which it's a little early), the anticipated HP GWP we should be seeing in July, or the Advent Calendar (and there's no way they'd spoil that with kids watching). (BrickClickr assures us we won't be seeing an Accessory Pack this year, because apparently lego can't think of any reason someone might want a bunch of Death Eater bits and pieces to go with the Ministry of Magic set... 😋 Hmm.) So of those three, the only one likely to be presented is the GWP, and it isn't scheduled as far as anyone seems to know. (And if it is, I'll eventually find out and repost, so no worries.) I'd imagine we can expect to see the summer line shown as they go on sale in the US as of tomorrow, possibly with some commentary from designers, but the sets themselves aren't news to anyone who frequents this site or the lego S@H.

However! Instead of a reveal, they have indeed put together something cool for Potterheads. Two announcements have been made, firstly that we can expect a tour of the London HP studios, and secondly that they've invited Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) to put in an appearance, possibly in combination. (After "Neville's" oh so wonderfully funny appearance playing with the First Flying Lesson set last year, I'd like to see her, too. Unfortunately I have plans to grill today, and I can hardly tell our company they come in second to a video. Or can I? ... No, no that wouldn't go over well at all. Cursed social life! 😉)

Other than that, there are also a few bonus build instructions to be found for VIPs here. (Registering is free if you haven't already.) More codes will be shown during the CON if you're watching.

And finally there's more official promo material here if you're interested.

The first ever lego Con has been announced, scheduled for 26 June, a 90 minute live event starting at 5PM in London, 12PM New York, and 9AM Los Angeles. You can participate by clicking the link at that point in time, more (sketchy) details on what to expect beneath the fold.



(dodgy official advert / promo for the Con that makes me wonder if I'm truly going to "love it" 😆 or if I'm remotely the target audience...)


There are also a couple of new Advent Calendar pictures, here the box art:



and beneath the fold, a potential spoiler of how the game contained might be played:( Read more... )