New Product! Collectors' Cards...
While in all honesty I can't say I've particularly taken notice of these things since I was kid (something I'll assume is down to growing out of the target audience's age range, as opposed to being a question of actual availability on the market), this is the first time I've seen them produced for Harry Potter legos. w00t. My interest, quite naturally, was piqued. The success of the particular line of toys notwithstanding (HP is consistently amongst lego's top five best sellers), it is something of a niche audience. (I feel seen. 😉) Oh, but apparently they're now without chewing gum? Not that the stuff was especially good, it truly wasn't, but it was the only sugared chewing gum we were permitted in our household, and (presumably for entirely sentimental reasons) I find myself now missing it. C'est la vie.
So in recent weeks I'd spotted some indications of this product in the pipeline, both pictures of packaging prints and of the final cards themselves, and some speculation ensued, shout out to erexen. ❤️
Initially it looked like it might be limited to Eastern Europe, but now I've seen a Spanish version as well as discovering them for sale (in German packaging) in a German (retailers' exclusive) online store (NOTE: some of the prices seem off there), both of which bode well for the cards to be dispersed at least a little wider. We shall see.
Most of the material was exceptionally thin (translators are not cheap - hey, they need to feed themselves, too - and AI isn't quite there yet, as you can see below), including the manufacturer's Facebook page.
The much cuter and more informative video is here. A lot more of the stickers are on display there. I do like the Slytherin section and an absolutely flabbergasted Snape confronting Seamus' lastest conflagration. I also noticed one picture of the Slytherin Dungeon with characters we haven't seen in minifig form before, and can't help wondering if they're a hint of things to come...
There was a bit more information to be found in the company's Polish advertising:
LEGO® Harry Potter. Welcome to Hogwarts collection!
Join Harry, Ron and Hermione on an exciting adventure at the famous school of magic. The unique LEGO® Harry Potter collection is the power [???] of stickers and cards that depict three years of learning at Hogwarts. As many as 225 stickers and 90 cards can be collected.
A passionate [???] story can be glued in the album, using 180 ordinary stickers and 45 special ones, which recall events and places such as the Flight to Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, the Chamber of Secrets or Quidditch.
Number of stickers in the collection: 225 including contour and holographic stickers
Number of cards in the collection: 90 including glossy cards
Album for collecting stickers with a toy - LEGO® Harry Potter set
Limited cards in products:
multipack and blister
5 stickers + 1 card in a sachet
The above was (mostly) autogenerated and lacking some of the usual marketing polish. Clearly.
I haven't encountered Blue Ocean Entertainment before (so that I noticed), but what you can see is that it's either the same creative team, or at least they're creating in the same style as the folks behind the Ameet books, which are exceedingly cute. Side note, there may be hope for some additional portrait material for our builds here. Worst case, there's always scanning and printing on sticker paper, because there's at least one page of portrait source material to be had here.
Frankly I can't make heads or tails of the sticker / card counts across the various sources, but then I also haven't much faith in them remaining constant if sales take off (that much I recall about these things, that and that you need an active community to trade to have a prayer at completion, rendering it a non-starter for me). My impression is there's a booklet to be filled with stickers, some of which are special holographic stickers. More importantly, there seems to be a starter pack (see below) that contains either 30392 Hermione's Study Desk polybag, or 30435 Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle polybag with Dumbledore, so it will be worthwhile to keep an eye on the pricing of those, especially if they get around to including 30651 Quidditch Practice, the polybag of Cho in her Ravenclaw Quidditch kit, something folks are likely to want multiples of.
Most of the stickers I've seen are from the trio's third year, and at first I assumed it was an error in translation. Sirius Black in Azkaban garb definitely puts in an appearance, as does Buckbeak, Hermione's pink hoody and the Time Turner, and the Monster Book of Monsters, so Prisoner of Azkaban is clearly represented. Draco and Harry playing Quidditch can be almost anything but the first or last three films (Harper replaced Draco on the team in Half-Blood Prince, and Harry had needled him: for money). I've since spotted a card with the Firsties' boat trip across the Black Lake, Hermione's first and second year hair, Crabbe and Goyle unconscious in a cupboard (roofie-ing your classmates is not cool, guys!), the Whomping Willow and Ford Anglia, and the spiders in the Forbidden Forest, so it seems Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets have contributed to the selection as well.
Bottom line, I'm not sure how I feel about the cards, but I loved the artwork, and presently there seems to be some new material here I haven't seen in the Ameet books. Then again, I don't have any from this year's collection yet, so it will be interesting to see if the cards do their own thing, or if they're sharing material.
So in recent weeks I'd spotted some indications of this product in the pipeline, both pictures of packaging prints and of the final cards themselves, and some speculation ensued, shout out to erexen. ❤️
Initially it looked like it might be limited to Eastern Europe, but now I've seen a Spanish version as well as discovering them for sale (in German packaging) in a German (retailers' exclusive) online store (NOTE: some of the prices seem off there), both of which bode well for the cards to be dispersed at least a little wider. We shall see.
Most of the material was exceptionally thin (translators are not cheap - hey, they need to feed themselves, too - and AI isn't quite there yet, as you can see below), including the manufacturer's Facebook page.
The much cuter and more informative video is here. A lot more of the stickers are on display there. I do like the Slytherin section and an absolutely flabbergasted Snape confronting Seamus' lastest conflagration. I also noticed one picture of the Slytherin Dungeon with characters we haven't seen in minifig form before, and can't help wondering if they're a hint of things to come...
There was a bit more information to be found in the company's Polish advertising:
LEGO® Harry Potter. Welcome to Hogwarts collection!
Join Harry, Ron and Hermione on an exciting adventure at the famous school of magic. The unique LEGO® Harry Potter collection is the power [???] of stickers and cards that depict three years of learning at Hogwarts. As many as 225 stickers and 90 cards can be collected.
A passionate [???] story can be glued in the album, using 180 ordinary stickers and 45 special ones, which recall events and places such as the Flight to Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, the Chamber of Secrets or Quidditch.
Number of stickers in the collection: 225 including contour and holographic stickers
Number of cards in the collection: 90 including glossy cards
Album for collecting stickers with a toy - LEGO® Harry Potter set
Limited cards in products:
multipack and blister
5 stickers + 1 card in a sachet
The above was (mostly) autogenerated and lacking some of the usual marketing polish. Clearly.
I haven't encountered Blue Ocean Entertainment before (so that I noticed), but what you can see is that it's either the same creative team, or at least they're creating in the same style as the folks behind the Ameet books, which are exceedingly cute. Side note, there may be hope for some additional portrait material for our builds here. Worst case, there's always scanning and printing on sticker paper, because there's at least one page of portrait source material to be had here.
Frankly I can't make heads or tails of the sticker / card counts across the various sources, but then I also haven't much faith in them remaining constant if sales take off (that much I recall about these things, that and that you need an active community to trade to have a prayer at completion, rendering it a non-starter for me). My impression is there's a booklet to be filled with stickers, some of which are special holographic stickers. More importantly, there seems to be a starter pack (see below) that contains either 30392 Hermione's Study Desk polybag, or 30435 Build Your Own Hogwarts Castle polybag with Dumbledore, so it will be worthwhile to keep an eye on the pricing of those, especially if they get around to including 30651 Quidditch Practice, the polybag of Cho in her Ravenclaw Quidditch kit, something folks are likely to want multiples of.
Most of the stickers I've seen are from the trio's third year, and at first I assumed it was an error in translation. Sirius Black in Azkaban garb definitely puts in an appearance, as does Buckbeak, Hermione's pink hoody and the Time Turner, and the Monster Book of Monsters, so Prisoner of Azkaban is clearly represented. Draco and Harry playing Quidditch can be almost anything but the first or last three films (Harper replaced Draco on the team in Half-Blood Prince, and Harry had needled him: for money). I've since spotted a card with the Firsties' boat trip across the Black Lake, Hermione's first and second year hair, Crabbe and Goyle unconscious in a cupboard (roofie-ing your classmates is not cool, guys!), the Whomping Willow and Ford Anglia, and the spiders in the Forbidden Forest, so it seems Philosopher's Stone and Chamber of Secrets have contributed to the selection as well.
Bottom line, I'm not sure how I feel about the cards, but I loved the artwork, and presently there seems to be some new material here I haven't seen in the Ameet books. Then again, I don't have any from this year's collection yet, so it will be interesting to see if the cards do their own thing, or if they're sharing material.