bec Thanks for the support! 

Kurt Stork Thank you Kurt for your enthusiasm and support.  We will have some big news to report very soon-- we're close to having our suppliers and final kit design complete.  It's taken MUCH longer than we anticipated, but hopefully everyone will agree the wait was worth it!

Hello everyone, and thank you all once again for your continued patience.  We will have some big news to report very soon, but in the meantime, I'm curious to see what types of color-changing lighting effects people would like to see included with the kit.  With out Disney Castle kit, we included 8 color-changing spotlights and had a basic color-cycling pattern.  With the Hogwarts kit, we will supply the same type of spotlights (which will be able to be distributed around the base, behind the castle, etc.), but we will have a new central controller with the ability to control more lights, and also a new type of remote control that will allow the adjustment of lighting patterns (speed, color, etc.) remotely.

What patterns of color-changing lights would people like to see included?  I won't promise we can include everything, but let me know what would be top of your list.

Thank you!

Paul Scofield Fantastic suggestions, Paul.  Let me test them out-- it should definitely be possible to have more than one pattern/option.

Liz Cox Hi Liz! We do have a UK distributor (www.sunnysavers.co.uk/brickstuff) and they will likely be carrying this kit once we have it available, but the challenge will be that we will be filling pre-orders directly with customers before having stock available for resellers. We're anticipating a large demand for this kit, so we're seeing how we could ramp up quickly, but if I had to estimate, I'd say we'd launch pre-orders in April with initial deliveries in early July, and then likely later in the Fall to have the kit available for resellers. That's just a guess however. Technically you should expect to pay the same VAT (~19%) regardless of whether you buy from our reseller or whether you buy from us and import. We're using DHL for large UK deliveries these days, and with them the VAT is much more predictable. We also have the option to collect the VAT from you before shipping and to pre-pay it, so in that case there shouldn't be any additional due at time of delivery.

As for how to keep curious little hands from attacking the Castle, I don't have any advice to offer there, sorry! :-)

HELLO EVERYONE!

Big things are (finally) happening here on the Hogwarts front.  We have FINISHED the lighting design and it is INCREDIBLE.  This has been such a long journey-- longer than I expected even with my usual "fudge" factor estimations.  When I first built the LEGO set at the end of October 2018, I was amazed by the detail and the size/scope of the model.  The microscale sizing provides so many play opportunities, and it allows so much detail to be packed into the set.  Of course this also presents unique challenges when doing lighting design: how do you light up tiny spaces without washing them out in light that's too bright?  How do you get lights into the tiny spaces to begin with?  Where can you put all the wires inside a microscale model?  And so on and so on-- I've had many sleepless nights thinking about these issues because I wanted to make our best kit yet, something unlike anything we've done before and something that resets the bar when it comes to LEGO lighting kits.

Finally, I think we're there.  The lights are installed into our test model, and I've started taking photos and videos so I can share with everyone what we've created.  You have all been so patient as we've hemmed and hawed over design and manufacturing-- this has definitely been one of the toughest lighting kits for us to source responsibly, and I'm proud that we've done it.  Unlike  all of the other LEGO lighting companies out there, none of the assembly work will be done in China.  If you've been a customer of ours for any length of time, you know how much it means to me that we do as much of the work in the USA as possible.  This makes our kits more expensive, so we know we need to work extra hard to design features and goodies you can't get anyplace else.

And so, after hundreds of hours of work and after developing completely new technology to control the lights and sounds in this beautiful kit, we plan to officially launch the pre-orders NEXT WEEK.  We anticipate delivery to take place in July, though if we can deliver earlier, we will.

If you have been reading this forum post and have not seen the mailing list we set up specially for the Hogwarts set, please take a minute to head over to the e-mail page and add yourself to the list:

https://mailchi.mp/brickstuff/hogwarts

Why add yourself to another e-mail list, even if we already have you in our system?  Because I want to reward those of you who have been following our progress and who have held off buying a lighting kit because you believed in what we could accomplish.  We will be developing a brand new website specifically for the Hogwarts kit, and I will be letting those on the e-mail list know before anyone else when the website is ready next week.  ALSO, for those with their e-mail addresses on the list before the website launches, we will be sending you a special coupon code you can use to get an earlybird price discount on the light and sound kit.  This special offer will only be extended to people who have their e-mails on the list before the site launches, so make sure you get yours on the list by early next week!

We're also cooking up some special add-ons for the first group of people who pre-order the kit, so once the pre-orders launch, make sure to get your order in as soon as possible.  The first batch will be limited to just 50 kits.  If there's a Harry Potter fan in your life, make sure to tell them about our plans, and make sure they get their e-mail on the list!

Thank you again for your patience, your ideas, and for your support.  We literally could not do any of the things we do without you.  Once you see everything we have created for you, I hope you will agree that it was worth the wait!

Brad Johnston Paul Chevallier Matt Riley Sorry for the confusion!  You guys are quick-- you beat me to the punch on the updates.  Busy morning for us today, but to quickly answer on the power options: we will contact you when your kit is ready and ask which power option you'd like for the accessory kit.  Also Matt Riley yes, absolutely we will send updates about what both power options look like in more detail, so you can make an informed decision.

Hopefully this helps answer the concerns-- if not let me know, and a big THANK YOU to those who have already placed their orders today.  All of you are definitely in the first group of 50 kits!  I really appreciate your support.

To the others on the Forum who are reading this and wondering "what are these guys talking about?", that's the update I was planning to post later today.  WE LAUNCHED the pre-orders this morning, so you can surf on over to www.lightmycastle.com and check out our Hogwarts light + sound kit and learn about all of the available options.

MUCH more information will be coming on the forum soon, but today we just wanted to get the site up so people could see the kit and start to place their pre-orders.

Let us know what you think!  We hope you love the kit as much as we loved designing it for you.

Ryan Orr Freakmaster You're all still in the first batch :-)  I'll update here once the first batch has sold out.

THANK YOU ALL!!

Lewis Thank you for your kind words about the kit-- we're glad you like it.  And the suggestions about the video are also very good-- I'll upload them to YT today and post alternate links on the lightmycastle site in case people are having trouble viewing.

Andreas Berger Wow, thank you for the wonderful order today-- your house will be lit up very brightly! :-)

Lewis Hi Lewis, ok the videos should be linked from the main product page (https://www.lightmycastle.com/product-intro.html).  I put links above each video in case you have trouble viewing-- click the link and you can see it on YouTube.  Hopefully this is a better experience!