Dom Davis Working on it!  We definitely have some ideas in store for the floating candles. :-)

Matthew Burton Hi Matthew, thank you for your message and for your interest in our lights!  We're working on a new controller board for the castle that will bring some really cool new effects.  Because of this, it will take longer than the holiday season to produce the kit, so while we plan to open pre-orders before Christmas, we most likely will not be shipping kits before then.  Best guess would be to have an estimated shipping date in late January.  I know this may disappoint some, but trust us, once you see the effects in action (we're finalizing the setup now and will post a demo video in the next 4 weeks), you'll agree it was worth the wait.

Because we are still finalizing parts and configurations, the price has not been finalized at this time, but I will keep this post updated with the latest information when we have it.

Thank you again!

Michael Organiscak Hi, thanks for your patience!  We are developing a lot of new tech for this kit: a new remote control board with sound, and new tiny effects controllers for the flickering lanterns and randomly-turning-on-and-off tower lights.  We have also acquired music in the style of Harry Potter to include with the kit.  We don't have all of the circuit boards complete yet-- this is why we haven't posted more pictures or a video yet.  We are hoping to get our final estimates/quotes/designs by the end of this week, after which time we will be able to put up more details and officially launch the pre-orders by the end of this month.

We know it has been a long wait, but trust us-- we're taking the kit where no lighting kit has ever gone before!

Oh man, this will be another big kit I'll have to buy just because Rob has an amazing light kit for it.  I bought the Ghostbuster's Firehouse a few weeks ago, partially because it's a great set and mostly because it looks even better when it's lit up.  (Now I just need to figure out where to display it!)

We have a joke in our Lego train club that I'm putting Rob's kids through college by buying Brickstuff.  😁

Paul Chevallier Thanks for sharing the photo!  We're working to make tiny flickering lights for the four lanterns inside the main hall, and to also have brighter lights for when you want "daylight" in the hall or when you just want mood lighting.  😊

Hi everyone, and Happy New Year!  I wanted to post an update on our progress with the Hogwarts kit, as it has taken longer than we originally expected to develop.  Here's where we stand as of today:

• We've received one set of new effect controllers that are our tiniest ever.  These are a new design just for this kit, and will be used to provide individual realistic flickering flames for several parts of the castle: the main hall, exterior torches, and the interior fireplace.  We've created a new flicker effect just for this effect controller that will be subtle and "not too bright".  We've noticed some of the other kits on the market for this set, and the lights are way too bright in our opinion.  We want something more subtle and realistic-- and "warm".
• We will be including several effect controllers with a 4-light cycling effect for various windows throughout the castle.  This will give the effect of multiple rooms turning their interior lights on and off in a random sequence, making the castle look more "alive".  The coding for these controllers is complete, and I hope to be featuring a demo video of this amazing effect in January.
• For the main controller board, we're designing a completely new effect controller-- our largest and most feature-rich controller ever.  It's still in the design stage, but when complete it will drive the main effects in the castle and allow remote control using a new RF remote.  This is a major advance for us-- unlike our infrared remotes, these new RF remotes will have longer range, and they won't need "line of sight" to a receiver chip to operate (you can hide them inside the castle and still be able to control everything).  They also will be keyed to their specific receivers, so one remote won't interfere with another lighting setup.  It's a big step forward for us, which is another reason we wanted to design an entirely new board.  Here's a peek at the design prototype:

 It's not much to look at, but trust us-- there's a lot of power in that new design, and it will allow us to do things no other lighting kit has been able to do. 

i'm sharing all of this because I want you to know we are still working hard to design the best and most feature-rich kit you'll be able to buy for your castle!

I'll post another update when we have more details to share.  In the meantime, thank you or your continued support, and mostly, thank you for your patience in the development process of this amazing kit.

Daryl Tan great suggestions!  Yes, one of the design goals with the new RF remotes is to allow them to control the functions that for the Disney Castle you needed to access the physical effect board.  The goal is to have settings like pattern, speed, etc. of the colored lights be accessible from the remote, so you don't have to go digging around inside your Hogwarts! :-)

Chris Cooper Thank you for your kind words-- we're thrilled you like the Disney kit!  Happy new year to you as well!

Jason M Smith Hi Jason, thanks for the note, and for your interest in our products.  Yes, all of our light kits are designed assuming people have already built their LEGO sets, and the Hogwarts set will be the same.  Let your daughters start building so they can enjoy the experience-- Hogwarts is a spectacular kit!

Hello everyone!  here's a quick update on where we are at with designing the kit.  We decided to work with a new supplier to assemble some of the lights for us-- this will allow us to scale production more quickly, and hopefully reduce the wait times for kits to be delivered once pre-orders open.  This supplier is based in Germany and is a small family-owned business, which reflects our commitment to supporting small businesses and to avoid looking to China for more than we need to in terms of supply and production.  This continues to be one of the things that sets us apart from the other lighting vendors, and it's one of the aspects of this business that I'm most proud of.

The downside of this approach is that we can't and won't be able to make large volumes of kits as quickly as the Chinese lighting vendors, or even as quickly as the Australian vendors (who by the way also make all of their lights in China).

Here's where we are at: the German company is still working on estimates for us for assembly and supply.  Until we hear back from them, we won't be able to establish a price for the kit, and we also need to plan for the possibility that the German company won't be able to do the work for us, in which case we'll have to make some design changes to the kit in order for us to be able to make these parts in the USA.

I'm in weekly communication with them, so believe me when I say things are continually moving forward with this kit.  From your end I'm sure it seems like "what's up with these Brickstuff guys?  Why can't they just finish the kit?!" but this is still our highest-priority kit for 2019.  It will be our next big release, and I'll continue to keep everyone updated here on this forum in this topic.

Thank you again for your patience and for your willingness to support small business manufacturing!

Brant Hill Hi Brant, I just posted a long update right above your latest message-- that's the latest news.  Definitely still working on the kit!

Matt Riley Hi Matt!  Yes absolutely, you can add your e-mail address to our list here:

https://mailchi.mp/brickstuff/hogwarts