As you probably already know, the Harry Potter saga is returning to the screen soon in the form of a series directly adapted from the books and produced by HBO. We suspected that LEGO would be involved, releasing a large number of merchandise products to accompany the series, and this is now officially confirmed.

A short teaser shown during the Back to Hogwarts Showcase 2026 live event reveals three of the minifigures that will be included in the upcoming sets based on the series: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger:

Below is the teaser in question:

LEGO took advantage of the Pokémon XP event, which took place in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Pokémon World Championships, to do a little teasing about the new products that will expand the SMART Play range under Pokémon license in 2027, which already includes a dozen boxes.

For now, we have to make do with the visuals below, and we can guess that Charbambin (Chararcadet), Ouistempo (Grookey), Férosinge (Mankey), Pichu and Goélise (Wingull) will join the various Pokémon already available.

These creatures will obviously not be sold individually, so we must now wait for an official announcement of the sets concerned and their pricing positioning to estimate the cost of adding these five new Pokémon to the existing collection which currently requires spending more than €650 to collect all the boxes.

LEGO and Mattel have logically chosen Gamescom 2026, currently taking place in Cologne, Germany, to make their back-to-school announcements, and each is showcasing what they have to offer based on the licenses they have an agreement with.

LEGO is obviously overshadowing everything else today with the announcement of minifigures coming to the Super Mario universe, a major event for many teenage and adult fans who had never really warmed to what LEGO and Nintendo had offered until now. The interactive minifigure ecosystem, with its numerous expansions launched in 2020, has undoubtedly found its audience among younger players over time, but it lacked what truly sets LEGO apart from all its serious competitors: minifigures.

Mattel is also taking advantage of Gamescom's media exposure to present its two flagship new releases for the fall to the general public: the Halo-licensed Warthog and the Microsoft-licensed Xbox. These two products have been known for a few days now, so the element of surprise is gone, but this presentation will still benefit from the event's extensive media coverage. Mattel also leverages the Masters of the Universe and Hot Wheels licenses; some of the products from these ongoing partnerships can be found at the manufacturer's booth, such as the Skeletor bust, the Castle of Shadows, and several Mattel Brick Shop vehicles.

Unlike other competitors of LEGO, Mattel has chosen not to compete in the field of figurines that would more or less convincingly imitate the reference minifig and the manufacturer offers some nanofigs which are rather decent but far from competing with the classic minifig.

The few attempts seen from other manufacturers are all disappointing; LEGO maintains its grip on this format, which is a powerful asset when it comes to properly handling a license. The simple announcement of the arrival of a handful of Super Mario minifigures on store shelves, all packaged together with a few bricks, is proof enough. The inclusion of karts in some of these new sets, expected on shelves from January 1st, 2027, is, in my opinion, convincing and justified, but the rest of the announced playsets seem more like a pretext for selling minifigures than anything else. Nobody will be "playing" with Mario at the beach.

The minifigure remains a powerful marketing asset for LEGO, and the manufacturer jealously guards this format it created. Many manufacturers regularly try to reinvent this format while respecting the rules, while others, less scrupulous, copy the format endlessly, filling the frames of many fans who buy these copies out of desperation while waiting for something better and more official.

LEGO is obviously still a manufacturer of construction toys, but it rarely forgoes adding minifigures, which will undoubtedly boost sales of certain products that might struggle to exist without them. It's easy to imagine that many adult fans of the Super Mario franchise had stopped paying much attention to what LEGO had been offering in this universe, and that today's announcement shines a bright spotlight on the range's potential.

The minifig invented by LEGO is a powerful lever that anyone who would like to challenge the manufacturer on this ground will never legally have, so today's announcement, which is based solely on the arrival of minifigs in a range that did not previously offer them, is enough to make it a notable event that will fuel discussions.

( Photos: Smart&Com )

The big day eagerly awaited by many fans has finally arrived: LEGO unveils a batch of sets scheduled for January 1, 2027 in the Super Mario range with a different approach to what the partnership between LEGO and Nintendo had offered so far: Here we get a large handful of minifigs of the different characters of the franchise.

Gone is the pseudo-interactivity of the range, with its cubic figures marketed since 2020 that emitted a few sounds and light sequences. It's back to basics and what generally makes licensed LEGO products successful. The manufacturer, of course, presents all this with a very theoretical play potential, with sets that should allow for some fun, but we all know here that collectors are already preparing their frames to display these new minifigures.

Below is the list of those that will be available from January 1, 2027:

Iceflake Studios and Paradox Interactive today unveiled an officially licensed LEGO video game, LEGO Skylines , set to be released in 2027. As you might have guessed, it's a LEGO-themed adaptation of the popular city-building game Cities: Skylines.

From what we can see of the game in the trailer below, it's visually very polished. It remains to be seen how the building mechanics and user interface will perform in this adaptation, which is a bit less serious than Cities: Skylines and will also need to appeal to younger players.

The game will be available on PC via STEAM, on XBOX Series X|S, on PS5 and on Nintendo Switch 2. No precise release date yet.