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I was quite excited about this week considering the London Toy Fair 2025 is ongoing and there are always some very great news and spoilers coming from the exhibitors attending this event. For those who are not aware, London Toy Fair is a major trade event dedicated to toys, games, and hobbies and, not to forget, the largest event of this type in EU. Personally, I had my eyes on Ravensburger's stand as I was really hoping for some news and previews of the next Lorcana sets considering we haven't had any Lorecast recently. My expectations were fully met and largely exceeded by the impressive amount of images and information released during the event by the team.
First, Ravensburger announced a set of major news for the Villainous franchise coming in 2025 including a new board game, “Disney Villainous Unstoppable”. The game seems to share the same art style of other Villainous games but it will feature a shared gameplay board and a more fast-paced mechanic. Unstoppable will feature four of the most loved Disney villains (Hades, Ursula, Scar, and Maleficent) that will compete against each other and against any Disney Hero in order to be the first to fulfil their nefarious plan. While the aim seems similar to the original Villainous, the shared board will likely open the way to a new and interesting gameplay and we are looking forward to hear more about this game before it releases this summer.
As I was expecting, the next group of news from Ravensburger were all about Disney Lorcana starting with a lot of visuals of the upcoming, Archazia's Island. The upcoming 7th set will release on the 7th of March in all local shops and on the 21st of March for online distribution and will feature a new character original to Disney Lorcana universe, Archazia. The only hint we had so far about Archazia was an owl symbol spread on a few cards from the last sets and today we finally got a first picture of this tall and beautiful bird-like creature with glowing eyes. Among the glimmers dancing on the background of Archazia, we finally spotted one that clearly resembles a character the community has been waiting since The First Chapter: Mushu. Only time will tell if we are really going to see him finally.
Among the pictures revealed by Ravensburger we also saw the two new starter sets for this chapter, featuring Jafar and Jago (Amethyst/Steel) and Belle and the Beast (Ruby/Sapphire). The artwork for Jafar on the box of the Starter Deck show the Grand Vizier of Agrabah wearing the Hexwell Crown and this lead us straight into the next chapter of the story: Reign Of Jafar. The eighth set of Disney Lorcana will pre-release on the 30th of May with full release on the 6th of June and will feature “the greatest threat that Lorcana has faced”. From the description, it seems Jafar has taken over Archazia's Island and is "corrupting the beautiful haven into his menacing fortress". We all hope this will mean a new Illumineer Quest but we will likely need to wait a bit longer to find out what the 8th set of this game will bring us.
Last but not least, the team attending the London Toy Fair also provided a very first glimpse into the 9th set of Disney Lorcana that will release in the Q3 2025. The set will be called “Fables” and the cover artwork shows Mickey and Minnie Mouse on carousel horses with the tag line saying "Welcome to the Story." What makes the revealed artwork interesting is that both Mickey and Minnie seem to be taken directly from the classic short The Brave Little Tailor. “Mickey Mouse, Brave Little Taylor” is a central figure in Lorcana as it was the very first promo card revealed for Lorcana (and numbered as 1/P1). It was also on the first puzzle art card and it was featured on the golden card given to the winners of all regional challenges. Considering the timing, Fables will mark the beginning of the third year of Disney Lorcana and it is particularly exciting that it will feature such a central figure for the Trading Card Game released in August 2023.
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