LOTR & The Hobbit 2012

[Pumpkin Pie]

Are the sets Mirkwood spiders and Barrel Escape supposed to be from the second movie?

[Faefrost]

Edit: What will be interesting is how these things play out in the products for next year's Desolation of Smaug. Will we see Bridge Direct offer another version of Legolas and Tauriel in DoS packaging? Will Lego reprint Mirkwood and Barrels in DoS packaging? Or will these examples be the only available versions?

My prediction, they just keep those two sets available a little longer, with no change to the packaging. Increase the production run enough to insure stock for the next movie, and move on. Also the overall effect on them with those sets is probably minimal. Just as with Harry Potter, the primary buyers know quite a bit from the books. So the change in the movie doesn't mean they don't know about the scenes. Besides, these are the two sets with the ever popular elves. They could have printed "elf poop with Legolas minifig" on the box and they would sell.

That's a really interesting question. Has there ever been something like this occurring before with Lego?

It depends on what you mean? Changes to movies, or long lead time leading to differences between sets and actual movies? Sure, all the time. Just look at the Avengers sets. Notice how generic they were? Comprised only of stuff they were certain would be in the movies. And even then many details such as characters in scenes being off. Iron Man in the Loki Cube set? The big set was the Quinjet. Probably because Marvel didn't want the Helicarrier reveal spoiled too soon.

Lego like any retail product production company just rolls with it. By the time they even find out about the discrepancy they have long since moved on to the next two or three waves.

Are the sets Mirkwood spiders and Barrel Escape supposed to be from the second movie?

There were originally only supposed to be two movies. So the first movie was planned to end after Mirkwood, right after the Barrel escape. All of the footage for the entire story was filmed. At the last minute Peter Jackson decided he had enough footage and scenes for three movies instead of two. They only decided this two or three months ago. So now the first movie will end after the Misty Mountains instead. Which leaves Lego's two Mirkwood sets sort of orphaned until next December.

[Pumpkin Pie]

As far as I know, it has not. Lego's other license themes haven't had movies split like this. This caught at least Lego and Bridge Direct completely off-guard.

Now I digress, but this actually says something good about both their lead times. If you look at Sideshow Collectibles (who just announced their own Hobbit license a couple days ago) they have nothing ready or Gentle Giant (who has had the license since earlier this year) who only has one bust that was a SDCC exclusive out there. Weta and Noble Collection have a few Hobbit items out already. However Lego and Bridge Direct really have the most concise and expansive line of Hobbit products at the moment.

Actually, I think it has happened before . The Anakin's Jedi Starfighter from SW. I've posted the link to the two boxes below:

White box

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Lego-Star-Wars-7669-ANAKINS-JEDI-STARFIGHTER-NRFB-/08/!B6R18-Q!2k~$(KGrHqEOKiEEyV2hTMDRBMw3WgvB,Q~~_35.JPG

Vader box

http://theswca.com/duncan-images/1TOYS6/LEGO7669preview.JPG

Edited December 16, 2012 by Pumpkin Pie

[Durins Bane]

No details because most hadn't seen the movie when I posted that, and I was/am not giving anything away. I still say there is no excuse for not having the trolls.

[Brickadiergerard]

Quite right, Durins Bane, bizarre not to have had it in the opening sets in the range: iconic in the book, important in the film, would make a great set with loads of play options. Even when TLG were working on there being 2 films you'd think they would have picked the trolls over, say, a massive tree without an eagle. But, a bit like Eowyn and the Witch King on his fell beast, or Saruman, or Treebeard, surely it's too significant not to eventually end up as a set. After all, now we have spiders and barrels, two iconic sets for the parts of the book which will make up DoS have already been taken, which hopefully raises the chances of trolls being a retrospective in the next wave.

[Wolvarie]

Just went to my local Lego store and they were trying to flog the Attack of the Wargs for $107.99 AU. Going to have to wait until after Christmas to get my fix of LOTR and The Hobbit. Hope there is another wave of LOTR early in the new year.

Have to wait until the 26th of Dec to see the Hobbit here in Australia. What's the most times people have seen the film so far??

[Crownie]

As iconic as the Troll scene is to the story, I could never see it making it's way into a LEGO set. The three trolls are too similar in appearance to create entirely different figures - most likely they'd all have the same body with different heads. Can you imagine what the cost of something like that would be? Not only for LEGO, but for the consumer. I don't think most kids (or parents for that matter) would appreciate blowing their entire Christmas/Birthday/Gift fund on one medium LEGO set only to find it contained three nearly identical figures.

The other option would be to just have one Troll, but then that'd be weird too. I mean, where are the other ones? How can you only have one troll from a scene so heavily built on a trio?

It's a bit sad, but I'm not sure there's a way LEGO could win this one. It's probably best they left it alone; people would complain either way.

[Fives]

Maybe they'll make the Troll scene, with the cave a all, as a larger D2C set, which would give LEGO the ability to make three new Troll molds and the price still be reasonable. It could have the cave, some trees, the fire pit, and stuff like that, along with the three Trolls and maybe three or four figs.

[Infernum]

I agree with Crownie. It just isn't possible.

I saw The Hobbit last night and loved it! Too bad there wasn't a set with Radaghast and his rabit cart. Or a set with Azog. I don't think Yazneg's armor looks anything like it does in the movie. All the other sets are great though!

[just2good]

That's a really interesting question. Has there ever been something like this occurring before with Lego?

It has. Along with the Star Wars examples, the Toy Story boxes were reprinted in white with some new graphics in late 2010 to fit with Toy Story 3.

Personally, I think the boxes will be reprinted, and the sets will be re-introduced in December 2013 and advertised as part of the DoS line.

[HawkLord]

No details because most hadn't seen the movie when I posted that, and I was/am not giving anything away. I still say there is no excuse for not having the trolls.

The excuse would be size. Lego trolls are big and expensive - three in one set would get pricey. Plus, there's no play feature or much to that set, just three Trolls hanging out by a campfire? Maybe add in a tree or something? No where near enough there to warrant a set.

[jhc2nmfn]

^{The excuse would be size. Lego trolls are big and expensive - three in one set would get pricey. Plus, there's no play feature or much to that set, just three Trolls hanging out by a campfire? Maybe add in a tree or something? No where near enough there to warrant a set.}

^{I agree i dont see lego ever building a 3 troll set. Although it is a very cool part of the movie, there wouldnt be a cool lego building aspect to the molded trolls and the only point of buying the set would be the trolls.Although it would be awesome, i just dont see them doing it.}

^{Could we see radagast's hut as a potential set? it could be a cool set that coverts well to lego although its really not a huge part of the movie so its probably stretching it.}

^{after seeing the first glimpse of Erebor, how do you think TLG is going to tackle it? There has to be a set with smaug in it although i bet similiarly to Azog this set wont be released until he is officially revealed after the 2nd movie. Do we know who is playing Bard? He's one of my favorite characters from the books and i d definitely like to get a bard minifig. I guess he could be released in a "battle of 5 armies" set or city of dale or laketown set. '}

Edited December 16, 2012 by jhc2nmfn

[Legomaster34]

^*snip*

I agree; as cool as it would be, I doubt we'll get a set with the three Trolls.

I hope we get Radagast's hut as a set! Maybe have his rabbit sled too!

Edited December 16, 2012 by Legomaster34

[Faefrost]

I agree; as cool as it would be, I doubt we'll get a set with the three Trolls.

I hope we get Radagast's hut as a set! Maybe have his rabbit sled too!

Radagast and his bunny sled would make for a cool little low priced set, along the lines of Gandalf Arrives. The only downsides would be the possible need for 2 new molds. A hat/beard for Radagast (although you could probably get by with Bofur's hat in brown and Dwalin's beard in grey with some printing) and the Rabbits. I am not sure that the cutesy cuddly Friends Bunnies would do the trick. A simple sled of bars and skellies arms, and maybe an undead wraith to run away from?

The huge problem with the three trolls is the three large custom molded figs. They each eat up so much of a sets budget that there would be nothing left for actual Lego bricks. Maybe if they figure out a way to use the current cave troll mold, just with custom detailed printing for each? There is enough stuff in the scene to make some neat play set builds out of. The spit, rescuing the ponies, the treasure horde, etc But it just seems like it would be a huge and expensive set for a smaller scene?

Edited December 16, 2012 by Faefrost

[Rogue Angel]

How do you get the 20% off? Does it come up at the checkout? I couldn't find any note on the promotion.

I believe you enter TOY20OFF at checkout. You may need to pay with an Amazon credit card though.

[Durins Bane]

I still can't believe we are not getting the trolls

[Faefrost]

I still can't believe we are not getting the trolls

I'm actually quite astonished we got the Goblin King in that first wave. You have to figure there is a much longer development time on a custom molded figure like him, which means they were at best just working off of production and concept art. It is doubtful that any of the FX work would have been completed by the time they had to begin making him. Most of the stuff they made sets of were of things that they could predict with a reasonable degree of accuracy. Costumes were pretty much fixed long ago (although individual weapons and such possibly not. Notice some minor weapons discrepancies such as Bombur, plus the lack of Thorin's "Oaken Shield" which was a movie element that more or less came from Richard Armitage.) Certain types of sets could be easily predicted. Bag End was already a set they knew and could work off of. Goblin Town the obviously worked off the concept art and came reasonably close. Giant Spiders are Giant Spiders, no real risk there. But for the most part they opted for a lot of scenes that while iconic, did not require a lot of on screen specifics to be recognizeable, or had some very obvious elements that all knew would be there. (Golem's little punt, The mark on Bilbo's door, Web wrapped Dwarves and Burning Pine Cones, etc). There is just no way they would make a set based on three massive CGI Trolls requiring custom molds, sight unseen.

[Fives]

Just thought I'd say that's its been a year today since LEGO announced the LOTR and Hobbit themes.

[Mr_Malfoy]

Just thought I'd say that's its been a year today since LEGO announced the LOTR and Hobbit themes.

Really? Wow, a lot happens in one year. As for 2013, I'm most excited for The Council of Elrond and Battle at the Black Gate.

[Mahtion]

After seeing the movie I almost prefer a Hobbit version of Rivendell. It is vibrant and so many minifig possibilities are possible. Lots of Elven guards in armor, a couple Elven horsemen and then of course Elrond. They could even have done something for the White Council, a very iconic scene. It could be possible to have the Council of Elrond and a White Council set. I think minifigure wise White Council is great, we would get Saruman, Galadriel, new Elrond paint design and unfortunately another Gandalf.

Edited December 16, 2012 by Mahtion

[TheLegoDr]

I remember seeing the facebook post of the Frodo poster. Craziness that it happened a year ago.

I haven't seen the movie yet so I can't be upset about which sets were chosen, but I like how they turned out and how the figures look. Same goes for LOTR. I'm just glad they exist.

[HawkLord]

I still say there is no excuse for not having the trolls.

I still can't believe we are not getting the trolls

Are you upset because you miss your own kind? Quit "trolling" this thread with your complaints about trolls...

[Lyichir]

That's a really interesting question. Has there ever been something like this occurring before with Lego?

Actually, something similar has been done. One Bionicle set (8990 Fero & Skirmix) was released in the winter 2009 wave and was rereleased that summer in different packaging to tie in with the release of the movie Bionicle: The Legend Reborn. This rerelease wasn't just in a different box, but in fact had a slight variation in the set itself in that the common transparent fluorescent green eye pieces had been exchanged for the somewhat rarer transparent yellow.

Taking that into account, plus the fact that we'll be dealing with a hiatus between releases of a whole year instead of just half a year, I think it's not too unlikely that those sets will be rereleased with the new branding for the next movie.

[Haltiamieli]

Do we know who is playing Bard? He's one of my favorite characters from the books and i d definitely like to get a bard minifig. I guess he could be released in a "battle of 5 armies" set or city of dale or laketown set.

Goes a bit off topic, but Bard is played by Luke Evans and a picture has even been released of him in costume chatting with Legolas. That's from the third film.

[Deathleech]

No details because most hadn't seen the movie when I posted that, and I was/am not giving anything away. I still say there is no excuse for not having the trolls.

Fair enough, but you still could of said something along the lines of "the Warg Attack set wasn't near as good as it could of been due to the off representation of minifigures and structures", or "they could of picked better scenes to make into sets such as...". Even better you could of used spoiler tags and supported your claims. Instead you just made it sound like the whole wave was total crap which definitely isn't true.

As for the trolls, I think everyone else has pretty much hit the nail on the head. Three large, separate troll molds would easily put the set in the $50+ price range, and that's not including any other minifigures or brick built structures. Realistically we are looking at an $80 set with everything. That means it would of knocked An Unexpected Gathering out of this wave, and given the choice between a troll scene and Bag End, I am going to choose Bag End. Not only that though, like I said before we already have a cave troll from the Mines of Moria set and the Goblin King which both are somewhat similar big molded creatures (not exactly the same as the mountain trolls, but close enough). With both of these factors taken into consideration it makes sense from a business stand point for Lego not to release a troll scene. The same holds true for any possible sets, I am sure we won't be getting a Warg ambush set eitherfrom Two Towers nice since we just got Wargs in the Hobbit wave. There is just too much film content to cover in their waves, you can't expect Lego to hit every little scene their first go. They are going to obviously try and make the biggest, most iconic scenes first that are as much different from each other as possible, all the while having great playability and appeal to kids.