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Posted
5 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Just finished building the Balrog set and I have to say, to me it‘s one of those sets where pictures don‘t do it justice! Love it :wub: So surreal to finally have a minifig-scale Balrog!!

I feel the same way. I hope it sells really well and LEGO continues to support this theme. I would love a Dune book nook and it seems like a whole new market they can tap into where they wouldn't need to build massive playsets. 

Posted
On 6/5/2025 at 4:50 PM, BrickBob Studpants said:

Just finished building the Balrog set and I have to say, to me it‘s one of those sets where pictures don‘t do it justice! Love it :wub: So surreal to finally have a minifig-scale Balrog!!

Good to hear, planning on getting it soon and hoping for the same.

Posted

Yes, just finished building it yesterday and I love it. I’ve never built any of the mechs before but I think the balrog looks amazing. And compared to a minifigure that thing is huge, so they definitely do the scene justice and capture the scale of the Mines of Moria.

My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that Gandalf may have worked better with legs so that he could look up. But the figure is screen accurate and the printing is nice, so that’s if I was being very very picky…

More please (but a little less pricey maybe…)!

Posted
13 hours ago, TheInvisibleMan said:

My only complaint (if you can call it that) is that Gandalf may have worked better with legs so that he could look up. But the figure is screen accurate and the printing is nice, so that’s if I was being very very picky…

As he faces away from the viewer, you'd see the holes in Gandalf's legs.

Posted
On 6/12/2025 at 6:57 PM, kuzyabricks said:

So..... what are our realistic hopes for next year? I'm hoping for at least some more from this theme. Still not quite satisfied.

Gondor, been the hope for over a decade.  I’m a little concerned about the delay to the gollum movie for sets next year, but hoping the movie will get us a few playsets in 2027

Posted
On 6/13/2025 at 12:57 AM, kuzyabricks said:

So..... what are our realistic hopes for next year? I'm hoping for at least some more from this theme. Still not quite satisfied.

Hi guys,

Longtime lurker Here, finally joining the forum.

I’m hoping for a Gondor set as well, but maybe an Edoras or Helms Deep set is more likely. Considering the size and scale of a proper Minas Tirith.

if they do something Gondor related, I think a main gate / grond scene with a bit of wall and maybe a siege tower could be quite popular.

Or, wild idea: if the book nook thing sells well, they could maybe squeeze a witch king battle into that format? Replace the balrog with a fell beast, and throw in a snowmane and three minifigs (theoden, Eowyn and Merry)?

Posted
On 6/12/2025 at 3:57 PM, kuzyabricks said:

So..... what are our realistic hopes for next year? I'm hoping for at least some more from this theme. Still not quite satisfied.

I think Lego did not quite anticipate the demand and excitement around the theme when they 'gambled' with releasing Rivendell.

Posted
17 hours ago, BrixJazz said:

Or, wild idea: if the book nook thing sells well, they could maybe squeeze a witch king battle into that format? Replace the balrog with a fell beast, and throw in a snowmane and three minifigs (theoden, Eowyn and Merry)?

If they were doing a Witch King Battle set, I would hope the minifigure selection would include the Witch King. But I doubt the form works for that scene. Replace the Balrog with a bigger fell beast. Replace one figure with 3 or 4. Add a horse. Add some ground for the figures to be placed. It is soon bigger than the book nook.

Posted (edited)

Balin’s tomb in the mines of Moria would be more appropriate as a book-nook, as it’s an enclosed rectangular room with walls and collumns. 
 

The Door of Durin with the Watcher in the water would work well as a book-end too 

Edited by Bugbot20082
Posted
17 minutes ago, Bugbot20082 said:

Balin’s tomb in the mines of Moria would be more appropriate as a book-nook, as it’s an enclosed rectangular room with walls and collumns. 
 

The Door of Durin with the Watcher in the water would work well as a book-end too 

It is not a particularly interesting room though, just grey walls, a tomb and well. LEGO have shown that they want their book nooks to be interactive in that you can expand them by opening them so the Balrog scene is fine for me. Redoing Balin's tomb (from Mines of Moria) and repeating a couple of the Fellowship minifigures from Rivendell probably wouldn't sell well. Whereas the Balrog gives something new for everyone.

Posted

Well, I finally got around to building the Balrog set.

One of the most jarring features that I couldn't tell from any of the official images is that the Balrog's head is directly over Gandalf's head, so the scene looks very odd from the side.

I added some additional flames to either side as well as following 'rebelnili's' Balrog instructions which also includes extra fire and some colour swaps.

I build his sword as well, which I thought was a bit of a glaring omission and my favourite part of that scene is when it shatters on Gandalf's 'shield' and the Balrog is shocked.

I'm disappointed with how lose the shoulder connection is, I can't raise the arm very high without it just falling back down again.

FIBU8SS.jpg

Posted

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There it is! I like book nooks in general, but I always felt like this scene should have been a diorama.
Based on Rebelnili's design, I wanted to go a bit further in the "display piece" direction, so I modified some elements :

-  Went for a cliff aspect below the bridge (well at least I tried) rather than a brick wall

- Added some dwarven statues on both sides (those minifigs cost way more than I'm willing to admit)

- Changed the fire on the sides of the pillars to give some of sort of "gate of hell" feel behind the Balrog, if that makes sense

- Hid all the grey joints on the Balrog itself, mostly around the neck and the wrists

Overall I'm quite happy with it!

 

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