Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[MAB]

13 hours ago, chris6507 said:

Does anyone else feel aprehensive at all about spending so much money on Minis Tirith as a nearly completely white set?.....

No, but then I display sets in a room that doesn't get intense direct sunlight (north facing in northern hemisphere, and away from windows) so I don't really have that problem. My Saturn V and Steamboat Willie for example are still nice and white, and my castles are still pretty decent LBG not yellowed. I saw a Steamboat Willie for sale a few months ago, and it was horribly yellowed on one side. No doubt it had been left on a window sill, but it shows even here we get enough sunshine to sun damage bricks quickly if they are not properly cared for.

Edited March 16 by MAB

[hikouki]

On 3/15/2026 at 1:47 PM, chris6507 said:

Does anyone else feel aprehensive at all about spending so much money on Minis Tirith as a nearly completely white set? I've wanted this set for over 10 years now. But now i'm getting worried. I bought the Star Wars republic Gunship in round 2012 (which is mostly white) and while that used to be my favourite set, it's near completely yellowed (this set never, ever even got sunlight and lived in a mostly dark room) to the point I can't even look at it anymore.

Combine this with the fact that i've been rebuilding sets i've built and taken apart over the last 10 years and have been finding the last decade of LEGO bricks has very short lasting clutch power that rebuilding the LEGO treehouse the other day, pieces were literally falling off each other while I was trying to build.

Not sure if this is just my experience, but just wondering if other people have had these same experiences and whether the yellowing and brick quality affects your desire to purchase this set? I really want it, but hoping some other peoples thoughts might help me to feel more confident in either my decision to purchase or not to purchase when it's released!

Cheers! 

I do wonder if there is such a display case that can protect it against enough light so as to slow the discoloration process?

[Virginia_Bricks]

15 hours ago, hikouki said:

I do wonder if there is such a display case that can protect it against enough light so as to slow the discoloration process?

UV glass is expensive, but it does the job and what museums use on artwork. I don't think any of the acrylic cases would help the same way unless they have built in UV protection.

[MAB]

17 hours ago, Virginia_Bricks said:

UV glass is expensive, but it does the job and what museums use on artwork. I don't think any of the acrylic cases would help the same way unless they have built in UV protection.

You can also get UV film to put on windows. It depends on the window size, but that can often be cheaper than a bespoke UV filter acrylic case.

[Roebuck]

I do not know anything about the science behind yellowing, but my guess is that it's affected on where you live in the world in addition to how much sunlight the parts are exposed to.
It also seems that some batches of plastic is worse than others and colors like white, blue and light grey seems most problematic. I have a white horse I got from a flea-market lot, that one of the sides are extremely yellowed on one part, but the other side and the head parts is white. If it only was the sun that was the problem at least half the head should be affected in addition to inside of the legs on the other side.. 

[Altair1]

On 3/15/2026 at 9:47 PM, chris6507 said:

Does anyone else feel aprehensive at all about spending so much money on Minis Tirith as a nearly completely white set?

Not at all. I have various white sets on display and none of them has yellowed at all, even after 10 or 15 years. I always make sure that they are not exposed to direct sunlight. 

 

On 3/15/2026 at 9:47 PM, chris6507 said:

Combine this with the fact that i've been rebuilding sets i've built and taken apart over the last 10 years and have been finding the last decade of LEGO bricks has very short lasting clutch power that rebuilding the LEGO treehouse the other day, pieces were literally falling off each other while I was trying to build.

I do not have this problem as I never take sets apart after building them. I bought a big house especially to have all the space that I need to display my sets indefinitely.

[Virginia_Bricks]

11 hours ago, Roebuck said:

I do not know anything about the science behind yellowing, but my guess is that it's affected on where you live in the world in addition to how much sunlight the parts are exposed to.
It also seems that some batches of plastic is worse than others and colors like white, blue and light grey seems most problematic. I have a white horse I got from a flea-market lot, that one of the sides are extremely yellowed on one part, but the other side and the head parts is white. If it only was the sun that was the problem at least half the head should be affected in addition to inside of the legs on the other side.. 

It comes down to the breakdown of flame retardants used in plastic. ABS plastic (what Lego uses) uses brominated plastric retardents so what you are seeing in the yellowing is the bromine. Clearly the lighter the color used, the more obvious the bromine becomes. But effectively the same reaction happens in black bricks as white bricks, you just can't see it in black because the dye is stronger. The reaction occurs most commonly from UV light and heat.

Where you live in the world greatly impacts this because UV light is the strongest around the equator and weakens as you head north or south. Also depends on where windows are in the room Lego exists because UV light is strongest during the middle of the day.

[MKJoshA]

I've heard lots of talk about UV light being the cause. But I've bags of loose brick yellow while sitting in a box in my basement. They weren't yellowed when I stored them, but when I pulled them out they were yellowed. Riddle me this, how is that possible?

[MAB]

2 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

I've heard lots of talk about UV light being the cause. But I've bags of loose brick yellow while sitting in a box in my basement. They weren't yellowed when I stored them, but when I pulled them out they were yellowed. Riddle me this, how is that possible?

It is a slow process that is sped up rather than caused by UV.

[SpacePolice89]

2 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

I've heard lots of talk about UV light being the cause. But I've bags of loose brick yellow while sitting in a box in my basement. They weren't yellowed when I stored them, but when I pulled them out they were yellowed. Riddle me this, how is that possible?

And not all bricks are the same. I have bricks from the 70s and early 80s that are perfect and white while others have yellowed quickly (mostly because of exposure to light). I had the Legends version of the USS Constellation in a window for several years and some of the gray pieces were yellowed and others were not yellowed at all. The pieces were next to each other and faced against the window. It must be down to the material and color ingredients that are used.

[RichardGoring]

I'm doing Rebelnini's lusher trees addition for Rivendell and half-way through the council tree. The smaller trees look so much better and the council tree is great too.

I was fortunate enough to find the three leaf stem 37695 in the Pick a Brick wall of a LEGO store and got a box full, which will mean full steam ahead on the lusher trees for both The Shire and the Sméagol and Déagol GWP (which require nearly 500 of them together, which would cost $60 through the LEGO website), so I will do the same for those when I build them. I was putting them off as the trees look so bad in the original set and the lusher trees addition make it decent. Not sure if I'll do the other extensions or not though.

[BrickBob Studpants]

The Gondor soldier has leaked, plus the Palantir print!  The finalised helmet looks awesome!

[zoth33]

3 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

The Gondor soldier has leaked, plus the Palantir print!  The finalised helmet looks awesome!

I'll take your word for it as I can't find it anywhere.  

[zoth33]

Found the leak.   The fig looks great and so does Aragorn.  

[McMurder_them_softly]

Can't wait for Minas Tirith. I had my doubts but the set looks amazing. Only second best to Rivendell for me (which I am mid-way building).