Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[JimBaggins]

Interesting Brickset article on comparing the old and new minifigures: https://brickset.com/article/92327/the-fellowship-of-the-rings-minifigures-2012-vs-2023

[QuiggoldsPegLeg]

4 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

WBD is still doing so badly, they allegedly pushed back Shazam 2 and Aquaman 2 solely because they lacked the funding to advertise them  I seriously hope they manage to get their sh*t together before going back to ME because you can‘t cheapskate your way through that. Even Amazon realised that (even though they certainly saved a lot of money in the casting department).

Some people are already speculating that WB will change owners again pretty soon, which would be for the best.

Either way, ME is back in the public discourse, so this bodes well for more sets at least! 

Yeah, hopefully New Line Cinemas has some good people there, and enough creative control that everything isn’t completely dictated by the higher ups at WB (like Lucasfilm & Disney). Or yes, the company being sold would be best for everyone involved. 

[Khargeust]

36 minutes ago, JimBaggins said:

Interesting Brickset article on comparing the old and new minifigures: https://brickset.com/article/92327/the-fellowship-of-the-rings-minifigures-2012-vs-2023

Overall, I'm satisfied with the new figurines from the community. But some points could have been improved:

- GANDALF: needs a specific blue hat that leaves his long hair visible ;
- BOROMIR: needs more detailed arms and legs ;
- LEGOLAS: needs special hair instead of this new generic elven hairstyle. It would have been also great to have a new elven quiver piece that does not interfere with the hairstyle ;
- GIMLI: the color of the hair and the beard is too light and it would have been better to keep the 3D details of the ancient helmet.

Edited February 26, 2023 by Khargeust

[JimBaggins]

 

The differences between the minifigures are interesting, I prefer some aspects of the 2012 figs, and some of the improvements in the new fellowship. 

With the hobbits, it feels like the old torsos are overcomplicated, while the new ones are a bit oversimplified. I prefer the look of the old Frodo and Pippin torsos, and the new Sam and Merry ones, but they are overall very similar. I like the new dual molded hobbit feet. Merry and Frodo swapping hair is a bit strange, I think I’ll give them both the nougat hair, as it is more movie accurate. The new and old hobbit heads are both great, I’ll use each depending on the circumstance. I like how the new ones are more happy and goofy, while the old ones capture the actor’s likenesses a bit better. 

Gandalf is very similar, I prefer the old cape and head, but the torso and legs/dress will depend on the circumstance. I like his and gimli's new hair, although I with Gandalf had a new Hat x Hair mould. The new Aragorn and Sam have different outfits, so their use depends on the situation. I prefer the ranger Aragorn, although the council outfit is useful in Rivendell. Sam’s new outfit is useful for while in the shire, while his old outfit is good for his outfit further into the journey. I think the old Aragorn and Boromir heads capture the actors better, although the new Boromir might be useful if I want to switch his hair to the more accurate reddish brown. I’m unsure on which outfit is better, there are certain aspects of each design I prefer better, so I’ll wait to see it in person. I like the new Boromir shield, although the older feels more ‘Lego’ to me. 

I overall prefer the old Legolas, the new head and hair are terrible for Legolas. I’m not sure on outfit, but it fortunately looks like either legs can go with either torso, so you can mix and match to what turns out back. Hopefully I can someday get the dual molded olive green and dark brown arms from the cmf viking, they would look great. The new Gimli torso is great, I’ll have to see which helmet and beard is better. The old beard is a bit too long, and the new is a bit too short, along with the dark orange being a bit strange. 

The new Arwen and Elrond are nice, I'll probably put the old head and hair on the new dresses. Legolas's new hair will go to Haldir. 

The new weapon molds for Frodo, Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli are great. I’ll keep the other three hobbits with the dark pearl gray barrow shortswords, and Legolas with the two elven daggers. I made a custom staff for Gandalf with reddish brown 3957, minifig hand, and translucent gem. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by JimBaggins
further thoughts

[MAB]

I prefer the old in most cases. For me, the torso styles are different enough in style that they cannot be mixed and matched. 

[Arjo]

I have none of the OG sets/figures so just glad people like me have a shot at getting quite a few in one fell swoop. I am not in love with every single one of them, and yes this or that would make such and such character better but on the whole I like them very much.

I am working on putting together/getting my hands on bad guys in anticipation for whenever I get the Rivendell set (i.e. CMF orcs, ring wraiths recycling death eaters and thestrals though I "only" have 3 and probably won't go up to 9 because of cost... I should indeed probably stop spending money and save it for Rivendell instead if I don't want to wait forever before getting a copy... then again I love the nazguls :D).

[mtrsteve]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:34 AM, Arjo said:

To Zoth, I have watched the first two LOTR movies, third and last one today. I am also finishing the first book.

Not sure if I should move on to RoP or the Hobbit trilogy after that (yes I have read the many thoughts about each so brace myself for less though I am pretty easy).

Back to the set, what I like the most about it are all the angles/lines of sight offered by the overall architecture. I find it very immersive, and versatile with the sections that can be separated. This will make for very nice lego pictures, and story telling, as things are moved around, looked from one angle or another, adding (temporarily) a few bits here and there to enhance the experience of play/day-dreaming/picture taking. Whomever dabbles into stopmotion will also have a field day with this one.

There are some really well done fan edits that compress the hobbit down to like 4 hours total. It's a much better viewing experience tbh.

[JimBaggins]

52 minutes ago, Arjo said:

I am working on putting together/getting my hands on bad guys in anticipation for whenever I get the Rivendell set (i.e. CMF orcs, ring wraiths recycling death eaters and thestrals though I "only" have 3 and probably won't go up to 9 because of cost... I should indeed probably stop spending money and save it for Rivendell instead if I don't want to wait forever before getting a copy... then again I love the nazguls :D).

I always used darth maul with his head backwards as a third ringwraith when I was a kid. I want to make some more, but 5 should be enough since that's how many were at weathertop. 

[RafIsHere]

Hi everyone, one of my very few disappointments regard the 2 generic elves: too simple, no "elven-shaped" ornaments... Would I be missing a point so they are representing an outfit seen in the movie (definitive version or not)?

Thanks

(Considering the figs comparaison, not much to add, just can't see where they figure the colours for Legolas, especially dark green instead of dark brown)

Edited February 26, 2023 by RafIsHere

[Seaber]

I made a few rough edits using those brickset photos. I can only upload one at a time though 😁

Firstly, Legolas. I gave the old figure the new legs and the new one the old face to see if I plan to mix and match them. I like the blue on the 2012 undershirt, otherwise I think the new figure is better in all departments except the face. The belt almost lines up for the old figure though, so will be worth trying in person. 

I think the old face works well with the new hair and will be updating Elrond and Arwen to the old hair/head combo as they just look more Elven that way. For the other two Elves, perhaps the drunk butler from the Hobbit sets 🙂

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by Seaber

[BrickBob Studpants]

On 2/25/2023 at 3:33 PM, Khargeust said:

I must also admit that LEGO has a lot to do with my renewed interest in Tolkien's universe.

Yeah, that happened to me in 2011. I enjoyed the movies when they came out (only saw ROTK in theaters back in the day), but when rumours about LEGO sets started to surface, I went from „LOTR is kinda cool“ to „Wow, LOTR is the sh*t!!“ pretty much instantly  I‘ve been a huge fan ever since.

Kinda weird how our hobby can affect things like that

[Lordhelmet]

19 hours ago, Seaber said:

I made a few rough edits using those brickset photos. I can only upload one at a time though 😁

<snip>

Firstly, Legolas. I gave the old figure the new legs and the new one the old face to see if I plan to mix and match them. I like the blue on the 2012 undershirt, otherwise I think the new figure is better in all departments except the face. The belt almost lines up for the old figure though, so will be worth trying in person. 

I think the old face works well with the new hair and will be updating Elrond and Arwen to the old hair/head combo as they just look more Elven that way. For the other two Elves, perhaps the drunk butler from the Hobbit sets 🙂

 

I debated the Elrond/ Arwen (head and hair) changes but thought the cost wasn’t worth it ($30-$40) and I’m not touching my old versions.  I do like the Legolas hair change though and it is not as costly given all the Legolas’s options out there.  My only changes I plan on making are Legolas hair (maybe head too) and sams hair with an old hobbit version of bilbo one.  I like some of the new printing on the torsos, it feels less stylized than the old ones and more muted but still really good.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I would argue Legolas’ faceprint from The Hobbit sets was more accurate to the character than his LOTR faceprint, not counting the alternate angry face. I have multiple of that figure from The Hobbit since he came in three sets I believe (Mirkwood Spiders, Five Armies, polybag). I think I’ll be giving him that head. Come to think of it I’m pretty sure it’s the face they used for the Dimensions figure as well

Edited February 27, 2023 by Balrogofmorgoth

[kill will]

Wow, I really appreciate the new figs not having any flesh peeking through on the torso prints! I prefer yellow for overall consistency and if not for the dual molded hobbit legs it would be a pretty seamless switch. Even paired with fleshies the printed skin is usually way off in shade while limiting use of the broad range of flesh tones that exist. The original Aragorn is pretty bad in that regard but the Indiana Jones wave had some of the most egregious examples of this: 

 

[Ferder]

19 hours ago, Seaber said:

I made a few rough edits using those brickset photos. I can only upload one at a time though 😁

<snip>

 

I think the old face works well with the new hair

Looking at pictures of Legolas from the film, sometimes he has strands of hair over his shoulders and sometimes it's behind. In  nearly every case though it's always tucked behind his ears.  Even when it is over his shoulders, the strands are relatively thin. So for me the old hair looks much better for him. 

[Lion King]

Well I’m so late to the party. 

Anyways…. Rivendell set looks very nice! But $500? It’s beyond my purchasing limit. I kinda hope Lego would produce small / medium and affordable sets….

[Triceron]

I wonder what the liscence for LOTR entails for Lego.  Are they able to tap into the novels directly, or are they only limited to what we've seen in films?  Would be cool if they could make characters like Tom Bombadil or Glorfindel officially.

[QuiggoldsPegLeg]

3 hours ago, Ferder said:

Looking at pictures of Legolas from the film, sometimes he has strands of hair over his shoulders and sometimes it's behind. In  nearly every case though it's always tucked behind his ears.  Even when it is over his shoulders, the strands are relatively thin. So for me the old hair looks much better for him. 

Yeah I agree. Having the hair strands at the front is cool, but having his hair in front of his ears makes him look not like himself. I’m a little frustrated that I don’t have an old Legolas with which to switch the hair for. 

[zoth33]

1 hour ago, Triceron said:

I wonder what the liscence for LOTR entails for Lego.  Are they able to tap into the novels directly, or are they only limited to what we've seen in films?  Would be cool if they could make characters like Tom Bombadil or Glorfindel officially.

They most likely have only the rights to the movies both the Hobbit and LOTR.  I doubt they have any rights to books but I may be wrong.  

[kuzyabricks]

3 hours ago, QuiggoldsPegLeg said:

Yeah I agree. Having the hair strands at the front is cool, but having his hair in front of his ears makes him look not like himself. I’m a little frustrated that I don’t have an old Legolas with which to switch the hair for. 

Grab one while you can. You can still find good deals on those dimension packs atm. Grabbed a Gollum one myself for $9 as I stupidly sold my shelob gollum a few years back :(

[Mandalorianknight]

5 hours ago, Triceron said:

I wonder what the liscence for LOTR entails for Lego.  Are they able to tap into the novels directly, or are they only limited to what we've seen in films?  Would be cool if they could make characters like Tom Bombadil or Glorfindel officially.

Given how absolutely wild the rights are (From what I've read some are saying different companies have rights to different eras of the world, and neither have the rights to the silmarillion?), I'd be surprised if they've got anything more than the rights to the films and show.

51 minutes ago, kuzyabricks said:

Grab one while you can. You can still find good deals on those dimension packs atm. Grabbed a Gollum one myself for $9 as I stupidly sold my shelob gollum a few years back :(

I might do this. Ironically, I had the legolas pack at some point, but never had a set LOTR collection, so he disappeared into my parts bin and must have been sold at some point. I'll have to get him and Golumn while they remain cheap-ish.

[JimBaggins]

55 minutes ago, kuzyabricks said:

Grabbed a Gollum one myself for $9 as I stupidly sold my shelob gollum a few years back :(

That gollum is only $6-$9 on bricklink right now if you want both variations.

[MAB]

2 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I'd be surprised if they've got anything more than the rights to the films and show.

I'd be surprised if they have anything more than the deal with Warner, for the films only. There is no evidence of any Amazon related content coming from LEGO as yet.

[Lordhelmet]

I purchased some spare hair pieces (3 Legolas ones, and a Bilbo one for Sam). I also picked up three Legolas dimension heads, all of that was pretty cheap ($1.50 each for the Legolas hair, $1.25 for the Bilbo hair, and $.75 for the Legolas face) on brick link.  I had some other stuff I was ordering but those were my least favorite parts of the new set so I figured they would be an easy cheap fix.  

The Legolas hair piece was the part I wanted to change the most (especially after the pictures above- although I do like the new torso print).  I am fine with the Elrond and Arwen face/hair (I do think the older ones were better, but these new ones were fine to me).  Plus the cost of Elrond and Arwen parts are way higher, and I do not want to take apart my old ones as I only have one of each of them.

I am also going to swap out the new Legolas hair pieces with one of my old Haldir figures who I think the new hairstyle would look better on than the old Legolas one.

Excited to get the set on Sunday, hopefully they do not run out at my local store.

[kuzyabricks]

16 hours ago, JimBaggins said:

That gollum is only $6-$9 on bricklink right now if you want both variations.

Unfortunately I don't have PayPal so I can only get the listings that can be purchased with debit :(

16 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Given how absolutely wild the rights are (From what I've read some are saying different companies have rights to different eras of the world, and neither have the rights to the silmarillion?), I'd be surprised if they've got anything more than the rights to the films and show.

I might do this. Ironically, I had the legolas pack at some point, but never had a set LOTR collection, so he disappeared into my parts bin and must have been sold at some point. I'll have to get him and Golumn while they remain cheap-ish.

Gimli too! Saw some people selling all three under $40 sealed which is a decent deal