Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[Mandalorianknight]

3 hours ago, hikouki said:

As for LOTR, they're probably banking on the fact that Amazon Prime has released that new series.

I would make a joke here about the series, but it at least made people remember LOTR is a thing that exists. Focusing on the LOTR films, as well as how at least half the IJ wave is based on the pre-existing films, seems to be sort of a safer bet. Even if the show/movie is bad, people'll remember the original ones.

[Gorilla94]

5 hours ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Honestly the Gunship is a fantastic set, I genuinely have idea why people hate it. I in no way endorse the MandR crowd of demanding certain things from lego, and I couldn’t care less about minifigures in UCS sets, they’re simply an added bonus and nowhere near the purpose of the set. Cody would have made no sense in that set anyway. But the set itself is artfully designed and looks superb, especially in person. I’ll never know why people don’t like it

I am sorry, but what is a MandR? I don´t demand anything. I just don´t buy things I don´t care about or even dislike. My whole point was: Microscale Rivendell with golden minifigures would probably be the least successfull - and so least likely - set Lego could come up with. Not because I would dislike it, but because it is absurdly niche in it´s target group. If they don´t want to get the "it has pretty minifigures of the whole fellowship you can use for display, mocs and stop motion" argument for the set (and let´s be real: it is a bonus, but a very, very strong one for most customers) they would choose a more iconic/popular setting, that is also working much better in microscale, if it really needs to be microscale (which already is limiting the number of people interested in it drastically). So I doubt it will be microscale strongly and I would bet all my money, that even if it is, there will be normal figures included. That´s all.

I never said a word about Cody? Well, I guess not? Why should he? It is a Episode 2 anniversary set.

I´d have made the UCS Gunship a 199,99€ Minifigure scale set with the most accurate details possible, nicely hidden mechanics and a bunch of cool figures (for example the one jedi with horns and black hair, who was in the arena and who´s figure is super expensive now). There is also no reason to think anyone who bought the UCS Gunship we got, would not have bought a minifig scale version, that pretty much any fan of the ship would have loved.

Well, I never wrote the final model was ugly. I´d say it is an extremely niche product with an unnecessary limited target group. That overblown scale makes the set much more expensive excluding lots of people. It makes it completely wothless for play as well as stop motion videos with minifigs. You can´t put a pilot in the cockpit so even the use for pure display is higly limited. The scale is an objectively bad decision because it makes the set irrelevant to most potential buyers without getting any target group more interested in it than they would be anyways. The only reason I could come up with for the gunship to use that higher scale would be a higher possible level of detail. To be honest I can´t see that in the final build. This level of detail should have been possible pretty much in minifig scale, too. And the thing is: Who cares so extremely about even the most minor detail does most likely not buy Lego anyways. He buys for example a resin model. Rating the final product  is mostly subjective, of course. But what I can say for sure is that nobody from the target group (no children) of this set likes stickers. At best they don´t care ... and will likely later get angry, when they crumble off in a few years. For a very, very limited audience it is a fantastic set. That´s why a few bought it even day one, while it doesn´t sell well in general. More power to you, if you enjoy it. I am unironically happy for you.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Gorilla94

[RichardGoring]

31 minutes ago, Gorilla94 said:

I am sorry, but what is a MandR? I don´t demand anything. I just don´t buy things I don´t care about or even dislike.

MandRproductions is a YouTube channel run by an American LEGO Star Wars fan called Ryan. He's one of the most (the most?) popular/viewed LEGO Star Wars channels and produces quite a lot of opinion pieces to camera and set reviews. Been doing it for a decade. He's in his early 20s and opinionated. Not necessarily bad opinions, but often comes across as very entitled, so he's either a hero, championing the cause, or annoying and whiney, depending on who you are - and sometimes he's both at the same time. Anyway, when the fan vote to choose the UCS set was launched, he encouraged his many viewers to vote for the Gunship, and so, in some ways, claims that he managed to get that chosen. And has talked a lot about the lack of minifigures in that set.

So, largely, you can ignore the specifics, but the point was probably about the fanaticism and zeal that some corners of the LEGO Star Wars community have about LEGO Star Wars, and that, sometimes, it can go a bit too far - at least for most. Probably.

--

I wonder if the success of Hogwarts at microscale would inspire them to try for something similar with LOTR. A somewhat sprawling and impressive model that could also look good just generically as an amazing semi-fantasy mountain/woodland settlement.

Or whether they have sight of the next season of Rings of Power, as there is speculation that Rivendell will be in a future season, and would likely be a major location and they want to fit as much in as possible?

I still think they could do something awesome with minifigure scale versions of a few main locations loosely tied together to make it feel cohesive.

[MAB]

On 12/18/2022 at 5:23 AM, Mandalorianknight said:

Between that set, the vidyo failure, and all the other poorly selling sets, lego really needs to take another look at what they're producing. I can forgive eternals because marvel had no way of knowing the film would be as bad as it was and banking on the MCU making money typically works, but stuff like the recent marvel D2Cs, Camp Nou, and-did people say the avatar sets were doing poorly? I think I heard that, though I don't know for sure- feel like they could have thought them through more. Stuff like avatar or the general concept of vidiyo is alright, even if they should have tested the waters before releasing so many sets, but stuff like queer eye and the BP bust are just... what were they thinking? Whoever's deciding what sets are made right now needs to either be replaced or severely change course.

 

There is a danger in that line of thinking. LotR and Hobbit sets sold poorly, if you use the discounts offered as a way of judging how well a theme sold. The last wave of The Hobbit, I got 50% of most sets and slightly more on The Battle of Five Armies. 

[Ravenclaw62442]

13 hours ago, hikouki said:

As for LOTR, they're probably banking on the fact that Amazon Prime has released that new series.

It’s just a pity it’s awful.

 

The BP bust though… I don’t know how anybody thought a €350 bust would be a good idea! 

[Balrogofmorgoth]

10 hours ago, Gorilla94 said:

I am sorry, but what is a MandR? I don´t demand anything. I just don´t buy things I don´t care about or even dislike. My whole point was: Microscale Rivendell with golden minifigures would probably be the least successfull - and so least likely - set Lego could come up with. Not because I would dislike it, but because it is absurdly niche in it´s target group. If they don´t want to get the "it has pretty minifigures of the whole fellowship you can use for display, mocs and stop motion" argument for the set (and let´s be real: it is a bonus, but a very, very strong one for most customers) they would choose a more iconic/popular setting, that is also working much better in microscale, if it really needs to be microscale (which already is limiting the number of people interested in it drastically). So I doubt it will be microscale strongly and I would bet all my money, that even if it is, there will be normal figures included. That´s all.

I never said a word about Cody? Well, I guess not? Why should he? It is a Episode 2 anniversary set.

I´d have made the UCS Gunship a 199,99€ Minifigure scale set with the most accurate details possible, nicely hidden mechanics and a bunch of cool figures (for example the one jedi with horns and black hair, who was in the arena and who´s figure is super expensive now). There is also no reason to think anyone who bought the UCS Gunship we got, would not have bought a minifig scale version, that pretty much any fan of the ship would have loved.

Well, I never wrote the final model was ugly. I´d say it is an extremely niche product with an unnecessary limited target group. That overblown scale makes the set much more expensive excluding lots of people. It makes it completely wothless for play as well as stop motion videos with minifigs. You can´t put a pilot in the cockpit so even the use for pure display is higly limited. The scale is an objectively bad decision because it makes the set irrelevant to most potential buyers without getting any target group more interested in it than they would be anyways. The only reason I could come up with for the gunship to use that higher scale would be a higher possible level of detail. To be honest I can´t see that in the final build. This level of detail should have been possible pretty much in minifig scale, too. And the thing is: Who cares so extremely about even the most minor detail does most likely not buy Lego anyways. He buys for example a resin model. Rating the final product  is mostly subjective, of course. But what I can say for sure is that nobody from the target group (no children) of this set likes stickers. At best they don´t care ... and will likely later get angry, when they crumble off in a few years. For a very, very limited audience it is a fantastic set. That´s why a few bought it even day one, while it doesn´t sell well in general. More power to you, if you enjoy it. I am unironically happy for you.

No no no I’m not trying to say anything about you here, apologies if it came across that way. I was just trying to communicate that I really like the Gunship without people thinking I’m in the crowd of people who moaned and whined about it not including a Cody figure or who demanded everyone vote for it from the beginning. Wasn’t trying to insinuate anything about you here at all. I only replied to your comment because it’s the one that mentioned the Gunship

[natesroom]

8 hours ago, MAB said:

There is a danger in that line of thinking. LotR and Hobbit sets sold poorly, if you use the discounts offered as a way of judging how well a theme sold. The last wave of The Hobbit, I got 50% of most sets and slightly more on The Battle of Five Armies. 

LOTR i never saw discount on... i saw discounts on the Hobbit sets. I wish i had gotten a second Helms Deep

[2GodBDGlory]

I've been following this thread for a few weeks now (despite spending most of my time in the Technic forum), and am quite interested in the revival (even if partial) of this great theme!

Anyways, I just thought I would point out this promotion I saw on Lego.com today:

I'm not sure how much, if anything, to read into this, but it's cool that they're doing this little promotion from the Tolkien world now!

[MAB]

They just found some old stock. Valuable packaging, common figure.

[mirkwoodspiders]

We are now exactly 10 weeks from the D2C release - wow! Hopefully some minifigs begin to leak soon.

[Khargeust]

3 hours ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

We are now exactly 10 weeks from the D2C release - wow! Hopefully some minifigs begin to leak soon.

We are sure it will be march the first ?

[mtrsteve]

8 hours ago, Khargeust said:

We are sure it will be march the first ?

Depends what you mean by 'sure'. We aren't even sure it exists, as nothing has been confirmed by Lego so far other than the brickheads. That said, the some of the rumors have come from pretty reliable sources, so you can draw your own conclusions ;)

[jodawill]

On 12/19/2022 at 11:26 AM, natesroom said:

LOTR i never saw discount on... i saw discounts on the Hobbit sets. I wish i had gotten a second Helms Deep

I have a really sad story. My local Meijer had a dozen copies of Helm's Deep after the theme was discontinued. I kept going in every day hoping they'd be discounted. I walked in one day and found a couple Hobbit sets for 75% off. I couldn't find the Helm's Deep. I asked an employee and she was like, "Oh, yeah. Some lady just came in and bought all of them." 75% off!!! So sad that I missed out on that deal.

[zoth33]

4 hours ago, jodawill said:

I have a really sad story. My local Meijer had a dozen copies of Helm's Deep after the theme was discontinued. I kept going in every day hoping they'd be discounted. I walked in one day and found a couple Hobbit sets for 75% off. I couldn't find the Helm's Deep. I asked an employee and she was like, "Oh, yeah. Some lady just came in and bought all of them." 75% off!!! So sad that I missed out on that deal.

That is really sad.  I did manage to get a second copy of the set at 50% off from Walmart back in the day.  

[TheKingPorg]

About the micro scale vs minifig scale possibilities, One thing I could see them doing is making it microscale, but at a larger microscale then hogwarts for example. As big as it is, Hogwarts is still too small to actually be to scale with the micro-figures. I could see a Rivendell that is actually to scale with the micro-figures, (around 1:80) allowing for a larger model then a smaller scale like Hogwarts, but still smaller then minifig scale, allowing for more buildings to be recreated, scenes to be reenacted, and still good detail to be included. Maybe they could even include minifigs of the fellowship with it.

[NoOneOfImportance]

I was looking at some of my old LOTR figs, and some of the torsos and legs on them have gotten quite stiff, especially the figures with reddish brown and dark red. Given that I want to avoid cracking any parts, does anyone have recommendations on how best to relieve the stiffer joints without damaging the figs? Apologies if this is off-topic. Given it pertains mainly to LOTR figs in this case, I thought I'd bring it up here. 

[Shroffy123]

24 minutes ago, NoOneOfImportance said:

I was looking at some of my old LOTR figs, and some of the torsos and legs on them have gotten quite stiff, especially the figures with reddish brown and dark red. Given that I want to avoid cracking any parts, does anyone have recommendations on how best to relieve the stiffer joints without damaging the figs? Apologies if this is off-topic. Given it pertains mainly to LOTR figs in this case, I thought I'd bring it up here. 

I'm sorry I wish I knew. My radagast is getting very stiff, along with my robed Elrond. What usually breaks for me on other figs is the arms, which thankful I can easily replace

 

[sahidko]

If anybody finds out a solution please let me know (carefully looking at my 70+ Uruk-Hai i rather not touch anymore :D ).

[Khargeust]

At this stage of production, are the boxes already printed with sets sealed inside or is it a bit too early ? 

[Balrogofmorgoth]

Not sure if this means much but shop at home added a Lord of the Rings product page for the Brickheadz. Did that happen with other themed Brickheadz? Also the Black Panther bust and Hulkbuster are 20% off on shop at home right now. Need any more proof of their abysmal sales?

Edited December 26, 2022 by Balrogofmorgoth

[2GodBDGlory]

1 hour ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Not sure if this means much but shop at home added a Lord of the Rings product page for the Brickheadz. Did that happen with other themed Brickheadz? Also the Black Panther bust and Hulkbuster are 20% off on shop at home right now. Need any more proof of their abysmal sales?

The only Brickheadz from a licensed theme I can see that didn't have any other sets going along with it (except for one polybag minifigure) is this one here, from the Incredibles:
https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=41613-1#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

I'm not sure if they would have made a category for it back in 2018, though, especially since it's only one set.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

The D2C supposedly falls into the Lego Icons theme, which has its own product page. So why make a LOTR product page for the Brickheadz? Especially since Brickheadz also have their own product page. It makes sense if it’s Brickheadz for a theme that already exists on its own, but doesn’t really make a lot of sense for LOTR right now unless they know there will be more coming. Could be absolutely nothing, but it is certainly a little strange

[Mandalorianknight]

On 12/23/2022 at 8:55 PM, NoOneOfImportance said:

I was looking at some of my old LOTR figs, and some of the torsos and legs on them have gotten quite stiff, especially the figures with reddish brown and dark red. Given that I want to avoid cracking any parts, does anyone have recommendations on how best to relieve the stiffer joints without damaging the figs? Apologies if this is off-topic. Given it pertains mainly to LOTR figs in this case, I thought I'd bring it up here. 

Hmm. DO NOT TAKE MY ADVICE AS FACT, as I'm tired and not sure I'm remembering this right, but if the torso is a different color than the arms (or hips and legs), and therefore having a slightly different material composition, you might be able to undo the stiffness by heating/cooling them slightly. That said, you'd have to figure out which one has the higher coefficient of expansion, as heating when you should cool or cooling when you should heat would just have the opposite of the desired effect.

3 hours ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Not sure if this means much but shop at home added a Lord of the Rings product page for the Brickheadz. Did that happen with other themed Brickheadz? Also the Black Panther bust and Hulkbuster are 20% off on shop at home right now. Need any more proof of their abysmal sales?

You think that's bad, the Queer Eye set was the only sub-$199.99 set I could find multiple copies of at my local Target the other day. 

Though the performance of those two D2Cs are not remotely surprising. I do feel like the Hulkbuster and maybe even BP bust will eventually sell fairly well once they hit ~33% off, as at lower prices they'd be fairly desirable. At $350-ish I'd even consider that hulkbuster.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

11 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Hmm. DO NOT TAKE MY ADVICE AS FACT, as I'm tired and not sure I'm remembering this right, but if the torso is a different color than the arms (or hips and legs), and therefore having a slightly different material composition, you might be able to undo the stiffness by heating/cooling them slightly. That said, you'd have to figure out which one has the higher coefficient of expansion, as heating when you should cool or cooling when you should heat would just have the opposite of the desired effect.

You think that's bad, the Queer Eye set was the only sub-$199.99 set I could find multiple copies of at my local Target the other day. 

Though the performance of those two D2Cs are not remotely surprising. I do feel like the Hulkbuster and maybe even BP bust will eventually sell fairly well once they hit ~33% off, as at lower prices they'd be fairly desirable. At $350-ish I'd even consider that hulkbuster.

Yeah Queer Eye is 40% off at shop at home right now. If the Hogwarts Express was discounted too I’d get it but I think it’s selling better than those other two, although not phenomenally well either

Edited December 26, 2022 by Balrogofmorgoth

[NoOneOfImportance]

8 hours ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Not sure if this means much but shop at home added a Lord of the Rings product page for the Brickheadz. Did that happen with other themed Brickheadz? Also the Black Panther bust and Hulkbuster are 20% off on shop at home right now. Need any more proof of their abysmal sales?

Of note, Stranger Things and Ghostbusters also had/have their own pages, both of which just had a couple of sets and Brickheadz (especially Stranger Things, with only one set, Brickheadz, and a couple of accessories (keychains, etc.). 

4 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Hmm. DO NOT TAKE MY ADVICE AS FACT, as I'm tired and not sure I'm remembering this right, but if the torso is a different color than the arms (or hips and legs), and therefore having a slightly different material composition, you might be able to undo the stiffness by heating/cooling them slightly. That said, you'd have to figure out which one has the higher coefficient of expansion, as heating when you should cool or cooling when you should heat would just have the opposite of the desired effect.

I tried running the parts under warm water a bit, which did help some, but I'm not sure if it will stay better or not...