LOTR & The Hobbit 2012

[Artanis I]

I really loved these figs and sets. I just don't know how would I wait until August. :<

And I have a question, any ideas about how will Haldir's face look like? Same as Legolas or?

I know how you feel! Interesting question, the biggest difference between Legolas & Haldir's face is their nose - and minifigs don't have those!

[Suspsy]

I can't wait to see these sets in stores! I really hope we get a Treebeard set somewhere down the line. An oliphaunt would be pretty nifty as well---they could constuct it along the lines of an Imperial ATAT.

[deskp]

I know how you feel! Interesting question, the biggest difference between Legolas & Haldir's face is their nose - and minifigs don't have those!

Haldir has higher eyebrows and they bend(?) in the middle, where Legolas' bend more towards the side. Haldirs are less flat.

And hes cheek lines are propably not exact same as legolas.

They can't use the same face as legolas since they already have same hair!

[Artanis I]

Haldir has higher eyebrows and they bend(?) in the middle, where Legolas' bend more towards the side. Haldirs are less flat.

And hes cheek lines are propably not exact same as legolas.

They can't use the same face as legolas since they already have same hair!

I think you're right.

I think the Legolas minifig face doesn't look much like Legolas to me. Orlando Bloom has much rounder features & soft face in those movies. The cheek lines make him look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger. (It doesn't really bother me that much though.)

[deskp]

I think you're right.

I think the Legolas minifig face doesn't look much like Legolas to me. Orlando Bloom has much rounder features & soft face in those movies. The cheek lines make him look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger. (It doesn't really bother me that much though.)

I think the face is Spot on! Same with merry and pippin !

[horizon]

Gandalf's Cart & Moria for me. :)

I wonder if winter 2012 will see the Hobbit specific sets.

[deskp]

Gandalf's Cart & Moria for me. :)

I wonder if winter 2012 will see the Hobbit specific sets.

Hobbit early 2013, some sets might start getting sold december 2012.

[Sir Troogle Crumpington]

Hello everyone new member!

I thought I would just give my two cents on the oncoming wave of LOTR sets; my love for Tolkien’s works is so great I will probably buy all of them no matter how they turn out (or how much they cost). I’ve got a few hundred bucks in my LOTR Lego fund but I am going to a toy fair on the weekend and will probably blow all my money on something stupid like a bust of Lando Calrissian or something ...Anyway.

Gandalf arrives- A nice little set to start the theme off with, not to flashy but still looks like a neat set, my nephews birthday is around the same time this wave is released so this might be a good present for him.

Balins Tomb- One of the best scenes in FOLR especially exited for this set mainly for the Sean Bean minifig, So many chances for MOC’s (Game of Thrones and Sharpe! Hooray!)

Helms Deep-A bit worried about the placement of the Hornburg (nothing a little work and imagination can’t fix!), but overall looks like a great set! Might take the elves out and put in Eomer (he will be released soon enough) for a little more faithfulness to the source material.

Uruk hai Army-Probably get three or four of these and add them to the Helms deep set for an added dose of epicness.

Shelob Attacks-YAY! Shelob! Very high on my ‘most wanted LOTR Lego monster’ list just behind the Balrog and Smaug.

Attack on Weathertop- Da.haeda! Da.haaada! Dahaaaa Laaaaaa! Thast my really bad text representation of ‘Knife in the dark’. And if I took five minutes figuring out how to type up that song, im certainly going to buy this set!

Oh yeh, LeGOOOBRackStove, It isn’t Gandolf, Gannondorf or whatever it’s Gandalf! Show a little respect for Tolkien and his life’s work! Don’t tell me your still bitter about that time Legolas put that arrow in your neck in Balin’s Tomb?

[Wardancer]

When I looked again at the sets this morning, it struck me how may baddies there are. 4 Uruk-Hai here, 4 orks there, 2 ringwraits, another 4 orcs.

Of course this mirrors the situation where exceptional heroes battle or flee hordes in the movie, but...

1 Rider of Rohan? Good luck in defending that.

"The Orcs are coming! Send out... the rider!"

"He's dead, they got him."

"Ok, now send out... Gandalfs carriage."

"Naa, they burned it down and took the posable horse."

"Ok, so let's throw hobbits at their troll then."

If we don't get a goodies battle pack, the orcs will win this war. They have a forge, a battle pack, war machinery and a troll.

Edited January 27, 2012 by Wardancer

[Supersonic]

When I looked again at the sets this morning, it struck me how may baddies there are. 4 Uruk-Hai here, 4 orks there, 2 ringwraits, another 4 orcs.

Of course this mirrors the situation where exceptional heroes battle or flee hordes in the movie, but...

1 Rider of Rohan? Good luck in defending that.

"The Orcs are coming! Send out... the rider!"

"He's dead, they got him."

"Ok, now send out... Gandalfs carriage."

"Naa, they burned it down and took the posable horse."

"Ok, so let's throw hobbits at their troll then."

If we don't get a goodies battle pack, the orcs will win this war. They have a forge, a battle pack, war machinery and a troll.

The orc-human ratio is actually not as bad as it should be. In the movie, Helm's Deep has about 300 humans, 200 elves and later 2000 Rohirrim against 10,000 Uruk-Hai. That means if you have 2 elves, 3 Helms Deep foot soldiers and 20 Rohirrim, you need 100 orcs to even things out...sure, it's a little hard right now to get Elves, but Uruk-Hai Army actually has way too few Uruks.

I'm pretty sure we'll eventually see battle packs though. They were made for SW, they were made for Castle, why not LOTR? Rohirrim or Gondor battle packs would sell like mad.

[JackJonespaw]

I really hope they'll do a battle pack with this, like the Battle Packs in SW and the Forbidden Forest in HP. A good value and good minifigs.

[surrideo]

I really hope they'll do a battle pack with this, like the Battle Packs in SW and the Forbidden Forest in HP. A good value and good minifigs.

There is no doubt Forbidden Forest was one of the best value small sets for minifigures any licenced theme has ever had for containing main characters.

I think the Fellowship will start to appear in smaller and cheaper sets but looking at Star Wars, how often do you get the "big" characters in £10/£20 sets(adjust currency where required)

[kris kelvin]

First they call me the troll. Then they mock me because I am rich, charming, and handsome.

But you are a charming, handsome rich troll

Well I couldn`t resist

Back to the topic.

From my point of view this sets are looking fantastic but I`m big LOTR fan. Especially Helm`s Deep looks very, very good.

Minifigures are simply breathteaking but today it`s a standard.

I hope Lego will use new mold for Gandalf`s staff. Just a bar? Oh come on

A big, exclusive Rivendell set or harbour of the Grey Havens set would be fantastic.

[DaleDVM]

When I looked again at the sets this morning, it struck me how may baddies there are. 4 Uruk-Hai here, 4 orks there, 2 ringwraits, another 4 orcs.

Of course this mirrors the situation where exceptional heroes battle or flee hordes in the movie, but...

1 Rider of Rohan? Good luck in defending that.

"The Orcs are coming! Send out... the rider!"

"He's dead, they got him."

"Ok, now send out... Gandalfs carriage."

"Naa, they burned it down and took the posable horse."

"Ok, so let's throw hobbits at their troll then."

If we don't get a goodies battle pack, the orcs will win this war. They have a forge, a battle pack, war machinery and a troll.

I think the ratio in the army building sets is good. If anything there are too few baddies. I don't see how 1 rider charging in on 4 Uruks is any different than 2000 charging in on 10,000. The ratio is very much the same. The orc forge is not going to be an army building set for me. It is way too heavy on bricks.

I think Helms Deep is on regular plates as well. If they are baseplates they would be really chopped up and cut to size.

[The Crazy One]

I doubt Lego would miss the oppurtunity to realease battle packs for LOTR. I reckon an Orc and Gondor battle pack will come along in the next wave or something.

One question, is the Orc forge for Uruk-Hai or standard Orcs?

[Fives]

I doubt Lego would miss the oppurtunity to realease battle packs for LOTR. I reckon an Orc and Gondor battle pack will come along in the next wave or something.

One question, is the Orc forge for Uruk-Hai or standard Orcs?

I think the Orc forge is based on the forges in Isengard. I wouldn't be surprised, if there are five figs in total, to see two Uruks and here basic orcs. This would mean you could have the workers forging swords and armour, and have the Uruks arming up and going to war. I'm planning on buying two, just because it is the only set (I think) will have normal orcs in this wave.

[Logwyn]

I just have to have them all. I can't wait. Almost feel like a kid again

[Fives]

I was just looking for more info about the NY toy fair, and it said the dates are Feb 12-15. Now we know how long to wait.

[Seaber]

As a distraction to revision for an exam tomorrow, I wrote some ideas down about the bad guys in this theme :D

I'll be interested to see how the Orcs/Goblins/Uruk-Hai differ. I know in Tolkien's works the names are sometimes used interchangeably, but in the movies they have more defined characteristics.

The Goblins are green and live in Moria. We're getting two in the Moria set, so I hope that we get more in future sets. The Bridge of Kazad-Dum is pretty much the only other major landmark after Balins tomb where goblins appear (albeit shooting arrows from a distance) or the scene where the fellowship is being chased through the Dwarrowdelf, although that's just a large hall of pillars and would probably make a rather boring set. I think a Goblin BP is totally necessary :D

The Uruk-Hai are very dark skinned and can be from Isengard or Mordor. The Isengard Uruks have the white hand symbol and all look rather similar, although there are a few variations on helmets. As far as I can remember, there are Pikemen, Swordsmen, Archers, and Sappers, all with different helmet designs. Then there are the Beserkers who have different helmets and no armour. The Mordor Uruks have far simpler armour and don't wear helmets if I remember rightly. We're getting Uruk-Hai with Swords, Pikes and the Beserkers, so it would be nice to see the other variants as well. I'm pretty sure the Uruk-Hai in FOTR are called Scouts and have different helmets, but I might have got that wrong :)

Ors are the most varied of the lot. I wouldn't mind if the Goblins and Uruk-Hai all had the same face, as there is very little difference between them, but the orcs should have a few different face prints in a few different colours. Compare Grishnakh to Gothmog, and there are no similarities, apart from the general hideousness :D

Similar to the mummy warriors in Pharaoh's Quest, The Goblins and Uruks could have double sided faces to provide a bit of variety, whilst the Orcs could have several different faces. Out of all the sets so far, the Orc Forge is the only one to contain Orcs. They are mostly seen in ROTK in the battles for Osgiliath, Pelennor and the Black Gate, so hopefully we will get a few different designs for Orcs when more sets from RotK are released.

All three races play substantial roles in LOTR, as well as goblins appearing in The Hobbit too. Of the main villains, Saruman and Wormtongue are not involved in any battles, Sauron fights once and goes and gets himself de-materialised and the Witch King is mostly seen breaking staffs and getting stabbed in the face. The main 'heroes' in battle for the bad guys are characters such as Lurtz and Gothmog. Quite a few of the more unique looking Orc/Uruk/Goblins could be made into minifigures, e.g. Grishnakh (the Orc who chases Merry and Pippin and gets squashed by Treebeard, Sharku (the Warg-rider captain), Snaga (cannibalised after calling Merry and Pippin "fresh"), The Orc with the skull on his head from the Battle of Pelennor and Shagrat and Gorbag (The Cirith Ungol guards who fight over the mithril vest).

I know that a few of the individual characters I mentioned may not be made (wishful fan thinking!) but I think a wider variety of heads for Orcs is entirely feasible.

[kaitain]

I know that a few of the individual characters I mentioned may not be made (wishful fan thinking!) but I think a wider variety of heads for Orcs is entirely feasible.

If the helmets are anything like the ones used in the Troll battlepacks, Lego could probably squeeze three or four face variations on a single brick, to represent either the different characters, or the emotions of a single character. It would look odd if a Goblin or Uruk lost their helmet in battle though! I'm looking forward to seeing some closeup pictures of the minifigs in this range.

Kaitain

[CommanderR]

I think if LEGO made battle packs for LOTR, it would be similar to the star wars BP where they would have goodies vs. baddies in one pack. This would allow them to make both a Rohan and Gondor battle pack in one wave.

[General Magma]

As a response to the discussion about orcs (and their heads): I'm quite sure that those are going to be molds as well, to be able to represent pointy ears.

I just wonder how they'll make the helmets fit them then, though. But we'll see. Perhaps a bit similar to the 'friends' system, as I hope you can choose to make them bald (or give them some kind of hairpiece that fits with orcs) or to give them a helmet.

~ General Magma

[Jargo]

It would be easier to attach ears to the Orc's hair or helmet same as with the CMF elf werewolf and Viking woman. That way a person could mix and match minifigs with fantasy Orcs. I don't think Lego would make a new head just to attach ears to. They're far more likely to create new headgear than new heads.

[Alex the Great]

I read from a blog about the London toyfair said that the ears of the goblins will be attached to the hairpieces, which I think is the best idea.

[Fives]

I read from a blog about the London toyfair said that the ears of the goblins will be attached to the hairpieces, which I think is the best idea.

Ya, this is the best way for LEGO to do it, and I believe it will become a trend with most orcs who need it.

Also, on the discussion of variety in orcs, I wouldn't be surprised if we get three different Mordor orc colours: olive green, sand blue and tan/dark tan. Then, on all the olive green heads, they would have the same two expressions on the front and back of the head. The same would be done for the two other colors. This would allow for six different Orc faces to be available, which would cut down on cloned orcs considerably.