LOTR & The Hobbit 2012

[Durins Bane]

Upset about the style and design they picked for the existing sets, or do you think they put wrong sets in this wave? What would you do better?

I just believe they picked completely bad scenes for the sets this year... Also, they messed up the design, terribly of a few characters, and left out things that should and could not have been left out by other toy brands that would have been making toys for a movie...

Edited December 14, 2012 by Durins Bane

[Blakstone]

I suspect that LEGO had these sets designed before Peter Jackson split the film into three movies. The fact that some of these sets takes place after the current movie indicates that.

I would have had different sets included if I designed it, but the only set I won't scrap for MOC is Bagend. For me, this wave is mostly about wargs and minifigs.

[Zilcho]

I agree with the TLC's bad designing. I am mainly buying attack of the wargs for the minifigures and wargs, the tree and rocks are just boring and nothing special (unlike Helm's Deep). Riddles of the ring is just boring. I also dislike their decision to give Nori and Gloin orange hair despite their hair definitely being brown in real life. However, I do commend them for the amount of new molds they have made for the dwarves.

[TheLegoDr]

Realistic or not, we need more LEGO Gingers!

I hadn't considered epaulletes. That might be a good idea. Show a picture when you do it so we can see what it looks like (please?).

[Infernum]

This is making me want to see the movie even more. . If you want a scene from the movie you could always make a MOC. I would love to see it!

[Deathleech]

I just believe they picked completely bad scenes for the sets this year... Also, they messed up the design, terribly of a few characters, and left out things that should and could not have been left out by other toy brands that would have been making toys for a movie...

I haven't seen the movie yet (going in a few hours!), but based on the book the scenes make perfect sense. Lego basically did the major scene from each chapter in the book minus the trolls. Also Blakstone brings up a good point, PJ probably added a lot of cut stuff and extra footage to scenes AFTER the Lego sets were already finalized and ready to go so you can't fault them for that.

Lego didn't design the LotR characters all exactly as they appear in those films either, the main culprit that catches a lot of flak being Aragorn. I'm not sure if this is just over sight on Lego's part, they couldn't make the figures look good in minifigure scale any other way, or what the deal is but it generally doesn't bother me. As long as I can immediately tell who the character is I am fine with it. Orangish brown hair instead of brown is totally fine by me, at least it's not black or blonde!

[just2good]

After seeing the Hobbit film today, I have to say, LEGO did an exceptional job on making the figures faithful to their movie counterpart. I could easily tell the dwarves apart during the film thanks to LEGO.

[DJ Bricks]

Guys, the studio has to approve of the sets and minifig designs before they can be released.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Neville longbottem

[Styrbjorn]

I have seen the movie twice, once yesterday and one at wednesday (121212) and it was awesome! Can't wait for desolution of smaug (363 days left). But still, the book is the best I think.

[HawkLord]

I can't fault Lego for not having accurate figures or depictions of sets when it comes to something brand new, like The Hobbit. Anyone whose ever been into collectibles knows that these manufactures get prelim pics to work off of months (or even up to a year) before the movie hits theaters, so there's no way it's always going to be right at the end.

Now getting things right for a license that has already been out, like LOTR is a different story...

[Brickadiergerard]

I agree with Hawkman, and plenty of the rest of you, that:

1. Lego did a pretty good job on most of the characters, especially the dwarves;

2. There are no real disasters in colour choices (orange not brown is not too awful) etc like there were in LOTR with Aragorn;

3. Having seen the film today the set choices are pretty bizarre and must have been, as Deathleech has said, to do with picking scenes which also appeared in the books at a time when 2 films were expected in order not to give too much away and to appeal to lovers of the book too I suppose.

I'm not going to spoil anything, but the film is fantastic, and there are some incredible scenes which would have leant themselves to some great sets. Go see it and find out!

[Deathleech]

I just believe they picked completely bad scenes for the sets this year... Also, they messed up the design, terribly of a few characters, and left out things that should and could not have been left out by other toy brands that would have been making toys for a movie...

After seeing the films (and recently re-reading the books), I can now say that I STRONGLY disagree with this. The dwarves are pretty much spot on save for some SLIGHT color variations. The scenes picked are pretty much perfect and touch on all the major parts of the film AND book. The only exception being the Warg Attack set missing a key character, which could be due to any number of reasons already stated by other members (Lego not having all the info, the scene being changed last minute, etc.). Other than that though, I think everything makes perfect sense.

The only scenes that were left out that could of possibly been made into sets were the trolls, Rivendell, and maybe Radaghast's hut. We already have a troll from the first LotR wave and we have the Goblin King who uses a similar big mold so it makes sense Lego didn't do this scene as it would be redundant. We are also suppose to be getting a Rivendell set in the next LotR wave so again, it makes sense this scene wasn't chosen to be made into a set due to it being covered elsewhere. That leaves Bag End which is an amazing set and captures the film scene very well. Riddles for the Ring is obviously different due to the play feature being added, but other than a similar rock perch found in the Warg Attacks set there wasn't a ton that could be done with this set (a bunch of rocks and a pond doesn't make for a great iconic set to begin with). The Spider Attack and Barrel Escape sets weren't in the first film and Lego already had the sets made and ready to go so this is no fault of their own. Goblin Town gives the general feel of the movie scene while still being a fairly cost efficient set. I don't see how else they could of made all the hanging and suspended bridges way up in the air in the middle of a mountain any different. Finally ther eis the Warg Attack set which is a pretty hard scene to recreate due to the Wargs being featured a lot more in the book, and the sprawling nature of the landscape they are shown in. All in all though I think Lego did a fine job of creature the scene. The Orc Hunters could or probably used new molds/prints, but with all the dwarves and other new molds being created I totally understand why Lego would choose to re-use parts.

[Durins Bane]

Are you just going to reply to every post I make?

IMO, means In my opinion. I'm sorry I just feel they weren't up to snuff on this wave. This is my opinion. I have not said one bad thing about the dwarves, they are perfect. I think the warg set is justifiably horrible. Why reuse the old orcs when these are clearly different. Leaving out a key figure sucks, not having an eagle is lame.. A brown warg would have been waaay better than the white one.

Bagend is fine.

Riddles is fine.

It is lame that they couldn't help but release two sets early... maybe they can give us two old movie sets with the next hobbit wave...But I am not, NOT blaming Lego for these two since they couldn't help it.

Edited December 15, 2012 by Durins Bane

[Sigolf Brimabane]

I don't really care about LEGO releasing two sets "early", since these said sets are about the best ones in the Hobbit series, with competition from Goblin Town. The Wargs would be cool to have, but the set is too expensive. I just got myself another Helm's Deep instead, at reduced price since I bought it off of an auction site, for 884 SEK (=132,47 USD), which is $34 cheaper than in the cheapest stores :) That leaves me very satisfied ^^

I haven't seen the Hobbit film yet, but I really look forward to it. Although it is in 3D I think it might be good. When the DVD comes out I'll be able to watch it in plain 2D as films ought to be seen. 3D might be fun too.

I hope they will make a film about Túrin Turambar some years from now. But that won't happen since only hardcore fans seem to know about the First Age :(

Edited December 15, 2012 by Sigolf Brimabane

[Durins Bane]

I don't really care about LEGO releasing two sets "early", since these said sets are about the best ones in the Hobbit series, with competition from Goblin Town. The Wargs would be cool to have, but the set is too expensive. I just got myself another Helm's Deep instead, at reduced price since I bought it off of an auction site, for 884 SEK (=132,47 USD), which is $34 cheaper than in the cheapest stores :) That leaves me very satisfied ^^

I haven't seen the Hobbit film yet, but I really look forward to it. Although it is in 3D I think it might be good. When the DVD comes out I'll be able to watch it in plain 2D as films ought to be seen. 3D might be fun too.

I hope they will make a film about Túrin Turambar some years from now. But that won't happen since only hardcore fans seem to know about the First Age :(

I didn't watch it in 3d. great score!

[Sigolf Brimabane]

I didn't watch it in 3d. great score!

Oh, nice :D Maybe I won't watch it in 3D then either... :3

It's cool that we both have "bane" in our names, thou Balrog of Bauglir!

[Deathleech]

Are you just going to reply to every post I make?

IMO, means In my opinion. I'm sorry I just feel they weren't up to snuff on this wave. This is my opinion. I have not said one bad thing about the dwarves, they are perfect. I think the warg set is justifiably horrible. Why reuse the old orcs when these are clearly different. Leaving out a key figure sucks, not having an eagle is lame.. A brown warg would have been waaay better than the white one.

Not every post, just the ones where you blast the sets saying things like "they picked completely bad scenes" and "messed up the design, terribly of a few characters" and "left out things that should and could not have been left out by other toy brands that would have been making toys for a movie...".

Sorry if you feel like I am picking on you, but surely you see how you could of came off overtly negative? I understand it's your opinion, but you complained about the sets and then didn't really offer any sort of examples or reasoning. It just came off as unnecessary complaining that didn't hold any substance. I do agree with you to some extent about the Warg Attack now that you have further explained, but I also think the rest of the sets are pretty good, and even the Warg set isn't terrible. And really I feel like a lot of the problem with the set wasn't even in Lego's control, it seems more like PJ and WB making the films into three instead of the originally planned two had a lot more to do with it than anything.

[Faefrost]

3. Having seen the film today the set choices are pretty bizarre and must have been, as Deathleech has said, to do with picking scenes which also appeared in the books at a time when 2 films were expected in order not to give too much away and to appeal to lovers of the book too I suppose.

I'm not going to spoil anything, but the film is fantastic, and there are some incredible scenes which would have leant themselves to some great sets. Go see it and find out!

The two extra sets make more sense when you realize that almost until the end of summer they were going to be two movies, and this first one would go all the way to the end of Mirkwood. With the barrel escape being the finale. The second movie would then be the Lonely Mountain, Smaug and the Battle of 5 Armies. (Sorry for spoiling this for anyone, but we're talking an 80 year old book here).

Chances are a lot of those great scenes from this movie, such as most of the Erabor scenes would have been cut from the theatrical release, and instead reserved for the extended DVD's, like they did with LotR. So the Lego design people certainly would not have included those scenes in their planning and set design. They probably did not even know about them. The same with the discrepancy in the Attack of the Worgs set between Yazneg and Azok (sp?). We don't know what the original plans were for that scene, since the lead Orc is not named in the book per se. It may be that much of the whole Azok backstory was originally planned for the second movie, or was planned as extended edition material until they had to spread everything across three movies. Not only was some stuff such as the spiders and barrels pushed back. Some other pieces may have been pushed forward as well.

At this stage it's probably best to judge the sets more on quality, minifigs and coolness factor, rather than by "oh but that would have been a much better scene to do."

I haven't seen the Hobbit film yet, but I really look forward to it. Although it is in 3D I think it might be good. When the DVD comes out I'll be able to watch it in plain 2D as films ought to be seen. 3D might be fun too.

If it helps, they have released it in 4 versions in theaters. 3d, normal traditional 2d, high frame rate (48fps) 3d and high frame rate 2d. You should be able to find a theater that is not showing it in 3d. I took my wife to a 2d showing last night (3d makes her badly ill), and then snuck back to see the HFR 3d this afternoon.

2 words of warning for those who have not seen it yet;

- eat a light lunch and drink very very little. This is a long movie. The last battle sucks to watch if you are having a much more serious battle with your bladder. Not kidding about this one. restrict fluids and stop to pee beforehand.

- The 3d HFR is spectacular. But if anyone in your movie going party suffers from motion sickness, consider the 2d alternative. It brings to mind the "Soaring" Ride at Disneyworld or the Harry Potter Broomstick ride at universal. The HFR is amazing, but will take some getting used to.

[Sigolf Brimabane]

2 words of warning for those who have not seen it yet;

- eat a light lunch and drink very very little. This is a long movie. The last battle sucks to watch if you are having a much more serious battle with your bladder. Not kidding about this one. restrict fluids and stop to pee beforehand.

- The 3d HFR is spectacular. But if anyone in your movie going party suffers from motion sickness, consider the 2d alternative. It brings to mind the "Soaring" Ride at Disneyworld or the Harry Potter Broomstick ride at universal. The HFR is amazing, but will take some getting used to.

Haha, I always have to pee at least one time during a movie, it sucked at Pirates of the Caribbean 4 when I had to rush out in the middle of the final battle because I couldn't hold out any more xD They should seriously have a break in the middle of the movie, so nobody misses anything :(

[Nicker]

I suspect that LEGO had these sets designed before Peter Jackson split the film into three movies. The fact that some of these sets takes place after the current movie indicates that.

I would have had different sets included if I designed it, but the only set I won't scrap for MOC is Bagend. For me, this wave is mostly about wargs and minifigs.

Yep I agree. I just watched the movie and there are 2 sets that portray scenes that are not in the first movie. Both Barrel Escape and Escape from Mirkwood Spiders are likely going to be in the first half of the 2nd Hobbit movie. This shows how far in advance TLG designs the sets before release. It's even more crazy that is still says "An Unexpected Journey" on the sets that are clearly going to be sets for "The Desolation of Smaug". The only set I bought so far in 79003 An Unexpected Gathering. That set seems to really be flying off store shelves right now it was very hard to find.

[jhc2nmfn]

Im really not too disappointed with this first wave of sets. I would have definitely preferred a big set for the wave like a helms deep but after seeing the film there aren't too many places that could've been turned into that big set. Rivendell is absolutely stunning in the movie which makes me think that any attempt to recreate it will be disappointing to a ton of people (not me). I think the best way to do it will be to break it into buildings similar to hogwarts 4842. The city is built too much into the surrounding landscape ( mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, trees, ponds and streams) for TLG to attempt a spot on imitation. Although erebor is absolutely stunning in the movie, I think they will leave any sets from that or dale until after the second movie. Did anyone think it was strange that radagast is the wizard that explores dol guldar in the movie but the set is released with gandalf in dol guldar? I guess this will be a scene from the next movie.

I really don't see any other sets that could have been released in place of the already released sets. Like someone already said the trolls is to unrealistic. I wish they would've released Azog in warg attack but completely understand why they haven't. But I am really happy with the white warg.

I also think that TLG knew barrel escape and the attack from Mirkwood spiders sets weren't in the first movie. On the boxes it has a rectangle reddish/orange sticker that says "hobbit trilogy preview" and from what I can tell those are the only two boxes that have the sticker.

[Doctor_ocks]

Nothing new here. Great movie and still love the sets, with the exception of the character mistake in the warg set.

On a personal note, being a dad has made me appreciate the sets and the movie all the more. I started reading the book to my 5 year old son last week. He doesn't like reading but he's been gripped by the story and the Lego Hobbit sets have been a big part of it. He immediately recognizes the scenes like the goblin cave, Bag End, etc. He gets really excited and has to go get minifigs, usually Bilbo, to hold while we're reading.

My wife and I debated about letting him see the movie, especially before we saw it. However, he's seen the LotR movies multiple times and loves them. They've never frightened him and never given him nightmares. So we decided to give it a whirl. He LOVED the movie and hasn't stopped talking about it.

Here's a picture of him holding Bilbo in the theater http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8078/8275834983_c44da01f0c.jpg

So thanks Lego :)

[HawkLord]

I also think that TLG knew barrel escape and the attack from Mirkwood spiders sets weren't in the first movie. On the boxes it has a rectangle reddish/orange sticker that says "hobbit trilogy preview" and from what I can tell those are the only two boxes that have the sticker.

No, Lego absolutely did not know. No one knew till the last minute, that's why Bridge Direct has Tauriel and Legolas in their action figure line.

It was very easy for Lego late in the game to add a small red box to the packaging, once they found out about the change in movies.

Edit: What will be interesting is how these things play out in the products for next year's Desolation of Smaug. Will we see Bridge Direct offer another version of Legolas and Tauriel in DoS packaging? Will Lego reprint Mirkwood and Barrels in DoS packaging? Or will these examples be the only available versions?

Edited December 16, 2012 by Hawkman

[Doctor_ocks]

Will Lego reprint Mirkwood and Barrels in DoS packaging? Or will these examples be the only available versions?

That's a really interesting question. Has there ever been something like this occurring before with Lego?

[HawkLord]

That's a really interesting question. Has there ever been something like this occurring before with Lego?

As far as I know, it has not. Lego's other license themes haven't had movies split like this. This caught at least Lego and Bridge Direct completely off-guard.

Now I digress, but this actually says something good about both their lead times. If you look at Sideshow Collectibles (who just announced their own Hobbit license a couple days ago) they have nothing ready or Gentle Giant (who has had the license since earlier this year) who only has one bust that was a SDCC exclusive out there. Weta and Noble Collection have a few Hobbit items out already. However Lego and Bridge Direct really have the most concise and expansive line of Hobbit products at the moment.