REVIEW:9471 Uruk-hai Army

[Niku]

Thanks for the review.

I really like this set, is a fantastic battle pack, with great pieces to just even buy it for those, but as a set by itself I think it gives an acceptable note.

I was planning to buy just one of the Uruk-hai Army now I need at least two.

Combined with Helms Deep with lets say four of these Uruk sets, and you will have one of a hell great battle scene.

[Cara]

Thank you for the review definitely on my wish list.

[smitty9999]

The figures are really nice but the building leaves much to be desired.

[Brinstar]

This is one of best LOTR sets and the only one I plan to buy in multiples. With 6 figures its a fantastic set for army builders and I'm particularly fond of the Rohan soldiers. The castle structure is a great build, Its nice to see Lego moving away from the large castle wall pieces and using a different approach. The wall is useful as a standalone play-set but is probably more useful to expand the excellent Helms-Deep castle. The siege engine looks quite impressive and is certainly one of Lego's better recent efforts.

[Captain BeerBeard]

Have any of you figured out yet that you can just take the Uruk-hai head's off and replace them with yellow or flesh head's?

[The_Cook]

Have any of you figured out yet that you can just take the Uruk-hai head's off and replace them with yellow or flesh head's?

That would sully the pristine nature of yellow by bringing it into contact with something that has been in contact with flesh! ;-)

[Hive]

A wall piece that can be attached to the major "castle" of the theme, along with several "bad guys"... awesome! This is what recent Castle subthemes have lacked, and it kinda takes you back to the 80's. I will be getting one of these along with Helm's Deep, for sure.

[roki]

Great set, I love the minifigs. Helm's Deep looks like something is missing without that extra piece of wall! Definitely getting one as soon as possible!

[Gabe]

Thanks for the nice early review Cptn BB, boy am i jealous of you right now! This looks like a great set, if i can i'll def be getting a couple.

[Tria]

Thanks for the review!

The building is nice, but the minifigs are really awesome!! (despite the little printing problems..)

[NiceMarmot]

Thanks for the review!

I had heard somewhere (can't remember where now) that the fancy printing is done in China because that's the only place TLG has the newer printing equipment that can do it. But they are planning on purchasing more of that machinery and installing it in other plants.

Anyway, we bought this today, and my five year old son loves it! He picked it out (his first choice was the Batcave actually, but I didn't want to drop that much $$). It doesn't have a ton of play features, but he's having a good time lining up the Uruk-Hai and nailing them with the catapult and the ballista. Then he rides them down with Eomer, hacking and slashing.

The ballista is pretty nice; it fires well (although not with a true ballista action) and looks good. The wall section is probably just OK. I mean, it's a section of wall; how much could TLG really do with it? It looks fairly good; the sand-green bricks and the masonry bricks break up the wall fairly well. I think the crenellations are one brick too short to be really protective, but this way you can see the minifigs better I suppose. I would have preferred a thicker wall, but that would have raised the price. Placing a 1x2x2 panel sideways to create a small, narrow arrow slit is a nice technique (although I prefer SNOTting cheese slopes for this effect).

I think TLG is going to sell a ton of these to the AFOL community. The Uruk-Hai minifigs are really great, and Eomer and the Rohirrim have great printing too. Six minifigs would be worth $15-$18 in a battlepack alone. Then you're getting about 225 more pieces for the remaining $15, which isn't bad at all. Some of those bricks are fairly ordinary (LBG 1x2 bricks, which are always useful), but there's a fair amount of sand-green and the new brick-bricks, some dark-green cheese slopes, a horse, plus five new 1x2-1x2 brackets. I'm guessing that plenty of people will buy one or two of these and keep all the pieces, and then buy a bunch more, keep the minifigs, and sell the remaining parts on BrickLink.

I can't wait to see someone post a MOD of like 20 of these sets and a Helms Deep or two, with the walls greatly extended and 80 Uruk-Hai assaulting the fortress.

Did I mention how awesome the minfigs are in this set?

Edited May 22, 2012 by NiceMarmot

[KotZ]

Great review! This was always on my list to get, and you convinced me to go for it even more, and buy multiple. Those Uruk-Hai are just calling me.

And NiceMarmot, you say 20? Why not have thirty? That'd be overkill, but it would look really good, I bet.

[K-Nut]

Nice review! Love the fig in this, plus how you can expand Helm's Deep with it. Amazing idea on TLG's part.

[Stiel]

Nice review! Love the fig in this, plus how you can expand Helm's Deep with it. Amazing idea on TLG's part.

Well, I think that it's more like they cut the main set into two parts (to avoid making it a whopping $160 ). You really need at least one box of this set to go with Helm's Deep, as it has too few uruks and also no common human soldiers.

What actually required some skillful design about this set is to make it work as a standalone set too, plus you can realistically attach multiple copies to the main set. I applaud TLG for these latter points.

[Kayne]

Well...the review has me torn. I just got Helm's Deep yesterday and put it together tonight(it's awesome!). I nearly have enough saved for the next venture, and I was undecided as to whether I should by Moria, or Uruk and Orc Forge at once. Moria has some great figs, but I think I might just go with Uruk and Orc Forge. All of the Uruks and Orcs will be nice to have, plus Eomer looks fantastic. And...my Helm's Deep really needs this extension!

[NiceMarmot]

Well...the review has me torn. I just got Helm's Deep yesterday and put it together tonight(it's awesome!). I nearly have enough saved for the next venture, and I was undecided as to whether I should by Moria, or Uruk and Orc Forge at once. Moria has some great figs, but I think I might just go with Uruk and Orc Forge. All of the Uruks and Orcs will be nice to have, plus Eomer looks fantastic. And...my Helm's Deep really needs this extension!

I bought Uruk-Hai and Shelob Attacks (so far!). I'm very happy with both. Uruk-Hai orcs are very good, and Eomer really looks good. The wall extension is no big deal (unless you already have Helm's Deep, which you do), but it has some nice sand-green bricks and the new masonry bricks. The ballista is well done, and my son loves playing with it. I thought that Moria was a bit overpriced, and didn't have much to interest me besides the troll. I already have a lot of grey building bricks, and the Moria orcs are nice, but I think the Uruk-Hai are cooler.

BTW, I think Shelob Attacks is a great set, and highly recommend it. It's got a great price per piece ratio, some good parts, good minifigs, and Gollum! The Gollum fig is very nice, although I wish his legs moved. My son is fascinated by him. But the best thing is Shelob -- the spider is really well designed and is huge. I think I'm going to have to work up some spider-related MOCs for Kaliphlin / Historica soon...

[Jack Bricker]

Good review, although a score and a poll would have been great. I am having wait until my birthday to build this set and I am having a hard time doing it especially since reading your review.

I do disagree with you though on kids not wanting this kind of set. Back in 2007 Lego did some testing on what kids would like in a castle them and a lot of the kids were very interested in fantasy castle vs. a more historical castle theme so I do think there will be a lot of kids wanting this theme especially once the Hobbit movie comes out.

[Aragorn8713]

I love this set so much.

[Lynx]

I like this set as an add-on but don't consider it an army builder. The wall structure with its out pocketing only fits once into the Deeping Wall. For the predominantly flat section, it has to be modified. Having Eomer in the set also speaks against army building (although I preferred it this way).

I'd rate it (out of 5)

Build - straightforward wall, interesting ballista, no stickers

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Movie accuracy - the ballista is way too large for my liking. Uruks could simply climb it to reach the top of the wall. Dislike it so much that I removed it from my display. Catapult inaccurate.

:thumbup:

Minifigures - Eomer is amazing (after removing the cloak), the Rohan soldier and uruks are equally great

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Play features - ballista and catapult, lots of figures and a horse. Not much more one could ask for in a set of this size

:thumbup: :thumbup:

OVERALL

:thumbup: :thumbup:

[Knapen]

Or you can say the the walls are to low instead of saying that the ballista is too big.

[Super Brick Collector]

Great review. The only thing I don't like about this set is that it doesn't bring another Rohan soldier or it could've brought another one or a elf archer.

[vriverajr3]

nice review. i still think a 3vs3 would have been better than a 4vs2. would have been good for army building as well. either way ill be picking this up soon

[Combee]

nice review. i still think a 3vs3 would have been better than a 4vs2. would have been good for army building as well. either way ill be picking this up soon

I agree that it would have been great to get more Rohan soldiers but I think its partially meant to mirror the overwhelming amount of Uruk-Hai at the battle

[Ferrik]

Great review! So which set, do you guys think is the best?

[legomonk]

I love this set I have two of them now. I like the 4vs2 ratio gives the feeling of the movie "out number and doomed."