What is your favourite LOTR set?

[Falconer]

1. Hornburg

2. Chamber of Mazarbul

3. Gandalf’s Cart

4. Deeping Wall

5. Weathertop

6. Shelob

7. Isengard Forge

[Fives]

I think a moderator (or anyone capable) should merge Ferriks first thread like this with this thread. Rather than having two threads with the same name floating around, it would be smart to just join them together.

I voted, as I said in the other thread, for Moria. It has the most exclusive figures who are members of the Fellowship in one set, and it perfectly represents the scene. I don't think I could list the rest in any particular order, I love them all.

[Ferrik]

I think a moderator (or anyone capable) should merge Ferriks first thread like this with this thread. Rather than having two threads with the same name floating around, it would be smart to just join them together.

I voted, as I said in the other thread, for Moria. It has the most exclusive figures who are members of the Fellowship in one set, and it perfectly represents the scene. I don't think I could list the rest in any particular order, I love them all.

Yes, that's why I was thinking, so people won't have to comment twice. But I don't know if it is even possible to merge topics...

I think a moderator (or anyone capable) should merge Ferriks first thread like this with this thread. Rather than having two threads with the same name floating around, it would be smart to just join them together.

I voted, as I said in the other thread, for Moria. It has the most exclusive figures who are members of the Fellowship in one set, and it perfectly represents the scene. I don't think I could list the rest in any particular order, I love them all.

Thanks for your vote but I think the poll got deleted somehow...

[Ferrik]

The poll's working again.

[SheepEater]

I'm gonna vote after I have obtained, and built, all 7 sets. Only have the 3 smallest sets thus far.

[Ferrik]

Great review! I've been thinking of buying Gandalf Arrives or Shelob Attacks as one of my first LOTR sets. Which do you think is better? I like the horse and Gandalf for the first set and for "Shelob Attacks" I like the spider because it has a string and there's Gollum...

[Marty McFly]

I'm going to be different and say The Orc Forge is my favourite. It packs a lot of features into a small set, and the Lurtz minifig is superb. The use of a light brick to add some "heat" to the furnace is a nice touch too.

Weathertop is a very close second, and all of the sets are 'must haves' as far as I'm concerned.

[Deathleech]

This is a really tough call because there are a ton of great sets in this line. I would have to say my least favorite is Gandalf Arrives though, followed by Attack on Weathertop. My favorite sets are Helm's Deep, Mines of Moria, Uruk-Hai Army, and Shelob Attacks.

Uruk-hai Army has a ton of minifigs and is great for army building, as well as adding on to Helm's Deep set. Unfortunately they had to include Eomer with it. I woulda rather seen him in another set and a second Rohan soldier in this one. Shelob Attacks, for it's price point, is an amazing set. It is a really good value, comes with 3 nice minifigs, and the spider is really, really cool. Considering it is competing with other sets that are in the 80-130 dollar range I think that says a lot.

Helm's Deep is really a nice castle with lots of cool little features and details, and some nice exclusive figures. I have to say though, my favorite set probably goes to Mines of Moria. While the mass amount of stickers is kind of a bummer, the Cave Troll and all the other minifigs more than make up for it. I totally love the little Moria Orc hair and ears, and think the Fellowship figs look absolutely astounding!

[JackJonespaw]

The Mines of Moria. I know that the stickers are ridiculous, but the overall set and figures are fantastic.

[Whup]

I've just voted for Helm's Deep, although I've been impressed with all the sets I've built so far. I usually only buy sets that stand out to me here and there, but I think I'll end up with all of the LotR sets. Weathertop isn't my favourite looking set, but made up for it with what I thought was an interesting build (and a rock solid construction).

[meyerc13]

My favorite is Attack on Weathertop, probably because that is one of my favorite scenes from the book. Strider is easily my favorite character, and it's early in the book when they are just starting on their adventure and they come face to face with real danger. I think LEGO captured the scene quite well, the only thing missing from the set is a pair of hobbits and several ringwraiths.

[ShaydDeGrai]

I'm going to have to go with the Mines of Moria.

While build complexity and after build play-ability are major factors for any set (and many of these do quite well on this front; one of _MY_ key criteria for this particular theme is to take away all the mini-figures and see if what's left says "Lord of the Rings" . Most of the line failed this test. Only Moria and Helm's Deep really evoked anything that touched a LOTR nerve, and even then, Helm's Deep (as rendered) could really have been any old castle, there were just touches here and there that pointed in the direction of the original. Most of the sets really aren't much once you take out the mini-figures ("hey look, it's a cart that isn't even big enough for two people, yea!"). Shelob looks great (and is well priced) but how is she different than Aragog or any other giant creepy crawly?

Don't get me wrong, I think they did a nice job with the figures (love the new horses) and I'll be picking up a number of duplicate kits for parts alone (nice colour palette, new SNOT brackets, stone textured 1x2's, new claw element, etc.) I just wish the sets themselves were a little more 'iconic' such that even without the figures you instantly think "hey that's from the Lord of the Rings!" not "Lego's come a long way from that old yellow castle I got when I was 5..."

[Algernon]

I just ordered Gandalf Arrives, and that's to be my first LotR set. I have to say, though, that Helm's Deep is one of the most impressive castles I've ever seen from LEGO. The attention to detail is just incredible, you can really tell they're aiming at an older audience with these sets. If it wasn't so pricy, I would have bought it already.

Of course, this is coming from someone who doesn't own any of them yet.

[TheLegoDr]

I picked Shelob Attacks because that spider is beautiful! I am really impressed with the construction and size.

I ordered the three big sets from B&N because of their huge sale and just received them yesterday. The boxes were all damaged, but hopefully the pieces are all right. I am holding those back until Christmas.

[SheepEater]

(nice colour palette, new SNOT brackets, stone textured 1x2's, new claw element, etc.) I just wish the sets themselves were a little more 'iconic' such that even without the figures you instantly think "hey that's from the Lord of the Rings!" not "Lego's come a long way from that old yellow castle I got when I was 5..."

The only set representing a scene that I would agree is not iconic is Orc Forge. Otherwise, I disagree with you about the other sets being non-iconic without the minifigs:

- Gandalf's Cart: The firecrackers and the general trapezoid shape makes it recognizable for those who remember it from the movie.

- Shelob: Her eyes are exactly like in the movie

- Uruk-Hai army: Part of the deeping wall, doesn't really count as a stand-alone set. I'm pretty sure they used Ballistas who fire hooks in the movie.

- Weathertop: The general shape of the columns is recognizable. The palantir holder is from the book. So, this is iconic to people who have read the book. The cooking scene is iconic from the movie.

- Helm's Deep: The bomb + exploding wall, general shape of the ramp leading to the main gate, and side door to dwarf tossing platform is instantly recognizable from the movie

Edited June 14, 2012 by SheepEater

[K-Nut]

Mines of Moria for me. Great playability and figs. The thirty-three stickers suck though. I think Helm's Deep is up there, if for it's massive size alone.

[4WD]

I'm going to have to go with Mines of Moria. I briefly played Games Workshop miniature tabletop games a few years back, and I remember wanting their "Mines of Moria" starter kit. It was almost the exact same as this set in essence, but they were still different of course. Now I can have one... a bigger, brilliantly designed and surprisingly cheaper one... made of my favourite toy of all time. Also, I love that Cave Troll.

[ShaydDeGrai]

The only set representing a scene that I would agree is not iconic is Orc Forge. Otherwise, I disagree with you about the other sets being non-iconic without the minifigs:

- Gandalf's Cart: The firecrackers and the general trapezoid shape makes it recognizable for those who remember it from the movie.

- Shelob: Her eyes are exactly like in the movie

- Uruk-Hai army: Part of the deeping wall, doesn't really count as a stand-alone set. I'm pretty sure they used Ballistas who fire hooks in the movie.

- Weathertop: The general shape of the columns is recognizable. The palantir holder is from the book. So, this is iconic to people who have read the book. The cooking scene is iconic from the movie.

- Helm's Deep: The bomb + exploding wall, general shape of the ramp leading to the main gate, and side door to dwarf tossing platform is instantly recognizable from the movie

All very good points, but I think of those as more sort of nods to source material not really "icons". Being iconic isn't really about getting the details right, it's about putting a thought into someone's head before they're even had time to think about what details should be expected. In my mind, it's a bit like the difference between the way TLG handled Star Wars versus Harry Potter.

The Star Wars theme has a lot more "iconic" offerings where, taken completely out of context (nobody said it was Star Wars, there are no tell-tale mini-figures you just see the build), you instantly know what the source material was and it _makes_ you remember the films as a whole as well as individual scenes.

The Harry Potter theme had more of the "if you remember this scene, you'll notice we included this detail" sort of offerings. Like Dobby's Release, yes there's a book and a sock and a little bit of a castle, but without Dobby and Malfoy and someone telling you it has to do with Harry Potter, it doesn't jump on a table and scream "I'm from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!" The HP line really focused on the mini-figures (which is fine) and added touches so that someone who was looking for details to match a scene would be satisfied, but in my mind that's not "iconic" that's more a question of fidelity to the source.

It's the same thing I find with the LOTR offerings to date; yes the details are there if I'm looking for them or willing to let my mind fill in the details ("oh... those are _supposed_ to be the fireworks, okay, I'll buy that...") but the whole point of icons is abstracting away details and still making an instant mental connection. If you read the scene in the book, watch the scene in the movie and then compare it to the kit, Weather Top has a lot of things going for it. If, out of the blue, you handed the model to someone who read the book 40 years ago, saw the movie 10 years ago and said "what is this?" Weather Top from the Fellowship of the Ring might not be their first guess, especially if they've seen/read lots of other fantasy/historic fiction and just see a ruin rendered in Lego.

The same is true of Shelob, if I tell you it's her, you might look at it and say they did a great job with the eyes; if I just asked a stranger on the street to identify the model, most people would probably say "spider" - the shape is iconic because lots of people fear spiders and the model hits that dead on, but the LOTR connection is an afterthought. Put her next to Sam and Frodo, she becomes Shelob. Put the same model next to Ron, Harry and Hagrid, now he becomes Aragog (though careful observers might say the eyes aren't quite right). Pose it with a giant ape and some terrified explorers and you've got a scene from King Kong. Put it next to William Shatner in a bad monster movie and you have Kingdom of the Spiders.

In contrast, you could build a Friends version of the Millennium Falcon in teal, aqua and pink with most of the surface detailing removed and people will still think Star Wars.

I'm not saying the kits aren't good (I already own all of them and will be buying duplicates of some) I just think TLG could do better to really milk the LOTR theme for all it's worth; maybe with some UCS kits or scenes that really ARE iconic like the Witch King of Angmar and his Fellbeast versus Eowyn and Merry or Gandalf vs the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad Dum, take away the figures and you still have a fellbeast on a battlefield and a balrog on an arching bridge - those are more distinctly LOTR to me than a curved ramp and a postern gate on a castle. Even just Bag End with distinctive Hobbit architecture would be a vast improvement, in my book.

[Haltiamieli]

If, out of the blue, you handed the model to someone who read the book 40 years ago, saw the movie 10 years ago and said "what is this?" Weather Top from the Fellowship of the Ring might not be their first guess, especially if they've seen/read lots of other fantasy/historic fiction and just see a ruin rendered in Lego.

While I partly agree with you on the slightly questionable subject choices (though with iconic stuff you just cannot win when compared to SW), I don't see how Mines of Moria is any exception to that. On the contrary to me it is the set that perhaps suffers most from the problem you described: it's a group of awesome minifigs and not very recognisable grey blocks of bricks. Not to say that the designers haven't done an admirable job trying to realise the environment from the screen to Lego bricks, but the subject matter just isn't that iconic to begin with. Funny how opinions can vary!

While I hope to own all the Lego LotR sets someday, Mines of Moria is the one I'm probably getting last. I could even easily skip it if I could buy the figs cheaply enough (not gonna happen though, them being cheap enough). I don't think I can say the same of any other set from the first wave, though Weathertop is unfortunately expensive.

I did vote for the Helm's Deep, which is all kinds of awesome (and quite recognisable even without the minifigs, I think), though it feels a bit unfair considering that the smaller sets have hard time competing with the huge and expensive flagship set? But really I think Gandalf Arrives could have surpassed Helm's Deep in my books if it had just a few parts of foliage or something to suggest lush and peaceful setting of The Shire.

the Witch King of Angmar and his Fellbeast versus Eowyn and Merry or Gandalf vs the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad Dum

I'm really surprised if we don't see both of those before the line is finished. Of Bag End I'm not so sure, I think the best chance is in the first wave for The Hobbit, representing the Unexpected Party.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Haltiamieli

[Anduril]

My favorite was Helm's Deep. I have wanted a Helm's Deep set for some time now. I own Shelob Attacks, Gandalf Arrives, uruk-hai army, and Helm's deep. I just think Helm's deep looks the most impressive and I had lots of fun building it. I do have to say though I like all these sets and the characters the come with each are amazing.

[SheepEater]

I don't see how Mines of Moria is any exception to that. On the contrary to me it is the set that perhaps suffers most from the problem you described: it's a group of awesome minifigs and not very recognisable grey blocks of bricks.

I strongly disagree. As much as people complain of stickers, they are necessary: yesterday I was looking at the dwarven runes on Balin's Tomb (and other places in the mines) and how they match exactly with those from this passage in the book. Tolkien wrote them in huge fonts, too.

The skeleton well is more than iconic for that "Fool of a Took" line which exists in book AND movie, and is one of the key scenes shown in the LEGO LOTR videogame demo.

The huge columns, the big axe locking the big doors: again, reminds me of the movies.

The chests filled with treasures is taken from the book. The guy who designed the set looks like he's in his late 40s/early 50s and admitted to be a huge LOTR nut

I love to bring up the book in discussion because I've read it in the 90s! I was as excited about the movie coming out in 2001 as I was about the new lego sets in late 2011

I'm really surprised if we don't see both of those before the line is finished. Of Bag End I'm not so sure, I think the best chance is in the first wave for The Hobbit, representing the Unexpected Party.

I agree about the Witch King and Balrog. They kind of have to, now that we know they are in the videogame.

Bag End: This is my prediction as well, and also my guess as to why they haven't included it.

And although we can probably all agree that Orc Forge is far from an iconic scene, Lego probably opted to include it for the kiddies who aren't familiar with LOTR, to give them some kind of a "Baddies HQ" set that is not Orthanc itself (since Lego obviously decided that a Isengard set is too big for a first wave)

Edited June 14, 2012 by SheepEater

[Haltiamieli]

I strongly disagree. As much as people complain of stickers, they are necessary: yesterday I was looking at the dwarven runes on Balin's Tomb (and other places in the mines) and how they match exactly with those from this passage in the book.

While I'm personally even rather happy that they decided to use stickers instead of printing a heap of bricks and thus limiting their usability and at the same time provided us with a nice sheet of stickers that includes many useful ones that can be used wherever one wants to in MOCs etc., the designers' need to rely on a whole lot of printed details (regardless of whether they are on stickers or on bricks themselves) does in a way imply that maybe indeed the set wasn't thought to be interesting enough without them. There's not much colour or eye-catching elements in it and the overall appearance is rather cluttered. Certainly I do not deny that the set is recognisable, there's all the important storypoint things like the tomb and the well, it's probably more or less as recognisable as it can be with the chosen subject matter, I just doubt it being the most recognisable one (sans figs) or even close to being one.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

My favourite set is 9470 Shelob Attacks, I really like the minifigures and I think is a great scene from the movie!

[Propicz89]

1. Helms deep

2. Battle at the Black gate

3. Mines of Moria

4. Rivendell

5. Uruk hai army

6. Weathertop

7.Orc forge

8. Pirate ship ambush

9. Shelob attacks

10.Wizard battle

11. Gandalf arrives

[Leoman]

Helms deep, because I like castles. I don't have it yet because I bought the kings castle from the castle theme instead. I have attack on weather top which makes a nice display piece.