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LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

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I suppose TLC makes a profit regardless of which set you buy, but I can't help but wonder if TLC has too many licenses competeing with eachother. Star Wars, LOTR, and Super Heroes are three unique staples of geekiness, but with so many sets on the market at a time, surely one line may suffer from the success of another. Not to mention the "Mega-Themes" like Ninjago and Chima. There wasn't nearly this much selection when I was a kid.

I have considered this idea in the past but I really don't think it's the case. I know there quite a few people that like everything and then budget comes into play but there are also quite a few people that gravitate towards one maybe two specific themes and this way TLG gives them choice and still gets there money. If we were choosing from double the themes then I'm sure they would be looking at their numbers and would want to change things up.

The trailer looked awesome but I'm confused about something. I always assumed that the "events" that took place at Dol Guldor were on the small scale of things. We're they ever discussed in another book or is this PJ doing his own thing?

Edited by scottjs

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I have considered this idea in the past but I really don't think it's the case. I know there quite a few people that like everything and then budget comes into play but there are also quite a few people that gravitate towards one maybe two specific themes and this way TLG gives them choice and still gets there money. If we were choosing from double the themes then I'm sure they would be looking at their numbers and would want to change things up.

The trailer looked awesome but I'm confused about something. I always assumed that the "events" that took place at Dol Guldor were on the small scale of things. We're they ever discussed in another book or is this PJ doing his own thing?

Well PJ is propably combining 2 events, the necromancer being driven out of dol guldur by the white council, and the events from lotr book where Galadriell take down the fortress. I might get things mixed around since i never ready the book, but during the events of lotr Lothlorien is batteling orcs from dol guldur.

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The trailer looked awesome but I'm confused about something. I always assumed that the "events" that took place at Dol Guldor were on the small scale of things. We're they ever discussed in another book or is this PJ doing his own thing?

Well, the Battle of Dol Guldur is an important conflict. In the book, I believe the conflict takes place soley between theWhite Council and Sauron himself. But during the War of the Ring, Dol Guldur is still under Sauron's control, and is under command by Khamul, the second-in-command of the Nazgul. It was the Elves of Mirkwood and Lorien who were at constant war with Khamul and Sauron's forces in the north. But since Sauron didn't really touch on this in the LOTR films (Legolas makes a quick comment to Gimli before leaving Edoras in ROTK about how the war may have reached his own borders). So they may be taking aspects from the events of the War in the North (mainly making it a larger battle) and putting it with the Purge of The Necromancer. And to me, that makes sense, and while it's not keeping to the books absolutely, it cleverly amalgamates two really fantastic parts of the Appendicies that likely otherwise wouldn't have been touched on.

EDIT: deskp beat me to it, but I kinda geeked out more with my answer.

So to swing this on-topic, I really hope that the big Dol Guldur set is a bigger set than Goblintown was. Something similar in size to Helm's Deep is necessary to get the number of named characters and generic grunts into one set (unless the Elrond ambush would work as a battle pack add-on for the bigger set).

Edited by Fives

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When The Hobbit was written there was not a lot of the greater mythology. JRRT rewrote the chapter in The Hobbit so they Gollum no longer willing gives the ring to Bilbo. So the Necromancer was not originally the old enemy and was more of an excuse to draw Gandalf away and force Bilbo to be the hero.

I suspect this film ends with Smaug trapping the dwarves in the moutain and flying off. That would support there being no Smaug sets in the December release.

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When The Hobbit was written there was not a lot of the greater mythology. JRRT rewrote the chapter in The Hobbit so they Gollum no longer willing gives the ring to Bilbo. So the Necromancer was not originally the old enemy and was more of an excuse to draw Gandalf away and force Bilbo to be the hero.

I suspect this film ends with Smaug trapping the dwarves in the moutain and flying off. That would support there being no Smaug sets in the December release.

Leaving Smaug alive at the end of DOS would be interesting, but I believe that there is gonna be a big battle at either Dale or Laketown with Smaug (based on what PJ and Boyens said in Empire magazine, and the shots from the trailer of the ballista and Dale tower exploding). Perhaps LEGO will make a big Dale set for the third wave which covers the battle with Smaug.

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I suspect this film ends with Smaug trapping the dwarves in the moutain and flying off. That would support there being no Smaug sets in the December release.

How does that make sense though? Smaug is the "punchline" of both the trailers. And even if he doesent die in the movie he still get the whole scene talking to bilbo + action with the dwarves, And lego has already covered Laketown with a set. I believe we're not getting a smaug set (yet) is cause lego has not had available final refrence artwork for Smaug in time. Lego can fudge sets from concept art, but when it comes to someone as supposedly important as smaug that might not be a good idea, on top of that they need to create new molds for him wich takes time and commitment.

Leaving Smaug alive at the end of DOS would be interesting, but I believe that there is gonna be a big battle at either Dale or Laketown with Smaug (based on what PJ and Boyens said in Empire magazine, and the shots from the trailer of the ballista and Dale tower exploding). Perhaps LEGO will make a big Dale set for the third wave which covers the battle with Smaug.

The Dale content with the balista in the trailer is a flashback (more prologue content essentialy) The guy shooting the arrow is a characther from the book.

Edited by deskp

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How does that make sense though? Smaug is the "punchline" of both the trailers. And even if he doesent die in the movie he still get the whole scene talking to bilbo + action with the dwarves, And lego has already covered Laketown with a set. I believe we're not getting a smaug set (yet) is cause lego has not had available final refrence artwork for Smaug in time. Lego can fudge sets from concept art, but when it comes to someone as supposedly important as smaug that might not be a good idea, on top of that they need to create new molds for him wich takes time and commitment.

The Dale content with the balista in the trailer is a flashback (more prologue content essentialy) The guy shooting the arrow is a characther from the book.

It may not be part of a flashback. That wouldn't make sense. They covered Smaug's destruction of Dale in the beginning of AUJ. But I think stuff is gonna happen again in Dale.

And yeah, that's Bard with the Black Arrow.

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When The Hobbit was written there was not a lot of the greater mythology. JRRT rewrote the chapter in The Hobbit so they Gollum no longer willing gives the ring to Bilbo. So the Necromancer was not originally the old enemy and was more of an excuse to draw Gandalf away and force Bilbo to be the hero.

I suspect this film ends with Smaug trapping the dwarves in the moutain and flying off. That would support there being no Smaug sets in the December release.

We already know from what PJ said in empire magazine that the dwarves have their final confrontation with smaug near the end of the film. He said this involves a lot of artillery and a mightily annoyed dragon. In the trailer it shows one of the dwarves firing a catapult in the ruins of dale presumably at smaug. Fran Williamson said the action sequences near to the end of this film are bigger than anything PJ has ever done before. I'm guessing we will have the battle at Dol Guldur intercut with the battle with the dragon as the big finale. Based on what has been said this is what I expect from Dol Guldur set: Gandalf, radagast, Galadriel, saruman, sauron, orcs maybe thranduil if he gets involved. A large fortress around helm's deep size but ruined and the small set will probably be Elrond in his armour maybe on a horse with another elf and two orcs and maybe a bit of fortress to be connected.

We already know from what PJ said in empire magazine that the dwarves have their final confrontation with smaug near the end of the film. He said this involves a lot of artillery and a mightily annoyed dragon. In the trailer it shows one of the dwarves firing a catapult in the ruins of dale presumably at smaug. Fran Williamson said the action sequences near to the end of this film are bigger than anything PJ has ever done before. I'm guessing we will have the battle at Dol Guldur intercut with the battle with the dragon as the big finale. Based on what has been said this is what I expect from Dol Guldur set: Gandalf, radagast, Galadriel, saruman, sauron, orcs maybe thranduil if he gets involved. A large fortress around helm's deep size but ruined and the small set will probably be Elrond in his armour maybe on a horse with another elf and two orcs and maybe a bit of fortress to be connected.

Edit deskp and fives beat me to it!!!

Edited by legofreak86

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Yes the dwarves may battle Smaug but that doesn't necessarily mean Smaug is dead at the end. In the book the dwarves don't fight the dragon at all so who knows if the dwarves end up actually killing Smaug. He could easily just fly off leaving us waiting for the third movie. A giant cliffhanger otherwise there is only the battle of the five armies left plus whatever else Jackson,makes up.

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Well, after watching the trailer, I'm actually more enthousiastic both about the movie and the sets! A Dol Guldur set with smaller add-on set would be great (army building and a castle!)!

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It may not be part of a flashback. That wouldn't make sense. They covered Smaug's destruction of Dale in the beginning of AUJ. But I think stuff is gonna happen again in Dale.

And yeah, that's Bard with the Black Arrow.

It is part of flashback: there is no snow, the city is not ruined yet, the dead guards are are the style of dale and the "clip" has the same color/style of the prologue.

They covered the destruction of dale in AUJ yes, but they did not cover any history for the black arrow. 100% what we see in the trailer is a flashback of the first time smaug attacked dale.

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It may not be part of a flashback. That wouldn't make sense. They covered Smaug's destruction of Dale in the beginning of AUJ. But I think stuff is gonna happen again in Dale.

I think that there could be a further flashback to Dale in DOS as part of the Bard story. Might be Girion firing the Ballista. Certainly looks like the ballista is surrounded by bodies of Men of Dale and looking at the surrounding rooftops this doesn't look like a deserted city that has been ruined for decades.

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I may be in the minority, but I felt the book didn't have many thrilling moments in it. Thankfully the movie actioned it up, so the sets should have enough action/playability. With that said, this trailer blows the first movie out of the water. It dragged on and had a lot of unnecessary parts, especially compared to the book. I am really liking forward to these sets. I kept saying I wanted more Elves with hair, but those helmets will be a great replacement.

And to add to the earlier discussion-- I buy (pretty much) all licensed sets, d2c, CMF, and a good chunk of friends for the daughter. It definitely eats away at the bank account. But LEGO is getting our money and then some. But I can easily say middle earth and a few select super heroes sets are my favorite.

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Thanks for the info Fives and deskp, I'm glad to know the events won't be completely fabricated. I'm a lot more excited for this wave then I was for the first, new info can't come soon enough.

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I have to say I dont know if I want a set to be a good army building like Uruk-Hai Army because it would cost me too much I was lucky to get all my Uruk-Hai sets in a sale but it will be hard to find so many again. It would be nice to get a £12 army set not a £30 one but I am sure you would all love one whatever the price. We do need some more news, just one fig would do me for now.

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I have to say I dont know if I want a set to be a good army building like Uruk-Hai Army because it would cost me too much I was lucky to get all my Uruk-Hai sets in a sale but it will be hard to find so many again. It would be nice to get a £12 army set not a £30 one but I am sure you would all love one whatever the price. We do need some more news, just one fig would do me for now.

Just have some patience, in less than 2 weeks we should have pictures, like the 8th or 9th october. Just cause lego doesen't go to comic con doesent mean they don't want media coverage!

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Just have some patience, in less than 2 weeks we should have pictures, like the 8th or 9th october. Just cause lego doesen't go to comic con doesent mean they don't want media coverage!

lego won't be at NYCC? It means no exclusive sets ;)

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And it's currently sold out directly from Amazon after only a few weeks, you can only get it through third parties on Amazon right now.

Or from lego.

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Two weeks is a long time for people like me!!

I suppose though we've waited this long, a bit more shouldn't hurt too much... ...

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lego won't be at NYCC? It means no exclusive sets ;)

I like your thinking!

(Still waiting for an opportunity to get the SW Clone Lieutenant)

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Uh oh! More trouble in camp hobbit. The action figure of Bolg announced at toy fair is NOT being released this year due to changes in the movie, I wonder if this has affected the lego sets aswell, If the movie has changed the design of bolg, I hope lego are too late for changing it and will release the design we've already seen, because it's fantastic!

I would assume Bolg would have been in one of the 2(?) Dol guldur sets we know of, so it shouldn't be the case that a 5th set was canned after movie changes... right?

action figure company quote:

"The 6" scale Bolg you saw at Toy Fair will not be available this Fall. The Bridge develops and plan many months ahead of time, all while trying to stay true to the source material. However, during the creative process of filmmaking, characters may change and so our toy program adapts accordingly to reflect the final vision of the film."

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Uh oh! More trouble in camp hobbit. The action figure of Bolg announced at toy fair is NOT being released this year due to changes in the movie, I wonder if this has affected the lego sets aswell, If the movie has changed the design of bolg, I hope lego are too late for changing it and will release the design we've already seen, because it's fantastic!

I would assume Bolg would have been in one of the 2(?) Dol guldur sets we know of, so it shouldn't be the case that a 5th set was canned after movie changes... right?

action figure company quote:

"The 6" scale Bolg you saw at Toy Fair will not be available this Fall. The Bridge develops and plan many months ahead of time, all while trying to stay true to the source material. However, during the creative process of filmmaking, characters may change and so our toy program adapts accordingly to reflect the final vision of the film."

I just hope they dont change him to look more like Azog :sceptic:

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I don't think this will affect the sets since the last-minute change in the last movie (i.e. the Azog/Yazneg switch) didn't have an impact on the sets either :wink: It's interesting that they're changing his appearance seeing that Bolg already appeared in the flashback scenes in AUJ (although not in close-up and not being identified as that character). I hope the changes are not that major because I really like the current design they're going with. :sweet:

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