LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[Krulis]

I'm amazed at the amount of hate these sets are getting. I'm not going to say this is the greatest Lego wave of all time, but I really have to wonder sometimes what AFOLs are expecting TLG to do. No matter what they do, the complaints keep coming in...

Agree 100% with everything you said.

As deskp shown us DGA is a perfect representation of Dol Guldur gate. Gundabad orcs are awesome and as I stated earlier Lego Beorn looks better than the movie one. The playfature is also nice.

MEA wall looks a little squished but Thranduil, elf guardians and dark brown warg and more orcs are welcome addition to anybody's collection.

For LTC I will hold my judgement until movie comes out however figs and buildings seem to be accurate.

DGB gives an impression of cursed and decrepit fortress and thats how it should look. Lot of playfatures, awesome statue and figs to die for. Gandalf is nothing extraordinary, Gundabad orcs are good as always, Sauron the Necromacer is great cartoony representation of the black shape we saw in the first movie and Azog and Radagast are just perfect. Also I love the fact that this set and DGA can combine.

[SMC]

I look at these builds and like the selection of parts. The bland walls that others complain about are the basis of any castle / fortress you want to design. Tolkien fans don't have anything to complain about. It is the Superhero fans that keep getting vehicles that are without the means to really build something outstanding.

It is true that when I see these sets that are ok but not helms deep I buy them thinking that at least they are adding to the bricks I have to one day build something great. I also get superhero sets and the part are not as usefully so I only get the cheaper sets. Overall I think we do well with out LOTR/Hobbit sets.

[Lynx]

I don't think the disappointment about this wave stems from the look of Dol Guldur.* The predominant bland, 2-diminsional look could have been accounted for by choosing other sets. Radagast's home or Beorn's house, for instance, would have made beautiful sets! And given the attack of spiders in the first movie, there was certainly potential for an action-packed play set. The preview of dwarves being attacked by a giant bear within Beorn's house suggest similar potential. The problem with this wave is simply the lack of a stand-out brick set. Exclude the minifigures, and there is not much substance! In recent years, we've had Helm's Deep and Weathertop (some might argue for Balin's Tomb, too, since it was instantly recognisable on a shelf), then Bag End and finally the Council of Elrond and Orthanc. With those sets, LEGO set the bar very high, and the new sets simply pale in comparison. The 2013 Hobbit sets are not bad by any means. But we know they could have been even better, and that is why we voice our disappointment.

*I agree that it is difficult to create anything but a grey pile of rocks. However, I would have preferred some depth in the structure, which would have given it a more complete feel. I think that Weathertop is a good example of that: an abstract model of a tower with a complete feel and play value, which is recognisable despite being far smaller than minifigure scale. Of course, I understand that opinions on this set are divided, and other fans prefer a set focussing on parts of a scene rather than a complete building.

[Ardelon]

To state my opinion, I'm a bit disappointed with the sets – good parts packs, but not very interesting builds apart from Lake Town (and maybe DGB, which actually does look like the source material the more I look at it). I think there's a Prince of Persia arch in light bley in the MEA set – seems like a new color for the piece?

The minifigs (and yeah, this wave really is all about the figs) are a mixed bag. The men of Esgaroth are great, enough said. The Elves might be too, but I'm not really interested in Elves. I think the new standard male woodland guard torso was necessary, as so far we only got a female torso (Tauriel) and a royal one (Legolas). Thranduil's ears seem to be a bit low, but that's just a funny little nitpick. I don't mind Thranduil's broadsword, but I was hoping for Elrond's elven-sword in bley instead of a PoP dagger.

The new Orcs are nice but ever since we found out they had new prints, I expected better (spiky briefs ftw?). Still better than reusing the old Orcs, though. The warg is cool, but the fact that it has pupils while the others don't bothers me a bit. I guess TLG made a smart business move with giving hairpieces only to the DGA Orcs...

The rest of the figs I rather dislike. Not a fan of the movie Beorn, which reveals my opinion on the LEGO character. He is, of course, accurate to the source material, which makes me worried about how the Necromancer will look in the movies. I was expecting a much less corporeal Necromancer. Azog should have been white IMO. Same old Gandalf is ok (the Thorin hair would have been nice), and the statue is pretty cool. Contrary to most, I don't really like Radagast. The beard shape and color seems off, as does his face print. Maybe a closer look will convince me otherwise. Looking forward to his torso print.

Oh, and great work on the character gallery, deskp!

[Deathleech]

I'm amazed at the amount of hate these sets are getting. I'm not going to say this is the greatest Lego wave of all time, but I really have to wonder sometimes what AFOLs are expecting TLG to do. No matter what they do, the complaints keep coming in.

I disagree. I think Lego could of taken a few easy steps to make fans much more happy with these sets...

There is nothing TLG could do about the Necromancer, guys. I don't see too many distinguishing features they could have thrown in there. Dude has no crown, guys. He has no robes. He barely has a shape. You want him to be something fearful like a Nazgul or something, but that's not what he is.

Like I said before, they could of added some details to the black parts of the minifigure instead of making him all a solid black there. Ripples and folds in his clothing, dirt.. any details would of made him look better. I agree to some extent though, there doesn't seem like there could be THAT much done with the Necromancer based on his movie appearance thus far.

You want to complain about Dol Guldur being a nondescript gray castle? Guess what, in the films the place is a nondescript gray castle. It has some ruined towers (which the set has), some crumbling stairs (which the set has), some spiky vines and withered vegetation (which the set has) and some ancient wrought iron gates (which the set has). Yes, the set would look better if it was a 3000-piece UCS set depicting the entire castle, bridges and all. And those magnificent sets would sit on the shelves at Wal-Mart for a solid year before they went into the discount aisles and finally sold at 50% off. That's not a viable business strategy for TLG.

Except Lego's version resembles the movie version very little. It appears they tried to make the courtyard but totally neglected the overall look of the place. It ended up looking like a boring gray wall. You can even see parts of the otherside which have no detail at all in the smaller pictures on the back. I think adding a few big towers or higher peaks could of done TONS to make the structure more closely resemble Dol Guldur from the outside. Personally I would of preferred Lego made it a $100 set and the walls slightly smaller (like 1 or 2 bricks shorter), more peaks/point, and fully enclose (but still unhook into a long wall). The wave only have 4 sets and the most expensive is only $70 so they easily could of bumped the price and pieces of DGB up no problem. Right now it just isn't very distinguishable, it looks like a gray wall with a statue in the middle. Even Mines of Moria looks something like it's movie counter part, and that set was based on a single square-ish room contained deep inside a mountain labyrinth. Helm's Deep, Bag End, Weathertop, etc. are perfect examples of scaled down Lego models that still are instantly recognizable. Like I said before though, how many people who have seen the movie will actually recognize DGB as Dol Guldur if you just set the bricks put together in front of them?

Let's complain about no armored Elves instead. Guys, again, Elves don't usually wear armor. Not in LOTR, not in any other part of Tolkien's work, not in popular fiction, not in actual legends. Ask a dozen people on the street what elves wear - the people who don't think you're insane will tell you a bunch of different things, but not one of them will say "oh, plate mail and tall, curvy helmets". What you'll mostly hear is green and brown, woodland colors, or shining robes. Many people will think of hooded green cloaks and longbows. And guess what the Elves are wearing in the MEA set? Yep, green, brown, shining robes, green hoods and longbows.

Ya, except the scene seems to be based on this part of the movie, which clearly shows the elves in their armor. Plus we already got the elf polybag last year with the hooded elf so it makes the MEA ones all the less appealing. Sure the poly wasn't widely available, but why did Lego need to include not one, not two, but THREE elves in the leather armor? Surely they could of done just 1 or even 2 and had one in armor since they appear that way at some point in the film?

I do think some of the complaining is unwarranted and I usually stick up for Lego's LotR/Hobbit sets (loved Mines of Moria despite all the criticism it got). Beorn's hair is in no way Lego's fault. At the same time though, they could of used the tall "Woody" legs to make him appear bigger than normal as he does in the film. I think the fact we got so many new characters and army builder types, as well as the brown Warg (even if I would of prefered a lighter brown or tan) is fantastic!

[Brickadiergerard]

I was pretty positive about these sets on first appearance, and I still am in many ways.

I think Beorn is ridiculous, but that's PJ's fault, and I really wish that some of the elves had the helmets we saw at the beginning of AUJ, but other than that the wave has some excellent minifigures. As for the sets themselves, Laketown is a lovely looking set, which certainly captures something of the feel of the book and presumably the film too. As for the Dol Guldur sets, they represent a creepy ruined fortress and do a pretty good job of that don't they? In the books there's not much of a description of it, but the sets seem to pick up pretty accurately the look the films have gone for, and they have enough built in play features to make them more than just walls.

The set that strikes me as a little underwhelming is the Mirkwood Elf army. The elf outpost is pretty odd. Maybe it captures a structure from the film, or maybe because of the massive tree in the warg attack set in wave 1 TLH didn't want to make another set based around another similarly big piece of timber, but does a beige and brown wall really do much for anyone? Does it seem particularly elvish in comparison with the beautifully simple Rivendell set or the structures in the LOTR game? I'd happily trade all the wall for a modest tree with a platform in it, a couple of elf helmets. And a giant war stag. Now that would have been fantastic. What's not to like about a Giant War Stag in lego form?

The thing I miss in the actual sets compared to the rumours is that "Elrond Ambush" set name that appeared a while ago by mistake. I had just begun to hope that we'd get an AUJ set in wave 2 to complement the DOS sets in wave 1, and that it would be a set based on Elrond and his horsemen rescuing Radagast and the dwarves. I hate the scene with Radagast magically appearing from Mirkwood in the middle of the very bush in Eriador where Gandalf and friends are, but I love the arrival of the elf cavalry. Of all the elves in all the PJ films so far, I think those ones in their armour are probably my favourite - probably because they are a really great realisation of the description of the Noldor elves from the First and Second Ages. So for me, it's a shame we "lost" that one.

[Infernum]

Like I said before, they could of added some details to the black parts of the minifigure instead of making him all a solid black there. Ripples and folds in his clothing, dirt.. any details would of made him look better. I agree to some extent though, there doesn't seem like there could be THAT much done with the Necromancer based on his movie appearance thus far.

Hmm, I agree. The Necromancer could be a little more detailed, but I don't know how. He seems to be much more a ghostly figure than a physical one. He isn't physical so dirt wouldn't have worked. I don't think he has a cloak, I think he's more like a shadow. Now that I think about it, we're lucky to get him at all. . I almost would have expected him to just be a sticker somewhere, but I'm glad he's not.

[Mahtion]

I'm amazed at the amount of hate these sets are getting.

Let's complain about no armored Elves instead. Guys, again, Elves don't usually wear armor. Not in LOTR, not in any other part of Tolkien's work, not in popular fiction, not in actual legends. Ask a dozen people on the street what elves wear - the people who don't think you're insane will tell you a bunch of different things, but not one of them will say "oh, plate mail and tall, curvy helmets". What you'll mostly hear is green and brown, woodland colors, or shining robes. Many people will think of hooded green cloaks and longbows. And guess what the Elves are wearing in the MEA set? Yep, green, brown, shining robes, green hoods and longbows. OMG, what numbskull over at TLG thought of making an Elf set where the Elves actually looked like what the average person thinks Elves look like? How dare they??? Don't they know AFOLs need to build the ultimate Elf army? DON'T THEY KNOW THERE'S A WAR

Okay you have a point about some of the expectations but you are way off on the elves wearing armor. First Sauron lost his ability to take a fair form after the sinking of Numenor thousands of years before the Last Alliance. After the Last Alliance in the SECOND age he could still take form as described in FOTR book.

Now onto the Elves. They are not the Victorian depictions of small fairy folk nor are they brownies or pixies. These are the Alfar of Norse mythology and they were never depicted wearing green or leaves. Most importantly Tolkien despised these bastardizations of his beloved mythological archetype. In the Silmarilion and LOTR the elves are often described wearing white and silver especially the Noldor High Elves. They are mentioned wearing shining mail and helmets and brandishing long and terrible swords. More elves in Tolkien are described carrying swords than bows.

You are conflating contemporary popular depictions of forest dwelling bow wielding elves which are a cliche with the traditional and Tolkien view. Only Legolas was described wearing green as he was Legolas Greenleaf. Lego has the right to produce anything they want as inaccurate and poorly rendered as they need but do not spread misinformation and try to justify popular depictions as an excuse for Lego. The elves are constantly wearing armor even in the Mirkwood Elf Army set, it is just heavy leather and maybe light scale mail rather than steel plate or lamellar.

Asking any average bystander what an elf is and I can guarantee you most would think of Santa's diminutive helpers. Using the uninformed masses as a litmus test and justification for elf depictions is misguided. So it is inaccurate to say elves in Tolkien and many forms of fantasy do not wear armor. Going by the movies we see Elves in armor first by the Prologue in Last Alliance, then the Galadhrim at Helms Deep, then Mirkwood infantry in Hobbit prologue and Elrond with his Rivendell cavalry, now various armored guards in Mirkwood and we will see more of the armored infantry in BoFA. So going by the movies we have elves in armor in 5/6 movies made by Peter Jackson.

Edited October 21, 2013 by Mahtion

[Gryphon Ink]

Deathleech, I get what you're saying about Dol Guldur, and they might have improved the set with a few changes, but I really respect the design they came up with. I hear people saying it's flat, but I like it a lot, especially when I'm thinking about my kids since it has so many play features and cool things. They brick-built the stairs and the arches, which is the kind of thing I like as an AFOL. And I disagree with you about its recognizability. I think it captures the most recognizable part of Dol Guldur, at least the part most people know at this point. And while Sauron is a bit silly, I thought he was silly in the movie, too. He should have been much less corporeal in my opinion.

I think it's good that it's a $70 set, too. Especially since you can add to it with the DGA set, either horizontally as it's given or vertically with your own mods - the bricks are good castle-building bricks.

I dunno, I understand your desire for more, but I really love it. More than any of the last LOTR wave except for Rivendell.

[AFOLguy1970]

Earlier, I had suggested the Necromancer had something on his head. If you watch the scene from AUJ and freeze it just before they stop showing him, there does seem to be a couple of shadowy shapes on either side of his head, suggesting something is there. Whether it is horns, a crown, or some type of armory thing, who knows. I was thinking along the lines of a black headpiece similar to the Sith guy who comes in the Star Wars Sith Nightspeeder set, except in total black. True, there is no cape in the scene, I just figured it would help make him more cloaked and shadowy. Sure, he is not going to be a second age Sauron figure or a big flaming eye, but right now, he is less imposing than a Gundabad orc (in my opinion, of course).

On a different note, the statue does like interesting. Is it holding a clear crystal piece? There is also a ring underneath it only revealed by a hidden feature. it appears golden, just like the One Ring. Could this be one of the dwarven rings or one of the nine rings? It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the movie.

[Gryphon Ink]

Mahtion, I bow to your knowledge of Tolkien's work and inspirations - I actually wanted to tell you that after a post you made here a few pages back. As an avid Tolkien fan, I sincerely appreciate learning things from you here. But I think the legitimacy of the folkloric vision of Elves vs. the version you're citing here is very open to interpretation. As far as I remember, whenever Tolkien did talk about armor in LOTR, he mostly spoke of mail, not plate, so you are already up to at least four different versions of Elvendom that TLG could have used here. In my opinion, the version that the broader audience would identify with has the advantage, not least because it gives you more options for MOCing.

[Mahtion]

Mahtion, I bow to your knowledge of Tolkien's work and inspirations - I actually wanted to tell you that after a post you made here a few pages back. As an avid Tolkien fan, I sincerely appreciate learning things from you here. But I think the legitimacy of the folkloric vision of Elves vs. the version you're citing here is very open to interpretation. As far as I remember, whenever Tolkien did talk about armor in LOTR, he mostly spoke of mail, not plate, so you are already up to at least four different versions of Elvendom that TLG could have used here. In my opinion, the version that the broader audience would identify with has the advantage, not least because it gives you more options for MOCing.

I appreciate your kind words. Of course as I said the elves, especially Noldor are described as wearing mail and they carry long straight swords. It is true that plate is rarely if at all mentioned. The Rohirrim are described wearing long mail hauberks as well. This is due to the setting, Tolkien envisioned Middle Earth during the Early to Mid Middle Ages whereas Jackson has gone with a strong Middle to Late Middle period design influence. There definitely exists some deviations from the book material when it adapted to screen. The curved swords used to irritate me greatly when FOTR debuted. I believe that Glamdring and Sting better represented Elven swords than Hadhafang, Celeborn's dagger given to Aragorn and the common Elven great warrior sword. These are stylistic changes and I eventually learned to embrace them.

Now regarding my interpretation, I understand that a certain subjectivity surrounds reading but I feel like based on the descriptions I am not far off. If we look at Gildor Inglorion and the elves of Woodhall, they are not depicted by green anywhere. The Sindarin were not described wearing green in Lothlorien. The only faction which may have worn green were the Nandor Teleri and the Laiquendi. Again it is not definitive but to say that Green attire worn by Elves is more commonplace among the works of Tolkien seems unsupported by the literature.

So I am not understanding your complaint. First you mention Tolkienian Elves as a defense of MEA. Then you say it is an appeal to popular culture and now you say Lego should pick the most commonly believed depiction to bolster sales? Interesting reasoning but I do not see how this excuses Lego of giving us more green Mirkwood minifigs when the opportunity presented allowed for variety. I think this amounts to Lego reluctant to make new molds and they did not want to create a print of the armored Mirkwood guards without a molded helmet. If you notice the Mirkwood infantry have very similar helmets to the armored Kingdom guards and Lego may be saving this helmet mold for BoFA.

[Darth Punk]

Did someone mention playability? Do people actually play with these sets? Oh no no no. They go on the shelf and look cool!

[just2good]

Did someone mention playability? Do people actually play with these sets? Oh no no no. They go on the shelf and look cool!

Well, to be fair, I personally think that one of the major flaws of these sets are that they're lacking playability. My favorite play-feature from all four of this year's sets is the little swinging feature in the $20 set. The rest of the play-features are very standard. I guess the one in the biggest set with the rotating wall is decent, but I've seen that one done many times.

[SSchmidt]

I'm tired of all these catapults. I know they're playable, but I've got about 10,000 now. These sets look pretty good, but I feel they are lacking in playability features.

My major problem in these sets is Thranduil. Is that headpiece legitimate? It looks so stupid I almost don't want to buy the set. He has ears growing out of his neck now?

As an AFOL, I realize I am not the target market for TLG, but they dropped the ball with Thranduil. He just looks stupid.

[DarkKnight7]

I gotta say that my first reaction to the sets was "eh." There wasn't anything that stood out as said before and it makes the second movie look like a crappy and boring second act. Aren't there any other cool things that happen to make a set with??

But, aside from the lack of interest in any of the buildings, I actually find the new minifigs awesome! I love finally getting a Radagast the Brown (was worried we'd never get one) and think those pieces on him look great and like the Thranduil, as well (though I notice some on here don't). I'll be interested to see what his other face looks like, as that will be kind of key with how well I like him overall, as the battle face is similar in nature to the Elrond exclusive. I like getting Azog also, but agree it would have been much better in white (and more accurate). Still, he looks like a cool fig. And lastly, Bard the Bowman looks accurate to the movie and great that way, as does Beorn, who I think looks like a fun little fig with a great hair piece! So, while I won't buy any of these sets, I'll definitely be on the lookout for the figs on eBay!

From a minifigure perspective, there are just a ton of great headpieces and figure designs (which is really what I care about most, to be honest) in these Hobbit sets...so I'm quite happy with them on my end!

My guess is that there will be a great set with the dragon later on (Erebor) that will make up for this lack of quality in this round (buildwise).

[Alcarin]

I'm amazed at the amount of hate these sets are getting. I'm not going to say this is the greatest Lego wave of all time, but I really have to wonder sometimes what AFOLs are expecting TLG to do. No matter what they do, the complaints keep coming in.

Let's complain about no armored Elves instead. Guys, again, Elves don't usually wear armor. Not in LOTR, not in any other part of Tolkien's work, not in popular fiction, not in actual legends. Ask a dozen people on the street what elves wear - the people who don't think you're insane will tell you a bunch of different things, but not one of them will say "oh, plate mail and tall, curvy helmets". What you'll mostly hear is green and brown, woodland colors, or shining robes. Many people will think of hooded green cloaks and longbows. And guess what the Elves are wearing in the MEA set? Yep, green, brown, shining robes, green hoods and longbows. OMG, what numbskull over at TLG thought of making an Elf set where the Elves actually looked like what the average person thinks Elves look like? How dare they??? Don't they know AFOLs need to build the ultimate Elf army? DON'T THEY KNOW THERE'S A WAR ON?!?

LOLOL

Lets go step by step:

No plate ofcourse only leather... and hood ...

Yep Elves came to helm's Deep in leather (ok we can exclude it since its not part in the book but an example)

Yep you are right... all in leather... no armor no platemail or anything... only LONGBOWs and leather... you are so right

And now the exact Elves (or atleast 1 we wanted) again in leather right?

Bottom line is Elves wear platemail and MEA was the best reason to put them there to mass buy it.... But its true they would've needed a new helmet mold and new shield mold to actually look like the picture above...

[Mutant Orc]

Well, to be fair, I personally think that one of the major flaws of these sets are that they're lacking playability. My favorite play-feature from all four of this year's sets is the little swinging feature in the $20 set. The rest of the play-features are very standard. I guess the one in the biggest set with the rotating wall is decent, but I've seen that one done many times.

I agree with that.

I'm tired of all these catapults. I know they're playable, but I've got about 10,000 now.

The attraction of shooting pieces off into the void (that exists under all heavy, awkward to move, furniture items) does not appeal to me either.

Edited October 22, 2013 by Mutant Orc

[Legonardo]

Haha so much hate.

Awesome figures equals awesome

Crappy set design equals i dont care

New/more parts that im getting nearly free as ill be selling all the cool figs equals A++

[narbilu]

Backside of the Mirkwood Elf army and the ambush are also available

I really love this set... the figs that is. Will buy multiple of these for an elven army.

Only wish that I have is some elven helmets would be cool.

Edited October 22, 2013 by ZCerberus
Removed that pesky 2014 rumored set list again.

[legofreak86]

I can't understand the hate for Beorn's character design? You guys haven't even seen it in the movie, or heard him speak or do anything in the movie yet! You can't complain about something just because you don't think it is picture perfect to the description of an exceptionally old book. Lego would never make sets based purely on the book! They just wouldn't sell well with Lego's target audience! This movie is the only reason Lego are making sets. Blaming PJ for not making the character exactly how you envisioned him is just silly! When people read the book they probably paint their own mental picture anyway. I can see PJ has really gone to town on the whole bear/animalistic design for his human form. I mean if you transformed into a bear every five minutes then it would surely show and that ragged and rather rough, furry look is how it would show. The point being is don't rag off on the design until you've actually seen the movie. Its like looking at Johnny Depp as tonto and immediately hating the lone ranger before even bothering to watch it. That mistake made by people caused a fairly decent movie to be damned and fall flat on it's face just because some biased people couldn't get past the fact that this is a new age of movies and not the late 1900's. Point being in the only way to say it "Don't judge a book by it's cover". Plus the wave focus does not surprise me at all due to the focus of the movie seems to be sauron gathering power more than smaug the dragon as a foreshadow to lord of the rings. Gandalf seems to be more of a main character in this one too from what we've seen whereas the first film focussed mainly on thorin and his band of dwarves, this one seems to be focussed quite a bit on Gandalf's battle with the forces of sauron and again on Bilbo's character journey. The only thing I find disappointing about this wave is the design of Bilbo most seen in trailers isn't in any of the sets. Then again who knows! There could be some completely unknown exclusive for DOS that just surprises us all after the film has been in cinemas.

[Lord Vladivus]

The armour of the elves is somewhat strange. Those of Feanor's house are described as wearing fell armour, tall helms, with red swords- not exactly a shining paragons of virtue. Fingolfin's house tended to be described as more beautific, with shining armour, diamond and sapphire encrusted swords. However, much of this weaponry and armour was forged in Valinor.

Serried ranks if armoured elves were the norm in the Silmarillion- but that was the Ages of the Elves, and their wars on Morgoth. Makes sense in that respect. Once we get to the second and third age, elves take a back seat, being mainly allies to the far more numerous men- it was the opposite in the first age. Most of the armour they possess would be relics, or made by Celebrimbor's elves.

The woodland elves have less of a need for heavy armour- it's easier to fight in lighter armour in forests.

The elves at Helms Deep are not present in the books- Legolas merely wishes for a hundred elf archers. If we go by the books, armoured elves mostly appear it the Silmarillion, and hardly at all in LOTR. However, armoured elves are a staple of PJ's version. I'd suspect that we'll see some when we get sets for Bo5A.

I really like the elves, I'm not bothered that we get 3, to be honest, I build sets, they stay built for a week, then I repurpose the parts for MOCs. All in all, I like the minifigures.

With regards to the Necromancer, I do see parallels between Lego's version (and thus the film version) and Games Workshops version. Note that Peter Jackson is friends with two of the main sculptors on the LOTR/Hobbit stuff at GW, they even appear as extras in ROTK, so he may have drawn inspiration from that.

Just a bunch of not particularly cohesive thoughts, I'm not awake enough.

[Mr. Cube]

I don´t get what´s wrong with the elvish armor. Printed torsos work well to me, because elf minifigures wearing "uruk-hai" armor would look a bit weird. Elvish armor is not too heavy, but it´s strong and elegant.

[legofreak86]

I don´t get what´s wrong with the elvish armor. Printed torsos work well to me, because elf minifigures wearing "uruk-hai" armor would look a bit weird. Elvish armor is not too heavy, but it´s strong and elegant.

To me the hooded elf armour looks like leather mixed with chain mail and plating which looks really great because the greens and browns really work well together! I also like that they gave thrandruil his casual clothing we saw in the first film and in this one's posters/trailers. The red cape I believe originates from the cape he was wearing in AUJ in the scene where the elves watched the dwarves fleeing from smaug.

[Gryphon Ink]

So I am not understanding your complaint. First you mention Tolkienian Elves as a defense of MEA. Then you say it is an appeal to popular culture and now you say Lego should pick the most commonly believed depiction to bolster sales? Interesting reasoning but I do not see how this excuses Lego of giving us more green Mirkwood minifigs when the opportunity presented allowed for variety. I think this amounts to Lego reluctant to make new molds and they did not want to create a print of the armored Mirkwood guards without a molded helmet. If you notice the Mirkwood infantry have very similar helmets to the armored Kingdom guards and Lego may be saving this helmet mold for BoFA.

I did not make that very clear. I'll try again. I think that the Elves in MEA are a good choice because, of all the different ways they could have done them, this is the option that makes the Elves most useful in a wide range of scenarios, both in Middle-Earth and in other fantasy settings. It doesn't contradict anything in Tolkien or in the movies. And since it is immediately recognizable as what most people think of as Elvish Style, it gives the set a certain "shelf appeal" that plate armored Elves wouldn't have. A kid or adult strolling through the aisles of the toy store will take one look at this set and say, "OMG, there's Elves in this one! Let's buy it!" where many people would have trouble even recognizing that the plate armored Elves were in fact Elves.

There is a subset of AFOLs who are desperately waiting for armored Elves so they can MOC the great battle scenes of Middle-Earth. I'm not mocking that desire at all. It would be incredibly awesome to see MOCs of the Last Alliance or of the siege of Helm's Deep with a regiment of properly attired Elf warriors. But there is a much larger group of people even amongst AFOLs who just want some Elves. Plate armor wouldn't work for them. It is that much larger group that TLG need to take care of before they try to sell a minifig that only a few people want to have.

I would also point out that this set may very well go with a specific scene in DOS that does NOT show any Elves in plate, so it would look silly in the appropriate context.

Bottom line is Elves wear platemail and MEA was the best reason to put them there to mass buy it.... But its true they would've needed a new helmet mold and new shield mold to actually look like the picture above...

Alcarin, I may be getting a bit long in the tooth, but I'm fairly sure I never said that Elves NEVER wear plate armor.