LEGO LotR - general discussion

[Alcarin]

Or the people above the designers that approve what is going forward to retail. I think the designers did a good job, even in wave 2. Wizard Battle is a wonderful little play set, also giving a cheap Saruman. Elrond Council hits a cheap set spot, using some nice elements especially the arches and leaves. The Black Gate again hits a price point and is easily doubled in size to be more movie like - I'd prefer what they did and have to buy two, then to have a full gate at a much smaller scale. And even the ship is nicely designed and reasonably movie accurate.

Black Gate is arguably the biggest fail of the entire LOTR wave really.... You simply CANNOT (or should not might've said it better) make a set that you announce should be bought multiple (twice) to make a proper display, and then put in 4/6 named figures, that are nearly or impossible to reuse as regular soldiers...... Black Gate would be amazing set, if All the named figures would be swapped for Rohan gondor soldiers and armored orcs..... perhaps keep 1 named as with UHA set....

Yes Wizard duel is a nice little set, but waste of shelf space, when you consider there were only 4 set spaces for the theme..... same goes for Elrond's Council imo.... I wonder what the poll result would be between Elrond's Council, Balrog from LEGO game, and perhaps a set with Eowyn and Witch king for 40€....... I am 99% the first would come in last :P

[MAB]

Black Gate is arguably the biggest fail of the entire LOTR wave really.... You simply CANNOT (or should not might've said it better) make a set that you announce should be bought multiple (twice) to make a proper display, and then put in 4/6 named figures, that are nearly or impossible to reuse as regular soldiers...... Black Gate would be amazing set, if All the named figures would be swapped for Rohan gondor soldiers and armored orcs..... perhaps keep 1 named as with UHA set....

Maybe lego know that many people buy for the minifigs and so are not interested in the bricks so much - which means that the sets (minus minifigs) were available quite cheaply on ebay and bricklink. More likely that they didn't think a much smaller version of the gate looked right and they had to hit the right price point. They have done similar things with trains (Horizon Express). It gets the set at the right price point, but also allows people to go bigger if they want to.

Yes Wizard duel is a nice little set, but waste of shelf space, when you consider there were only 4 set spaces for the theme..... same goes for Elrond's Council imo.... I wonder what the poll result would be between Elrond's Council, Balrog from LEGO game, and perhaps a set with Eowyn and Witch king for 40€....... I am 99% the first would come in last :P

No Wizard Battle would mean no Saruman for many, without purchasing a very expensive set. No Elrond's Council set would have meant no third age Elrond at the time and no Arwen. Of course they could have filled the Wizard Battle slot with Eowyn and the Witch King (and called it Witch King Battle) but maybe they thought that it would clash with the Hobbit one that they had planned. Maybe they thought people wanted Saruman. Maybe they thought they needn't do it as Eowyn and the Witch King were coming in wave 3. It is quite easy to look back and say what they should have done, but we don't know what the plans were or what the sales data were and whether the distribution of the Hobbit film caused changes.

Edited July 9, 2015 by MAB

[Ql97]

Black Gate is arguably the biggest fail of the entire LOTR wave really.... You simply CANNOT (or should not might've said it better) make a set that you announce should be bought multiple (twice) to make a proper display, and then put in 4/6 named figures, that are nearly or impossible to reuse as regular soldiers...... Black Gate would be amazing set, if All the named figures would be swapped for Rohan gondor soldiers and armored orcs..... perhaps keep 1 named as with UHA set....

Yes Wizard duel is a nice little set, but waste of shelf space, when you consider there were only 4 set spaces for the theme..... same goes for Elrond's Council imo.... I wonder what the poll result would be between Elrond's Council, Balrog from LEGO game, and perhaps a set with Eowyn and Witch king for 40€....... I am 99% the first would come in last :P

Again, this would have been forgivable, if they ended up doing a third wave. The Black Gate is the only set with Gandalf the White, and a variant of Aragorn which I am a big fan of. I'm glad they included both of them. However, if they did end up doing a third wave, they could have had Gandalf the White with Minas Tirith, and swapped him out with a soldier or two. I won't argue with the inclusion of the Eagle, but it wouldn't have been a bad thing if they left it out to include more minifigures, or maybe even a Troll. I'm very happy with the Mouth of Sauron, as his design is just perfect. A lot of people argue that he should have been the Witch King instead, but that wouldn't have made any sense. The Mouth is the best choice for a named bad guy in this set. Really, this is a no-win situation, unless Lego released a third wave with Angmar.

Architecturally, the aesthetics of the Black Gate are perfect. It captures the spiky, rusting appearance quite accurately. Yes it could have been bigger, but then we would be ranting about how Lego blew the $120 dollar set on a minor battle from the end of the movie, when they could have given us the Battle of Pellanor Fields.

I also like the Wizard Battle, for reasons MAB mentioned. We also got a cool printed Eye piece. Council of Elrond is actually my favorite set of the wave. It contained an unarmored version of Elrond, and is pretty much the only set that could include Arwen, unless they were to release a Coronation set at some point. A UCS Rivendell could also do it, but the odds of that ever happening were pretty small, to nonexistent. The architecture is also pretty good, and the set makes a nice parts pack.

Corsair ship: Could this have been a Gondor set? Yes. Is it? No. No point in brooding over what could have been. The model itself is a marvelous rendition of the actual ship, and is one of the most movie-accurate sets of the whole theme. The minifigures are slightly disappointing. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli should have come with cloaks, and having the extra torso print for the Dead Men seems superfluous. While many argue that a new orc print should have come with this set, I think Lego could have reused the Moria Orc torso, with the green skin recolored, to quite good effect. That, imo, would have been the best option. And as for Peter Packson, his inclusion in this set was just pure genius.

[General Magma]

I really don't see how removing the named characters from the Black Gate set would've given us any benefits.

Did you really want to see more of those re-used orc figures, of which we've seen so many by now that they've started to look bad?

I don't think they would've gone through the effort of giving us new Rohan soldiers, either, and Gondorian soldiers still would've been doubtful with the Mouth of Sauron removed.

[LegoThomas]

I really liked the second wave and still do. Sure i would prefer a balrog/witch king over the council of elrond or wizard battle. But I always assumed a third wave was going to come with these sets. Like many at TLG propably did, too.

Edited July 9, 2015 by LegoThomas

[Deathleech]

A lot of people argue that he should have been the Witch King instead, but that wouldn't have made any sense. The Mouth is the best choice for a named bad guy in this set. Really, this is a no-win situation, unless Lego released a third wave with Angmar.

I don't think people wanted to see the Witch King in the Black Gates set. They just wanted to see the mold used for the Mouth of Sauron used in a different set from that wave. Usually Lego has a set budget for each wave and there are only so many new molds each set can have. For instance the third Hobbit wave used a huge chunk of the budget on Smaug's new molded parts so it left the rest of the wave's sets lacking when it came to new molds (which there were only 3 of?).

I think the only real explanation for things is Lego was planning a third wave. It's the only one that makes sense. Of course that still doesn't answer why they gave us multiple prints for minifigs only in one set and left minifigs used is tons of other sets to use the exact same print over and over again. Whatever though, trying to figure out some of Lego's decisions is near impossible.

I will say, the new Doctor Who fun pack with the Cyberman gives me a small glimmer of hope we might see a Gondor Soldier fun pack. We already have the ACU fig in the team pack with Owen, so Lego isn't totally against throwing soldiers in their Dimension sets. A team pack with Eowyn and a Gondor Soldier, or a fun pack with just a Gondor Soldier would really help complete the LotR collection. Of course this is probably just wishful thinking.

[Blakstone]

If I had to pick between a Dimensions pack with either the Witch-King (helmet) or a Gondor soldier, I would take the Witch-King. The fact that additional packs for established lines keep appearing does give me hope. We thought there was only one Dr Who and one Back to the Future in the beginning. Perhaps there will be a four Lord of the Rings pack.

[Deathleech]

They should release more waves after the initial run, so if we don't get something by September we might still get it after that. My wish list would be a Sauron/Witch King team pack, an Eowyn fun pack, and a Gondor Soldier fun pack. Really I would be happy with any of them though. A $15 fun pack isn't going to make for very easy Gondor Soldier army building.

[Ql97]

They should release more waves after the initial run, so if we don't get something by September we might still get it after that. My wish list would be a Sauron/Witch King team pack, an Eowyn fun pack, and a Gondor Soldier fun pack. Really I would be happy with any of them though. A $15 fun pack isn't going to make for very easy Gondor Soldier army building.

Call me a hopeless romantic, but I think Eowyn and Faramir should be in the team pack.

Gondor soldiers are the top priority for 'army building' dimensions sets, but it might be possible for them to do Easterling and Noldor warrior packs.

In the named character department, Sauron, Bolg, Denathor, Angmar, and the aforementioned Eowyn and Faramir are the most important for me. Isildur and Elendil would be awesome as well, but odds of getting them are pretty slim.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Ql97

[KristofBD]

Oooh an Eowyn and Faramir team pack would be great! Seriously, I will buy any LOTR dimension pack. A gondor soldier would be great as well, but I will be happy with anything new!

[MAB]

In the named character department, Sauron, Bolg, Denathor, Angmar, and the aforementioned Eowyn and Faramir are the most important for me. Isildur and Elendil would be awesome as well, but odds of getting them are pretty slim.

If they do any of them, I hope they don't waste a space on Denethor. A purist version is easy as he doesn't really need any specific prints or parts.

+ +++

with a change of the hands to flesh.

Edited July 10, 2015 by MAB

[Ql97]

Oooh an Eowyn and Faramir team pack would be great! Seriously, I will buy any LOTR dimension pack. A gondor soldier would be great as well, but I will be happy with anything new!

Yeah, I'm probably going to end up buying even Legolas and Gimli, because A) they have new face prints, and B) if we show lego that there is a demand for LotR packs, they are more likely to continue to produce them.

Lego is obviously okay with including romantically involved couples in team packs, as evidenced by the Joker and Harley Quinn pack.

If they do any of them, I hope they don't waste a space on Denethor. A purist version is easy as he doesn't really need any specific prints or parts.

+ +++

with a change of the hands to flesh.

Yes, Denethor is at the bottom of my list. A purist version can't ever match an official lego version in terms of accuracy and detail, however.

[MAB]

Lego is obviously okay with including romantically involved couples in team packs, as evidenced by the Joker and Harley Quinn pack.

Although they split up Legolas and Gimli!

[Ql97]

Although they split up Legolas and Gimli!

:grin:

Very true, very true...

[Alcarin]

Maybe lego know that many people buy for the minifigs and so are not interested in the bricks so much - which means that the sets (minus minifigs) were available quite cheaply on ebay and bricklink. More likely that they didn't think a much smaller version of the gate looked right and they had to hit the right price point. They have done similar things with trains (Horizon Express). It gets the set at the right price point, but also allows people to go bigger if they want to.

Yes many people buy for the minifigs, but many of them are army builders, those peopel are the biggest minifig hoarders out there..... Just look on some Assault on Helm's Deep MOCs on the internet, and enjoy the great scale, I have 100+ Uruks and 25 Rohan soldiers, But not 25 Aragorns or Mouths of Sauron :)

No Wizard Battle would mean no Saruman for many, without purchasing a very expensive set. No Elrond's Council set would have meant no third age Elrond at the time and no Arwen. Of course they could have filled the Wizard Battle slot with Eowyn and the Witch King (and called it Witch King Battle) but maybe they thought that it would clash with the Hobbit one that they had planned. Maybe they thought people wanted Saruman. Maybe they thought they needn't do it as Eowyn and the Witch King were coming in wave 3. It is quite easy to look back and say what they should have done, but we don't know what the plans were or what the sales data were and whether the distribution of the Hobbit film caused changes.

Hmmmmmmm, so people can buy Black gate without figs on ebay, but cannot buy Saruman on Ebay without purchasing the whole set? :) Just a thought.

Again, this would have been forgivable, if they ended up doing a third wave. The Black Gate is the only set with Gandalf the White, and a variant of Aragorn which I am a big fan of. I'm glad they included both of them. However, if they did end up doing a third wave, they could have had Gandalf the White with Minas Tirith, and swapped him out with a soldier or two. I won't argue with the inclusion of the Eagle, but it wouldn't have been a bad thing if they left it out to include more minifigures, or maybe even a Troll. I'm very happy with the Mouth of Sauron, as his design is just perfect. A lot of people argue that he should have been the Witch King instead, but that wouldn't have made any sense. The Mouth is the best choice for a named bad guy in this set. Really, this is a no-win situation, unless Lego released a third wave with Angmar.

Architecturally, the aesthetics of the Black Gate are perfect. It captures the spiky, rusting appearance quite accurately. Yes it could have been bigger, but then we would be ranting about how Lego blew the $120 dollar set on a minor battle from the end of the movie, when they could have given us the Battle of Pellanor Fields.

I also like the Wizard Battle, for reasons MAB mentioned. We also got a cool printed Eye piece. Council of Elrond is actually my favorite set of the wave. It contained an unarmored version of Elrond, and is pretty much the only set that could include Arwen, unless they were to release a Coronation set at some point. A UCS Rivendell could also do it, but the odds of that ever happening were pretty small, to nonexistent. The architecture is also pretty good, and the set makes a nice parts pack.

Corsair ship: Could this have been a Gondor set? Yes. Is it? No. No point in brooding over what could have been. The model itself is a marvelous rendition of the actual ship, and is one of the most movie-accurate sets of the whole theme. The minifigures are slightly disappointing. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli should have come with cloaks, and having the extra torso print for the Dead Men seems superfluous. While many argue that a new orc print should have come with this set, I think Lego could have reused the Moria Orc torso, with the green skin recolored, to quite good effect. That, imo, would have been the best option. And as for Peter Packson, his inclusion in this set was just pure genius.

Ofcourse the whole wave would be forgiven with additional 4-5 set wave..... thats obvious. But now its hard to forgive, even with Orthanc (which is amazing) The problem with the whole wave is, that 0 sets recapture the most important thing of LOTR (apart from battle of evil vs good) and thats big battles, we are literally stripped of option to remake Pelennor fields, or assault on Minas Tirith (Corsair ship is movie wise the end of the battle practically) and Black Gates again does not let us recreate the battle, because the biggest army (Gondor) is missing, (and then there are others like armored trolls, Easterlings, Haradrim etc.) And thats why many find LOTR in LEGO disappointing because Assault on Helm's Deep and Uruk hai army showed SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much potential :) and then such a second wave.

[MAB]

^ I imagine far less people buy Orthanc to part out the minifigs than Black Gate for three reasons. 1) price, 2) you don't need two Orthancs to build a more reasonable and 3) exclusives tend not to get discounted (so less likely to be bought for parting out).

[atreyu2112]

There are 4 things that are unforgivable for me:

1. No Sauron, Lord of the Ring ... The phantom doesn't count so stop.

2. No Balrog ... The most epic part of FotR

3. No Treebeard ... Generic ent should never had been made. What a slap in the face!

4. No Witch-king/Fell Beast/Eowyn/Gondor set. Inexcusable. Getting Mouth of Sauron & no Witch-king is like getting a Star Wars Lobot and no Boba Fett.

And after seeing the Mega Bloks MotU Castle Greyskull, I'd LOVE for them to get the license and see what goodness they would bring.

[saabfan]

I still wish they made new sets...

[Isundir]

And after seeing the Mega Bloks MotU Castle Greyskull, I'd LOVE for them to get the license and see what goodness they would bring.

Holy shit, LEGO really needs to step up their game now or Mega Bloks is going to take over, that Castle Greyskull looks amazing, it's almost like a MOC instead of an official set.

[General Magma]

Imagine if LEGO sets looked more like this MOC by Orion Pax... Fend off that MegaBlocks castle!

Edited July 13, 2015 by General Magma

[Deathleech]

The Mega Bloks version looks pretty close...

[Blakstone]

Congrats on reaching 10,000 supporters! http://www.thebrickfan.com/lego-ideas-lothlorien-achieves-10000-supporters/

[kevkipo]

the thing i wanted for this line was Faramir, i really liked him, i couldn't really say what i found the best part of the movies but it probably would've been a part in the mines, or the black gate.

but to be honest Atreyu, is it that bad we didn't get Treebeard? i mean with the parts you get from the generic ent you can easily make Treebeard

[atreyu2112]

If we can't get a $25 Treebeard, a $35 Balrog, a under $100 set that includes the Witch-King of Angmar on his Fell Beast against Eowyn, Faramir and Gondor soldiers, SAURON HIMSELF, or the first Ideas 10k supported Minas Tirith set, what makes ANYONE think that this 10k suppoerted Lothlorien set will get made? Hahahaha....

Lego has been drinking the Hasbro Koolaide... they think the 2012 Angry Birds is the ticket - .F.U.C.K. the millions of Lord of the Rings fans around the world! To hell with the people that supported not 1 but 2 massive LotR sets within one calendar year.

But to be honest Atreyu, is it that bad we didn't get Treebeard? i mean with the parts you get from the generic ent you can easily make Treebeard

Yes, it is. LEGO themselves came out and responded saying that ent was never meant to be Treebeard. And when we saw it included in the Orthanc set, we all assumed/expected that Treebeard was coming as a stand alone set. He is one of my favorite characters ever... the ORIGINAL Groot! Same as it is a travesty we havent gotten a Faramir, another one of my favorite characters, along with all the other main character, beast and locations we never saw.

One wave, four sets... would make this all go away.

Edited July 14, 2015 by atreyu2112

[Ql97]

If we can't get a $25 Treebeard, a $35 Balrog, a under $100 set that includes the Witch-King of Angmar on his Fell Beast against Eowyn, Faramir and Gondor soldiers, SAURON HIMSELF, or the first Ideas 10k supported Minas Tirith set, what makes ANYONE think that this 10k suppoerted Lothlorien set will get made? Hahahaha....

Lego has been drinking the Hasbro Koolaide... they think the 2012 Angry Birds is the ticket - .F.U.C.K. the millions of Lord of the Rings fans around the world! To hell with the people that supported not 1 but 2 massive LotR sets within one calendar year.

I don't expect Lothlorien to pass review, just like I never really thought Minas Tirith would pass. Lego is simply to stupid. Angry birds isn't even popular anymore. If they had released the sets a few years ago, then it would make more sense. Same thing with Simpsons. That show is way past the prime of its popularity. The worst thing is, the Simpsons format would have been perfect for LotR. One UCS set a year, plus periodical series of collectable minifigures. I'm still not sure why Lego favors Simpsons over LotR, as the former contains as much innuendo as the latter contains violence. Sheesh.

One wave, four sets... would make this all go away.

Yes it would.