LEGO LotR - general discussion

[Deathleech]

My New Lego SAURON.

I am loving this design and eagerly await it being made available. One question though, is this the same color the finished product will be? The silver seems fairly bright. I think a darker gray, almost a gunmetal color would work better and be closer to the films.

[Lindulan]

My blindly optimistic hope for more LotR is what they're doing with The Simpsons: one large D2C set and one CMF wave a year. Is that so much to hope for? We could get the major missing sets and characters...come on Lego, throw us a bone...

[Actor Builder]

I think that is too much to hope for.

I think LEGO knows that if they "throw us a bone", we will gobble it up without much appreciation, and beg for more bones.

[Theodoric]

I am loving this design and eagerly await it being made available. One question though, is this the same color the finished product will be? The silver seems fairly bright. I think a darker gray, almost a gunmetal color would work better and be closer to the films.

Glad you like him!

Believe me, I have tried the darker grey, trying to match the darker pearl color of say, the Urak-Hai helmets. The problem is that I want this to be durable. The Vinyl dye I'm using on the ABS plastic ( the lego body and Brick Warriors greaves and vambraces) sinks right into the parts and resists scratches really well. Its pretty tough. It also penetrates the resin parts I created, though not as well, but is still pretty tough. I've tried every kind of paint and the Vinyl dye works best. The problem is that the product has a very limited color range. The grey is nearly black and the next step up in value is the silver. I've even tried mixing the two while wet but the results are patchy and hard to control. The silver matches the Lego flat silver color really well! Sauron's armor in the movie is actually silver-ish, but the film is color-graded so dark that it looks much darker. It does seem that for the battle images they may have dirtied him up a little. A google search on Sauron's Armor will show some examples. This link has a nice pic. http://newboards.theonering.net/forum/gforum/perl/gforum.cgi?post=205073;

If you look through the rest of the images on my flickr page you'll see my attempts a darker armor. Thats before they got all scratched up! I suppose if anyone really wants darker armor and are not worried about playability too much they can grab a can of spray paint and do the job themselves rather quickly!

[BrickJagger]

My blindly optimistic hope for more LotR is what they're doing with The Simpsons: one large D2C set and one CMF wave a year. Is that so much to hope for? We could get the major missing sets and characters...come on Lego, throw us a bone...

Never happening. People in this thread have been asking Lego to "Throw them a bone" for three years, and since Lotr has been removed for S@H, the site is gone and the message board was moved to classics. If that's not a enough to convince you, I don't know what is.

It's dead. Very, very dead.

[wesker]

My blindly optimistic hope for more LotR is what they're doing with The Simpsons: one large D2C set and one CMF wave a year. Is that so much to hope for? We could get the major missing sets and characters...come on Lego, throw us a bone...

A CMF wave is a bit too much to hope for even when the line was alive and well. It would be nice to get one last D2C set though or at least something through Ideas. All we can really do now is support what projects we can and show there is still some interest left in the theme.

[Legomaster34]

Never happening. People in this thread have been asking Lego to "Throw them a bone" for three years, and since Lotr has been removed for S@H, the site is gone and the message board was moved to classics. If that's not a enough to convince you, I don't know what is.

It's dead. Very, very dead.

Actually, the page is still up on Shop@Home. It only carries the Dimensions sets, but it's still there. And The Hobbit site is still there (though granted, that's all the way at the bottom of the products page, but it's still there!). As long as Dimensions is still using Lord of the Rings, I'll keep holding on to some small amount of hope for maybe just one last D2C.

Edited February 6, 2016 by Legomaster34

[Ql97]

My blindly optimistic hope for more LotR is what they're doing with The Simpsons: one large D2C set and one CMF wave a year. Is that so much to hope for? We could get the major missing sets and characters...come on Lego, throw us a bone...

I've maintained that this is how Lego should have handled the theme in the first place. They could make the big, detailed sets, and use the CMF series as an excuse to go overboard on the new minifigure parts.

[Dr.Cogg]

As far as Dimensions goes, it's going to depend on if Lego is still holding on to the license or not, I would still buy a Sauron and a Witch King if they produce them.

[wesker]

I've maintained that this is how Lego should have handled the theme in the first place. They could make the big, detailed sets, and use the CMF series as an excuse to go overboard on the new minifigure parts.

Nah I'm happy with the route they took by releasing a regular line up of sets. We had a lot more characters and settings covered than if we had only gotten one CMF and D2C per year. Not to mention there would be no molded creatures like Smaug and the Cave Troll. I think the main issue with the line was the questionable choices made in the second LOTR wave and the lack of a third to finish it all off.

As far as Dimensions goes, it's going to depend on if Lego is still holding on to the license or not, I would still buy a Sauron and a Witch King if they produce them.

Same here. Dimensions would've been the perfect opportunity to get Sauron and Witch-King minifigures out there. Would have loved to have gotten Eowyn and Faramir as well.

That said I have found a new Gondor themed project on Ideas for anyone interested. I think the Gates of Minas Tirith is probably a smarter choice than Osgiliath and the design reminds me a lot of Nuju Metru's. Although I think they might have been better losing the end walls in place of Grond or a Siege Tower to add a bit more playability. Still might be worth checking out.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/130964

There's also a new Edoras project up, although Rohan doesn't seem to be as popular as Gondor around these parts and the size might be too small for some who prefer something more UCS in scale.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/130958

The Orc Pit has also gone up another 200 in the past couple days. Hopefully it can maintain its momentum.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/128929

Shame the Balrog projects never seem to do too well. Rakrondewl's was probably the nicest looking and even that only got 326 supporters.

[Lindulan]

Never happening. People in this thread have been asking Lego to "Throw them a bone" for three years, and since Lotr has been removed for S@H, the site is gone and the message board was moved to classics. If that's not a enough to convince you, I don't know what is.

It's dead. Very, very dead.

I did say blindly optimistic. I hear what you're saying, but the inclusion of characters in Dimensions shows they know there is still demand for something, and hopefully they see that "something" is in the TFOL and AFOL market, similar to The Simpsons.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Lindulan

[Bycougars]

That said I have found a new Gondor themed project on Ideas for anyone interested. I think the Gates of Minas Tirith is probably a smarter choice than Osgiliath and the design reminds me a lot of Nuju Metru's. Although I think they might have been better losing the end walls in place of Grond or a Siege Tower to add a bit more playability. Still might be worth checking out.

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/130964

The Gate of Minas Tirith is my project. This is good advice and I agree there needs to be a little more to the project. I was thinking of adding a catapult to the wall and maybe a small grond.

[MAB]

I did say blindly optimistic. I hear what you're saying, but the inclusion of characters in Dimensions shows they know there is still demand for something, and hopefully they see that "something" is in the TFOL and AFOL market, similar to The Simpsons.

LOTR video games have sold well over the past decade. There is a reasonable overlap between LOTR fans and gaming fans, whether or not it's Lego. It's impossible to test, but I reckon the dimensions games would have sold well without the minifigs.

[Ql97]

LOTR video games have sold well over the past decade. There is a reasonable overlap between LOTR fans and gaming fans, whether or not it's Lego. It's impossible to test, but I reckon the dimensions games would have sold well without the minifigs.

The question is, what about the reverse? Would the minifigs sold well without the game?

[mediumsnowman]

I got some S15 knights today and they're PERFECT for LotR. I need more.

Welcome back to Middle-Earth

[Actor Builder]

Shame the Balrog projects never seem to do too well. Rakrondewl's was probably the nicest looking and even that only got 326 supporters.

Hence why LEGO never made a Balrog set. I assume they do lots of audience testing before they begin the design process.

Like it or not, LEGO knew exactly what they were doing with The Lord of The Rings.

[Alcarin]

Hence why LEGO never made a Balrog set. I assume they do lots of audience testing before they begin the design process.

Like it or not, LEGO knew exactly what they were doing with The Lord of The Rings.

If bolded was true, community wouldnt ask or want more and be highly disappointed in terms of what the theme had to offer and what actually was produced.

Sorry but leaving out Gondor armies as the main good guys cannot be anything close to exactly knowing what anyone is doing. Its like leaving half the Avengers, or Stormtroopers....

[Ql97]

If bolded was true, community wouldnt ask or want more and be highly disappointed in terms of what the theme had to offer and what actually was produced.

Sorry but leaving out Gondor armies as the main good guys cannot be anything close to exactly knowing what anyone is doing. Its like leaving half the Avengers, or Stormtroopers....

But why didn't they do it? Lego should, by all means, be an expert in market research. No company is going to become the largest toy manufacturer in the world without actually selling stuff. Lego should have known that a Gondor theme would have sold well. I'm still pretty sure they had a RotK themed third wave planned, and they just ended up scrapping it when Peter Jackson decided to push the third Hobbit back six months.

[Preuss]

I'm still pretty sure they had a RotK themed third wave planned, and they just ended up scrapping it when Peter Jackson decided to push the third Hobbit back six months.

I had a quick chat about this with a LEGO employee (Billund-based, not a random LEGO store clerk). He obviously couldn't disclose anything and was never involved with the theme to begin with, but his hypothesis was that LEGO had to hold some interesting designs back for the possibility that the theme would continue. In other words, if they had released all of the key scenes / creatures / factions in the first couple of waves, they would be essentially assuring a disappointing third wave if one was ever produced. I know we can argue a stronger second wave could have won support for a third, but apparently that's not how they plan their releases.

I've also compared leaving Sauron out to doing Star Wars without Darth Vader. Not being a LoTR fan, though, he seemed to think the Mouth of Sauron minifig was Sauron himself, so it was kind of hard to make my point. Again: this wasn't someone who was involved with the theme at all, so please don't generalize that LEGO didn't do their homework.

[Alcarin]

But why didn't they do it? Lego should, by all means, be an expert in market research. No company is going to become the largest toy manufacturer in the world without actually selling stuff. Lego should have known that a Gondor theme would have sold well. I'm still pretty sure they had a RotK themed third wave planned, and they just ended up scrapping it when Peter Jackson decided to push the third Hobbit back six months.

I have absolutely no idea, the easiest bet would be that ye, the 2 to 3 movie split of Hobbit, in which case i dislike Hobbit even more, not just because it was a bad and worse adaptation of book to movie, but because it ruined my LOTR LEGO enjoyment i had....

But the immediate question for me lies, WHY not rather scrap some city sets and produce LOTR sets instead, and make multi wave (considering Hobbit only got low amount of sets in each wave) since LOTR license probably had expiration date (well 100% :P) and City(or any other generic theme) not...

It would be far higher waste in my opinion in what they did (if they did so) than scraping some generic themed sets. Its all weird really. And without answers for LEGO we will just be left in Limbo. Mostly disappointed.

I had a quick chat about this with a LEGO employee (Billund-based, not a random LEGO store clerk). He obviously couldn't disclose anything and was never involved with the theme to begin with, but his hypothesis was that LEGO had to hold some interesting designs back for the possibility that the theme would continue. In other words, if they had released all of the key scenes / creatures / factions in the first couple of waves, they would be essentially assuring a disappointing third wave if one was ever produced. I know we can argue a stronger second wave could have won support for a third, but apparently that's not how they plan their releases.

I've also compared leaving Sauron out to doing Star Wars without Darth Vader. Not being a LoTR fan, though, he seemed to think the Mouth of Sauron minifig was Sauron himself, so it was kind of hard to make my point. Again: this wasn't someone who was involved with the theme at all, so please don't generalize that LEGO didn't do their homework.

The argument of the guy would hold, IF we all accept/believe that there are only like 4-5 more interesting sets to be produced from Lord of the Rings into LEGO. And I think we all could agree that this is not the case, even if we only take movies as source. And even if we agree that, then wave 3 would really have to be a monster wave with sets including Gondor army builders, Minas Tirith scenes, Battle of Pelennor (Mumakils, siege towers, catapults, tons of moving stuff to use) Haradrims, Easterlings, Nazgul on beast(again movable), Balrog(again movable which LEGO loves)....

So yes, To an expent i can see such point, but still it hardly explains for such an abysmal wave 2... (excluding Tower)

But when you look at it from a distance, its hard to understand (as LOTR fan and LEGO fan alike) why would someone leave such great options and leave it unmade. Quite a waste of the license, probably the worst waste I have witnessed in regards to LEGO company...

Edited February 8, 2016 by Alcarin

[Bycougars]

Considering the multiple Lego Ideas projects that have reached the 10,000 supporter mark I definitely think that there was and still is a demand for more LOTR sets. I think it would have satisfied the majority of Lego LOTR collectors if they would have given us Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, a mumukil, and the balrog. You could maybe throw in Amon Hen as well. They could have included the important missing minifigs such as Witch king, faramir, and Eowyn in those sets and it would have wrapped up the theme very nicely. Instead they left a lot of fans hanging and very disappointed.

[General Magma]

I had a quick chat about this with a LEGO employee (Billund-based, not a random LEGO store clerk). He obviously couldn't disclose anything and was never involved with the theme to begin with, but his hypothesis was that LEGO had to hold some interesting designs back for the possibility that the theme would continue. In other words, if they had released all of the key scenes / creatures / factions in the first couple of waves, they would be essentially assuring a disappointing third wave if one was ever produced. I know we can argue a stronger second wave could have won support for a third, but apparently that's not how they plan their releases.

They could've at least given us one Osgiliath set... it's hitting me more and more now that we will probably never see the LEGO LOTR theme again, and it is saddening to see it go like this. But I'm still holding onto hope for an IDEAS set.

I don't understand how Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and even that Big Bang Theory thing got approved, but LOTR, after several times of hitting 10.000 supporters, didn't. I hope a smaller LOTR IDEAS set will hit 10.000 supporters someday.

I really hope there will be many more LOTR-themed sets hitting the 10.000 supporter mark. I think we should cook up an idea for a smaller IDEAS set with some iconic characters, make it look good and interesting, and toss it onto IDEAS

and ask the whole of the LEGO community, especially the LOTR fans (of which there should be many), to support it. I don't know if it will be a success, and I don't know how many attempts it might take to convince LEGO, but it's worth a shot.

It would be worth another few dozen shots.

Edited February 8, 2016 by General Magma

[Bycougars]

They could've at least given us one Osgiliath set... it's hitting me more and more now that we will probably never see the LEGO LOTR theme again, and it is saddening to see it go like this. But I'm still holding onto hope for an IDEAS set.

I don't understand how Doctor Who, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future and even that Big Bang Theory thing got approved, but LOTR, after several times of hitting 10.000 supporters, didn't. I hope a smaller LOTR IDEAS set will hit 10.000 supporters someday.

I really hope there will be many more LOTR-themed sets hitting the 10.000 supporter mark. I think we should cook up an idea for a smaller IDEAS set with some iconic characters, make it look good and interesting, and toss it onto IDEAS

and ask the whole of the LEGO community, especially the LOTR fans (of which there should be many), to support it. I don't know if it will be a success, and I don't know how many attempts it might take to convince LEGO, but it's worth a shot.

It would be worth another few dozen shots.

I have been working on new IDEAS projects for Lord of the Rings sets. I just posted a Gate of Minas Tirith set https://ideas.lego.com/projects/130964 and am awaiting approval for a Battle of Osgiliath set, hopefully it will be out on their website late this week. I know that work still needs to be done on these sets. I went ahead and posted them on the ideas site just to see how much interest there still is. If I get some feedback on the model. I am planning on improving and re-posting an updated version later on. If you have any ideas on things I can change to make them more appealing and hopefully reach 10000 votes let me know. The Gate of Minas Tirith I am currently in the process of adding a catapult and trying to figure out how to make a small grond.

[Ql97]

I had a quick chat about this with a LEGO employee (Billund-based, not a random LEGO store clerk). He obviously couldn't disclose anything and was never involved with the theme to begin with, but his hypothesis was that LEGO had to hold some interesting designs back for the possibility that the theme would continue. In other words, if they had released all of the key scenes / creatures / factions in the first couple of waves, they would be essentially assuring a disappointing third wave if one was ever produced. I know we can argue a stronger second wave could have won support for a third, but apparently that's not how they plan their releases.

We will never know exactly what happened, but with all the strain the factories have been under, it simply might not have been physically possible to produce a new wave when the movies were shuffled around.

I have absolutely no idea, the easiest bet would be that ye, the 2 to 3 movie split of Hobbit, in which case i dislike Hobbit even more, not just because it was a bad and worse adaptation of book to movie, but because it ruined my LOTR LEGO enjoyment i had....

Please don't assume we all share your opinions. Some of us quite liked the Hobbit movies. If you didn't like them, that's okay. Just don't think everyone has to share that view.

But the immediate question for me lies, WHY not rather scrap some city sets and produce LOTR sets instead, and make multi wave (considering Hobbit only got low amount of sets in each wave) since LOTR license probably had expiration date (well 100% :P) and City(or any other generic theme) not...

It would be far higher waste in my opinion in what they did (if they did so) than scraping some generic themed sets. Its all weird really. And without answers for LEGO we will just be left in Limbo. Mostly disappointed.

Okay, now I know you're joking. Scrap City sets? City is consistently one of Lego's best selling themes, year after year. Scrapping a city wave would be just about the stupidest thing Lego could ever do right now.

But when you look at it from a distance, its hard to understand (as LOTR fan and LEGO fan alike) why would someone leave such great options and leave it unmade. Quite a waste of the license, probably the worst waste I have witnessed in regards to LEGO company...

Simple math. Lego I guess decided they wouldn't make a big enough profit off of a third wave. I personally think they were wrong, but I'm not an expert on market dynamics.

I really hope there will be many more LOTR-themed sets hitting the 10.000 supporter mark. I think we should cook up an idea for a smaller IDEAS set with some iconic characters, make it look good and interesting, and toss it onto IDEAS

and ask the whole of the LEGO community, especially the LOTR fans (of which there should be many), to support it. I don't know if it will be a success, and I don't know how many attempts it might take to convince LEGO, but it's worth a shot.

It would be worth another few dozen shots.

Here are some various set concepts you might use.

Balrog Battle

Obvious really, the Balrog, with a collapsible bridge, Gandalf, and a few other minifigures, like perhaps Boromir, Frodo, and an Orc

Witch King Battle

A fell beast, maybe with some scenery or siege equipment. Another obvious one. When combined with the Minias Tirith gate set, it would provide the missing four main characters. (Eowyn, Faramir, Witch-King, and Denethor)

Sauron Attack

A medium set, that might come with some Mordor landscape or a piece of Barad-Dur. It would have Elendil, Isildur, Gil-Galad, and a Groot-style Sauron.

Dol Guldur Chase

A medium set, with some Dol Guldur ruins, a tree or two, and Radagast's sled. Would come with Bolg, Radagast, and flaming Sauron.

I'm sure we could come up with some other sets with minifigures we want. I for one, would love to get Sigrid and Tilda (Bard's daughters) in lego form, but that's probably hoping for too much. In fact, there was a thread a while ago where I think it was General Magma and I came up with a list of all the minifigures needed to "complete" the theme. I can't seem to find it right now...

Edit: Found it!

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=104542

Edited February 9, 2016 by Ql97

[Dr.Cogg]

I think TLG did have a third wave planned, but PJ messed up their plans with the Hobbit, we all remember this picture.