Review: 30216 Lake-town Guard Polybag

[Deathleech]

Hello again! After recently reviewing the Mirkwood Elf Army set I figured I would try my hand at another review, albiet a much smaller set this time.. the Lake-town Guard polybag!

Name: Lake-town Guard

Set Number: 30216

Pieces: 31

Price: $4.99

Ages: 6-12

Minifigures: 1

Theme: The Hobbit

Year of Release: December 1st, 2013

Price Per Piece: $0.16

Package

This set comes in a standard sized polybag with clear plastic on the top and bottom and printing in the middle. We have the same blue scene at the top with the dwarves hiking across a mountanous landscape. In the foreground we have the contents of the polybag assembled which are the small catapult firing, a weapon rack holding a bow, and Lake-town Guard holding a spear. We see everything placed on a dock, and in the background a nice looking Lake-town building.

There's not much going on with the back of the package, as to be expected. Just some legal mumbo jumbo, info about where the parts are made, and a sad baby because he isn't old enough to play with Lego yet.

Contents

Here we see all the pieces inside the polybag. There is a nice amount of brown pieces, a few dark green, dark red, black, and gray pieces.

The instructions all folded out. Like the other Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug sets we get a nice blue weatherd look on the instructions. The front page shows the complete catapult build and the start of the weapon rack. There is also the friendly reminder not to fire catapults at your friend's head.

The back of the instructions show the rest of the weapon rack build and the finished results on the left side. On the right side we have an advertisement for just the Lake-town Chase set which makes sense considering that would be the set you most likely want to use the Lake-town Guard polybag with.

Minifigure

Ahh, finally the good stuff! The stuff everyone is going to buy this polybag for! The STUFF everyone buys ALL Lego for! Err, ahem, too far? In all seriousness though, this is an excellent polybag for this minifigure alone. He has very detailed armor printing on his torso and legs and comes with a new molded helmet only seen in one other set which is Lake-town Chase. The silver arms are a nice touch, though they seem to be a bit darker than some of the printing on the torso and legs. Still, it's not terribly noticeable.

The back of the minifigure. There is much less printing on the torso and none on the legs, but it still looks nice. There is no double sided printing on the head because the back is visible even with the helm on.

Another frontal view, this time with the helm off. The helm is definetly a nice piece with several different colors and textures. You have the marking on the front, the fur below that sticks out on the sides, and then the ear flaps below that on either side. The minifigures beard looks more orange in my pictures than it really is. It is more closely the the light brown/tan color seen on Eomer. This is a new head print apparently only found in this set and the Lake-town Chase which has an identicle Lake-town Guard.

Build

Wow that was fast! With most of the instructions for this build on one page in the instruction manual, there isn't a lot of step by step to show you guys that you can't see yourself. I feel like the dark red and green pieces sort of clash with the brown of this set, but I guess it adds some detail. Obviously the build is extremely quick and nothing terribly interesting sine the polybag focus seems to be on the minifigure. Still, it's nice to have gotten two different weapons even if one is an old spear mold (would of loved a newer one in black with a silver tip).

Extra Pieces

Again not much to show when it comes to the extra pieces in this set. You get a gray pin, a dark green cheese slope, and... that's it! As to be expected in a set only containing 31 pieces I suppose.

Conclusion

Overall I think this is one of the BEST LotR/Hobbit polybags we have recieved yet. The Uruk-hai polybag in the first LotR wave was great, but we already had the Uruk-hai Army set as a cheap way to mass soldiers and bricks making it a bit redundant. The Mirkwood Elf polybag released last year with the first Hobbit wave was more unique and gave people a nice option to mass elves at the time, but with the release of the Mirkwood Army set this year it has severely diminished the value imo. You can get elves and bricks in the MEA for cheaper AND they have proper printing that's not an olive green/dark green clash. There is also the Frodo, Gandalf, and yet to be released Legolas polybags, but all of these characters can be gotten in more interesting sets so they don't have much appeal besides as super cheap impusle buys for kids, or parts packs for AFOLs. The Lake-town Guard minifigure is only available in one other $50 set at the moment, but he is a figure I think most people will want at least a couple of. It's nice to get a rare character people will want mulitples of, in a cheap set, with the correct printing. Maybe Lego will release another cheap option with Lake-town Guards in it next year, but as things stand now the polybag is the ONLY option to get Lake-town Guards on the cheap. They also seem to be much more widely available at TRU here in the states right now making it easier to obtain. The Mirkwood Elf poly was only available two times or so at TRU last year and that was it, but the Lake-town Guard has been made available multiple times already.

Playability: 8/10

For a $5 set I feel it has quite a bit of playability. You get the catapult and a weapon rack for the guard to use, both things a soldier would want I suppose.

Design: 7/10

Neither of these builds are seen in the movie, from what I remember, and the colors kind of clash, but overall the builds feel ok.

Price: 9/10

Since a large part of the piece count is the minifigure, the price seems ok. I would of preferred $4 (who wouldn't?), but $5 isn't bad. It may also be $5 because as of right now it's only available at TRU and we all know how they love to mark up the prices on their sets. If you can find it during a BOGO 50% off or $25 off $100 sale, both of which Toys R Us commonly runs, you can get this set for just under 4 bucks making it a much better deal.

Minifigure: 11/10

This is obviously the main draw of the set. The figure has beautiful printing and a new helmet mold, as well as offering a great option to collect a few Lake-town Guard figures if you so choose to do so. I feel like the minifigure is obviously the star of the set and the main reason anyone would get it, even more so than with another bigger Lego set.

Parts: 7/10

Nothing really great in the parts selection. Even the weapons are pretty common. The only unique parts are the minifigure

Total: 42/50

Thanks for reading guys! I hope you all enjoyed this (short) review!

Edited December 30, 2013 by Deathleech

[Rogue Angel]

Nice review DL! The only thing that would have made this set better would have been the Lake Town shield, but it is a rather excellent set. I still prefer the Mirkwood Elf poly, but that's because I'm an Elf lover.

[Gryphon Ink]

Ye gods, another baby catapult?!? The junkyards in Middle-Earth must be absolutely filled with these things.

I might buy one of these if I see them, just because the guard's torso is beautiful and you don't often see a minifig wearing a fish on his head. But I really don't have a need for an army of Laketown guards.

In any case, I will never see this in the wild. I'm cursed. The only LOTR polybags I've ever seen were Gandalf and Frodo, both of which I already have enough of from all the other sets.

[BlueberryWaffles]

I really need to get one..or two..or five

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the review. I still haven't found this bad me, so I ended up ordering them. As excited add I was, I still have them unopened. I need to get around to breaking them out.

The shield would have been a nice touch, and I would have gladly taken one over some of the other pieces included. But still, it is nice to get something extra even though I'm only buying this for the figure. Buying this polybag (if you can find it) for $5 or buying it for about $9 on bricklink for the Lake-town Chase version, it's a no brainer to pick this up.

[Tuinman]

Thanks for the review.

Does anyone know if this poly will be available in Europe?

[Godtshep]

Good review. Hopefully it will be available in the UK soon. I have the Lake-Town chase and this wwould be a great addition.

[TheLegoDr]

The back of the polybag says distributed in the USA, so not sure if that indicates anything or if they would get different packaging for Europe.

[Deathleech]

They would most likely get different packaging that doesn't have the piece count and all that on the front?

[deskp]

thanks for the review. that Minifig head is really attractive it's ncie that we get soe variety in the random soldier heads. With this and the ohan soldiers heads been on the grang-y side, lets hope the gondorien solder(please) has a more brown colored beard.

[Bring More Popcorn]

Really like this minifigure, I'm glad they made a polybag set with it. I'm curious though if TLG is going to throw a few more of these guys into some TABA sets. Anyone else think they might? I think I'd pass on the polybag if we were sure to get more of them later on.

[Deathleech]

I'm curious though if TLG is going to throw a few more of these guys into some TABA sets. Anyone else think they might? I think I'd pass on the polybag if we were sure to get more of them later on.

It depends what scenes Lego decided to re-create. If it's a Bo5A set they might not. These are just a band of guards for Lake-town, the human fighting force at the Bo5A is a rag dag band of survivors left from Lake-town after Smaug's attack.

[The Awesomnator]

Great review!!

[Darth Caedus]

It depends what scenes Lego decided to re-create. If it's a Bo5A set they might not. These are just a band of guards for Lake-town, the human fighting force at the Bo5A is a rag dag band of survivors left from Lake-town after Smaug's attack.

Now that we know the setlist for TABA, anyone who's still on the fence should probably spring for these polybags - I'd guesstimate we get maybe 1 more LT Guard in the Windlance set, that's it.