LEGO Hobbit 2014

[legofreak86]

I am wondering why TLG put that Crossbow/Catapult in the set... Just WHY??? For kids?For function?

Maybe it is in the film and fits into the set nicely but I'm sure there is another building cause at toy fair I'm pretty sure someone said there was two structures and steps and something big possibly for bad guys. From that i'd guess there is a ruined building on the other side and the trebuchet is the bad guy thing.

Edited August 13, 2014 by legofreak86

[Floundie]

Wow now that is disappointing. Easily the worst wave of the entire line. Luckily there are a few(read: few) good things to be found.

Dol Guldur is what I expected, Elrond looks good, not sure why he's beating that skeleton to death though. Witch King is good except maybe the gray parts. Galadriel looks fine, gold hair is unexpected but an interesting choice. Definitely better than bright yellow.

Lake-Town is probably the best build of the wave, though that isn't saying much. It's pretty sad they weren't able to make a new mold for the Black Arrow but I understand they were only trying to protect the sad winking onion head babies. Figs: Bard is a bad choice, there was really no reason to include two of him in one wave. The Bard from 79017 would have been fine, but reusing the old one is just awful. What was their reasoning for this?? Most who purchase this set, kids included, will likely own the previous Lake Town set already, or will buy it to add to this set. That makes you end up with not one, but two almost identical Bards! Ugh. Now onto Bain. I did not expect them to fully use the design from the game. The torso is fine, the head might be too. But the hair is really really bad. As soon as I get him I'm going to switch out his hair for Frodo's, even though it might not be the perfect choice. Short legs are an odd choice too, since he's only slightly shorter than Bard in the film. No problems with Tauriel, although the green color is just a lot brighter than in the film. Now, two orcs. TWO orcs. And reusing the Mordor orc print?? Come on! And the fact they could mold a new hair piece just for two orcs and NOT manage to design a Bolg of any kind, new mold or not, is disgusting.

The box art is weird, don't really get the green foggy mountains. Did Sauron decide to release a toxic gas? I do like the box art continuity between waves though.

Thoughts on BOFA in a bit.

[Blazej_Holen]

Maybe it is in the film and fits into the set nicely but I'm sure there is another building cause at toy fair I'm pretty sure someone said there was two structures and steps and something big possibly for bad guys. From that i'd guess there is a ruined building on the other side and the trebuchet is the bad guy thing.

I think that you ´re right, ater all that´s what I thought myself, but it is really wise to spent those precious pieces on something like crossbow? I would rather have nice Dale structure, than that.

[Lancethecat]

I think that the cropped box picture for the Bo5A set is only showing the left half of the main step structure; Legolas and Bard may be on the right half fighting Azog's Warg (They can't just be standing there doing nothing).

[Fives]

I think that the cropped box picture for the Bo5A set is only showing the left half of the main step structure; Legolas and Bard may be on the right half fighting Azog's Warg (They can't just be standing there doing nothing).

I really hope we don't get another Daisy (that's what Manu Bennett called his Warg while filming, so I use that name as well). I'd much rather another brown Warg or maybe Beorn. Beorn would be ideal.

[AFOLguy1970]

I think that the cropped box picture for the Bo5A set is only showing the left half of the main step structure; Legolas and Bard may be on the right half fighting Azog's Warg (They can't just be standing there doing nothing).

If there was a warg in the set, I would have to think it would be pictured near the eagle in the character box. Since Legolas and Bard are both skilled archers, maybe they are on top of the ruined structure we cannot completely see "shooting arrows" at the orcs.

[Fives]

I just noticed that the Bard in Lake-Town has scars and dirt on his face print. That's pretty cool.

[SerenityInFire]

I haven't been able to find pics online, but does anyone know if the Witch King Battle comes with a fel beast and that awesome helmet?

[just2good]

I haven't been able to find pics online, but does anyone know if the Witch King Battle comes with a fel beast and that awesome helmet?

It doesn't.

[8BrickMario]

It's the ghostly Witch-king design from The Hobbit with the spiked crown. It's a small set (around $12) with the Witch-king, Galadriel, and Elrond, with a small wall section from Dol Guldur.

[Lord_Tyrannus]

I've ready this topic for a while now, since the 1st LOTR wave.. And it's sad that what mande me decide to register into this forum were the (probably) last sets of what is my favorite theme..

Well, that said, I understand all the hate of the minifigs choices (I'm too disappointed, I still can't believe we didn't get Bolg, as I don't understand why there-'s no Faramir or Eowyn on LOTR), but MAYBE Lego didn't have the choice if they decided to follow the movie.. Let's see:

1. Battle of 5 armies: we all know why Thorin and Dain are here. The reason why we got Azog instead of Bolg is that PJ probably will put him against Thorin during the fight. And, perhaps, Beorn won't take part in the battle too (I still wonder why they put him in the Dol Guldur set).. Also, Thranduil probably stands away from the battle, giving commands, and that's why we get Legolas instead of him.. Bard is an important character and seems to take a nice role during the battle (as we see in the movie all the elves standing there with him)..

2. Lake Town set: we HAD to get Bard (and, perhaps, in the movie he doesn't wear full armour in that scene, because he was in the jail minutes before the attack and did't have time to prepare himself). His son is also important, because if I remeber correctly he is the one with the black arrow, and Tauriel plays a important role the story, althouth not in that particulary scene..

3. Wicht King: perfect set, I just don't know what I'm going to do with Galadriel if I buy more than one (5 Nazgul in that form is cool, and Elrond can be easily turned into a soldier)..

[Faefrost]

Lake-Town is probably the best build of the wave, though that isn't saying much. It's pretty sad they weren't able to make a new mold for the Black Arrow but I understand they were only trying to protect the sad winking onion head babies. Figs: Bard is a bad choice, there was really no reason to include two of him in one wave. The Bard from 79017 would have been fine, but reusing the old one is just awful. What was their reasoning for this?? Most who purchase this set, kids included, will likely own the previous Lake Town set already, or will buy it to add to this set. That makes you end up with not one, but two almost identical Bards! Ugh. Now onto Bain. I did not expect them to fully use the design from the game. The torso is fine, the head might be too. But the hair is really really bad. As soon as I get him I'm going to switch out his hair for Frodo's, even though it might not be the perfect choice. Short legs are an odd choice too, since he's only slightly shorter than Bard in the film. No problems with Tauriel, although the green color is just a lot brighter than in the film. Now, two orcs. TWO orcs. And reusing the Mordor orc print?? Come on! And the fact they could mold a new hair piece just for two orcs and NOT manage to design a Bolg of any kind, new mold or not, is disgusting.

because the Laketown set where Bard kills Smaug is a pivotal point of the movie (and book). You kind of can't set the stage for the black arrow and the Windlass without having Bard to actually do the shooting. Remember these are playsets. Not collectable figure packs. Each set lets the little kiddies play out some sort of story. Bard shooting the Dragon kind of needs Bard. They can get away with leaving Smaug out of this set as he is the big showstopper of the line, and this set is just to more or less give him something else to interact with. But if you have the black arrow you can't skip Bard.

And that illustrates part of the problem with how everyone around here views any sets. We forget that they must be somewhat self contained play sets above and beyond being parts of our collection. The small stories in the set must play out as well as the bigger ones. They don't have to perfectly match the movie or the book. These are not scale models. They are a childs playthings.

[Dr.Cogg]

Its this Witch King

[just2good]

Its this Witch King

Yeh, but his torso's different.

[Gremer]

His crown is also metallic (?) grey.

[Darth Punk]

I haven't been able to find pics online, but does anyone know if the Witch King Battle comes with a fel beast and that awesome helmet?

If only that were the case. Then there would be many happy folks here.

I can only speak for myself but I think some of the disappoint toward the hobbit sets are the lack of further LoTR sets.

I have never been a big hobbit fan to begin with but it felt like an opportunity to expand upon middle earth. The first wave we saw

bag end which was an excellent edition. But since it seems it's been mainly ruined walls with the exception of lake town. None of the sets seem to have the presence that a helms deep or Orthanc presented to us. I also realize that the hobbit is geared toward a younger audience so play features have become the main thrust which makes the sets feeling like they are lacking aesthetically.

While my initial reaction was born of frustration, there is some good In there. At this point one can only make the best of the situation knowing that this most likely will be the end of lego middle earth for good. I'll end up getting all the sets and apply a good deal of modding. But that nagging feeling of what could have been may hang around for many days to come.

[Floundie]

because the Laketown set where Bard kills Smaug is a pivotal point of the movie (and book). You kind of can't set the stage for the black arrow and the Windlass without having Bard to actually do the shooting. Remember these are playsets. Not collectable figure packs. Each set lets the little kiddies play out some sort of story. Bard shooting the Dragon kind of needs Bard. They can get away with leaving Smaug out of this set as he is the big showstopper of the line, and this set is just to more or less give him something else to interact with. But if you have the black arrow you can't skip Bard.

I didn't say it shouldn't include Bard, just that the blue Bard would have been a much better choice. Then you can put a more interesting character in Dale, like Bolg or a Dwarf soldier.

On to 79017:

Hard to judge on the build right now, but from what I can see and imagine, this set is insanely overpriced at $85 CAD. But the ballista thing is cool. Now, onto the very very bad part, the figs. Thorin looks great and his crown looks like a very nice mold, but does he actually wear this armor during the battle? I thought he wore the lighter, grey and black outfit. I would rather have had that. Bard is fine. The Azog repeat is dumb, it doesn't even look like he has new printing to me. They could have at least took this opportunity to fix his color to white. Two orcs is dumb. Legolas is AWFUL. They took the EXACT same figure from Mirkwood and plopped him here, god I hate that. What a waste. Now to my major disappointment, that there is not a single unnamed Iron hill Dwarf. This is the reason I cannot appreciate Dain, because his helmet seems to be unusable because of the mohawk! Now if it detaches from the helmet then I would be so happy. There is actually a chance that this is the case, so I will wait and see before I die of sheer disappointment. Unfortunately, there is no chance that there is a Dwarf polybag planned because there is no Dwarf soldier in any of the sets. And of course they will not use Dain for a polybag because TLG will be too busy putting the worst possible choices in the two likely polybags. This is what I fully expect from the polys after seeing these sets: the one army builder polybag will be an orc without hair and a catapult. And the hero polybag will be Bard, the brown coat version, with a catapult. You heard it from me first.

So many missed opportunities from these sets. And the entire line.

Edited August 14, 2014 by Floundie

[djmangunz]

The left hand side of the build is cut off so I cannot see the entire build. In fact, I will withhold judgment until we get better pictures. Part of what I need in order to buy this is enough bricks that I can part out for something else.

But Smaug looks to be very big... even more so than the Castle 2013 dragon.

I am thus far underwhelmed. Smaug looks good but a small £100 set with five figures, what a lame way to end the hobbit range.

I think this is a great set for $100. For $130, not so much.

Not only is part of the left side of the picture missing, but on the right side as well (look closely at the tips of Smaugs wing) I don't really expect some minifigs to be hidden on either side, but it'd be a nice surprise nonetheless

At first I was a little underwelmed by the size but it seems like there may still be more of the set cropped off on the side. Love the dwarvish architecture and the colours. The sand green and gold really help the set stand out from the others in

This set is possibly the biggest ripoff I've ever seen! It's $50 overpriced! And I thought Jabbas Palace was bad!

Examples of people freaking out when we first saw the cropped images of The Lonely Mountain set.

Also what do you mean everyone freaked out over the early images of the Lonely Mountain set? We saw the official image first which gave us a great view, then saw some more

After we saw more views from SDCC of the Lonely Mountain, people began to come around and realize that they may have judged too quickly. But honestly, I am not here to change your mind. It doesn't matter to me how you feel about the sets so complain all you want. All I know is that I will buy them and enjoy building them when October comes around.

[atreyu2112]

You know what would fix all this ... 1 more set like MEA ... an add-on to The Battle of the Five Armies set!

2x Dwarf Warriors, 2x Elven Warriors, 2x Armored Orcs, Bolg & a structure to add to the bigger set. $30 - everyone is happy. BAM! bam-bam!!

Who knows, maybe a set like this will magically appear since the actual BotFA set so SO lacking. We know sets have magically appeared before.

<edit>

You know, after all is said and done, the DGA, DGB & WKB combine to make quite a nice set! I even added the Mirkwood Spiders set trees to it on the sides. I can't wait to finally add WKB to it.

Edited August 14, 2014 by atreyu2112

[wesker]

3. Wicht King: perfect set, I just don't know what I'm going to do with Galadriel if I buy more than one (5 Nazgul in that form is cool, and Elrond can be easily turned into a soldier)..

Most of my spare Galadriel figures will probably be customized into random Elf/Naboo maidens. The hairpiece is gender neutral so it can replace some of the hoods in the Mirkwood Army set or even swapped with Elrond and Legolas to create more generic elves. I could use one of the heads to customize Duchess Satine from Star Wars, and I'll probably keep one Galadriel figure as a spare in case I decide to MOC my own Lothlorien set. Just got to think creatively.

[hollisbrick]

Man wish I got to see some of the pictures But from the sounds of things I don't think I missed out on much!

[Blakstone]

The photos are still out there. One of the most frequent thread regulars has most of them in his Flicker stream. However, none of the big LEGO fan sites will post them. That is partly due to the relationship between LEGO and the site and partly to protect LEGO from a breach in contract with WB.

[SirBlake]

Examples of people freaking out when we first saw the cropped images of The Lonely Mountain set.

I stand by my statement. I don't hate the set but feel it's over priced.

I'm happy you're happy, but there's nothing wrong with being disappointed, and many of us feel there's plenty of reason to be.

[Hypernova888]

because the Laketown set where Bard kills Smaug is a pivotal point of the movie (and book). You kind of can't set the stage for the black arrow and the Windlass without having Bard to actually do the shooting. Remember these are playsets. Not collectable figure packs. Each set lets the little kiddies play out some sort of story.

And that illustrates part of the problem with how everyone around here views any sets. We forget that they must be somewhat self contained play sets above and beyond being parts of our collection. The small stories in the set must play out as well as the bigger ones. They don't have to perfectly match the movie or the book. These are not scale models. They are a childs playthings.

Exactly. For the record, I actually ENJOY play features most of the time. I like it when the set has a lot of playibility. I love minifigures, and when the models look beautiful AND have some good play features that's what makes a set good in my opinion. I think LEGO's sets (especially licensed themes) Do this well. They strike up a balance between the three, and you know what? Even though AFOLs are NOT LEGO's target demographic, I think they do their best to market their products to children like they should, but they also try to please us at the same time. They have to find a way to make both audiences happy, but when they slip up slightly with the figures, or put something little in to please their main customers ( For example, a tiny catapult) they always get torn apart by our communities. And honestly, I'm not entirely sure I like the AFOL community around these sets. With the normal LotR community, the fanbase is split between those who like the films and those who think they are terrible. Then the film fanbase is split between those who like both franchises and those who hate The Hobbit. But even with LEGO LotR and The Hobbit, which I thought had excellent sets and figures, people still get frustrated by LEGO because they do what probably makes the most sense from the business standpoint. When I wad younger, I fell in love with LEGO. NOT just the system or the toys, but the company itself. I never really minded the mistakes they made, because I knew there was always a reason behind them. I hate how many people are saying LEGO put extremely little time into their sets, or that the designers were "high", or even that the sets were done by their "accounting firm". That just...I can't stand it. It is my life's dream to become a set designer, and I hate thinking that however well I think I'll have balanced my set's figures, play features, build and appeal to both AFOLs and children alike, there are going to be AFOLs cursing my name because I didn't include one certain minifigure in the set.

Yes, 79018 seems "overpriced", but I think it looks worth it. Yes, 79016 and 79017 should have had Bolg and Beorn, but most kids won't already have Azog and will want to recreate Thorin's final battle and I'm sure LEGO wanted to include each major faction from PJ's Battle of five armies and sacrificed the bear for an eagle. And yes, generic soldiers would have been nice to have, but frankly, these films are about the named

characters. If I were still a kid, I'd rather have Bard than a generic man or whatever. And if I were about nine, then I most likely WOULDN'T own the Lake-town set. I'd probably be saving all my hard-earned money for the eventual Smaug set.

(Sorry for the extra-long post. I just had a lot that I really wanted to say.)

Edited August 14, 2014 by Hypernova888

[Steph 104th]

The book refers to them as wolves used by the orcs,Peter Jackson does what he wants to do. In the Apendicies it tells us Azog was suppossed be killed when the dwarves took the misty mountains and then Bolg led them, yet the pale paraplegic orc is still leading the orcs in the movie. Accuracy isn't what we get with the storylines. In a sense its Jackson over ruling Tolkien.

We will have to wait and see what the rest of the structure in the armies set is I think is going to be a destroyed piece of Dale. In whick case it could be quite good

Edited August 14, 2014 by Steph 104th