LEGO Hobbit 2014

[Blondie-Wan]

I don't really know why you would want the almost the same print but a little bit different just for the sake of it, then having to pay £15 for it.

Apparently this one works with some sort of game.

Edited April 15, 2015 by Blondie-Wan

[SMC]

Apparently this one works with some sort of game.

Thanks for that, my point was I hope it is the same fig so I don't feel like I need it or something really new so that I am happy to buy it.

[Ql97]

I checked-My Gollum matches line-for-line

WAIT-I just looked at pics of that Gollum! Mine has a defect, it's missing that chin line. That's a bit odd. =/

EDIT: But if one looks at pics by The Brick Show, Firestar and others, they don't have that line either. So...only LEGO's did, looks like.

How strange. Like I said above, the only way we can confirm anything will be to compare them side by side, 'in the flesh.'

[ryodi]

Picked up my copy of The Battle of Five Armies on Blu-Ray from Sainsbury's today. I was going to wait for the Extended Edition but didn't want to miss out on an exclusive Hobbit minifigure. As well as Bain in his regular (no coat) outfit it also includes Bard (with a bow) is his Battle of Five Armies outfit. I'm not sure if this is Sainsbury's exclusive because I cannot find it listed on Amazon.

[Deathleech]

Picked up my copy of The Battle of Five Armies on Blu-Ray from Sainsbury's today. I was going to wait for the Extended Edition but didn't want to miss out on an exclusive Hobbit minifigure. As well as Bain in his regular (no coat) outfit it also includes Bard (with a bow) is his Battle of Five Armies outfit. I'm not sure if this is Sainsbury's exclusive because I cannot find it listed on Amazon.

It is. In the U.S. it's a Target exclusive.

[GoldenNinja3000]

Picked up my copy of The Battle of Five Armies on Blu-Ray from Sainsbury's today. I was going to wait for the Extended Edition but didn't want to miss out on an exclusive Hobbit minifigure. As well as Bain in his regular (no coat) outfit it also includes Bard (with a bow) is his Battle of Five Armies outfit. I'm not sure if this is Sainsbury's exclusive because I cannot find it listed on Amazon.

It's not. Both figures are available in the DVD pack everywhere.

[Artanis I]

It is.

It's not.

Haha, well it depends where you live.

[Deathleech]

Haha, well it depends where you live.

I could be wrong, but I think it also depends if your country has Sainsbury stores or not. I know here in the U.S., it's a Target exclusive and not available anywhere else (except directly through Lego via online or their stores). I'm assuming it's the same for countries with Sainsbury's. Ryodi said he only seen it at his Sainsbury and not online at Amazon so that must be the case wherever he lives.

[MAB]

It is a Sainsburys exclusive in the UK.

[Deathleech]

I know I am really late to the party, but I finally got around to watching the Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies film. I was trying to withhold judgement on the last Lego Hobbit wave (after my initial impressions when it was first unveiled), until I had seen the movie. I must say I am even more disappointed with Lego's offerings now than I first was.

I felt like two of the four sets didn't even belong in the third wave. The Attack on Lake-town and Lonely Mountain sets both really should have been in wave two. Other than the bow/black arrow and Bard for firing it, and the dwarves in their armor, these sets have NOTHING depicted in the third film. The sets are obviously inspired heavily by the Desolation of Smaug material. That is the dwarves in the forge trying make Smaug into a gold statue and the orcs attacking Lake-town.

As for the Battle of Five Armies set, this is probably the worst of the bunch. It doesn't seem to be based on much from the film. The build looks nothing like the architecture in Dale and I don't remember there being many/any bridges. I don't recall seeing a large tower or orc bolt thrower (both featured in the set) in the movie either. As for the minifigures, Azog is totally wrong. Lego could have at least made him white, or gave him an armor print seeing as that is how he appears throughout the entire third film. I am not sure why Gwaihir was included in the set other than for Lego to get their money's worth out of the eagle mold. In the movie the eagles are seen less than a minute. The orcs in the film were mostly armored, or the unarmored ones were white and ghastly looking. They weren't orange-ish brown in nothing but loin clothes and bone. About the only thing good in the set is Dain. Bard and Legolas kind of make sense too. Why is Thorin in it with his crown though? He is never seen outside Erebor this way? Also Dain is never seen with his red axe, though I can't really complain about that. It's a nice nod to the books.

About the only set that is any good, and makes sense in the third Lego Hobbit wave, is the Witch King Battle. Personally I would have liked to have seen Sauron instead of the Witch King, but I can understand why they included him instead. It makes for much more multi purchase appeal. Really though, I feel like Lego could have structured their last two Hobbit waves SOO much better. They still could have included tons of named characters, tons of play features, been true to film, and all the while been appealing to kids and AFOLs alike. I feel like a few changes would of made the sets vastly better. Take Smaug out of the Lonely Mountain set and put him in a Lake-town themed one. Maybe combine the two Lake-town sets into one. This would make more sense and allow Smaug to be slightly cheaper and more accesible to kids. Make the Lonely Mountain set based on the Bo5A with a bridge from the front of the mountain, exploding walls, and dwarven statues. Get rid of the Mirkwood Elf Army and give us a proper Bo5A army builder with armored dwarves, orcs, and elves. Make the build a few different Dale buildings so when you buy multiples you can combine them into a nice city. Tada! The third wave just went from a 2 star to a 4 with minimal new molds or prints than what we got.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Deathleech

[bungeshea]

^ Really great points. I would like to add that I think three Dol Guldur sets was far too much. At the very least, Battle and Ambush should have been a single set, or perhaps even drop Ambush altogether. Beorn should have been a promo minifigure or included in a BotFA set, and the new single Dol Guldur set should have depicted the scene from the third film, with Gandalf, Ratagast, the necromancer (firey or armoured Sauron, not the wierd ape-like figure), the witch-king along with an additional ringwraith (instead of the generic orcs), Galadrial, Elrond and perhaps even an updated Saruman with proper leg printing.

[Umbra-Manis]

^^ Most definitely hits all the points. Lego would be raking the money in if they had ever given us Battle Packs. Unless they did Gundabad Orcs, because no one needs an army of Orcs that shouldn't be that prominent.

[Ardelon]

While all good points, we have to remember about the discrepancies between movies and sets that we dont know how much material the designers had available to work off of, nor how much of what they had was changed at the last minute by the moviemakers. And of course there is the thing with the movies splitting from two to three. So its not like it was a choice between what we got and a perfect wave.

Smaug seems to be a dilemma. Im sure if he was in the LT set, there would be an equally great outcry among AFOLs about him not being in the Lonely Mountain. Both locations/scenes are iconic, the designers just went with one of them.

Putting Smaug into a beefed-up LT set and making a TBOTFA-based LM set would give us ´two large sets, which might not work with TLGs price-point wave structure.

As for Gwaihir, another reason he might have been included was to give every army a representation in the set (though I would have preferred a warg to an eagle, even though there were no wargs in the battle). But I wont complain about us getting a crowned Thorin, even if he is inaccurate.

Battle packs would have been great, and the designers obviously recognize this as seen in the Star Wars theme, so I guess there was a licensing restriction on them.

Of course I have my gripes as well. I too would have liked to see the entrance to the moutain, in the style of the Fantasy Dwarf mine or the Lone Ranger silver mine. Less ballista and more Dale in the Bo5A set,

Or, like bungeshea suggested, dropping/combining the DGA set, which has no counterpart in the movies,though I dont know what they would do for Beorn in this case.

[Deathleech]

I dunno, I just felt like Smaug would be a better fit in a Lake-town set. Not only could he be in a smaller, more affordable set for kids that way, but it's his final confrontation with Bard. In the books Smaug doesn't even really interact with the dwarves when they come back to Erebor so there is that too. The whole forge and trying to cover Smaug in gold was completely made up by Peter Jackson. Seeing as how the entire third movie centers around the Bo5A it seems fitting the flagship set and an army builder would be centered on it. Instead we get the Attack on Lake-town set minus Smaug which takes up like 15 minutes of screen time, the Witch King Battle which is another 15 minutes, and the Lonely Mountain which is based on a scene from DoS. That leaves the one Bo5A set in the wave, yet the movie featured over an hour of the battle during various points.

You brought up that the movies were changed from two to three... well all the more reason Smaug should have been in the second wave based on the DoS film. I feel like Lego kind of held off on giving us Smaug because they didn't want to reveal too much and it allowed them to make a set that was more true to movie (compared to say Dol Guldur Ambush or Mirkwood Elf Army). I really liked Beorn in the book so I was super disappointed with how much PJ down played his importance. Honestly we could have probably done without the minifigure seeing as he hardly does anything in the films. That would of allowed for another new mold for a more important character or some soldiers.

[Balbo]

Although I totally agree with your points Deathleech, I just want to note that the Lake Town Bell Tower is quite accurate in my opinion. There's the crane which Bain is using in the movie, the Bell Tower with Bard where he's shooting the black arrow in Bo5A and moreover the set includes the small boat with Tauriel, like in the movie (although it's undersized).

But all in all that set is based on the Bo5A and not on DOS. Just the Orcs are a bit out of place, but the printing and the new headpiece are very nice, so I'm glad they are in the set

[Deathleech]

Oh, I agree the Lonely Mountain set, and especially the Attack on Lake-town one are accurate in terms of their builds. I guess my issue is the minifigures or scene depicted are off. The Attack on Lake-town set is trying to re-create when Smaug attacks the town. You have Tauriel in her green outfit in the boat, Bard and Bain with ashes, the bow and black arrow, etc. but then instead of including Smaug the set has orcs as seen in DoS. As for the Lonely Mountain, it has the entire forge scene depicted and includes Smaug, but then it has the dwarves in their armor as seen in the Bo5A film.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad we got the new orcs and new printed dwarves rather than re-hashes, but I just wish the sets would have been put together a little better. That is Smaug in the Attack on Lake-town set and the Lonely Mountain one based on the Bo5A. It makes much more sense than what Lego did. They gave us sets that were a mix of DoS and Bo5A scenes in the third Hobbit wave.

[Ql97]

Oh, I agree the Lonely Mountain set, and especially the Attack on Lake-town one are accurate in terms of their builds. I guess my issue is the minifigures or scene depicted are off. The Attack on Lake-town set is trying to re-create when Smaug attacks the town. You have Tauriel in her green outfit in the boat, Bard and Bain with ashes, the bow and black arrow, etc. but then instead of including Smaug the set has orcs as seen in DoS. As for the Lonely Mountain, it has the entire forge scene depicted and includes Smaug, but then it has the dwarves in their armor as seen in the Bo5A film.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad we got the new orcs and new printed dwarves rather than re-hashes, but I just wish the sets would have been put together a little better. That is Smaug in the Attack on Lake-town set and the Lonely Mountain one based on the Bo5A. It makes much more sense than what Lego did. They gave us sets that were a mix of DoS and Bo5A scenes in the third Hobbit wave.

I think by the third wave, with all the changes made with the movie schedule, and the theme's lagging sales, Lego just gave up. I agree, the best set is the Witch-King Battle. Although Sauron or the Hobbit version of Angmar would have been nice, I am glad they made a twilight Witch-King, so we can fully reenact Weathertop. Aside from that, Elrond and Galadriel are just gorgeous. They are the best three minifigures of the wave.

[Anduin1710]

Lastly, there should have been a Ravenhill set that included Thorin, Kili, Fili, Bilbo, Legolas, Tauriel, Azog & Bolg and a decently sized Ravenhill build.

That is my 2 cents

Oh you use my picture.

I had to remove a dwarf, so It is made of two frames.

And I had this already as an idea on lego ideas.

[Darth Caedus]

^That's a superb set idea, Anduin1710. Ravenhill would work perfectly as a Lego because it's vague enough to be adjusted down to Lego scale, and small enough to function as a mid-high range kit.

Here's something for Hobbit fans - though I'm not a Simpsons fan, I will be seeking out one particular figure from the new wave - Superhero Bart. It just occurred to me today - Superhero Bart has a molded slingshot. This is essential to properly equip Ori, who only ever got a printed one (covered by his cape, no less). Since Lego never did enough armybuilders for the Tolkien sets, I'm focusing on making my full Company and Fellowship figures as equipped as possible, and Ori's slingshot is his signature weapon.

[BrickBob Studpants]

As many have hypothesized here, Bartman's slingshot does fit perfectly with Ori:

[tom20arc]

So I ordered the Attack of the wargs and Barrel escape today, cant wait to build them

I was in my dark ages when they released all the hobbit and Lotr sets unfortunately so trying to collect most of them now while they are still available.

What are your guys favorite sets from the Hobbit and/or Lotr wave?

[Blakstone]

I got all the sets from both themes. My favorite builds are Bagend from The Hobbit and Helms Deep (w/ 2 Uruk-Hai Army wall additions) and the Orthanc from Lord of the Rings. Those sets will never be scrapped for parts.

Besides those four, you may want to look at which characters you are going after. The best set from the final Hobbit wave, for me, was the smallest: Witch-King Battle.

[bungeshea]

So I ordered the Attack of the wargs and Barrel escape today, cant wait to build them

I was in my dark ages when they released all the hobbit and Lotr sets unfortunately so trying to collect most of them now while they are still available.

What are your guys favourite sets from the Hobbit and/or Lotr wave?

Ha, same with me. Though it wasn't so much of a dark ages as a great depression, when I was still interested in LEGO, just not having a whole lot of money for new sets. Plus at the time I sort of passed the theme over - much to my chagrin now

I personally like Bag End the most out of my Hobbit sets. I unfortunately don't have the Tower of Orthanc, but I have Helm's Deep, which I really like. Attack on Weathertop, Attack of the Wargs, Shelob Attacks, and the Council of Elrond are all favourites as well.

[napoleonlafy]

Azog minifigure looks so beautiful, and Dain's helm too.

[MAB]

Lego S@H (UK) very briefly had Lonely Mountain and the other Hobbit sets at a 25-30% discount this morning, and they have now all moved to "retired product", except for Lake Town. So if you are after one and see it somewhere, your last chance is probably imminent.