Supersonic

It's sad, but it's really nothing new - the price of most Star Wars sets has been 10-30 bucks (depending on size) above what it should be for years now. Some big sets have been exceptions imo (the last RGS and AT-TE were pretty fair), but prices like 90 for Poe's X-Wing, 60 for Takodana, 50 for the Tie Advanced prototype are just as bad as the new ones.

To be fair Episode VII just doesn't have that many vehicles you could turn into sets. Even the first wave had several that were just rehashes of OT stuff (Falcon, X-Wing, TIE) and with Takodana, the Resistance Transport and Encounter on Jakku realized I really don't see too many possibilities there. (Of course the FO Star Destroyer looks nice, but capital ships always get neglected.)

Honestly though, I think that's in spite of the sets being non-canon, not because of it. Sure, the new sets won't sell terribly if they look good enough (parents with no interest in SW will just buy them for their children anyway), but it's not like a comparable OT/PT/Rebels set would.

Yeah, they're going for bundling to make sure we pay the absolute maximum amount. Same with the Tie Advanced vs A-Wing set - there's absolutely no reason not to make that two sets, but if the combined set is attractive enough, it makes more money. I guess the 2014 Cantina with Luke's Landspeeder falls under that category too. Do we have information about an AT-AT in the Hoth set though? Seems like a waste - we get those every few years, they make great standalone sets. Most of the Rebel Base could only really be done in the UCS.

Not the first to have this idea - Star Wars Death Star inspired: Merry Christmas and thanks for the raffle!

My Christmas present - a brand new guitar Thanks & Merry Christmas y'all!

If the next wave is TABA, that doesn't mean the end of LotR though. We never had both Hobbit and LotR sets in one wave, and if the Hobbit ends with a wave in 2014, there is no reason to believe LotR won't continue in 2015. The (highly understandable) focus on the Hobbit sets for DoS and TABA might have just pushed back the next wave.

I would buy dozens of these...but I'm not sure of the licence situation there.

Rohan Battle Pack without a doubt.

I sincerely doubt that we won't get a third wave. TLG are smarter than this - they definitely know that the second wave was pretty lackluster/filler for big parts of the target group, and they definitely knew what they were doing with the intial wave (which was pretty close to perfect). From everything I have gathered, LotR sold well, too - probably not SW levels but good enough to be kept around, especially since it keeps people buying who would otherwise buy no Lego at all or very little. There are enough (semi-)plausible reasons for LotR's absence in 2014, most having to do with the Hobbit and its history of last-minute switches which have impacted Lego before, as well as the fact that there is a huge number of The Lego Movie sets in 2014. Nothing so far has actually ruled out LotR in 2015. Yes, if the line is actually finished, it's terrible news and a really weird decision after that second wave. But let's not despair when there is no official announcement declaring the theme dead yet. Good idea - I'm pretty sure you could get a nice number of people signing that.

A star based on golden lightsabers Thanks for the raffle & merry christmas!

Not much Star Wars related stuff for me lately, so a LotR crossover :) Santa Yoda picked a bad time to deliver presents in Middle Earth. Thank you for the raffle and merry christmas!

They do have some nice pictures of Helm's Deep and the Mines of Moria though.

I thought about that too, but would it really make sense? They announced/promoted a Hobbit wave to go with the movie, and the Hobbit sets would look quite different from the LotR sets. I think the realistic option is a 100% Hobbit wave in January 2013 and another LotR wave in summer 13.

I'm confused - are TLG allowed to sell packs of figures without bricks for LotR? I know it isn't possible for LSW, hence the inclusion of vehicles in the battle packs. What about LotR? If they can do BPs with just figures, I hope they're not in the already-assembled style of the Castle BPs - I like opening boxes and putting together figs, and I think a Rohan battlepack needs horses. Maybe a Rohan BP could come with 3 Rohirrim and 3 horses, while the other packs have 5 figures but no horses.

A couple of ideas (and I hope not all of those have been done already - there are a lot of wishlists in this thread!): Attack on Osgiliath: Includes a couple of destroyed buildings and an Orc boat. Minfigures would be Faramir, 2 Gondor soldiers and 3-4 Orcs. Price around 80-100 bucks. Would be a good set to buy multiple times, so you could easily built up bigger armies and a bigger city. Warg Encounter: Includes a little brick-built scenery, 2 Warg riders, 2-3 Rohirrim and maybe Legolas/Aragorn/Gimli. The wargs would be new molds, of course, but that doesn't seem to be a problem. Price ca. 50 bucks. Haradrim Ambush: A mumakil (partly new molds, partly brick-built) with 3-4 Haradrim and 2-3 of Faramir's archers. Price 30-40$, depending on the size of the mumakil. The Dead Marshes: A few bushes, some brick-built swamp, a brick-built Fell beast with Nazgul and Gollum, Frodo & Sam. Could be a lot like Shelob Attacks, just replace the spider with a larger Fell beast. Price 30-40$. The Black Gate: Medium to large gate with 3-4 orcs and a troll. No Frodo, Sam or Gollum as those shouldn't be in too many sets. Price 50-60$. Edoras: Large set, maybe exclusive. Includes part of the wall around the city, 1-2 small houses and the Golden Hall. Figures: Theoden (double-sided head), Grima, Hama, Gandalf, Eowyn, a few Rohirrim, maybe the rest of the Fellowship. Price around 150$.

This wave is mind-boggingly awesome. Helm's Deep might be the best set Lego has done, ever. The size, the design, the details (the interior!), the figures (especially Theoden - wow) and the price - there is nothing I don't like about that set. The printed pieces, weapons and accessories in the interior are the icing on the cake. I will buy this set the second it hits the shelves... It's a little disappointing that the next wave will be about the Hobbit (I would have preferred LotR battle packs), but it seems like it will come out in December, in time for Christmas Very happy how this is all turning out!

The orc-human ratio is actually not as bad as it should be. In the movie, Helm's Deep has about 300 humans, 200 elves and later 2000 Rohirrim against 10,000 Uruk-Hai. That means if you have 2 elves, 3 Helms Deep foot soldiers and 20 Rohirrim, you need 100 orcs to even things out...sure, it's a little hard right now to get Elves, but Uruk-Hai Army actually has way too few Uruks. I'm pretty sure we'll eventually see battle packs though. They were made for SW, they were made for Castle, why not LOTR? Rohirrim or Gondor battle packs would sell like mad.

So you keep saying, but actually it isn't a big deal. No matter what figure it is, you will end up having it ten times if you buy Uruk-hai Army that often. It's not like Eomer looks different from a generic Rohan rider, and if you switch a few heads and torsos with the Rohan foot soldiers (and hopefully, with the figures of battlepacks in future waves), nobody will notice.

Considering how ridiculously overpriced SW and PotC have been lately, I can definitely live with these prices. Pretty close to the 10ct/piece ratio (Helm's Deep and Shelob are actually even cheaper), something LSW hasn't even remotely achieved in the last few years. Uruk-hai Army is a pleasant surprise, 30$ is very fair for 260 pieces and 6 new figures (plus the new horse).

I'm afraid TLG has no problem with ridiculously overpriced sets, as seen in the Star Wars and PotC sets. I'm pretty sure Uruk-Hai Army will cost between 30-40 dollars and 37-40 euro, as it's clearly a bigger set than Shelob Attacks. 270 pieces is a lot too considering the set has 6 minifigs and a horse; anything less than 30 bucks would be a really good price and I'm not expecting those from TLG anymore I don't think it's fake, the guy who posted about it had all the other sets (with numbers) right before the pics leaked. It's probably just the exclusive set of the wave. The piece count of Helm's Deep is a nice surprise indeed. 1368 pieces is a fair deal for 140 bucks.

If the planet sets are usually 10 dollar/euro, I'd say just divide the price by 1,6 and you should be pretty close to the actual US/European prices: Jabbas Palace - 140 Malevolence - 125 Fury Class Interceptor - 90 Gungan Sub - 70 Old Republic Starfighter - 50 Jedi Starfighter - 40 (this seems unlikely though) Desert Skiff - 30 Surprising that the Palace appears to be as expensive as the Millenium Falcon while the Malevolence "only" costs as much as a Republic Frigate. Fury Class at 90-100 is a bit steep too, if you compare it to the Podracers. The Old Republic Starfighter would be way overpriced as well at 50 bucks. Gungan Sub being as expensive as the Sith Infiltrator makes sense, Skiff and JSF should be 30$ sets. Well, I'm just happy my only must-buy set (the Malevolence) is seemingly cheaper than expected. Lightningtiger, could you provide some of the prices of recent sets for comparison? How much are small sets like Ewok Attack or Dathomir Speeder in Australia?

I'm afraid that's by far the most likely option, although I think there are one or two other themes that are missing summer 2012 pics so far. But the way the TLG woman said that castle "continues" in 2012 doesn't mean new sets.

Don't forget that LSW also has the Clone Wars Series and the upcoming 3D movies, which all guarantee that kids will be interested in Star Wars. Also, the number of vehicles and other possible sets is just way bigger in SW than in LOTR - I remember that that was the main argument brought up when people discussed why TLG chose to take up the SW licence in 1999 instead of LOTR. The LOTR movies definitely have enough material for 3-4 more waves, and the Hobbit movies will each spawn at least one entire wave without a doubt. But the 13+ years that LSW has been going on are unmatchable for LOTR, I'm afraid. Unless, of course, we will see more movie adaptions of Tolkien's work, which I doubt. Let's hope so! There are at least a couple of sets begging to be made - Minas Tirith and Osgiliath being the most obvious ones.

Those pics look amazing - Helm's Deep and several of the Uruk-hai Army are a must-buy, Moria and Weathertop are great too, rest is OK. I think it is - which would make it even better as an army builder. Agreed on Haldir too, that would be great. BTW, anybody else notice that the picture for the 9476 The Orc Forge is missing? Any speculation on the prices so far? Helm's Deep is definitely a 119-129 euro set, Moria should be about 70-80, Uruk-hai Army and Weathertop 30-40, Shelob about 20-30 and Gandalf Arrives about 10-15.