Ardelon

I would say the worst offender was the anticlimatcic ending to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . Actually I don't really mind the elves in Helm's Deep, as Jackson explained that it was to show the sacrifice of the elves in the war. And since the battles in Lórien and Mirkwood weren't shown, this was as good a way to do it as any. And their arrival seemed a powerful scene to me. @ General Magma and Fives and co.: wouldnt you say that goblins simply fall under the diversity of orcs? Both are short and pointy-eared, there are fleshie "goblins" as well as greenish "orcs", its just that some live in Moria, some in Mordor, some in Isengard, etc. In the end, though, I agree we will see several different face prints for "goblins" and orcs and uruks, but I would guess they would be interchangeable enough to allow any face/head to be used as either goblins/orcs/uruks. (Which could be construed as no difference whatsoever, just a bunch of multicolor orc/goblin/uruk faces.)

Really? To me it looks exactly like a stereotypical prepresentation of a swamp monster. I wonder whether the fig is finalized, or, if Toth is really working on the theme (is he?), whether that's just his fig as a placeholder, with the actual fig looking differently. I hope the first alternative is correct, as the torso is a bit different, as was mentioned, and the fig can hardly be made better than it already seems. Except, maybe the lime green hip piece - why would a swamp monster use underpants (made of seaweed or what)?

Sounds good, but too heavy on the special parts - prehistoric, historical and futuristic parts, prints and accossories in one theme? Dunno if it woould be worth the production costs for TLG. Remember how the last time-travel theme worked out? Only vehicles, no locations, just hats to represent time periods, and the vehicles themselves were . Even as a kid it didn't appeal to me. Maybe TLG has learned something in the meantime, though.

Transparent headdress? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a headdress? It has something to do with the transparent plastic having much more friction than the normal plastic. Thus making it very difficult to remove two such pieces from each other. As I wrote elsewhere, I learned it the hard way as a kid when I attached a tranparent cone to a lightsaber blade and it took my dad and some pliers to separate them. And it left dents on the lightsaber. Transparent figs = bad idea (with the current plastic).

Sand blue orcs ? Not that I would mind, it's just not the color that comes to mind when imagining orcs. I'm not sold on the goblins and orcs being separate creatures, anyway. The book refers to orcs in Moria, and as for the pic of the goblin that people use to show the difference between orcs and goblins, I take it simply as a sign of variation between orcs, with both terms being equal. But maybe the movies made a clear differentiation somewhere? The point is, I see no reason for "goblin" figs to be different than orc figs.

I assume they wil do something after LotR, to contrast the unique and fantasy aspects of LotR. Best-case scenario would be something like Kingdoms, worst-case scenario something like KK2. I hope it wont be the new Falcons, as I don’t find their shield compatible with the old Falcons. I’m not too keen on forestmen either (I find them too cartoonish). Here follows a heavily edited version of my post from last September, in a thread discussing which direction we’d like Castle to go (before we knew about LotR): I’d like to see a Mideastern-style subtheme. A simple way to avoid a "clash of civilizations" controversy could be to make it independent of the current „European“ factions and set it in its own universe with 2 or more Mideastern kingdoms, ali baba style bandits, etc. In the same vein, I’d like a far eastern subtheme similar to the ninjas of ’98, but based more on China. Of course it wouldn’t actually be set in China, just like the past themes aren’t set in an actual European country. The same would go for a classical antiquity theme which could be set in a fictional land (Atlantis...? – yeah, I know the names‘s been used) that would simply have a Greek feel to it (figs, armor, torsos, etc.). Ditto any Amerindian or other subthemes. I doubt a Roman theme; The Romams didnt have a rich mythological world independent of the real world, so such a theme would have to be set in the real world, which would be too controversial, I think. After all, bothe the Romans and their enemy civilization have contemporary cultural heirs, who might take offense as being shown as the bad guy. As for an Egyptian theme, it needs conflict. Who would they fight? Hittites or Sea Peoples? Too obscure. Romans? See above. Supernatural creatures? Possibly, but that would be too similar to PQ... A well executed dark age / barbarian subtheme would also be welcome, though I was sorely disappointed with the Viking line. A bandit/outlaw faction similar to Wolfpack would be cool; I remember someone suggesting a „villagers vs raiders“ subtheme some months back. I would prefer them to be more rag-tag than the Wolfpack with their smart uniforms. This subtheme would include ambush sets like MVR, an outlaw hideout/camp, and, of course, plenty of civilian minifigs!

It's said to be Haldir of Lórien.

Awesome indeed. Very vintage, usable elsewhere too. Fighting monsters sure leaves some scars! But it was about time we got a proper mechanical leg, the peg leg on the collectable cyborg was the weak point of the fig, IMO. But what are the things on the left fig's legs?

Dracula looks cool. The other two, ok, I guess. The werewolf's torso and legs are neat, his head not so much, but better than the prelims. I like that the Frankenstein monster is in a different green than the previous ones. Seems the werewolf needs both a belt and suspenders to keep his pants on!

I'm disappointed in that all of the hobbits could cave been done without the flesh triangle. And Sean Bean looks much better than that! And yeah, dark red arms would have been better on him. I have no problem with Gandalf, i guess I've gotten used to LEGO wizards not having hair. Maybe a sand blue hat would have been nicer though, to break the all-bley color scheme of the fig and to stay truer to the source material. I know it sounds like I'm whining over everything, but on the whole, i really do like the figs. Can't wait to see the obscured torsos.

Then it would have to include the head as well, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to put the quiver+head and head on the torso. So far, artistic license seems the most plausible explanation to me (meaning, the parts wont look like that IRL). Meh. Glad for the non-fleshie torso, though! And the fig looks good to me, whether the eyes be higher or lower. Hoping for a Gimli poster next.

I just noticed the Roman has his belt half silvery, and half brown. Is this a misprint, or is it on every fig?

Remember, we don't know yet whether it's Eomer. And, as others have noted, you can simply treat him as a generic rider. On the Mumakil, a possible compromise between brick built and molded could be a molded head and a brick built body...

Funny, a lot of gender-correct-thinking people would say that many LEGO themes (and other entertainment franchises) suffer from the opposite tendency - the lack of female characters of any importance . (To paraphrase a certain actress, a female character's primary role is often just to prove that the male hero is heterosexual...). Just think of Friends as balancing the equation.

So far as we know, "Kingdoms will continue" refers to the Kingdoms Joust set only. Nowhere (to my knowledge) does TLG explicitly say there will be other sets. See the first post on page 34 of this thread by Artifex - Kingdoms Joust is to be the only Kingdoms set released in 2012.

I would imagine the phial of Galadriel to be in the form of the beaker from the collectable mad scientist. I think Glamdring has a rather smaller chance of being a new mold than Andúril. Otherwise I generally agree with you. Boromir's horn and a Rohan sword would be !

Sword: Hopefully not, a new sword isn't that hard to make, though it may be true the sword doesn't play that much of a role to warrant a new piece. Ring: Why would TLG do that? Apart from it being too big, there's no reason to stick it on a stud anyway.

That was exactly the way I saw the DM and Royal Knights as well!

I used to thing about the Islanders as Caribbean natives, until I read previous discussions on this very site that persuaded me that the Islanders were, in fact based mostly upon Polynesians, with a bit of Caribbean thrown in to make the Islanders more generic. Apart from tell-tale Polynesian signs like the catamarans (possibly used in the Caribbean, but made famous by Polynesian travellers) and Moai, I don't know whether there were any Caribbean islanders populated by natives left in the era LEGO Pirates are based on (17th-18th centuries). So, my answers to the original questions are based on Polynesia: - The islanders kept pigs. Though I don't know if they go the pigs from European sailors or whether they brought them originally from Asia. - Don't know about stone huts, but there was stone-working in Polynesia, the Moai are the best known example. - No horses, as far as I know. - There were Canniblistic tribes in Polynesia, but mostly in neighboring Melanesia (Fiji (called the "Cannibal Islands"), and Papua New Gunea). - Canoes. Of course they could have used captured rowboats, but canoes have their advantages, and if they were trained to use canoes from an earl age, why switch to rowboats?

Sorry, Kingdoms is gone (or so says the general consensus here). See the first post on page 34 of this thread, Artifex posted a confirmation of no new sets in 2012.

A new sword mold should be easy to make, and I think it would make sense to differentiate an important sword like Anduril from generic swords of the soldiers of Rohan or Gondor (here's to hoping for a Rohan sword!), so a new sword shold be more milkey than not. While the LEGO posters do refer to the actual movie posters, if similarity between the two was so important as to include an image of a sword TLG wouldn't produce, they could have also given Aragorn completely cgi-invented hair similar to the real poster, instead of giving him the that hairpiece. The ring is tricky, I actually agree with those saying that the new 1x1 round tile will be the way it goes. Otherwise, a real ring piece would be too small and fragile. But we still might be pleasantly surprised... Edit: link added

Hector Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean.

I think a Greek look-alike theme with Herakles/Hercules or even made-up heroes (with easy to pronounce names!) battling monsters could work. Think Disney's Hercules movie, or the Hercules series with Kevin Sorbo, though I have no idea whether these were popular with kids. I agree that a Roman theme would be controversial, though. I was disappointed when the Adventuteres were discontinued; I wanted them to go places like under then sea (in old-fashioned diving suits - though I would be satisfied by a collectable minifig of such a diver), the savanna (though the poacher idea of Macoco would work as well or better), the Arctic or Antarctica, or Transylvania (though Monster Fighters probably fill this niche). What I'm worried about is that every few years we will get a set of Adventurers stuck in Egypt, like PQ. But on the whole, I guess I'd like to see a return of the Western theme most.

I wonder whether TLG will make a set where the good guys deviously ambush the other guys and slaughter them with arrows from a safe distance?

Great! You will probably be the new hero of this thread!