JimBaggins

2, 26, 15 Love the detailing and composition. #2 is my favorite, it has lots of detail but feels more clean and elegant than many of the others. #26 has amazing greebling and details, looks balanced and fits the character. #15 perfectly captures the pirate cabin, and I like the references to pirate life Honorable mentions to #4 and #25

I personally want something a bit smaller with future Lord of the Rings sets. A $100 - $150 Bag End would be plenty big and much more affordable/accessible. I don't have room or money for a massive set like all of you are imagining, and I imagine many others feel the same way.

Does anyone have experience with Lego replacing broken bricks? (brittle brown) Can you just ask customer service?

Rolli grass now on pick a brick. https://www.lego.com/en-us/pick-and-build/pick-a-brick?query=6299665&page=1&perPage=20&includeOutOfStock=true

Awesome build, definitely one of the best castles in the program. I love the snow, the pallette, and the slanted wall, it's very inspiring. Best of luck!

I figured there should be a thread to discuss the historic themes related BDP1 sets. What do you think are the best, most interesting, or most useful sets? What are your favorites? My favorites are Brickwood castle, which I was somewhat involved in, The Ocean House, and the Mountain Fortress. They seem of the highest quality and level of detail, along with looking amazing! https://www.bricklink.com/r3/designer-program/series-1/26/Brickwood-Castle https://www.bricklink.com/r3/designer-program/series-1/166/The-Ocean-House https://www.bricklink.com/r3/designer-program/series-1/482/Mountain-Fortress

I remember doing it with CMF 7 and other figs at Legoland in like 2012. 😂 Same 😢 I really want one or two of the vikings from that series for my rohirrim and medieval mocs, but missed them because of COVID. Now they're over $20 on bricklink, so I'll probably never get one☹️

Especially if bara dur comes out, you need it's sister tower! It was a fun project, hard work and high cost but worth it in the end. It was a great builds and bigger than I expected.

It's taken like two years, as I've worked on it very sporadically. I collected as many pieces as I could from my own collection, marking off what I had and needed and what quantities. I dug through used Lego bins, made a pick a brick order, and 2 or 3 bricklink orders. My most recent order was imported from Canada to get the sticker sheet for cheaper and some key missing parts. I had the Minifigures already, except for Sarumons dress and Wormtongue who I cobbled together with snape and palatine parts. I didn't build treebeard as I think his design in this set is ugly. It ended up about $150-175, I'm not really sure.

Everyone else is getting Rivendell while I just finished getting all the pieces for orthanc and built it.

That gollum is only $6-$9 on bricklink right now if you want both variations.

I always used darth maul with his head backwards as a third ringwraith when I was a kid. I want to make some more, but 5 should be enough since that's how many were at weathertop.

The differences between the minifigures are interesting, I prefer some aspects of the 2012 figs, and some of the improvements in the new fellowship. With the hobbits, it feels like the old torsos are overcomplicated, while the new ones are a bit oversimplified. I prefer the look of the old Frodo and Pippin torsos, and the new Sam and Merry ones, but they are overall very similar. I like the new dual molded hobbit feet. Merry and Frodo swapping hair is a bit strange, I think I’ll give them both the nougat hair, as it is more movie accurate. The new and old hobbit heads are both great, I’ll use each depending on the circumstance. I like how the new ones are more happy and goofy, while the old ones capture the actor’s likenesses a bit better. Gandalf is very similar, I prefer the old cape and head, but the torso and legs/dress will depend on the circumstance. I like his and gimli's new hair, although I with Gandalf had a new Hat x Hair mould. The new Aragorn and Sam have different outfits, so their use depends on the situation. I prefer the ranger Aragorn, although the council outfit is useful in Rivendell. Sam’s new outfit is useful for while in the shire, while his old outfit is good for his outfit further into the journey. I think the old Aragorn and Boromir heads capture the actors better, although the new Boromir might be useful if I want to switch his hair to the more accurate reddish brown. I’m unsure on which outfit is better, there are certain aspects of each design I prefer better, so I’ll wait to see it in person. I like the new Boromir shield, although the older feels more ‘Lego’ to me. I overall prefer the old Legolas, the new head and hair are terrible for Legolas. I’m not sure on outfit, but it fortunately looks like either legs can go with either torso, so you can mix and match to what turns out back. Hopefully I can someday get the dual molded olive green and dark brown arms from the cmf viking, they would look great. The new Gimli torso is great, I’ll have to see which helmet and beard is better. The old beard is a bit too long, and the new is a bit too short, along with the dark orange being a bit strange. The new Arwen and Elrond are nice, I'll probably put the old head and hair on the new dresses. Legolas's new hair will go to Haldir. The new weapon molds for Frodo, Boromir, Aragorn and Gimli are great. I’ll keep the other three hobbits with the dark pearl gray barrow shortswords, and Legolas with the two elven daggers. I made a custom staff for Gandalf with reddish brown 3957, minifig hand, and translucent gem.

Interesting Brickset article on comparing the old and new minifigures: https://brickset.com/article/92327/the-fellowship-of-the-rings-minifigures-2012-vs-2023

Same. My classic castle figs and LOTR sets will never be let go.