Falconer

Kingdoms Joust + Medieval Market Village. Gorgeous.

I was uninterested in Army-building until I saw the LOTR Minifig Video. At one point in the video, the designer lines up an army of 40 Uruk-hai, and points out that they are all unique — that is, they each have a unique configuration of accessories. That piqued my interest. But first (at around 4:48 in the video) he shows a smaller army of 10 Uruk-hai. I thought I would analyze their accessories in detail: halberd, breastplate, helmet sword, hand shield, breastplate, hand helmet sword, shield, hair halberd, helmet sword, hand shield, breastplate, helmet sword, shield, hair halberd, breastplate, hand helmet sword, shield, helmet sword, hand helmet sword, shield, hand helmet Here is a closeup of some of them from another still (4:57): In order to acquire all the necessary components, you will need 1 x Uruk-hai Army, 1 x The Battle of Helm’s Deep, 2 x The Orc Forge, and 1 x Uruk-hai with ballista. (The Battle of Helm’s Deep can be replaced with other sets, but I assume you want one!) Now let’s look at the full army (5:31): I haven’t scrutinized this as thoroughly, but I think you could achieve this total mix most easily with 3 x Uruk-hai Army, 1 x Helm’s Deep, 6 x The Orc Forge, and 19 x Uruk-hai with ballista. The White Hand Shield and White Hand Helmet are the rarest accessories — not to mention, in my opinion, the coolest — being found in only The Orc Forge. The easiest way to swell your army is obviously with Uruk-hai with ballista. The combination of these two sets make Uruk-hai Army less of an attractive set, except for the fact that you’re also going to need a Rohan army. Showing my work a little more… I hope I got these right! Uruk-hai Army uruk x 4 sword x 2 halberd x 2 shield x 2 breastplate x 2 helmet x 3 hair x 1 The Battle of Helm’s Deep uruk x 3 sword x 3 halberd x 1 shield x 2 breastplate x 2 helmet x 3 The Orc Forge uruk x 1 sword x 2 hand shield x 2 breastplate x 2 hand helmet x 2 hair x 1 Uruk-hai with ballista uruk x 1 halberd x 1 breastplate x 1 helmet x 1

Maybe a new Black Falcons castle.

I can’t wait to get the Elrond hairpiece, so I can finally give Legolas the proper haircolor.

Why Isn’t The Silmarillion Being Made Into a Movie or Radio Show?

He does NOT have the rights to UT.

Yes, in Tauriel’s (and/or Legolas’s) arms, no doubt! Spoiler warnings? Sheesh, it’s only been out for 75 years.

Hey, don’t look at me. I wish he wouldn’t do ANY “Hobbit” movie, because he’s going to make a mess of it no matter what. I was just explaining why they are milking the title for as many movies as possible. Because once it’s over, it’s over.

Tolkien only sold the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, so any Middle-earth movies (or LEGO or any other merchandise, etc.) have to be under one of those two titles. They can’t, for example, do a movie based on The Children of Hurin, or The Disaster of the Gladden Fields. Because the Tolkien Estate will never sell the rights (at least, not as long as Christopher Tolkien is alive).

Back in June of 2009, I predicted that the changes from book to film will include: 1) Taking out the good humor of the original in order to make it “darker”. 2) Nevertheless being fine with inserting plenty of lame Jar-Jar/Gimli-the-Robot “comic relief”. 3) Gandalf, Bilbo, and the dwarves will all rely on their awesome kewl powers instead of wit, speed, secrecy, morality, and more wit. Expect lots of battles. 4) In the book, Fili and Kili are the only Dwarves who aren’t white-beards (old). In the movie, I expect they will all be young. Some will be female, and all different skin colors will be represented. (Sexual orientation, too, but that will be “left open to interpretation”.) 5) A few obligatory love-interests will be added. 6) Bilbo will be a skinny teen heartthrob type instead of a fat hobbit in his fifties who is fond of tea and handkerchiefs. 7) The Trolls, the Eagles, and the Spiders won’t talk but the Wargs will. 8) Not only the Gandalf-in-Dol Guldur subplot, but also many other made-up Lord of the Rings tie-in plot elements will make it into the movies and take up 25-50% of the screentime. So far, mad-scary-accurate. Except for the lack of female dwarves. That we know of.

Here are my guesses: 1) The first movie will be a pretty straightforward retelling of Chapters 1-9 (“Barrels Out of Bond”) of The Hobbit proper, mostly if not completely told from Bilbo’s point of view, with very little White Council business. Plenty of dwarvish buffoonery, of course. 2) The second movie will be a Gandalf-centric movie that advances the story of The Hobbit proper very little (we probably get our first glimpse of Smaug), and is based mainly on “The Quest of Erebor.” It goes back in time to show Gandalf snooping around Dol Guldur and getting the map and the key from Thrain; meeting with Thorin to convince him to take Bilbo; then back to the present for some Lorien business, and climax with a big “Battle of Dol Guldur.” 3) The third movie finishes up The Hobbit with all the Smaug business, the Battle of Five Armies, and the return journey. Padded with plenty of inner angst for Bard, a love triangle between Legolas, Kili, and Tauriel, etc. Note how this parallels the LOTR movies. Dol Guldur is analogous to Helm’s Deep, etc.

"Bag End" --> "An Unexpected Gathering" (the only actual set we know of) "Mystery of the Ring" --> "Riddles of the Ring" (but it’s a phony, so it doesn’t matter)

What sets would you say are in the same league as the Medieval Market Village? That is, if I wanted a tableau that included MMV and 2-3 other sets, what sets could I choose that wouldn’t look bad in contrast to the amazing MMV? I have some thoughts, but I thought I would throw it out there and see what you guys think.

I would say Crown Knights, definitely.

Lurtz can be generic, as far as I’m concerned. He’s not in the books, and to me he didn’t even really stand out as a unique character in the movies (I don’t think the name “Lurtz” is even spoken in the movies). Uglúk would be a different story.

I just wish I could use “White Hand” shields and helmets rather than the plain ones for all my Uruk-hai. There’s no reason it should be so expensive to accomplish that. This set would also be a good add-on to Orthanc, assuming there will be such a set someday. Together they could make a more complete Isengard tableau.

That’s interesting. LOTR mentions that Saruman has a white wizard hat (in the scene where he appears to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli in Fangorn Forest).

Oh God, no. There is no “movie universe.” It’s just art imitating art imitating art.

LOL, SheepEater, how can you claim to be “a huge LOTR nut” when you obviously haven’t even read The LOTR? How could you not know that the commanders of the Last Alliance (not “Final Alliance”) were Elendil and Gil-galad (not Gil-Gahad), last High King of the Noldor? Elrond was only Gil-galad’s herald at the Last Alliance!

I just put an Uruk-hai Army wall next to my MMV, and they don’t look good together at all, IMO. Different scale (the UHA wall looks way too small).

Thanks for the responses, guys. Though Diagon Alley and Haunted House don’t really work for me (since they are non-medieval). Interesting that some people think MVR is the perfect add-on to MMV, and others think MVR doesn’t meet the standards of MMV. Having seen the pictures of MVR, I’m afraid I tend towards the latter view. I think it would actually detract from the perfection of MMV to put a MVR next to it. Though it’s hard to resist buying MVR anyway, for the animals alone. MMV is the set that brought me out of a 22-year Dark Age. It’s the set I always wanted; it’s gorgeous to display. Middle-earth sets are the other thing I always wanted, and I do like them very much, but currently I have The Mines of Moria set up nearby MMV, and unfortunately MOM looks pathetic compared to MMV. (But they don’t belong together anyway.) An Unexpected Gathering looks really good, though. Definitely out of all the Hobbit/LOTR sets so far I will want to display it next to MMV. I hope it doesn’t look bad in comparison to MMV. Kingdoms Joust without the Joust, used as a framing set for MMV (turning the Village into a Walled Town) is a neat idea. I’d like to hear more opinions on just how well these two sets look together.

Maybe, but consider geographically their strategy so far, from the sets we know about: SHIRE: An Unexpected Gathering, Gandalf Arrives, Frodo w/ Cooking Corner ROHAN/ISENGARD: The Battle of Helm’s Deep, The Orc Forge, Uruk-hai Army, Uruk-hai w/ Ballista, Orthanc? STANDALONE: The Mines of Moria, Attack on Weathertop, Shelob Attacks You can detect a strategy at play here. There seems to be a balancing act between “the greatest hits of Middle-earth” on the one hand, and on the other hand the collectibility of a complete tableau of the two current focus regions.

So do you guys feel like you have to pick up one of each set of the LOTR wave before the Hobbit wave comes out, just to “not fall too far behind?” That’s kind of how I’m feeling right now!

Quick question for you guys (not making a point pro or con the main thrust of the thread): Does it look like there’s any spot within the main Bag End set where the actual Cooking Corner could fit?

Are berserkers a big deal in the movies? Or you just like the idea of another orc design? Interesting that you DON’T need this set if your goal is to collect the whole Fellowship.