SheepEater

I hope you aren't referring to LoTR as a 'fad'. The books have been around longer than most of our parents have been alive!

I think I know why Lego decided to skip making a Balrog for now. Think of the ultra-conservative parent groups making a fuss over how their favorite children's toys have become "demonic"... For an example of ultra conservative people... http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=27290

Superb MOC! I like that you used *some* of the bricks from the Mines of Moria set (or at least the stickers with the dwarvish runes) It would never be an official Lego set, though. Lego insist on having play features in all their sets.

... And you could bring with you two Lego sets, which ones would they be? You can choose the ones Lego already released, or the future ones which are highly likely to appear in a second wave (such as: Bag End, Bridge of Khazad Dum, or some scene from Rivendell or Minas Tirith) Me, I would go with Bag End (as long as Gandalf is also included) and Helm's Deep, I feel they are the most iconic of the LOTR storyline. To see Tolkien's face when he sees his beloved characters rendered in cute cylindric little plastic guys would be priceless. All the while knowing his creation is massively popular 60 years later. I would probably make him sign the instruction booklets. Actually, if I ever meet one of the actors who played in the films (like that's gonna happen), I would make them sign the sets in which they appear as a minifig... meeting PJ himself would be even better.

But it also comes with the new horse, so I think the price is justified. The cart itself can be rebuilt a wooden race car for Frodo. With an opening cockpit, and compartment to carry vegetables

I am looking forward to that as well. But I can't help you. Prior to the advent of Lego LotR, I never owned any castle sets. Unless you count 3739 Blacksmith Shop, which I bought to incorporate into my city because there were essentially 0 houses/buildings back in 2002. But now that I have the green grocer, hillside house, log cabin... I guess this house can be my starting point for a LotR human medieval village.

Null vote: Get both. Heck, get the whole line. Be careful Frodo - That old man is up to something! :laugh:

There are certainly arguments in favor of LEGO doing half LOTR and half Hobbit sets: the new movies are unproven, and COULD possibly prove unpopular. Already some people complained about the new frames-per-second format Peter Jackson is using. If the new movies flop, LEGO only has LOTR sets to fall back on for sales.

It's a licensed theme - the minifigs have to be fleshies! . . . . . . . . just kidding. Great start. If you plan to do the whole city, it's gonna be humongously huge at that scale.

(Castle newbie speaking) So, every castle-themed wave since the very beginning in the 80's had a castle (or big fortress) as the main flagship of the line, correct? So if Lego stays true to this, then it pretty much guarantees Minas Tirith as the 2nd wave's flagship set. Whether it will be bigger than Helm's Deep or not is left to find out.

This set looks great... but I already ordered the entire Lord of the Rings collection... *sigh* I'll probably have to wait until next year when TRU inevitably have a sale, 20% off city sets. The minifigs are great (except the Octan guy), I especially like the security guard.

I will, when I receive the total 4 sets I ordered.

My Castle Army currently consists of 4 Uruk-Hai, 1 Rohirrim archer, 1 Eomer, 1 Gandalf, 2 Frodos, 1 Sam, 1 Gollum and 1 generic castle knight. Yeah, pretty pathetic so far. Am I allowed to I include my hundreds of citizens, construction workers, truck drivers, pilots, policemen and firemen? And I have a complete Technig fig collection, I can use those as an army of Giants, like those from the Hobbit, throwing rocks. Giants that are somehow dressed in racer outfits.

I strongly disagree. As much as people complain of stickers, they are necessary: yesterday I was looking at the dwarven runes on Balin's Tomb (and other places in the mines) and how they match exactly with those from this passage in the book. Tolkien wrote them in huge fonts, too. The skeleton well is more than iconic for that "Fool of a Took" line which exists in book AND movie, and is one of the key scenes shown in the LEGO LOTR videogame demo. The huge columns, the big axe locking the big doors: again, reminds me of the movies. The chests filled with treasures is taken from the book. The guy who designed the set looks like he's in his late 40s/early 50s and admitted to be a huge LOTR nut I love to bring up the book in discussion because I've read it in the 90s! I was as excited about the movie coming out in 2001 as I was about the new lego sets in late 2011 I agree about the Witch King and Balrog. They kind of have to, now that we know they are in the videogame. Bag End: This is my prediction as well, and also my guess as to why they haven't included it. And although we can probably all agree that Orc Forge is far from an iconic scene, Lego probably opted to include it for the kiddies who aren't familiar with LOTR, to give them some kind of a "Baddies HQ" set that is not Orthanc itself (since Lego obviously decided that a Isengard set is too big for a first wave)

Does anyone know if the real Unimog U400's bed can tilt?

Just for kicks today, I played dumb at the TRU store and asked for Lego Polly Pocket sets, because my 7 year old niece told me she saw them (a complete lie). The employee redirected me to the Friends set. At the same time I emailed Lego asking them where I can buy the Lego Polly Pocket sets my niece wants. Again, they redirected me to the Friends sets. "We're glad your niece is interested in building! We've never partnered with Polly Pocket, so I'm not sure exactly what your niece saw, but it's possible she was looking at our LEGO Friends line of products, which feature lots of bright colors like purple, aqua, lime green and pink, as well as female characters. I've included a link to our page for this product line to help you determine if this is what your niece saw: "(link to their Friends line) That's it, it was a dumb small experiment I wanted to do, but hey, it was fun.

Those (first pic) would make great Gondorian soldiers until Lego comes out with their own for the next LOTR wave...

The only set representing a scene that I would agree is not iconic is Orc Forge. Otherwise, I disagree with you about the other sets being non-iconic without the minifigs: - Gandalf's Cart: The firecrackers and the general trapezoid shape makes it recognizable for those who remember it from the movie. - Shelob: Her eyes are exactly like in the movie - Uruk-Hai army: Part of the deeping wall, doesn't really count as a stand-alone set. I'm pretty sure they used Ballistas who fire hooks in the movie. - Weathertop: The general shape of the columns is recognizable. The palantir holder is from the book. So, this is iconic to people who have read the book. The cooking scene is iconic from the movie. - Helm's Deep: The bomb + exploding wall, general shape of the ramp leading to the main gate, and side door to dwarf tossing platform is instantly recognizable from the movie

So do I

Never happened to me so far ( I don't shop in retail much), but I hope there's a special place in hell for minifig thieves... Pisses me off almost as much as bike thieves. Way to ruin the hobby!

Well, I don't have that new separator but thanks anyway, I managed to apply the same type of pressure by building myself a "tool" consisting of three angled connectors joined by a long pin, with a 4L axle in the middle connector.

I could use pliers but it would damage the plastic.

Well, I live in Montreal, Canada, and I visited MANY small mom&pop toy stores, and they ALL have told me the SAME thing: they are reluctant to store LOTR sets because of the lackluster sales of POTC (and Prince of Persia). Their words, not mine. They also all said: "Maybe when The Hobbit comes out."

Meh, I don't think we'll see any ships. Besides the arguments already pointed out, POTC's bad sales probably left a bad taste in LEGO's mouth.

I saw the 9 minute trailer, and the most disappointing thing is that almost none of the buildings are made out of LEGOs. Buildings, roads, grass and trees are for the most part just taken straight out of a GTA game.