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Damnit, I want so many of these. Forestmen Castle, Bionicle vignette, Mountain windmill, both Japanese temples...my wallet is already crying!

The best (imo) Ninjago City expansion that I've seen so far is this tiny 8-wide little alley. https://imgur.com/gallery/wIXPPDq It packs in an incredible amount of detail into the small space, and matches the official aesthetic perfectly.

Bionicle also has the advantage of being a single theme, while Space and Castle are split across multiple sub-themes. I ended up voting for Bionicle

Ooh, these are great. I'll have to try and incorporate them into some MOCs. Thanks for posting them!

They can be removed. The "Expand your Ninjago City Gardens" inset in this picture shows them directly connecting two of the Gardens, meaning you must be able to remove the balconies to make them fit.

That's what I'm planning on doing, but I'll probably end up having to put the temple somewhere else, because I have very few shelves deep enough for one and a half baseplates. It's definitely something of a first-world-problem, but for me, the temple island is basically an unrelated side build. It's a neat little build, but doesn't contribute to the set as a whole, imo. Something like an overgrown version of the Padoga Park MOC, essentially. That would have been fun to see. https://www.flickr.com/photos/galaktek/albums/72157696244428330

Yeah, might be an unpopular opinion, but I really don't get the point of the temple island included with the Gardens is. It's a pretty jarring break from the established structure of the Ninjago City modulars, and it leaves the Docks' sidewalk just hanging there. It feels like a completely unrelated build that was just tossed onto a Ninjago City-compatible base just for the sake of upping the piece count.

I'm still convinced that there was a third wave originally planned, for release in the winter after the third Hobbit movie, as sort of a big wrap-up for the Middle Earth theme. Then the Battle of Five Armies was pushed back to the holiday season, and there simply wasn't enough time to move forward production of that wave, so they decided to just bin it. I recall Lego's production capacity being under pretty heavy strain at the time.

Nuju my friend, this is the Minas Tirith we always wanted, but never got. Very excellent job. I can't wait to see what you do next. :-)

They could easily make Aragorn, Gimli, and several other existing characters better by adding arm printing. I mean, it's a common enough thing, with Ghostbusters, Wonder Woman, etc. Giving them arm printing would go a long way for these characters. Gollum could also be improved on by giving him a Smeagol face. Orcs of course, we could always use some new prints for torsos and faces. And of course, there are the significant (but not essential) versions of existing characters, like king Aragorn and queen Arwen, robed Theoden, Rohan Merry and Gondor Pippin, etc. Of course it's possible. It's also possible that I will quantum teleport to th--

And, as expected, both Lorien and Rivendell were rejected.

Doesn't look printed. Probably part of her leg piece, as Lego prefers to consolidate molds if they can.

Yet another superb creation. Brings back memories of Fantasy Era. I particularly like the wing pack.

What's more, the Twilight version is from Weathertop. Even the version of the Witch King that actually showed up in the movie would have been better. (not that the one we have isn't a good minifigure. It's one of the best of the theme)

The short version: Lego was stupid. The long version: Lego decided to f*** us over. They made poor choices when planing the theme, and when things didn't pan out exactly the way they wanted, they just cut their losses and ran. Elendil and Isildur would make amazing mifigigures. I mean, look at these pictures from the video game. http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/lego/images/5/56/Elendilking.png/revision/latest?cb=20131228153940 http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/lego/images/e/e4/Isildurprince.png/revision/latest?cb=20131228154024

This. Exactly. That is the biggest obstacle with anything LoTR related. The sets themselves are trivial. This is Lego. You can always make your own creations. The problem is always the minifigures. Lego minifigures are simply better than almost anything on the custom market. Even the high-quality ones often don't quite match Lego's established design ethos. We need minifigures before anything else. The problem becomes, is that for a set to get made, it has to be an actual, decent play set. Lego has no interest in making minifigure packs for LotR. I can't predict how well a LotR minifigure series would have sold, but I think it would have been a good solution the the problem of making the expensive new prints and molds. Any playset on Ideas is going to need to be well designed to have any chance.

We will never know exactly what happened, but with all the strain the factories have been under, it simply might not have been physically possible to produce a new wave when the movies were shuffled around. Please don't assume we all share your opinions. Some of us quite liked the Hobbit movies. If you didn't like them, that's okay. Just don't think everyone has to share that view. Okay, now I know you're joking. Scrap City sets? City is consistently one of Lego's best selling themes, year after year. Scrapping a city wave would be just about the stupidest thing Lego could ever do right now. Simple math. Lego I guess decided they wouldn't make a big enough profit off of a third wave. I personally think they were wrong, but I'm not an expert on market dynamics. Here are some various set concepts you might use. Balrog Battle Obvious really, the Balrog, with a collapsible bridge, Gandalf, and a few other minifigures, like perhaps Boromir, Frodo, and an Orc Witch King Battle A fell beast, maybe with some scenery or siege equipment. Another obvious one. When combined with the Minias Tirith gate set, it would provide the missing four main characters. (Eowyn, Faramir, Witch-King, and Denethor) Sauron Attack A medium set, that might come with some Mordor landscape or a piece of Barad-Dur. It would have Elendil, Isildur, Gil-Galad, and a Groot-style Sauron. Dol Guldur Chase A medium set, with some Dol Guldur ruins, a tree or two, and Radagast's sled. Would come with Bolg, Radagast, and flaming Sauron. I'm sure we could come up with some other sets with minifigures we want. I for one, would love to get Sigrid and Tilda (Bard's daughters) in lego form, but that's probably hoping for too much. In fact, there was a thread a while ago where I think it was General Magma and I came up with a list of all the minifigures needed to "complete" the theme. I can't seem to find it right now... Edit: Found it! http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=104542

But why didn't they do it? Lego should, by all means, be an expert in market research. No company is going to become the largest toy manufacturer in the world without actually selling stuff. Lego should have known that a Gondor theme would have sold well. I'm still pretty sure they had a RotK themed third wave planned, and they just ended up scrapping it when Peter Jackson decided to push the third Hobbit back six months.

The question is, what about the reverse? Would the minifigs sold well without the game?

I've maintained that this is how Lego should have handled the theme in the first place. They could make the big, detailed sets, and use the CMF series as an excuse to go overboard on the new minifigure parts.

That is a very good idea to fix one of the major holes between the book and movie. It also would have worked well with Thorin sending the Raven to Dain. The reason I say having the dwarves fight back is a good thing, is the fact that in the book, they just cowered in the mountain while Bard did all the work. That doesn't make them very sympathetic protagonists. Having them rush into the mountain to save Bilbo, then turning their tails once they saw the dragon, would have been just as effective at making the dwarves not seem like cowards, and not involved a ridiculous, contrived plan to drown Smaug in gold.

I agree with most of the story changes that Peter Jackson made, although they could have been executed. Having the dwarves fight Smaug in the Mountain is a good idea, but the whole sequence felt a bit ridiculous and unrealistic. The Silmarillion wasn't written with a movie adaptation in mind, so like LotR, it would in all certainty need some tweaks. That being said, the movie should use more practical effects, especially with miniatures and such. Dol Guldur, Lake Town, and the mountain would all have looked better as models. Either way, the Silmarillion is probably the most viable Middle Earth option in the near future. Otherwise, we will have to wait until Hollywood decides it's time to remake the Hobbit and LotR.

Exactly. If this Orc Pit makes it, that will be 4 large UCS scale LotR sets to reach 10,000. Come on Lego! Take the hint! Give us Minas Tirith already! Actually, we have Christopher Tolkien to blame, since he won't sell the movie rights for the Silmarillion. Of course, that shouldn't stop Peter Jackson from making an Angmar: War in the North film.

I mean, LotR sets based on the book? My curiosity is very piqued right now.

At this point, I'd be down for any "normal" castle Lego were to release, meaning something that's not incredibly blocky or mounted on tank treads. A revamped Forestmen, Black Falcons, or other classic heraldry would easily qualify.