Nagyzee

Thanks for the review. It seems the Chess Set suffers from the exact same quality issues as the battle packs did. At least this one is a lot better value for money than those. With the battle pack figures the very noticeably different green shade of the dragon soldiers really bothered me, I sold all such soldiers that I acquired. I might do the same this time as well, only keeping the shields and plate armours. The weird colour of the ovoid dragon shield is the biggest let down for me as I've purchased this set mostly for the otherwise rare and thus expensive ovoid shields and plate armours. The figure choices are more or less okay but there are few weak spots there, too: - The jester as a knight is laughable. And whoever needs more than one jester anyhow? I foresee the jester becoming an extremely cheap figure on Bricklink. - The green queen uses that done-to-death barmaid torso, a very cheap choice. - A bit of a head variation wouldn't have hurt among pawns. At least the lion pawns have an okay head but the dragons' one is poor. In itself I'd rate this set below average for what it is but the great price pushes it up to at least average territory. I would have gladly paid a bit more for better quality though.

Well, off the top of my head I could say only one set that would look great together with MMV without modification if put into the same diorama. And that is Mill Village Raid. The barn and windmill look good enough on the outskirts of a MMV - based village. Maybe a Hagrid's Hut would be a passable match, too, but I'm not so sure.

I think that the manbat and the evil female alien would have made more sense as polybag sets for their respective themes. They feel a bit out of place and cheap in here because of their extremely strong connection to a still running theme. My other gripe (apart from the above and the very high number of rehashes) is that the use of so much gold limits the usefulness of some of the better figures in this series. I'd love to army build conquistadors. But probably won't, as an army in gold armour and helmets is just plain odd. On the positive side the diver is excellent and the thespian is among the best collectible minifigures altogether. The ruff is an awesome addition. That little piece is the main redeeming factor of this otherwise disappointing series.

Actually the CM1 Forestman came with two feathers of the same type. No circle, but there was an extra piece included. However this time I'd expect no extra feather, TLG doesn't add extra pieces to collectible minifigures any more.

Mo, it wasn't. Sadly I don't see any ancient thespis in there. At least the figure we got instead is also great (especially the collar piece). This series is a bit underwhelming altogether with quite few new molds, several remakes and a few simply boring figures. There are still some gems in there though at least.

He looks weird with the new mold, too. That belly is very oddly shaped, and it ends way too high.

What's that inside Bombur's beard? Looks something like an air tank to me by the forms of it. Is it supposed to be his stomach? If yes then it starts way, way too high. That protrusion goes above even his shoulder making him look extremely odd. But even if it started lower it would be still odd. It doesn't seem like as he has a nice round belly with his beard laying on it. Instead it seems like as if he had an extra protruding body part on top of his belly inside the beard. Or is it just me that's bothered by it?

Never mind, I'm just a bit disappointed as my first thought upon seeing the frontpage was that these heads will now turn up in the citizenbrick store.

Does this mean that they won't be available for sale?

So a one-off retail set? That sounds really weird and hard to believe to be honest. I also don't understand then why they did cut the 2nd wave of Kingdoms that short if they are still planning for retail presence of the theme.

Just look at the wheels.

I favour almost the exact opposite. I can't stand clone / uniform armies in medieval settings to be honest.

Really? It's hard for me to imagine that it's considered cool to play with a Lego garbage truck or ambulance or even build a Lego city but adding trains to it would suddenly make you insanely nerdy among fellow kids. I can imagine the City theme as a whole not being cool over a certain age though. Btw some of the expectations in this topic are surely way over the top and I'm fine with Trains being a subtheme of City nowadays. However I do think that TLG should really improve with integrating their train stuff into City. Trains still feel somewhat separate and TLG provides little incentive for kids to want to add trains to their Lego cities. I'm thinking about stuff like a commercial showing a freight train set used in combination with a harbour set or one where you can see the passenger train and the train station next to a street with City houses and vehicles. Look at this commercial for example: it only shows a bunch of Train sets, no other City sets whatsoever. It's beyond me why Lego doesn't emphasise the City connection here. They could also show such pictures on the back of the boxes, in the instructions or maybe even provide some alternative instructions on lego.com with ideas of integration. The next level could be including a siding into the next harbour set or into a set that depicts some industrial facility. But that might be wishful thinking. A proper train station (not just a train stop like the current one) like set 4554 / 2150 only this time with a City side as well that includes say a bus stop and a bus would also go a long way in establishing / strengthening the link. The current train stop was a good step in this direction though I must admit. As for trains making guest appearances in other themes: we quite often have trains in action themes already. Of course those are not proper trains and I don't understand those who complain about that. They are silly action trains and why would one expect more? Take it as a parts pack or leave it... The only single other theme I'd really like to see a proper train in is Western if it's ever reintroduced. Trains are such an integral part of the Western feel so there I'd really think it would be an oversight to not include one. Btw Pif Paf City is quite supported on CUUSOO, here's hoping that it will at one point cross the line and we'll get the train station from it. --- The other thing with regards to advertising is that I'd probably put a bit more focus on the parents as targets in advertisements of Lego trains. On the one hand because they are more expensive than most other sets and on the other because trains seem to me to be the best opportunity to play together with your kids when it comes to Lego. Sure, parents can help build other sets as well and so on but I can hardly imagine most parents move and pose minifigures around the floor playing castle siege or whatever or say do spinner battles with their kids while with trains they could better join in. A mining train is something like you see in the biggest mining set. A small engine pulling small hoppers inside the mine. What you imagine is surely not a mining train but simply a freight train that happens to transport ore in hopper cars.

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=9465-1

The Chess Set became available only a few days ago on European S@Hs and the first batch is already sold out. Hopefully there will be more. It seems it's quite successful or alternatively that they have opened with very little stock.

While to be honest I prefer Nuju Metru's version over yours this one is also a nicely done Treebeard. Apart from stuff others have already pointed out I have only one criticism: the log bricks look really odd on him.

The fell beast might work as a figure but in my opinion Smaug is simply too big for that. A miniaturized figure version would be a bit sad in my opinion. I'd choose a brick-built huge Smaug with many points of articulation over that (so that it can fly, rest curled up on its hoard, etc.) any day. Also I don't remember Smaug ridden by anyone in The Hobbit, though I've last read it quite a long time ago so I might be mistaken.

I also hope that Smaug, the fell beasts, the balrog and Treebeard will be all brick-built if they are ever released. It would also make it more convenient for Lego as these creatures could be the brick-built portions of the sets they come in. (For example a set depicting the stand-off between Éowyn and the Witch King would be just a bunch of figures otherwise.) As for the Vikings dragons they were a bit too Technic-like for my taste. Except for the Midgard Serpent in 7018 which turned out great.

I think that once LOTR gets established they'll finally reach out to the ancient world which they so far weirdly didn't really. (Apart from adventurers vs. mummies action themes.) My bet is on Toth's Greek/Roman Age of Mythology concept. Hopefully the huge popularity of the Spartan, Roman Soldier and Gladiator collectible minifigs got them thinking. And it wouldn't really clash with LOTR either so the coming years seem like the best opportunity to try a theme like this.

A bit weird choices for polybags. That Frodo is in the cheapest set (and there are two other Frodos, too). The Uruk warrior is also quite plentiful without the poly as it comes in numbers in the most cost-effective, most army builder-like set. A Rohirrim or a Mordor or Moria Orc would have been better in my opinion. Not that these would ever show up in my country though so I don't really mind either way...

Yeah, I also agree that TLG should tie Trains more into their City line (and to other lines where applicable). It would be great if for example the next iteration of the harbour contained a siding with some freight cars and a small shunter. Or if they made a factory or logistics centre-like building also with a siding and so on. Maybe even a small working mine train for the Mining subtheme. If they ever pick up the Western theme again (hopefully they'll do to some extent thanks to the CUUSOO success of Modular Western Town) they should really make a Western train station with a steam train. Just like Kris Kelvin's Piff-paff City moc. It's also on CUUSOO and in my opinion absolutely worthy of support. And I agree that it would be time again for a normal, non-high speed diesel or electric loco pulled passenger train. Or maybe for a smaller tank (non-tender) steam engine in their normal, non-exclusive line. The small steam engines of the 80s were great and I'm sure something like those updated to current aesthetics would rock. Oh, and let's not forget about a classic train station a la 4554 Metro Station. Something that looks good in a town dominated by Modular Buildings.

Nice moc. And the brick-built dragon from Creator Knight and Castle Building Set making an appearance in the background has put a smile on my face.

While I don't agree with your opinion on the source material (it's just a modern 'plastic' DMU, and they replaced the fantastic Di3 locos) your MOC is a fantastic recreation of the original. 10 stud width looks really nice here, it feels as being totally proportional. How heavy is this thing though? One might think it's not too practical to build at 10 studs width if one wants regularly working models rather than display objects but I could be wrong of course.

Depends. Sometimes the exclusive sets are exclusive to another locally present retailer in such countries. For example here in Hungary 4438 Robbers' Hideout is exclusive to a local toy store chain. On the other hand some other sets that are exclusive on the US market to a given retailer might be widely available in another country. For example I have seen 3648 Police Chase at several supermarket chains here despite the box saying it's limited edition / exclusive.

According to Bricklink the Queen figures were glued in some runs (probably skirt to torso). Also according to Bricklink the horns were glued to the helmets. Though I don't think it's relevant since luckily it seems they have given up on gluing their chess sets a long time ago.