greenalfonzo

I will admit that LOTR would have a much stronger selection of characters to choose from for a CMF series. I got excited seeing all those movie figure packs or whatever. Maybe the 3rd Hobbit movie will have tons of new, cool characters that don't make it into sets, but right now you sit down and do 2 sets of 16 figures from LOTR, both unique and army builders, that would be very popular sellers.

Lego needs to figure out a way to make a CMF set for this line before it is too late! Make it happen!

I would prefer a new viking line to be opposed to a 'standard' castle line. The standard castle faction would have a smallish keep/castle, fortified house/inn, and more peasants than normal.

I want to see a middle eastern castle theme. Prince of Persia was nice, but I'd like to see a more classic middle ages series. A caravan & oasis complete with camels & round tents, a casbah-type market scene and building. A big tan crusader-style castle, etc.

Gondor Rangers are described in the book LOTR as wearing green. I got some green capes to complete the look, but haven't bothered to change the torsos or heads. The "leaves" around the neck are the only thing that look really elfin, the heads don't say 'elf' to me at all. Eventually I will get more of the hair pieces and then they will have the complete elf look.

Not very interested. Will buy one for Thranduil, the tan bricks, orcs, and hair elf, but am not interested in army-building the hooded elves at all, as there have been no hooded elves in the Hobbit movies. Would have bought ten, easy, if there were two armored elf warriors (like were in the movie) in the set instead. The hooded elves just look like human rangers to me.

I would like to see them come back with new helmets without horns. Same general style of helmet as the old one with nose guard, but with long hair attached to it, along with some beard pieces. Maybe make 1 horn guy using old helmet as a special leader/king type. I would also like to see some structures for them to attack. Small keep, fortified houses and stockades.

It's also that CMF's are an entirely different market from sets. They're very much an 'impulse' purchase that kids can grab one or two of on each trip to the store, unlike the bigger sets that have to be wish-listed or begged for. Minifigs are always popular, especially in character-driven storylines like LOTR. They wouldn't cut into sales of the big sets at all, especially since the universe is rich enough that you could still do the exclusive main characters in the sets, but add the army builders and niche secondary characters in the CMF line. Double sigh.

I just looked these up, and saw that they are selling individual CMF-style "Army Builder Pack" just for their D&D theme! Come on, get a clue, Lego! How cool would it have been if they did this for LOTR!!! Sigh.

2 Forest Ambush sets (8 figs, 2 dogs) for $24 is a better deal than 2 bps (1 of each, 8 figs) for $30. You get some different accessories in the bps, and the 2 knights with armor, but also poorer quality and none of the tree and wall bricks.

Makes sense to me! I'll keep my fingers crossed...until Summer 2015!

I think the prelim picture that had orcs in new helmet & chest armor was the Pirate ship.

Well, they're making at least three more Avatar movies, so we may see this yet.

Chima is full of 'what should of been' for LOTR/Hobbit line. The Lion Chi Temple 70010 is set up exactly the way a perfect Dol Goldur Battle set would have been.

I don't see this at all. There are plenty of shots of the elves in books and on the net. Are you being serious about 'hoods under their hair.'? They are all dressed the same as Tauriel & Legolas. No hoods. How could they reach the arrows in their quivers if they were covered by a hood? That is much more problematic than eleven archers with helmets. Of course elves wore hooded cloaks at Helms Deep. And elves generally have hoods, like Elrond or Arwen, etc. But they removed the entire cloak before fighting. And no hoods were worn in the movie, which is the important bit, and I want minifigs that are based on characters and events in the movie. This is not being unreasonable. It seems like wearing a hood under a quiver would be very risky, as the act of throwing back the hood could hook it on the arrows. I can't understand how that makes any sense at all. Maybe 500 years of practice makes elves good at archery in helmets!

You are still speaking nonsense, son. You can not provide any pics of hooded or 'cloaked' elves, because the don't exist. Tauriel's 'group' wears the same clothes she does, not cloaks with hoods. Elfs with hoods are make believe by lego to cheap out and save money. And who said anything about the helmeted soldiers using bows? Oh, that's right, Peter Jackson did: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47575695@N02/10212714165/in/set-72157636357477113 Obviously lego decided to not make armored elves, or else they would be wearing armor. That is what I am complaining about, the fact that they chose to invent something not in movie, hooded elves, instead of making armored elves, or even just elves with hair that were in movie.

Nonsense. Show me the screencap of an elf in a hood from the movie. The movie had bareheaded elfs with hair & ears visible, or armoured, helmeted elves. Non wearing hoods. Don't spout silliness about what they had in their closets back home. Lego made non-movie characters to cheap out on making a new helmet mold, and I'm almost certain there will be no elf helmet for TABA sets. Elrond will certainly be bareheaded. Visible pointy ears make an elf an elf! I give the green hoods to make gondor rangers (they wore green capes & hoods in the book.)

I'll be extremely disappointed if we do not get armored elves in the BO5A set. Armored elves were featured prominently in DOS, and are sure to be in TABA as well. The Mirkwood Army set was a huge letdown as that was a perfect place to get a helmeted elf, but instead we got of lousy hooded 'elves' that have not been seen in any of the movies! Making non-movie figures in sets is totally cheaping out, especially when the armored elves we do see are so cool.

My price for a cheap fell beast set was based on the Dragon Mountain set being $50, and including 5 figs, a pretty substantial building & large catapult, and a dragon that is much larger (and has more limbs) than a fell beast. So 3 figs & a much smaller (maybe half the size) beast seems on the edge of doable. Of course, what lego could do with existing molds & bricks for the fell beast would make a big difference. I'm guessing it would at least require a new head mold to go with the new WK helmet mold. But if you're talking $40-$60, then I think you'd definitely see a copy of the Dragon Mountain setup.

From one perspective, the situation is kinda like the Death Star in SW. You got the assault on Death Star I, and then the repeat in an even bigger assault on Death Star II. Lego could just combine them both in one big set since they look the same. In LOTR, you got the assault on Helm's Deep in Siege I, then the repeat in an even bigger assault on Minas Tirith in Siege II. Once you're looking at Pellenor Fields/Minas Tirith battle, you're thinking Mumakils, siege towers, the giant battering ram, trolls, etc., plus a really distinctive huge city-fortress. That's a ton of $$$. But Osgiliath gives you all the main characters you need from Pellenor/Minas Tirith except Eowyn & Rohan Merry, which have been pointed out are basically just a headswap away once lego makes a Gondor soldier. I guess specific Eowyn face and hair would be nice. Really, lego could take care of the Gondor essentials with either 1) a $60 full Osgiliath scene featuring WK & fell beast, Gothmog, orc, Faramir & Gondor soldiers x2, or 2)Two cheaper sets: $30 Uruk Army-style with Osgiliath ruin featuring Faramir Ranger, Gondor soldiers x2, Gothmog, and Orcs x2, plus a second $15/20 Eowyn, Merry, WK & fell beast set. Either of these deals seems extremely realistic and very appealing for a post-Hobbit LOTR wave.

Lego seems to have done second wave more as typical 'Castle Theme' wave with Black Wall as bad guy 'castle,' pirate ship (remember Troll ship?) Maybe Lego does see Minith Tirith as a boring white wall repeat of Helms Deep that wouldn't appeal to retailers, and harder to do at a good pricepoint. But that is not an excuse why they didn't do Gondor at all, as they could still do what most people seem to be missing in Gondor soldier/Faramir in an Uruk Army-type set, or with Witch King/Fell Beast in a larger set, as has been pointed out that Lego already has the perfect solution for Gondor on the shelves under generic Castle line: Osgiliath ruin, landing barge, Witch King on Fell Beast, 2x Orc, 2x Gondor soldier, Faramir in Ranger gear. $60. (Dragon Mountain is $50.) Yeah, it would be missing Frodo to complete the scene, but I don't think anyone would mind. By the way, I think bringing back generic Castle theme in 2013 was a really bad business decision. I skipped the entire line as I prefer LOTR/Hobbit. Same thing I think goes for parents who might have bought more LOTR if kiddie castle was not a option (and if the LOTR second wave was a little more 'castley'). I'm guessing they didn't sell that many more individual sets by having two lines, but spent a whole lot more money on development. Very curious what will happen in 2015 with the generic Castle theme apparently ended as well.

I've bought single CMFs plenty of times, but never a case. How many in a case? 60? About 4 of each fig? I would buy 6 cases of LOTR CMF series like that listed above if they made it. Absolutely. Fewer cases, obviously, if majority of series were non-army builders like Rosie, Innkeeper Barliman Butterbur, etc.

Someone else suggested this earlier in the thread, but this is really what Lego needs to do to complete the line: take 70403 Dragon Mountain ($49) as template for Battle of Osgiliath ($59): Fell Beast & Witchking, 2 Orcs, Faramir Ranger, 2 Gondor Soldiers, Osgiliath ruins, and landing barge. New molds: Witchking & Gondor helms, fell beast head. New printing: Gondor soldier torso/armor, Ranger torso. They would have sold twice as many of these over the Black Gate.

The change was announced in February 2013, so plenty of time to shift sets from Summer release to Winter release you would think. Bigger concern if that is enough time to design & tool new LOTR sets for summer release, since if Hobbit was planned for Summer '14 a year ago, I could see no LOTR sets being planned for that time. Maybe LOTR '14 wave was originally planned for winter '14, and they are switching the release dates of the sets once the movie release changed.

I was really disappointed by the lack of armored elves in MEA. I don't know why they put those rangers in the sets, because no elves in the movie wear hoods! Laketown has a great building, and some cool figures. I have 2 of those. The guard is awesome, and if they would have made some helmeted elves like that, I would have 8 MEAs right now instead of none.