Gibbon

I share your fear regarding the CMF14 gargoyle, as this minifig might be completely ruined by a stupid head or body print.

The gargoyle, the spectre and the grim reaper might be the most interesting minifigs of this series (and I like the gargoyle head piece ver ymuch) but I don't place my expectations to high as looking at the first leaked image of some minifigs, they are all too cartoonish and funny style so I fear Lego might ruin the gargoyle or spectre with stupid, smiley face print or some less detailed body prints.

Simply stunning!

I absolutely agree with you at all points. It was an easy choice and I gave my vote to Orthanc which is highly the best set of the LOTR line (anyway I agree that both Shelob and Mines of Moria are amazing sets). I am a little bit surprised about the popularity of Helm's Deep as I have a strong feeling of uncompleteness upon looking at it. The minifigure seelction is nice but the set is a little more than a short wall section. I think that the popularity of this set is mostly because it is an emblematic scene in the book and even more so in the movie and not because it is a fantastic set indeed.

Thanks for you answer. Amazing numbers, amazing amount of orcs. Here in Europe the prices are always higher a little bit, but the rates for the mentioned minifigs are doubled by now so no cheap buys anymore. The bald orcs are always cheaper but I can not stand them in my army as I have a feel of uncompleteness upon looking at them so I always go for haired pieces. You are right regarding the CMF goblin as the LOTR orcs and goblins are much more detailed (especially the torso) but I like their hat piece very much. I will try to collect a small group of them to make some changes on them with new head, torso and leg combinations.

Yes you are definitely right, this must be some sort of sickness, a kind of sickness unfortunately I am closely familiar with :-) (even if my collection is dwarfed by yours) I will be especially interested about your ideas of adding new hats or helmets to the orc guys as I am a real hater of the stupid bald ones we had in a couple of sets and have the same desire. Do you make the orders on Bricklink for more orcs? Regarding the orc army, I am not sticked to the LOTR-Hobbit world and I feel that the new CMF Goblin migt be a nice addition to the army (especially with adding some head variants to them to make teh goblins less homogeneous.

I just found your older post with pictures of your amazing evil army the other day and found it simply stunning so can't wait to see the mentioned upgrade with the 30 Hobbit orcs. Hurry with the pictures if it is possible :-)

13. 1 point 14. 1 point 31. 1 point

Category A: #3 #5 Category B: #3 #4 Category C: #4 #6

It is interesting as in the movie trailer there is no new sword acessory on Azog's left arm at all.

The mentioned shop is is Kockaáruház (http://www.kockaaruhaz.hu/?gclid=CKWlqLDYrMECFSuWtAodGCQAWA) and the very sets are: http://www.kockaaruhaz.hu/79015-lego-hobbit-a-boszorkanykiraly-csataja-79015-7859.html/hun/ http://www.kockaaruhaz.hu/79016-lego-hobbit-tamadas-tovarosnal-79016-7860.html/hun/ http://www.kockaaruhaz.hu/79017-lego-hobbit-az-ot-sereg-csataja%E2%84%A2-79017-7861.html/hun/ http://www.kockaaruhaz.hu/79018-lego-hobbit-a-maganyos-hegy-79018-7862.html/hun/ Usually they do not have every set on the shelf so you need to make an online order and it takes 2-3 days to be packed together for the pick up, but today it worked with same day pick up which means they have the sets on stock at the moment. I do not know if you are familiar with Budapest but the shop is close to the Eastern railway station.

We have all the new Hobbit sets available here in Hungary in one of the biggest Lego stores. I just ordered them in their webshop (with 2-3 days delivery) today and they called me in less than 2 hours and told that my order is ready for pick up in their store. Hurray!!!

All right, I fully understand your point but I simply use the opposite approach to the question. Why the hell to call it Gwaihir if it looks exactly the same as the common great eagle (even if he looks the same in the movie)? You are probably right and this is just a chicken shit to make the people happy and satisfied to have Gwaihir in their collection without spending a single penny on it.

That's right but after all no matter what name Lego is to use for the eagle the customers get the very same eagle for their money and I do not think that this is a right or fan-friendly marketing technique. I can not agree more about the Orcs :-((( As a big lover of this folk I was really sad to see these stupid bold Mordor Orcs coming out again and again. With some minor modifications we could have had a plenty of new variants to make all of us happy. After all I am happy to see new Hunter Orc appearing in the Lake Town set as I really like them but I am sorry as they might be the very last of their kind as the line seems to be closing.

Yes, I agree with you on the Orc topic, especially on the logic used by Lego on that but you might misunderstood my point a little bit about the Hunter Orcs. I was referring to them only because of their name not because of their appearence. just tried to show the reasons for calling orcs (or other figs) giving them these titles showing their role in the story. That's it. Anyway these bold orcs making me angry all the time... I understand your point about the eagles and I think you are right about that but I still not see why to put the very same eagle as a named character into a new set. I think that your explanation does not give a strong reason for that. With a differnt colour or some minor or major printing difference it might be a logical step.

I still think that there is much more sense for the very same minifige to have different titles than putting this fig as a named one into one of the new sets. 'Orc Pitmaster' or 'Hunter Orc' are common and general orcs and their titles are to show their role in the story as a whole or in the very scene the set is to display (for example the Hunter Orcs are regular orcs who have the order of Azog to hunt down the party of the dwarves etc). Yes, you are right about the appearance of the eagles. To tell the truth I do not have chrystal clear memories about the eagles in the first movie and I can not recall the memories of the eagles having significant differences by size, shape or look and Gwaihir might be absolutely similar to the 'common' great eagles (actually as we know in the book he is different), but why not to reverse the issue: If Gwaihir has no significant difference, there is literally nothing logical for Lego to name the same eagle as Gwaihir in one of the sets. Anyway practically no need for a new mold as some new printings or a different colour would work for that.

I am a little bit surprised that you consider the 'Orc Pitmaster' to be a NAMED character... Using the same logic you should say that Hunter Orc is a named character too, but actually this is not the case, it is a common orc. If Orc Pitmaster is a named character than you need to say the same for the Mirkwood Elf Guard too. I hope you have a better example to prove that it is pretty usual to sell the very same minfig (or eagle) as a common character in one set and as a named character in an different one.

Thank you so much! It is pretty strange to me.

Just a question for the lucky ones who have bought the new The Hobbit sets already, is the Gwaihir of the BOFA set differs even in the slightest detail from the common eagles we had in the LOTR sets (Black Gate and Orthanc)? Based on the pictures we have some far it seems absolutely the same to me and it is a little strange to have the very same eagle in two sets to be a common eagle and a named oned in a third.

Thank you so much, I will try it for the next Hobbit wave.

Only a technical question, may I ask you where these 30% off discount can be catched in Europe? Is it on a webstore (Amazon etc) or something? Here in Hungary I found these kinds of discount to be pretty rare in normal stores selling Lego products. Fortunately I was lucky enough to find 'The Attack of the Wargs' set on 50% off in one of the biggest supermarkets last December.

Thank you so much as I missed that interview with PJ. Probably you are talking about this one: http://thorinoakenshield.net/2014/08/01/battle-of-five-armies-article-in-empire-magazine/ To tell the truth, I do not found PJ telling anything like a list of the involved armies in it.

I might missed that, but when and where did PJ categorically state the five armies 'The Battle of the Five Armies' named after are dwarves, elves, men, orcs and eagles? From PJ's point I see no real reason to make a statement like that as in the movie it is not necessary to make a decision on that. In the battle scene there will be elves, dwarves, men, orcs, wargs, bats, eagles and Beorn present for sure but very few of the spectators will care about the question who the five armes are exactly.

I agree with you on that. I simply can not find a better explanation for the eagles to be left out of the Five Armies but the fact that they just arrived much later when the Five were already fighting the battle for a while. Tolkien's sentence still means to me that he did not consider the eagles to be one of the five armies.

I agree with most of your logic, and of course I do not have any better information on the topic you have. That sentence seems - at least for me - as something like a 'definition' for the Battle of the Five Armies. Of course I do not have an unquestionable explanation for the Wargs being one of the armies but the Eagles aren't one. Whoever the five armies are, Tolkien is pretty confusing. Perhaps Tolkien left the eagles out of the five because they joined the fight LATER when the five armies to face each other were busy fighting.