InvincibleEagle

Right now, I believe Dol Guldur Ambush is the cheapest set with Orcs. It's also great for Gundabad Orcs since it's the only set where they have hair and ears. But for a higher price (I don't know exactly how much higher it is in Europe), you can get the Mirkwood Elf Army. You don't get hair/ear pieces for your orcs, but you do get three (four including Thranduil) Elves plus a Warg for the extra money, doubling your army building power! If you don't care about Elves or the Warg at all, I must recommend multiple Dol Guldur Ambushes for Orcs alone due to the lower price and earpieces. The more knowledgeable Lego fans on this site may still give you a different answer.

I can analyze these movies forever. But I don't have much time right now, so I'll just give my briefest opinions on these two movies. I thought AUJ was almost perfect. I thought the swashbuckly action scenes fit the book's tone well enough, and it had plenty warmth and wisdom from Gandalf, keeping the Tolkien spirit that made Lord of the Rings so great. I also greatly enjoyed the world building; references to things like Ungoliant and the Blue Wizards reminded me that the world was much more ancient and vast than what we were presented. What I loved most perhaps was the clash of cultures, seeing the neat and mild mannered hobbits and elves react to the rugged dwarves' behavior was so charming. The main thing I didn't like was in the long run was the Azog subplot. Are the mountain trolls and Misty Mountain goblins with an arcing man vs. nature conflict just not antagonistic enough? If they wanted a revenge subplot, Azog's son Bolg would have had the exact same effect only more believeable. Desolation of Smaug was dazzling, yet hollow. Smaug was by far the best part. While the movie never got boring, it never reached greatness either. The pacing was too fast for its own good. Just about every problem solved by strategy and wit in the book is solved by sheer brute force in this movie; I don't even feel like listing them all. Brute force mainly dealt out by the elves. There we way way way too many elves in this movie. Part of what made AUJ so great to me was that we saw cultures we didn't get to see much of in LotR. In LotR, we got plenty of elves and men, but we knew almost nothing about dwarves. In AUJ, we got plenty of dwarf culture. We also got to see how orcs live their lives when not at war. However, DoS just piles on the Elves way too much, hogging screentime when we could get to know the dwarves better. Don't get me started with the Kili/Tauriel subplot. The writing was bad enough, but its mere existance alone cheapens so much of what made Lord of the Rings so powerful (Arwen & Aragorn's marraige, Legolas & Gimli's friendship, and Gimli and Galadriel's courtly love). Overall, Desolation of Smaug would have made a great standalone fantasy adventure (we need a lot more of those too), but as a Tolkien adaptation, it just leaves too much to be desired. I think the problem here is that Lord of the Rings had to please the book's fans because they were the built-in audience of that time. But now, LotR film fans are the built-in audience, so these movies are made to please the Legolas lovers and action fanatics. I know that sounds elitist. I hope TaBA will be a balance between the hardcore fan appeal of the first one and the casual movie goer appeal of the second.

I saw the designer video around the time it came out. I was immediately blown away by its sheer size escpecially compared to the people sitting next to it. I'd love to buy it, but I'm afraid I just don't have anywhere to put it.

Spyrius, now that theme brings back memories.

Here's a good one I just remembered: "Legos are like cigarettes. They mess up your brain!"-my brother circa 1997

The detail of the MOCs here at Eurobricks never ceases to stun me. I escpecially like the micro castle and forest here.

Sorry if this question belongs in a different subforum; I'm still new here. Anyway, I have a somewhat greedy and selfish question, so here we go. My local Kmart has a lon 9472 Attack on Weathertop set just hanging around the Lego isle. Now, it doesn't even have a price tag nor does it even fit on the display shelf; it's always either on its side or behind the Unexpected Gathering sets. This leads me to believe (well, hope) that it belongs in the clearance section (where toys are on sale for 30-75% off!). So, my question to you is: is there a chance of negotiating a clearance price on this set using reasons such as its retirement and that's been taking too much space in the Lego section? Thanks.

I know, right. My TRU has never seemed to have them, but they still have plenty Lone Ranger polybags.

I think something involving the Pelennor Fields would be the best choice. That scene has almost everthing we're missing: Eowyn, Harad, Mumakil, Witch King, Hell Hawk, Merry and Pippin as soldiers, and much more, but I don't think they'd want to put all that in one set.

I found Goblin King Battle at Walmart for $30! That's just three and a half cents per piece! I couldn't resist buying it even tough it's my third one. I bought my first one for about $65 at Target and thought that was a steal, and then I found one at Kmart for $50, which I bought to keep sealed for investment purposes. The catch with this particular set is that it wasn't sealed. There is Lego tape on it, but it barely sticks to box. There's also stuck-on printing from another Lego Hobbit box. That made me suspicious, but it enabled me to look inside the box at the store (remember when all big sets had windows under the box flaps?). I picked out a few sealed bags and determined that it was safe, but I still had my doubts; maybe the Goblin King was missing or something (didn't want to pour it all out in the middle of the isle for obvious reasons). But upon thorough inspection in my car, I happily confirmed its completeness . I'm still not sure what I want to do with it. Since it's not sealed, I probably can't get as much once its rarity increases. I'll probably just keep the parts to myself but sell all the figure minus the goblins.

They made a show with toys? Those evil bastards! The hubris! Nobody's done that before!

That's so creative!

When I was a kid in the mid-late 90s, Lego practically occupied all my thoughts and time, so I guess it was only a matter of time before it pulled me back in. As a kid, my favorite theme was by far Aquazone. I had almost all the Aquanaut and Aquashark sets, a few Hydronaut and String Ray sets, but no Aquaraiders. Luckily, times were a lot better for my family back then, so my parents were able to provide them for me. Everything about 90s Lego makes me deeply nostalgic. The deep colors, the mesh bags, the box flaps (what happened to those?), and those commercials mean so much to me. However, I hold less endearing memories of the 90s in Lego when it comes to the last years of the decade. I'm of course talking about juniorization. After a bit of lurking before finally making this account, I've gotten the idea that the community isn't too fond of that term, but bare with me here. I'm talking mostly about Town Jr. and Knight's Kingdom I here. While I did play with these sets and enjoy them well enough, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed after looking through old Lego catalogues. For example, while I was playing with this: the slightly older generation got to play with this: Just look at the difference. The older set has garage doors and a truck with a roof! The 97 version just looks like geometric shapes stacked on top of one another in comparisson. I've since noticed Lego skyrocket in quality since then, and I regret not being there for Fantasy Era Castle and Kingdoms among other themes. Anyway, as I went through junior high and high school, my interest in Lego naturally dropped as I became interested in video games. How did I get back into Lego? It was a very slippery slope that brought me back. Just last August, I was looking at Lego at Walmart and saw a few Lord of the Rings sets on sale. I've known the theme existed for a while, but they were just out of the question for me, but this time was different since I had some disposable income. I bought one Uruk-Hai army set thinking, "Lego and Lord of the Rings, two of my all time favorite things. This is a nice treat; I deserve it." But that once nice treat quickly turned into an obsession. I soon bought Weathertop, and before I knew it, I had all the sets that provided me with all 9 Fellowship members and all 13 dwarves plus a few more. I'm now looking forward to everything Lego has in store for us in the future in the way of Castle and Lord of the Rings/Hobbit. While I do not have nearly the collection most of you have, I now consider myself a full fledged AFOL.

Reading some of the stories in this topic makes me thankful that I've never dealt with any AFOL shaming in the short time I've returned to Lego. I admit feeling a little strange when I'm standing in line at Target carrying nothing but a big Lego set under my arm, but I've yet to be given the dreaded, "Is this for your [young relative]?" or, "Toys, seriously?" The closest I've gotten was when I was about sixteen (I'm 22 now) and I admitted to my friend, a very popular yet nice guy, that I bought a Lego Millenium Falcon and Snow Speeder. He said, "We need to get you into some kind of music." Since then, I did get into music, but jokes on him, I listen to power metal and Rush!

It's interesting to see nostalgic sets fully realized in breathtaking detail.

Mordor battle pack as long as we can get Galadriel from a Hobbit set.

Those sets were great deals. Were they figureless or something?

Since we have tons of Tolkien themed (the ultimate fantasy saga) sets, I have doubts we'll see any original fantasy themes anytime soon. However, I'd love to see some lego centaurs in order to build my own Shining Force. Also, I think we can all agree that yellow elf ears would be nice to match all our existing yellow heads. Besides that, I can't say much that hasn't already been said here. I agree that more civilians, more factions, and more realistic heraldry would all be choice.

All fantastic armies here! You all really put my 18 Uruks to shame.

I bought a Gatehouse Raid and Forest Ambush the other day. I really like the armor printing on the figures despite some of the faces being a little cartoony.