bachamn

Well, unfortunately I'm a completist so I've collected everything from the LotR and Hobbit releases, excepting Erebor and BotFA sets from wave 3 since I decided to wait until they undoubtedly go on sale. I'm holding onto at least one sealed copy of each of the polybags and have quite a few of the Lake Town Guards polys, and a handful of the Mirkwood Elves still unopened (I have 12 or so opened in my collection, I was a little obsessed with this polybag haha) I even bought one of the Moria orc keychains for my flash drive ;) Also, now I feel like I need to go check my figures for cracks. They've never been played with (and barely posed) but I'm getting the impression that this doesn't matter?

I thought it was curious too; they're available on Walmart's website but I've not seen them in stores yet, either.

where are you seeing a hairy troll in that image? the one on the left looks to have scales and horns on his face or something, but I'm not seeing what you're describing

Yep that's what my target looks like. Though here the WKB sets are fully stocked

I dunno, in the films I think there's actually a pretty strong argument for this. Arwen saves Frodo twice (including defeating all of the Nazgul at the same time), then marries Aragorn and has a son, effectively rekindling the line of kings in Gondor. Eowyn slays the witch king, with help, swoons for a while, then settles down with Faramir after the war is over. I'd 100% agree with you if we were talking about the books, since Arwen isn't much more than a generic princess character serving a purpose, but the films make Arwen out to be a lot more significant than she was intended to be. Apparently the early cuts of the film even had her fighting at Helm's Deep. Ugh.

to be clear, I don't have an issue with people linking to videos, as I don't have to click them just as I'd been avoiding the others. Just like I wouldn't have clicked the "spoiler" tag in the post had they been used. The issue I had was people watching them, and feeling it was necessary to come back and discuss them, in detail. I fail to see the functional purpose of that; you're describing what you saw? Thanks so much for sharing, but you're adding nothing to the conversation. The only thing you accomplish by doing this, without declaring spoilers, is revealing the new scenes to others who haven't seen it yet. Awareness and consideration; that's all I'm pointing to here. My assumption is that this was another set that was supposed to coincide with the "second" film before the split into three? It makes sense for them to have him taking part in the White Council attack on Dol Guldur in the third film, which would be where he reunites with Gandalf on the way to the Battle of Five Armies. I've still not seen it but I can't think of anywhere that having Beorn assaulting DG could fit in to the of DoS EE.

Yeah I agree, Mouth is probably my favorite "bad guy" LEGO figure from both Tolkien series, and in the film I thought he was brilliantly executed and terrifying. I was very excited when I saw they made a figure of him, largely because I didn't think it was a possibility. My assumption was that they knew they wanted to make a Black Gate set, and decided to include him because there wasn't anything else iconic/unique they felt they could put into the set. It already had repeat characters (though in different armor) which is kind of boring, so maybe instead of just including a bunch of orcs (or another troll, which may have been cost prohibitive for that price range) they designed an awesome, unique bad guy figure. Who cares if he only shows up in the EE version? He's a legitimate character from the books; I just see this is a fan-service move, despite the fact that most of the MOC crowd seems to be outraged by his existence because there's no Gondor soldier. Again, I get that perspective, but it is what it is. I'd feel an equal sense of lost opportunity if they hadn't ever made the Mouth figure, knowing how well it turned out. It's weird, I find myself disagreeing with most of the popular negative perspectives on this site. I think my relative level of disconnect from the LEGO community combined with my pure appreciation for Tolkien allows me to enjoy the releases a little more for what they are.

heh, so much for discovering the new scenes on my first watch-through next week spoiler tags or at least a notice would have been nice folks. My guess is most of us haven't seen the EE yet since it's not really released. been avoiding the discussion in other Tolkien forums, didn't expect to stumble across pointless descriptions of a linked video in a LEGO thread :/

Speaking to the US release, are these being sold in any other major department stores this time around? I've seen WKB and Lake Town Attack sets at Target, but they don't have the others yet. I know other stores sold the previous LotR and Hobbit releases (my local K-Mart and Walmart still have some of the older sets) but I've only heard people talking about this wave being at Target and TRU so far so I'm curious if they've been spotted elsewhere? (LEGO store obviously, but I don't have one near me). Trying to avoid TRU due to their overpricing. Still not seen Erebor on the shelves anywhere though.

It seems like most everyone hates the ship set, and in context of the other sets that never got made I can understand, but it's not like the concept of the set is that absurd. The arrival of Aragorn with the Army of the Dead, via ship, is an extremely significant moment; he's leading an army of oathbreakers into battle, which not only serves as the turning moment for the Pelennor fields battle; it signifies the literal returning of the king since only he would have the ability to command them. From a designer's perspective having the corsair ship set is a sensible way to recreate this scenario in a playset. It includes both the King of the Dead and some undead soldiers alongside the heroes. The only other option to have all these in a set would be making an entire 'Paths of the Dead/City of the Dead' set, would would have needed to be much larger and arguably would be another rubble/rock set.I also suspect that somewhere in the contractual agreement PJ required that they would make a figure of him and that had something to do with the decision, but that's just my crazy speculation. ;) Now, is it annoying that they created this set and didn't make a set for their destination? (Pelennor Fields or at least, Minas Tirith) Absolutely, but that's a different discussion really. Don't hate on the ship, I like my glowing undead guys. :)

I think if the original SW trilogy were released today it would earn a higher age rating, but maybe that's just me. I do think it mostly has to do with the marketing push for SW being so omnipresent. Kids (and adults, truthfully) tend to like what advertisements tell them to like and won't bother to explore what else is out there. It's very easy for a kid to get infatuated with Star Wars on this premise simply because you can't find a toy store that doesn't have a whole wall full of SW stuff.

I saw someone reviewing the Walking Dead McFarlane sets; they're allegedly LEGO compatible. The figure style is completely different though. As far as McFarlane getting a Tolkien license?

TBH I'm unsure what it is about Star Wars, other than the fact that Disney now owns it now, that makes it such a kid-friendly property. I've loved Tolkien since I first read The Hobbit at 9, but I also liked Star Wars for my part so I get that appeal too. I just can't put my finger on what it is that keeps Middle Earth from being more popular with kids; it's perfect fantasy. You can say it's geared towards a more mature audience, but Star Wars entertains some relatively mature themes and has enough violence in it that you could argue it's not really geared towards young children either. The prequels clearly downed the target demo by a few notches but so did The Hobbit, relative to LotR.

Well nothing is universal; my local TRU has multiples of both MEA and Council of Elrond on the shelves at the moment, next to a few LotR Barrel Escape and Mines of Moria. They still don't have the new Hobbit sets out though ;) My local K-Mart still had Weathertop up until about a month ago. UHA is the only one that I really haven't seen on shelves in a while so people for sure were snatching that one up

Seriously? The two most boring you've ever seen? Go watch "The Room" and get back to me. And look, I agree that Evangeline Lilly is beautiful, but in my opinion she's easily the worst part of the second film. And no, not because her part is completely fabricated (that actually doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would). Her delivery just feels fake to me; I don't get the sense that she belongs in the films at all like I do with say, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel who just appears to belong in Middle Earth. The character of Tauriel is a forced "strong female character with a short temper", and Evangeline's performance doesn't convey anything but this; there's no depth to her despite their attempts to tag an interracial love story into it. I felt similarly about Liv Tyler's performance in Fellowship when they were trying to make Arwen into an action hero. Same approach; same problem; same awful results.

Got ya, I thought you were taking issue with uruks themselves being there obviously. I mean, I agree that they look similar to the White Hand helmets but it's just a silhouette; it could just have similar features. Still not really sure why that would bother someone though, maybe uruk fashion is more elitist than I was aware of? ;) Also wasn't aware that there was some sort of exclusivity on the use of pikes too? When was this in the films and/or books? I'm not understanding the basis for the dissatisfaction on this one folks. Also, picked up Witch King Battle last night from Target. They had only that one and Lake Town, crammed into a corner. TRU didn't even act like they knew there were new Hobbit sets coming out. I really love the extra effort they put into Galadriel, and now my 8 Nazgul finally have a leader in the display case :)

Why? The first appearance of Uruks in the lore was in T.A. 2475, almost 500 years before the events of The Hobbit take place. Tolkien himself didn't always make a strong distinctions between Uruks and Orcs, or even Goblins. In the book Azog is even referred to as "Azog the Goblin" at one point though Tolkien makes it pretty clear that he's an orc. It's totally plausible that Uruks would also be part of the "Goblin" army. Just think of all the variants of orc/goblin/uruk as different races of the same creature, which was originally an elf.

According to Tolkien, orcs "reproduce in the same fashion as the Elves". So...they have sex and make baby orcs. I mean Bolg is Azog's son ya know. I hear ya...I just finished reading through Silmarillion for the second time. I mean, I don't need anyone to tell me that in the real world they would never make Silmarillion sets because clearly the license going evergreen will never happen, but the source material is so rich and vast they would never run out of amazing fantasy scenes to create. Tirion, Gondolin, Utumno, Thousand Caves, Grey Havens, Numenor... Also curious, whats the main draw for ordering online from the LEGO website? Is it just the holiday sets or do they have some sort of customer loyalty program I don't know about? Never bought from their store before.

I mean, sure it's not practical, but I wouldn't bother questioning the logic of anyone wearing a loin cloth made of faces.

Assuming a mutilation/rite of passage type thing. The same reason Azog is covered in scars. I think it's a very orcish, albeit disgusting, detail :)

I'm also hoping for Old Bilbo if we get a DVD release, but I think based on what we could potentially get, we should probably call it 'Middle-aged Bilbo', since 'Old Bilbo' should technically refer to the way he appears after giving up the Ring ( as he is seen in Rivendell in FotR and later on the journey to Valinor in RotK). He doesn't take on the white-haired elderly appearance at all in the Hobbit films so I think it's unlikely we'll get that version. Ultimately though I agree that it doesn't appear likely that we'll get any polybags this time unless they're planning on making it a surprise for some reason.Could the lack of a new figure on the line-up possibly mean that they'll release a polybag with a previously released figure? Was the Legolas polybag from wave 2 itemized? I can't recall if he was listed in the instructions separately.

Until this post I was sure it was just a regional thing, but I'm just some south of STL and there's nothing around here. Convinced now that my local Target just sucks. :p

That's a reasonable suggestion, but it does seem odd that they would go to the lengths of changing their typical approach if it's as rigid as people describe. Is there precedence for this happening with other properties? I'm not very involved in the LEGO world but from what I've gathered during my time here, a lot of the more involved members seem pretty confident about the predictability of LEGO's marketing schedule.

Indeed ,spot on analogy for this discussion :) Meh, to each his own. The Simpsosn CMFs are the only ones I collect other than the Tolkien-themed CMFs.

Meanwhile, on the change.org homepage... but yes by all means, SAVE LEGO LORD OF THE RINGS