Gryphon Ink

I like them, DrNightmare. Some very cool ideas for fantasy armies here. They will go well with the upcoming LOTR figs.

Well, although you do hear it used that way a lot, the dictionary defintion of an anti-hero is "a protagonist or notable figure who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities" (Webster) or "a central character who lacks conventional heroic attributes" (Oxford). Frodo is very much an anti-hero, who by nature only wants to run away, hide the Ring, give it to some other powerful keeper or basically anything but bring it to Mordor. He has no military prowess or skills, is not particularly brave or charismatic, and constantly listens to the wrong people. He just keeps slogging on, and his role is to be the Everyman. Even in "slogging" he falters quite a bit, and it's actually Sam who grows most as a hero - in the books he has quite an adventure rescuing Frodo. This gets cut down a bit in the movies, keeping Sam more in the "bumbling sidekick" role. EDIT TO ADD: yes, Jack Sparrow is a classic anti-hero, but Frodo is one too.

Sweet tower, viceroy. I really like the scenery and the characters. Hilda is great, and the woman bathing is a neat little touch - although it seems like she's about to get hit with a fishhook. That could be a bit painful, and bad news for the fisherman if that bather is another one of your Rangers.

I don't think it's just adults. I think kids are into variations of the classic monsters more than they have been for decades. Everything supernatural is cool these days. Monster High is one of the big brands for girls right now - its heroes are teenaged girls whose parents were the Universal monsters. Van Helsing, the Mummy series, the Twilight books and the Internet-devouring zombie meme have made all these monsters cool again. Kids are all about the zombie apocalypse now, Daddy-O! Then again, I have a daughter who keeps on begging me to feel the CMF packets so I can find her a Dark Dwarf - it's the ONLY CMF she wants - so my viewpoint may be skewed. "Normal" does not run in the family here.

Seriously, no. There is absolutely nothing even remotely historically or nautically accurate about POTC aside from the fact that everybody goes around saying "East India Company" a lot. Even that was historically inaccurate or at best misleading, since the majority of the East India Company's power and interest was nowhere near the Caribbean area. I love the movies, but they are about as reality-based as Roadrunner vs. Coyote cartoons. They are to real history as Star Wars is to real space exploration.

AAAAAND there goes my budget. But seriously, if it's true than we have the best of all possible worlds.

I agree, it looks like by the time the theme is over - even if it's only a two-year run ending after the second Hobbit movie - there will be an amazing variety of Middle-Earth bad guys that can be used in just about any fantasy setting. I'm ecstatic about that.

Is it only me that can't make heads nor tails of this theme from these incredibly blurry pics? Everybody keeps raving about how great the sets are, and TBH I can see a few things that interest me, but really the only thing I can tell that I really really want is the fishman - and even in that case I have NO IDEA what the vehicle the hero is piloting is supposed to be, the pictures are that bad. Context says it's most likely some sort of swamp boat, but to me the guy driving it looks like Elvis. (Which would be unspeakably cool, and make this set a definite keeper. Elvis fighting the Creature from the Black Lagoon? Hell yeah I want that. It's like Bubba Ho-Tep in Lego.) Anway, seems (again, keeping in mind the ultrablurry pics) that the theme is sort of keeping the spirit of Pharoah's Quest alive. I like that idea, but will have to see some better pics to decide whether liking the idea translates into buying the sets.

Actually, all of the "orcs" in the Hobbit are the smaller type refered to as "goblins". The guys in the Mines of Moria are this type. There are only two specific references to Orcs in the Hobbit, and neither of them is in reference to the creatures the heroes are fighting. The baddies that actually appear in the books are always called goblins. If PJ is consistent, and his record shows that he usually is, the orcs in the Hobbit will all be the small Moria type.

I'm loving these pics, especially Helm's Deep - much better than I had expected, to be honest. A very nice, solid construction. And the fact that they are releasing what looks to be an expansion to it in the same wave is simply awesome. Of course it's not as elegant as some AFOL creations we've seen, but when are they ever? I've seen pirate ship MOCs on EB that blow every pirate ship ever released by TLG out of the water in one shot. We don't condemn the official ship sets for that, do we? Shelob looks pretty meh, but I was expecting that. At least she looks better than Aragog. The Mines of Moria doesn't look as cool as I thought it would, but the pics make it very hard to tell. This could be a solid set. At least there's a nice range of minifigs there. And thank goodness they didn't try to squeeze the Balrog in. It would have sucked. Now we can hope for a nice future set that is all Balrog, done right. Weathertop is the big surprise for me here. It looks awesome! Totally recognizable as Weathertop, and a fun set. And now I will have spiral stairs.... mwah ha ha! The horsies, the horsies... as long as they keep putting out the regular horses in addition, I will be happy. Finally, a horse in an action pose! Simply awesome. Orc Forge is still MIA, which to me implies that I was right to think it's an impulse.

Really beautiful, soundwave. Best interior I've seen in a while. I'd totally buy this set!

OK, time to throw in some predictions: "Gandalf Arrives" is the tiny set, featuring Gandalf, Frodo, and a horse and cart, no scenery. Because all of y'all wanted vehicles, here is your vehicle. Certainly Gandalf arrives several times in the movies, but to me this name suggests the very first scene. This is the set to attract casual buyers who just want a couple of iconic characters from the series. "Mines of Moria" shouldn't include a Balrog, because the Balrog would be really, really hard to do properly, but it probably will. The set combines the fight in Balin's Tomb with the collapsing staircase scene for the play features. TLG love things that collapse, and that staircase is just begging to be done. "Attack on Weathertop" includes some kind of play feature showing the effect of Frodo putting on the Ring, perhaps two different versions of the Nazgul switching places via a revolving door. Similar to the Isla de Muerta set in that way, but it's the only obvious play feature in the Weathertop scene. "Uruk-Hai Army" is either a battlepack or - more likely in my opinion - the climax of Fellowship, most likely focusing on the bit where the Uruk-Hai are attacking Boromir. "Battle of Helm's Deep" includes part of the outer wall including the exploding culvert, siege ladders, an inner staircase for Legolas to surf down, and the ramp and side tower where Aragorn and Gimli engage in some stealthy Dwarf tossing. Definitely the biggest set in the first wave, but not something that is meant to be a realistic portrayal of the whole fortress. "Orc Forge" is an impulse featuring, you guessed it, an Orc and a forge for the army builders. There's a possibility that it's a bigger set featuring the creation of the Uruk-Hai, but I doubt it because for one thing, there's no conflict in that scene, and for another, there is already an Uruk set. I gotta say, they all sound like must-haves except for Shelob Attacks. I really disliked the movie version of that scene. Too bad it sounds like the only set that will include Gollum in this wave, but I can live without him until he appears in the Hobbit sets. Interesting that this wave is very focused on Fellowship of the Ring. My guess is that TLG are planning on a three-year theme and will mainly focus on one movie each year, alternating with Hobbit-focused waves.

Two things are going through my head. One is, OMFG YES! The other is, my wife being almost as big an LOTR dork as I am, this could be the theme that FINALLY gets her to share a little of my enthusiasm for Lego. So again, OMFG YES!

I don't think the discussion has been useless. A lot of ideas have been tossed around, and it's been a fun conversation in general. Of course, 32 pages later our answers are still "TLG might do LOTR", "wouldn't it be nice if TLG did LOTR?" and "TLG are NEVER going to do LOTR". But it's got people thinking about how the theme could be done, and if nothing comes of this phantom theme I hope we will see some fresh LOTR MOCs soon. For my part, I really don't have a dog in this fight. If they do it, we get a wonderful selection of minifigs for our fantasy creations. If they don't, they will be free to do another great Castle theme like Kingdoms, or even keep Kingdoms going. It's win/win all around.

I just checked this again so I could see the pictures on a bigger monitor, and guess what? They're gone. Only the 2011 models are there now. I think they bumped up the prices, too. I'm quite sure I remember the supercar was $118 when I looked last night, now it's $132.

I'm a bit worried about that, too. And since most of the heroes don't change clothes at all in LOTR, it could be just like Harry Potter, where a completely identical Harry shows up in almost every set in a given year. But if they do this theme, hopefully TLG will realise that LOTR is not focused on one specific hero, like HP and POTC, but really an ensemble adventure. After all, for most of the story, the heroes of the Fellowship are never all together in one spot. Thinking about the logistics of making minifigs for all major characters, it looks like we are going to have to prepare ourselves to be disappointed. Some of the heroes will almost definitely not be included in the first wave of LOTR sets, especially if they combine LOTR and the Hobbit for this license. GOOD GUYS: 9 members of the Fellowship. Bilbo. 12 Dwarves from the Hobbit. Elrond, Arwen, Faramir, Beorn, Radagast, Eowyn, Eomer, the King of Rohan whose name escapes me at the moment, and Bard. BAD GUYS: the Witch King of Angmar and 8 other Nazgul. Sauron. Saruman. Gollum. Orcs and Uruk-Hai (assuming the goblins of the Hobbit are rendered as Orcs, which seems logical). Wargs. Wormtongue. BIG THINGS: ents, Balrog, Smaug, Shelob, trolls, spiders of Mirkwood, fell beasts. BYSTANDERS: Men of Laketown. Many Elves, Dwarves, hobbits, Rohirrim, Men of Gondor, AAAAGH too many to count... Seeing as Lego sets average 2-6 minifigs per set, every set has to include at least one or two antagonists, and Frodo and Aragorn must appear in more sets than most of the characters, I'd say it's going to take at least two waves before we see a complete Fellowship of the Ring, and much more than that if some of the sets are from the Hobbit. The theme would have to be as successful as Harry Potter before we get all the major characters.

It's not just you. I love the Dragons. In my fantasy world, they are the rebellious freedom fighters and the Lions are oppressive invaders.

Great review, Masked Builder. I'm not really digging this set, though. It just doesn't feel substantial enough for the price, even though it probably is. The mini-helicopter annoys me no end, and the fact that T-Rex could pretty much escape by stumbling over the walls is really off-putting. I'm also not liking the tyrannosaur as much as I expected to, although the raptor and the minifigs are pretty nice. There are a couple of great sets in the Dino theme, but this one just doesn't do it for me. Because velociraptor was roughly knee-high to a grown man - not quite as threatening as the creature TLG want it to be. Also, it really, REALLY looked like a bird. Actually, it pretty much was a bird, as were most of its cousins - but velociraptor totally looked like one. (Wikipedia diagram of velociraptor to scale with a human:)

Wow. You really nailed it with this design. I am in awe of not only the technical aspect (which in all seriousness might as well be black magic to me, as an absolute beginner in Technic) but the design. There's no mistaking that for any other car in the world. So, if the 911 took you a year and half, how long did this one take?

Maybe my girls are unusual, but they both LOVE the MVR because it's got goats and chickens, and basket winches and working windmill and, best of all, a minifig kid and enough other characters to actually roleplay. This is unlike other Kingdoms sets and Castle sets in general, which usually feature armies of nondescript knights in identical armor. They are constantly fighting over who gets to play with the goats. You may be right about the pricing, though. I think for that price, a lot of parents would sooner buy their kids a castle or a massive truck, which appear to have more oomph. I can picture a lot of dads looking at the shelves and thinking, hmm, buy the sprog a big honkin' armored vehicle with a spaceship and an alien dissection lab... or... A BARN??

I think those who are pessimistic about this because "you can't do Helm's Deep properly on a minifig scale" are forgetting that Lego do enormous things on minifig scale ALL THE TIME. Temple of Doom minecart ride? The Lego version of it is the size of a ride at a country fair. Hogwarts? The first Lego version of that enormous pile of stone had 682 pieces. King's Castle? It's not even big enough to park the King's Carriage in its courtyard. TLG will not "only do this theme if they can do it justice", as claimed in this thread. They will do it if they can make playsets that will sell. That's what they do. They're a toy company, not a boutique that specializes in making photo-accurate miniatures for collectors. I think if they do this theme, they will not release any enormous castle sets at all at first, and they will not commit to reproducing every single scene in the movie. They will produce one or two waves that feature small scenes picked out from the hundreds of scenes in the trilogy and the two Hobbit movies. A couple of ruins representing the climax of Fellowship of the Ring and the fight in Balin's Tomb, a gatehouse for the siege of Helm's Deep, a vignette for the Mount Doom scenes. Things like that, that can be playsets with some action features and a good selection of figures. They will not trouble themselves about reproducing the glory of Minas Tirith at all, unless the theme becomes wildly successful and they start to think about a second and third year. Then, and only then, will we start to get massive sets and battlepacks and brickbuilt oliphaunts. Just like they didn't produce a Death Star set for years after LSW began.

I actually think the idea of multi-day builds could be really great, but TLG are doing it all wrong. What I'd like would be to get a small build every day, and with each one there are one or two "extra" pieces. At first you don't know what the extra pieces make, but every week or so you get instructions to put together that week's extras. All of them eventually combine into one build, which you get the instructions for on the 24th. So that model can have anywhere from 24-48 pieces in it, which makes a pretty respectable impulse set all by itself. And you're still building complete items on every day of the month. Of course, I am the guy who believes it wouldn't kill TLG to put a couple of extra bricks - not cheese slopes, not Technic pins or extra feathers but actual BRICKS - in every set, just for us to play around with. You know, for kids!

Yeah, and sorting bricks from a big set is hard enough with gravity! Pretty awesome story.

You are right in that there is not nearly the same level of hype at work here. The release of the Special Edition OT, followed by the Phantom Menace, generated more hype than any other film series could ever hope to match. Even the finale of Harry Potter, crazy as it was, didn't create the same kind of excitement. Lucas was building on twenty years of nostalgia for a series that changed the cultural landscape for a generation. I don't think even Lucas could match that feat again, because the mixed results of the Special Editions and the PT have contaminated his fanbase with feelings of disappointment and betrayal. Not to say that there aren't still fifty million hardcore Star Wars fans, since obviously there are - but before George started playing around there was a lot more nearly unanimous fan support. That aside, I think many people here, notably the big Star Wars fans, underestimate the power of LOTR and the Hobbit. LOTR generally shares top billing with the OT as one of the top movie trilogies and greatest franchises in general. Box Office Mojo claims that LOTR actually beats out both SW trilogies in worldwide box office when adjusted for inflation. And the Hobbit is actually a much more popular book than LOTR is, since it's a much shorter and more kid-friendly read. There are going to be A LOT of people lining up to see the Hobbit. I think this will bring on a whole new period of LOTR craziness, and it wouldn't surprise me to see the LOTR films getting another theatrical run, even if it's just a limited run leading up to the second Hobbit film.

Wonderful naturalistic landscape there, shutinc. I love how you worked with the water here, especially the falls. The buildings are very cool, too. As a really minor quibble, this isn't a great spot for a windmill, and a waterwheel would have made more practical and historical sense in my opinion - your original instinct was probably the right one! But the whole thing looks so great, it really works. I love, love, love the bigger waterfall. That's one of the best ones I've seen.