Fives

I agree with more Gondorians. It would be better to keep the Rohan Captain, and replace the Rohirrim soldier with a Gondor archer or something. And give one of the orcs a bow as well. But I love the idea of that set. Get multiples, and LEGO then wouldn't need to go out of their way to make Pellennor Battle Packs, because we'll already have a decent way of building up those armies.

I believe it's Dori's head.

That's a really great custom fig, and its cool how you used The Hobbit minifig parts exclusively. Makes me really hope we see an official Radagast in the future! As for the Mouth of Sauron discussion, I have a really strong feeling that we will get him in the Black Gate set. People have been using the argument that he didn't appear in the theatrical release of the film. But it's been almost a decade since the extended editions of the films were released, so the Mouth has become a more recognizable character over that time. Plus, when the list was first leaked, we were also given a brief description of the retailers catalogue images (which would have been prelim images), and the Black Gate was said to have the Witch-King. But given the fact that the Witch-King never appears in a scene there and the prelim image likely made it unclear exactly who it was, it makes sense that it is the Mouth. Also, we have seen in the past that LEGO is not afraid to make subtle references to the books in their sets (Palantir altar in the Weathertop set), so given the fact that the Mouth is better known for his ooh appearance, but also appears in the films, we will likely see him as a fig.

Not likely March, but probably May or June, like the first LOTR wave. And unless they do a special Fall exclusive, then yeah, next years The Hobbit wave will be the third official wave.

I get what you're saying about the Great Goblin being humorous, but I think that when you have Barry Humphries playing that character, it's difficult to not have humour. And sure, some of the stuff was pretty comical which suspended some of the believability of it, it needs to be remembered that PJ wanted to make the Hobbit have a lighter tone. The Hobbit, unlike LOTR, is not about saving the world. The stakes aren't that high, so to make things seem really dark and brooding kinda takes that childish fun that was in the book. And I also think that the Great Goblin was treated the same way he is in the book: a minor threat in a much larger journey. So to make him seem like this immensely evil threat would take something away from both his character and the threat of Smaug or the Gundabad orcs.

I have a feeling that this small set doesn't depict Dol Guldur, but rather the troll cave. It shows what seems to be Glamdring with Gandalf finding it. Regardless, I find this to be a very lackluster set. It just doesn't offer any amazing pieces and its yet another Gandalf the Grey.

I like that Azog design. I really hope that we get him as a minifig for the next film.

I just noticed that the new Pilot Luke is the first Snowspeeder Pilot fig to get the proper white gloves.

I think I read somewhere that PJ said the spiders will talk, but only Bilbo can hear them. This may seem strange, but Bilbo uses the Ring throughout this whole scene in he book, and the connection between the spiders and Sauron may give Bilbo the ability to understand their language via the Ring. I also doubt that this theme has become unpopular. I read something that said after the Hobbit's release on the 14th, the Bag End set has sold out less than 24 hours afterwards.

I actually used the brown hands idea, and it looks great, and you can put a clear gem stone at the top. To me, it's the best way of solving this problem.

I expect the Black Gate will be similar in size and price as Weathertop. Two horses and five figs. That should give us Brego and Mordor horse, Aragorn in Gondorian armour, Mouth of Sauron, Gandalf the White, and perhaps two orcs or something. I hope Isengard will be larger set, hopefully the flagship set of the wave. And possibly we'll get a variation of Gandalf the Grey with hair and a more tired face print to make it seem a bi different, along with Saruman, maybe Grima, and some orcs. Heck, maybe a small Warg pen with a brown Warg. I expect the Corsair Ship to be the Moria of the wave. Only there won't be a troll, which makes room for more figs and pieces. As for Rivendell, as long as we see a new Elrond and an Arwen, and maybe old Bilbo, I'm happy.

Perhaps the Eagle's Nest set we heard rumored a while back was a reference to the Carrock, where the Eagles take Thorin and Co. after the Warg attack. If that we're the case (which, while it would be cool, I hope it isn't) would mean that this next summer wave will be an LOTR/The Hobbit mix. But I really doubt that will happen. More likely that these are the only sets that have been leaked so far. There could be more to come. Possibly a larger exclusive set. Who knows. All I can say is that the list we have so far sounds fantastic, and I'm very glad to see more ROTK stuff.

I know the exact flower piece you talk about, but what set does it come in? I'd be interested in testing this myself.

They music, for the most part, was original, but they did reuse some FOTR music during Gandalf and Galadriel's talk and when Gandalf wakes up Thorin on the Carrock they used some Two Towers music, but these two instances are so unnoticeable that it isn't that big of a deal.

Having finally seen The Hobbit yesterday, I now fully understand all this discussion of the Pale Orc. While I would have much proffered to get him in the Warg set, there is still a huge chance we will see him in sets based on the next two films, which means that, in the end, we will have gotten both Yazneg (who is a decent Orc fig) and the Pale Orc (who has offiacially become my favourite Orc, and most wanted Orc fig ever)

For the Witch-King's flail, using the short chain would be fine, but they need to make a special mold for the actual flail head. I've tried before, and there is no way that you can make a decent Witch-King flail using current parts.

The reason there are two Luke figs in the out if box pic is to show his two face expressions. One has the orange visor, and one doesn't.

Well, Tauriel's daggers are just the Prince of Persia Daggers of Time. I've cut the cross guards off mine to give them more of an Elvish look. As for staffs, I don't believe LEGO has ever done a special wizards staff mold. Usually they have just been sticks or made up of smaller bits, like the Castle Skeleton Wizard. For Gandalf, I've become quite happy with the basic stick LEGO gave him. While a bit boring, it keeps a classic LEGO feel that seems to be diminished with new molds. In the past, I've just put a reddish brown cylindrical cone at the top to make it look a bit better, with a clear stud at the top to represent the stone he has in LOTR.

Saw The Hobbit yesterday. I was speechless by the end of it. It may be one of the first times that (and I know I will be flogged for saying this) a film adaptation is better than the book. Everything that Jackson and Co. added to spice up the story, from Radagast and the White Council, to the more prominence of the Warg Riders, all made the story feel more full, and less like an episodical adventure like the book. The imminent threat of the Wargs and orcs from the very start of the journey created a more concrete enemy for the group to be worried about. Sure, they fight trolls and goblins and such, but Smaug isn't after them. He's asleep. S having someone after the group makes it feel like there is more at stake, and it worked amazingly. Also, all of the performances were just phenomenal, but the best scene by far was Riddles in the Dark. Both Martin Freeman's and Andy Serkis's performances were awesome and perfect for the scene, particularly the frequency of the Smeagol/Gollum personality switches. If I had to rate it, 11/10

A chess set would be amazing, but I would really love to see them make a LOTR chess set the same size as the massive Castle one they did a few years ago. The reason I loved that chess set was because each corner was built to reflect one of the four factions, and that sort of style would translate even better with LOTR. One corner for Gondor, one for Rohan, one for Mordor, and one for Isengard. It would be awesome, and would also be a great way to collect figs.

I think I've come up with what could possibly be every Kingdoms fan's super dream: Many people have been saying that the King's Castle set listed will likely be a re-release of the Lion's castle. But I got to thinking about the significance of the Falcon knight in the Joust set. I kinda made a little story to accompany my idea. What if the new King's Castle is actually a Falcon knight fortress. I imagined the Falcon knight in the Joust being a foreigner and being allowed to compete in the Joust, but he wins, and then an army of Falcon knights swarm the Lion kingdom and completely obliterate it. The Dragon Knights are able to hide in the forests and mountains, which is basically me putting a story to the Forest Ambush and Dragon Mountain sets. So, essentially, the Dragon knights become the good guys, and are a combination of the Forestmen and the Wolfpack. And then the Falcons are the established kingdom, but they are the bad guys. While this is completely my own wishing, I think that if LEGO were to do something like this, it would be an amazing way of keeping the Kingdoms line alive, while making it all together new and exciting.

Just thought I'd say that's its been a year today since LEGO announced the LOTR and Hobbit themes.

I think the reason they decided to make Thorin look a little younger is he would seem more like Aragorn in LOTR. If they had the main dwarf hero as much older, it would've looked less cool to have an old dwarf running around and fighting. I like how Thorin is portrayed because, although the believability isn't there as much in relation to years, he looks like a more believable hero.

Maybe they'll make the Troll scene, with the cave a all, as a larger D2C set, which would give LEGO the ability to make three new Troll molds and the price still be reasonable. It could have the cave, some trees, the fire pit, and stuff like that, along with the three Trolls and maybe three or four figs.

Tread carefully when posing questions like this. It could lead to some major spoilers.