Fives

A new Hobbit gallery has been released, and it gives us the first good look at the Great Goblin. http://www.comingsoon.net/imageGallery/The_Hobbit__An_Unexpected_Journey/large/hr_The_Hobbit%3A_An_Unexpected_Journey_144.jpg This gives us a really great idea of what he looks like, and how accurate LEGO got it, even if TLG had to dial down the ugly quite a bit!

I'm most excited for the Cyclops (get two, then get the new Brick Warriors Orge armour = epic monster), Knight, Mermaid and what looks to be a female archer of some kind. The archer looks to have a new hairpiece which, from the look of the back, could be used as an Arwen hairpiece in the future! Still, overall, this series looks really great, with plenty of new molds and unique pieces that will become very useful!

Never considered the Lex Luthor suit idea. That could be a really good set if they could pull it off. They'd need to have Sauron be big enough to warrant enough pieces to make the set mostly consist him and the figs. They could have a separate section of rock where Elendil could be flung and Isildur cuts the Ring from Sauron's hand, but if they did a set similar in size to the Lex Luthor set, it would sell so well.

Could anyone possibly get a snapshot of the Mouth of Sauron. I know he is an unlockable character, but I can't seem to find any decent pictures of him. Also, apparently if you beat the game and get %100 everything, it unlocks the epilogue which shows the journey to the Grey Havens.

Although it is another Gandalf, it seems like it could be a lame representation of the Troll cave, since it has a sword and some rocks. It could be meant to be when Gandalf finds Glamgring. Hopefully this isn't true, and we'll see a proper Troll set with the cave and all.

Man, what a shame. Why make a Gandalf Polybag! At least it means that I won't be spending money of that one.

Well, judging from the alternate trailer ending in which Elrond gives the names of Glamdring and Orcrist, I expect the sword will have a more significant importance than people would think. I doubt any sword in these three films will have the same level of significance as Anduril from LOTR, but still, it is an important sword. It would have been nice if we had gotten a Glamdring mold as well, and then had all three ancient glowing elven blades in LEGO form.

So Deathleech, how many are you gonna be at when you order arrives in the mail?

I find it strange that Toys Toys Toys here in Toronto had every set except for Barrel Escape almost a week ago. They likely got their shipment and decided to put them on shelves early. Even though their prices are stupid high ($160 CAD for the Goblintown set, almost $20 for Riddles) these sets are worth it, I think.

Sounds like this will be the first proper set to have the new printed pilot legs from the planet series.

Although I have no intention of buying any of these, I'm excited to see what LEGO does. There will likely be no fantasy elements at all in this theme, since the Middle-Earth theme is so heavily filled with all that sorta stuff. But, I really do wonder if LEGO will bring back the Kingdoms factions, or create new ones. Also, I wonder if the old swords that were in use before LOTR and The Hobbit will be used for an un-licensed castle theme, or if the swords used by Aragorn and Boromir have become the new standard for Castle weaponry. same goes for the spears.

That is something I've wanted since the Middle-Earth theme was announced. I hope the do something similar to how the Galadrihm elves look in the game, with the helmets being part of the hairpiece. That would be ideal.

I like that it doesn't have a hairpiece. Elves with quivers is what we need. Also, a sword would have been better than both the goblet and gem. I plan on geting 20 of these guys, but I also want to get 10 elf swords, so I can have 10 archers and 10 swordsmen. But with the rarity of the elf sword, I doubt this will be possible, unless I find some rare jackpot on eBay with a bunch of elven blades. Also, this elf looks strangely similar to the Mirkwood elves in the BFME games. The ones in the game are a little more cartoony, but they still carry longbows and wear big hoods. Just thought it was interesting.

Man, talk about a jackpot! I would have grabbed the lot! 25 elves and all those tree bits would be more than enough to start a good Mirkwood MOC. Also, people have been saying how they want the hair in the polybag. I would say the elf sword would be better. Rather than a barrel and a goblet, I'd want a barrel with a sword in it. That way he could use a bow or sword, and if someone gets multiples, they can have both archers and swordsmen.

I called my local TRU and they had nothing, and it isn't up on their Canadian site yet. Hopefully they'll appear along with the other sets in the first week of December. I want to pick up as many as I can, if they are even gonna be available here.

I treat my Crownies as their own faction, being allied to the Lion knights. Before LOTR, the Crownies were The equivilant to Gondor, while the Lions were Rohan, the Trolls were orcs and Skellies were goblins of the Misty Mountains, and the Dragon knights were like the Easterlings I guess. Now, they are all factions set within the same world that my LOTR armies are, and there are wars from Tim to time between the old castle world and the new LOTR world. Yet, LOTR always wins. I like to imagine there being a great battle between my good LOTR army and bad LOTR army, but the fight is interrupted by the castle armies, and the LOTR armies band together o defeat the castle armies, and then the LOTR armies finish their battle for domination over the territory. And now with the addition of the Hobbit sets, I now have a force of dwarves bigger than my castle dwarf army. Sorry, that became a bit of a random tangent.

Yeah, polybags seem to be rare here. At least the Uruk one never came here, just Frodo. So I kinda hope that the Elf one will replace the Frodo one in TRUs here. And I know that spending roughly $100 on polybags may seem ridiculous, but you can get half the amount of figs for roughly the same price by getting two or three Uruk Army sets. Plus, the tree pieces will be useful for making larger forests for the elves to inhabit.

The reason I thought it would be nice to get another army builder polybag is because not many people want an army of Bilbo figs. Orcs and elves would be a lot nicer. I even thought that they could have a polybag with an orca and a Warg, but it is very unlikely that LEGO would put that large an animal in a polybag. There hasn't been any confirmation on a second polybag set, but judging from the two LOTR ones, I would'nt be surprised if we get two polybag sets for each Middle-Earth wave.

I just realized that the last time LEGO did Middle-Earth polybags, we got a good guy and a bad guy. Maybe they will do a Hunter Orc (the guys from the Warg set) polybag with an orc with a bow and arrow, some fire and a little bush. That way people could stock up on both elves and normal orcs, which are two armies we desperately need.

That polybag is amazing! I need to get at least 10, if not 20! Finally a rather cheap way of massing elf armies! I just hope it is at TRU's in Canada!

I went to the Toys Toys Toys at the Eaton Centre today and got all the sets except for the Barrels one. In total it came to around $450. I know I could have saved a lot and gotten VIP points if I had waited and got them at the LEGO store, but I couldn't wait for these sets any longer. I have built all the figures and the Riddles set, and I must say these are just plain amazing! The dwarves are all awesome, especially Thorin, Fili, Kili and Balin. The goblins are really epic too, and the Great Goblin is really cool. Also, the Wargs are just fantastic.

Do you remember what the prices roughly are? I may need to make a trip down there to pick up a few of these sets. Also, you say they had all of them, but did they have the Barrels set? From what I've heard, it is a Toys R Us exclusive. EDIT: Never mind. I just called and they have all the sets except for the Barrels set. So it is a TRU exclusive. Still, great news!

Where are you in Canada? I'm in Toronto, so if there is a store downtown somewhere with these sets on shelves, I may be interested.

Hmmm... that Krell is quite disappointing. I think one reason he looks a little off is that 1) he has such a blank expression it hurts to look at, and 2) he looks very smooth and has a lack of good texture ( the ridges on his armadillo head thing aren't there at all ), and there could be some printing on the top of his head as well, and maybe on his big life jacket robes there could be some printing too. They pulled off the four arm effect really well, but the actual quality and detail on the piece, while being quite large, seems lacking in some respects. I still want the fig despite all of the flaws. I found Krell a very interesting character in the show, and I feel like having him within the ranks of my Republic forces will look really cool.

This is a great set! I love the figures and the Wargs are plain amazing! I also love the rock that Yazneg stands on. I'll probably add that to the middle of my Helm's Deep battle field. The only thing i'm upset about is that we have an uneven amount of grey Wargs. The white Warg is the Warg leader, and I'll most likely put Bolg on it when Bolg is made as a figure. But as of right now, we don't have any other named orcs other than Yazneg, which means that a generic orc will have to ride this Warg, which would make my orc army an odd number of foot soldiers and generic mounted soldiers. I would have loved to get maybe another Warg or another named orc. But that is just sorta my own nitpick with the set. Overall, it's really great. Oh yeah, an Orcrist would have been great. Shame LEGO decided to not do a new mould for Thorin.