TheDoctor

Always much preferred this configuration of the two sets combined... The 'long gate' version just looks too out of proportion and this version looks suitably LEGO styled. I'll have to dig out my two before the big day!

Ahh probably not, this was back when LEGO didn't license everything under the sun, and it was astonishing that they were even considering LotR so late after the film. The buzz, skepticism and rumours were like nothing i'd seen before! I was a lot younger back then with my first job, so it was also exciting to be able to actually afford to purchase them all! EDIT: Took a trip down memory lane and viewed the first few pages of this thread! I forgot about all the discussion as to how they would make the One Ring (and then the excitement of it being a new mould AND chrome!)

I probably said the same thing back then too! I have fond memories of 2012 on the forum when they first announced the theme and then build-up to the rumours, then the leaks and finally the product images... good times I bought the entire wave for less than the cost of Barad Dur!

It's the set on the bottom shelf below Shelob, you can see it's wing.

I hate seeing that Balrog set, i'm still bitter! That would have been such easy money for LEGO back then, a $20-$25 set with a bit of bridge, Gandalf and the Balrog. No new moulds. Up it to $30-$35 and have a larger environment with a collapsible bridge feature and maybe some goblins. Could have also included a much needed 'dirty' Gandalf variant.

Folks around here are pretty hopeful that there will be War of the Rohirrim sets, but I just don't see it myself. It's too niche and it's a limited release, I don't think they've even announced a UK release date yet. Moreover, that means the sets being released by the end of the year which would mean they'd already have to be in development. No doubt LEGO wants to wait to assess Barad Dur sales before deciding the direction of the theme. As for Gollum, wouldn't be surprised if there is a tie-in set or at least a set featuring Gollum released around the same time (but that's a long way off!) Reassuring to know it's the same production house, team and distributor, so rights and licensing wouldn't be a problem.

Agree about them holding off on another substantial set, but I really hope they steer away from dioramas. They'd look so jarring next to the old playsets and even the D2Cs

Okay I'm officially changing to Team Long Legs! Forgive my crude photoshop, but it's convinced me that Sauron should have used the Long Arm/Leg combo, the proportions look fine... What could have been...

I'm going to have to have to go with LEGOs judgment on this. There's no way they didn't do a mock-up with the long legs/torso. It must have looked strange otherwise they'd have gone for it. (Admittedly he would look strange sat in his throne with long legs) I think it would make him look too lanky and top-heavy. A decent, wide cape might have helped but there's probably a good reason it's a standard figure. I agree the mace is a travesty though! Especially given the new perfect mace piece in the new D&D Minifigure series. I'll be swapping it for that as soon as they're available! EDIT: It looks like that new mace piece is transparent Nevermind.... (it would need to be upside-down to resemble Sauron's too)

Yeah, those buttresses are quite jarring. I understand it's meant to be the glow of the city behind the outer-walls, but because they're just sat on a smooth black surface it doesn't look quite right. I was just going to make them all black and leave the brown/grey on the wall behind them as that's a lot more subtle and could look like dirt or even a more dim 'glow'. Maybe I'll leave the brown slopes as they are so it blends in a bit better as you suggest. The substitute part list for those buttresses is below: 6x 3005 6x 3024 6X 3666 6x 60477 6x 11477 6x 3069 12x 63864 On a side note: The suggestion that the tower pieces are modular and can be combines is bizarre to me. Neither of the two tower sections look good repeated because the bottom one is asymmetrical and the top one has all the fancy details that only the top of the tower has. But to be honest, I think when seeing it in person it will all scale quire nicely, and it looks suitably chunky and 'lego-fied' to blend in with the other sets. It's not an architecture set after all.

One thing that really bugs me is that horrible black candle bar holding the eye (LEGO seems obsessed with that piece at the moment) It's really visible from the front, especially when the light is on. I'll be switching out for the combo below using 2x 6L Pearl Gold bars. (I know it's illegal ) Tested the parts and there seems to be sufficient friction for the eye not tilt downwards.

That Fell Beast is a bit underwhelming. Would have been nice to see the Ilu head recoloured for it...

Nope! Gotta know if they confused Mouth of Sauron for the Witch King! Witch King makes way more sense now we know were getting the Fell Beast

I was mostly basing that off LEGO teasing smaller sets in a tweet reply on X. I highly doubt the social media manager would get away with something like that unless there was merit to it. I've certainly not seen them tease anything like that before in tweet replies.

At the time I disliked the Laketown sets too, but when you put them both together on a blue baseplate with some scattered white plates around the bottom, it's actually one of my favourite Hobbit displays.

I'm calling it now! This is my genuine belief as to what the next set will be... A buildable talking Gollum with switchable heads and a sound brick in the rocky base like this 2002 figure. (Not unlike the recent Dobby figure) I'm not joking when I suggest it, and I don't like the idea either, but it would be a 'marginally' cheaper set, with a wide appeal. As much as I'd love to see an Icons Minas Tirith, |I just don't think it has a wide enough appeal - it's not 'iconic' enough for a casual fan to drop $500 on it. (I know it's iconic to us, but try and remove yourself from our echo chamber) It amounts to nothing more than a dull white and grey blob with no other colours. Even the base would be tan or brown. Bag End is FAR more likely. For the fans here, it's very easy to overestimate the amount of LotR fans that are also willing to purchase huge lego sets, I'd argue that that intersection is very small and gets smaller every time a large D2C is released. How many casual fans just bought Rivendell on a whim because it's beautiful and includes the complete Fellowship. It's quite another thing to purchase another huge LEGO set with the price and space it takes up as a casual fan. I do believe we'll see a small wave (3-4) of playsets further down the line, but only to test the waters. And I certainly wouldn't expect anything new from them except maybe some Gondor representation. The original sets released over 10 years ago, so LEGO will see no issue in remaking Shelob, Gandalf's arrival, Wizard Duel or a small Gollum set. Those are all basically guaranteed to sell and probably sell quite well. (I also think they will throw in a Gondor set just to appease us)

Ohhh that makes perfect sense! How could i forget about that If you look really closely at the light reflection in the teaser you can see it is indeed those slopes with that join in the middle. I think those shades of brown/tan are definitely going to be in the final model. I think it looks quite effective with the lighter brown closer to the eye and the darker to the edges before blending into black. (if there was an 'official' way to wire it up to USB and leave the eye light on, I would probably switch it to all black bricks, but as it stands, its a cool effect to make it looks like it's always glowing )

I get that it might be that part, but how have they managed to not let the black bricks that form the iris show behind the trans orange. You could be right and it's bright yellow which would hide the black bricks.

Interesting (clever) choice to use brown around the eye instead of black... Looks like a quite effective 'glowing' technique! Struggling understand the part usage for the iris slit, anybody explain? Is it a sticker?

Holy Smokes! The Witch King must be one of them - seems too good to be true!

Given that Barad-Dur originally leaked with the survey at the same time as Rivendell, it's likely that Barad-Dur has been ready to go for a while (pending Rivendell sales) So with that in mind, I wouldn't be surprised if there was already several other concept models being worked on already, maybe even finished and just waiting for Barad-Dur sales before the final refinements ready for next year.

Yeah, it's not going to be another week, a new Minecraft set was just revealed for June 1st release... Any day now.....

Hmm, unlikely at this time as the original moulds were destroyed. Maybe if the theme takes of with smaller sets that might change. I've noticed LEGO is MUCH more willing to produce one-off moulds and unique parts than they used to be pre-2020ish

I wasn't aware of that! Guess I'll get there for at least 8am then. Last time they issued 'tickets' in the queue line and took card payments in-line to stop the store over-crowding. They already had the set bagged upped with the GWP ready to hand out, so it was a pretty quick process. Didn't even have to step inside the store.

I'm starting to wonder how early I need to get the the LEGO shop to grab this on the 1st. Last time; Rivendell came out of the blue for most people, but was hugely advertised on unrelated news sites and people were starting to queue an hour early at my local LEGO shop. This time way more people will be aware of the return of LotR LEGO and expectations will be absurdly high following on from Rivendell, plus the exclusive GWP.... I think it's going to be an early start for me on that Saturday!