ZO6

Holy jumpin' frogs! What a gorgeous set! Really like the look of this. It is obviously bigger than the other winter village sets, but it doesn't dwarf any of them too badly and should look great along side them.

Thanks for the review, AFOLEGODT. I honestly think that this set looks like a lot of fun. I've been really tempted to pick it up on a number of occasions already, but I always remind myself that City sets go on sale regularly and to wait until that time comes. I'm a bit disappointed that the drill on the mining vehicle doesn't spin when you push and pull it, but at the bare minimum you can hand crank it from the rear. It's nice to see a set like this which is so different from the usual police and fire subthemes. Any chance of a picture of the back of the mine? I know it's probably really unexciting, but I'm interested in seeing that view if possible. Thanks!

Thanks for the little book review, BC! When I first read the article about this book on Brickset a few weeks back, I became intrigued and then slightly frightened. Then I found out the book was mostly a farce. What a relief! I completely admit to being addicted to Lego, but I don't want that to change! Knowing that the book is intended for humorous results, I may have to check it out. Especially considering the nice low price.

Oddly enough, the years that I was in a small room were also when I acquired and displayed the most stuff. Those little rooms had loads of shelving on the walls! I was easily able to display 2 complete themes plus a number of even larger sets all at the same time. You bet I made a lot of friends by having my door open! The only time it was closed was if I was away or asleep. If you've got something like the Tower Bridge or one of the Modular buildings built and on display, no one can resist giving them a closer look - providing a perfect opportunity to strike up a conversation! Luckily the Lego store wasn't built until my last year in residence, otherwise it would have taken even more of my time and money. I was a really social person, but I never did much partying or drinking, so I put that money towards Lego instead. At the end of each year I'd always disassemble all the sets into ziplock bags and pack them into tupperware containers for easier transportation back home. I didn't mind having to rebuild everything at home.

I totally admit that College didn't slow down my Lego buying habit in the least (which arguably wasn't the best thing). Even during those years when I lived in one of those 7x10' rooms, I had every surface packed with Lego. It didn't help that I had a TRU a walking distance of 5 minutes away, a Lego store approx. 25 minute drive away, and an independent Lego store with rare and old sets about a 40 minute drive away. I had a steady income, and I budgeted myself so I never had any problems in that department. When I was around, I pretty much always had my dorm door open. People were constantly checking in to see the latest and greatest that I'd purchased and put on display.

Wow! So many amazing creations! Thanks for sharing the pics, Si! BTW, love how you've got the little red wheelbarrow guy everywhere.

You're definitely right about it being a skull thrown at the switch. After a lifetime of watching the OT on VHS, it always appeared to be a rock that was thrown. Even after watching RotJ on Blu-ray a number of times, I still perceived it as being a rock. However, I just watched that scene again right now specifically looking out for what Luke is throwing, and ta-da! Skull. I did previously notice the difference with the pillar and figured it would be engineered to either "explode" off, or else just be used as a place to hide a minifigure. You probably are right that the parts that look white are simply light grey, and that the tan ones are dark tan. Colours often tend to look off in promotional pictures such as the one we've been provided with. Either way, I still stand by the structure being too many colours. Also, the walls of the pit in the movie are pretty much entirely made up of large round-ish boulders. This doesn't really come across at all in the way that the structure is built. I wouldn't normally do this much complaining about a set, it's just that the bar has been raised so high in recent years in terms of what is possible with Lego bricks. *Edit* - Another pic of the pit has just surfaced, and you're right about the grey and dark tan. On a different note, what's up with the piece that activates a play function to be red this year and thus stick out like a sore thumb? This is becoming a trend. The werewolf launching mechanism in The Werewolf set from the MF theme is a big red piece that is completely out of place. The big mobile launcher in the Uruk-Hai Army set has an obvious red piece on it too. Now the Rancor pit has the same thing with the technic piece(s) which will be used to hold up/released the gate. Won't kids be able to figure out how to work the play functions in their sets without having to put in a red piece that doesn't fit the rest of the set? Oh well. It'll be interesting to see if the set can redeem itself a bit more once we see more of it hopefully over the next couple of days.

After seeing the detailed pics of Bag End on FBTB, I'm in love even more! The interior is packed with lovely details and interesting pieces. It's rare these days to get a set that looks so good both inside and out. I'm very impressed. Good job, TLG! If the quality of the other Hobbit sets is anywhere near the level of this, we'll be in for a real treat!

To me the structure looks like a hollowed out cube, not a subterranean dungeon cave. I wouldn't suggest raising the piece count as I'm sure it's already decently high, and I wouldn't want the cost to go up more. IMO the Hoth Wampa Cave did a much better job of giving the impression of a cave (even if just the entrance) and I'm sure its piece count will be significantly lower than the Rancor pit. When I think of the Rancor pit scene from RotJ, I think of the trapdoor that opens and drops Luke down a chute and into the pit (Trapdoor - check, though it's in the Palace set which is fine. Chute with closing gate - nope). The big gate in the pit opens and the Rancor enters (Big gate - check). Luke hides in a gap in the rocks and the base of one of the walls, out of reach from the Rancor (spot for Luke to hide from the Rancor - nope). Luke eventually gets picked up by the Rancor, but shoves the bone in its mouth and it then drops him on the sandy floor (Rancor can pick up Luke with a bone - check. Floor of the pit is sand and thus tan would be a suitable colour - nope, the base of the set is a hole in the middle, and grey around the edges). Luke tosses a rock at the switch and the gate closes (Switch - check. Rocks for Luke to throw - nope). I know they (TLG) want to increase play value by having easy access into the pit and thus have three open sides to the structure. But three open sides!? You need to have a gate on one side, and ideally you'd have a chute on the right side, and something for Luke to hide behind/under on the left side. That would still leave the front open for hands to get in. Even just having two sides open would be ok, as that would allow for the gate plus a rocky wall to give the impression of a dungeon. Those three big arches give the impression that the pit continues on in those directions and that it's almost infinitely big. As for the colours, it's one of those cases of there being too many colours. I'm seeing both light and dark grey, white, and tan. If it were made up from light and dark grey pieces, cool. I could even handle some tan in there too, because everyone loves tan. But white? Yuck. It reminds me of the original MTT, where there was just a mish-mash of too many coloured bricks. I know some of the stuff that I mentioned was being way too picky and unrealistic to expect from a system set. But this is one of those extremely rare instances where I am truly underwhelmed with what we're getting. This feels like yet another one of those cases where the design of the main part of the set is being compromised just so that we can get new figures. I know everyone loves figs and will buy anything just to get the figs they want, but sometimes it seems as though those of us who don't value figs as much get stiffed with a lackluster set with a big price tag just so those figs can be made. I'm aware of the whole argument about us being able to build whatever we please because of the variety of pieces available, but on the other hand highly detailed and unique figs can't simply be made my common folk. I don't want to go on about minifigues as I'm already too worked up, and they're beside my original points. I do not mean to offend anyone, I am merely stating my opinion. I love Lego, just not this set (not yet at least).

I know I completely bashed the set a number of posts ago, but I suppose I do have to agree about the Rancor being the redeeming part of the set. Otherwise the structure looks like an oversized version of something that would have been made within the first couple years of the Star Wars license - unappealing design and lots of ugly random colours (not that all early Star Wars sets fit that description, but a lot do).

That looks so nice! The set turned out to be pretty much just as I imagined (which in this case I'm extremely happy about!). Bag End is a very attractive model - nice shape, lots of details, good colours, and great parts. It's bound to look fantastic on display. Seems as though it should have a nice little interior to it - which will add to the play value. I can't wait to see more views of the set to see what all is hidden inside. Nice selection of minifigues too.

I can usually find redeeming qualities in most sets, but my initial impression of the Rancor Pit is that it looks pretty terrible. As a stand alone set, it's incredibly ugly. I can only imagine that Jabba's Palace sitting on top would result in a ridiculous looking structure. It'll be interesting to see what the price is, but I'll bet it won't be pretty. The set is bound to please many though... I'm still saving final judgment until more pics and price become available.

I've got all the sets in the line except for The Mummy and The Zombies. The lab set comes only behind the castle for me as being the most fun for playing around with. I think it's really an underrated set. The build for everything is fun, and there are a lot of different functions and things to mess around with. The finished set is fairly compact, but it looks great.

At long last, its been revealed. I'm not blown away or anything, but I still think it looks pretty good! I've always thought the B-Wing was a really unique looking ship, so it's nice to have an official UCS model. I definitely want this to be part of my collection. Haha, yup, you just can't win 'em all! I've been collecting the UCS line from the get-go, so the lack of minifig in this set is fine by me. The cost will make this a painful addition to my collection, and I don't want to price rant so I'll just stop myself there...

I agree with a lot of the dates being mentioned here (1978 - mid 90's, then late 2000's), so I'm not going to go over them again myself. I do however want to give special mention to 1998. Maybe it's just me having a huge soft spot for the Adventurers line, but in addition to the introduction of that theme there was also Ninja, Res-Q, and the original Mindstorms. Other themes that year included Extreme Team, more Aquazone stuff, and Insectoids. Sure the regular Town sets were garbage and there was a lot of other throwaway stuff, but I'd still say it was a pretty solid year - just for Adventurers and Ninja alone! (I'm not going to go into how business for that year helped lead the way to the dark ages for TLG) Even pretty much every year between 1995- 2007 had at least one good theme. I'd say more than anything we've entered the golden age of minifigures. Set designs are currently quite good, but I don't think anyone can deny the popularity (whether you love the level of detail or not is another thing) of minifigs.

Wow, that is beautiful! The exterior styling is outstanding, and you've packed an incredible amount of detail into the interior too. Well done!

I remember replying to one of these kind of topics at some point, but that could have easily been a couple years ago now. So I'll bite. Up to around the age of 10: I would build the main model in a set and play around with it for a while. After a variable amount of time, I would then disassemble the set and build the alternate models on the box. Eventually I'd tear down the set again and combine it with other disassembled sets in order to build my own creations. A large percentage of my collection went towards mocs, while only a handful of my favorite models stayed together. When I hit the age of 10 (I think it was around then at least...) something sparked me to want to rebuild everything back into their original models. Over the course of a year or so I slowly pieced together all my sets to their original glory. Over the 14 years since then, I've taken a different approach to things: Nowadays I mainly collect Lego for the sets themselves. I build the set, mess around with it for a while, and then put it on a shelf. The sets with high play value take longer before they get put on display, but even once something is shelved it's only a matter of time before I grab it to play around with some more (yes, I'm totally a kid when it comes to Lego - though a tidier and less destructive kid ). Sometimes I'll find a set who pieces are just begging to be used as part of a moc. So while I'll build the main model upon acquiring the set just to check it out, it won't be long before I tear it down in order to build something else. I don't build my own stuff very frequently anymore, and when I do I generally only have the moc built/on display for a matter of weeks before I revert it back to the original form. I guess I'm slightly paranoid that if I keep alternate creations built for an extended period of time, I might be more likely to loose pieces. Or something like that... Unfortunately, as happens to all of us, a couple of years ago I finally ran out of space to display all of my sets. I'd finally filled every square in of my Lego room and it was impossible for me to squeeze anything more in. Instead of stopping buying Lego, I came to the decision that I'd simply disassemble and store away a model anytime I got a new set. So now I get an ever-changing display in my Lego room, and I steadily fill my storage space with ziplock bags full of Lego!

Wonderful review, Fangy! Thanks for taking the time to do this! I rewatched all the LotR movies last week because the Lego sets are just hitting store shelves and I wanted to get in the proper mood for building them. I picked up this set a few days ago, and it's the first from the theme for me. Overall I'm really quite pleased with the set. The section of wall looks nice and detailed, though it seems pretty small in person. The catapult is a nice addition which increases playability as the launcher on it actually works pretty well most of the time. The large quantity of minifigures is a huge bonus and will no doubt make this set a mega-seller. While the curved shape of the wall is nice when you only have one of the set to add to Helms Deep, but I'm not sure that I'm sold on having lots of these curved front wall sections side by side. Looking at pictures of the fortress, the majority of the long wall is just straight and only has one or two spots where something pokes out. One more nitpick while I'm at it - the price of the set is pretty high. I know that minifigures add to the cost, but when you have the set built in front of you and you look at it, there really isn't a very large quantity of plastic that you get (I don't go for price/piece ratios anymore to determine value - I look at the size of the finished set and its weight). Anyways, as I said - this is a great set and thanks again for sharing your review!

For the most part, Canadian TRU stores jack up the prices of significantly less sets than their US counterparts. Some themes seem to be relatively untouched by the phenomenon, while with other themes seemingly every set has been increased in price by a bit. Canadian TRUs have been raising prices on certain sets for nearly as long as I can remember, so it's not new to this year. The price jacking is pretty annoying, but up until the opening of the Lego stores (of which there are only a few in the entire country), TRU was the best source for finding Lego - so we had to bite the bullet and deal with the costs. Luckily they have sales pretty frequently. It'd be nice if we could ever get more than 20% off as a sale, but alas unlike the US such a deal is a rarity here.

:wub: :wub: I'm practically speechless! That looks amazing!!! I've been itching for the full reveal of this set ever since that slip a number of months ago. Both the interior and exterior are marvelously detailed, and there is still enough floor space for the figs and whatever other details one might want to add. This just became my most wanted set of the year. Bravo TLG!

Great review, Cloney! I really love the MF theme, and this set is no exception. It's really great how many cues TLG has taken from the old Universal monster films, and even from The Munsters! I never imagined that we'd get a hot rod hearse, so it's nice to be surprised! Originally the printed coffin was one of the biggest selling points for me in this set. When I picked up the Vampyre Castle, I was surprised to find it in that set too. In any case, that didn't stop me from grabbing the hearse so that Vamp would have something to cruise around in. The huge GITD sticker is pretty ridiculous, but it adds even more charm to this awesome vehicle.

Thanks for the very detailed review! I appreciate the attempt at brick-built display boxes for figs, but unfortunately (as you pointed out) this set misses the mark. I know figs sell sets, but in this case I think we'd have been better off without the spaceman. I'd have packaged the set without the fig, and used what he would have cost to instead include 4 more window panes to at least make the boxes dust proof. Oh well. Nice to hear that the set is at least a decent value.

We've definitely brought this upon ourselves. All this fuss over minifigures to make them more detailed, rarer, and more desirable. It seems everyone and their grandmas are part of the minifig craze, and it's really no surprise that people are (unfortunately) taking to theft to acquire them. It would seem an ever-increasing amount of people know the resale value of lots of these figs too. I've fallen victim to buying a set whose minifigs had been stolen. It was the Space Police 3 base, the last set that I wanted from the line. SP3 was discontinued and I hadn't seen that particular set on shelves for a while. One day at TRU I found two copies of the set on the shelf - I grabbed one and immediately noticed that the tape had been sliced on one side of the box and lazily tapped over again. I put that copy down and examined the other box - it too had obviously already been opened and resealed. Being early January, I hoped that by some chance these really were just returns from Christmas and that stuff hadn't been stolen from inside. I decided to take my chances and buy the set regardless of the condition of the box. Upon exiting the store, I opened the box. It seemed all the bags were there, though a couple had been opened and glued shut again. I spotted parts for two of the minifigures, and I figured the rest of the figs were somewhere amongst the other parts/bags. Satisfied, I went home. When I went to build the set, I quickly found that the two alien figs had been stolen, but the two police were left behind. Also, some of the more interesting stickers were missing from the sticker sheet. I contacted TLG and explained everything, and they were kind enough (as per usual) to send the missing figs as well as a new sticker sheet. I fear there is little that can be done to properly prevent the theft of minifigs. As long as people have a desire to steal things, they'll figure out ways to do so. I'm really torn about changes like these. It's so nice with the current style of boxes to be able to slice through the tape on either end of the box and open it without inflicting any damage. It's clear that TLG has designed the boxes for people who like to collect them (easy to slice/remove tape, and the ability to fold them down). Sure there are exceptions in the box designs, but a good chunk of them are the collector style ones. I'd really hate to get to the point where ALL the boxes are ones that can only be opened by damaging them through irreversible means - just to deter theft. Ultimately it comes down to whether you'd rather have all the pieces and figs in the set that you've paid for, or if you want your boxes to be in tip-top shape. I know I like my sets to be complete!

Happy B-Day, Sinner! Hope the Syndey Brick Show is most excellent!

TRU in Newmartket has all the Monster Fighters (save for Zombies), some of the City mining sets, and some newest Creator models. No sign of LotR. I imagine other TRU stores have at least the same stuff if not more. Haven't seen any new stuff at various Walmarts yet. PS. They've got about 2 dozen UCS Jedi Starfighters (currently on for $65) if anyone is looking for one.