Balrogofmorgoth

That would certainly be better than nothing. But it would mean missing out on so many possible minifigures and scenes. I’m still holding out hope (however slim) that we’ll get at least a few waves of sets before they cancel it again

This is all true, but my fear is that because lego seems to understand very little about their adult market, they will run it into the ground if that remains their only target audience. They seem to think we don’t like minifigures and only buy statues and busts and over scaled builds that nobody ever asked for. And then when those don’t sell, they turn around and say marketing to adults doesn’t work. Their marketing data clearly doesn’t reflect reality sometimes

It’s dark, but overall I would say it’s more child friendly in other areas. It doesn’t rely on crude humor and bad language like Marvel movies for example. It has a wholesomeness to it that most movies don’t

That’s my thought as well. They’ll release a $500 set and three Brickheadz and say “LOTR doesn’t sell well” no you just don’t understand your market

I’ve just never met a kid that didn’t love LOTR after being introduced to it. Kids love sword fights and bows and arrows and dragons and things like that. I think the circumstances around The Hobbit films had way more to do with the theme being cancelled least time than kids not liking LOTR sets. I do agree that they overdid some of the play features but most of the time they were pretty well hidden so it just didn’t bother me. I think the style they had going last time was almost perfect, they just chose some of the wrong things at the wrong time to make into sets. I don’t think anyone would want only big D2C sets and no regular sets, most afols don’t think that way, even though lego refuses to understand that. They also had the disadvantage of The Hobbit splitting into three films and then ultimately not being very well received.

I still don’t get how they got the hair color wrong for Aragorn and Frodo when the source material has been available for over 20 years now. But other than that and Frodo’s receding hairline, I think these are awesome! Seeing the higher quality images makes me more excited. I’ll definitely be getting all three

Thanks! Lego has updated a lot of parts even since I’ve made this, so I’m sure they could design something really good if they just gave the theme a real fighting chance

If the Gollum mold doesn’t come back, we riot

There are a couple LOTR molds that are still in circulation. For example, we got the hobbit hair piece in a Jurassic World set in 2020, and the Uruk-Hai sword has been used in several themes like Ninjago and Star Wars. But the molds don’t last forever so if they aren’t being used, I believe they are typically discarded, because it wouldn’t be worth the upkeep for a mold that isn’t being used. But there are examples of old molds coming back like the Bellatrix hair piece for example, which was only used once (for Nexo Knights) between the old Harry Potter run and the reboot so maybe it’s not so hard to recreate old molds that have already gone through the design process.

The annoying thing is that the helmet for the 2020 CMF Viking is a very close match to Eowyn’s “Dernhelm” helmet. They just like to tease us

If the theme really gets revived, I hope to see multiple versions of Arwen. She has so many gorgeous costumes in the films, I’d love to see a handful of them in minifigure form

Gotta be honest, I’ve never understood the hate for Pirate Ship Ambush. It’s a great set

It’s such a tough balance. If lego makes a Balrog, I think their best bet is to have a molded head, cloth wings similar to the 2022 Horntail, and most likely a new whip piece. I just don’t see any other way that would work well for an official set. They could probably brick build a fiery sword, if they include it at all, and then the rest can also be brick built

Thanks! It’s far from perfect and I’m definitely continuously finding ways to improve it, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. It looks good on the shelf! And it’s a good size compared to a Gandalf minifig

Oh I blew on it. You know, sometimes working full time and parenting the rest of the time just makes it difficult to prioritize something as trivial as dusting lego consistently. If that triggers you, feel free to not look at it

Photos aren’t the best, it really does look better in person, I promise. It sort of all blends together in the photos and I’m certainly no photographer

I felt the same way so I used a couple of good ideas I saw mixed with several of my own and made myself a pretty decent looking Balrog

Unfortunately it does seem that way. But if the set sells well, I’m sure they will do more. It’s up to us to speak with our wallets! I don’t understand it though, it’s a massive license to waste on one set and a few Brickheadz. They’re holding on to a gold mine

If the theme gets a real revival with real waves of sets, Minas Tirith is inevitable. The question is whether it would be a D2C or just a $150ish normal scale set. I like both options so it would be great to see both at different times in different scales. I think for this to be a successful reboot, it has to start with some more familiarity like the Fellowship. And my ideal Faramir figure would be an Ithilien version in his Ranger garb, but a “retaking Osgiliath” version would be awesome as well

That’s a great point. If this is an actual reboot I do hope they would treat this with the same level of effort as Harry Potter, particularly with the minifigures. People tend to overlook the amount of variation there is in characters’ outfits and appearances in LOTR. The last version of the theme ignored this. The HP team gives a lot of focus to it, so I would hope the same would happen here. Some things I really want them to include in the Rivendell set are the Narsil display, the Sauron and Isildur Mural (probably a sticker but still awesome), and Gilraen’s memorial

I think there is more than enough they bc oils do with the LOTR trilogy for several years (not that I’m expecting it to happen), but I also do agree that The Hobbit films lend themselves very well to lego sets and it would certainly be a shame if they were ignored. That being said, that’s still exactly what I expect to happen if the theme gets revived for real. I enjoy The Hobbit films for what they are and I think, generally speaking, they probably get too much hate, but there are still a LOT of things that were done terribly to make those films unable to stand alongside LOTR on the pedestal in the hearts of fans. I would certainly not complain if we got some Hobbit sets, but I wouldn’t want them to take the place of any potential LOTR sets

I’d be very surprised if we see anything from The Hobbit. I think The Hobbit is what more or less killed the theme last time around. The films were not well received so the sets didn’t sell so they cancelled the entire Middle Earth theme

I remember how cool it was that Orthanc came with both the decorated slope piece and a pair of legs for Saruman. Now of course they have the actual lower robes/dress piece for minifigures so it wouldn’t make them any taller. But it looks better than the old slope regardless. It’s hard with Gandalf because he does move around a lot so legs would be great but I think in terms of the look, the lower robes piece would complete the aesthetic more efficiently, especially with some printing Hopefully we get some higher quality images of those Brickheadz soon

That’s my hope! So here’s a question. Would people want a Gandalf the Grey minifig to have legs? Or should he have a printed dress piece for his robes?

I think that’s an absolute bogus complaint. And if there’s any license that deserves full waves of sets it’s LOTR. And I resent the statement that LOTR isn’t for a large age range, that’s just not true