Ardelon

After seeing the toy fair pics, I must say this theme is a bit of a letdown for me, except for the figs and some accessories. I was hoping the new pics would show something which would redeem the sets, but it doesn't look like it. The only must-buy for me is the swamp monster. The other sets seem half-baked to me. The castle is decent, but what bugs me is that it's not an enclosed castle, just a facade.

Theoden’s armor and helmet are beautifully printed, with Eomer and the generic guy not far behind. But the helmets are pretty bulky, which is a bit of a shame. Haldir looks great too. Nothing to say about the new horses – they look good and will have their uses, but I don’t think they were necessary. Thank goodness I’m not a collector and don’t have to fight inner battles on what to get. As it is, I can see myself getting the Uruk-hai Army and the Mines, and possibly the Orc Forge. Helm’s Deep is beyond my reach, and the other sets don’t really appeal to me.

I agree. Any sith-robe torso will do as well, and a black dementor cape. For what it's worth, we already have all the Nazgul anyway, since they all look alike. The Witch-King's helmet is all that's missing, though he didn't have it in black rider form, anyhow. Nope, Angmar was gone for a millenium. The Witch-King was in Minas Morgul.

Thanks for the adjustments SirSven7, it works now, from my end (using Internet Explorer). Though not my favorite theme, I did have a lot of fun with the sets I owned from it – though the Royals’main role in my play was to have their Megablocks kicked by the Dragon Masters! The King’s Carriage is actually my favorite carriage/vehicle of the whole castle line – considering how compact it is (a good thing), it comfortably seats a whopping 4 figs and treasure chest. And it had a king! Themes like this are the backbone of the Castle line, I guess. Keep up the great work!

Still no good. Maybe some updated software or cookies or whatsit is required?

Nice to see LEGO used for the noble purpose of political commentary! Original use of the helmets, too.

Great MOC - I especially like the bar (where is the TV screen from?), the bathroom and the sofas/couches - so many nice details! I, for one, have no problem with the subject matter, nor do I find it controversial. Its a fact of life, and as such it has its place among MOCs about the world around us. Grow up people! This is a site for adults. If this is controversial, what about the MOCs depicting violence? Nor is it disrespectful to women who work in such establishment - its their choice.

I prefer Toth's fig, mainly for the red eyes - it makes no sense to me to have different eyes for different genders...

I have the same problem.

This counts for the "collectable" main characters, but not for the generic soldiers. People wouldn't buy a lot of sets to army-build (= less money for TLG), but they would buy a lot of battle-packs (= more money for TLG).

I would wager that news of the line being discontinued will come out of the blue when we least expect it, like the discontinuation of neoclassic Pirates, PotC, Alien Conquest, etc...

Nope, the shield is right side up - the spikes face downward. Very good looking figs . Boromir is much improved over the poster. Is Gimli's beard a new mold? I don't like the yellow eyes on the orcs. It gives them a blank, undead look (which I don't like on living characters). But I'm glad TLG didn't differentiate between orcs and goblins and made them interchangeable, like I hoped. Gollum does look a bit strange, but not bad. I like the sneaky look on the poster better, though. Are you guys sure the sword is the highlander mold? The pommel at the bottom looks bigger to me than the one on the highlander sword... Looking forward to seeing the rest of the figs, and the torso prints.

For me, it's a tie between the Ambulance (a welcome addition to the medical line) and the Car and Camper/Caravan (a purely civilian set = good). The others just seem too oversized, except for the dirt bike transporter, but the racing/sports sets never did it for me.

(bold emphasis mine) Not really, it seems more like they stated which sets (= the Friends sets) aren't "meant" for boys. That isn't much better, but it decreases the problem by an order of magnitude. If anything, it's the boys' advocates that should be complaining about it.

I would say the worst offender was the anticlimatcic ending to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields . Actually I don't really mind the elves in Helm's Deep, as Jackson explained that it was to show the sacrifice of the elves in the war. And since the battles in Lórien and Mirkwood weren't shown, this was as good a way to do it as any. And their arrival seemed a powerful scene to me. @ General Magma and Fives and co.: wouldnt you say that goblins simply fall under the diversity of orcs? Both are short and pointy-eared, there are fleshie "goblins" as well as greenish "orcs", its just that some live in Moria, some in Mordor, some in Isengard, etc. In the end, though, I agree we will see several different face prints for "goblins" and orcs and uruks, but I would guess they would be interchangeable enough to allow any face/head to be used as either goblins/orcs/uruks. (Which could be construed as no difference whatsoever, just a bunch of multicolor orc/goblin/uruk faces.)

Really? To me it looks exactly like a stereotypical prepresentation of a swamp monster. I wonder whether the fig is finalized, or, if Toth is really working on the theme (is he?), whether that's just his fig as a placeholder, with the actual fig looking differently. I hope the first alternative is correct, as the torso is a bit different, as was mentioned, and the fig can hardly be made better than it already seems. Except, maybe the lime green hip piece - why would a swamp monster use underpants (made of seaweed or what)?

Sounds good, but too heavy on the special parts - prehistoric, historical and futuristic parts, prints and accossories in one theme? Dunno if it woould be worth the production costs for TLG. Remember how the last time-travel theme worked out? Only vehicles, no locations, just hats to represent time periods, and the vehicles themselves were . Even as a kid it didn't appeal to me. Maybe TLG has learned something in the meantime, though.

Transparent headdress? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a headdress? It has something to do with the transparent plastic having much more friction than the normal plastic. Thus making it very difficult to remove two such pieces from each other. As I wrote elsewhere, I learned it the hard way as a kid when I attached a tranparent cone to a lightsaber blade and it took my dad and some pliers to separate them. And it left dents on the lightsaber. Transparent figs = bad idea (with the current plastic).

Sand blue orcs ? Not that I would mind, it's just not the color that comes to mind when imagining orcs. I'm not sold on the goblins and orcs being separate creatures, anyway. The book refers to orcs in Moria, and as for the pic of the goblin that people use to show the difference between orcs and goblins, I take it simply as a sign of variation between orcs, with both terms being equal. But maybe the movies made a clear differentiation somewhere? The point is, I see no reason for "goblin" figs to be different than orc figs.

I assume they wil do something after LotR, to contrast the unique and fantasy aspects of LotR. Best-case scenario would be something like Kingdoms, worst-case scenario something like KK2. I hope it wont be the new Falcons, as I don’t find their shield compatible with the old Falcons. I’m not too keen on forestmen either (I find them too cartoonish). Here follows a heavily edited version of my post from last September, in a thread discussing which direction we’d like Castle to go (before we knew about LotR): I’d like to see a Mideastern-style subtheme. A simple way to avoid a "clash of civilizations" controversy could be to make it independent of the current „European“ factions and set it in its own universe with 2 or more Mideastern kingdoms, ali baba style bandits, etc. In the same vein, I’d like a far eastern subtheme similar to the ninjas of ’98, but based more on China. Of course it wouldn’t actually be set in China, just like the past themes aren’t set in an actual European country. The same would go for a classical antiquity theme which could be set in a fictional land (Atlantis...? – yeah, I know the names‘s been used) that would simply have a Greek feel to it (figs, armor, torsos, etc.). Ditto any Amerindian or other subthemes. I doubt a Roman theme; The Romams didnt have a rich mythological world independent of the real world, so such a theme would have to be set in the real world, which would be too controversial, I think. After all, bothe the Romans and their enemy civilization have contemporary cultural heirs, who might take offense as being shown as the bad guy. As for an Egyptian theme, it needs conflict. Who would they fight? Hittites or Sea Peoples? Too obscure. Romans? See above. Supernatural creatures? Possibly, but that would be too similar to PQ... A well executed dark age / barbarian subtheme would also be welcome, though I was sorely disappointed with the Viking line. A bandit/outlaw faction similar to Wolfpack would be cool; I remember someone suggesting a „villagers vs raiders“ subtheme some months back. I would prefer them to be more rag-tag than the Wolfpack with their smart uniforms. This subtheme would include ambush sets like MVR, an outlaw hideout/camp, and, of course, plenty of civilian minifigs!

It's said to be Haldir of Lórien.

Awesome indeed. Very vintage, usable elsewhere too. Fighting monsters sure leaves some scars! But it was about time we got a proper mechanical leg, the peg leg on the collectable cyborg was the weak point of the fig, IMO. But what are the things on the left fig's legs?

Dracula looks cool. The other two, ok, I guess. The werewolf's torso and legs are neat, his head not so much, but better than the prelims. I like that the Frankenstein monster is in a different green than the previous ones. Seems the werewolf needs both a belt and suspenders to keep his pants on!

I'm disappointed in that all of the hobbits could cave been done without the flesh triangle. And Sean Bean looks much better than that! And yeah, dark red arms would have been better on him. I have no problem with Gandalf, i guess I've gotten used to LEGO wizards not having hair. Maybe a sand blue hat would have been nicer though, to break the all-bley color scheme of the fig and to stay truer to the source material. I know it sounds like I'm whining over everything, but on the whole, i really do like the figs. Can't wait to see the obscured torsos.

Then it would have to include the head as well, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to put the quiver+head and head on the torso. So far, artistic license seems the most plausible explanation to me (meaning, the parts wont look like that IRL). Meh. Glad for the non-fleshie torso, though! And the fig looks good to me, whether the eyes be higher or lower. Hoping for a Gimli poster next.