Ardelon

There are some good ideas in this thread, so I won't post all of the ideas I had, just a few small ones: - a "Siege of Minas Tirith" small army builder set, similar to the 9471 addition to Helm's Deep. With: a piece of wall with Gondor archer, Gondor spearman, 2 orcs, and a troll with a catapult (play feature! ) (hopefully TLG will still produce battlepacks alongside these small army-building sets) - Mount Doom: small vignette of a ledge over some lava, with Frodo, Sam and Gollum (and maybe a great eagle) - a Lorien tree with a flet/talan, 2-3 Lorien elves, 2-3 Moria goblins (who would be pursuing the fellowship - a scene from the books, not the movies, though could be a nice army-builder and Lorien expander) Alternatively, it could have more elves and any member of the fellowship who won't appear as often in other sets, or only in big sets. - a "Lighting of the beacon" set with a small tower structure, 1-2 Gondor guards, Pippin, and probably Gandalf the White (it could also include the leprechaun pot in black, for the oil used to light the beacon) - a mumak (either brick built or the elephant mold with some bricks added - I prefer molded animals, but the mumak would probably be too big for that) with: 2 riders of Rohan, an elephant driver, 1-2 Haradrim archers I have tried to keep the minifig count as low as realistic (= low) as possible. I have also contcentrated on generic figs, as I would prefer more of those for army building, rather than the main characters. I wonder whether TLG wil do Orthanc, and how they will solve the scale issue vis a vis minifigs and Ents. It would be possible to make an OK-looking Orthanc with regard to minifigs, but even Treebeard, who should be at least 3x taller than minifigs, had to look up to Saruman on his balcony. And the balcony was still in the lower part of Orthanc... BTW, my post count is eleventy-one today!

At least it isnt a coal mine! My thoughts exactly. Hopefully it won't be a long wait. But as I find it unlikely TLG would release a hospital in one wave and wait till the next to release the rest of any medical subtheme, I guess we will have to wait another few years for a new medical subtheme to come around. Maybe I'm too pessimistic though, here's to waiting for 2013 pic leaks! Lego Town/City healthcare evidently has a low budget. The powers that run the place probably allocate all the money to police and fire. Maybe it's because everyone is made of near-indestructable ABS plastic. Agreed.

This makes me a bit worried that TLG will only see long-term potential in licensed themes, while non-licensed themes will only get a short 1-2 wave run without growing to their full potential, like PQ, AC, etc. Core themes won't suffer this fate of course, but they could be subject to long hiatuses like space between the Mars themes, and we'll see what happens to Castle. Ninjago seems like a long-term thing, but as it's not my cuppa tea, I'm not too heartened by it.

Shame TLG didn't do a whole hospital subtheme, with sets like operating room, x-ray room, intensive care ward, general practitioner, etc. Bonus points if these sets were modular and able to attach to this or another hospital. It would've been more unisex than mining too, what seems to be a concern nowadays thanks to Friends. Though the coming hospital might not be so bad, depending on what details will be inside.

I'm hoping for some Rohan swords at least, I have long wanted to see a sword without the big handguards. As for the other swords, the old chrome sword and new highlander longsword would be OK for Andúril/Narsil, Glamdring and Boromir's sword in my view, with the gladius for the Hobbits. Only Sting merits a new mold. Of course, if TLG does new molds, I won't complain.

I remember someone asking what color the are the lips on the space girl. It does seem to be different from pic to pic. Any definitive words on this from those who alreay got the fig?

I think that whether TLG makes all the dwarves depends on their screen time. If the movies will be faithful to the books in this, most of the dwarves would hardly get a line of dialogue in. So I wouldnt expect to see many of them. Heck, TLG might even make only generic dwarves (aside from Thorin).

Point taken. I was a bit disappointed with his plain torso too. As for Kingdoms continuing, it seems to me that sadly, General Magma is right. Hopefully, we might still see some tiny Kingdoms sets in the first HY.

A problem with Rohirrim battlepacks might be that the bulk of their army were horsemen, so the battlepacks would either have more horses to the detriment of minifigs, or would be mostly infantry.

I'm glad to see science put in the service of something as useful and noble as LEGO. I personally would go for the the history figs, as I've always been a history junkie. Otherwise though, good point.

Why does the swamp monster need underpants?!

I've known this site for at least over a year; I stumbled across the EB set reviews a few times when googling for specific sets. At first, I just read the reviews and moved on, but thanks to the quality of the images and the humor in the reviews the site started to become familiar. In the summer (2011) I finally decided to take a closer look at EB and after a few weeks reading reviews and discussions and looking at MOCs, I decided I wanted to weigh in as well, so I joined. What drew me in were the pleasing visual design, easy navigation, (usually) great quality pics, interesting discussions with "insider information" and points of view I haven't considered, and the civility and humor of the discussions. Since I joined I usually visit once or twice a day. So far, as a college student i didn't have the time or money to build up my collection or offer any presentable MOCs, though maybe that will change in the near future, with the inspiration and motivation from EB. EDIT: And this being a fitting 100th post, I have now acquired full citizenship rights!

And monarchs are not getting repetitive? And knights, foot soldiers, castles, princesses, towers, ... Seriously, I think being led by a wizard is a nice alternative to being led by a traditional king/warlord/...

I don't want to get too deep into this debate (I got pretty lost trying to follow it anyway), suffice to say I dont see a problem with the color scheme or concept behind the sets. As my points would be the the same as those of other posters before me, there's no point in repeating them. However, I do think LEGO took a pro-action and pro-conflict (and thus, stereotypically pro-boy) turn somewhere in the 90s. Sets like the 80s civilian houses (nice article about those here), or civilian sets in general, were extremely rare to nonexistent this last decade. Not to mention the Pradisa line, which I saw as fully integreted with Town. I guess that's my answer to the problem of attracting girls to LEGO - more civilian sets like the houses and Paradisa, with more female minifgs (and kid figs, with short legs). Friends seems to me the best step yet in this direction, and I'm willing to put up with the polly-figs for that, if the targeted girls don't like regular minifigs. If they really don't like minifigs, it does raise the question of whether they will move on to "mainstream" themes, but the input here from AFFOLs and daughters/nieces of AF(F)OLs has been encouraging. If the whole thing fails, the new parts and colors will have made it worth it anyway. I don't know if the builds are simpler than in other lines, but even if so, I wouldn't see it as condescending. the Businessweek article stated the girls valued role-play more than the building experience, so TLG is catering to their tastes, and doing it without compromising the basic principle of actually building the play set first. Incidentally, I had some Paradisa sets as a kid, and I never considered them a girls theme. I took the pink for granted as just another color, and I never noticed any relevance in the pastel scheme or that there were more female minifigs. BTW, completely beside the point, but the color scheme seems heavier on purple and pastel blue than pink! EDIT: link inserted

I think the staff gave good enough reasons why to put LotR in this forum. None of the Castle themes are actually "historical" anyway. I would say we got orcs in the Moria set. Is there any difference explained between "Moria goblins" and "Mordor orcs" in the movies or books? I had the impression that they were simply generic orcs, and only Uruk-hai were in a class apart.

Unlike the prelim pics from other 2012 themes, these are pretty disappointing for me, maybe except the hospital (I'll need to see whats itside). It seems I won't even get the minig sets for parts, except maybe some small one for the helmet. I guess what puts me off is that it's more about mining vehicles than the actual mines and mining.

Most of the sets look pretty "meh" to me so far. I'll treat it as a parts and minifgs and accessories pack. I wouldn't mind if TLG reused the CMF monsters, though I didn't like the CMF mummy, they should "borrow" a PQ one if they won't design a new one. And the werewolf looks pretty so far, it reminds me of some Fabuland fig. I wonder if there will be a minifig head underneath, like a guy that transforms into a werewolf. Otherwise, I would have preferred either the Studios or the CMF werewolf, if not a new mold. The swamp monster, on the other hand, looks . I was hoping he?/she?/it? would appear in the CMF line, though I would have preferered sand green. The vampyra/vampiress is also a fig I thought could be in the CMF line; I need a closer look at her to decide if I like her. Seems the mummy's horse will be glow-in-.the-dark?

I'm pretty content, if the pics are legit. They will only get better. I'm glad they didn't do the balrog scene together with Balin's tomb, since as I said earlier, they would have to cram in too much and focus on quantity instead of quality. Now we can hope for a decent balrog set in 2013. I'm just a bit disappointed TLG didn't make dwarf skeletons with short legs, but oh, well. Funny that the mysterious "Orc Forge" set wasn't shown.

As I wrote in the Kingdoms 2012 thread: „... I am excited about LotR/Hobbit. I see it as an opportunity to breathe some innovation into LEGO, with parts and pieces and minifigs that otherwise wouldn't have been made. And maybe some new ideas for structures and techniques. Though I will say I take yellofigs over fleshies anyday. Boo on TLG for putting those irritating fleshie triangles on the torsos.” I would have preferred an original Castle theme, because of the fleshies and the price, but in the end, a LotR theme just needed to be done. I am apprehensive about the Moria set. There are two memorable scenes set there – the fight in the Chamber of Mazarbul and Gandalf and the Balrog. I think these could be two great seperate sets, and Im worried we will get an average single set instead. And what does „multi-year license“ actually entail? Does it mean TLG has all the sets for a certain number of future waves already planned out and OK-ed by by the Tolkien people? EDIT: So far, over 200 posts on 14 pages in this thread in the 18 hours since the the license was confirmed...

That's the answer I didn't want to hear. Damn the marketing/sales schemers! (semi-sarcastic)

Seems like this thread is now just about a condolence thread for Kingdoms. Well, here's my eulogy: Kingdoms had a good life. Popular (at least with AFOLs, dunno about the kids), with a longer run than many subthemes before the KK2 era, and went out with a bang – the joust set – while still fresh and exiciting. Its the best way to go, isn't it? While I would have preferred this or another „original“ theme, I am excited about LotR/Hobbit. I see it as an opportunity to breathe some innovation into LEGO, with parts and pieces and minifigs that otherwise wouldn't have been made. And maybe some new ideas for structures and techniques. Though I will say I take yellofigs over fleshies anyday. Boo on TLG for putting those irritating fleshie triangles on the torsos. And castle being dead/gone/over/... or just "on a hiatus" amounts to the same thing – no castle sets in the forseeable future. I can't imagine them running alongside - and against - LotR/Hobbit. Unless a few tiny Kingdoms sets are released until June?

Why only three Romams per box? Didn't TLG think there would be army-building demand for them? I myself see the minotaur as more of a unique monster than a army-builder, though I understand why others see it differently. The Roman was one of the most anticipated minifigs by me, but I'm pretty disappointed, for the following reasons: - The helmet seems too bulky, a helmet the thickness of a classic knight/sports helmet would have been better. If it was possible to get that much detail on it, that is. - As for the "thong", TLG should have dunked the top part of the Roman's legs into red dye, it's probably not a process they use, but it doesn't seem too complicated and it would improve the look of this and other figs with short pants/skirts. Or even all-red legs with a small yellow band below the "knees" would have been better. - I would also have liked to see back printing, and preferably a red basic torso color rather than light bley; with silvery or even light blay armor printed on the red, just for authenticity. - I'm also disappointed we didn't get a specialized pilum instead of a regular CMF spear (I don't mind we didn't get a gladius, though it would have been cool to get a gladius with a PotC-style sheath). I feel a pilum would have been more relevant for the Roman than the broadsword for the highlander (while a nice touch, the Scots used all kinds of swords, anyway). That's not to say the Roman is a bad fig, I still see him as one of the most useful, just not as cool as he could be.

If LotR/Hobbit is true, and sets will come out in september as AllanSmith says, I think LotR would be more likely, as the movie will only come out in december. While the sets would probably be instantly recongnizable to anyone who read The Hobbit, it makes more sense to release the Hobbit sets after the movie comes out, so people can relate the sets to the movie scenes. It also has a precedent in SW, HP and Indy, where older sets were releaed first. (Though I cant remember whether the set pics of PotC 4 came out before the movie, or simpy before I myself saw the movie). If the world does get attacked by aliens, then one taboo (humans vs humans) would simply be replaced by another (humans vs aliens). LEGO might then stop making space conflict themes, but the human survivors might finally get a military theme . Every cloud has a silver lining! Not that I know of, but the claims of LotR are getting thicker...

Beautiful house! The one thing I dislike are the slide doors, otherwise it's perfect.

So far, I would say the butcher, since I hoped for such a fig to appear and I didnt think TLG would actually do it. I thought a butcher with a cleaver and meat would come off as gory; luckily I was wrong . The cleaver, steak and cap are neat parts, though I was hoping for a straw hat. I might revise my opinion when I get a closer look at the legionary and the bandit. Right now I find the legionary's helmet to be too bulky. All in all, I'm in a similar situation as TheLegoDr above - a castle guy that prefers the butcher - a testament to the butcher's iconic appeal.