mtrsteve

100% this. I understand both are low res, I understand the distortion from reflection off a curved surface, but there are 100% trees next to the purgola that are not in the teaser render. No matter if it's the reverse angle or just left/right flipped. They very well could be in the final build, but I can tell you they are in the leak and NOT in the teaser. Could just be artists decision in what made the teaser render look best. In any case its not a huge deal, but I cant abide people telling me I cant see what I can plainly see.

People seem to be implying we will see release pictures by sometime tomorrow. Is that a known thing?

Don't let them gaslight you. Yes the ring distorts things. It doesn't make then disappear. There are differences between this image and the leak. Only the final reveal will tell us which have been moved around, etc. But in the leak the trees next to the purgola are taller than the purgola itself. No matter what angle or distortion you apply, they are absent from this teaser. May be in the final product, we the public don't know yet. Not a huge deal either way for me, but as others hopeful that all the minifigs made the final cut. Also keep in mind the teaser is a piece of CGI, not a real photo (or we would just see the camera in the reflection)

Will do, but until then Imma watch this 2s teaser on loop. Forever.

There are definitely differences. For example no trees are to be seen next to the pergola.

And remember that the leaked pic could very well have come from an early product survey, so the final product might have significant differences anyway.

I'll be *using* my VIP points for this, so no reason to hold off for double for me ;)

Let's be real, the GWP will be a Sauron Brickheadz. In his floating eye form.

My vote is for an Eowyn vs witch king (+fellbeast). Or if that's too much to ask for, a detailed Faramir figure polybag with a spare set of Gondor armor and a 2 piece horn of Gondor accessory

Zoom, enhance! Zoom! ENHANCE!

Lol, "Barad-dur mom" gave me a chuckle. Imagining Saurons mom yelling at him to stop playing with those silly rings and get in here to do the dishes... Hope this link still works (Flickr noob) https://www.flickr.com/gp/197582965@N08/8K9KCmfF99 To be clear, the MOC was designed by someone else who sold me the instructions and parts list

This is how the MOC I posted links to a few pages back was done. Microscale front, minifig compatible 'dollhouse' style back. IMO it works really well as a compromise for looks and playability. In Lego form anyway it makes a lot of sense. If I ever want a perfectly X:1 scaled model, I'll get it from somewhere other than Lego.

You know what, that's a fair point. I'm not here to 'yuck your yum' if the enjoyment you get out of Lego is from following the original instructions and working through the builds. To each their own!

The good news is that you can still MOC a microscale version like what you posted! There's obviously no version they can release that will please everybody, but play scale with lots of figures is probably covering the largest segment of demand. And it's easier to MOC microscale than minifigures ;)

I can't believe how on the money this set looks to be. I might even end up tempted to buy 2, build the first and extend it with a MOC from the pieces of the second...

I don't think that aspect (it being a product survey that was 'leaked' and not an actual set box art) had been mentioned here. I think without that piece of info @Balrogofmorgoths logic was reasonable. In any case I think we are all remaining skeptical and just having some fun postulating what *could* be.

Noone knows! Rivendell still also just a rumor. If there really are leaked pictures of a barad dur box art though, could suggest that's what we're getting first. Time will tell. I know @Balrogofmorgoth said he would puke if they do a bigfig style molded Balrog, but I think that could actually work pretty well. If you look up the 'mungus' bigfig from Chima, it gives me hope that they could do some pretty sick one off molds. If the 'head' was a helmet piece like that one, you could even reuse it in your own MOCs.

Thanks! I will let this take my skepticism for the leaker's post from 100% down to 99%

Honest question: am I supposed to know of Clone OPatra as a reliable source?

At least it retains the essential etymology either way

Not a great photographer, but here: https://www.flickr.com/gp/197582965@N08/8K9KCmfF99

Barad dur would admittedly be higher on my list if I hadn't just finished building this guy's MOC: https://bricksafe.com/pages/RakRonDewl/lotr-mocs

As much as a $500 D2C of Bilbo's party could be amazing, if they continue down that path, I would love to see Rivendell, Minas Tirith and Meduseld before returning to the Shire or doing the 'other' black tower. As @sebastian666 mentions above, the Rohirrim anime does make a natural tie into the zeitgeist.

Diagon Alley might be the best comp to make us all hopefully. Almost the right piece count (5500), around the right number of figs (14), and around the right price ($450).

I think that would be the ideal outcome for 99% of the people in this forum. It's just (understandably) noone wants to get their hopes up.