mtrsteve

I don't know about ICONs specifically, but the ideas A frame cabin was just announced with like 3 weeks to release, so it can be quite short. How would people feel if we eventually get a system Balrog and it's a bigfig?

Hey now, I am - if anything - full of hope

Again, there IS a specific theme page for LotR now. Whether you want to think of it as a secondary theme for the BrickHeadz or deny it's existence means anything is up to you. See here: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/lord-of-the-rings And here: https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes

Still not convinced. 4064- includes a botanicals and Chinese new year sets. 4065- includes a hodgepodge of sets. So a 406-- number doesn't mean anything re: theme. The set # groupings are fluid and meet the needs of the day as far as I can tell. The box art has both BrickHeadz and LotR logos, it has both a set # and brickheadz #s, and it shows up under both themes on the official website. I conclude that it belongs to both themes. Lego literally had to have a web dev reinsert LotR theme on their website to have it show up there, so they have intentionally signalled that the LotR theme has returned, whether or not that means more to come (and if there is nothing more to come, then maybe that's enough reason to group the set #s with the recent releases for evergreen themes of icons etc) My last point on this topic is that the official Lego page listing active themes has LotR on it with this blurb: "Lord of the Rings™ New One build to rule them all! Recreate favorite moments from Middle-earth with LEGO® Lord of the Rings™ sets. Join Frodo™, Gandalf the Grey™, Aragon™ and more in the epic battle of good vs. evil from the beloved film series with highly detailed sets and fun character display models." So we will have to just agree to disagree on this one I think. However as a positive I wouldn't have found the above blurb without this debate, and I notice it explicitly says 'highly detailed sets and fun character display models'. This seems like the closest to acknowledging that a D2C is coming as I have seen yet?

Actually I don't agree that a single set can't belong to more than one theme. Is a Batman brickhead a brickheadz theme or superheroes theme (or DC theme!)? To me it can absolutely be more than one thing, because themes are just categorizations and as such must be flexible to reflect reality. I maintain that Lego's *publically facing* website is explicit that LotR is a theme. I will stand corrected if you can point to a public 'official' list of themes that should override shop@home's categories.

When I go to shop at home, I select browse by theme and then select the LotR theme. That is officially straight from Lego themselves categorized as a theme. Is there somewhere else I should look for an up to date official list of themes? You dont even have to click on the link I posted, just read the url: https://www.lego.com/en-ca/themes/lord-of-the-rings Lego -> themes -> LotR It exists. Any counter argument is obtuse.

Yeah, it's quite possible this is or isn't evidence of more sets to come But it does mean that according to Lego, officially, there is currently a LotR theme, at least in a technical sense.

Incorrect! The brickheadz appear on the Lego website under the lord of the rings theme: https://www.lego.com/en-ca/themes/lord-of-the-rings So the *theme* has factually returned! Whether we get any more than this one release is still a valid question.

Yeah, my biggest source of hope is the cloud city/ mos Eisley cantina sets from SW. Something in the master builder series style.

That is an interesting idea for sure. The issue I could see is that you need depth (i.e. the two parts of the set would be physically disconnected with space between?) and a specific view angle for forced perspective to work. This seems very restrictive both for play or display.

My ideal RoP season 1 lineup would look something like: $150 - Numenorean ship carrying the queen, isildur, elindil, plus a couple random soldiers $100 - celebrimbors forge, minifigs could include him, elrond, galadriel and halbrand $80 - harfoot wagons under attack by wolves - Nori, sadoc, the stranger plus extras $80 - battle for the Southland's, including some village scenery, including arondir and bronwyn, 2 orcs, a Numenorean and a villager $50 - moria, maybe the durin vs elrond rock breaking fight with some dwarf extras $20 - stranger vs the acolytes $20 - elrond and durin having audience with gil galad Battle packs: -Southland elves vs orcs -numenorean soldiers

I think if you are a lore junkie you probably have to approach RoP as only semi-canonical if you want to enjoy it at all.

I had mixed feelings about RoP. Neither a masterpiece nor a steaming pile of you know what IMHO. I was able to look past the harfoot accents as I quite liked their dialog and story line. I actually liked the slower paced parts of the story best. My issue was they would alternate between slow development and fast travel in a jarring way, and way too many plots of convenience like the Numenoreans just charging into the right little village in Mordor etc. The dialog was probably the weakest part for me though. Incredibly hit and miss. Quite evident when parts came more directly from Tolkien's pen versus not. Now, the visual effects? Absolutely top notch. Visually stunning series at every turn. To bring it back on topic, I've said before I think it does provide some good fodder for Lego sets. Celebrimbors forge, a lively Moria, our friendly neighborhood Balrog included... And as an admitted minifig junkie, there is lots to salivate over.

A slightly disappointing discovery - the LotR brickheads didn't even get a whole page in the January catalog. They only showed one of the three sets in a 1/3 page strip surrounded by Lego store and VIP ads.

Which, the Funko Pops or the Funko Pop collectors? XD

Might as well have them in the collection IF you care for them. I feel no obligation to spend money on them simply because they exist. And I agree with the sentiment that the only clear message that Lego will get from people buying them is to make more LotR brickheads, which would just be more wasted dev time as far as I am concerned. Especially if it just churns out more balding Frodos.

Still fun to think about. What other GWP could we imagine that would make unlikely retail sets? Is that where we could see a giant 'the one ring'?

I can't bring myself to order these no matter how much I want LotR to succeed. My wallet will send the message that I want play sets or display sets. And I would say two of them are decent for what they are, but the Frodo/Gollum one is laughably bad in my opinion.

This is how I feel as well. The timing of it coming back just after season 1 of RoP ends is obviously not a coincidence. Whether that means sets based on RoP or not is up in the air, but at the very least they are banking on riding the wave of resurgent interest in Middle Earth. Again, I too would bet against a tie in in the D2C set, but it's fun to speculate until we start seeing box art. I too feel like the use of the RoP name in specifically *marketing* materials probably does require some level of pre-arrangement, as you can easily argue that they expect to profit off of the use.

` Maybe I took it a step too far (was definitely trying to be thought provoking, and speaking off the cuff), but saying "Rings of Power has nothing to do with Rivendell" presumes a lot. There are already set photos leaking of season 2 (so they *are* filming) that could possibly be Rivendell (it WAS established in the second age as far as I remember, and RoP plays loose with timelines anyway). And it wouldn't be the first time that lego knew something about upcoming IP before the public did. But you're right, this D2C would have been under development for some time, so maybe not a 'real possibility', but definitely not an impossibility either that they include a figure or something (season 1 Elrond and MAYBE Galadriel being maybe the only ones that make any sense) to make a connection to the new IP if they intend to go that route. Does anyone else recall there being a line in the show that at least strongly implied Elrond eventually being bound for Imladris? I guess I didn't really mean to imply any of that is *likely* (or even desirable), just having some fun playing around with what is possible.

I think the hobbit sets had problems with just being bellow par in visual design as much as anything (unexpected gathering being the glowing exception, with a couple others that were OK). Rings of power could have similar struggles, but there could be a few gems in there, with Celebrimbor's forge being the best example I can think of from season 1, but I am sure there will be more to come from season 2 onward. Again, I think we all agree that LotR trilogy content is the key to making this IP thrive for Lego, but I would be more than happy with the HP/Fantastic Beasts parallel others have drawn. ... now that I think of it, I don't think any of us have brought up the real possibility that the D2C Rivendell includes some connection to the Rings of Power Season 2, which will almost certainly take us to that location (do I recall some mention of sending Elrond to 'Imladris' late in season 1?). Would be interesting if we got Rivendell with LotR figures AND RoP figures...

These excerpts are really promising to me. I feel like 'iconic moments', and 'mythical locations' at least suggests something beyond just brickheads, and with the use of plural more than one something. And the mention of rings of power implies some exploration of the new IP and characters, which while not everyone's cup of tea, would basically necessitate a full line of play sets. Though I agree with Lord helmet, that sort of release of trilogy focussed sets would be my dream as well.

Depends what you mean by 'sure'. We aren't even sure it exists, as nothing has been confirmed by Lego so far other than the brickheads. That said, the some of the rumors have come from pretty reliable sources, so you can draw your own conclusions ;)

I hadn't thought of this option until (you?) posted it the other day, but this is one of many outcomes I could be happy with if there is a longer term series of releases. My imagination runs wild with the possibility of them all coming together to form a triptych of story boards for the three movies... heck, I might just have to embark on a long term MOC project now that the idea is in my head...

It depends what the 'project' is. If it's a full on revival, I hear you. If it's a one-off nod to the adult collectors, I could see (and be reasonably happy with) this sort of outcome. But I also agree with you and MAB, that Rivendell is not the best choice for microscale, just rolling with the latest rumors re: piece count. (And yes obviously at 6000+ pieces it would be bigger and more detailed).