Lordhelmet

Hopefully the quick sell out of the gwp drives some thought for Lego to produce a witch king set. That GWP is excellent and with some extra push (new prints, new mold for witch king helmet, something extra for the fell beast head) you could have an excellent $40 range set. That would sell well.

Just built the gwp, I like it a lot more in person, really solid, feels like that made up for the lack of one with Rivendell. The build was good, it looks good, the big wings make it and it is built for display. Only improvement would have been adding the eyes.

We had around thirty people in line an hour before it opened, went up to about sixty by the time it opened. They had 32 sets that all sold, thankfully I was number 12.

Awesome I am in line at my Lego store, about 40 people so far (hour before opening).

I’m going to the store early. I get the sense that it will not be as crazy as Rivendell was (makes sense Rivendell was the first set after a decade, beautiful set, appealed beyond LOTR fans, had the full fellowship). Brad Dur is incredible but we just had a $500 set last year without anything else in the theme. So I think this appeals to the die hard LOTR fans. I expect quite a few people but not the forty or so that were waiting for Rivendell. We will see.

All quiet before release day. I will be lined up before the store opens this weekend. I am excited about getting Brad Dur and another wraith too. Hopefully they have enough copies at the store. I think last year they had around 20 rivendells. I am not expecting Lego to sell as many Brad Dur as Rivendell but hoping for enough where it doesn’t run out until later in the day.

He is the architect of Barad dur, maybe he is holding a micro representation of barad dur also in chrome gold?

They would at least get a cool motivational poster “build me an army worthy of Mordor” in their office edit: they really need to do an orc battle pack with this slogan written on it some where. You know that would be the ideal marketing for a set like that.

How many minifigs should come in a set like that? 21 thousand (includes three versions of Sauron, Gandalf the white, king Aragorn, the rest of the fellowship, 7 cave trolls 5 fell beasts, the which king, 5k Gondor and 16k orcs.

I thought it was in an instagram post when Barad Dur pictures came out but could have been mentioned in one of the YouTube videos. Could have been someone just messing around, or clearly have no idea how big Barad Dur is.

Those legs are on Pick a brick currently (pricier than normal ones, but I just bought two). I was going to save one for thrawn, but will update another minifig instead if he does have the dual molded ones.

I used to follow these threads back then but never participated in them. I think part of our expectation has been set with how good the original run of LOTR Lego was. Like the dual molded hair for Elrond, we were only disappointed with that because the original was so good. If the original ring had been printed on a round 1x1 tile getting what we have (its own mold with chrome) would be incredible. I think this applies to Barad Dur. It is an incredible set, if it had been in the original run we would have all said how amazing it is (and most of us are today), but Orthanc was so good too, that now expectations are wild (like seeing some comments that barad dur is not in scale to Orthanc, and others saying Orthanc is better). I think this is why it would be better for Lego to re-establish the theme with things that have not been done before (so many options, Minis Tirith, Gondor in general, Lothlorien, etc.) rather than revisit old sets like Bag End, or Helm's deep. I would like them all, I just think they would be smart to go to things that we have not had to reduce the comparisons we will place on the old (really good) waves.

Thrawn looks great and is the whole reason I am buying the set. The rest is cool to have, but honestly getting thrawn for less than $100 is the key since I did not pick one up last time around. Plus having the right rank insignia just make it that much better.

Would a full on wave bring back that same level of excitement, or is it just that back then it was completely new (therefore more exciting as there was no measuring stick for new sets to live up to?)

I like the Sauron minifig as is. It is a strong mini fig. It could be improved with a separate helmet and shoulder but I am also not sure what constraints the design team was under (if they were arbitrary financial restraints not cool, but if it were production related I am happier getting a set with Sauron verses not). I would like to know if the long legs were considered and the reason why they did not use them though. I think the Sauron as is will be a good addition to the existing LOtR figures and hopefully we will get a future playset where they can explore the long legs and arms. (Maybe a last alliance battle set).

Thanks for the parts list on that middle section, will be nice to get those before the set comes out.

I like the Mods, I am going to mod the orange and browns in the middle ring to black, I think I will add to the central tower (maybe two to three inches but not a full section). I like the bunker war room Idea, although I am going to keep the dining hall personally. I am thinking about modding the rock face to dark grey instead of light grey and brown. That will probably do it for me.

I am ok with some of the rubber molds, but will join in if there are quality issues. Given the cost I want only the best.

A thought about the brickheadz, why is Gimli’s helmet grey? I plan on buying because I want to keep all of the LOTR sets (not a fan of brickheadz in general), but I just realized the helmet is grey not the dark brown/reddish brown. Regarding the Fell Beast GWP, I am wondering if there are any simple mods to make it look better incorporating the new wing element (print).

agreed, and I would spend way too much on most of these.

This set really makes me want an orc battle pack. With the new helmet pack and shields that would be an excellent battle pack to fill out Barad Dur with (like the snowtroopers with the ATAT) They could redo the four orcs (or slight variations to distinguish them and make more variations) and there could be a solid orc army quick. I’d buy at least four if not ten to fill out the set. Would just need a small rock encampment or something like that for the build.

The more I look at the model I want to change the orange and brown in the middle tier to black. I think I like it around the eye and at the base (reflecting lava and the eye, and I have liked it in the videos). The middle section I think is the part that is distracting to me. Anyone able to decipher what parts they are using? I will probably pick up the black parts to replace it after I buy but I think that will be a for sure modification for me. Also surprise that there are sections where the blue shows through (I might change those too).

Agreed! Plus with Lego we can modify what we want and the designers built in a modification option which makes it super easy.

nice, I’ll probably bricklink one section and add it that way. I’m sure there will be a bunch of “that’s ridiculous” comments but I modify most of my sets to make them look more accurate (Rivendell was a rare exception and I want to add another tower to that anyway). I think it would be good with one or maybe two extra sections and I am happy it is modular.

I get a lot of the criticism of this set (Sam and Frodo without unique prints, longer legs for Sauron, the mace, could have used one or two extra mini figs, etc.). I really don’t understand the taller part. It is very tall, I have to adjust my shelving to fit it next to orthanc. I get that it looks a little chunky but so does orthanc? It seems to fit the theme well and keep the Lego LOTR look which to me is key to keep it feeling like it is the same theme despite the added detail. I really don’t think I would want it taller but if I do when I build it, it also looks easy to mod with some extra height on the main tower portion anyway.