Innos

In your face all naysayers and pesimists, in your face! It's one of the best presents that Lego could have made us, the only better one will be a year from now, when the actual sets come out.

I get what you mean, I already have a lot of needless wheels and tires :) Agreed, but it's still better to get some sets with quite useless small vehicles, for example catapults on wheels like those in most Kingdoms or Fantasy Era sets, rather than not to get those sets at all. Nice one, and certainly more probable than that any reseller would already know anything sure on this subject.BTW, I came up with another idea (but it may have been already written earlier somewhere in this topic, I don't remember): as some optimists are still looking for any signs of LOTR Theme coming next year, I give another idea - maybe new bear from Forest Police Station is just a preparation for Beorn in his wild form Together with freshly introduced round tiles 1x1 as a future One Ring it's the next step toward Lego LOTR To some extent it's fun to look for such "signs", as with the thesis you believe to be truth it's quite easy to find evidence that matches it and makes it even more probable. But of course, to be fully serious, I don't believe it. It would be nice if Lego was giving such hints of upcoming theme, officialy keeping it secret, but I don't think Lego marketing and product managers have time to play such games with those few maniacs that look for it

Elander and ka.lego made a good point here - you can find analogies for the LOTR ideas in any of so far made licensed themes - it would be nothing new. You could use all the sceptics' arguments about construction problems for PotC, HP or Indiana Jones before they were released as well - all those films included many objects and creatures that potentially would be hard to fit in Lego - and either designers managed to create them, or just skipped them, having a lot of other stuff much easier to do. And as for minifigs and creatures, just think of how big variety of new elements in last few years was introduced in licensed themes, and then, after the new molds payed off in a bit more expensive licensed sets, they could be also available in regular sets of other series. The company wouldn't make such investment (as every new part mold or new colour is quite an investment for Lego) if it hadn't been for licensed themes, that are their bestsellers. And that concerns both minifigs and creatures, as well as other parts. It's good to get new wide variety of accessories or skin tones, so higher prices for licensed sets are partially covered by this additional gain - remember that. It's also visible, that the designers have to work much more on the licensed sets, they are much more thinked over, and nono-licensed may be a bit more free-style, but less detailed for sure (as there is no license-owner, who checks if their work is goo enough - not that it wouldn't be). "Fleshies", as many of us call them, may be liked or disliked, but so may be yellow minifigs, which tend to get bit boring, when the same faces are repeating in each set. So there are always two sides to every story, I prefer to pay a bit more, and get a bit more, rather than get cheaper, but also less exiting sets.

Totally agree on that - whe can dream anything, huge, epic or innovative sets, but it's ok only as long as we understand, that official sets have their limitations and restrictions, and we can't expect to realise our dreams in official sets - because MOCs are for that. I personally feel, that however those sets would look like, and whatever film/book scenes they would represent, I would be totally happy and would buy all of them at once, as soon as they are available in stores. I am sure, that in such an expensive license there could be no place for poor design, so let's only hope, that there is such license in LEGO, and then everything's gonna be fine and we'll get a really good, well designed fantasy series. The sarcasm about possible leaks is quite amusing, as I also see, that, while I hope for the LOTR theme so much, some people seem quite naive with their expectations high in the sky. We certainly should discuss the possibility of LOTR theme, but at the same time we should remain realistic here, on the ground

Hi there, I've been following this topic since nearly beginning, and what amuses me about this discussion that lasts probably already for years , is that most pesimists use the same reasons against LOTR theme repeatedly - all that about lack of vehicles, too much of epicness, too much location-oriented movies, lack of interest of kids in it etc. I think you are all shoul change the point of view of an AFOL to the point of view of average Lego customer - both parent and kid. Official sets are far different from MOCs of all of us, average buyer doesn't consider sets with those criteria, like the appriopriate scale of buildings or number of vehicles - for every example of successfull vehicle set you can find another successfull one that has equally high playability wihtout any vehicles, both in current sets and the old ones, even those from the 90's. So when we try to guess, whether we'll get the LOTR theme or not, let's not forget, how do all the other licensed sets look like - if we think of all the simplifications and symbolic constructions of PotC, Indiana Jones, Prince of Persia, Harry Potter or SW objecs (doesn't matter what - locations, landscapes, buildings, vehicles etc.), we can see, that LOTR is no other - we could make ANY of the LOTR or Hobbit scenes (from the main plots or any additional stories, including other Tolkien books), of course it wouldn't be any close to minifig scale of original buildings, but it doesn't have to be, it's a childs toy after all. Most of the SW ships are no close to the original scale, and it's still most successfull theme in history - it doesn't matter, that UCS Death Star with minifigs is quite comic with the scenes from different movies next to each other and without any scaling at all, or that it had to take more than 5k pieces to make a proper-scale Millennium Falcon, and there are 3 other minifig versions, that are no close to this scale. In LOTR it's the same - some locations are impossible to make it in minifig scale, let's take Orthanc and Isengard for example - there have already been presented some huge, epic MOCs, but however big they were, they were still not 10m high or so, which would make a minifig-scale proper height of this tower. But does it matter? Not at all, of course, and even a comic height of, let's say, 2-storey minifig tower with balcony and characteristic top would make great Orthanc in official set, and most likely with minifigures and accessories as beautiful as in Pirates of the Caribbean. Lego doesn't pay their designers for nothing, it they need to, the will be able to make any scene, considering what's important for kids in it's story, where should be the playability, and with all the restrictions they have (in size, number of new molds, colours, permitted building techniqes etc.). So, all in all, LOTR and Hobbit Theme isn't impossible, most of us, optimists, only give here our wishful thinking. while all the pesimists try to find any reason to say there will be no LOTR in Lego. And reasonably thinking the judgment of this matter is simple: Lego will decide what is probably best for them, in the terms of business and possible profitability, and even if it is hard to realise, it doens't mean they can't maka a profit of it. And with two Hobbit movies + renewing LOTR in 3D and all the hype they will have, they're going to be the biggest blockbusters of next two years, so it's hard to believe, that a market leader like Lego couldn't make huge profit of it. I personally believe it could beat Star Wars sales, they had their decade of s-f domination, now fantasy is coming back in books and films after all those poor years since the end of Tolkien Trillogy in cinemas, so why not in Lego.