Ash

Wolverine's Chopper £15 (25% off) at Amazon.co.uk That will not last long... go go go

That's fantastic. So well executed, I love all the little details.

The exception to this is that we do find out when things are a big success in varous press releases and annual reports. When something is a big success (Ninjago, Friends) they will not hesitate to let the world know about it! Despite what some people are saying here I've seen PotC cited as a success in official releases in a number of occasions. One thing I think needs to be taken into account is that choosing not to do another wave of a particular line will be based on whether or not they think that another line would be successful. And while past performance will be a factor in that it is far from being the only one. All that aside I don't see speculation about the success of an unreleased line as being off-topic. Some people enjoy that kind of stuff and as long as we're aknowledging it is only speculation I don't see the harm.

Time will tell. Personally I don't think it will be, certainly no where near as succesful as Star Wars. I don't think the source material and the sort of sets they are releasing have anywhere near the appeal to Lego's core (young) audience or nostalgic older fans. For older fans (outside of those already into Lego) I've always thought Star Wars' iconic vehicles were a big part of the appeal and this is something the more scene and character based LOTR lacks. I think the key to the initial success of the Star Wars line was the fact that it appealed to a lot of people who were Star Wars fans, but not already Lego fans. For the record this was me. I hadn't looked at Lego for decades and I bought a Landspeeder to sit on my desk because it was a nice cool iconic vehicle. I think the problem with Lord of the Rings is that for a lot of non-Lego people the obvious choice for what would be a cool thing to buy to sit on your desk would be collecting the Fellowship. However to collect the entire Fellowship represents a significant cost well above impulse buying a landspeeder or speeder bike. The big wildcard here will be the release of the first Hobbit film. This may bring in a lot of new fans and act as a gateway drug to a new generation discovering Lord of the Rings as well. This is obviously complete speculation. But keep in mind predicting that this line won't be a massive success (I'm sure it will do OK, I just don't see it being that big) doesn't mean I don't like it or I don't want it succeed. Quite the opposite in fact, I like it a lot and I really want it to be a big success. If I'm completely wrong I'll be very happy!

12) 3 13) 4 Would have done given 7 one point each but no way I could narrow it down, would need at least a dozen. Decided to just go with my two faves. Good luck all.

"Those talking trees", got me. Still nice to see it close up.

I'm having trouble coming up with something to say about how insanely impressive that is without swearing. It's gorgeous and... yeah, insanely impressive.

Well it's not like SHIELD is known for their sleek, aerodynamic, flying vehicles. I'm looking at you Helicarrier and Flying Cars!

He's got a bio on the official page (http://thelordoftherings.lego.com/) and his picture there matches what we've seen so far so I think pretty much confirmed.

That building seems strangely familiar. I'm pretty sure I climbed up it and killed someone once... or that may have been a video game ...anyway, that's pretty nice and some of the features (especially the front entrance) are really cleverly done. Good work!

Wow, that's really impressive. So many great entries, but that's definitely one of the most impressive (repeating myself here, but it's the best word I can think of to describe it!)

The Quinjet looks really nice. It's got this chunky angular near-future military aesthetic (for want of a better term, hard to describe, but I know what I mean!) you see a lot in movies and video games, but not so much in Lego. Maybe some of the Star Wars sets, but this really has it's own look. Thanks for the review. A bit pricey for me, but easily the best Avengers set in my opinion. Edit: With regards to the look I'm talking about I think Aliens (Dropship, APC etc) is probably the best example.

Thanks for the shout-out Kate! I noticed the treehouse cheap and was really tempted to grab a couple but managed to resist. I'd just half the day building half-price Pharoah's Quest sets instead . It's really suprising just how popular that treehouse set is. It's been the number 1 Lego set (and in the top 5 on ALL toys on Amazon) for a while. I get the feeling Friends is doing pretty well. One thing to be wary of is that a handful of sets are listed over Lego's RRP on Amazon (I have no idea why, although it happens a lot more in the US) and Propeller Adventures is one of these, so the discount isn't as good as it looks, although it's still not bad. If you click through to the full discount list these sets are marked with an asterix.

That's great. At first glance it almost looks like a trivial entry that doesn't really have much to it. At second, third and fourth glance.... it's actually fantastic. Lots of subtle detail, and a really spot-on recreation. The rocket in particular is perfect and gives the whole thing a great sense of scale.

I like some of the Kingdoms sets, but in the UK they were crazy expensive, easily on par with licensed stuff for the most part, so price isn't really the issue for me. I'm not a big fan of Lego's unlicensed Fantasy themes. They always seemd a bit silly and childish (there's nothing wrong with that of course, Lego is after all primarily a toy for children, this is just a personal taste thing). I think several of the LOTR sets look really good and it's a license that I, as a fan, am happy to see and would like to stick around for a couple of waves at least. In general I don't really have a desire for any other historical themes. Maybe a Greek or Roman myths and legends thing could be interesting I guess. Or even something like Pharoah's Quest where modern "adventurers" face of against mythical bad guys in european rather than Egyption ruins. So in conclusion all of the above... or none of the above... uh, what was the question again?

With regards to putting it on Cuusoo my gut feeling is that Lego won't be making any sets of overtly religious buildings any time soon! Although maybe the fact that it's now a museum means that that wouldn't be an issue. Good luck in the contest though. It's probably my favourite out of what I've seen so far and there have been a lot of really good ones.

Very cool. I love the shadow on the wall in the second last picture. Nice lighting if it was intentional!

... continuing my thoughts from another thread (because this one is probably more appropriate!). I'd really like to see some kind of Colonization and Exploration theme. Colonies struggling in harsh conditions is a common trope in Science Fiction and some elements of recent lines make me think it could work really well. Buildings and vehicles could be somewhat modular. There's room for both civilians (even families) and action figures. Conflict comes from the environment itself rather than a specific "enemy". I think there's this sort of rugged aesthetic that appears in a lot of the sets at the moment that would be really suited to this kind of thing. From City you have the forest stuff and soon the mining line which is just all a bit chunkier and more rugged than other sets. Alien Conquest's mobile HQ, the Dino Line, and even the 4X4 in one of the recent Marvel sets all have this more solid look that with a unified colour scheme would work really well And S7 Space Marines instead of traditional Astronauts for guards. I just really like the idea of something like the Earth Defence HQ as a kind of mobile, lab/living space. With a couple of scientists, and a couple of marines along for the ride to protect them.

I'm hoping the popularity of the Space Marine figure leads to some new kind of space frontier/exploration/colonization line down the tracks. I'm thinking stuff like Alien Conquest's Earth Defence HQ but with an aesthetic similar to the S7 Space Marine and bigger wheels. I doubt that they'd ever do a Halo/Mass Effect style "war" theme, but I think exploration theme would work with a similar look. You could even have some element of the Dino theme here. Vehicles, bases, citizens, marines, scientists... alien beasties. Oh well, it all works in my head.

That's a great article and I agree with almost everything you say. I have some different issues with the Friends line... well not the line itself, I think it's great, but the implications of it. But I'm not going to get into them here (I might add a comment to your blog). Thanks for sharing though.

That's really neat, both the concept and the execution. Really fits the style of the existing Arrchitecture sets as well.

In theory it should be Count Dooku's head! Unfortunately it doesn't actually look anything like Lee and the beard is painted on so it doesn't really work.

Greetings from another Mancunian (well nearly, in the North West at any rate)! If you don't already know about it there's a big Lego show on in Manchester in May where loads of these big building projects will be on display. I suspect they'll look even more impressive in person!

If it wasn't considered a toy then using it in this way wouldn't justify a quirky press release. They even make a joke about enjoying playing with it in the article. It's the fact that they are doing this with a toy that makes it newsworthy.

It's been my favourite since the original shots were first released. I really like solid compact sets like this. The picture where it is open makes it look a lot more substantial than it looks at first glance. It looks like it works both as a "play" set and a solid model. Of all these it's the only definite purchase for me. Not saying I don't like the others but in terms of cost/space I simply can't have them all.