Ash

FWIW Character Building (who do the Dr. Who and a few other licenses Lego knock-offs) have the Ben 10 License now and will be bringing stuff out this year. I'm going to have to try and hide it from my kid because he'll want it and I don't want that stuff getting mixed up with our precious real Lego. The Lego Ben 10 stuff was terrible. A proper minifigure scale line might have worked though. The show is incredibly popular with a core Lego demographic. I think they just dropped the ball on it.

One thing it shares with Lego is it's very well made in terms of quality and materials. As such it's pretty durable and long lasting (and also, like Lego, expensive). There's a bit of a regional aspect to it as well. In some countries in Europe and South America it's a much bigger deal than Lego is. I was suprised to find out there are several Playmobil theme parks! A lot of the lines and sets are really good in terms of detail and playability, for the most part better than Lego as far as being a "toy" in this respect. But once you factor in the building aspect of Lego it's no contest! My kid likes it, but was never crazy about it. Over all he prefers Lego, but I think that's mostly because he's obsessed with Ninjas at the moment! Oh also: http://www.toplessrobot.com/2009/07/the_17_least_appropriate_playmobil_sets_for_childr.php

Just having a browse now. Dumbledore hair is a reasonable match in style and colour. If colour wasn't an issue I'd go with Ginny Weasley (well except or the hairclip!) or Elizabeth Swann Actually seeing what people with more resourced, funds and talent than I do with this kind of stuff is one thing I'm really looking forward to. There's obviously some amazing LOTR customs amd MOCs already but it'll be interesting to see what people do once the official stuff is added to the mix.

I think one of the problems, costume aside, is that a couple of his distinctive features (in the films) simply don't translate well into Lego. Notably the nose and the hair. Having a closer look at the figure now the beard, eyebrows and wrinkles are OK. But without that lank scraggly hair and giant hooter it's just not the Gandalf I remember. Interestingly if we did get a Gandalf the white plus Shafowfax at a later date he *should* have hair instead of a hat. I know a few people have been discussing alternative hair for Eomer. Any suiggestions for the big G? I'm guessing there aren't too many long scraggly grey hair pieces. I only the did an old hippy minifig to go along with the VW van or something ;)

I get where he's coming from. I was just stating a personal preference, I'm not trying to will a reality where people other than me can't get what they want or anything . Actually my personal preference would be for some sort of deluxe pre-moria "Fellowship" set with bonus Bill the Pony! I'm sure that would cost a fortune. Changing the subject and speaking of things equine something I'd really like to see: Shadowfax. I'm a little disappointed with the Gandalf we got. It's a bit too generic wizard for me. But mounted on an exlusive horse with sword and staff would be pretty cool.

I think Pirates of the Carribean have one. It will vary license to license. Star Wars makes sense because Star Wars action figures are such a massive industry. Lord of the Rings not so much, although there were some and I'm sure there will be for the Hobbit.

I am suggesting no such thing. You're reading stuff into my post that isn't there. You stated that you were confused about why people wanted a certain thing. I was just stating a personal preference in the hope it would clarify. I'm all for choice. The more the better. Actually rereading maybe I misread your post. You specifically talking about choice with regards to my son here? My son was still pretty happy with what he got. And again I'm still not saying I want there to be less options. Just that when there is a choice my preference is different to yours and explaining why. If there had been an equivilent two faction battlepack I would have got that instead and we would have both preferred it. Unfortunately we clearly don't have nearly the level of disposable income that you do. For a lot of us I suspect this is single biggest limiting factor with regards to choice. But what's the deal with... Am I missing something? I've bought two or three. Each of them came with 4 minifigures and a small vehicle of some kind. This was the last one I got: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7913-1 You're coming across as a bit hostile about this stuff. I don't know if that's intentional or not. Sorry if I've somehow inadvetantly offended you I guess. Eh, maybe I've totally got the wrong end of the stick. Easy to do on forums.

Because not everyone is building armies and wants 10 to 100 sets (or could afford them if they did!). I'd much rather more multi-faction stuff with extras like the Urak-Hai Army set. For me they're more appealing and more interesting. My kid will second that. When I got him a single faction Star Wars battle pack he complained that there were no bad guys! It shouldn't be confusing... different people enjoy and play with Lego in different ways and want different things. While I'm sure loads of people would love a pack of five identical soldiers, that would hold zero interest for me. For those who are army building, it's a shame the action figure thing mentioned above limits that and makes it harder. If we end up with multiple faction sets I guess you need to find faction-buddies to swap with (I'm sure that already happens!).

If it is it hopefully won't be much more. Kingdoms Joust is $120 in the US and £99 here and this is only $10 more expensive in the US. Some of the more expensive sets seem to get further away from the £1:$1 pricing we get on the smaller ones. I saw that price cited independently by a couple of different people who went to the London Toy Fair (http://www.fbtb.net/2012/01/24/uk-toy-fair-2012-lord-of-the-rings-news/ for example) so fingers crossed. With my Lego Discovery Centre 10% discount bringing it down to £90 that would be a pretty good buy, almost certainly the best value for money out of all of them if the price is correct.

Helms Deep £99.99 Attack on Weathertop £49.99 Mines of Moria £69.99 Shelob’s Attack £19.99 Uruk Hai Army £29.99 Gandalf Arrives £11.99 Orc Forge £39.99 I think one of these might be wrong but I've forgotten which one!

Yeah retail is £29.99 for that one. Some of them are a bit cheaper than dollars to pounds, but that one ain't. Then again I'm sure we'll be able to get it for a bit off retail even at launch. One of the advantages of Lego being expensive here is we get better specials and deals.... obviously it would be better to be cheaper overall though! Someone leaked details from an online catalogue a while back and they were crazy high. They may not have been the actual prices and it looked like they may have been inflated to allow for a bigger discount. Ah, found the link: http://www.mrtoys.com.au/products-sub.asp?Category=13&SubCategory=365&SubName=LEGO%20Lord%20Of%20The%20Rings&CatName=LEGO I'd take these with a grain of salt though. Some look they could be about right, others look way high.

I know it's just marketing and stuff but the "hard to find" on the box months before it's released makes me Oh hey, if they already know it's going to be hard to find why not just make more or not make it an exclusive or whatever. Transparent artificial exclusivity is just so dumb.

Digging all of these. I seem to be in the minority in that Weathertop is my favourite set. It's one of my favourite locations from the books/movies and I just think the set looks really neet and compact, Yeah, it's a bit expensive for what it is, but I'm pretty sure that's mostly beacause of the minifigs. Five and two horses in a set that size is a lot. I'm never going to be able to afford all of these but Weathertop will be my "treat yourself" day 1 purchase. I like the look of the Orc Forge as well.

Yeah, it looks really nice and fits with the whole aesthetic of the films. From the London Toy Fair photo it looked like the Orc Forge had something similar going on.

Sweet. They're looking better every time I see them. One thing I thought was interesting is that the big Monster Hunter castle seems to be a very similar colour (if not the same) as Helm's Deep. If you can pick it up cheap at some point might be a good source of bricks for extending it!

The Uruk-hai accesories are amazing. A really good likeness of the movie. With so many of them throughout the sets I hope they mix it up a bit in terms of looks and what they're carrying. Given how plentiful they are in these sets I think we're going to be seeing a lot of Orc armies soon! Although the first thing that came to mind is Boromir + Kingdom's Joust = DIY Game of Thrones Lego :)

For what it's worth this certainly isn't the case any more. Any class can easily solo all the way through the game and not miss out on too much content. They've even redone a lot of the 'epic' quest so you can do a great deal of it solo as well if you want to. In conlcusion. The books, the films, the MMORPG and (hopefully) the Lego... all good :)

I love the fact that it's so big it doesn't quite fit on the display stand. My favourite part is are the rocks/rubble around the base. You can see this on several sets and the really add to the look and feel of them. I just hope they're made up of individual bricks and not big molded pieces (or *shudder* part of the baseplate mold). I built of Prince of Persia set recently and it was a mix of the two, although mostly seperate pieces.

I'm loving the look of these. The colours and the style of the sets. Many people with jobs don't have that kind of disposable income. Or they do but they can't justify spending that much on Lego! Over time I'd like to get all of these but, given we'll be getting more every six months it's unlikely. I think I'll just get one or two initially. Probably Weathertop and the Gandalf Cart. I do like the look of the Orc Forge though. I think my main issue is that at some point certain sets might end up being hard to find. If that starts to happen I might have to bit the bullet and get them. One thing to keep in mind is that that will be full retail price. Even new sets you tend to be able to get for 10%-15% at Amazon. Usually more here and there if you keep your eyes peeled.

If the reported piece counts are correct they seem like pretty good prices considering the the size of the sets and numbers of minifigures. Certainly no worse than PotC, perhaps a little better for some. Well I say "pretty good prices" obviously they're expensive, but everyone knew they were going to be. Pretty good compared to expectations.

I go the Blu-Rays with my Christmas Amazon vouchers and was suprised how heavily she featured on the packaging. The seperate boxes for each film have this little protrait of some characters on them and instead of the Fellowship (which to be fair only lasts a single film) it is Sam, Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf, Arwen.

That's absolutely fantastic. Love the exterior. Love the detail. Love the overall effect.

While I love the idea of the architecture sets none of them have appealed to me that much so I haven't bought any of them yet. However, my grandfather who died a couple of years back emigrated from the UK to Australia to help build the Opera House so there's no way I could resist this one because of the personal connection. I hope the rumour is true.

1368 is huge. I thought the preliminary image for Helm's Deep was a bit deceptive and it was bigger than it first appeared, but I didn't expect that big. For a traditional retail set that's really big. To put it into perspective the biggest Hogwarts set is 1290. The largest Prince of Persia, Pharoah's Quest, Non-ship PoTC and Dino sets are all around 800. Only the Market Village and Joust sets are bigger in the whole Kindoms/Castle lines. It's a whopper. Assuming that's accurate of course.

It's about the same price as The Captain's Cabin (http://www.mrtoys.com.au/details.asp?ItemID=4030) at the same store which is US$11.99 and I think they're comparable sets. 3 figures and some tat vs two figures a horse and some tat. You only need to look at prices for existing sets to see a massive price difference when comparing Australian to US dollars. Harry Potter: Forbidden Forest is $20+ there and only $11.99 in the US as well. I predicted Gandalf Arrives would be in this price band (or the 2012 equivilent) in the US and based on those prices that prediction still holds. Likewise PoTC Cannibal Escape is AUS$60 on that site and $30 in the US. There's an absolutely massive difference beyond currency conversion. And I thought we had it bad in the UK!