Lynx

I hope we'll see a complete image (or even the back of the box) for the Battle of Five Armies set!

I love your fan enthusiasm, mate. I'm sure LEGO could chuck a few yellow-headed pirates in a set with a pink brick-build haystack, call it 'Thorin and company', and you'd still love it. Really hope I could share your positiveness with these sets and maybe I'll warm up to them once I embrace the thought of using a generic brown bear as Beorn. And I totally hope you're correct about the polybag. I wouldn't get any here in Australia, but I'd at least brick link two or three to have somebody for Dain to lead.

Hmmm, I tentatively say I would prefer the generic soldiers in that case.

I'm sorry; I'm not sure I understand your question. Fair point.

He did something far more remarkable than killing any foe in combat: he resisted the one ring. Without Faramir, Sauron would have covered the land in darkness. I would argue that his contribution to winning the war was greater than that of Legolas, Gimli and Boromir combined.

No. I would trade all above for a black bear with new head mold (teeth and shaggy fur) and new printing. I know this may sound weird to most people. However, I'm not interested in army building outside of Lord of the Rings. For any army building, I need a good 'home base' and some attachment. Iron Hill dwarves? So Some caves just won't do it for me. Mirkwood elves? Meh - I actually prefer the unarmoured 'ranger' types. Esgaroth? Not a fan of the uniform design. So yes, I'd greatly prefer to have my favourite Hobbit character LEGOlised.

Excuse me? Modifying the sets is half the fun. Unfortunately, there is one thing we cannot modify using LEGO: accurate representations of licensed minifigures.

Just to show how different people's preferences are, I would trade all of the above for Beorn in bear form.

Legolas could be fighting Bard for all we know. If another figure was included, I'm sure it would be visible on the box with all the other figures. I'd love to be wrong and would rejoice when finding a hidden black bear in the ruins but I think the odds of this are one in a bazillion. Good point about the warg. Wouldn't be surprised about it. I'm certain Beorn (even as a bear) would appear on the mini fig image, though. Just dreaming of those two 'creatures' in the set…. it would completely change my perception of the Hobbit wave and I couldn't wait to purchase one.

How good would it be to open up the last page of a Hobbit instruction booklet and see Faramir looking at Frodo. Under a large number showing '2015', only six words appear: "The ring will go to Gondor."

Who knows? Maybe Jackson took inspiration from one of the characters in Guardians of the Galaxy. That arrow seemed pretty useful. ;) And the eagle for Beorn? Please, please, please. Unfortunately, those boxes don't look like preliminary images to me.

I'd love to read their thoughts! They are obviously talented people: just look at Bag End, Orthanc, Helm's Deep, Weathertop etc.. In general, I wish LEGO was more transparent and in contact with their consumer/ fan base. Their financial success might be our loss, since LEGO simply doesn't need to care about the wishes of a (presumed) minority of customers. I'm still hoping for more Middle-earth to come but if it won't, I must admit having lost my trust in the LEGO brand entirely. I suspect that's because Dwalin's beard allows for a helm to fit on top of it. Hopefully the movie design will be close enough! Another observation from the box back (thanks for sharing those!) - does Elrond wear an olive coloured cape similar to the Ithilien rangers and Faramir in the video game? If so, I can slowly assemble Faramir. :) Boromir's hair, Elrond's cape, Bard's bow; keep them coming!

The disappointment of Beorn's absence will take some time for me to digest. However, I'm starting to think whether these sets imply anything about the movie plot. Thorin will surely have another showdown with Azog - as fitting for a Hollywood film. I wonder if Jackson will alter the details of his demise (chronology aside). I think it would help to show Dain killing him off, since the only detail movie goers know is that he didn't want to take part in Thorin's quest. I'm afraid he could come across as an opportunist jumping on the bandwagon after the hard work is done and claiming the throne. Bolg, Tolkien's main villain in the battle is not even in any set. Nor is his nemesis, Beorn. Jackson has already demoted Bolg to second in charge after Azog. Will Beorn's importance suffer as well? Is there any theoretical chance for another (exclusive) set? Surely, details would have emerged by now but I still don't want to believe this is the end of LEGO Middle-earth. Tauriel is in the Lake-town set, and I totally expected her to get scorched by Smaug. The big dragon has to kill at least one character of importance, right? And Tauriel, as a fan-fiction addition could be easily taken out without consequence for the story. However, the trailer suggests that she survives Smaug's attack and Smaug might go down as one of the most whimsical movie dragon of all time. After what he has shown in Desolation of Smaug, I would expect Fuchur kicking his scaly bum. Most intriguing might be what will happen in Dol Guldur. I wonder if the White Council will decide to have a small attacking force instead of tugging an elven army along for the ride. I'd love to see Saruman, Radagast, Galadriel and Elrond nuking it out with the Witch-king. That has Marvel feeling to it. Superheroes of Middle-earth unite! I hope Radagast will survive, although Gandalf holding his staff may suggest differently. As much as I hated large parts of his portrayal as faeces-covered fool, I think he has a good heart and showed promise in Desolation of Smaug, when some of his wisdom shone through. Altogether, the three Dol Guldur sets could make a nice display with some modding - all relevant figures could be there in LEGO form.

That was my exact thinking last year. This time around, I won't get my hopes up.

You can bet on it! It's another way to tie in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies. Just wait for Galadriel to call out 'Aiya Earendil elenion ancalima!'.

I'm afraid we can omit the 'likely'. :( The only way I could imagine Eowyn (and Faramir, by the way) to make it into LEGO would be via a direct-to-consumer Minas Tirith set. One thing I like about the smallest set of this last Hobbit wave is that I can use two Elronds, swap his head & hairpiece and get wonderful representations for Elladan and Elrohir.

Thanks a lot for sharing, Carlos! Unfortunately, seeing those images made feel like throwing up. What a terrible, utterly disappointing selection of minifigs! Two more Bards in the same outfit as in the last wave. Another Legolas and Tauriel (albeit with alternative torso). Another Azog. More orcs. Another eagle. No Beorn, no generic dwarves/ Esgaroth guards/ armoured elves, no ram, no Bolg… Wow, just wow! I'm actually shocked at how poor these look. The only positives are Thorin (with crown) and Dain. The Lake-town set will blend in nicely with the last one. The others are yet another pile of rocks and another catapult. And to make the end of the Middle-earth line even more painful, the smallest set has the title of one that should include a fell beast, an armoured Witch-king and Eowyn.

No reason to apologise and thanks for posting the link! I'm sure not everybody visits this forum daily; a double or even triple post surely beats missing out on some cool stuff!

Thanks for the great review! I'm not a Marvel/ DC fan by any stretch; however, this movie is very much to my liking. I thought about getting the ship and the five guardians. While the fourth seat is great to stand Rocket on, it doesn't look like there is any type of reasonable modification possible to fit Groot in it, unfortunately.

This ram talk is making me nervous. I'd be really disappointed not to get Beorn in bear form in a set depicting the Battle of Five Armies.

This is one of the few MOCs I consider a true piece of art. I invites the eye to wander around and marvel at the many details it continues to find.

I don't know what Ironbuilder is. However, it is some kind of competition, I need to see any set that bests your creation. Absolutely magnificent!

Three absolutely stunning photographs of the Lonely Mountain set: http://cache.lego.com/r/thehobbit/-/media/franchises/the%20hobbit/home/map%20items/79018/lth_avanaut-2hy_79018-the_lonely_mountain_3_large.jpg?l.r=-1926365721 http://cache.lego.com/r/thehobbit/-/media/franchises/the%20hobbit/home/map%20items/79018/lth_avanaut-2hy_79018_the_lonely_mountain_2_large.jpg?l.r=893326173 http://cache.lego.com/r/thehobbit/-/media/franchises/the%20hobbit/home/map%20items/79018/lth_avanaut-2hy_79018_the_lonely_mountain_1_large.jpg?l.r=1931510199

Interesting that most here seem to share the idea of an 'ideal' Battle of the Five Armies set! My wish list is quite similar: Thorin in kingly armour, including crown; Dain II Ironfoot; 2 generic dwarves, 2 generic orcs, 1 generic elf, ideally in golden armour. For the molded creature, I would love to see Beorn in bear form. I like the dwarves of the Iron Hills as described by Tolkien. While I don't mind the war ram fan fiction (it looks very cool!), I'd much prefer to get one of the most important and influential characters in that final battle in this set. On that topic, I expect the title will be changed to something more generic after the adaptation of 'Battle of Five Armies' as the third film's title. For the Lake-town set, one report mentioned 'three buildings', which I cannot imagine in a 30 USD set. If it'll be the bell tower only, it could lack the tower with the windlance - which seems strange indeed. For the figures of that set I hope for Bard (seems a given) and armoured dwarves (Oin and Bofur?). Might as well get all 13 nicely dressed up (which seems unlikely). Regarding the final set, I don't really care. Getting Galadriel is nice, but for somebody still clinging to the faintest hope to see more Lord of the Rings sets, her inclusion in the Hobbit gives even one fewer incentive to continue LotR for main characters. I already have two Elrond figures and am not interested in the Witch-king unless he rides his fell beast and faces Eowyn. This might change after watching the final movie, obviously.

I'm sure he meant third Lord of the Rings wave, i.e. a series of LEGO products depicting Lord of the Rings scenes released at the same time and temporarily separated from other products in the same theme (i.e. the first and second wave).