Lynx

That's an excellent point, MAB.

Thanks, wesker!

How 'sure' can we be about this? Are we assuming based on our perception of important characters, has there been a semi-reliable source or do we have any official word from LEGO? I'd love to get a LEGO Dain and kingly Thorin (preferably with Theoden-like breastplate)! If the inclusion of Dain is an actual certainty, do you know anything about a molded boar or ram included in the set?

Ah, I can't believe I missed out on my favourite Star Wars character. Simply didn't expect LEGO to ever create him! Thanks for the review - I'll have to chase him up on bricklink.

Ah, the forestmen. I hope they'll return to LEGO Castle eventually. Wonderful build!

Yay for the dwarves showing up! Now let's get a LEGO goat! I hope Dain will have a boar, though.

Didn't Thorin call him a 'slug'? That seemed very fitting. :) I'm certain he'll look more formidable when laying waste to Lake-town. In hindsight, and with legofreak's thoughts in mind, I think leaving four dwarves there has also been done to add more direct confrontation between Smaug & Dwarves. I wonder if we'll get Oin or Bofur in the new Lake-town set - ideally with upgraded armour, too.

I liked Smaug but can understand why many fans felt it lacked suspense. Smaug, an ancient dragon experienced in combat and eradicator of a hauled-up dwarven army, failed to even injure a single dwarf. Understandably, the movie makers had to stay true to the book, so their task was not enviably. The dragon's ineptitude was exacerbated by downright stupidity: failing to use his fire when Thorin fell down a shaft, not reacting to Thorin standing on his nose (if you ever get a chance to work with lizards, particularly crocodilians, don't try to touch their nose…), playing James-Bond-villain with Bilbo and leaving a bunch of dwarves and a thief amidst the most important thing in his life: his treasure (in the novel, Smaug had to anticipate the dwarves' access was inhibited after causing a tunnel collapse). Yes, Smaug may have been out of shape, but his entire behaviour was so far off the amazing display of his prowess when he entered Erebor. I remember watching the first movie with a friend who hadn't read the Hobbit. His reaction: "How on Earth will these dwarves deal with Smaug?" After the second movie, one could expect that Smaug will be outsmarted and torn apart by three eagles. And I don't think anybody could argue the dragon played cat and mice with dwarves. Once he was enraged, he obviously tried to eradicate the bunch of bearded companions. So to answer your question, kevkipo, I personally wished Smaug could have kept his initially established aura of an almighty, indestructible foe that strikes terror in the heart of everybody.

My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Errr, I mean awesome build. The details, the figures and their poses, the structure, and those stairs are amongst the most innovative, creative things I've seen done with LEGO in a long time!

And even that's at least conceivably possible for somebody with world-class dexterity. The rubbery behaviour of wooden barrels and embarrassing orc-catapult sequence only fit into Roadrunner and Wily Coyote cartoons. The same with the goblin eye rolling after being beheaded and the whole Goblin Town sequence, really. I completely agree with you about the Lake-town disaster. It's such a shame, since the location was beautifully crafted from an aesthetic point-of-view. I like the LEGO set as well. I just purchased it on sale, and it might be my second favourite Hobbit set (following Bag End, of course) regarding display value. As such, I'm looking forward to the reported add-on. As others, I expect a small tower with wind lance on top. It's too bad those polybag Lake-town guards are not available in Australia and can only be acquired at scalper prices online.

That part was cringe-worthy! The same with Legolas fighting in Lake-Town. That orc being catapulted from the boat… The utter disregard of basic physics imposed an exaggerated, cartoonish feel to it. It's particularly difficult given the success of a popular fantasy TV series. I guess that watching the Hobbit movies with that TV show in mind can be underwhelming for many casual fans. No real sense of danger, very limited realism with regards to physics, CGI-fighting taken out of a video game and an overabundance of juvenile humour vs … well, Game of Thrones. I read that some fans on Theonering.net speculate about the possible omission of Dain and the Iron Hill dwarves! I cannot believe even Jackson would consider this change, and it would be immensely disappointing for the new sets. Dain, Iron Hill dwarves and bear Beorn are the two three (aside from Smaug) I was most looking forward to.

Ewok Village at Target?!?!? I thought it's exclusive to LEGO shops. Wow, this will be difficult to resist.

At this point I don't expect the continuation of LotR. Obviously, I'd love to see a balrog and Osgiliath set, similar to what Atreyu posted (your username makes me wish to rewatch the Neverending Story…), but I would be ecstatically happy about a single D2C set: The battle for Minas Tirith. A 2500+ piece set including Faramir (ideally in his ranger gear), Denethor, Eowyn, the Witch-King on fell beast, two Gondor soldiers and I'd be content. I would dream about getting Gondor rangers, Pippin in Gondorian outfit a rider of Rohan, multiple orcs, a troll, etc… and obviously Gandalf would be included. I don't even want to think about the set, since the possibilities are so multifaceted and realisation of none of them likely to occur only painful. Two years ago, who would have thought the Mouth of Sauron would be immortalised in LEGO while so many more important figures wouldn't? :(

Rumours of this set made me frequent the historic themes forum for the first time in many months. I was hoping to have some of Erebor's interior as display piece, and the throne room makes the most sense. I think the section looks good. The limited articulation of small LEGO characters made it necessary to have studs, rather than a nicer looking, flat surface for the king to sit on. I can easily swap Dain's legs (hoping we'll get him in LEGO shape) with that of a larger figure for display, and this part of the set gets a solid 8/10 from me. Fortunately, the mining part can easily be detached from the throne. These two areas should never be connected - at least not horizontally. I hope LEGO has not repeated their Mines of Moria act of using the dwarven letters to write out some 'insider joke'. The mining part, in general, has the appearance of a big, ugly lump of LEGO bricks assembled unimaginatively. It is presumably nice to play with for the little ones, but for an adult looking for LEGO that captures scenes from a beloved movie, it constitutes a superfluous collection of bricks. I would never display this part and would rate it a 1/10 from a pure aesthetic point-of-view. I have no complaints about the minifigures. I like the new torsos and, in Balin's and Dwalin's case, reclaimed weapons of the master smiths of Erebor. Balin, as my favourite dwarf, seems to get an updated mace, which makes me happy. Smaug, on the other hand, makes me cringe. I completely realise the dilemma LEGO faced with him: most customers would prefer a molded version, as opposed to a brick-build dragon aimed at adult collectors. As such, it must have been incredibly difficult to design a combination of menacing villain in cute LEGO shape. A massive problem was always the wyvern style chosen by Peter Jackson and his team. I think LEGO Smaug would appear indefinitely better with a pair of front legs. The final product looks, as others have pointed out, at best like a playmobil toy, or more cynical like a 5$ toy I one can pick up at any dollar shop across Australia - minus battery-facilitated roaring sound and flashing fire breath. As an adult LEGO fan, I like sets with high display value. The tower of Orthanc resides in my living room, and even non-LEGO and non-LotR fans refrain from any negative remarks. Most importantly, my wife understood why I wanted to spend so much money on this 'toy', and any of our friends' children immediately notice that this item is not meant to be disassembled and played with. The Smaug set fits none of these bills. It only resembles something out of the Hobbit movie to hardcore fans that search for similarities. Its main piece, a bright red toy dragon, will understandably be picked up and thrown around my house by any child. What the set lacks the most is gold. When thinking of Smaug, I think of a treasure hoard as wide as the eye can see. I wish LEGO had used some golden baseplates with some decorative treasure as the dragon's lair. As it is, I see no value in this set from an adult fan's perspective. This, of course, does not mean that the set is not a good play set for 5-10 year olds. Finally, I expect the Australian price to be around $200-250. There's no way I could justify spending that much money on so little value. If I had a LEGO budget, I'd rather invest an extra 100 dollars and purchase my first Star Wars set in 15 years with the incredibly well-done Ewok Village.

I stopped comparing the Hobbit films to the Lord of the Rings after its first instalment. I've been looking forward to An Unexpected Journey more than to anything in the past years, but the film is clearly inferior to LotR in nearly all aspects. And while I liked the second part better, the CGI overload ruined it for me. The best anecdotal hint at the difference between LotR and Hobbit I can give: when watching LotR with a non-Middle-earth fan for the first time, they are in awe. When watching the Hobbit, I feel embarrassed on multiple occasions.

I really don't know what to make of this. I wish LEGO would communicate better with its customer/ fan base and just let us know whether the line has ended.

Disappointing news.

Could LEGO actually keep info regarding a final LotR wave under wraps to encourage people NOT to save money for it? If I knew that a Gondor Army/ Osgiliath/ Balrog set would be released in July 2014, I would save my LEGO budget for it and not even think about spending money on the current (rater disappointing, in my opinion) Hobbit sets. If, however, I knew that there won't be any more LotR sets, I would be more inclined to purchase one or two of the Hobbit sets.

Thanks for sharing! I always wanted a second Council of Elrond set to increase the size, and at 88 bucks I might even consider buying the only LotR set I didn't purchase.

Thanks for posting! If you hadn't mentioned 'Bolg', I would have assumed this to be a new 'Gears of War' video game, however.

Agreed.

SMC, I spend approx. 90 % of my LEGO budget on LotR, 9.9 % on the Hobbit and 0.1 % on individual parts to complement LotR (e.g. hair pieces for Theoden & Eomer). If the line would end after one more wave, I'd happily return to my dark ages after the Hobbit line is also finished. If LotR has already ended, I won't even purchase any more Hobbit sets. I'm holding out on this year's wave until I know for certain. Collecting things which cannot be completed (and LotR wouldn't be without the missing key scenes) is hugely unsatisfactory to me, so I might as well drop it entirely.

Information regarding the Hobbit is official: the line concludes in 2014 (see new instruction manuals). As for the Lord of the Rings, I would be puzzled if LEGO finished without releasing anything related to Gondor, but the lack of information makes me fearful of a premature cancellation of the theme.

LEGO Orcrist. I am certain we'll never see it as a moulded piece, but this is what it would look like:

Nice!