Missing Brick

Here's a slightly better mock-up using the exact dimensions of the emerald night tender. The other advantage here is cables to the engine can be kept low down next to the bogies where they're less visible. I changed to copper braid to get better contact but still not sure if this will be good enough once the train is trundling along - might have a problem with them vibrating loose. I will test after xmas and report back!

Here's a mock-up of my brick-built battery box. (I don't actually have an Emerald Night to test with because it's been wrapped up for Christmas. So just planning ahead here :) The grey walls represent the green side walls of the Emerald Night tender. I use short technic pins at each end to give a perfect fit to the batteries. Then wrap some solid core wire between the holes to make contact with the battery terminals. Seems to give a nice snug fit with no rattle and a solid 9.4V coming out of the corner terminals at the far end. I will have to see how well the contacts work in practise, but it looks promising. So the whole thing is only 3 bricks high - so plenty of room for a pile of coal bricks on top to camouflage it.

Thanks for that tip Roamingstudio. I agree - much better to just hack a cable rather than destroy a whole battery box. I'll try it. Blondie - I've spent some time thinking about it: Putting the battery box upside down or on its side with a hole in the floor / wall for the connector - but nothing works. The thing is just too damn big to fit without ruining the model. So it's got to be broken up and spread out. I just noticed that it's possible to layout an array of 6 x AAA batteries on the internal floor of the tender. They take exactly 4x11 studs x 4 plates high - which opens the possibility of a flat brick-built battery box with spring contacts canibalised from a third-party battery holder. Hmm....

One of the most objectionable things about the PF Emerald Night is the way the battery box and connector are so visible sticking out the top of the tender: I'm currently looking at two possible solutions. These involve removing the battery box lid and instead soldering the lid contacts to separate black plastic AAA battery holders like these: http://www.maplin.co.uk/aaa-size-battery-holders-31426?c=maplin&utm_source=endeca&utm_medium=endeca_search&utm_campaign=JG79L&utm_content=Battery+Boxes So to reduce the 4-stud height of the Lego 2x3 battery box you replace it with one 2x2 holder in the tender in series with a 2 x 1 holder in the first carriage. Then just sit the lid on top and camouflage with black coal bricks. Alternatively, if the tender is expanded to 7-wide then a pair of 3x1 holders will fit in the tender - again reducing the height allowing camouflage. For the motor I'm now thinking of using a PF-train motor in the tender copying one of the many designs for 9V conversion. eg. http://www.carolinatrainbuilders.com/2010/01/converting-the-emerald-night-to-9v/ However, shifting *all* the batts into the first car does open the way for laying an L-motor in the tender and having some fun with the gearing.

Many thanks for that first link sixoh. That's exactly what I was looking for - but google failed to find it for some reason. Thanks.

Just wondering if anyone's tried this yet? Seems like the L motor has enough grunt: http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm I've been contemplating adding a motor to my EN set - but I can't face ruining the cab with that massive ugly XL motor, and the tender with that huge battery pack and ribbon cable between. My preference would be to have motor, batts & receiver all in the tender, using a smaller motor like the PF-L, with a custom battery small enough to fit. Then just have a separate small batt and switch up front in the engine to power the lights. No mess, no cables etc. Is it possible?

Annoyingly, the free Uruk polybag seems to have been removed from the Sun UK newspaper special offer. It's been replaced by a duplicate Frodo set http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/affiliates/lego/ I guess TLG decided they can make more money by selling them at full price to army builders. That's a shame cos I was hoping to pick up a few.

Thanks for the reply. But I'm still not convinced: Even if you allow £10 for the minfigs. That still leaves a price per piece of 6.8p/p = 52% more expensive than comparable sets like the fire brigade. Regarding the sand green bricks: While these may currently have a high price on Bricklink due to their rarity, from TLG's perspective all colours cost the same. The only cost difference is the amount of plastic required. So the sand green colour itself doesn't justify the 50% markup. Seems to me this is an open and shut case of TLG attempting to 'push the boat out' with the pricing - capitalising on the popularity of both Halloween and the modular buildings. I have no problem with that. Good for them. It's a great product and a great set. But IMHO it ain't 9/10 value. Personally, I don't mind waiting until next year for a better deal.

Great review and pics. Thanks. But 9/10 for value? By what measure? MMV, 1602 pieces @ 4.5p/p Fire Brigade, 2231 pieces @ 4.5p/p Haunted House, 2064 pieces @ 7.3p/p It's 60% more expensive than comparable sets. I appreciate we're all fans of Lego here, but if you're going to give every set 8/10 or 9/10 for value regardless of the price, then the scores become meaningless.

Well, I know for a fact they go Halloween crazy in the US and in Hong Kong, and increasingly in the UK. Certainly worth waiting 'till after Xmas for discounts. No I don't expect the shop.lego price to drop, but resellers prices will certainly drop - particularly if sales at £150 / €180 are sluggish.

I'm waiting until the price drops. Perhaps after halloween or maybe after Christmas. £150 is a sick joke for a set no bigger than the £99 Fire Brigade.

Awesome MOC! Love it. But I can see a potential problem with the way that horse is harnessed to the carriage :)

Great job. You've really captured that Minas Tirith feel without making the set too big. Love the 2 trebuchets on the walls. If this was an actual set, an easy way to get the price down would be to parcel off the orcs and one wall section and treb into a separate set - uruk hai army style. Anyway - great work. Looking forward to seeing your next model. PS. Still trying to find time to post up pics of my copy of your Edoras Meduseld model....

One rather obvious fault with the design of this set: A beam of light from the lighting brick shines out thru the crack between the two bricks immediately in front of the LED. They should have arranged for a 2-wide brick in that position. It spoils the otherwise realistic look of the fire pit. Apart from that, it's just about OK - although it'll probably be the first LOTR set I smash up for parts. The only real reason to buy this set is for the cool white hand armour. Nice review but I'd give it 4/10 overall - especially considering the price. If you can live without the white hand armour, better to wait for a big discount on this one.

Heads up to all UK LOTR buyers - Toys R Us have a 20% off coupon deal which ends today (Sunday 22nd ). I just picked up the complete range of sets from there and saved over £50 compared to Argos or Lego Store RRPs. Best deal around at the moment. Details on toysnbricks.com

Heads up for UK readers: Just had verbal confirmation that the LOTR sets will be onsale in official Lego Stores tomorrow (Saturday July 21st). I know limited stocks have been available from Argos UK for some weeks now, but of course Lego Store purchases have the advantage of the 5% VIP points discount - and the 10% off voucher you should have received on your VIP members mag. So maybe worth a visit this weekend.

Beautiful. And it's the first pro quality MOC I've seen that's not afraid to use a few prefab pieces ( on the angles near the gate ). Just wondering how the ramp was built. Looks like bent 2's with the pavement only connected on the left side and resting on tiles on the right. Not sure how the jagged bottom was disguised... Anyhoo, the mountain is awesome. I wanna see round the back too...

I like the main wall and gate section, but the inner keep and tower are pretty uninspiring with their prefab walls and stickers. Shame, but probably essential to meet the $100 price point. The blow-up wall seems like a nice play feature - but personally - I've never had a problem making my lego buildings blow-up, mostly unintentionally during building when I pressed a brick down too hard. If I get time I'd like to widen the causeway and gate from 6 to 8 studs. At the moment Gandalf's cart can't get through. I guess that's a good thing because it's a set that sparks your imagination and encourages you to improve and expand the structure.

Yeah - love this MOC. My only improvement suggestion would be to make the road and river more curved and diagonal with respect to the lego 90 degree 'grid'. Tricky, but worth it for a more natural looking layout.

Nuju, great work on all these sets. They're superb. I liked your Edoras so much I made a copy for myself. It looks even better in real life. I made an almost exact copy - just a couple of substitutions for bricks I didn't have. I also added a forth wall with some nice little stained glass windows. Would it be OK for me to post a couple of photo's of my copy-cat tribute to your Edoras in this thread? Thanks and Best Regards

Nice analysis. Thanks for sharing. I make it a total of 72 possible combinations: 3 helmet options ( helmet, hand, hair) x 2 weapon ( sword or halberd) x 3 shield options (plain, hand or none) x 2 breast plate options ( on or off) x 2 face options = 72 combinations x berserker & Lurtz.

Nice mods. I like the orc with the hair standing on the rock - just like in the film. Yes, it's a set that begs to be moded and expanded. I would like to raise the outer wall by adding another row of dark grey rock bricks. Then inside the gate, instead of having it slope back down to ground level, I'd like to embed a 32x16 baseplate to raise the floor (using Derfel's landscaping technique) then place the inner keep on that raised baseplate. This would solve the 'inner keep looks too low' problem, and allow you to build a more detailed interior. Oh, and I'd also like to widen the main gate and causeway from 6 to 8 bricks wide (using a rounds and 2's technique for the curve).... Oh to have the time and the bricks.

One obvious addition would be a wooden perimeter wall made out of reddish brown palisade bricks - with a gate & gatekeepers hut. Then landscape the whole thing onto a 64x64 baseplate with additional trees and greenery. The pub could do with some enlargement too - barely enough room for one hobbit at the moment, let alone four plus Aragorn. All depends on how many bricks you have available really. PS. And while you're at it - swap out that 'orrible blue colour they use on the tavern. White would be much better.

Just the normal BS we always get in the UK where the £\$ exchange rate mysteriously becomes 1:1 instead of 1:1.5. So $30 becomes £30. I've got the 4 small sets reserved for pickup tomorrow. But on reflection I'm prolly just gonna pickup the Uruk-hai army, and cancel the rest until we get some better pricing in the UK.

For sure the UK prices are too high at the moment. I'm hoping it's just early bird premium pricing, and prices will drop closer to US in a couple of months time.. I'm just picking up a couple of the smaller sets to wet my palate initially. I'll wait for some discounts before purchasing the big sets. I received a VIP members 10% off voucher for Lego store purchases ending July 31st. So I'm hoping they show in the lego shops before then.