Tyrant

What signs? There is an article that has been misread and you are quoting the guy who is the one saying there will be sets. Now, he may be right, but there are no signs. There is one guy saying it will happen and a whole lot of hope and discussion built out of nothing. This is not a "the writing is on the wall" type situation.

Good luck with that. So far we have one article that had part of it taken out of context/read wrong to kick everything off. Followed by the claims of a former employee (which, in fairness, may be true) and then a claim of the license being negotiated (which conflicts with it being a done deal). And topped off by an appeal to authority (if it isn't true, why hasn't this been closed?). So far, no actual information of any kind, which makes the "why hasn't this been closed question?" an interesting one that should be asked. At this point, a facial expression that may appear as a wink from 100 feet away in the right lighting isn't going to get it. Either someone has proof or they don't. I'm inclined to believe they don't.

Licensed sets tend to have a worse part to price ratio. Just look at Star Wars. They also seem to fixate on a handful of characters. PotC=Jack SParrow, PoP=Dastan (sp?), SW=Anakin and Luke. With SW, not every set has Anakin or Luke, but a very large number do. That is one my issues with a potential LotR line. Every set will have either Frodo or Aragorn (or possibly Gandalf). Now, most of the action does take place around those characters, but they will be taking up slots that could be going to other characters.

I think Orthanc could be made and not be super expensive. It is more or less just a black tower. I think Cirith Ungol is the upper end of what could be made that won't look really scaled down. I also think Helm's Deep could be made, scaled down. To be clear, I know any set won't actually be in scale with the figures. What I mean is looking even smaller proportioned than sets normally look. At that scale, I think some things just won't look right. That's what I am talking about. You have to consider what those scenes had (and didn't have) in them as opposed to the scenes that were actually made. Like your Pirate Lord meeting in Shipwreck Cove. It's just a group of people sitting around a table. Sure, it would be great for figure potential, but where is the action? That's why I have my doubts about a number of the non epic battle scenes getting any coverage in LotR. The sets have to have a hook. Dude's sitting in a circle discussing the fate of a ring doesn't really jump off the shelf. And again, to be clear, I would buy both of those sets (even with my dislike of fleshies) for the figures alone. Well, anything is possible. I think some things are unlikely, but I am hopeful that if this does come to pass that they make the most of it. Who knows, maybe this is where the mini or the midi scale will shine. In those scales, Minas Tirith is possible.

Yeah, but look at the Battle of Alamut. An entire fortress/city shrunk into an $80 set. I like the set, I have 3 of them, but it isn't really a good representation of what it is supposed to be representing. I also wouldn't say LEGO has a lot of experiences with large castles. The ones they have made thus far, as much as I like them (and I do like them a lot), are nowhere near the scale of larger buildings in LotR. Maybe Cirith Ungal, the smallest fortress we see in the movies, is close to them. Even Helm's Deep, which for all intents and purposes is a keep, a ramp, and a long wall, is above and beyond any LEGO castle to date. Meduseld is about the speed LEGO has been operating at. There's nothing at all wrong with that, for what LEGO has been trying to make so far (and I hope they keep making those sets and I will keep buying them), but that isn't the scope of LotR. As for selling, sure some of them would sell. I don't doubt that for a moment. I would probably buy several, and multiples of at least a few. I have multiples of all the PoP sets, so why not multiple LotR sets too? It just won't sell like SW (which in and of itself is not a problem, there is only one SW which has 6 movies that get "updates" every now and then and has constant new material to work with), which means the waves would be limited. Either in their size, or in their number. That means not many gigantic sets, which as I said, really doesn't leave a whole lot that would sell in huge numbers. As for vehicles, just look at City. We get fire departments every 2-3 years but the only buildings that could be burning down are police departments and other fire departments with the occasional airport (so everyone can leave a city that needs so many police) and hospital (for the burn victims). Cars and vehicles everywhere though. Who knows where anyone lives or where they are going? All kinds of construction vehicles though. Makes me wonder what they are building. Probably new fire departments. I'm not trying to knock TLG. I really like the sets they make for their lines and some of the licensed sets. I'm just saying we need to face reality and recognize their habits when it comes to what gets made into a set and what doesn't, and how it ends up looking. I'm sure I will buy them just like everyone here, but they won't be what they could be. Exactly. To be clear, if they make a LotR I would buy sets and I would want it to work. I just don't see how it will be what everyone seems to hope it will be based on how they have handled past themes and licenes. A lot of things in the movie are in a truly epic scale. That's hard to do and not cost a small fortune.

I need to pick up some of these this time. I wish the Dragon one would show up here in the States at some point though.

I am in agreement with this. There are things I would like in a LotR line (not at the expense of Kingdoms/Castle, which sounds like may be the case), except the fleshies. However, there are things TLG is simply not going to make, or make well if they are made. I think Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, and Barad-Dur completely out of the picture as whole sets. Parts of them (trebuchet from Minas Tirith, burning not-right-with-the-book eye version of Sauron) are possible, but the whole thing just won't happen. Minas Tirith is unlike any LEGO set to date. It is a multi-leveled city. Even if it were stripped down to a castle and not a city, it won't have more than 2 levels and won't look right. At that point, I honestly ask, why bother? Moria could be broken down into several, still fairly large, sets. Likewise with Helm's Deep. Lengthy explanation of why I feel the license isn't what everyone hopes it will be and thoughts on the idea in general: I would love to see Grond, the Orcs (no worries about fleshies there, they aren't flesh toned), the Uruks, the Ring Wraiths, the Mumakil, the various evil men working for Sauron, Sauron, the armies of Rohan, etc. The buildings would be great too. I just don't see TLG doing them justice.

Why are there negotiations if it's a done deal?

I would enjoy seeing the other older factions updated. It would be nice if they were closer than the Lions and Dragons are to their predecessors. Keep the original crest, or have minor updates. Keep the essence of the original. For instance, I think the new Falcon shield is fine as it retains the split black/white appearance of the old symbol while still being new. Using the Falcons as a template, from there they should make new soliers with the updated symbols against a blue uniform with the little details we are used to now (chainmail bits, belts, etc). They would be similar, but new. Then if they wanted to expand, they could branch out into other colors (though that's doubtful) like yellow as some of the old Falcon shields were. Finally, we would need barding, printed Euro armor, and oval shields. They would also need an overall "theme/look". The Dragons have a wooden fortress, for instance. The Falcons would need something that made them not-Dragons and not-Lions. This design method could be applied to the Forestmen, Wolfpack, etc with changes as needed (I assume the Forestmen and Wolfpack are unlikely to have oval shields or printed Euro armor, for instance). For newer factions, one that could be updated and fleshed out is the Unicorn symbol. I don't know if the guys with them in the two sets they are in represent a faction or if they just kind of exist, but with the new horse head armor pieces the symbol could be used again or updated and incorporated into a new faction. Possibly elves? Speaking of Elves, the elven oval shield could almost be an updated Forestman shield.

I too believe this is an avenue worth pursuing for TLG. I want regular figures of several of the Heroica characters. I think an RPG-esque series could do well with dungeon/forest/ruins scenes. You have colorful characters and traps to provide "action" play. As for an actual RPG, that would depend on how much TLG wants to sink into writing a rules set or how much it wants to pay to use an existing rules set. I think it could be a worthwhile venture for them though. If you, or anyone else, has experience with the Heroica games (I haven't played them myself) and would care to, you could do a write up of how you see some of the sets or figures shaping up and put those thoughts here as TLG does seem to be listening to our thoughts on future sets in some cases. We need to remember that Fantasy had another set of villains (Trolls/Orcs) show up halfway through their run and they did get a large castle. So, if they keep the Dragon Knights for next year (if there is a next year), then there is precedent for an opposing large castle in the third year (which next year will be).

Just going off the movies most of the characters are pretty well covered up. The Gondorians are fully armored and the Riders of Rohan are covered up. The Easterlings are totally armored as well. The Haradrim are mostly covered up except for the ones steering the Mumakil. The Orcs and Goblins are a little more exposed, but they won't be flesh toned anyway so it's no problem with them. I am hoping for at least one more wave so that we can see a large Dragon Castle and maybe another civilian set. I like the tavern idea. Maybe you could flesh it out a bit and post it here? TLG seems to have taken some past ideas into account when designing sets, so who knows it might get made.

We need to remember that MMV came out at the start of 2009 and was followed by a series of sets later in the year, so if this is the trend then there will be another wave of Kingdoms sets in 2012. As for LotR, I think the argument can be made that it won't compete with Kingdoms so there is no need to put Kingdoms on hold. Harry Potter featured castles and fantasy elements and Prince of Persia has a middle eastern flavored castle along with seeming to be in a roughly similar time period as Kingdoms. Neither of these supplanted Kingdoms/Castle. Looking beyond that, with Castle now having moved out of it's Fantasy phase, LotR isn't really all that similar. Yeah, there are a few castles, though I can't see any decent set being made of any of them without it being astronomically expensive. Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, Helm's Deep, Orthanc, and Barad-Dur would have to be tremendously scaled down and even then I can't see any of them other than Orthanc being less than $100, meaning the theme would have to run a while to see them all made. I think too many of the noteable locations are too epic in scale to make decent sets out of. Having said all of that, there are things I would want to see out of a LotR theme. Mainly the Orcs (regulars and Uruks), new torsos for the various humans since they shouldn't really have any exposed fleshy bits, the Ringwraiths especially the Witch King if he comes with his crown, and Sauron. The long shot is things like the Mumakill and the Balrog, especially since we still haven't seen a Rancor for Star Wars. I don't want to sacrifice Kingdoms to get those things, but I will make use of them if they come along.

This is a very nice looking set and a very worthy successor to the MMV. I will be trying to get at least 2 of them, and no not because of the not-so-subtle suggestion that I do so in the blurb. It's great to see the Black Falcons get some love. With any luck, this is a sign of factions to come. If not, at least we have some updated shields and a barding piece for them now. I will say that I am surprised how the set turned out. I was not at all expecting the small castle that comes with it. I was expecting some stands and maybe a nice looking booth or two, so this is a real surprise. The princess looks great too. With the green color scheme maybe she can double as a member of the Dragon royalty, unless we get something more official.

I am hoping for a king and queen just to round it out, but I could it just being a king. If it is just a king, then I hope he has some character to him like you describe here (the eyepatch or scar) and a unique euro armor piece. Those two could be a good way to introduce some bandit/forestman types into the line. I do like the idea of a "mysterious dragon knight female" type. More civilian sets are a must. The cart idea is the easiest way and maybe it will give us more gray horses (maybe without the blinders).

There is a thread here from earlier this year, but the last reply was in March so I thought it best to just start a new thread. That onlder thread also links to one from the previous year. There is also currently a thread here dealing with which factions people want to see and I don't want to take away from that so this is primarily what sets people want to see. There will be some crossover I am sure ("I want a Black Falcon castle" etc) but I think it's possible these threads in the past have had an impact so it's probably best to keep them focused on the topic. Here is a some of what I posted in Jan 2010: I cut out the bits that obviously didn't get made into anything. Now, maybe I just had really good timing (I consider that the most likely explanation) or maybe the designers saw this and got some ideas because we got a Blacksmith set, we are getting a Joust set, and bits of the last two ideas seemed to have been merged into the King's Carriage set. There was also talk in teh other thread of civilian sets, specifically windmill and farm type sets. Like I said, I think I, and other posters, just got lucky in our guessing/wishing, but maybe not. If not, then let's throw out some more ideas we want to see and discuss them. For now I'm sticking with some of my ideas from past threads. Large Castle for the Dragon Knights -This one's kind of obvious. With the Lion guys having a large castle the other side needs one as well. I assume the Prison Tower is an indication of the general style any other structure for the Dragon Knights will follow. I imagine it will be more along the lines of the Troll Fortress. The walls closer together and being generally smaller in ground coverage, but having taller towers. I imagine it will be primarily black with brown accents to presumably represent wood. This set would serve to supply a number of Dragon Knights, possibly a king (and who knows, maybe a queen as well), and maybe some new barding. A Seaside Port/Fortress-This would be similar to the one with the Skeleton Ship. It could be more like a seaside port and focus on a couple of small buildings, a peer, and some smaller boats. Or, it could be more of a seaside fortress with a small dock. This one would have an opening for smaller boats instead of the typical front gate and feature mounted siege weapons to fight off enemy ships. If it were a larger set, it could feature a ship about the size of the Skeleton ship or a larger version of the older Sea Serpent. The other set of options are if the ships are friends or foes. If they're friends then the ships will be cargo ships and if they are foes the ships will be attack ships. A Castle Creator set. A real one in the $50-70 range, not the small ones from last couple years. There are a lot of ways to go with it. The first thing is, like the Creator houses, it probably won't have any figures. This will help it have a high piece count for it's cost. Beyond that, it could be just about anything that had lots of bley bricks. If it stuck primarily with bricks, there is no reason it couldn't be a small castle, a tower, a stretch of high border wall or outer castle wall, etc. I don't believe making alternate models will be difficult. It would be an excellent source of lots of bley parts. It could also be used as a place to get parts like roofing tiles that aren't easy to come by in certain colors/shapes. The set could serve as an intro to more detailed Castle building and could possibly feature limited landscaping as well. And a new one from another recent post: Heroica figures in minifig scale. Either in full sets representing the area the game takes place in, or just the figures in stand alone sets of some type.

Do you mean sets to recreate the "dungeons" (or whatever, I haven't played the games) or do you mean just the figures? I would buy the figures as some of the characters make me wish they had figures like the Golem Lord in the Caverns of Nathuz, The Dark Druid in Waldurk Forest, some of the Goblins in Castle Fortaan, and most of the hero figures throughout the games.

I believe there will be more Kingdoms sets. I believe this pattern is quite predictable. Here is a post last year answering this same question: That post links to a post the year before asking the same question. Kingdoms is a second half of the year theme. We won't have info this early about Kingdoms sets. I think the reason we know about the Joust set is because it isn't coming in the second half of next year and is instead coming out in the first half of next year (so we have been told).

I would like to see an update/return of: -Black Falcons -Forestman -Wolfpack I figure the best approach there would be Black Falcons to replace Dragons. Then Wolfpack and Forestman. That way the green color scheme is broken up a little. For something new, I would like to see a snake themed group. I am sure it is a pipe dream, but a standard like the Cult of Set from Conan the Barbarian (the good one) would be great. Actually they could take quite a bit of "inspiration" from that movie. Thulsa Doom's snake armor, The Tower of the Serpent, Thulsa Doom's Mountain of Power. If they go with something more original, a set similar to the Skeleton Tower (though larger) but with a cobra head in place of the skull could be interesting. Maybe a few snake men to round it out. And I can never get enough peasants.

I voted for the Elf. For me it was a toss up between that and the Zombie. The Zombie was because I just can't see a set based around it only having one. The Elf because I like the figure and overall Castle is my favorite theme so I want to see what they would do with it. The idea of an Elf set won out in the end.

Then they recently changed it (or I somehow was messing it up in the past). If I had known that I would've gone ahead and bought some sets because it was free shipping for an order over $100 and that wouldn't have been too hard to put together.

Yeah I wasn't trying to imply that it was the best way to get them right now, just that they are in fact in stock. The individual in that thread got them on sale last week (I believe). The only one I would've bought through the sale last week would've been the Mill and it was never in stock (that I saw). That is mainly due to the way TRU handles their online sales making it impossible to buy multiples of the sale. By that I mean, if it's buy 1 get 1 half off and you buy 4, you only get the discount on 1 and not 2. This forces you to break up the orders, which forces you to pay stupid shipping rates. If they would've been in store however, I would've bought multiples of most of the sets.

They are being delivered. Check it out here

I do agree that they lack the vibrancy of some of the other factions. However, they have quite a bit of diversity. Their soldiers have 3 different torsos. They have a king, queen, princess, wizard, jester, printed euro armor knight, and golden knight. They also have 2 different horse bardings. I'm probably forgetting someone in all of that too. I don't think they are boring. I think if I were to label any group boring it would be Royal Knights, but that may be because I just don't have a use for them. If I want Lions, I will either use the new guys or I will use the older Crusaders (usually for nostalgia, but I do like the blue and red combination with the gold around the crest).

I have my doubts that this is the last of the Kingdoms line. I think this is TLG throwing us a bone. Of course, we need to do our part to make them see that this wasn't a mistake to do so. As for thoughts and ideas on new sets, I started a thread here for that purpose. There are sets we are getting this year that could have come from that thread (though to be fair, they were relatively common requests before that thread), so if you can give a little detail then TLG might listen to the idea and it might eventually see production (again, that is possibly a total longshot, but you never know). Plus it's great discussion.

I'm going to throw my vote to Star Wars. Mainly because I find it overall more entertaining when everything is included (like the books and video games). The other reason is because I just don't see us ever becoming like the Federation. I think it's too idealistic. Having said that, there are some parts of Trek that are on par with (or better than) the best of Wars, namely large chunks of Deep Space Nine. This is where Trek showed that it could be more than just an adventure of the week show by fixing the characters in one place so they actually had to deal with the reprecussions of their actions. The Next Generation is an entertaining show and a gigantic leap forward from the original series, but it suffers from the Status Quo is God syndrome a lot more often than not. DS9, on the other hand, had ongoing plots. Once the Dominion War starts it dominates the rest of the series (a few seasons). It also features characters who aren't squeaky clean. There is a moral gray area (though it is Trek, so their moral gray is still pretty close to black and white by any other standard) and Sisko makes choices that Picard never would. DS9 does have one off episodes and the occasional bit of silliness, but overall it was good. I like TNG for what it is, but I think DS9 was the better show. Don't get me wrong, I find Star Trek entertaining. I'm relatively certain that I have seen every TNG and DS9 episode as well as the bulk of the Original Series and Voyager. I had issues with the premise of Enterprise so I have only watched a few episodes (though the Mirror Universe episodes were pretty good). The movies are hit or miss for me. For instance, I think I, V, and Insurrection are firmly in the "miss" column. II, VI, and the new Trek are firmly in the "hit" column. The rest are fairly entertaining to me. Even though I overall prefer the OT to the PT, I wouldn't put any of the SW movies into the "miss" column. I would put RotS, ESB, and RotJ into the "hit" column though. Overall I do think they are different enough that a comparison is difficult. I think Trek might be better compared to Stargate with it's more episodic nature. Star Wars might be better compared to Babylon 5 with it's complete plot structure (beginning, middle, and end) and less episodic nature. At it's core, most of Trek is "adventure of the week". Even the movies to an extent. Star Wars is one story broken up into a few parts (the movies are anyway).