HawkLord

I like the idea of some notice on sets that are due to retire, but not anything specific about when unless it's a long enough window of time. I'd hate to see something posted about a set retiring in a couple months and then five minutes later find it sold out because a number of scalpers are hoarding it for when it does finally drop off. If Lego had something that indicated a six to twelve month window, that would be best and would probably motivate some to buy sets they were on the fence about.

Oops. Guess I thought the circle portion looked better in the front. Although if I do turn the armor around, it exposes this patch of his belly that would be too easy for Legolas to put an arrow thru. As mentioned the bone armor doesn't even look movie accurate anyway - in the movie it's almost like an exagerated collar that's over his shoulders and neck, plus the arm plating. Usually it's TRU and Fred Meyers around here that get new sets first. Freddies has been really good for getting the CMF before anyone else - it's been that way since Series 3.

That's true - it's all one color and pretty boring, the chest printing is much better. If the tips of it had some white color or something, that could help.

Best I can do. I have pics of the whole set, but I'm having trouble posting them, since I don't do Flickr or anything like that. Call me old fashion, but I just go big and send attachments. Underneath the bone armor he has a low cut shirt that shows most of his wrinkled chest, much like his head printing and the back of the head has similiar scarring.

Hold on... (runs to go check) .... ok I'm back. You can fit the cape, but it does crinkle up a bit on the sides by the shoulders. You can kind of see in my pic and my avatar that there's hair that comes over the shoulders alittle - this bunches up the cape in that area ever so slightly. Personally, it doesn't look bad and might even be percieved as giving the cape alittle more weight so it isn't flowing out so much.

Here's Thorin's. Basically, it's pretty much flowing hair with just a small section tied back at the top.

Wow, that building has everything! Looks really good, man. Feels like a retro car dealership with sci-fi elements.

Just finished building it actually. No extra saddle for the Wargs (just the two) and not a single sticker. Overall, the set is great - I'd give it an 8/10. The tree has a swivel feature, so that sections of it can spin to show other sides, plus it's pretty tall at 8 inches high. Yazneg has some back head printing detail (scars, not a face), as do the Goblins. Thorin and Bifur both have alternate face printing, though Bifur's is mostly hidden by his beard and hair. The printing on everything is solid. The build is pretty good, except for the rock section with the catapult - it's kind of boring. I'd almost rather have had Lego not include it and lower the price a bit, but I understand that launching fireballs at the tree is a play feature even if the launcher doesn't have alot of clearance. Also the colors are great - there's some nice olive green mushroom and leaf pieces that I don't have. Plus obviously a ton of brown and dark brown bricks.

Warg pics per request: Both Wargs have hinged jaws and some great painted detail around the eyes and teeth. They can just barely hold that bone in the grey one's mouth. Edit: If anyone has some tips to uploading pics, that would be helpful. I just loaded these two and now it seems I can't load anymore.

Very well done. I especially like the Gonk and Medic Droids.

TRU is running 25% off select sets for this week 11th-17th. Given their usual mark-up of 10%, looks like you still might be able to find a decent deal. Note that only select sets are applicable and they had about 18 sets listed.

Wow, so Fred Meyers had the Goblin King priced at $89.99 and marked on sale at $71.99 - did Freddies make an error in their MSRP? If I'm looking at saving $28, I might just buy a second copy of that set!

I regret selling a few Star Wars sets. Back in '07 when I got back into Lego thru Star Wars, I picked up a couple sets to try a build up a new hobby for myself. I noticed that there weren't alot of SW coming out and some of the ones weren't all that interesting so I sold the few I had and thought I was out of Lego. Well, in '09 I got back in hardcore and have stayed in ever since. So, aside from all the stuff I had as a kid, which I know I'll never get back, I regret getting it out Star Wars Lego in '07. Moral of the story? Hang onto to it until you are absolutely positive you don't need it. Basically, when it's no longer a question, then it's ok to let it go, but if you're just alittle unsure, you should keep it.

Scratch that - I'll see what I can do.

I can confirm that Freddies does indeed have the Hobbit sets in. I was able to get Riddles, Wargs (x2), and the Goblin King sets. They had about two or three copies of each out. Here's pricing for those interested: Riddles for the Ring: $9.99 / on sale for $7.99 Attack of the Wargs: $49.99 / on sale for $39.99 The Goblin King Batlle: $89.99 / on sale for $71.99 Edit: Just opened Riddles and it comes with two Rings. Now Bilbo and Gollum don't need to have a contest, they can each have a ring.

Heads up. Sounds like Fred Meyers stores are getting in the Hobbit sets - Riddles, Warg, and Goblin King sets.

I would guess they might get clearanced towards the end of the year to make space for other things from the winter wave, like The Hobbit and TMNT.

My area has a new Lego store that opened this past June. Looks like I've barely spent $400+ there since it opened. Might be interesting to see how that plays out with the top buyers from that store.

Lego is locked into a deal on the SW license, till something like 2018, that was made before Disney bought SW from Lucas. I'm positive that deal is still binding with some kind of stipulation on profit margins for both Lucas and Lego. Besides, I think the prices are high enough right now that if Disney made Lego go higher, they'd see a drop in sales. Especially when Lego makes their own comparable designs (City, MF, etc) that have a much better price per brick rate sold right across the aisle or in the same Lego store.

Personally, I'd go with the Death Star. As the most expensive retail Lego Star Wars set, I might not always have the money to pick it up. Meanwhile most of the army-builder sets you're describing are easier to buy being that they're cheaper. If I had that kind of money to use on a Lego purchase, I would go big. As for army-builder sets, any of the battle packs are the best way to go - Hoth and Endor are still around.

Whoa, hate those goblins. Ever since I saw the Grinnah action figure I had a bad feeling about the goblins, but I thought he might have just been an exception. Now it looks like all the goblins will be little half-naked freaks. The Dwarves look good, though.

As mentioned, Lego is testing the waters. These days, it pays to be patient and Lego knows they can't just come out with a huge set in the first wave for an unproven Lego line. LOTR is huge, but no one could have predicted how well a Lego LOTR line would do. Personally, I prefer it if Lego takes it slow. I've seen alot of collectible lines, both retail and online, that have crashed and burned by over doing their early products and mis-gauging what the fanbase wants.

I assume they'd be part of the Winter wave of sets which usually drop just before Christmas. I would very much doubt that brand new sets like these would be part of the Black Friday sales - usually those sales are for larger sets that have been out for awhile.

Found three Zombie Car polybags at a local TRU that I bought. I was surprised to see them sold seperately from the sale - usually the TRUs around here don't do that. With that said, this marks my first MF purchase. Here we go again...

Two pages but only four people have actually voted. Kind of odd. I went with Legolas - I've wanted a Legolas figure since I was a kid and then again after seeing LOTR.