SheepEater

As to where the movies will be split, I believe it will be at the Barrels out of Bonds chapter, because PJ released a HUGE horizontal poster of The Hobbit where we see tons of images from scenes (including Beorn!) and the last image to the far right is of the barrels floating in the river.

My Weathertop set came with one Nazgul with a shiny silver buckle printed on his torso but the other one was plain gray. I called Lego, but the replacement that came in was the same dull gray as before. What are your experiences on this? And what should I tell Lego customer service the next time I call them? Obviously there's no communication between the customer service people on the phone and the guys who pack the parts in bags.

Why wouldn't they? It's Star Wars, so it would be guaranteed to sell. Lego produced a Jabba Palace complete with a Oola minifig to be dropped to be devoured by the Rancor below, do you think this is suited to children as well?

FYI I just created a Hobbit movie topic on the Culture & Multimedia forum.

Thanks for the heads up And as usual, we canadians get it at the same time as USA... with a 20% to 25% markup

Darn... now I'm disappointed that Lego didn't implement this mechanism.

The 8094 pen plotter and robotic arm are unique, no doubt. But so is the 8485 T-Rex. I'm surprised with your opinion now, since I'm quoting you on technicopedia here... I couldn't possibly say it better. And all the same, nothing prevents you from acquiring the few cheap parts (mostly gears, tiles and basic stuff, plus the baseplate, metal lever and threaded axles) required for your 8485 to build every model from 8094 Attempting the same with 8094 to build the 8485 would be a LOT harder. You'd need to order a mountain of technic bricks, flex cables, hinges, large plates, additional motor, etc

I just built the 8043 B Model (tracked loader). Very impressed. It's very fast, and better than the 8275 and that says a lot since I love the 8275! Since the 8043 is VERY cheap on bricklink, I'm almost tempted to buy a second one just for the tracked loader.

(****** WARNING. FULL OF SPOILERS FROM THE BOOK. **********) (**Initially this thread had a subtitle, WARNING, SPOILERS but the new forum format removed them. **) Do you think Peter Jackson will keep Fili and Kili's fate the same as in the book? I hope so, but if he doesn't, the only way he could change it is by NOT making them Thorin's nephews anymore. Then they couldn't succeed him anymore and that would still allow Dain Ironfoot to become King under the Mountain.

I'll pass this one up. There's only one 2nd half 2012 set that I'm excited about, the City Garage 4207. And I'll only buy it when it's on sale in Jan/Feb like it usually happens.

The problem I see with that is the Unimog is not technic-fig scale. It's actually Supercar scale, the very first large scale "construction" truck Lego has done to be so. Put your fig in the driver's seat and he will look like a child. And I don't think anybody has answered my last question... can the real Unimog U400 tilt its bed?

Yay! Another tractor with a BUGGY as an alternate model. :laugh: A huge chunk of the small and medium sized models seem to have either a buggy or a dragster as an alternate model...

Great MOC, great spider, love the way the dwarves are captured, love your Bilbo, looking forward to see more MOCs from you. Only thing I would add is the ring on Bilbo's hand.

That info is bogus. It's still coming from that shady German toy shop that claims to have seen all those sets but won't give us any images of the boxes. And NO THORIN in any set? Yeah right.

Meh. Shame about the stupid Jester "Knight", boring rooks, stupid faces on green pawns and quality issue. Otherwise I'd consider buying it.

Very inspiring thread. I'd say more, but I'm completely speechless.

Well, it'd sure beat having only 150 of them made, and being forced to get him at some convention where they show up on eBay shortly after for $100 a pop. *points to Super Heroes debacle *

Pretty good! Though I think Jack's hairpiece looks very silly on them. And as far as I know, there weren't any Minotaurs in the Lord of the Rings.

Deathleech, it's SARUMAN, not "Sauromon" Sorry, but I felt that someone needed to point it out to you.

I did that too (bought mine in spring 2007). Except Lego would only give me 6 silver wheels. I was fine with that, though, since 4 of them are hidden on the main model, and the 8287 box shows the alternate model's trailer using 4 light gray wheels and tractor using silver wheels.

I want to see a Lego set depicting the scene where Luke finds the charred remains of his uncle & aunt. Complete with 2 black skeletons (not evil skull, but standard skull pattern, white on black).

Considering there's hardly any meat on his bones, Shelob doesn't lose much on this deal there. To stay on topic again, ehrm... I wanna make my Orc Forge into a large catapult/trebuchet for the Orcs to use against Helm's Deep. Or a siege tower. Or a battering ram. That's gotta count as something for army building.

:wub: If that set was produced in blue/white I would already have mine, price be darned! Lego, are you listening to your fans?

Some nice sets named in this thread. :wub: Nice to see the love for 8856 - although I never really liked the unrealistic rotor, I like the use of flex system. The new set 9396 finally does the rotor properly. A few really nice sets not named so far: 8855 - After 24 years, still the best Lego technic plane. 8862 - the original Backhoe Loader from 1989, with an excellent Combine Harvester alternate model. One of only 2 ways to get the large excavator scoop. (Lego, don't you think it's time to produce a new one?) 8460 - Mobile crane from 1995 (re-released twice!). It has one thing the 8421 doesn't: a crank to rotate the crane. 8485 - Read below to see why I think it's superior to 8094 8462 - Tow Truck: It's blue, it has two airtanks, and the lifting mechanism is actually better than 8285's. What's not to love? Only thing missing is the fake engine. 8466 - Off Roader: the last "Super Car" with a working gearbox. One of only 2 ways to get the valuable Power Puller wheels. More mechanics than the 8448! 8285 - Not a "must have", but still a huge, beautiful set with lots of features. Love the chrome parts. One of the rare set with an EXCELLENT B model that is as good as the main one. A few months ago I finally managed to use the near empty space in the middle to integrate the 8287 motor box set to motorize the main gear train- it only took me a few additional beams, axles and gears. I disagree about a few of the listed sets as "must have", though: 8288 Crawler Crane: Why? That set doesn't have any unique, rare or interesting part; no gear mechanisms AT ALL, no motors, no pneumatics; the only intricacy it offers is hard core string-on-pulley action. I'm seriously considering selling mine considering the outrageous price it commands on Bricklink. 8094 Control Center 1: This set doesn't offer much that 8485 doesn't. The models are heavily let down by using only 2 motors when the control center can accomodate 3, and the 8094's CC doesn't have a power jack. I actually made a list and bought all the parts needed to build all the models with my one 8485 set - it comes to exactly 100, the rarest being the small baseplate and threaded axle + nut. So I built all 8094 models, the mobile crane being by far the best out of the box because of the clever switching mechanism (again, to make up the flaw of only having 2 motors...) The 8485's two main models on the other hand, are supremely designed. The T-Rex is the most awe-inspiring application of the flex system yet and the helicopter is perfect. The pen plotter SUCKS out of the box since you need to manually lift/lower the pen mechanism. I modded the 8485's 3rd motor into it, allowing the CC to memorize sequences, and suddenly the plotter becomes much more interesting. Allow me to demonstrate. http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=267350 The 8094 models actually look pretty spiffy in 8485 colors. Mobile crane http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=98193 Robotic Arm http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=301207 8258 What's so special about this set in parts or mechanisms, besides being big? I can easily build this guy using only a few of the recent larger recent sets I own, and the only parts I needed to get on bricklink were a few more long gear racks. I'd like it much more if the crane mechanisms were ALL centered in the truck. It looks very stupid (IMHO) to have the winch and crane extender on the crane itself! Not to mention the outriggers not being fully motorized (the cranks to lower the small legs are on the outriggers themselves - BOO! ). And the entire rear of the truck has nothing on it.

I'll wager they'll do the Boromir/Lurtz/Aragorn scene EXACTLY like Qui-Gon Jinn/Darth Maul/Obi-Wan scene in Lego Star Wars 1. Think about it - the scenes play out very similar. Bad guy kills good guy B in a non-humorous way, good guy A comes in and slices bad guy into his minifig parts, good guy A talks with dying good guy B in his final moments. Substitute Darth Maul's sliced torso with Lurtz' sliced arm + head.