SheepEater

Gollum and Boromir survive, and they show that stupid clown again But that's expected when (in the Helm's Deep animation) the Berserker blows up the wall and survives

1 to Ferrik 1 to Redhead1982 1 to Kiel

I hope you win something! You already have 50 thumbs up. And some other people tried to copy your idea...

Impressive. How much will they be paying you for the completed model?

:wub: :wub: Nice use of Elizabeth Swann from the PotC theme. Ehrm,... to stay on topic... the Orc Forge, like 9471, is an oddity is that it makes sense for more than one to exist. In the movie, the underground of Isengard was HUGE. There were dozens of Forges like the one depicted in 9476. In my mind I have imagined a big Isengard lego display with a lone Orthanc tower set surrounded by 5-6 Orc Forges, all of being below ground level.

8868, duh. It's a classic.

A question to the castle afficionados... ... before the 2nd wave of LOTR comes out, what unmodded castle minifig do you works best as a Gondor soldier? I was thinking crown knights but my knowledge of the Castle themes is very limited.

I think Lego did an incredible job with the alternate face of the Hobbits. We already saw Frodo's poisoned face works well in as many as 3 scenes. Frodo does get stabbed a lot. And since he has 2 minifigs, we have as many as 4 faces to choose from. Sam's clenched teeth works well when he fights Shelob, but as The_Chosen_1 demonstrated his his cute little MOC, works perfectly in his drowning scene. Pippin's panicked face is perfect for all the time he gets himself in trouble. Aside from the well scene in Moria, I totally see his panicked face when he uses Saruman's Palantir, or when the orc Grishnakh threatens to eat them. Now for Merry, this gets more interesting. His second face is similar to Eomer's and show the valiant Hobbit warrior within him. Anyone else finds this face totally suited for the scene when he stabs the Witch King of Angmar in RoTK?

2. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?S=9476-1

So, the only way to get the original versions (Han Shot First!) is when they're packaged with the revised versions?

Dual meaning. 1) I love roasted lamb/mutton 2) I hate shallow people who blindly follow fads or trends.

Aanchir interesting post. Do you think the World of Warcraft license was done as an answer to Lord of the Rings?

Hi! Sorry if I don't feel like reading every page in the thread, but what is the best option to watch the ORIGINAL 1977, 1980 and 1982 versions of the trilogy? Have they ever been released on DVD?

Since I won't get mine until quite some time, how does it compare to this little devil of a set from a decade ago, for those of you who own both?

Thanks, very useful info for people like me who won't get it until it's on sale (so, not before winter 2013) The servo motor's behavior seems to be identical to the embedded motor in the receiver unit of those two RC sets from 2002 & 2003, 8475 and 8366. (There was a third RC car with a slightly different receiver unit but I don't have it; I believe the steering is the same though) Having played with these two ridiculously fast vehicles inside and outside, from the videos I have seen the 9398 is a snail! In my opinion 8475 was the best "new" technic set released in 2002 (Racers largely overlapped Technic during those years) and 8366 was second only to 8455 as the best technic set of 2003.

Although I agree that it's impossible for Lego to get any Warcraft license, please don't mix up the Warcraft strategy games (which is what the topic creator referenced, and they ARE very good games ) with World of Warcraft which came after it. Warcraft 3 and expansions = Real time strategy games involving lots of micromanagement. Spent years playing it online. Very hard and intricate game. World of Warcraft = MMO

Well technically, Orc Forge IS an army builder. It spawns Orcs from the ground and builds weapons for them.

I agree about 8275 being fine the way it is, without actuators. Actuators are a poor piece. I refused to buy most 2008-2009 technic sets because of them. To this day I only have 2 sets with them: 8265 and 8043 and one of them is already broken!

ToysRUs Anjou, in Montreal area, Canada

Thanks for the find. I was around at that time, so it does bring back memories. I remember Brad Justus posting on Lugnet. This comic was made not too long before his resignation. One thing to keep in mind about what Lego said at the time, is that most of the management has been changed since then. So clearly, not long after this they realized the people in charge made many wrong decisions. Here's Brad's Q&A from BrickCon 2003 posted by Larry Pieniazek on Lugnet (back when Lugnet was still thriving) http://news.lugnet.com/events/nwbrickcon/?n=153 04 October 2003 Brad’s talk from NWBrickCon Mark’s info: There will be awards: Best Robot, Best Mecha, Best Train, Best Castle, Best Moonbase module, best Space model, and best of show Math’n Stuff is giving 20% off at the show, see them if you only got 15. Please sign the commemorative T-shirt if you haven’t. Please put the dot on the map if you haven’t done so yet. Brad comes on to talk and starts with a few remarks. Jake sends his regrets. Good reports inside the company from Vancouver and from Seattle (but where’s your online report guys?)… Hope Portland is going well (it's concurrent to this weekend) The LEGO Company loves you guys! The truck show, as discussed at BrickFest, is one facet and doing these is another and enabling other sorts of fan activities is yet another. Kids are sometimes intimidated by truck show stuff as master builder stuff can be daunting. For a kid to come to a show like this is better inspiration, because it shows what “non Master Builders” can do. Thanks very much for what you do, we are glad that you do what you do… it helps support the brand. Then Brad launched into Q & A Q: Mindstorms, any new news or products? A: it’s being worked on but nothing definite yet. The line is important, the line is an enabler Q: Castle? A: yes Q: MOC series? A: Still in development. Have you noticed that we have fewer SKUs but that they’re better? That takes a lot of attention to detail… it puts pressure on us. We have a finite development resource available. The MOC process is a bit unusual and it takes time to evaluate and to do and it’s not effort free. Next year you are going to see some neat stuff. Q: more on how RCX/Mindstorms gets sold and advanced A: It’s strong in educational, strong in the direct channel, but it’s true, it has been 2 years since direct retail presence. We are exploring other channels for example, allowing FLL to directly sell as a fundraiser or other things. It’s not something that we want to kill off Q: (Mark Sandlin): Why the recycled Star Wars? Why not new stuff and stuff not yet modeled yet? A: This is the “off-off’ movie year, we are two years past, there is a run-up to episode three but LEGO are better at keeping interest up than other venders. As the run-up comes, there is interest in the original trilogy and the sets, interest in the sets that kids did not have the chance to get (when they were 5) but can get now (when they are 9) so there is a place to remake more popular items. In some ways that also allows us to use new elements and new techniques Q: Original space.city.castle? Any thinking there? We have seen one or two sets from several years ago… more stuff coming? A: that’s what LEGO Legends is. We have done it across the board with the exception of classic space which we are NOT ignoring but which we can’t do as much with as we’d like due to the Star Wars license. Do not worry; we will continue to do Legends. It has to complement the retail assortment and not conflict but there is more coming. .. We have done a lot of town, a fair amount of castle. We will get to space but it has to be balanced Q: Jon Palmer – likes future product. What does Brad Justus like in future products? A; It would be a lot of fun to do Star Trek, for instance…. They maybe need to improve the star trek franchise… it’s a logical place to license. I also think it would be fun to go into classic science fiction novels like Dune or the Foundation series and mine some of those for ideas. Q: Eric Sophie – there has been a lot of neat Mindstorms and RCX in train layouts... can you talk about any tech there and train tech? A: Yes we’ve noticed it. We’d rather see people make that adaptation. Mindstorms and trains is not something the 8 year old is considering. We are looking at it but it’s not easy. Maybe more with light and sound… because we source the motors externally, we can’t do the break between the motor and power pickup Q: David Schilling: Any chance for My Own Creation sensors? Or enabling a case? A: We’re not sure where this is going yet. We need to look at how Mindstorms II is going to unfold. We can’t easily be a sub for things like cases; we have less control over quality… AND we are now exposed on the liability front Q: Gary Mcintire How long is the Lucas alliance going? Any chance for Lord of the Rings? A: 2007…. As for LoTR, it is rated R/rough PG 13. That is something we won’t license. Maybe we could do darker sorts of fantasies but they are too violent for our product focus Q: Eric Sophie: What would YOU like us as fans to do? A: Spread the word. What you do to inspire kids is great. We like this. What is going to happen with LEGOWORLD is interesting. That’s a Lego event but it’s not a “LEGO” event because it’s partly LEGO partly De Bousteen, partly fox kids, partly the hall owner. Everyone’s expenses are defrayed by the fees… 10 EU to get in X 40K gate so this is a big time deal… they have a hall that is 3x this hall plus a lot of other stuff. They provide crowd control for the event for other halls (Fox Kids, LEGO and other exhibitors). Don’t forget that NL is a bout the size of a state…. FoxKids is sort of like a local broadcaster that’s really big, not like ABC. We currently don’t have any club that is AS organized and as large as DeBousteen… these events are getting bigger and bigger and you guys are learning how to organize public events, as opposed to private (internal fan focused) events. One learning was that many many LUGS got involved in the What will you Make tour. That was a chance for THEM to learn about stuff. The exhibition stuff is up on the upswing. Working with schools, working with Science centers, that’s what we want to see. You can do the stuff we can’t do. We have limited resources; we can only be so many places at a time. Most of the company focus is and has to be on retail. We will do what we can to encourage that but we just can’t be everywhere. Q: Robin Sather - anything you can say about the Canadian market? We know there is a marketing partner in place… our older order fulfillment system is different, any retail partners? A: No specifics, the old shop at home is not coming back… We can’t talk about where LEGO brand retail is going to go next year. We are aware that Toronto is a hot bed but we don’t know if we are or aren’t coming there. There are 8 stores opening in the next 8 weeks. NJ. Boston, NY, Chicago and some others. We have to grow expertise in brand retail. We want to do it right, not do it everywhere. We will get there. Q: Eric S – how is the NASA line doing? Relationship? A: NASA is very pleased; they would like to do more if we can. NASA is also very involved with FLL, not just product. The FLL challenge this year is about mars. It’s an outgrowth of what we did with NASA… think as far as back as Red Rover. The challenge is more related to living/colony than to rovers Q: Thomas Garrison – communications with customers? Sometimes it seems like a mismatch… large Technic set only around for a few months, blue baseplate is suddenly gone. Does LD have any interest in trying to gauge demand or telling people when they are about to sell out? A: If we tell that, someone will buy them all up, that may not be fair. Bricklink is great, we like it, but we want to be fair. Take the cypress trees… we thought we could do another run and it turns out the mold was shot, no more shots left. It is a delicate thing, we want to be careful... if something is “hard to find” or Limited Quantities, we actually mean it. That’s a cue. Take us at our word but we are not going to tell you to prevent runs. We tried quantity limiting but people don’t like that. Q: have you ever tried pre selling an entire run? A: it’s more problematic than it might be… what do you do about refunds and etc. yet we are considering it for bulk elements Q: Mark Rideout - Is LEGO threatened by BL? A: no. there is always a secondary market; the way that BL coalesced that is good. The economics of scarcity and plenty (the price of Leia for example… we do not look at BrickLink to see what’s scarce and then flood that) are what they are. Q: Studios website is down. Is that line dead? A; that’s coming back up but it may be a different URL. Studios as a line WON’T be continued. People did not like to be restricted to just stuff in that line. We want to encourage filmmaking as part of the LEGO experience, telling stories is an extension of role-playing with [physical brick so we are going to continue to encourage that. We just don’t see an entire line there. We are not in the camera business, we learned that from Studios…. Nor are we really in the digital software business. Digital cameras and stop motion stuff and video editing is more and more prevalent. We don’t need to do that any more. We should be in the pieces to tell us the stories Q: Ashley Glennon - Any chance for color mosaic? A: not soon. Q: would you consider releasing a patch to the Studio software to allow any camera, and has there been any progress on Lego track (short pieces, curves new points etc) A: no, and yes we know the issues with the geometry and it’s being looked at but it’s not right away Q: wheelset upgrade path? The metroliner wheelsets were bad A: we do not have a specific upgrade path. Call consumer service and they will deal Q: SPIDERMAN… any marvel chars? A; no. it’s a sonly license not a marvel license Q: Stephen Fisher - Subthemes? Designer is nice… but are you going to do subthemes again? Has licensing replaced that? A: no. Look at Orient Expedition? There is always a story there. Bionicle… there is a story there too. A huge one. Q: but is there separation between the age limits? The train stuff doesn’t need a story but the others do A: Orient Expedition and star wars are in the same age bracket… there are stories in both. No separation just because of licensing. We take known quantities. We are much more careful of what we license… we take a few and they are long lived Q: new technology… trains keeps on popping up. Any chance for maglev trains for example? A: build your own. Q: Eric: would you have lent me the Bionicle van? A: Only if Jama was driving. Q”: how are make and create and designer doing A: awesomely Q: community support kits are centered around make/create will that continue A: it’s about LEGO; it’s about creativity so we like that theme even beyond that line. It promotes the brand and you can make what’s in your head. Would you see a star wars truck show year? No. The community support kit will always about wanting to build with LEGO. The m/c sets will continue to be important next year and beyond Q: the 4x4 land rover, how is it A: great Q; themes get burned up faster now. Can we fight that? Can we help? A: Orient expedition is already getting discounted… that’s retail. Same deal with the rest of them. Is that any thing we can fight? We are trying to establish franchises and refresh within them. That puts less of a stress on our designers but we’re stuck with that. There isn’t much that can be done about it. Q: if the product continues to sell, TOA have continued to sell and Wal-Mart did restock them for the movie, for example…. Once sales slow down that’s it. They’re ready A: yes. Toys are like movies now. Everyone wants to know how did it do its opening weekend. Then it falls off. It’s not 1977 any more... movies don’t last. If it doesn’t perform in the first month first 6 weeks, out it goes. Ditto with toys. Q: it’s great to see LEGO is sending the kits out. Can we expect official help with other public events? Not just train shows. A: the event kits went out to everyone not just train clubs. Q: any chance that lego.com can be quicker about new products info? If the site got updated faster that would be nice A: that was a story with the back of the cloud city box had a picture of the new MF on it. Our plan was not to say anything till toy fair. We accidentally let that slip out in advance. We wanted to sustain interest in the franchise. Next year is about environments (Hoth scene or whatever) as a drive of interest. Q: any plans for UCS to be extended to other things? 70’s muscle cars? Other stuff? A: you are seeing a lot of big models. Some big Technic is sort of UCSish. Right now SW is the best theme to do that in. We proved a lot by bringing out the ISD. A lot of people thought we were psychotic for bringing out a 300 USD set… but it sold well. We may not go much bigger…. A 1000 dollar death star may not be in the cards (that would be the MINI scale) Q: support for LUGs… if we wanted to do a Christmas display for example, and the people for the show wanted a big statue or whatever… can you help? A: yes we can do that. Talk to Jake… Q: I need 1000 Leias for a project A: too much information Jon Palmer! Q: when are we getting Pick A brick in Seattle A: when a store comes it will have PaB, all stores will have it. Dunno when we will have them Q: Lego doesn’t charge local sales tax. How do you pull that trick off? A: it’s a different nexus. Different incorporated entity… that’s why you cant’ buy from S&H you can’t return it to brand retail locations Q: is there a Japanese Brad Justus? It’s mysterious to us because we can only see their pictures. A: there’s only one Brad Justus. I am responsible globally… we are trying to get our knitting taken care of in NA and EU first. It IS popular and growing in Japan. There’s a cultish aspect to LEGO... they are very into brands and super brands in Japan. Just having the brand is cool. Branded merchandise is cool. T-shirts, key chains, branded things *the stereos for example) and mecha and other stuff like that….so that’s a bit challenging. We are not yet reaching out to that phenom but we will be. We will have a Japanese LEGO.Com later. That will enable us to reach out to the community Q: Eric Sophie: Anything new? A: As it turns out, I do happen to have something…. The UCS snow speeder… it’s a big and sweet model. Available for preorder on Monday, 129.99 US... about 1400 pieces. (The windshield appears to be printed.) General oohing and ahhing ensued and that was it for the talk. See you at LEGOWORLD, Brad...

Don't forget a glow-in-the-dark Ghostly Soldier (Oathbreaker) battle pack!

I saw the Frodo polybag at one of my local Toys R Us yesterday. Although BrickSet names it "Frodo with cooking corner", no title appeared on the front of the bag. If they also had the Uruk-Hai polybag, I would have bought both. I asked an employee if they'd have it too but he didn't know. Shame. So I didn't buy it at all. Strange how TRU has it and Lego's official site doesn't.

Not true, Gollum and Shelob have names. And the cave troll is nameless, but is known as THE cave troll of moria and quite unique. I think most people would agree that the red Uruk-Hai with long hair (from set 9471) represents the leader of the attack on helm's deep. The one who stands on a rock. Doesn't have a name, but oh well.

Heh... not sure what I think of this. Looks a bit baby-ish, even to me... I saw my nephew play with his heroica board game and it looked way cooler and more intricate than this. With weapons, battles, etc I agree with you, it should have had Bilbo (and Thorin!) and actually related to the storyline, with enemies to fight (goblins, wolves, spiders etc). And what the heck is Frodo doing there? He wasn't even born in the time of the Erebor quest! And what's up with his Han Solo/Meriadoc smirk? With that said, the LOTR sets are amazing (got all 7 of them), the first announced Hobbit set (Bag End) is also amazing, but I will skip this. This might even be damaging to the image of the license since little kids will think The Hobbit is about a bunch of dwarves getting lost in Hobbit Holes.

The worst thing about it were Willow's two little leprechauns. They were supposed to be the comic relief, but were annoying to no end. The "Jar Jar" of that film. With that said, I enjoyed it as a kid