SirBlake

Whoah, I'm not sure how you measure such a thing, but by my estimation whatever I was being was very, very far from "mean". What I was intending to be was clear, but just so there's no further confusion, I have no intention of being anything but a friendly contributor to this site. If what I said or how I said it didn't come across that way, I offer my sincerest apology. Increasing the saturation definitely brings out the details of coloring on the dwarves. The thing is though, there was never any supposition on anyone's part that the dwarves were all grey. Rather, you were saying that these were costumes for later in the story, and that we should or could expect costumes that included the dwarves wearing hoods as detailed in the books. My point was that based on what we've seen in the trailers, that is not a realistic expectation. Not trying to rain on your parade or start a fight, just pointing out what I viewed to be a logical fallacy. Indeed you do have much to look forward to, as do we all. Of course TLG works with their own color palette, and as you rightly pointed out, there's plenty of colorful costuming to work with on the part of the LEGO designers. I can't wait to see what they come up with. If the LotR designs are any indication (and I'm sure that they are), we're in for some fabulous minifigs.

On the contrary, I think this is precisely a book vs. film thing. The Hobbit trailers we've seen so far show scenes from the first film, well before the battle of 5 armies, and they are dressed as depicted above. Dreams of the colorful hooded versions as described as they are in the book are just that: dreams. This part, I'm sure, goes without saying, but whatever we get in LEGO form will be representative of what we see in the movies, not the book.

Totally agree. On this part, I disagree. Their value and icon status is rooted in their simplicity. I would prefer that they aways be round barrel-heads. I dig the added detail in the printing, but the basic shape should always be the same.

Oh man, that would be exciting. A Dragon King would make me very happy. I'm trying to think of what kind of classic set they didn't make for Kingdoms and wouldn't be close to something represented in LotR. We got a couple carts, a blacksmith, a tower and siege engine, a joust, a civilian set with the Mill Villiage... What about an Armor shop or small boat? I must say, with such a short run, TLG definitely hit the important stuff. I'm sure you're right that it would be something besides a traditional set, but I can wish. An armor shop that plugs built into the wall like this would send me over the moon with joy. http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=6041-1

I don't know, I think if we hadn't grown up with classic yellow, fleshie wouldn't bother anybody one bit. The flesh head/hands only look out of place on the classic figs (and they do look out of place) because that's what we're used to. Personally, I like both for different reasons. I wouldn't mix them together for display or convert LotR to yellow or LEGO Castle to fleshie, but both work quite well for me on their own. On a side note, my 6 year old daughter has plenty of both, and if she even notices the difference, she surely doesn't care one way or the other. Crownie Archer / Yellow Frodo / Kingdoms Archer / Crusader Axeman

Nowhere, yet. No indication of what store they might be exclusive to either, if in fact they are exclusives.

I'm starting to learn the joy in that way of thinking too. With the new LotR stuff, I'm building up my Rohan army with a lot of miss-matched parts, and that's been quite fun as well. It works for that stuff, but I can't see myself jumbling up my classic castle armies. I like them too much as they are. Yeah, I don't have a huge amount of any faction, but I do have enough to fill out my castles well, and that's the main goal. I don't think I'd have much use for 100+ of any one army, but I love seeing pictures of other peoples massive armies.

Reading through tvih's list reminded me of something that I do, and I was wondering if anyone else builds armies this way: I do my best to line up torso-to-helmet-to-weapon. For example, all of my Lion crossbowmen/archers use the scale mail torso with the straps/belts and kettle helm. All of my spearmen use the quarters torso and neck protector helm. Because of this, one of my favorite factions is the Crownies. 5x Archers = Scale + Kettle 5x Spearmen = Quarters + Neck Protector 5x Swordsmen = Scale w/crown armor and sword belt + Neck Protector 5x Knights = Knight Armor and Grille or Flip Visor Helms Everyone that isn't an archer gets a shield. I do the same with other factions where I can. There's just something so satisfying to the uniformity of the ranks. Edit: Thought of something else. Wherever possible, I also unify things like helmet color. For example, There are several instances where Crusader archers came with grey helmets. I've gone back and changed them to black.

That's a cool pic. That flash game is pretty broken for me though. I could only get the Aragorn one to work, the others would act like they were loading and then just freeze.

Not a problem. I don't think they hold up as well as the Fantasy Castle/Kindoms stuff does though.

Hah! This is totally cool. Really fun idea.

Here are a couple pics. Apologies for the quality, but it's what I've got. I picked some generic chain/scale mail type figs, since I figure Kingdoms quarters or classic crossed axes or something like that wasn't a good candidate for this. I also included a couple Kingdoms Lion Archer torsos that I switched up and fleshified to fill out the Rohirrim ranks at Helms Deep. If there's anything specific you'd like to see, I have most of the castle figs since the 80's, so I should be able to snap that pic.

Cool, that's something to look forward to. Same here. I predict lots and lots of Frodos warming the pegs. Hopefully LEGO will have the foresight to not pack them in a 1:1 ratio.

Finally got around to taking some (terrible) pics of my armies. Since most of my LEGO is assembled and on display, I don't have that much to work with building scenery. I slapped something together to add some environment, but admittedly, it's pretty bare. I'm still building the LOTR stuff, so I'll save those for later. Anyway, here are my armies... Crusaders (32) Black Falcons (11) Black Knights (35) Forestmen (16) Wolfpack (6) Crownies (21) Lions (21) Dragons (19)

I"m sure this is a question that nobody has an answer to, but when are those polybags going to hit, I wonder? Does anyone who's been paying close attention to TLG's release habits over the past few years have a guess for when they might introduce these? I'm enjoying my army of 10 Uruk-Hai, but it woud be fun to add to the ranks with those... http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=30211-1

They've kept this one so secretive, I'm thinking they're going to hang onto these pictures until San Diego Comic Con. What do y'all think?

Whoah, is that you, Djordje? Very cool to see you post here. I feel like I have a million questions to ask you about the process, and every one of them is escaping me at the moment. The new LOTR minifigs are generally regarded as some of, if not THE, best ever. So nice work there, sir. Can't wait to see what is next for this line.

Elf Forestman Evil Knight Evil Dwarf Highlander In that order. He does over at my house. (see avatar)

Great videos! Gotta love seeing those armies. I really appreciate that they're thinking this way. Giving us lots of opportunities to army build those Uruks too. I think that looks wonderful! Nice way to add some variety.

My 6 year old daughter and I spend more time playing with the LOTR stuff than her one friends set. That said, I'd like to think there's plenty of room for both. I'd like to see both do well and last a long time.

Spectacular! I particularly like the lines of the book included in the presentation. Thanks for posting this.

I want to love it, and there are certainly parts that I really like, such as the armor pieces with the white hand and Mordor orcs (though only including one hair piece is just plain cheap). Also, it was fun to build, but as it sits there on my shelf, I just feel like I don't have that much use for it. Amongst castles, forest hideouts and farm buildings, it just looks like a bundle of sticks. This one might be the rare occasion that I dismantle a set for parts or at least to get it out of the way. I've even contemplated selling it and just keeping the minifigs.

I got mine in DFW (near Dallas), Texas. There were two lions, one of which I bought, and 5 or 6 dragons. $15 each. Chess set is a better deal per fig, but there are tons in that set that I just don't have a use for.

Those female elf/fairy figs seem like a no-brainer to be included sooner or later. Definitely some of the coolest Toth designs, and while I would love to get them, my daughter would freak out over these. Crossing fingers.

I can confirm this. Just picked this one up last week at my local LEGO Store, and the two archer torsos have red arms, the rest have grey. This is consistent with the minifigs I've gotten in every other set.