Deathleech

If Lego were ever to release Mumakil like that in the $40-60 price range, I would easily buy 3 or 4. Of course knowing Lego they would load the set up with named characters. Legolas is a given. If they did a $60 Mumakil set with 3 Haradrim (one of which is the chief), a Rohan Soldier, and Legolas, I would be in heaven. Then just give us a brick built Balrog set with Gandalf and a Moria Orc or two, a Witch King (possibly a set with Fel Beast vs Eowyn?), and some "fun packs" with Sauron, Eowyn, Faramir, and Gondor Soldiers and I think pretty much everyone would have their wishes filled.

That poster is pretty awesome and gives me some hope, but the only thing that makes me question things are the flying monkeys. In the Wicked Witch fun pack the monkey is brick built, so why have ones that look completely different in the game? It's not like other fun packs where they are trying to reduce the size of something and fit it into a cheaper set? I can't really see Lego giving us minifigure flying monkeys and brick built ones all in the same line. This in turn makes me question if we will ever physically see an Oliphant and any other molded creatures in the game.

A Grond battering ram seems kind of pointless without a Minas Tirith gate set to use it against..? I suspect the $30 set will be something like Gandalf vs a Balrog. If we DID get a Witch King it would have to have just the brick built Fel Beast. I think seeing a %15 Witch King with mini Fel Beast build more likely though.

I know what you are saying, but I just don't think it's very plausible. The second Hobbit wave was suppose to come out December 2013. I doubt Lego was still producing the second LotR waves in early 2014 with that in mind. Plus, most of the big box stores like Wal-Mart and Target didn't have any LotR sets left, and those that did seemed to be clearancing them or putting them on sale to try and move them off shelves to make room for new stuff. Why would Lego be doing production runs for sets over 8 months old and that would go right to clearance once they get to stores..? Outside UCS and D2C sets, most Lego sets have about a year shelf life. That means most of them are produced before their official release and then within the first few months of release before Lego stops doing new runs and tries to get rid of any stock they have left at warehouses.

My thoughts as well. If we got a Witch King or Sauron I would be all over them, even for $15. As is though, I am not going to pay that kind of money for a game I won't be playing or a minifigure I already have. It seems like such a waste. If Lego could release like a $15 set with say 3 Gondor Soldiers and a small vehicle or building I think people would be ALL over that. As is the rehashes aren't terribly interesting. Maybe if you played the game or something they would be worth it... Not quite. The second LotR wave hit shelves in April and May of 2013. They were scheduled for a June 2013 release. There were no new LotR sets coming out last year or any more production runs of existing LotR waves. Actually they were being clearanced out and removed from shelves around this time last year. What?! Maybe that was true a decade or two ago.. nowadays games can be pushed out in less than a year. Most games take 1-3 years to complete, depending on a number of factors.

I suppose if you are basing it on the minifigures and brick selection, it's pretty good. In terms of the dinos though, I think the 2012 line was vastly superior. You got a triceratops and coelophysis in that wave. In this wave, you get the indominus rex and dilophosaur. Both of those use pieces from the raptor or t-rex (the body, tail, legs, and/or arms) so they aren't that different looking imo. The variety just seemed much better in the 2012 line. I also liked the vehicle selection more in the 2012 Dino theme and thought they looked better than the boxy jeeps and trucks we are getting in the JW sets. Of course the 2012 Dino prices also were better cause it wasn't a licensed theme. Then again the overwhelming amount of yellow bricks could also be a huge negative to some. The raptor escape set seems pretty good. Not surprised it only has the 2 raptors and no ceolophysis though, for $40. I prolly won't bother picking this line up. I like several things about it, like the abundance of raptors and no characters are re-hashed in sets (except ones you would want multiples of, like the generic ACU and vets). However, I really wish their was a wider variety of dinos and I wish the builds would have been a little more interesting.

My TRU still has some of them in their clearance section, last I checked a few weeks ago. I think they were like 7 or 8 bucks.

Lego also released army builder blister packs for their 2013 Castle line. Of course they were not near as good of deal as the Forest Ambush set seeing as they had almost half as many pieces, no dog, and were $3 more, but they did allow you to get only one faction if that's all you wanted, and some fully armored knights which is always nice I guess.

I also was debating on getting into one of these two themes with the Middle-Earth stuff seemingly done. Star Wars has more multi purchase appeal to me, which isn't necessarily a good thing. I am a completionist and army builder so that theme could get really expensive, really fast. They have tons of battle packs and release dozens of sets every year. Super Heroes, on the other hand, has almost no multi purchase appeal. No one needs more than one Superman, Batman, etc... despite getting several in a wave. Star Wars seems more army and vehicle based, while Super Heroes are more focused on the heroes (obviously), and brightly colored comic like sets. It really depends what you are looking for.

Agreed. While this idea would be AMAZING for us AFOLs, it would probably be lost on younger kids who weren't even alive when the older factions were released. To make it worse it would probably just confuse them. Why do some soldiers have a falcon on their chest, some a wolf, some a dragon, some a lion, etc. when they are all zombies supposed to be together?

My sentiments exactly. I would actually prefer a return to Fantasy Era over a "normal" Castle theme, despite the last one being on shelves more recently than Lego's Vikings. With FE though, you at least have knights and castles and such included in it along with everything else. I know we just got LotR too, but Lego missed so much stuff with it that I am still thirty for more fantasy. I wouldn't mind a Viking theme if it had mythical creatures like ice giants. It could also be more like the Vikings tv show where the Vikings are facing England and France. At least then we would get something kind of similar to "classic Castle" included.

Ehh, I dunno about that. The only price slots left are the $35-45 one, and the $75-120. I seriously doubt a retail exclusive will be over $50, it seems they are usually in the $40 price range? Three molded dinosaurs in a $40 set doesn't leave room for much else. I mean it's possible, but then we prolly will only get one minifigure and minimal bricks. Three dinos in a single set alone would make it extremely saught after, especially if it's on the cheaper side.

Dyeing them would probably be the way to go. It might be hard to get the color right though, especially since they are rubber and ABS plastic from my understanding and might take the dye differently.

Lego dragons, and animals in general, look better as large molded creatures imo. It's really hard to make a curved organic creature look natural when using mostly the square and rectangular hard edges of Lego bricks. That's not to say it can't be done, there are some AMAZING dragons people have created, but when people MOC dragons they usually use a TON of pieces too. Like their dragons would easily cost $100 alone which doesn't leave much budget for the rest of the set...

It's because over the years a number of people have claimed stuff and some of it was totally made up. Usually if it's a new member, and they suddenly have super secret inside info, it's not a good sign. We had several LotR lists that were suppose to be official sets coming out and nothing ever came of most of them. Heck, we most likely aren't even getting a wave three. That's not to say EVERYONE is lying, but more often than not that seems to be the case for new members as they have nothing to lose when their claims turn out to be false. Big whoopty doo, they had 3 posts and can easily go into hiding with little to no backlash. Of course, like you say, everyone has to start somewhere and you very well could be telling us the truth. But then maybe your manager was the one mistaken and lying? You just never know with these sorts of things. On the bright side, if this does turn out to be true you will gain credibility and the next time you give us info it will be met with much less skepticism so there is always that to look forward to. I would like some aspects kept the same, but I don't want a total re-hash. I know a lot of people keep saying they don't want Lizardmen because they are too similar to Chima, but I think a color change (red or blue) with tails and a single molded head piece would differentiate them quite a bit from the crocodile faction. Plus the faces would look different regardless and they wouldn't have the Chi crystal things on their chest. I think they would be a big hit with kids too. Regardless I would like to see some new factions. Humans are pretty much a given if Lego does another fantasy Castle line, as are some sort of goblins/orcs/trolls. They never have had their own yellow elf faction faction or drow/dark elves so that would be cool. Dwarves have also been done before.. but they seem like a pretty popular choice.

Hmm, Smaug's legs are definitely bulkier. I wonder if Lego did this to help support the bigger neck and torso? If not, I see no problem with the green dragon legs (if they were recolored of course). Being a little thinner and longer actually seems like it would be more true to the movie version? There just aren't enough nails.

Interesting. This makes me wonder if some existing dragon parts could have been used for Smaug, along with some new parts, to save on mold cost? For instance the green dragon leg mold could have probably been re-used and that would have allowed Lego to make a new mold for say orc armor, or elf armor?

Just for the record Khaled, I never once "attacked" you. I may not agree with your opinion or see eye to eye with you, but I never said anything overtly negative about you or your character. I was just pointing out why some other members may have said what they said. It's because you seemed to ignore all the evidence put in front of you and said members seemed like they were making stuff up, or seeing what they want due to being disappointed with the third wave. The same could be said about you defending the last wave though? I think you would have been met with a lot less criticism and not treated so harsh had you at least acknowledged all the members reports of low stock/sales for the third Hobbit wave instead of seemingly ignoring them completely. Tacking on the delusional part just added fuel to the fire. I understand the sample size wasn't huge and could be better, but it's pretty much all we have to go on unless Lego starts releasing exact sales figures for each of their themes.

Well we aren't getting triceratops from the 2012 Dino line and that was a new mold, so who knows if they will re-use the Coelophysis?

Sorry, you said that people's observations shouldn't be taken as an indicator of how well the line is doing, then go on to mention that people have clouded views of sales due to their own disappointment with the line. It seemed as if you meant EVERYONE who is reporting poor sales or stocking were just upset cause the wave was disappointing. If you meant otherwise you could have been a little more clear? You just haven't really supplied any sort of evidence to state otherwise. I have seen dozens of members report low stock, no stock, or slow sales of the third Hobbit wave. I haven't seen hardly anyone say otherwise. If you supplied some sort of evidence I would be more inclined to see your point of view. Unfortunately you seem to be basing it all on a "what if" notion that all the people who have seen otherwise are simply not speaking up. I don't think this is necessarily true because we had a lot of mixed reports for the first LotR wave. Now it's all negative reports for the third Hobbit wave. You were attacked because you seemed to dismiss everyone's reports. Several people said that their stores had low stock or no stock at all so the Middle Earth themes must not have performed very well. You said that coming to that conclusion based on a few reports wasn't a good way to judge a line's success because it was too isolated and small of sample size. The thing is it was several reports, of several stores, from all over the world. It seems to be a pretty good indicator to everyone else except you. You seem to want reports from several thousand forum members, brick and mortar retailers, and online retailers to be convinced the third Hobbit wave didn't do that well. I don't think anyone said the LotR theme was cancelled due to poor wave 3 Hobbit set sales either. If anything, the decision was made before the third Hobbit sets ever hit store shelves. The low wave 3 stock was due to the wave 2 performance.

Two waves in a single year would be nice, but I am not too concerned with it. I just hope it's like the last Fantasy Era theme where it last a few years and we get several waves total. I like a lot of the Star Wars sets that were recently released or that are coming up so I have considered getting back into that theme. If the new Castle theme is like the 2013 one, I probably won't bother with it. If it's like the FE one, I will be all over it and pass on the Star Wars. That's why I want to know what's coming out. I don't really have interest in trying to keep up with two themes considering I am a completionst and love army building.

So when is the earliest we will most likely see pictures or get descriptions of the upcoming sets? Summer 2015? Or late fall/winter 2015? I wanna know what they will look like and what will be included so I can decide to start saving or not...

I bought 8 of this set when TRU had a BOGO 40% off sale awhile back. With no mark up I ended up getting 4 sets fo $45 after taxes. That came out to be about 2.80 a minifigure.. not bad considering there were also another 100 or so bricks with them. I am debating on keeping them or what to do.. the blue vents kind of bug me... Idk how feasible this really is, unless you are willing to invest a TON of time and money. Just to get 16 Stormtroopers would cost you a little over a $1000 USD up front. Then there is all the time and energy piecing and selling everything else off.

Actually I read every one of your posts in it's entirety so far. Based on reading those posts I got the impression you think the wave did much better than it actually did. If that's not the case, why do you keep arguing with everyone saying otherwise? Myself and several other members have all told you that it seemed to have rather poor sales based on our observations. No one has stated it's fact, or gave any numbers, they simply said it doesn't seem like it has had very good sales compared to past waves or other themes. Every time you have responded saying that without any facts we shouldn't come to this conclusion. Or that the sample size is too small, or we are angry fan boys misconstruing the data. Is that not the gist of your responses? If not then maybe you are coming off wrong rather than me and everyone else interpreting them wrong? That or you are just looking to argue. Furthermore you have said a few times fans seem to be bitter about the last wave which seems to be clouding our judgement. Sorry, I think you are the only one with your judgement being clouded. I can go into three or four Targets around me and not see ANY Hobbit sets on the shelves. That is a fact. As such, I can safely assume the waves have not sold that well and stock was not very high to begin with. I specifically remember when the third Hobbit wave was released. Target didn't even bother displaying them on an end cap for more viewing and simply placed them at the back of their Lego aisles haphazardly. I even posted a picture awhile back where the sets were faced on their side. You keep blaming our observations on us being upset or disappointed with the third Hobbit wave when that's simply not the case. Here is the picture I am talking about. No Lonely Mountain sets, ever, and the others put on their sides stuffed on a shelf not even big enough to properly display them. Ya, that seems like a huge hit Target is expecting tons of sales from...

Khaled Yousef, I think your problem is you are picturing the third Hobbit wave sales as a metaphorical desert. Everyone is reporting it dry and arid, but you think some magical oasis exist somewhere where the sets were ordered in huge numbers and flying off shelves. That doesn't seem to be the case though. We have members from all over the U.S. and WORLD on these forums and literally no one is reporting amazing stock or sales of the third Hobbit wave. It's not like the first LotR wave where there were mixed reports (despite that wave generally being praised). I'm not talking about one or two isolated reports, but rather dozens. Every report I have seen says the same thing. It's not just from Targets, in a specific area, but people worldwide and from numerous different stores. If we get 10 people who say the same thing, and no reports of the wave being stocked plentiful or flying off shelves, do you think that data is going to change much when a hundred members report in? Or a thousand? Sure it could, and it's just been an anomaly, but more often than not we will get the same information on a larger scale. Maybe instead of 10 out of 10 reports of bad sales or low stock, we will get 95 out of 100 saying the same. I dunno, the whole wave seemed kinda boring to me. The BoFA set was the absolute worst. Then again I am big on the army building so of course it was a let down. The Lonely Mountain set seemed boring, IMO, due to no new minifigures (and only a couple of them included at that), yet another wall that looked nothing like the forge in the movie, and a glorified chair. Smaug was the only standout of the set, everything else seemed like filler in it. Sure we got new prints of some of the dwarves but I didn't find them terribly interesting. All my opinion of course. Not just Bolg though. If Smaug used 10 new molded pieces, that is a LOT of new molds that could have been used elsewhere. So not just Bolg, but Bolg, armored Orcs, armored Elves, armored Dwarves, new Gandalf hair, and more (sorry I would list others but I haven't even seen the last movie yet. I lost so much interest after seeing how poor the first two movies were compared to LotR, and how the Lego line has been handled). Plus Smaug could have still had several new molded pieces himself.