Deathleech

Ya, I agree with you. I think Osgiliath would make for a better scene to base a flagship Gondor set and army builder off of. The thing is though, Osgiliath doesn't have some of the big named characters appear there like Eowyn, whom we still need. Eowyn vs the Witch King needs to happen in the same set as it's such an iconic duel. Anything besides Minas Tirith with them would be nothing but a field which leaves no build if the Fel Beast is molded. Lego would need to put minifigures in Osgiliath that are never actually seen there in the films to cover everyone. That was a problem I kept wrestling with. Do I make a big Osgiliath set that doesn't have all the main characters but could have a more "complete" looking build, or do I go with Minas Tirith which is a perfect set to include all the missing characters in but is hard to really build anything coherent and do justice to? Lego could do a big Osgiliath set and army builder and then throw the Witch King and Eowyn into a separate set, but considering the past three waves have all only had four sets each I think the number of sets is pretty limited (and this is something I am trying to stay true to with my dream wave). I have gone back and tweaked this set a number of times, and plan on continuing to do it as I flesh out more sets in the future. The minifigure choice is something I really want to come back to. I think the perfect minifigure line up for this set would be Denethor, Eowyn, Rohan Merry, Gondor Pippin, Gothmog, and the Witch King on Fel Beast. Those six seem the most necessary and like strong contenders for sure. Faramir will probably be moved to the army builder set since he can easily serve as a generic soldier much like Eomer did in Uruk-hai Army set. Guritz could definitely be another possibility in the big Minas Tirith set. I am just not sure how likely Lego would be to do special prints for all these lesser named orcs that don't get a ton of attention in the film. I do plan on having at least three distinct looking orcs in the army builder set. I just wish the prints available in the LDD were a little better. They don't seem to have even most of the official Lego prints. I might end up taking some minifigure templates and doing my own up inPhotoshop or something. I am just starting to get into working with LDD so I have a lot to learn about it still.

Hey guys, since it doesn't appear like we will be getting a third LotR wave I decided I will be making some sets in LDD that could have theoretically been made into real sets. Keep in mind these are just my dream sets done in a similar style to what Lego might give us at each price point. I will be posting a few more in the coming weeks. To start off with I decided to do a Minas Tirith Gate set. This set would have roughly 1770 bricks. The ideal price point would be $129.99, but with a large molded Fel Beast and a high piece count I don't know if that is feasible. If not $149.99 would work. Alternatively, Lego could probably make the walls and towers slightly smaller to hit the $129.99 price point. If need be they could also use 3-4 pieces and add catapults to the small towers and some pieces that could be thrown over the walls like in the films. Chunks of the tower could also explode to further add play features (though I don't think they are that needed with all the cool minifigures and Fel Beast). As I am sure you guys have noticed this build focuses more on the gates and towers that jut out around the gates than on the actual walls on the side. My reason for doing it this way was because I thought it made a pretty good display and stand alone set. I know this set loses the tiered Minas Tirith look that is so iconic, but without having a 5,000+ piece set or multiple $100 sets it just isn't realistically possible to do a proper Minas Tirith. Also, I found this makes a pretty decent looking castle for castle fans while still being incredibly movie accurate to RotK. It's not just another flat wall or gate likie Black Gates or Dol Guldur Battle. The gates and surrounding towers have a pretty distinct look. As for the minifigures, I included Faramir in Ranger attire, Eowyn w/o helm, 2 Gondor Soldiers, 2 armored Mordor Orcs, Gothmog, the Witch King, and a Fel Beast. I could see Lego losing one of the Gondor Soldiers and Faramir (who I might place in another set later on) in place of Denethor, Gondor Pipping, or Rohan Merry. If this set was to be $149.99 it could easily have 9 minifigures instead of 8. Anyways, without further adieu, here is the first set in my dream wave three for LotR, the Gates of Minas Tirith: The inside is a little bare. There are just weapon stands that can be filled and ladders leading up to the next level. Here is my first attempt at this build, but this version was proving to be much to big. With only half of one side done and the main gates it was already over 800 pieces so the final set would have easily topped 2,000 and been a direct set at that price point. Next up are an add on army builder set to this one...

The problem with that is, best case scenario, we only get one more set. And even IF one of those projects gets 10,000 supports that doesn't guarantee the set will be made. I imagine the chances are slim to none due to existing license issues, need for new molds, size of the sets (Lego Idea projects that get made into sets seem to stick around the 30-80 dollar mark), etc. Also, I know a number of people who love Lego LotR but don't support some of those projects due to one reason or another. With this petition we can gather ALL Lego LotR fans into one place.

Can't you just MOC it with like ten pieces and make the wall with the pillars and the door connect? Then it would be roughly 50% enclosed? I agree about the Moria Orc helms, those would have been badass. I am sure the Cave Troll really blew the budget on that set though.

They can't do exact copies or they would get into legal trouble with Lego and/or Warner Brothers. They can't replicate it too closely or they run the risk of copyright infringement.

The Erebor set makes a lot of sense for kids. It covers two scenes from both films with one set. You have the dwarves fighting Smaug in the forge with the one section (and lots of play features), and then the dwarves all geared up and the throne room to cover the Bo5A movie. The set reminds me a lot of Mines of Moria. That set got SOO much flak when it was first released, but I think a lot of it was unwarranted when you really think about it. Most people complained Mines of Moria was just a bunch of walls and not fully enclosed. I loved the way Lego did the set though. It still looked exactly like the MoM room the fight took place in minus two walls. You had the well, the tomb, the doors the troll and goblins burst through, the falling pillars, etc. Why WOULD Lego fully enclose the set? It adds NOTHING to the play value. It adds NOTHING to the display value (from the outside it would look like a gray square box unless you look top down). The only thing it would do is make the set cost twice as much. I am sorry, but I don't want to pay $130-150 for Mines of Moria simply to get two extra gray walls and fully enclose the set. Plus, if you DO want it fully enclosed, or to add a base plate, you can always spend the money and do it yourself. I think the Erebor set is a lot like Mines of Moria in this way.

I just want the helmets. Those are what really make the minifigures stand out the most and give them a distinct look. Weapons would be nice, but by no means are a high priority in my mind.

Sorry, I should have specified Lego Star Wars vs Lego LotR/Hobbit. Look at the Star War s Lego line compared to the Middle Earth ones. Star Wars obviously did MUCH better in it's infancy to continue for as long as it has. If LotR had sold more surely we would have gotten a third LotR wave, at the least. Plus SW has cartoons and stuff that really help drive Lego sales with kids. LotR has none of that. Like Tijger-San and Blakstone point out, SW is a merchandising juggernaut and has everything going for it to get sales with kids. LotR doesn't. It might be more popular overall with fans, but that doesn't translate into great Lego sales. If LotR has 14m likes but almost all of those are adults, and Lego only has 5-10% of total sales going to adults, that's not a very good number. That means roughly 700,000-1,400,000 LotR fans are buying Lego sets based on the FB pages. If even a quarter of the SW likes are from kids who will buy sets that means there are around 3,000,000 buying Lego sets. That's well over double. Not only that, Star Wars is rated PG and tailored more towards kids with goofy Stormtroopers and all the cartoons being pumped out. LotR on the other hand is PG-13 which is the very top of the suggested age range for Lego sets yet that is the films recommended minimum viewing age. You see blood everywhere and scary orcs getting decapitated left and right.

I agree. Lego also seemed to cover pretty much every major scene. Then again there were three Hobbit waves to only the two LotR had. If LotR had a third wave with even four sets I think we would have gotten all the main characters we were still missing (Witch King, Eowyn, Faramir), and had all the major scenes covered. It's a shame really. Ya, I remember seeing this ad a few times. It definitely didn't seem to be played very often and there weren't any other tie ins at the time so I can't imagine it got most kids very excited over the LotR line when it first came out. Lego really should of released the Hobbit wave first, then the first LotR wave and video game. As it stands the first LotR wave just kind of came outta no where with little support I think it's a mix of both. LotR just doesn't seem as popular as we like to think. I mean none of the LotR Ideas projects even have 5,000 supportes except one, and that was because he had most of his votes grand fathered in from when his Minas Tirith was on Cussoo.

Well that's good news at least. I think everyone would prefer "official" pieces, but this is probably the next best thing. Ya, if we got half as many Lego minifigures as ToyBiz had produced for their LotR line I would be tickled. They had pretty much every main and minor character made into a figure with tons of soldiers and variants to boot... *sigh*

We already have a million set ideas in the Future LotR thread. Judging from it, I would say the top three ideas are a Gondor Army battle pack similar to the Uruk-hai/Mirkwood Elf Army sets, a Balrog set for around $40, and a big Witch King battle set with Eowyn, the Witch King, a molded Fel Beast, and any number of extras (Rohan Merry, Gondor Pippin, Denethor, Gothmog, Faramir if not in the Gondor Army set, extra Mordor Orcs and Gondor Soldiers, etc.)

Lego negotiated their contract with Warner Brothers before the first Hobbit movie came out. At that time, Bridge Direct had the action figure license. Lego can't release a CMF series or something like this because that would be considered an action figure and encroach on Bridge Direct's license. For all we know, BD still holds the action figure license so Lego can't just swoop in and get it (nor would they probably want to at this point, what with only one movie left and what seem like poor sales with their Hobbit sets). Lego COULD just do a cheap $12.99 battle pack that has a small build and a high minifigure count like the Star Wars battle packs. Those meet the building set criteria of the license. The only issue with that is it seems Lego's Hobbit and LotR license requires a higher brick to minifigure ratio, and/or a certain number of named characters in each set. I would love to see battle packs as much as anyone, but they just don't seem possible. It's a real shame too considering there are so many distinct factions between the Hobbit and LotR, Lego could of easily given us as many as they have for Star Wars, if not more.

I wish Brickarms or Brick Forge would give us some stuff that looks similar to the Gondor armor and Witch King helm. They could make a KILLING if they did this. Then we could use existing Lego parts to make our own Gondor faction and Witch King fairly easily.

Supported. I don't see this working unless we can get a LOT of votes. I am talking a minimum of 20,000+. That would really catch Lego's attention. A mere 1,000 isn't going to do much of anything I imagine.

I feel the same way. While "glowing" Sauron may not be ideal, he is at least better than the Necromancer version and somewhat resembles Second Age Sauron. I would rather get glowing Sauron over nothing, or get him over the Necromancer.

Then how can they get away with the Witch King Battle set? It has 3 minifigures and around 100 pieces for $13 or $15 bucks? I mean I am sure this is the reason, but maybe the set has to have a certain ratio of bricks to minifigures AND a certain amount of named characters or something?

If true I hope there is a LOT more to it than just elves. While I like elves, I also want to see dwarves, humans, orcs/goblins, undead, etc. as well. If it's just elves vs an evil faction I will probably have to pass and there will still be a HUGE hole left be the LotRs early demise.

This is EXACTLY the type of set I was talking about in the second part of my "dream wave". Four minifigures and a small build (catapults, rocks, trees, whatever..) for around $12.99-14.99. They must sell well for the Star Wars theme or Lego wouldn't keep pumping them out, so why not try it for LotR which is arguably more suited towards this type of set? There has to be a reason and I am guessing it's some sort of license issue with WB.

Nothing really now. Maybe use them as generic orcs if I ever decide to do a MOC or something. I was hoping we would get some Gondor Soldiers for them to fight, but ya...

Dream more realistically? Isn't that an oxymoron? Most of the sets we propose in a "dream wave" probably wouldn't get made anyways, no matter how realistic. Even if Lego was doing a third wave they have their own criteria they follow which is much different than what we usually expect in sets. We often put lots of soldiers in our dream sets, but Lego usually gives us very few good soldiers and lots of named characters (and some we don't even see coming). Case in point Legolas in the Bo5A set instead of Thranduil, and Bain in the Lake-town set instead of Bolg. I doubt anyone saw the Pirate ship Ambush set coming either, especially before say a Balrog or Minas Tirith set. Personally, my "dream wave" would look something like this (since we know we won't be getting a third LotR wave now): Gondor Army - $29.99 1x Faramir in Gondor attire (could double as a regular Gondor Soldier) 1x Gondor Soldier 1x Ithilian Ranger 3x Mordor Orcs all in armor 1x Mountain Troll A white wall piece that can attach to the Witch King Showdown set to make it bigger Balrog Encounter - $39.99 1x Gandalf the Gray 2x Moria Orcs with new helms 1x Boromir? (since we haven't gotten him in any other sets besides MoM, thought this would probably be Frodo realistically) Big brick built Balrog and a decent sized bridge that you push a level and it explodes Mumakil Stampede - $59.99 1x Haradrim Chieftain/driver 1x Haradrim Archer 2x Easterling 1x Rohan Soldier on horse I would love a large molded Mumakil like in the video game and have the main building component of this set be the platform on it's back. If that doesn't work though, a brick built Mumakil would do. This set seems the second least likely in my line up due to it being a larger army builder basically Witch King Showdown - $99.99 1x Witch King 1x Eowyn 1x Merry in Rohan attire 1x Pippin in Gondor Attire 1x Theoden with Shadowmane 1x Denethor 1x Gothmog 1x Armored Mordor Orc 1x molded Fel Beast The front gates of Minas Tirith with maybe Grond. I would love to see this a full fledged Minas Tirith for around $250-300 and with more minifigures, but even for a dream wave that seems really unlikely. Make Sauron a promo you get when you spend $50 or $75 at the Lego store on any LotR purchases since Lego totally missed their chance to give us an armored Sauron with their Dol Guldur Battle set. Of course my ultimate dream wave would just have four army builder sets all priced $12.99 and each include four minifigures from a faction. Along with these it would have a Witch King showdown with all the figures mentioned above plus Faramir. Mordor Army 4x Mordor Orcs Gondor Army 3x Gondor Soldiers 1x Ithilien Ranger Rohan Army 3x Rohan Soldiers 1x Lothlorien Elves Eastern Army 3x Haradrim 1x Easterling

160 I think and 12 of those are "White Hand" armor. I was planning on buying a LOT more Mordor Orcs if we were to get a Gondor Soldier/Mordor Orc battle pack and they had came with proper armor. I was wanting to get about 80 Gondor Soldiers and 120 more Mordor Orcs to add to my existing 150 orcs (20 Orc Hunters, 20 Goblin Soldiers, 60 Mordor Orcs, and 50 Gunadabad Orcs) if Lego would have given us a Gondor/Mordor army builder set. I also have 9 Nazgul, 3 Cave Trolls, 18 Wargs, and 40 Moria Goblins.

Right, but the point was to keep the set as cheap as possible for Lego to produce. If they are going to be limited on the new molds and prints that they can do, I would rather they skip Eowyn since she is probably the easiest to re-create with existing parts. I mean there are absolutely NO existing torsos that look like Gondor Soldiers, and really no helms that look like the Witch King or Gondorian helms. Sure you can get by with a black torso and legs and some silver Castle armor pieces for the Gondor Soldiers, but imo they look much less like they should than say Eowyn in some Rohan gear with a female face and existing hair. The Gondor soldiers have rounded helms that come to a point at the top with wings on the side, armor on their shoulders and arms, and chest plates that go almost down to their knees. We have nothing like this currently. Eowyn is just in rag tag armor so in my mind that's much easier to create than unified soldiers with certain costumes. Honestly I don't think I would even want her with a helm on because then it's harder to distinguish her from other grunts. Of course it would be ideal to get Eowyn with a new helm and her exact outfit, but I just don't think it very likely.

I wish Lego would have done this more in past waves to better utilize their budget. You can't even see most of the dwarves' faces so re-using them here and there is fine imo. I would rather they did that and then give us important new prints that are actually noticeable. I just wish Lego wouldn't have wasted prints in the past like doing two different Goblin Town goblin prints, or two different Undead Soldiers, when those figs have only been in one set each. I would have much rather seen a new Mordor Orc print.

But then it starts to lose a lot of it's army building/multi-purchase appeal when you get that many named characters in a set. Honestly, getting Eowyn isn't that important imo. She is super easy to create using existing Lego pieces. Just get a Rohan Soldier's body (or any number of other suitable medieval torsos), a flesh female head from another theme, and some blonde-ish hair and ta-da! You have Eowyn. Faramir isn't as easy to re-create since we are missing the Gondor and Itilian Ranger attire. The Witch King and Gondor Soldiers are near impossible. We need a new molded helm for the Wtich King and a new print and preferably helm for Gondor Soldiers. I love Darth Caedus' suggestion. The only thing I would change would be to make it a $39.99 set and have a molded Fel Beast instead of brick built one. That way if the Fel Beast was molded it would match Smaug and many other molded Middle-Earth creatures, but I can understand why being brick built would significantly cut down on the cost and be more likely.

I'm pretty much content with what I have. I will pick up doubles of every Hobbit set from wave three, and maybe several of the Witch King set (or BL just the WK), but there really' aren't many soldiers to collect in that wave which I don't already have. I might get another 20 or so of the orcs with hair, and 10 or so of the Gundabad Orcs with new face printing, but definitely nothing major this time around.