Deathleech

Well the beard has the hair connected.. I forgot they were a single mold though.

Hey Carlos, any chance we can get a pic of Dain with his helmet off, but with his beard and hairpiece? It looks like the hair is separate from the helmet.

Ya, and LotR is a license so it's not like Lego is going to renew it just for another wave if they hadn't planned on doing one, much less renew it for a single set. The only way it could happen is if there was a huge backlash like when Lego ended Ninjago. Honestly, I doubt we have even a fraction as many fans as that though. If we did, the line probably would have gotten another wave of two... I just don't think the numbers are there. Even we as AFOLs are mainly picking up the sets at deep discounts to save a buck or two. If retailers have to sell sets at 30% off MSRP that's not going to make them want to order more once they run out of stock. Combine that with the theme not being terribly kids friendly and lackluster second (and third, in Hobbit's case) waves and well... no one should really be surprised we didn't get any more LotR waves

Anyone else notice the Witch King has the black Nazgul cape in the back of the instruction booklet but in the set he comes with a white version?

Unless Lego can come up with a good Castle theme for 2015 (NOT like their 2013 version.. blah ), I probably will stop collecting Lego as well. I was somewhat interested in the Super Hero theme, but after seeing the 2015 preview set and hearing where it's going, along with their 2014 offerings I am less than impressed. I actually really like some of the recent Star Wars sets (the Jabba ones, new Cantina with Dewback, especially the Ewok Village), but I haven't collected any Star Wars sets in a decade and I am a completionist so I feel like trying to get into the theme now wouldn't be worth it. That, and I also only like the sets based on the original trilogy. The cartoon spin offs and such don't interest me at all.

I gotta say I am a little disappointed (for the second time with this wave!). No LotR advertisement is a big bummer, though not unexpected at all considering everything pretty much pointed to it. I guess this will be our last Middle-Earth themed Lego set. The other big disappointment is no polybag. I was pretty sure we weren't going to be lucky enough to get an Iron Hill Soldier or Bolg, but Lego could of at least thrown us a bone and put a Gunadabad Orc with hair in a polybag. That would of helped ease the blow. After seeing better pics of the set I am still not crazy about it. The tower is pretty much exactly what I expected and underwhelming. I will say Thorin and especially Dain look good in the set, as do Galadrial and the Witch King. This is really no surprise though, the minifigures always have looked excellent.

That's kind of what I am thinking. I just don't think LotR has the same huge fan base as some of Lego's other themes. As great as all the Ideas projects are, most don't even have 1,000 votes. The only reason Nuju's has over 5,000 is because it was on Cuusoo for a few years before all it's existing votes were grand fathered over to Ideas. Rakrondewl's Minas Tirith has been up for almost 50 days now and doesn't even have 500 votes. It's averaging about 10 votes a day.. at that rate it will only have roughly 3500 votes when it meets it's deadline which is a hefty 2/3 short of what it needs to even be considered for production. I am just hoping Lego's next castle theme will give us some soldiers that kind of resemble Gondor Soldier. all we need are some pointly curved helms, Roman Shield in gray with black, and some gray shiny new chest armor on a black minifigure torso. Sure it wouldn't have the white tree symbol, but it would be close enough to make due. Ya, Lego would just pick p Game of Thrones over the Similarion. It's got a lot more attention right now anyways.

Yes but UHA was $29.99 MSRP when it was first released. It included 6 minifigures and 5 of them (all but one), were grunt soldiers. The Bo5A set is $60, only has 1 more minifigure, and it has 5 named characters and only 2 soldiers. Even if Legolas was replaced with a Mirkwood Elf Soldier, and Bard with an Iron Hill Dwarf Soldier, that would still be only 4 soldiers and 3 named characters. There isn't much multi-purchase appeal to the set with that many named characters. It should have 1, maybe 2 named characters tops if it were to be any sort of army builder. The Hobbit is mainly about the dwarves so it makes sense people are most concerned with getting Iron Hill soldiers. Also, there are several sets which could have include armored elves... a DoS Mirkwood set, a LotR prologue set, Lothlorien Elves at Helm's Deep, etc. There really aren't any dwarven armies ever shown in PJs versions though. LotR is nearly void of any dwarves, much less armies, except dead ones and Gimli (and Gloin at the Council). There were SUPPOSED to be dwarves in the prologue, but PJ chose not to show them. Really the only time we have or will see a dwarven army is in the Bo5A. Yes, but as I said the soldiers would easily fetch $8 a pop on BrickLink. That's almost triple what a normal minifigure cost. That makes building any sort of substantial army nearly impossible unless you have LOADs of cash. I would want at least 20-30 of each soldier but that would cost me almost $500 bucks. I could buy the entire third Hobbit wave two times over for that price. Army building them wouldn't be practical at all.

I doubt many AFOLs are going to purchase an expensive $60 set multiple times for army building when over two thirds of the set is named characters. And really this is my issue with everyone wishing the Bo5A set was an army builder, or at least had more generic troops. What's it matter if it did? So we get one generic dwarf soldier and/or one generic elf soldier in a $60 set with four or five named characters? Army building them would be near impossible for cheap (they would easily fetch $8+ on Bricklink.. the Rohan Soldier in a set half that price was $4 at it's cheapest). I dunno about you guys, but I don't think there's much you can do with one soldier. Sure they might look cool, but I would rather get a main character given the choice between one generic dwarf soldier or Dain. The Mirkwood Elf Army set is where I think Lego really missed their opportunity. They finally give us a primarily good guy army build, but it's loaded with boring soldiers. Lego could/should have given us at least one armored elf in the MEA set, but preferably two. It would of made the set SO much more appealing than loading it with those green hooded elves. Would it be movie accurate? Maybe not, but the whole set is based on scenes and characters not even in the movie so who cares? I know personally the only big selling feature of MEA for me was the brown warg. If it hadn't had that, I probably would of only bought two or three tops. Lego should have definitely given us an armored elf soldier or two and some orc hair/ear pieces and that set would of been a knock out. Then the could of had more room in wave three to focus on the Iron Hill Dwarf soldiers and maybe the armored orcs and humans.

I and many others would be totally fine with an existing shield like the old Fantasy Era Orc, or Roman Shield being re-used for the Gondor Shield. Then all Lego needs to make for new molds would be the Gondor Helm and do new prints, which to my understanding are relatively cheap. The armored orcs could re-use the Fantasy Era helm and just have new prints themselves. The large molded creature could be a cave troll re-colored tan to look like a mountain troll. I know it might not be perfect and would be missing the cool armor, but I would totally settle for that over any other expensive new mold, or re-using any other existing creature molds. If that's too expensive to include in a $45-50 set, a black horse or light tan warg would make due.

I think the name is non-canon, it's from the Battle for Middle-Earth II video game. I just looked in the actual Hobbit book again and I didn't notice the name mentioned anywhere. I didn't even notice them mention he has a red axe? Is it from the appendices, or did I just miss it? It's possible I just missed it in the Hobbit because it was only mentioned in a single sentence.

It's non-canon. It seems like PJ is adding it to his Hobbit films though, what other axe would Dain be wielding?

How much do the softer molds for the CMF series cost? I presume much less considering there are so many per wave? That is another reason I suggested doing a LotR CFM series. The cheaper molds would work well for LotR, which requires a substantial amount. Also, I dunno about others but I would GLADLY pay $45 for a Gondor Army Builder if it had 6 minifigures like UHA and MEA. As longas it had at least 2 Gondor Soldiers with new helms and prints, Roman Shields re-used and re-colored, and at least 3 armored orc prints with the Fantasy Era helm I'm all in. It's the type of plastic used. ABS requires much more expesnive molds and machinery. That's why Megabloks can mass produce different figures for sets and have so many different parts, but the plastic feels like crap.

This. Exactly this. I don't think kids really care much about good soldiers to bolster their ranks when you already have 9 Fellowship members or 13 dwarves + Gandalf and Bilbo. Bad guys are another story though. Notice how Lego tries to put at least 2 orc grunts in every set they make sense in, yet we don't even get one good soldier in most sets? It's because Lego figures kids already have TONS of good named characters and they need some bad guys to fight. The good guys don't need more mundane soldiers to help them when there are already so many named characters. Look at the LotR line. Right now there are 21 total orc/goblin grunts you would have if you bought one of every set. There are only a few named bad characters with Saruman, Grima, Lurtz, and Mouth of Sauron. There is also a Cave Troll. That's less than 30 bad guys. How many good guys are there? Around 18 plus 2 eagles, and that's not including doubles or alternate prints. So you are looking at 20 good guys facing 26 bad guys if you buy one of every set. It's even worse with the Hobbit line. In the movies it's generally 10 bad guys to 1 good guy, but with the Lego sets, due to limited space for minifigures, it's not even 2 to 1. Heck, it's even less than 1.5 to 1, it's almost a straight 1 to 1 ratio of good to bad. Imagine if Lego loaded their sets with Gondor Soldiers, Lothlorien Elves, or more Rohan Soldiers? Those numbers would quickly tip in the good guys favor. Why would Lego opt for say a generic dwarf soldier instead of Dain? Dain will obviously have a much larger role than any generic dwarf soldier and kids will surely want him more.

Yes people can have dreams, but they also need to be realistic about what we may actually get. If not they will just be let down. Look at the third Hobbit wave for example. People were expecting a Bo5A set to be this huge $60 army builder full of cool armored soldiers and with tons of new molds, prints, and creatures. Instead we got a few new prints, no new soldiers (just re-hashed orcs), and an eagle. Thorin, Bard, and Dain seem to be the highlight while Azog, Legolas, and the orcs seem to be a huge disappointment. Now look at how people are rampantly speculating about the polybags. "I think we will get Bolg as a S@H exclusive", "I think we will get four polybags since this is the end of the theme", "I think we will get an Iron Hill Dwarf polybag!". What makes people think we will get ANY of this based on past polybags? We have to be at least a little realistic or we will be massively let down. Lego has seemingly put less and less investment into their Middle-Eath themes so I don't see a S@H exclusive actually happening. Furthermore they seem to generally give us good guys as exclusives... Elrond, Bilbo(s), Gandalf, Legolas, etc. I don't think Bolg is really a huge priority for Lego seeing as he hasn't really done anything of importance in the films. I feel as if PJ basically gave Azog all of Bolg's main traits and roles in the film and has treated Bolg like more of a low rank henchman. I would guess we will get three polybags at most, like every other wave, not four. We might get two a few months after the final wave is released and then one more next year when Bo5A comes to home release. Honestly though, I wouldn't count on this. Who knows if the license will have expired by the time Bo5A comes to DVD/Blu-Ray? Why would Lego release a figure for it when they havn't had any new LotR/Hobbit sets in months? Why would Lego release even normal promo polybags with the wave when they didn't for the second LotR wave? I could easily see Lego opting to skip doing any polybags this time around, especially with their seeming lack of interest in the theme. Lastly there is the Iron Hill Dwarf polybag theory. While possible, I dunno if it seems that likely. We did get one poolybag before that used random pieces from other figures to create a "new" one with the Mirkwood Elf Guard polybag. However, that used a generic green hood and the rest of the minifigure was the elf from the Barrel Escape set. We also got a proper Mirkwood Elf scout/soldier in the next wave. I am not sure Lego would use "unique" heads/beards/helms to create a random soldier that isn't even available in their normal line up. Still, I wouldn't rule out the possibility, I just don't think it very likely. That leaves the most likely candidates for polybags the Gundabad Orc, and then one of the main heroes from the story. Lego seems to like to stick minifigures from cheaper sets in their polybag (usually in the $13-30 range), so I too doubt Thorin or any other dwarves will be in there. Thorin is a huge selling point of the Bo5A set. Bilbo also seems unlikely as well. The most likely seem candidates seem like Bard, maybe Bain, or Tauriel.

You should buy the Helm's Deep. I am sure Dol Guldur will stick around at least a few more months before it starts disappearing. Most of the Middle-Earth waves last at LEAST a year before they start disappearing from shelves, with some sets going much longer. An Unexpected Gathering, for example, is still available over a year and a half after it was initially released. I bet most of the wave two Hobbit sets will start disappearing around December.

Exactly. Lego seems to love to do ghosts or apparitions any chance they get. The Necromancer, Witch King, Undead, etc. While technically a good soldier, the Undead aren't the same as the other factions in that they aren't even living anymore.

What do you mean exclusive? The Bo5A home video exclusive? If there even IS an exclusive, that will most likely be a named character that possibly has a new print. If you are referring to the promo polybags, I am thinking a Gundabad Orc and either Thorin or Bard will be the most likely candidates.

Because there is still a chance we might get future LotR sets? Sure it might be extremely low (read abysmal), but the chance is still there. After seeing the wave three Hobbit sets, it really hit me how much Lego tries to cater to kids. Look at the LotR theme... only ONE good guy faction is represented and that is Rohan with a SINGLE soldier. Every other good character released in the line is named. No Gondor Soldiers, no Lothlorien Elves... heck we didn't even get Easterlings or Haradrim. The Hobbit is slightly better with Mirkwood Elves and Lake-town Guards, but both served as antagonist at one point or another to Thorin and company. As much as we would love for Lego to throw in all these army builders, it's pretty apparent that's not the direction they want to take with their Middle-Earth sets. If they did we would have seen Iron Hill Dwarves and armored Mirkwood Elves. Heck, the only reason I think we get so many orcs is due to a lack of named bad guy characters, and also so all the good guys (which there are a lot of.. 9 Fellowship members and 13 dwarves alone) have someone to fight. When you already have a dozen good guys you don't really desire no name soldiers to bolster your good ranks. I remember when I was younger Rebel and Endor Soldiers were always the bottom of my list to buy, and when I did I only got 1 or maybe 2 max AFTER I had gotten Leia, Luke, Han, Chewie, C-3PO, R2D2, etc. I remember a designer video where Lego even mentioned they weren't originally going to include all 13 dwarves in their first Hobbit wave. That seems ludicrous, but if you think about it most little kids probably don't even remember or know all the dwarves. They focus on the main characters.. Gandalf, Bilbo, Thorin, and maybe 2-3 of the more prominent dwarves. If a set has 5 characters in it like Black Gates, it probably makes sense for Lego to include the figures they did. They get Gondor represented with Aragorn, Gandalf the White, the Mouth of Sauron as a bad named character, and 2 nameless orc grunts for the good guys to fight. As much as we all would LOVE that set to have included a Gondor Soldier, and as much as it makes sense to us, Lego probably sees little value in it. So kids can get one soldier that looks similar to other knights in their castle line? How is that going to sell a set over Aragorn or Gandalf the White? Or even over some orcs and MoS for them to fight? In all honesty it's probably not. Don't get me wrong, I am as big of an army builder fan as anyone, but AFOL sales make up what, 5-10% of Lego's total sales? And how many of those 5-10% are repeat buys from a single person? I doubt very many. To include a Gondor Soldier to appease army builder fans but have less named characters or baddies for the good guys to fight in the process would probably hurt sales among kids pretty heavily.

Ya, but the AUJ Target exclusive was blue coat Bilbo. With both video games we got an exclusive figure and with the AUJ we got one, Blu-Ray DoS was the first digital entertainment that gave us a re-used minifigure. It's hard to say really if we will get anymore and what they will be. I'm not expecting any polybags period, but if we DO get some I will be delightfully surprised.

Pretty much everyone missing has already been listed except maybe the Haradrim Leader (this guy), and Gamling. My top three for each category would be as follow (main characters, factions, creatures): Main Characters Witch King Eowyn Faramir Factions Gondor Soldier Armored Elves (could serve as Mirkwood, Lothlorien, or first age I suppose, really any generic armored would be fine) Iron Hill Dwarves (I actually would prefer Easterlings and then Haradrim before Iron Hill Dwarves because I feel they are much more distinct looking and we have NO representation for these factions, but I don't think they would be as big a hit with kids or AFOLs) Creatures Fel Beast Bear form Beorn Mountain Troll If we got even half of these I would be totally happy with the Middle-Earth themes. Sure there are a lot of other characters that probably could use a minifigure like Sauron, Gothmog, old Bilbo, Bolg, etc., but unless there were to be 5+ waves for each line I don't see a lot of those relatively minor characters being made.

Well it's possible a Minas Tirith set did poorly in the focus testing and that's why Lego nixed the idea. If Lego saw an Ideas Minas Tirith get 10,000 votes in a year though, that might change their mind when they realize there is more interest than they originally thought. Often times we see products do really well or poor with testing groups, but then the exact opposite happens when they are released to the general public. This is hard to say. On these forums, Helm's Deep was infinitely more favored than the Pirate Ship. With kids or pirate ship fans it might have done much better than we expect or see on these forums. It really depends on what the majority of people are buying the Lego LotR for. The minifigures? The builds? The parts? As a themed set the Pirate Ship Ambush didn't make a lot of sense to us Lego LotR fans, but it's possible it more than made up for that with it's broader cross appeal to pirate ship fans and kids.

The packaging mentions nothing about being an exclusive though, it just has the SDCC stamp. They aren't really obligated to make it exclusive. After looking at the LotR and Hobbit themes as a whole I am a little bit less disappointed than I initially was. Lego did a fairly good job of getting all the main and secondary characters out to everyone. With LotR we are only missing Eowyn, Faramir, the Witch King, and then some minor characters like Denethor and alt outfits like Rohan Merry and Gondor Pippin. With the Hobbit the only characters we are really missing are Bolg and bear form Beorn. That's not too bad at all when you think of the dozens of characters we DID get. The biggest holes seem to come from missing factions or soldiers. If you look at all the sets though, it doesn't seem like Lego is really big on including good guy soldiers, and why would they be? When you already have several dwarves from Thorin's company in a set, or all the Fellowship, and then bad guys they have to fight, that doesn't leave much room for mundane "good" soldiers. In the LotR line the only good guy soldier we got was the Rohan Soldier. No Lothlorien Elves, no Gondor Soldiers, no Easterlings or Haradrim. Basically we just got tons of orcs, all the main bad guys (minus the Witch King), the Fellowship, plus some other minor characters. In the Hobbit we got a few more good guy factions like the Lake-town Guards and Mirkwood Elves (who could be viewed as bad initially since they are in conflict with the main characters), but we were still missing the dwarf soldiers, human soldiers, and elves in actual armor. Like I said before though, it makes perfect sense. If you are a kid and get just one of each set are you really going to want a bunch of armored Iron Hill Dwarf soldiers when you have Thorin's company of 13 dwarves, plus Dain already? It would be like double the amount of good guys to bad. Lego probably figures including one Iron Hill Dwarf soldier in a Bo5A set isn't going to really add much to the set with kids so why bother? Give them some main characters they haven't been able to get since wave one over two years ago..

I believe Orc Forge was shown off with the rest of the wave one LotR sets at some toy fair? I remember that's where we originally saw five figures in the set instead of just the four we ended up getting (one extra Mordor Orc with hair). I would say the chances of a store exclusive showing up for this last Hobbit wave are zilch to none. Polybags are probably 50/50 and I would guess an orc soldier is much more likely than a dwarf soldier. At any rate, I love how people are complaining about the lack of new molds in the sets and Lego skimping out on them. They also are complaining about the line ending, but then they turn around and say they won't buy any sets unless they are heavily discounted at 30% or more. I doubt Lego is getting lots of repeat orders on sets when stores have to sell them for 30%+ just to move them.

I imagine if Lego had made an Oliphant set it would be brick built, so technically we can make that ourselves. I can't see Lego doing a molded Oliphant because it wouldn't be very big, at least no where near as big as in the movies. It would probably be about Smaug's size at best. The Haradrim are also fairly easy to mock using existing pieces (PoP is great for this). Regardless, an UCS Minas Tirith wouldn't do us much good if it doesn't have new molds. That means no Gondor Soldiers, Witch King, or Fel Beast (unless brick built, but that would be weird considering Smaug is a molded creature...). Personally I wish Lego would just give us ONE more $30-40 LotR set. They could easily include a Fel Beast, Witch King, Eowyn, 2 Gondor Soldiers, and 2 armored Mordor Orcs in it. If The Witch King had a black hood as well as his crown, and Eowyn had a Rohan helm this would be the PERFECT army builder AND final set to get all the main missing characters (except Faramir, but meh...). Give us a Gondor Soldier polybag and we are golden.