Deathleech

You can enter a shipping address that is different from your billing address. I have done it when I order online since I still have to update my billing address after moving (old address is parent's so not a priority).

How so? In the book there is little detail and I envisioned the dwarves just kind of making a b line for the exit, hacking the few goblins that got in the way. I didn't picture it AT ALL like the film. In the film they are using ladders and planks of wood to brush mass amounts of goblins off the bridges like they are dust, swinging and jumping about like trapeze artist, and using entire chunks of Goblin Town to slide down mountain sides like they are on some giant snow board. Then at the end they have a 500+ pound Goblin King fall from a few hundred feet on top of them and get up like it's nothing? I am pretty sure most of the dwarves would of died from that. I'm all for PJ spicing things up because quite frankly, the Hobbit book was pretty boring and lacking a lot of detail when it came to the action sequences. But PJ just takes it too far in the Hobbit films. I feel like everything is so over the top and ridiculous. Legolas feels like he is a skate boarder grinding down almost anything he can get his feet on. It feels more like a cartoon than a live action movie. Sure there are more small skirmishes than huge battles but look at the LotR. The Moria Orcs scene, Riders of Rohan vs Uruk-hai carrying Merry/Pippin, and the Wargs vs Riders of Rohan are all great examples of how to make small fights exciting while not completely ridiculous. You don't see Legolas hoping Warg to Warg shooting them in the head as he goes, or Gimli doing barrel rolls into hundreds of Moria Orcs and killing them. As for the Goblin King, I get he is deranged and twisted but I never in my wildest dreams pictured ANY goblin or orc as having a flamboyant personality. I imagine them more like Azog is portrayed. Instead the Goblin King comes off more like the Joker from the animated cartoon series. A silly comic book villain.

So we haven't heard anything about the medium sized set which is most likely an army builder and $30, right? We also haven't heard anything about Beorn in bear form which Lego would surely want to make (I bet kids kids will love the character, especially when they see him in the film fighting in bear form). Maybe the army builder will have the molded creature be Beorn? It would be kind of lame for multiple purchases (who wants an army of bears?), but might make sense. Then Lego could keep the 6 minifigure slots open to soldiers to satisfy army builders and MOCers would get a number of bears to use for whatever reason (zoo, forest MOCs). It kind of makes sense since I doubt Lego will give us another warg in another army builder and horses aren't really used at the Bo5A in the book. The only other options would be an eagle, new bat mold, or a stag/boar.

I wish Lego would just give us more info on their design process in general. I absolutely love the videos where the designers give us some insight to what they were thinking. For instance why they made the Pirate Ship Ambush set when it wasn't a major scene, or why they used the bald caps with ears on the Goblin Town goblins.

Here is a comparison: I'm not sure why people keep saying the Roman shield needs to be re-used when it's clearly not the best choice. Obviously the stud in the middle is all wrong, but even the shape isn't that close. Granted the troll shield isn't perfect, but it at least has a closer shape and no stud in the center. It more closely resembles the rounded top and bottom and is a longer shield overall much like the Gondor ones. It actually is a little too large but it's shape is so much closer overall it's fine.

Ya, it would be great if we could get a report from an actual Tolkien/Hobbit fan Right now everyone who has reported on the Hobbit line seems completely in the dark. A "dwarf" could easily be a number of things. It could be Dain, Bain, or an Iron Hill dwarf soldier. An armored elf might be a soldier or Elrond. The Witch King might not even be the Witch King, it could be Sauron. It's really hard to gather much info when the people reporting have no idea on the source material Also I think it's likely Lego would use a new mold for Smaug since he has a pretty unique shape and it's also the big sending off wave for the Hobbit. Lego should want to go all out with their biggest set and make a proper Smaug mold considering he is such a main antagonist. They make unique molds for other sets all the time that only use the mold once like the triceratops in the Dino line and the Cave Troll and Goblin King who are arguably much less important so why not do one for Smaug? Right, but I absolutely hate this argument. Just because anything is possible doesn't mean it's likely. I mean which seems more likely, Lego sticking to the same set structure they have already used for several past waves or coming up with some totally random one last minute? By this logic Lego might giving us "real" army builder last minute and we will get a bunch of $15 sets with 4 soldiers like Star Wars in the last Hobbit wave. Or heck, Lego might go crazy and just give us a set with 2 Gondor Soldiers, Faramir, Eowyn, the Witch King, Gothmog, and a Fel Beast with a brick built Balrog all for $60. I mean sure ANYTHING is possible, but what reason would Lego have to change their model in the last Hobbit wave where an army builder is arguably most pertinent?

It's possible, but personally I hope Lego doesn't do it. If they have a brick built Smaug and a molded one in two different sets, essentially one is going to be "useless" if you buy both sets. Is the molded version going to be his baby or something? I would rather see a D2C set made of Minas Tirith or something not done yet rather than "waste" the spot. I know Lego has done it before, especially in themes like Star Wars where they have a cheaper set then the UCS version with way more detail. I would probably skip the D2C Smaug though unless it was absolutely stunning. It probably wouldn't have any new molds or prints. Heck it probably wouldn't have any minifigures at all. Personally I don't find Lego's organic creatures that amazing anyways. I know it's hard to recreate smooth curves and skin from bricks, but I just find all their brick built dragons really lacking

It's not selling well because it has a horrible play feature, no enemies to fight, and the unique characters in it are ones kids don't care about (as opposed to us adults who LOVE Arwen and Elrond). I see the set regularly priced at $25, down from the MSRP $30 and it's STILL one of the only sets filling up shelves at stores. I think Lothlorien would hold largely the same fate unless they built a cool tree house. Even then it's going to be expensive to get a good tree with platform and there will be few play features and no enemies to battle. It would have more secondary characters kids don't really care about so it would probably do poorly as well. Well there is this shield which is close to the tear drop shape, but I agree a more square shield seems to be what's used most and would be the best option (plus it's more unique and looks cool!). The Roman shield has that stupid stud in the middle and the right angle edges so I think this shield might be a better option (of course with the correct print). As for Treebeard vs Balrog, Alcarin is right. We already have the Ent from Orthanc which looks close enough to Treebeard and can be MOC'd with a handful of pieces to match him exactly. What do we have for the Balrog to build off of? Nothing. Neither could offer more than one new print or mold on a figure so that's irrelevant. Treebeard could have Grishnak and the Balrog could have Moria Orcs with helms.

I have my assembled Lego sets in a display case against the only wall in the room with a window (it's right next to the window on the left side facing in towards the room. The light isn't coming in through the window and hitting them directly since the back and sides of the display are solid wood, but could light be reflecting into the front of the case and damaging them? I know this probably isn't the best place to ask, but I figured we are talking about UV damage so I would bring it up... I wonder if the angle had anything to do with this. Usually bricks are put together straight on, not from an angle like the machine is connecting and seperating them. Plate pieces that need a brick separator might be an exception and would probably wear quicker anyways due to being so thin. Regardless 37,000 times is quite a bit, I doubt most of us will put the same brick together even a fraction of that throughout our life, lol.

I don't think most actually HATE them, like want to cause them physical harm or are truly disgusted by their shows. They just throw the word around lightly. Really they probably just dislike them for reasons mentioned above and probably choose not to watch them as a result.

Probably because everything about it was just... wrong. For starters the Goblin King is suppose to be this huge disgusting leader of malformed goblins. You would expect a harsh, ruthless leader but instead he is flamboyant? Give me a break. His personality doesn't fit his appearance or stature AT ALL. Then to make matters worse it seems like any action scene in the Hobbit PJ wants to add as much CGI as possible and make it over the top. Lets have the dwarves fall 100 feet and bounce up like they are fine and run through Goblin Town like it's the octagon. The scenes with Legolas are even worse, apparently everything in Middle Eath is waxed down so he can slide and flip off it. Just because you can add CGI doesn't mean you need to go over the top with it. It makes the movies film cheap, almost like cartoons or something in live action.

I don't really think Lego could get away with using the existing dragon mold. They could maybe re-use the head but Smaugs wings are attached to His arms where as the Lego dragon has seperate wings and arms. That's too big of a difference for Lego not to make a new mold.

It would be incredibly silly for Lego NOT to give us an army builder if it's a set based on the Battle of Five Armies.

Just because people don't like their reviews doesn't automatically mean they are jealous. There have already been a number of valid reasons stated of disliking them (they draw their videos out to long, they are obnoxious, not very knowledgeable about LEGO or source material on licensed sets, etc.). Personally I don't HATE them, but I don't enjoy their videos either. I just chose not to watch them because it's really hard to bear listening to most of their reviews.

Dain maybe, but not necessarily the dwarves. We did already get an army builder that was heavy on elves with MEA so I dunno how likely Lego will be to add them to another army builder, even if they are armored versions. Dwarf soldiers seem like a bigger priority to me considering we haven't gotten them in any set yet. I would love to see Lego totally nix the unique character and give us a "true" army builder. 1 armored dwarf, 1 armored elf, a Lake-town soldier/militia fig, and 3 armored orcs. That would be ideal.

Err, right. That seems odd to have 3 minifigures in an $11.99 set considering so far we have only seen 2 minifigures in all the other smaller sets for LotR/Hobbit.

I would say Faramir, Eowyn, and the Witch King are the only must haves left from the LotR. Rohan Merry can easily be mocked from existing parts. Just use Eomer's torso with some dark green arms and cloak and add some short brown legs and there you go! Since I doubt we would get a new Rohan helm even if an official set is made, you can just use the existing Rohan horse helm or use his head with hair. Gondor Pippin would be a little tougher unless we get a Gondor Soldier. If we DID get the Gondor Soldier you could do the same thing, take the torso, some short legs, and put Pippin's head on it. Add the Gondor helm or hair and voila! Denethor and Gothmog would be nice, but I don't consider either to be essential. I would rather get a Gondor Soldier more than almost any of these characters tbh.

According to ianmrid in the LEGO Hobbit 2014 thread, the smallest set with the Witch King and Elrond also has Galadriel. He said it's £11.99, which is $19.99 and the price point that usually has 3 minifigures so it makes sense.

I love all the mis-matched weapons. Naboo Star fighter with a crossbow, Emperor Palatine with a scimitar, etc. Who needs lightsabers and blasters when you can kick it old school!

I wonder if some people are ordering it directly from Lego and having it shipped to the buyer's address? That would save quite a bit for them with the free shipping Lego offers. I can't imagine shipping is a ton though, probably around $15 to most places? If they sell for $265, eBay takes $26.50 out like you said, or 10% (unless they are a top rated seller, then it's only 21.50). PayPal is 30 cents plus 2.9% of the total, so another $7.87+0.30 = $8.17. Shipping is probably around $15. That's just under $50 bucks. If they bought the set for 212.50 after taxes (what it comes up for me) that's a total of $262.50. They made about $2.50 and got $10 in free VIP points. Not really much of a profit really, but it's something I guess. The big unknown is of course shipping. If it's under $15 they are making a few more bucks, if it's more they are breaking even. If they are shipping right from Lego they are making about 20 bucks plus the 10 VIP which is a decent profit.

Did the $30(?) set seem to be an army builder similar to Mirkwood Elf Army and Uruk-hai Army? Is that maybe why you didn't recognize the other characters? Do you recall if they look like armored dwarves, elves, or orcs? Was there any other molded creatures besides Smaug, either new or re-used? The eagle, Warg, etc.?

The sets I had when I was really younger are pretty horrible. Like from 5-8 they have gunk on them and teeth marks. Oh how a brick seperator would of been great back then. The ones I got later on in my child hood, like 9-13 are in pretty remarkable condition. I put them together and just displayed them so they are pretty much in tact and in mint condition other than an inch thick layer of dust.

You could always just imagine the used version was the set YOU had as a kid. You know, rubbed off printing, teeth mark on bricks, bricks missing, etc. Pretty much what every 8 year old's Lego sets look like

TRU loves to run their sales too. I am sure people see the BOGO 50%, $15 off $60 spent, etc. and jump all over it thinking they are getting a great deal. The thing is, most of the time these sales amount to little more than 5% off with the mark up TRU put's on their sets. They just trick unknowing people into thinking they are getting the set much cheaper than MSRP when really it's only a little off, if any at all. It's really kind of crappy and a reason I absolutely loathe Toys R Us. On the bright side this shady tactic can't work to well for them as they have steadily been on the decline for years now.

That's what I was thinking when I heard he will be glow in the dark. He may end up looking to much like the Undead Soldiers... As for Smaug, I think the Castle dragon actually works pretty well for him after seeing deskp's comparison. The Castle dragon isn't much shorter than the t-rex but is much longer and thinner. That's pretty much how Smaug is in the films. He is slender and long more than bulky. Of course Lego will need a new mold regardless because the arms/wings are totally wrong, as are other smaller parts like the tail and head, but you get the idea. Maybe the same height as the t-rex but with the slenderness and length of the Castle dragon? I dunno. The total lack of Bo5A set info is kind of disappointing. That's what I was looking forward to most