Deathleech

I think Lego takes AFOLs into account more than you may think. In the Mirkwood Elf Army designer video, the designer specifically states the elven minifigures did not have any flesh color on their torsos to keep them more appealing for use with yellow AND flesh heads.

I was expecting it to be done more like Mines of Moria, not like some whacky fun house the dwarves were trapped in. When i was reading about Mirkwood in the book i imagined a very dark, black forest not something that just looked like it had muted gray coloring. PJ could of still given the dwarves and Bilbo torches to light the way a little. There wasn't even that much time spent in Mirkwood compared to the book so I don't see the problem with keeping it dark.

Ya, if Lego wanted to go bare bones. It's really just a dream for Lego to give us a second Rohan helm because it would probably never be used again. So far we only have one helm design and its not really the most common one, it's more of a prestigious helmet seen on higher ranking soldiers. Not the type seen on the vast majority of the Rhorrim which are much more rag tag. As for the molds yes, they can be insanely expensive ranging anywhere from 10,000-250,000 for the most intricate ones. What does a new print cost Lego though? I am guessing no more than 5,000 so ya, it's understandable why they would be more inclined to do new prints rather than new molds. I was also reading the soften plastic is cheaper to make molds of and hence why the CMFs almost always have it. It's generally used when the piece won't be reused a ton. Maybe that can also give us an idea how much a particular mold will be reused? We have seen the elf and orc hair/ears reused in at least three sets now and it was a hard plastic piece. The goblins in the goblin King Battle set was softer so it probably won't be used again? And of course all the softer plastic used for the unique elves and dwarves probably won't be used must either. I am guessing there are other factors in deciding against hard vs soft plastic besides just amount of reuse though.

I've made around 20 Lego purchases from BrickLink and so far they have all been pretty good. The worst was an order where three helmets had the nose piece on them damaged. Two had slight stress lines and one was pushed in and cracked from the stress. This was probably damaged in the mail since it was an international order and the plastic at that spot is prone to breaking. It wasn't a huge deal. I had another seller unable to fill an order because they didnt have all the pieces, but they refunded me for what they didnt have quickly. Finally a third international order took about a month to get to me but I guess it was due to customs holding it. The seller sent me a tracking number as proof and indeed everything was as he said... Ship day, delay in customs, expected received date, etc. Other than that every order has been perfect from BL, and even those above weren't terrible. It should be noted all these orders were listed as new. I have never ordered any Lego from eBay because I tend to just buy minifigures and they are always significantly cheaper on BL, usually as much as a few dollars. I have sold tons on eBay and never had any significant problems. A few people never paid and i got my fees refunded (4 or 5 out of 200+ sales). Only a few of those sales have been Lego though.

Right, I think it all evens out in the end. Small sets only have 1 instruction manual with several pages while bigger sets can have 3+ instruction books.

I am in the camp who thinks they should mix the themes up each year. Maybe they could offer two "popular" themes (Star Wars, City, or Friends), and then rotate the third for a different theme? So one year we get Castle, SW, and City, the next we get Friends, City, and Space, the next Ninjago, SW and Frends, etc. I feel like focusing on the same themes each year makes them very unappealing and stale, even if they offer new minifigures and builds.

Wouldn't a Swiffer like this work? It feels almost like soft toilet paper so I find it hard to believe it would scratch the bricks at all. Plus, it seems much easier than disassembling your whole collection, washing them, then re-assembling (especially for huge collections). Personally I try to have glass cases to display my Lego collection. They don't hold a ton, can be expensive, and don't totally eliminate dust, but it definitely helps.

It could be a lot of exclusives, but I don't see a problem with that. The Dol Guldur Battle set has several exclusives in it... Radagast, the Necromancer, and Azog (technically not an exclusive, but with only 100 made for Comic-con he might as well be). Lake-town Chase also has mostly exclusives, Thorin with a new print, the Master of Lake-town, and Bard. The Lake-town guard could be considered an exclusive since the polybag may or may not be widely available in all countries and is more a promotional item than an official set. I think Lego is more against new molds than new prints, and a Witch King Battle set wouldn't have THAT many new molds. Only two really. The Witch King definitely needs a new molded crown and there should be at least one new Rohan helm for Merry or Eowyn to wear, but Theoden could re-use the helm from Helm's Deep or existing hair, as could Merry/Eowyn (whichever doesn't get a helm). That's only 2 new molds.. not bad at all for a $50+ set. Lego also could re-use to Rohan helm for grunts if they ever gave us another battle pack with more Rohan Soldiers in it (however unlikely this may be). The Nazgul and Theoden could have the exact same torso and legs as released in other sets, as could Merry and Eowyn if Lego really wanted to get lazy.

They wouldn't, which was my whole point why Lego wouldn't confirm or deny another wave. Keeping people in the dark makes Lego more money then telling everyone their game plan. If people know there will be Gundabad Orcs with hair and ears in a future army builder they won't buy near as many DGA sets, or if armored elves are coming it would hurt MEA sales. The unique character should definitely just be Faramir. He works in both an Osgiliath and Minas Tirith based set, he is important enough, and he could double as a common soldier since he looks plain enough. He is basically the Eomer of Gondor. A Balrog set should have Boromir and Gandalf, as well as 2 Moria Orcs with their helm. That's 2 exclusive characters with new molds we will probably never get in another set.

For the people interested in just the Gondor Soldiers, sure. The set would probably have a few orcs though, which could impact existing sets with orcs in a negative way. I do think when it comes to something Gondor it's not as big of a deal because we have NO Gondor Lego sets yet except Aragorn in his Gondor garb. Heck, I would be fine if they just gave us a single set that was a Gondor Soldier army builder. It could have Faramir who could double as a grunt, 2 Gondor Soldiers, and 3 orcs. If we got this we could MOC or own Minas Tirith or Osgiliath or whatever. The only thing missing would be the Witch King and Eowyn then, but I would be be ok with that as long as we got a Gondor Soldier print.

That's the thing though, I am not saving anywhere. I just bought more Gundabad Orcs and Lake-town Guard polybags than I otherwise would of because I am not that hopeful of a third LotR wave. If there IS a third wave with a great Gondor Soldier/Mordor Orc army builder I will certainly buy dozens regardless of what I just purchased. The only thing it would of changed are my current purchases and I would of bought less because they weren't as appealing. It's like the Mirkwood Elf polybag, I ended up buying 20 of them when it was released because I had no idea we would be getting the Mirkwood Elf Army builder. I still plan on buying 10 of the MEA set despite buying the polys,. I just would of only bought maybe 5 polybags rather than 20 had I known what I do now. Obviously this works in Lego's favor and is probably another reason they don't tell people what's planned. If they tell us the line is cancelled it could make lots of people bail out immediately and seriously hurt the sales of already released waves. If they tell us the line is going to keep going and tell us what's planned, it could also hurt present sales. Would people buy near as many MEA sets if they knew for sure an armored elf minifigure was coming in a Bo5A army builder set? I doubt it.

Ahh, you are right! I just re-read that part and it does indeed say silver and white gems, like in the film. I'm not sure where I read emeralds, nor why Lego keeps putting green/emerald gems in their wood elf sets.

Ya, it looks like you used roughly ~30 pieces on foliage, plus a few dozen more on the tree. You could probably cut the tree in half and take out all the foliage so that's about 50 pieces removed right there. You could also get rid of the green plates everything is sitting on since Lego rarely does that anymore, usually the base is only a stud or two wider than what's sitting on it. That's another 20-30 pieces gone. Now just remove the rocks and take out some details and you are probably down another 100 pieces, putting it right around the 300 piece count similar to Mirkwood Elf Army.

There are tons of factors to consider with Lego's regional pricing structure. The main reason the US has lower prices is because of our large population compared to other countries, and the fact the US buys a TON of "stuff". For example America has 314 million people compared to the UK's 63m and Australia's 22m. If everyone bought ten Lego sets in Australia for the same price as in the US, Lego would still be making almost a third what they do if everyone in the US bought one set. Look at it as a bulk discount deal like some stores have. What cost more per unit, a pack of 10 paper towels or a single roll of paper towels? It's easier to ship and sells 20m units of Lego to one country than it is to ship and sell 20m to 20 countries all with their own taxes and, regulations, fees, etc. Of course this is an over simplified example, but you get the idea. The US also has tons of toy competition.. Kre-o, Megabloks, etc. competing with Lego. All of these other brands are pretty big, offer decent quality (still not Lego standard though), and are much cheaper than even US Lego prices. I know this is a Lego forum so the price of Lego is often a hot debate, but people forget US citizens get gouged in other areas. We pay the most for health care by far, paying much more than any other developed country. Operations and drugs can cost anywhere from double to 10x what they do in other countries. Paying seven times for a five thousand dollar operation (35k vs 5k) doesn't seem quite as bad as paying an extra $20 for a Lego set in retrospect, does it?

That actually would of been a great set and would of fixed MEA having to include Thranduil. The only issue is Lego might shy away from a set where the main action is an orc getting decapitated.

You added a lot of extra foliage and stuff to the tree, I am sure Lego could condense the design to get the piece count right around the same as the current Mirkwood Elf Army set.

They could be. I am the same way, if I knew a Gondor Soldier army builder was coming next year and it included some orcs, it would of drastically altered my current purchases. I would of bought way less Gundabad Orcs off of BL (not a direct impact on Lego, but it does affect them), and probably half as many Lake-town Guard polybags.

The tower side connects to DGA through 2 pins.

Thanks for all the compliments guys! I might do more in the future! Thanks for the catch, it has been edited in the review.

I was able to get all the Orc Hunters I need so those are off my wanted list!

Hey guys, I thought I would try my hand at a review! I haven't seen one for the Mirkwood Elf Army set pop up on Eurobricks yet so I figured I would cover that one. This is my first review so bear with me! Name: Mirkwood Elf Army Set Number: 79012 Pieces: 276 Price: $29.99, £29.99, €39.99 Ages: 8-14 Minifigures: 6 +Warg Theme: The Hobbit Year of Release: December 1st, 2013 Price Per Piece: $0.11 Official Description: The Orcs are trespassing on the lands of the great Elven king, Thranduil, and a thrilling battle is inevitable. Climb the rotating tree at the edge of Mirkwood Forest and keep watch. When the Gundabad Orc warriors draw near on foot or riding the ferocious brown Warg, defend the Elven stronghold with the Mirkwood™ Elf army. Watch out for Orcs using the ladder to scale the wall. Flick missiles from the wall, then grab a weapon from the rack and attack! Split the tree in two for ambush mode to send Elven warriors flying over the wall and shock the Orc invaders! Includes 6 minifigures with assorted weapons and accessories: Thranduil, Mirkwood Elf, 2 Mirkwood Elf Archers and 2 Gundabad Orcs. So there we have it, a thrilling battle from the movie! Because Thranduil was seen so many times fending off orcs and brown wargs at an elven wall Despite movie inaccuracies, this is still a great set and I am liking what we get here... Box The front of the box shows Thranduil kicking a ladder over which an orc was trying to use to scale the wall. We see a missile being fired in the middle of the box, 2 elf archers manning the wall, and a third Mirkwood Elf scout charging out on foot (probably to engage the brown Warg coming around the side). Very instense stuff! The box art, like the rest of the Desolation of Smaug Hobbit sets, is absolutely beautiful. We have the mountain with blue at the tops and behind the set what appears to be the edge of a forest where this wall would be set up. Defend those borders elves! On the back of the box we see several pictures of the Mirkwood Elves and Thranduil fending off the Gundabad Orc horde with their Warg. The back also pictures all the weapons included in the set as well as outlining the 2 main play features, an elf catapult and... surprise, surprise, a flick fire missile! We never see those! The top pictures all the beauitful minifigures in this set. From left to right we have two Gundabad Orcs, two Mirkwood Elf Archers, a Mirkwood Elf, and Thranduil. Contents Here is the manual. Nothing new here, the same scene we see on the front of the box. There is only one manual for this set seeing as it is smaller. Of course it was crumpled up pretty bad in the box since there is no cardboard to keep it flat. A Peek inside the manual. The second page of it shows the Lego boy dumping out the numbered bags and building everything in order. The next page shows what each bag builds. Pretty standard stuff. The fourth page has the assembly of the first few minifigures (Thranduil, the Gundabad Orc with shoulder pads, and the Mirkwood Elf with hair), as well as the brown Warg. Page 36 starts the construction of pieces from bag two and has the rest of the minifigures being built (Gunadabad Orc and two Mirkwood Elves with green hoods). The manual's pages have a nice blue tint to them with a slightly weathered look. The back features all the pieces in the set, two pages with all the minifigures from this wave, and a couple advertisements. The advertisement are for next years Hobbit wave, the Lego Hobbit video game, and all the other wave two Hobbit sets. Everything else we get still in it's packaging! Aka the GOOD STUFF. Sorry, I couldn't resist opening the brown Warg IMMEDIATELY. He comes in his own packaging All the pieces dumped out and ready to be built with. As you can see there are plenty of brown and tan pieces in this set. Kind of a nice break from all gray in the other LotR and Hobbit sets. There arn't a ton of unique pieces from what I can tell. You do get three light gray smaller archers seen in the Council of Elrond set, as well as three small olive green leaves. Here are all the weapons we get. We get a light gray longsword and broad scimitar with nicks, two PoP daggers, three longbows, a dark gray spear, and two elven oval shields with new print. This is a fairly nice assortment of weapons other than the spear. Some translucent green gems we get in this set which are hidden in a barrel. I can only assume this was taken from the Hobbit book because there it is stated the elves love emeralds, howevere in the film I could of swore Thranduil states he longs for clear gems? Minifigures Ahh, finally the good stuff, amirite?! Here we have a picture of all six minifigures assembled. The two Gundabad orcs are on the far left, Thranduil is in the middle, and the three Mirkwood Elves are on the right. We get two identicle Mirkwood Elf Archers with green hoods and one labeled just a Mirkwood Elf with elven ears and medium brown hair (the same color as the Mirkwood Elf Guard in the Barrel Escape set, not the darker brown found on Elrond and the Mirkwood Elf Chief). The Gundabad Orcs come in dark brown outfits adorned with bones and a loin cloth, while their skin is an orangish color. They have white war paint on their face and a very fiece look, as all orcs do dontcha know. Thranduil has an olive green torso and gray legs, both of which have a silvery metallic chain mail look to them. The Mirkwood elves have nice dark brown and green uniforms with stiching and leaves. The printing on these figures is amazing! Here we see the back of the Gundabad Orc. He has some dark brown blotches on his head with a few gray hair strands. No double sided face printing here unfortunately, since there would be nothing to cover it! It would of been nice had Lego thrown in at least one of the lovely hair/ear pieces found on the orcs in the Dol Guldur Ambush set. All well. His back has printing which features more skeletan pieces, including a spine and some bone spikes around his neck. There is no printing on the back of his legs. This is an identicle pair of Gundabad Orcs to those we get in the Dol Guldur Battle set. This is the back of one of the Mirkwood Elf Archers. All three have the same double sided face, also found on the Mirkwood Elf Guard form the Barrel Escape set and the polybag from last year. One facial expression is a somber look while the other is a fierce combat one. We get more beautiful printing on the back of the torso, but unfortunately the legs are blank. Thranduil with his red cape on. How regal! His hair hoesn't fit very well over the "hump" on the back of the cape, just like the other long elven hair molds. Other than that small issue he looks very movie accurate. Lego did a wonderful job on him. The back of Thranduil with his hair on. His hair coveres up most of the back printing. The crown is a solid orange all the way around despite us being able to see his hair strands underneath in a few places. It is made of the soft, rubbery plastic and well done overall. While Thranduil is never seen fighting or outside his keep in the film, it's nice to get him in a set this wave. I just wish it would of been in a different set instead of an army builder. Unlike Eomer in the Uruk-hai Army set, Thranduil does not blend very easily with an army because he looks very unique The back of Thandruil without his hair. As you can see he has more of the silvery metallic look found on the front of the figure and a few creases and seams on his shirt. He also has no back printing on his legs. He has a double sided face, one of which is a calm look and the other this fierce look. I love the bushy eyebrows on him, very accurate! A comparrison of the Mirkwood Elf Archer found in this set to last years Mirkwood Elf Guard polybag. This years version is a big improvement! The costume matches the dark green hood MUCH better than last years olive green shirt. Unfortunately this dark green cape does NOT come with the set. It's a real shame because I feel like it really completes the look of the Mirkwood Elf Scout. Of course it would be a pain with the quivers... but it's a sacrifice I would of made! Last but not least the brown Warg! This is one of the highlights of the set imo. He has black eyes with white pupils, unlike the last two wargs in the Attack of the Wargs set who had solid white eyes. Around his eyes is a lighter brown, almost mustard color. The dark brown matches the 2x2 brick a little better than this picture lets on, but it's not perfect. It's definetly nice to get another colored Warg, and one in an army builder to boot! Build The start of the tree base. More of the tree base built. The inside of the tree base where there is a barrel full of emeralds, and a back view of the tree. The rotating mechanism for the platform has been placed as you can see. A simple branch that goes on the top of the rotating platform. The elfapult (cataelf?) is ready to fire, sir! The tree section of the set completed. The front of the catapult pushes down to launch the standing minifigure in the back. The tree branch sitting on the catapult flips off when the catapult moves up using this piece which is connected to a 2x2 brick with a hole and pin in it. This whole platform can be rotated for a full 360 degrees of elf launching! Before we can start on the wall section of this build we first have to create this highly useless weapon rack. I am not really sure why it was included when the weapon holders could of easily been added to the inside of the wall. I would of rather seen the pieces for this used to raise the height of the wall a brick or so. You can connect this part to either side of the completed wall when you are done. The beginning of the wall. The right section of the wall. The middle AND right section of the wall connected. All sections of the wall connected as viewed from the inside. An outter view of the wall with all sections connected. The wall all completed! A close up of the wall flick fire missile. Those elves and their ingenuity, the orcs will NEVER expect a missile fired from the middle of a wall! The last build is the ladder used by the orcs to scale the wall, even though they could probably just climb over without it The wall and tree, both fully completed and connected! And inside perspective. There are a few stands for the archers and the cove for the gems. Not much room other than that! The set with it's walls straightened out and the ladder attached. A side view of the completed model, with all sections of the wall bent as much as they will bend. Three complete Mirkwood Elf Army sets attached to one another. This is the minimum amount you need to form a "complete" wall where all sides attach to one another and there are no openings. A top down view of three sets connected to give you an idea of the shape (which can be slightly changed). I kind of like this confirguration for a smaller outpost. Four Mirkwood Elf Army sets connected. In this formation you get a square shape, unlike the triangle with three. Now things are starting to feel more like a full blown fort! An overhead view of four set connected to give you an idea of the shape. Sorry the picture is blurry, you get the idea though! Extra Pieces There's not a lot of extras here, just a few headlights, 1v1 squares, an olive slope, and a few pins. Conclusion Overall this is a decent enough set. The walls are very short and this particular design was never seen in the film. It was probably based on early prelim images of the gate seen during the Barrels out of Bond scene in the film. As a stand alone army builder (it does not connect to a larger set like the Uruk-hai Army does, just connects to other Mirkwood Elf Army sets) I feel like Thranduil should have been left out and included in another set to give it more multiple purchase appeal. I also feel three elves all in their scout gear was one to many, I would of loved to of seen at least one elf in armor. I also feel like the Gundabad Orcs could of use the hair and ear head piece. Despite these small issues I feel this set is overall very good. The real stars of it are the minfigures and Warg who all have great prints and look spectactular! Playability: 8/10 There are a decent number of play features in this set considering it's on the cheaper side of things. You get a weirdly placed flick fire missile and the elven catapult launcher. I think people will have tons of fun with the simple good and evil conflict between the orcs, warg, and elves though. Design: 7/10 This set is never seen in the movie and the walls are FAR to short. Other than that the design seems alright. The tree doesn't look terrible and the walls adorned with the unique elven shields are fairly pleasing. Price: 8/10 The price per piece is pretty decent for this set considering it as a number of large pieces like the swivel plate in the tree and the Warg. Other than Thranduil's hair there are no new molds however. The lack of orc hair and ears is a real bummer. Minifigures: 9/10 Like with most of the LotR/Hobbit sets, the minifigures are the stars of this set. You get a good number of them since it is an army builder, and all except the orcs have unique prints. I feel like Lego really should of included an armored elf here, if they had done that this would be an easy 10. Thranduil is a nice addition, but I feel he would of been better placed in another set not meant as an army builder. The Warg is a nice color and a wonderful addition. Parts: 7/10 Nothing amazing here. The gray arches and small olive leaves are nice. It's also a nice change of pace to get some brown and tan pieces rather than more gray found in most of the other Hobbit and LotR sets. Total: 38/50 Thanks for reading guys! Let me know how I can improve future reviews! I hope you all enjoyed

Where did you find it that cheap? Lowest I have seen is $20-22.

Not necessarily. Look how many people said they would quit buying the LotR/Hobbit sets on the spot if we aren't getting a third LotR wave. Lego might not want to reveal the LotR line ended with the second wave for fear of hurting wave two Hobbit and LotR sales still going on now.

Rohan battle pack if it included a posable horse in another color (anything but brown), at least 2 new Rohan Soldiers (without the "horse" helms), and a few orcs.

Actually the shape is captured pretty well, it's just not done to minifigure scale at all. The minifigures look like giants in his Minas Tirith. If you take them away I think you will see the shape and a lot of characteristics are there though. Of course it's only 3 levels instead of 7, but I can guarantee Lego would never do more than 3-4 levels because it would be redundant and it's not needed to give the overall look and feel of Minas Tirith. You keep saying Minas Tirith is a city and needs all 7 levels and the markets, healing house, etc., but that just isn't true. It's like the Glittering Caverns in Helm's Deep, they weren't included but they were shown at least a few times in the movie. Lego's Helm's Deep left off a lot of parts because they weren't that important or didn't add much to the set. They just hit on all the main features. Now with that said I do think Nuju's model would need some modifications to work as a real set. I think the trebuchets are way to big and take up too many pieces. The Fel Beast does too. Remove these things and use the bricks from them to make the walls of Minas Tirith bigger. I would also add some detail bricks to spice up the look a bit. Having a $30 army builder with smaller trebuchets and a wall piece would also help bulk up the city. Hopefully Lego would be smart about it and make them so you could expand them side ways AND upwards (2 sets stack on top of each other to form a second level of the city). It's not been a year, it's going on 9 months. Also, how many other LotR projects have over 2,000 votes? I can't find a single one. The next highest has almost 1,000 less votes than Nuju's project.