Deathleech

I generally would agree with you, but this wave was just so small with only 4 sets. Add to that the biggest set is only $70 and the wave feels very unfinished and pathetically tiny. The first LotR wave had 7 sets and cost $373 total. The first Hobbit wave had 6 sets and cost $300 total. The second LotR wave had 4 sets and cost $203 total (5 sets and $403 if you include Orthanc as part of the wave). The second Hobbit wave? Only 4 sets which end up costing $170 total. That's almost half the LotR waves and a little over half what the second Hobbit wave had in terms of price. I think combining the DGA and DGB sets into one $90 set and then giving us another 13 or $20 set would of really helped round out the wave. Honestly though, I am not sure what they could of been made to fill this gap. It feels like other than Smaug Lego covered all the main scenes in the movie, or attempted to. Beorn's house was hardly featured in the film so I can't see them justifying making a Bag End style set out of it, and even if they did it would have to be pretty big at around $70-80 to do his house justice.

I feel the same. The Laketown Guard polybag had brick pieces that were kinda meh imo. Nothing terribly useful but the minifigure was fantastic! The Mirkwood Elf poly had better bricks but I really regret getting the 20 I bought. Had I known Lego was doing the Mirkwood Elf Army set I would of gotten maybe 5-10 of the polybags tops. The MEA elves look so much better imo than the polybag version. They look really good with the dark green capes especially. Now I just hope next year there isn't a better Laketown Guard minifigure making all of them I bought this year seem like a colossal waste.

I wouldn't do Galadriel in a LotR set at all. She looks almost identical in LotR and the Hobbit. I say put her in a Hobbit set where she seems like she will have much more action.

None of the small sets have a ton of action. The difference with Gandalf Arrives is that it was the only set with Gandalf in it at the time, and it also had the exclusive Frodo print (which was later released in a polybag). A Galadriel's Mirror set would have a secondary character who is in the LotR films less than 10 minutes total. How well do you think a set with little action AND a character who isn't prominent in the movie would sell with kids? Sure AFOLs would eat it up, but kids? Not so much. I do like Mr. Cube's idea to have a blue light brick though, that could be really impressive looking. Has Lego ever had a light brick in a cheap $10-13 set though?

Did anyone else get the impression she had just painted her nails and didn't want to chip them while building, or was that just me?

I dunno, the list seems to lack a lot of things people want. No Balrog, Oliphant, or Treebeard? And it has Amon Hen which basically offers nothing new in terms of minifigs? Galadriel's Mirror of course has Galadriel, but not a lot of action in the scene and Galadriel would probably fit better in a Hobbit set. Also there is no army builder except Osgiliath, but for $40 bucks and only including 4 minifgs I would hardly consider that a good way to bulk up your Gondor army. Honestly I would be pretty disappointed if that list were real. The Defense of Osgiliath, Witch King Showdown, and Battle for Minas Tirith are the only sets that sound any good.

TRU currently has it for $25.50. It's probably not going to get much better than that at almost 36% off.

Right, the polybags vary slightly by the type of promotion. Figure only ones are usually for a special event, tie in with a movie/video game, or a Lego S@H exclusive when you spend a certain amount on a theme. The polybags with actual builds seem a little more widely available. TRU usually has them directly for sale in limited quantities before only offering them with a certain purchase. Last year the Gandalf poly was available with the purchase of the Hobbit board game and available for direct sale. The Mirkwood Elf was available for direct sale then it was only offered when you spent $20 or 25 on Hobbit themed Lego sets. The Uruk-hai poly was a little weird, it was never widely available at first, only being seen at Lego Discovery Centers and through the newspaper promo in the UK. Months later it showed up in 5 Below stores which was probably left over stock that never sold elsewhere. I am sure the Laketown Guard poly will be tied to some future buy $XX amount of Hobbit Lego sets and get it free promo since TRU is no longer offering it for direct sale.

All this talk of how PJ changed things and Lego couldn't fix the sets in time makes me worried about TABA and next years wave(s). You would think everything would be sorted out by then, but who knows? The Hobbit line is suppose to conclude in 2014 so Lego only has one chance to get their TABA sets right.

Ya, it's suppose to just be the court yard, but here we see Gandalf inside and it still doesn't look anything like the DGB set we got (even if it is a slightly different section of DG):

I strongly believe in adding on to existing Lego sets yourself. That is what Lego is about after all. It's a huge benefit of the Lego system. However, I still think Lego needs to give you a strong base model in a set. Helm's Deep is a perfect example. It's still missing a lot of things like the mountain and Glittering Caves, and it's extremely condensed, but it still gives the overall look and feel of Helm's Deep from the film. You have the horn, the deepening wall, the throne room, and the main look of Helm's Deep. It doesn't stop there though, you also have tons of play features that make sense like the bolt throwers with hooks and exploding wall. Even Orthanc, a $200 set didn't manage to give us a "full" tower as it was missing the back, but we still get the main look and feel of it. With Dol Guldur Battle I don't feel the same. Sure it has some similarities to it's movie counter part like it's gray and has spikes, but that's about it. It's play features are a swinging sword, dropping skulls, a statue that opens to reveal a ring, and a cage. Of those, only the cage has been seen in the actual movie so far, and we only see Gandalf sitting in it briefly. The overall look of Dol Guldur is a lot of tall ruined towers and structures but the DGB set is a gray wall with stairs and one tower. So, DGB basically only has one or two things in common with the movie version. Why didn't Lego make pieces of wall that explode or bridges that collapse like in the movie when Gandalf is there? Why not focus more on a few tall ruined towers with arch ways that can lock together instead of one bland wall? Here is how I remember Dol Guldur from the films and here is what we actually got...

I think Alcarin is correct here. The Elrond polybag didnt have any brick built component to it, just the Elrond minifigure with a weapon. That's basically the definition of an action figure. Some polybags end up being sold in limited quantities at places like Toys R Us, but they usually are offered later with special purchases and I don't think TRU is even technically suppose to be selling the polys on their own.

It's still listed as in stock and for $199.99 at Lego S@H. If it was retiring soon they would have it listed as such. I am guessing Amazon just ran out of their current stock and a third party vendor has it listed high. TRU is probably just doing their usual mark up. It should be available until at least next June, if not much longer since that will be around a year.

I dunno, maybe I am being too critical but with only 4 sets this year I was expecting at least half of them to be dead on adaptations. Instead only Laketown Chase seemed to be. Heck, even Barrel Escape from LAST year seemed to more closely resemble it's source material than any of the sets we got this year (minus LTC). Maybe it's just a huge issue with licensed movie themes. I know others have had the same issue like Iron Man 3. Maybe Lego needs to figure out how to speed up their production on licensed themes so they can pump sets out quicker, and so they actually are based off scenes from the films. I totally understand there will be last minute changes on films, and some unavoidable, but Lego seems to take so long to create their sets that they often are lagging way behind and making sets out of stuff long gone from films.

Is getting multiple battle packs for the BO5A even realistic? Would Lego actually do this seeing as how we have only gotten, at most, 1 big $30 army builder type set each wave? I would love them to break everything down into proper $15 army builders for each raced so people have options (some people may want tons of dwarves and have no interest in the Hobbit, some may only want only elves, etc.). I am just not sold Lego would actually do it which is a shame. I would hope at the very least we get a single $29.99 BP set. That's still going to kind of suck though, how do I build a dwarf army without massing even more elves and Laketown soldiers, or mass any single army for that matter without having to pay $5 per figure on BL?

Both are listed as being over 7 feet tall, I am trying to find exact heights though. Bolg was originally to be played by Conan Stevens who is 7'1" and I don't think Azog is much taller than 7 feet tall. When the camera is panned out and they are both at the middle of the bridge they looked nearly identical in height.

Spoilers ahead... Those are my thoughts on the Dol Guldur Ambush set as well. Even if the scene ends up being in the EE edition of the film, why did Lego pick such a minor scene to base a set on? I mean it obviously wasn't important enough to make the theatrical cut of the film. Why not do something they KNEW would be in the film like Beorn's house? I Imagine a set like that doing really well, it could of been similar to Bag End with lots of animals and food pieces and a near complete building for relatively cheap ($70-80). It could of even included a few orcs. As things stand now kids will just be confused. They are getting a character hardly in the film, who is in a scene he never appeared in and won't appear in (possibly) until next year. I can understanding not including Sauron(the Necromancer) in this set if Lego didn't have prelims or he was added last second. That's forgivable. What's not forgivable is the completely uninspired design of this set. Even from the first film, which has been out over a year, we could get a decent idea what Dol Guldur looks like. It's full of narrow corridors, tall ruined structures, and multiple levels. With the Dol Guldur Battle set I don't get that feeling at ALL. I get the feeling the keep is a wide open courtyard with walls surrounding it. I think Lego should have really focused on making more of the tall ruined towers and less on one big wall. I also think they should of combined DGA with the set and gave us something with more substance for a higher price. As for Laketown Chase I think this set is pretty good. It gives the feel of Laketown and the boat is almost spot on except for being more narrow (which is understandable considering they have to scale things down). All minifigures in the set make perfect sense. Sure it could of included Alfred, captain of the guard, or even Bolg, but as is it hits the main characters. Mirkwood Elf Army was obviously just a minifigure dump so I don't have much to say about it. The river gate would of been a better choice and could of had fun play features that make sense like opening gates with lever, a catapult to flip off "hit" orcs and elves, and of course elves in armor.

Same. They appeared to be different heights as they were walking up to each other, but once they got to the middle of the bridge and stood across from one another their height looked identical. I think PJ did this on purpose to show how similar father and son were.

I liked the original design of Bolg where he had the orange beard, it was distinct but honestly as an orc it didn't work imo. He looked like a cross between something out of the Exorcist and a lion, but as a ginger version. I think the new Bolg design is less interesting but works much better. I kind of wish Lego had done Laketown Chase as encompassing two scenes and had Bolg in it as well. It would of been a good way to get him. All well, I am sure we will in the TABA wave.

Well I can't speak for everyone, but I know I personally was VERY pleased with the first LotR wave. We got a lot of instantly recognizable builds PLUS amazing looking minifigures. I even liked Mines of Moria which I know has received a lot of criticism. I'm not sure what happened after that. The second Hobbit wave seems to be the worst what with so many missed opportunities. I can understand some sets not being spot on, especially considering all the last minute changes PJ seems to be making. Really though, only Laketown Chase seems very accurate. MEA isn't in the movie at all and Thranduil is never even seen outside his palace. DGB looks like a big open wall on on a single level when Dol Guldur looks nothing like that in the film. It is a ton of tight corridors, ruined towers, and multiple platforms/levels. DGA has a fairly accurate build but why is Beorn there when he is literally featured in the film not even ten minutes in human form. Don't get me wrong, I am glad we got characters like Thranduil and Beorn but won't kids be confused and actually LESS likely to buy these sets that have minor characters in spots they never really appear? Meanwhile we could of finally got Sauron but got a black and mint green gorilla Necromancer instead.

Speaking of the Gundabad Orcs, the Lego versions seem a little too bright orange compared to how they looked in the film.

Smaug would probably have to be the main and only build in the set, and even then like a $100 set minimum, maybe as much as $200 though.

I just got done seeing the film and all I can say about the Lego adaptations is... WTF?! Some things people might consider spoilers so just to be safe...

Well it depends. Not everyone is going to want to use minifigures like Uruk-hai in their Bo5A since they look pretty distinct from the rest of the goblins and orcs. Also not everyone is going to buy multiples of sets. If you only bought one of everything the good vastly out number the evil when you include everything, but that's just not how it is in the books or films at all. The evil forces almost always out number the good by significant numbers. Personally I have about 250 evils figures (150 Uruk-hai, 20 Mordor Orcs, 10 hunters, 20 Goblin Town goblins, 30 Moria Orcs, 20 Gundabad Orcs), and only 170 good (60 Rohan including Eomers, 50 Mirkwood Elves, 60 Laketown Guards). This doesn't include the 9 Fellowship members, the 13 dwarves, etc. where there are way more good guys than bad. Those numbers may seem fairly even, but in the films the evil usually out number the good by from 3 to 1 all the way up to 10 to 1. Also keep in mind the vast majority of my evil figures were Bricklinked and it doesn't come from actually buying sets except in the case of the UHA. We need a good way to get either Gundabad Orcs or Mordor Orcs in vast amounts that doesn't entail BLing them or getting a ton of good soldiers too (like in MEA).

The thing is, in the book there are over 6,000 goblins (orcs), plus Wargs and Bats vs less than 2,000 TOTAL humans/elves/dwarves. As it stands right now we have Gandalf and Bilbo, the 13 dwarves, 2 Laketown Guards, Bard, Beorn, Thranduil, and 5 Mirkwood Elves vs 6 Gunadabad Orcs, 2 Goblins, and Azog. That's 25 good vs 9 bad. This includes all polybags and wave 1 Hobbit sets, as well as Goblin King goblins. These are all the characters that should be at the Bo5A according to the book. In the books the bad outnumber the good almost 3 to 1 but right now in Lego form, if you bought one of every set it's the opposite. We need a good way to bolster our evil forces. Right now even if you buy multiples of MEA you are going to just make your elf army bigger than your orcs. I would LOVE this, but I don't think Lego would ever do it. They seem stuck on only offering 1 army builder per wave, tops, for the LotR/Hobbit. Apparently it's because they want to have a lot of special characters in their sets to appeal to kids, but I think army builders, especially for these lines, would just do so much better. The movies have some of the grandest battle scenes ever and they are already more focused on older children and adults who absolutely eat up army building sets. The only change I would make is have three army builders instead of four. While an orc one would be nice for really upping your orc count, it seems a bit redundant. Make one for men, one for elves, and one for dwarves and then just put orcs in all 3 of them. The human one could have Bard and 2 Laketown/Dale soldiers and 3 armored orcs as well as a Great Eagle. The dwarf one could have Dain, 2 armored dwarves and 3 orcs as well as a gray Warg (since we didn't have an easy way to get them before.. that or a lighter tan/brown would would work). For the elves I am not sure what they could do. While a few armored elves would be nice, I feel like Thranduil in it again would make it too similar to MEA. Maybe not though if he and all the elves were armored. That set could maybe have a few new bat molds?