Deathleech

Well everything IS speculation, but so far nothing has pointed to the line doing really well. We didn't get a LotR advertisement in the second Hobbit wave, the last two waves have been rather small (4 sets each, though the last LotR did have Orthanc...), and most of what we hear from sales at local stores seems to be negative. In fact I don't think I have heard one good thing since An Unexpected Gathering was a top toy last Christmas, and the CEO picking out the LotR line specifically selling well when asked in general about license sales. If the line was doing better I think there would be more indication at this point. Honestly it wouldn't surprise me if the line IS doing poorly. Lego kind of missed their chance with the LotR license. They should of gotten the license over a decade ago when there was movie hype to help advertise the theme and help garner sales. Since then what has there been to promote LotR? The Hobbit film? Well that's great, but the first wave came out 6 months before the first Hobbit movie was even in theaters and there was only one Lego commercial to advertise it besides that (and it was rarely aired). So we have the first wave which had no publicity, then the second wave which had a few sets that were sub par and I can't imagine being appealing to kids. Black Gates and Council of Elrond over a Balrog/Mumakil, or even a cool Gondor/Mordor army builder with some shiny Gondor Soldiers and some Mordor Orcs with an armored cave troll? It would of sold circles around most of the wave 2 sets I would guess. Heck, I imagine ANY LotR army builder would be a great sale, I almost never saw Uruk-hai Army on sale compared to say Mines of Moria or the Goblin King Battle which are constantly 25% off or more. As for Pirate Ship Ambush, I know a lot of LotR AFOLs weren't thrilled about due to it's lack of screen time in the film. It seems like even Lego isn't exactly sure which direction to take this theme and so far they don't seem to be doing a really great job making appealing sets to everyone. It's like they try to hit niches with certain sets but fail to capture the other 2/3 of people who would be interested in buying the set. That and there is nothing to help advertise and sell the sets. It's really a shame.

Sting is used and/or shown throughout not only all three LotR films, but the Hobbit films as well. The rest of the weapons have much less prominence. Anduril is probably shown the least, only being in the second half of the RotK film. So far there is only one set it could of appeared in (Black Gates) compared to the several Sting has been in. It makes sense Lego would opt for a new Sting mold but not one for the swords used much less, or that aren't as distinct looking (Anduril and Glamdring look enough like normal longswords, minus the hilt). I would MUCH rather see Lego make new molds like Gondor helms or dwarf hairpieces than create swords with slightly different hilts.

Ya, it sucks not knowing. It's really hard to justify so much for basically one minifigure though. Polybags are usually like $4? So at $7 with the shipping that's almost double what a polybag SHOULD cost. I am really torn. Do I risk not seeing them again, or blow the money on something that's pretty over priced? I really wanted to get a few dozen too. I think I am going to wait and see if I can find them in stores, or at the very least if they are still available in a few days when the new Hobbit sets are officially released. That way I can at least add a MEA and DGA to each order and get free shipping since I have yet to pick the new sets up. Of course TRU will probably jack the prices way up on them when they release them again. I did call ahead to two local TRU stores to see if they were in stock. Both said no, not that either sounded terribly convincing. I tried to give them the number TRU has online but they kept asking for the name of the set, which I gave them and they came back telling me nothing was there.

There were a couple others for the first LotR wave. Henrik did Gandalf Arrives, Nicholas did Shelob Attacks/Orc Forge, and Martin did Uruk-hai Army/Attack on Weathertop. Since then it seems only Hans, Jordan, and Bjarke have continued to work on the Hobbit/LotR line. Meh, no free shipping because of the 4 limit really sucks. $8 in shipping and the polybags already being $4.99 make this really hard to swallow. Too bad they don't still have the new Hobbit sets listed, then I could at least get the 15% off for spending 100 and free shipping by combining the order. As is the polys come out to be about $7 per which is terrible. I think I might have to just hit up my local TRU stores and take my chances there, I have three all within an hour

Where did you guys see Jordan Scott created MEA? I tend to view him as the weakest of the three main designers currently working on the LotR/Hobbit line, while Bjarke seems to be the strongest by far with sets like An Unexpected Gathering and Helm's Deep under his belt. Hans is kind of middle of the line, he has some decent ones, but also some pretty sub par ones like Goblin King Battle. I guess it makes sense considering Bjarke is a senior designer and Jordan has only been there a year or so?

The video game is produced by Warner Brothers, who has the LotR and Hobbit book rights. Anything in the Hobbit and LotR books (including appendixes), can be included in their game. That's why they were able to include Tom Bombadil in the video game, he is in the LotR books. Warner Brothers WASN'T able to specifically name the blue wizards though, because they are only named in the Similarion which WB does NOT have the rights to recreate anything from. That is why Gandalf mentions the blue wizards, they are mentioned in the LotR books, but he does not name them specifically and says he forgets their names because they were not given names until the Similarion. Lego on the other hand has the rights to the LotR/Hobbit films. They can recreate anything featured in the films, but can't create sets or characters only mentioned in the books. This is why we will never see a Tom Bombadil set, even if Lego wanted to make one. Hope that all makes sense, I know it can be a little confusing.

The only problem with that theory is a lot of wave 2 sets also made little sense from a market stand point if you are marketing to children. Can you honestly tell me kids want a Council of Elrond set over a Balrog duel with a huge awesome looking brick built Balrog, Gandalf, a couple of Mordor Orcs with cool new helm molds, and TONS of play features (Balrog with swinging "whip" arm, breakable bridge and stairs, etc.)? Instead we got Council of Elrond which has swivel chairs and a flip for Gimli. Yes the scene is iconic in the movie and I am sure hardcore fans and AFOLS alike eat it up, especially with all the nice pieces for MOCs, but from a child's perspective I just cant imagine it's that interesting. So a Balrog set MIGHT not be made because the Balrog is seen as too demonic to some? Ok then why not a Mumakil set? Again you get a cool, interesting looking creature which sells the set itself to kids, but then you add to it nice features and unique figures and how can't that be a home run for everyone? For play features you have an exploding platform to emulate Legolas cutting it and it sliding off, flick fire missiles on the platform that actually make sense, and the Mumakil could even have a swinging head/trunk feature or rear up like they do in the movies. For minifigs you have a few Haradrim, the Haradrim chief, Legolas, maybe even a new unique Rohan Soldier or Eowyn with Rohan Merry (if they arnt going to be in any other set). Seems like a no brainer. I am not saying I disagree with your theory because Lego has definetly skipped sets and characters that seem like no brainers to us in other themes. Minas Tirith is also probably hard to tackle due to its scale and complexity. It's just really REALLY hard to imagine no Eowyn, Witch King, Faramir, or even one Gondor set with Gondor Soldiers. If they were going to really end the theme after only two waves why not make the second wave have six sets instead of four and include a Witch King vs Eowyn battle and an Osgiliath army builder set? I am sure these would of sold fairly well. And could of easily wrapped up the missing main characters. As is the Lego LotR line only feels about 60-75% complete from a very basic stand point, and if you include all the lesser supporting characters and locations like Gothmog, Treebeard, Drenethor, etc. its much more.

Interesting the Hobbit game is going to be released in the spring instead of winter after all three movies have been released. You would think they would wait 6 more months and just have all three movies included, plus sales would be boosted due to the third movie being released at the same time. I wonder if this has any impact on when the next Hobbit wave will be released?

If they appear in both themes like Legolas or Gandalf I put them under both. That way people can see ALL the sets they are in and if they are trying to pick out the best option they don't miss any. The list should be updated with all corrections now.

Yup! I plan to up date it as new sets are released.

Sorry, I posted this a bit prematurely, I was still adding a lot of them... EDIT: Ok it should be complete now.

Bellow is a list of every LotR and Hobbit character released so far, how many of each have been released, and which sets the appear in. I included all versions (polybags, exclusives, etc.), the only things NOT included are keychains and magnets. I also only noted variations if they included new pieces or had different printing, I didn't if the only difference was having different armor (like the Uruk-hai and Mordor Orcs). If I missed any or you notice any errors please let me know. The Hobbit The Lord of the Rings

Minifigure heads are already over sized quite a bit as is though. 3-3.5 "normal" minifigure heads make up a minifigure body, but proper proportions are 6-6.5 heads on a real person (not including the head itself). If the Simpsons already have fairly over sized heads in the cartoon, and they are being transformed to Lego minifigures which also have over sized heads, then it makes sense they are quite over sized does it not? EDIT: Here is a diagram of what I am talking about... As you can see a Lego minifigure is roughly half the proportions of a normal human male, except their head is twice as big. The adult Simpson characters are very similar in proportions to Lego minifigures, except their heads are even bigger. If Lego minifigures already have rather large heads, and they are doing a license with large heads then the heads SHOULD be enormous should they not?

Except the minifigures aren't totally blocky. Their heads and arms are quite smooth and curved while the torso and legs are more blocky. They look great with molded creatures that aren't that blocky at all such as the wargs, bears, eagles, horses, etc. I would definitely prefer a robotic looking animal if it actually looked like a wolf or gorilla or whatever Lego was trying to replicate rather than a silly bunch of card board boxes connected with some lame stickers slapped on. Faefrost pretty much described the Legend Beast perfectly, they look like crudely put together, painted cardboard boxes that young children created. It's a shame too because I generally like the other Chima builds, but then again they are a lot more intricate and detailed and look more like the animals they are trying to mimic while still looking robotic. Just my opinion.

Lego could be waiting until after the DoS movie is released before announcing anything. That way they don't ruin what Smaug looks like before the movie has hit theaters.

The Legend Beast looks awful. I was hoping they would release something more like this, or even like the Fenris Wolf from the Viking line. Instead we got a super boxy, goofy looking wolf. Disappointing.

Ahh, so they do. It looks like the line is being released sometime in the future and the Battlecruiser was a Blizzcon exclusive of some sort? I wasn't sure if the license Megabloks had with Blizzard was just for WoW related stuff or encompassed all of Blizzard's properties. All well, the chances of Lego making a SC2 line would of probably been pretty slim anyways as Lego seems to shy away from video games. That's why it's just a dream...

I would love to see StarCraft 2 done in Lego. I can imagine it would be pretty difficult for a lot of the Zerg units as they would all need to pretty much be new molds if not brick built (and its hard to brick build organic creatures and make them look good). The Protoss might also look really odd in minifigure form. The Terran would fit right in with existing Space sets though.

The TRU deal is definitely tempting, you can order them right now and get them probably by the end of the week for 15% off MSRP. What do you guys think of waiting till cyber Monday though? By then ALL retailers should have them released since it falls on Dec 2nd. I would say Black Friday but it's a day to soon for most retailers to have them released since it's a day before the street date. Does Lego S@H do any sort of good Cyber Monday deals? I dunno if I could wait, but I will be out of town most of this week and next so no point in buying them yet for me.

Kmart also seems to have them all up online and available for shipping with the exception of Dol Guldur Battle. Target and Amazon have them listed online also, but not yet available to ship (actually sticking to the street date, whudda thunk it!?). I think your Lego store is a rarity if that is the case. Most Lego stores don't have polybags (except for special promotions when you spend so much or on a certain theme). Polybags are usually given to other retailers as promotions or offered as incentives to buy certain things. That's why I, and many others, are a bit worried about the Laketown Guard polybag. It looks like an excellent set but that's not going to matter much if it's unavailable to most people, or available in extremely limited quantities.

This reminds me of that movie comercial where the guy tells the other guy the Van Gogh painting they are lookig at is a fake, but everyone believes it's real so it pretty much accepted as such. Obviously to want to know if your exclusive minifigures are real, but if you can't even tell the difference then what does it really matter?

Ya, except the polybags have spotty distribution at best. Many countries don't even have access to the polybag outside resellers which is pretty expensive ($5+ for just the minifig). And even places that DO get the polybag have them in extremely limited quanities. The TRU near me only had 10 Mirkwood Elf polybags per store and I don't think they ever restocked them after they were sold.

I wonder if Lego is trying out some new distribution model this year? It doesn't seem like any theme except City has any really big sets over $80 (besides D2C ones). Both the Hobbit and Lego Movie have their biggest set being only $69.99. Friends looks like it doesn't have anything big over $80, and most of the Star Wars sets we have seen so far all seem to be well under $50. It seems like in most cases Lego is focusing on more smaller sets rather than a few sets in each wave with some being really expensive? Maybe this is why they have the polybags listed in the back too? Instead of being hard to find, sketchy at best distribution with the polys maybe they are going to have them more readily available along with the normal sets? I really hope so. I know a lot of countries never even see the polybags and in others (even here in America), they can be extremely hard to find.

International shipping for a small bubble mailer is never more than 4 or 5 bucks. If you order like 20-30 of the hair/ears at $1.74 each, with $4-5 shipping, that comes out to be about $2 per hair piece. The polybag will be at least $4, possibly $5 if its at TRU and that's not including the 25-45 cent tax on each. Of course if you only want a few of the hair pieces then ya, paying several dollars for international shipping for 3 hair pieces or something totally isn't worth it. I may be bias because the yellow hair with ears isn't nearly as valuable to me as the light or dark brown ones, and the body print isn't that great either when I can get it in another set or the Mirkwood Elf Army print instead. Still not a bad poly by any means. It is definitely better than the Gandalf or Frodo one IMO. It's just not amazing like the Laketown Guard poly. I woulda much rather had a Gundabad Orc instead.

Here. The cheapest is going for $1.74 right now and the seller has over 300 of them. Granted it's just the hair, but I see no real use for the Legolas body what with the Mirkwood Elf Army set, and I doubt the rest of the pieces will be rare or useful enough to entice me to spend the other $2.26 on the Legolas poly. Quivers and longbows are worth about 50-70 cents together on BL. I suppose if you only want a few it would probably be better than paying shipping on BL, but if you want a lot and have little use for anything but the hair BL is definetly the way to go. But the 2012 December Hobbit wave last year advertised the summer 2013 LotR wave in the back of the instructions. The 2013 summer LotR wave advertised the 2013 winter Hobbit wave. So far the advertisement is always for the very next wave of sets coming out. It's weird there would be no mention of it this time of a LotR wave and only a Hobbit advertisement...