Deathleech

So what do you do, just show an employee you are a VIP member and ask them to get you an Orthanc out of the back? I assume they won't have the set out on display because then they would need to tell people they can't buy them unless they are a VIP.

I got the new Lego catalog today and on the back there is a coupon for 10% off one item purchase in store from 6/3-7/7. This might be good to use on Orthanc as it will bring the price down to $180 here in the U.S., which is as just as good as double VIP, if not better. It also allows you to buy the set as soon as it is released. My only question is will the early VIP Orthanc purchase be available in store as well? If so you could use the coupon AND get the Jor-El minifigures thereby maximizing your purchase.

I think he was referring to the board games.. ?

That is pretty much why I wasn't very excited about Orthanc in the first place. Sure it's a cool looking structure, but other than that not a lot happens in or around it. Inside we see Saruman making his blasting powder, talking to some orcs/Wildmen, and dueling Gandalf, all scenes combined through the three films last less than a few minutes and that's pretty much it for the indoor action. Outside all we really see is Gandalf being rescued by Gwaihir and the Ent's rolling in and taking over with minimal orc resistance (all of this IS depicted to some extent in Lego Orthanc except the Wildmen). All these scenes together last less than 20 minutes total. Compare this to Minas Tirith. Minas Tirith could of had break open gates and rams, trebuchets, crumbling/exploding white wall pieces, a Denethor launching platform, etc. And don't even get me started on the cool and exclusive figures or builds we could of had.. the Witch King, Eowyn, Merry/Pippin in Rohan/Gondor attire, Faramir, a Fel Beast, Mumakil, Gothmog... the list goes on and on. Yes, I realize it's just the council scene the set is focusing on, but it takes place in Rivendell. As such I don't see another bigger Rivendell set being very likely. We already got one of the big scenes from Rivendell so why would Lego make another huge set based on it? Sure one could argue we got the Wizard Duel set and Orthanc, but I think that is a little different because one set is at the low end of the spectrum and one is at the highest. Lego isn't going to make a main evil character like Saruman only available in a $200 set and unattainable for most children. Add to it nothing else hugely important happens in Rivendell and I think we have pretty much seen the extent of Rivendell centric sets in the LotR wave. For this same reason I don't think a huge $200+ Lothlorien set is likely. I just talked about the limited action happening in Orthanc, how is Lego going to justify making a huge Lothlorien set when literally half as much stuff happens there as in Orthanc (movie wise anyways)? I mean Lego still has so much LotR stuff to cover it's not even funny. I assume most kids would want a Balrog, With King on Fel Beat, Minas Tirith or Osgiliath, Mumakil, etc. over a huge Lothlorien set. Also it seems like the Lego Ewok Village set is trying to serve as both the village AND battle scene on Endor. I mean look at the swinging log feature, nets, speed bikes, and catapults included in the set.

I just got back from my local Lego store and they had all the new sets out except the Pirate Ship. It seems like the distribution is a little wonky with some stores not having the ship set yet, while online the Black Gates are delayed. More figures would of been nice, but the Ewok Village has roughly 400 less pieces and is $50 more than Orthanc! Granted it seems to have larger pieces used and more minifigures, but ya. I am not really sure what else Lego could of included in Orthanc? I suppose more of the Fellowship like Merry and Pippin, Theoden, and some orcs? It seems a little redundant though and like it would just be filler no one really wants driving up the price. Some Wild Men and more Uruks in white hand armor would of been cool. As for a Lego Lothlorien set, I don't think it very likely, especially on The Ewok Village or even Orthanc scale. The scenes featuring it in the movie wernt terribly long or memorable. I mean even Rivendale was reduced to a $30 set and it played. Much larger role. I think the best thing to do would be buy the Ewok Village and mod it into Lothlorien like others have mentioned.

I imagine wave three will have at least five sets and the line up will be similar to what you suggest Fives, but with a few major changes. I pretty much agree completely with your Treebeard set. Making a brick built Treebeard as the main building piece in the set and including Merry and Pippin and a (named) Orc seems like a no brainer for the $20 price point. It would be very similar to the Shelob Attacks set. A $40-60 Balrog set with Gandalf, maybe a Fellowship member, and 2-3 Moria Orcs (with their cool helms, pleeeease?) seems very likely as well. As for the rest of your ideas, I don't see Amon Hen being a "must have" set. While a new Lurtz in armor and another Boromir would be nice, they are nothing totally new and unless the set is $30+ it's not going to have anything really distinctive to build in it. I think most people would much rather have Eowyn and/or the Witch King dueling. That would make a great cheap set if not for the need to include the Fel Beast. As for the rest of the sets, I don't really see Lego doing both Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. Minas Tirith seems like the most logical choice for Lego as the big flagship set, if not for it's immense scale. Still, I would love to see what Lego is capable of. I would also love the third wave to have I a $30 set with Gondor Soldiers and Mordor Orcs and serve as an army builder that mirrors the Uruk-Hai Army set. This would put us right at 5 sets and would have pretty much every main character and scene featured in the films covered. Ideally I would love Minas Tirith to be a 3 part set (upper, lower w/gates, army builder/wall add on) but I don't think it would be terribly likely.

Your MOC looks a lot fuller of trees and vegetation than Weathertop appears in the movie, but it still looks really nice. i kind of prefer your version actually...

The blue wizards definitely won't be seen in Lego form. They weren't even mentioned by name in the first Hobbit film, let alone seen. Why would Lego make minifigures of them (even if they had the rights to) when there are so many other more pivotal options to still tackle?

Very cool. It reminds me of a castle from the Mario video games.

Plus it has two fairly large molds with the horse and eagle.

He also complained Mines of Moria didn't include all 9 Fellowship minifigures and kept saying it was a bait and switch scam by Lego since them scattered them throughout different sets the first wave. He knocked the rating big time for it. Yes, because Lego is really going to include all 9 Fellowship minifigures, a Cave Troll, and 2 Moria Orcs in an $80 set Just another reason I am not a fan of TBS. Sometimes their reasoning is terrible.

I generally buy at least two of every set. I keep one in it's package and open the other. I do this in case anything ever breaks or I need more parts once a set is out of production, and also as an investment in case I ever want to sell the sets down the line (I don't see that happening since I am such a big LotR fan). Of course on some sets like the Uruk-hai Army one I will get several to build my armies up. I generally try to build my armies and sets based on condensed numbers from the films. So for instance if there are 10,000 Uruk-hai in the movie I wanted about 100. My goal is around 150 Mordor Orcs by the time this line ends and 50-75 Gondorians if they ever get released. I currently have 50 Rohirrium. I could go crazy and get hundreds upon hundreds of minifigs, but honestly after the first several dozen I didnt really get any joy out of getting more sets like the Uruk-hai Army. I also ONLY buy LotR and Hobbit Lego sets so that keeps the cost in check a bit. If these two lines end I might get into another Lego theme like the Super Heroes and stick strictly to that one. I like to just focus on one or two themes.

This reminds me of Warcraft 3 with the dwarven cannoners. Very cool MOC!

What about just raising the side of the ramp a little on the outside? I know realism isn't a huge deal, but the bolder hanging over the edge and JUST magically turning a corner really makes me feel like that rock is about to fly off the ramp rather than flatten more soldiers, lol.

I see a lot of people talking about the Black Gates as a good candidate for buying doubles, but what about the Council of Elrond set? Sure the minifigure selection is pretty bad for having doubles of, but you could make a more suitable council with two or three sets. The three chairs that come with one set aren't even a quarter as many featured in the movie

Very cool MOC idea. I love the rock rolling down, flattening all soldiers in it's path. My only criticism is the rock looks like it could easily fall off the ledge since there is no wall or "lip" holding it on track. I'm also not crazy about the bright colors and turbans as I usually associate them with more a desert setting as opposed to a tower in a swamp, so they look a bit out of place in my mind, but that may just be me.

I suppose, it's just hard to imagine someone still pronouncing names wrong when the movies themselves have been out over a decade. It's not like they are brand new and relatively few have seen them. If you are a fan at all I imagine you have seen the films and heard the proper pronunciations at least a few times by now. Plus the sets are all based on the film scenes, not the books so it seems weird not to of seen the films by this point. I am sure some people don't pronounce the names right because they are just really use to saying it a certain way from reading the books first. For YCF, I don't feel like he is a fan of LotR at all really and just got the sets to be the first to review them and up the watch count of his videos. If you have seen his Council of Elrond set review, he calls Gimli a Hobbit

Ya, it is a bit annoying. I mean I can understand pronouncing a name wrong here and there if you're not a die hard fan (even if "Sore-on" is mentioned numerous times in the first ten minutes of the Fellowship of the Ring...). It's kind of bad to have the wings backwards on the eagle, be calling it a "bird", and pronouncing names wrong all within the first minute of a review though. It really lessens the validity of the review. Why bother making a review of something if you aren't even a big fan of it's source material? The wings being backwards isn't even something you need to watch the LotR to know either, you just have to have ANY sort of bird understanding.. or look at the box/instructions. It reeks of being rushed. All well, at least it wasn't as bad as the BrickShow's reviews. They have terrible reasons for giving the ratings they do and love to go off topic or drone on and on about pointless details on a set. It's $20 more than Orc Forge and only comes with one more minifigure (though it does have the nice horse and Eagle mold as well). The minifigure count really isn't anything amazing. At 0.09 cents a piece though, it is a pretty good value for having the two big molded creatures on top of everything else.

I know he mentioned Saruman's beard is the rubber piece, but can anyone confirm if the new elf hair for Elrond and Arwen are also rubber or the harder plastic?

That's not Amazon's price, that's one of their merchants they just act as the middle man for.

That's exactly what I am doing. While the sets are definite must buys for me, they aren't anything I am dying to have. I will gladly wait for 25% off at Amazon, plus free shipping and no sales tax and get them then. Last year it seemed they were discounted within a few weeks is all. Orthanc I will probably just wait for double VIB since I doubt there will be many better deals since its an exclusive.

I am just glad they didn't use the Lego skeletons to represent the Undead.

I really like the air ship/floating castle feel this has going for it. It's not something you generally see a lot of in the historic theme and this looks great! It really gives the feeling of being high above the ground and floating in the air. A very fun MOC.

It's a decoy filled with "fake" gold!

I really like your idea and think this would definitely make the Castle theme more interesting in future iterations. I think people are just a little turned off by the idea of another KKII wave, but like you said it sounds like you are going for a more story driven theme like Ninja or Chima, not necessarily the same style which is fine by me. The more substance the better. I believe a huge problem with the current Castle line is not only the bright kid-ish colors and lack of detail on the sets (when compared to LotR), but also the sets just feel really stale. It looks like Lego just took a bunch of existing models from past Castle sets, took the Crownies and the red lions, and mixed and matched them all and made a "new" (re-used) wave of sets. Now, with that said I have to strongly agree with Faefrost. The idea definitely seems there but the Cuusoo presentation leaves a lot to be desired. I think some more pictures, and better quality ones could really help you out. As is it's one picture of 2 minifigures standing in a ruined little tower on a raised base plate. Most people won't even read your idea if that's what they think it will look like. You should really spruce it up to draw them in and have them read through it all and get interested. I especially find your wave 2 and 3 sets interesting because I don't think we have seen "eel" soldiers or a bear/werewolf centric band of evil doers before.