Deathleech

Unless Lego is officially transitioning over to all rubber, it's hard to say. So far the line has been pretty mixed. ALL the wave 1 LotR sets had hard plastic (orc ears and hair, elf ears and hair, helmets, human hair, etc.). In the first Hobbit wave it was mixed almost right down the middle with some dwarves having the soft molded hair/hats and others having the hard plastic type. The bald goblin caps were all soft plastic and all existing pieces were hard left hard (Tauriel/Legolas re-used hair, Gandalf's hat, Bilbo re-used hair). As for the sets, now that I see them in hi rez I really have mixed feelings. I would love to get two Black Gate sets to connect them, but their are so many figures in the set I really don't need or want multiples of (Gandalf the White, Aragorn, and the Mouth). Then again 2 more Orcs is always nice, as are another black pose-able horse and the greater eagle. I will probably just wait till Amazon gets them and has the inevitable 15-25% off and buy the two I will open then (2 for $90 vs 1 for $60). The Corsair ship looks nice and has some nice parts, but with over half the figures being rehashes and only 3 Undead and 1 Corsair it's hard to justify spending the $100 on it. It's made even harder by the fact pirate ships don't really excite me that much, nor did the Corsairs or undead in the movie. I still can't help but feel really disappointed with the Orc selection this time around. Lego didn't even have to make a SINGLE new mold, they could of used ALL existing parts to create some minifigures that much better represent the orcs seen in these scenes. Use this helm in a gray, the Moria Orc body(with different colored arms and a slight print change to the green) and then use a mixture of Moria Orc and Hobbit Goblin faces and hands and you pretty much have EXACT representations of the orcs without having to create a single new piece. Instead we got more exact same Mordor Orcs we did before with Uruk-hai armor on. It just reeks of laziness.

I know K-mart had the Hobbit sets a few weeks early last November, but they would of been almost 2 months early with the second LotR wave if they actually had them in stock. That's pretty crazy and hard to believe so I wouldn't be surprised if they don't actually have them. With a schedule June release I would expect early May or late April at the very earliest for these sets.

That is a Corsair (you know, the ones who originally piloted the ship before Aragorn and company commandeered it... the ones the set is named after yet there is only one of in the entire set ). Specifically it is suppose to be the corsair modeled after Peter Jackson's cameo:

Orthanc FOR SHO PLEASE!

The sets were listed as a June release, the same as last years LotR wave so we should be seeing them pop up in stores around mid May.

Ehh, people like to follow this theme closely since it's two beloved properties coming together. With no information whatsoever being released in the past few months it's only natural for people to talk about other things. That usually means speculation on what they want to see, or what they think will happen with this line. Like jmagaletta points out (and I sort of did with my Star Wars comparisons), Gondor is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest good forces in the LotR theme. An entire half of the third movie revolves around the siege of Minas Tirth, and everything leading up to it. It seems odd for Lego to totally pass it up thus far. After the second wave we won't have anything even remotely Gondor related other than Aragorn in his king's attire and Boromir. I don't know if I would consider the line a failure if the first two waves were all we got, but I would be severely disappointed by the huge hole left. I mean how would Star Wars fans feel without a Millenium Falcon set ever being made with Han Solo and Chewbacca, or Harry Potter fans never getting Hogwarts and Dumbledorf and Hermoine? That's basically what it's like with Lego LotR not having ANY Gondor sets. They don't even need Minas Tirith necessarily, but SOMETHING would be nice. Osgiliath, a small battle pack... anything at all. Lastly there is nothing at all wrong with Corsair Pirate Ship and the Black Gate sets, people just feel they aren't near as important as say Minas Tirith so it seems odd we would get them before some of the more important stuff.

I would be extremely surprised if a third wave wasn't planned. I mean right now we are missing so much from the line. It would be like the Star Wars theme not having a Millennium Falcon or X-Wing set (Gondor), or if it were missing Princess Leia (Eomer) or Emperor Palpatine (Witch King). They have just missed too many sets NOT to have a third wave planned. If the second wave had more major scenes covered, I might not be so optimistic, but it appears Lego is intentionally staying away from Gondor-related material, possibly for a big third wave (and it may have add on sets like the Uruk-hai Army that they want to release along side a big set so they are withholding ALL the material for a single wave).

It looks like from the video there were three of you that contributed to this? How old are you guys? For younger members(?) this looks really good. My only suggestion on the Minas Tirith would of been to add some light gray bricks to the lower part to give it some detail and break up the pure white, but it's probably a little late for that now. At any rate, I can't wait to see how this turns out!

The Lego recreation looks almost identicle to the screen shot you posted. A very nice recreation indeed! I love the flowers coming out of the mouth.

At this point I would settle for an Osgiliath set instead of Minas Tirith, as long as it means we get SOMETHING Gondor related. So far we haven't really had anything though, other than Boromir and the upcoming Aragorn in Gondor attire. I just want to get at least one Gondor set that includes a few Gondor soldiers in it. I would LOVE a huge D2C Minas Tirith (and a separate wall add on/army builder set with Gondor Soldiers and Mordor Orcs similar to the Uruk-hai Army set), but who knows if that will happen. I am still hopeful for a third wave centered around this. As for the Rohan soldiers, I too fear we won't be seeing many/any(?) more, which is a shame. It would be nice if Lego gave us at least 2-3 prints for each of the soldiers in a faction, but I dunno if that's going to happen with so much content and so many figures still yet to be made. I mean we have the exact same Mordor Orc now and it will have been in 3 different LotR sets. It's a shame to because Lego could easily create some variation with existing pieces for a lot of the factions. Just look at the Mordor Orcs for example. Take some of the pieces from the Goblin King Battle set and mix and match them with the existing Mordor Orcs and you have at least a dozen different options for orcs.

I just ordered 10 more Moria Orcs off Blicklink, bringing my total to 30. I am pretty much set on them, now to finish my Mordor Orcs up...

It's been some time since I have posted pictures of my ever growing LotR armies. Here is a group shot of all my current "evil" Middle-Earth army all together: Totals are as follows: 9 Nazgul w/ horses 1 Uruk-hai Berzerker 110 Uruka-hai (10 white hand versions, 5 of which are Lurtz) 8 Wargs (2 white, 6 gray) 1 Yazneg 1 Scribe 30 Mordor Orcs (10 Mordor Orcs, 10 Orc Hunters, 10 Hobbit Goblins) 20 Moria Orcs 3 Cave Trolls I already ordered 10 more Moria Orcs (goblins) bringing my total to 30 when I receive them. I want to pick up 10 or so more Hobbit Goblins as I feel they make excellent Mordor Orcs and add a lot of variety to that army. That is what I plan on using them as anyways. I have a feeling we will be getting a decent way to build our Mordor Orc armies up in the future (hopefully in the next LotR wave we will get a set similair to the Uruk-hai Army one, except with Gondorians and mordor Orcs), so I havn't gotten as many of them as I would like to. When all said and done I would love to have around 150 Mordor Orcs As for the Uruk-hai and Moria Orcs, I am set with them. I will be posting a picture of my "good" LotR force in the next few days when I get a chance.

I love it! the only thing that would make it better is by adding something to the mid section. Maybe digging out a small hole and putting a piece of skeleton horse rib cage in it? This might be more difficult/impossible though with the neck hinges and such there.

Yes, I absolutely LOVE the colors you used here! It's a lot of darker neutral colors and really gives the feel of a dreary wooded mountain pass. Add to it the really bright blue and chrome contrasting knights and it makes for one amazing MOC. The scale is also HUGE and great!

I dunno if accents are needed or not. Some better pictures with some light on the tower like Captain BeerBeard points out should definitely help us see the details. As is it's hard to make much out because of the dimmer lighting and everything being black. I can't wait to see them, it looks very nice from what I can see!

It's hard to say what the next Hobbit wave will entail. The first Hobbit wave literally had one set from each chapter except the trolls and one other chapter I believe. The second wave will probably be based on a lot of added PJ material I would imagine. I mean in the book the dwarves spend like two chapters at Beorn's House and then a few more chapters outside Lonely Mountain in a camp trying to figure out a way in. We know for certainty there will be some sort of Smaug set, but what else? Thranduil's Palace? Beorn's house? Laketown? Those are the only locations in the book. I am guessing we will get some Necromancer related material, otherwise it could be a really small wave.

Ehh, last year they had a June release and the first sightings were early May so I have a hard time seeing April this year happening

What about just using black and red for the dragon colors instead then? I think that and changing the wing shape would go a long way.

Also don't forget the Orthanc set, so really its 5 LotR sets (unless thats some huge hoax, but I doubt it will all the confirming sources). That's not bad considering 2 of them are at or over the $100 mark. Now granted I would rather get 6 sets and have more little ones than get 5 and have 2 huge ones, but meh.. it's better than nothing.

I love the way you did Laketown. While not exactly how i imagined it, it still looks very nice and has a unique style. I gotta say I'm not a huge fan of your Smaug though. He looks more like a kite or one of those Chinese dragon costumes than an actual living dragon. I think its due to his relative simplicity and especially the wings.

Then you pay higher prices. Btw, the apples aren't from the U.S. necessarily, they are just sold cheaper due to the huge demand/bulk sales

Really digging all your figures, I just think the hair on Faramir seems a bit dark...?

I think if they include Ents, it will have more minifigures and play features and be more like a normal set aimed at younger children. If it's just Orthanc, it might have Grima and Saruman but will be more like a USC and intended more for adults with very few or no play features (catapults, break apart pieces, etc.) I know this is off topic and might not be the right place, but there is almost no Lego news right now so I figured I would touch on it anyways. Every time I see price mentioned I see pretty much everyone outside the U.S. complain about prices like Lego is favoring the U.S. or something. That's not the case at all though, it's simple supply and demand economics. The demand in the U.S. (and this goes for most goods) is MUCH higher than anywhere else so we see lower prices. Here is a simple example. Lets say I grow apples. It cost me roughly 20 cents per apple to grow, and in the U.S. I sell them for 30 cents, netting me a 10 cent profit. In the U.K. and Europe, I sell them for 60 cents, double the U.S. price and giving me a 30 cent profit which is triple, however I only sell 10 in the UK and Europe for every 100 apples I sell in the U.S. That means, even with 3x the profit per apple outside the U.S. I am still making WAY more in the U.S. despite selling them at a much lower profit. Here is the break down: 10 apples x 0.30 = $3.00 100 apples x 0.10 = $10.00 As you can see even if I sell for less in the U.S. I am still making over three times more anywhere else due to demand. This is pretty much why Lego gives the U.S. lower prices. We have single states alone that buy more product than entire countries elsewhere. Why do you think all the musicians in other countries want to hit it big in the U.S. despite already being huge hits in say the UK or Canada? Its not because they just think the U.S. is cool, it's because they know people in the U.S. are huge consumerists and will buy their music ten fold anywhere else if they become popular there. This is why the U.S. enjoys much lower prices on a number of goods, including Lego. It's simple economics, nothing more and no big secret (Lego said themselves this is the reason before).

That's fine, I was just suggesting putting it in the army picture thread because (so far at least) you haven't really done any sort of MODing or anything different with the Uruk-hai, they look to be the exact same as you get them from the official sets. The Gondor Soldier thread is a little different since he is mixing and matching various pieces to present a Gondor themed army. What do you plan on doing with the other unit types? Will you simply be swapping weapons, or creating more custom looking Uruk-hai with different heads, armor, torsos, etc. than the ones from the official LotR Lego sets

This would probably go better in the army thread since it's not a MOD or MOC of any sort, just army pictures?