Deathleech

I don't think we will be getting ponies for the Hobbit sets. They were barely seen in the first film and didn't have any huge role so the likely-hood of Lego making a new mold for them seems pretty slim.

I wish we could get a little more info on Orthanc like where it's exclusive to, it's price, and what it actually will include. If it has the Ents it could be one of my favorite sets, if just the tower I will be a little disappointed.

I agree, and that is why I am a little hesitant to purchase more. I don't think they will do any more Uruk-hai sets so I got an even 100 of those, plus 10 more White Hand armored ones so 110 total. I am pretty much done with my Uruk-hai force as I see no reason to get any more and I don't think more will be released in any future sets. With the Moria Orcs though, it seems they will be included in a LOT of sets and I am sure we will get tons of Goblins as well with the Hobbit theme (and the Battle of the Five Armies which all have goblins that work as Mordor Orcs). Because of this I am currently only at 30 Mordor Orcs (10 Orc hunter, 10 "actual" Mordor Orcs, and 10 Goblin King goblins, plus 20 Moria Orcs). I want to have enough that I can field a decent army, but also leave room for the inevitable future sets (and hopefully a Uruk-hai Army like set featuring Gondor Soldiers and Mordor Orcs which I am banking on happening). If no sets are eve released I will prolly go back and try to pick some up from older sets but won't be too bummed if I am left with what I currently have. Ideally I would like to have around 150 when all said and done though. I have 22 Mirkwood Elves, 30 Rohan Soldiers, and 20 Eomer's that are make shift Rohan Soldiers. I am fine with there being a lot less good guys than bad since that is how it is in the movies anyways. In the book I believe Helm's Deep was 2000-3000 total Rohan vs 10,000 Uruk-hai so if you scale that down that's like 20-30 Rohan vs 100 Uruks! The only thing I want now is some Gondor Soldiers, which I would love to get around 40-50 of as well.

And to add to that, LotR has a lot of different factions compared to Star Wars (note huge factional armies, not the tons of different alien species in each). I mean sure they can do Snow Troopers and Storm Troopers and Sand Troopers and what not, but with LotR you can do totally different armies, each with huge numbers. Easterlings, Gondorians, Rohirrim, Ithilien Ranger, Moria Orcs, Mordor Orc, Uruk-hai, Haradrim, Undead Oathbreakers, Cave Trolls, Mountain Trolls, Wargs, etc. And that isn't even including any of the elves or the smaller factions like the Wild Men, Grey Rangers, Corsairs, etc.

I think it's snow because it looks like a pine tree with white horns (snow) in it. I agree though, the ground studs kind of look more like sand than snow. Maybe use some solid white ones if it is in fact a snow landscape? Otherwise, cool lil set!

I would guess total lines, not set by set. Doing it set by set seems a bit unrealistic. It was suppose to retire in 2013 after a wave early this year and Chima was suppose to be it's replacement. Whether that is still the case or not I am not sure.. though I would assume it is considering Ninjago was not shown off at Toy Fair or any other major events this year and there are no future sets planned as of right now.

I like the inclusion of the frog for one of the other plagues..

Like Faefrost points out, it's not so much no one cares about the Hobbit as we simply don't know what to expect. Unlike with LotR, nothing is known about what PJ is all including in the DoS film. With LotR we have already seen all three films and know exactly what the big scenes are and all the possible content that could be made into sets. With the Hobbit we know PJ is adding a lot of material and he may leave some things out, but we don't know exactly what. I mean look at the Battle at Pelennor fields everyone is talking about and how much it varied in the film vs the book. The only set we are really sure of is something to do with Smaug, but even that has a number of unknowns like will the set be in the Erebor Mountaina or Lake Town, will Smaug be brick built or molded? I would still love Lego to do some of them if for nothing else the price factor. You can't really beat mass produced Lego minifig prices. Plus, just seeing them in Lego form with all their cuteness and charm is great too.

What report are you looking at? I just did a search and I saw their profits were way up and, as usua, they just mentioned City, Star Wars, and Friends but no other themes so I wouldn't look too deep into it....

I think it just needs a little color variation. Overall not a bad design at all though.

The only problem is the Moria Orcs are only in one set right now and it's fairly expensive, so fielding a huge army of Mordor Orcs with the Moria Orc chest is fairly difficult. Lego definitely should of used the Moria Orc chest for the orcs in the upcoming set, it looks MUCH closer to the movie.

Well, they got the money the BrickLink sellers used to buy the initial set, but they would of gotten a LOT more of my money had they just offered some battle packs. I would bought like 20 BPs instead of only the minifigs from five or six sets, and those sellers still might of purchased the sets regardless so ya...

How easy is it for you to sell all those extra pieces? If it's fairly easy, that seems like a good way to go about army building. If not it seems like a lot of work to save a few extra dollars. Just checking BrickLink it looks like the bald Mordor Orc is currently catching $3.75, $6 for the one with hair, and $3 for each of the fully armored Uruk-hai Orcs. So, $15.75 total, plus $4 more for two White Hand shields, $4 for two White Hand helms, and $2 for four swords which total comes out to $25.75. You said it cost you around $20-22.5 so you are saving about $3.25-5.75 each. At any rate you have a very nice army there. I see a lot of people with huge Uruk-hai armies, but very few yet with Mordor or Moria Orc ones so kudos!

I think the wings are suppose to represent the temple on fire, but I could be wrong...? Regardless, it looks great!

I suppose it depends on a number of different things like is the main character in another set, how expensive is that other set, who is the main character being included, etc. I think putting a character like Aragorn, Frodo, Bilbo, or Gandalf in a battle pack would KILL its sales because we already have each of those figures available in a number of other sets. Putting an exclusive figure like Gothmog or Eowyn might help the sales though. Personally I would rather see a battle pack stay strictly with soldiers. Maybe I was just a spoiled weird kid, but even when I was younger I always wanted multiple soldiers. At least two or three Stormtroopers, Foot Soldiers, etc. were always a priority. Now if I could of only gotten Han Solo or a Storm Trooper and that's it, things may have been different, but as it stands the soldiers were just about as important to me even at a young age, and getting multiples was equally as important. I keep seeing people say battle packs wouldn't be hits with younger kids because of their lower spending limit and them having to make choices between which sets to get. Well let me ask this, if a kid has 50 bucks to spend do you think they are going to get Riddles for the Ring and Barrel Escape which has multiple Bilbos, or do you think they would opt for an Elf battle pack for more elves to fight the dwarves in Barrel Escape? Heck, they might even buy 2 which is at least 1 more than they are currently buying of the Riddles for the Ring or Gandalf Arrives sets. AFOLS on the other hand would buy DOZENS. I also see people saying Lego keeps figures in the more expensive sets to boost their sales but then wouldn't making battle packs only further help that cause? I think the lack of LotR/Hobbit battle packs has much more to do with licensing agreements and less to do with the demand for them. If not why make a Lone Ranger BP? Oh, and the cheaper Chima sets are retiring because the speedzorz are on a much shorter life cycle than the regular sets, just like some of Lego's other products.

Ya, adding a named character to a battle pack would just steer people away from it I would think. I mean you basically are getting the three figures you want, and then after the initial purchase the fourth is all but useless. If it were just a straight battle pack with 4 grunts though every figure is useful and going to up the appeal of the set. Regardless I would be fine if they put a captain or something in there, or even a named character who can kind of double up as a soldier with some swapped parts from the same BP (like Eomer). Ideally I would like battle packs with 4 grunts from each faction, that way I am not stuck getting 2 Gondor Soldiers and 2 Mordor Orcs every time I buy the battle pack when all I want is Gondor Soldiers.

Obviously not, and obviously battle packs come with more than just the minfigures. If a Moria Orc battle pack came with some pillars, stairs, or a bridge piece you could buy several and use these pieces to enhance the Mines of Moria set. Or if a Warg Ambush set came with some orcs and Wargs and then a couple small trees or rocks you could use those in conjunction with the bigger Warg Attack set to make a larger more sprawling forest. Regardless if there is one more wave or ten, the LotR line is currently in it's early stages. It's not even a year old, that's consider the early stages last time I checked regardless of how long the line last.

The chess set is definitely a better option if you just want to amass a quick army and don't really care what the actual figures look like. The chess set comes out to be just under 2 bucks per minifigure, which is an incredible deal. I think Lego has fixed all the quality control issues with it since it was first released as well...?

He custom made it he said.

Yup, most of the figures you would army build with are $4.50+ on BrickLink and over $5 on eBay. The cheapest is the Uruk-hai at around $3, and I assume only because it was available in so many sets and the Sun promotion. Even at $3 it's slightly higher than you would find them in a normal battlepack, and the BPs include accessories and bricks for a small build to further their value. I would MUCH rather go into a store and buy 10 battle packs for $12-15 each and get all my figures plus hundreds of bricks and weapons than go on BrickLink, wait to try to find a decent deal, and still end up paying 50 bucks more for the same minifigures and not get any weapons or bricks with the order. Lego could be making a ton of money AND making it easier on fans to army build, that's win/win!

Hehe, I kinda was thinking the same thing, except it seems the ouitlaws out number the hunting party by 8 to 5 so why would they be retreating? Anyways, great MOC, I too would love to see how this ends...

Very nice, but I agree a little less gray and a little more brown to give the impression of a wooden structure, as well as a little more elongation would make this near perfect MOC perfecto! I really like kevbee's version.

Oh don't get me wrong, I feel the same way. I would MUCH rather have a Gondor Soldier over a new Orc print, or any of the main characters like Faramir, Eowyn, etc. over a new orc. I would rather have a new orc print over 2 different undead soldiers though. THAT seems unnecessary and like a waste, especially when you consider the undead print will probably never be used again where as the Mordor Orc will be seen several more times. Heck, at this point I would even go for Lego including the Goblin King goblins in some LotR sets and call them Mordor Orcs, they look close enough. Mix and match pieces from them and give us something new.

If kids aren't getting the Mines of Moria or the Council of Elrond set, both of which include Gimli and are 20 and 70 dollars less respectively, chances of them getting the $100 pirate ship are gonna be pretty slim. Also I don't see how it's too much to ask for one or two more Mordor Orc options since we will be seeing them included in a lot of future sets no doubt. I would of actually preferred a brand new Mordor Orc print instead of 2 totally different undead soldiers (the king needs to be unique obviously). I mean we probably won't see the undead in any other set ever so why waste a new print on something that is going to be used ONCE, rather than a new Mordor Orc that can be used countless times. And WE need the reality check...? It just makes sense for Lego to give us some variety for something that is going to be used so much. I am not saying every orc needs to be unique, but a little differentiation would be nice. Instead the only variety we currently have is a hair cap and some Uruk-hai armor the Mordor Orcs were never even seen in.

The Uruk-hai has 2 faces, two cap options with the helmet or hair, one torso, one armor, and one set of legs. That gives a possible 8 different configurations compared to the 2 current Mordor Orc ones. Uruk-hai were also in only 2 sets, not the 3 we will have seen the Mordor Orcs after the second LotR wave is release (not including the Warg Attack set). Sure you can use the Uruk-hai armor and the Goblins to come up with a lot of other Mordor Orc options, but it's kind of lame the Mordor Orc were given Uruk-hai armor in upcoming sets when they are never seen wearing that kind of armor to my knowledge. I mean we obviously will be seeing a lot of the Mordor Orcs, so why not give them one brand new helm, another face print and another torso and leg print and then just use those and the current ones already released for dozens of different options for future sets?