Deathleech

Gotta agree with the other comments, those bases look amazing! I also really like the Nazgul being washed away in the river.

I think I would like the dragon a lot more if it didn't have the over sized feet and the tail and next had a few more points of articulation. I really hope Smaug looks better.

That would be an awfully short time to buy the license for I would think. Especially a license as big as LotR that has three movies and endless content to cover. If it takes Lego 6 months minimum to produce a set they could only get out a few before the license has already ended. Plus, they also seem to have bought the Hobbit AND LotR license so the second Hobbit movie wouldn't even be out by the time the license ended, which would be bad for Lego considering the second to last and last Hobbit movies should in theory have the most hype behind them. I would have to agree with Legonator as well. It seems like Lego intentionally did less important scenes (except maybe the Wizard Duel) this wave. I can't see Lego ending the line before they even touch on anything Gondorian or Minas Tirith, or the Balrog, or The Witch King and Fel Beast. These all seem like they would be HUGE sellers, especially among kids.

Exactly! Why use the detail bricks on the bottom, which is already different color and already has contrast? They SHOULD of used some of the detail bricks in all those gray walls so they have some texture and look more realistic instead of looking like flat smooth gray walls all over. Heck, I would even go for some more stickers like in the last King's Castle set. As much as I hate stickers it at least breaks up the smooth gray monotonous look.

The castle is made up almost entirely of large wall panels except the tops and the main gate. Sure the other sets aren't so much, but they can't really be used at all in the wagon or smaller set. The other bigger sets have a few as well. It's not just the fact they use the large panels so much that bugs me though, why didn't they use any of the cool new detail bricks with the brick pattern on them? A couple of these in the bigger structures would of made them looked so much more detailed and required minimal effort of Lego's part. I get that, but even the Troll Mountain Fortress released over 3 years ago seems to have waaaay more detail and look infinitely better. Maybe I am just spoiled by the LotR sets, but in comparison these just don't appeal to me at all like I remember the older castle sets. Now that we have seen what Lego is capable I was hoping the new Castle sets would be a little more detailed and exciting than what we are getting...

I think the Castle theme looks like utter crap. It uses so many big pieces and has so few details compared to the Helm's Deep set, it's just a really big turn off. I guess Lego is banking on the bright colors and cool minifigures to sell the sets? Either that or they made the sets look bad on purpose to boost LotR sales because they look so much better in comparison (obviously a joke, don't take it serious).

This is the impression I was getting. Though, I am not sure how well Lego was hoping they would sell when the movies are all rated PG-13 and Lego's target audience is like 7-12, and there has been no new films or tv/cartoon series to help boost sales and get hype going in the past ten years. All well. As long as the line is proifitable I am sure Lego will continue to produce sets. As long as they get all the major scenes and factions/characters down, and maybe some of the relatively minor ones I know I will be happy.

This just goes to show you how vastly different some areas of a county, or different counties altogether can be (and in turn people's perception of how well a line is doing). In some areas the Lego Hobbit sets are selling out and barely can be found, yet this guy claims they are clogging shelves in his area. Hence why isolated reports are hard to go by.

Me too. I was fine with the re-used Orcs up until I saw Lego threw a Uruk-hai helm on them. The loin cloth legs and same toros/hair/head were fine and even the same Orc Forge orc with a chest plate on this wave in two sets.. but the same helm too? Really Lego, REALLY? We obviously are going to be getting TONS of Mordor Orcs so they could at least give us 2+ face prints and 2-3 toroso prints to work with? I don't care if Lego reuse them several times but reusing the same 1 head print and 1 torso already in just two waves and three sets (4 if you count the Warg Attacks where only the legs are slightly different) just reeks of laziness. I would love to see another flesh colored head with a different one sided face print, a hair/ear pieces to match the new skin tone, a totally different torso or two, and a unique helm. That would only be 5-6 new pieces yet give us soooo many more possible combinations. Those just look like the placeholders. The white bat winged ghost is suppose to represent a normal undead soldier I imagine, while the grayish one with the golden crown is the king. I am not sure why the orc is a Moria Orc and not a Mordor one though.. unless that's suppose to be a placeholder for the Corsair? For sure, and it would of made a lot more sense. Judging by the picture though, it looks like Lego probably wanted to cover as many scenes as possible with one playset so they have the ghosts, pirate, and orcs so we can reenact that entire chunk of the movie rather than just the ghosts attacking the pirates or just the ghost coming off the ship and surprising the orcs. Though, even if that is the case, 1 orc would of sufficed instead of only 1 Corsair I would think. To me it just seems so silly it's an entire pirate ship yet we only get a single Corsair. That and we already have plenty of orc options after just 2 waves and will probably never see another Corsair in any set so a few more would of made this set infinitely more appealing. Lego probably just figured the 3 unique undead minifigs and 1 Corsair were more than enough to entice people into buying the set. I mean heck, Legolas and Gimli appear exactly like they do in the first LotR wave, and Aragorn looks similair (the same)? At $150 I would hope more like 12-13 minifigures, but that's getting up there so who knows. I just think it would be lame to have the same amount of minifigures in a $150 set as they do in a $90-100 one (what the Corsair Ship set should translate to if the rumored euro prices are true) from the same theme... Btw, have we heard if the Orthanc/Isenguard set will have ANYTHING to do with the Ent's attacking and such? At this point I don't really want 2-3 more orcs, but I would LOVE an official Treebeard build! It's a fairly thin tower and they might only do the outside so $150 seems plausible. Since it's such a small wave I wouldn't mind it being a larger set, but I am really hoping they do Minas tirth as a ~$200 set later on still and do that beatiful city justice. I also hope we get some Ents with Orthanc...

Yes, I realize that but how exactly do you translate a voice in a movie to a minifigure... ? Especially when it's a child's toy. They would be like "who the heck is this"? They want orcs and the main good guy characters like Aragorn, Frodo, etc., not some elf who does some voice over work and has 5 minutes of film time. I mean I could be totally wrong, we did get the Mouth of Sauron who isn't even in the regular versions of the movies, only the extended, but I would think Eowyn would be put in a set long before Galadriel, or Sauron, Wormtongue, Faramir, etc. There really is only one, maybe two possible scenes Galadriel could be in which could be made into Lego sets from LotR.

Right, which is exactly my point. They don't put all the characters in a set just because they are important parts of the scene. Obviously that has some impact, but there are other things seemingly taken into consideration too. For instance what other sets are those characters already in, are their better candidates for that particular set, etc. I mean we easily could of gotten 1 Moria Orc instead of two identical ones in the Mines of Moria set and gotten another important Fellowship character, but that would of been kind of lame since you can form the Fellowship with the full wave and there are no other current sets to get Moria Orcs in. (And yes, I realize Merry is in the Weathertop set and not Sam, but Pippin isn't either, hence me saying BOTH Merry and Pippin aren't in it. I meant one is, but not both.) I think Galadriel is MUCH more likely to appear in a Hobbit wave than in a LotR one. Heck, she already has seen more air time in the first Hobbit film alone than she did in the entire LotR trilogy. Her role seems much more important in the Hobbit trilogy. Plus with possibly more White council scenes, and the Dol Guldur battle, she should have a lot more film time to come.

As long as we get at least one more wave I can die happy. I would prefer at least 2-3 more LotR waves, and 2 Hobbit ones, but they have hit most of the important, iconic scenes now. If we really do get Orthanc as an exclusive in June that just leaves a Minas Tirith set, Balrog, Fel Beast w/ Witch King, something with Faramir and Eowyn, and an Ent set and that pretty much will cover all the major factions, characters, and scenes. Of course I would love me some Haradrim, Easterlings, Ithilien Rangers, Osgiliath, Golden Hall, etc., but I could live without them if we got the 3 sets I just mentioned. I would also love a Gondor Battle Pack similar to the Uruk-hai Army one with 3 Gondor Soldiers and 3 Orcs, but I dunno if that will happen. I know that was off topic, but I am just thinking IF the LotR/Hobbit theme isn't doing so well and will have a short life span. We have some reports from a Lego store here and there, but no real hard evidence regarding the overall sales. This makes it near impossible to say how well or poorly the line is doing without any real certainty. I pretty much agree with everything Bobsy said just based on what I have heard and seen myself though. I don't think the LotR/Hobbit sets are one of Lego's biggest hits ever, but I doubt it's doing as bad as say PotC or Bellville. I also agree the Hobbit sets seem to be doing better than the LotR ones did. I noticed a few times at Target stores when I went to check out the Lego aisle they were totally empty of Hobbit sets while a few LotR ones still were on shelves (not many though). I think it's due to a number of factors besides just the bright colors.. they were also released at Christmas and they were released right alongside a huge movie. I will be anxious to see how the next LotR wave does now that there is some media to boost sales...

I don't really get the fascination with Galadriel. While she is undoubtedly an important character, and moreso in the books, in the regular LotR movie versions she is barely even seen. She has what, like 5-10 minutes of air time total? My brother and wife who arn't hardcore Tolkien fans like I don't even know who she is. I think the only "must see" LotR characters now are Eowyn, Faramir, the Witch King, and maybe Sauron. I say maybe Sauron because he too is barely seen, though he is obviously the main antagonist throughout all the films and it would be a shame not to get the "main" bad guy. The next round of contenders would probably look something like Wormtongue, Galadriel, and Gothmog and then after that who knows, I am sure we will get some pretty obscure characters. In terms of factions I think the only one they still "have" to cover are Gondor soldiers. Haradrim and Easterlings would be great but I feel like Lego could easily pass both up, especially the Easterlings since they have no main part shown in the films other than marching at the Black Gates. The Haradrim would be easy enough to include in a Mumakil set. The Corsair Ship is probably my second favorite set this wave. If the minifigure selection was a little better like I mentioned before it would probably be a contender for first. As it stands the Black Gate set is probably my favorite this wave. An eagle, Gandalf the White, and the Mouth of Sauron all make it good. Though, those undead and that one (yes, ONE! ) Corsair in the pirate ship make it pretty compelling.... True, but that could be said for tons of scenes. Why weren't both Merry and Pippin included in the Attack on Weathertop set, or Legolas in Helm's Deep, or Bilbo in the Warg Attacks? Obviously they can only include select figures no matter how important they are to the scene, but even still they could of included 2 extra Corsairs instead of two more orcs. We already have those same orcs in multiple other sets, and I am sure we will see them plenty more, so why include them instead of say 2 Corsairs since it's the CORSAIR ship after all? The orcs arn't even on the ship, they are on the docks and we get no docks or harbor with this set, just the ship. I suspect it was just Lego trying to cover several scenes with one set, but it sucks a whole Corsair ship only has one friggen Corsair to pilot it. And it sucks more so that Gimli is already included this wave in a cheaper set, and was in 2 sets last wave and we are getting another one of him.

Guys, don't worry too much, Durin's Bane is the SAME person who claimed he heard this line was ending after 1 LotR wave and obviously that wasn't true. Of course after we found out a second wave was coming he suddenly changed his tune and was saying how great the LotR/Hobbit sets were selling in his area. It seems he has flip flopped once more and is now claiming they are selling badly again... *sigh* I don't mean to be a dick, but unless you have actual CREDIBLE sources you can sight Durin, could you please stop spreading rumors that have little to no merit? You are just working people up and at the same time making yourself look really bad like you want attention because everything you have told us thus far seems on the contrary. Anyways... I don't mind the Corsair ship. I think it would of been a better option down the road when Lego has gotten some of the more important locations and figures out of the way, but all well. It seems like a decent set overall. Not amazing, but not terrible. I do think the figure line up could have been better though. Why are we getting so many Gimli's? Aragorn makes sense since he is one of the main characters, but why not just include Aragorn and Legolas (since he is only in 1 other LotR and Hobbit set). I mean we already get Gimli in this wave in another set and twice in the first LotR so why give us yet another? I would of MUCH preferred the minifigure line up to include Aragorn, Legolas, Undead King, 2-3 Undead Soldiers, and 3-4 Corsairs. If they really felt the need to include another orc, just include the one with the skull helmet? I have a feeling we will be getting these same Mordor Orcs in a lot more future sets and they are in fact both worker and soldier type. This doesn't bother me so much, it just bothers me they were included in THIS set since we only get one Corsair for the CORSAIR SHIP and then we get 2 Orcs? If this was a docks or harbor playset the orcs would make a little more sense but only having 1 Corsair to man an entire ship seems down right stupid.

I didn't even realize this till you brought it up. My window always wiggled a little, I just assumed that was normal. I didn't check to make sure, but I am almost positive I also got the piece without the mold inside to hold the window in place as it wiggles a fair amount. I will probably call Lego up to get this resolved eventually.

Fun MOC but I agree, the clear studs look off. It looks like they are attached to springs or something, not flying through the air.

Some guy was building a huge Helm's Deep MOC and had around 150 Uruk-hai. He supposedly was a Lego Store employee or used to work there or something, but at any rate he claimed he got like 20-50 of the Uruk-hai cheap. They were the display ones with flesh hands and such. The rest he bought with some employee discount. Details were kind of sketchy. I am sure there are people out there with a LOT more Uruk-hai than that. People in the U.K. could of gotten them for around $1 during the Sun promotion. If I had that opportunity I would of gotten around 200+, lol

I wouldn't mind seeing some more skin color variation, on top of new armor printing or pieces. A new helm would also be great.

Nice Mordor Orc army. I have seen a lot of people with huge Uruk-hai armies, but not much in the way of Mordor Orcs until now. I myself plan on getting around 30 from the current assortment and then keep building from future sets till I have 150-200. I am pretty much set with my Uruk-hai army which is 110 strong. I also would like to build up a small-ish Moria Orc army. I will probably just use the "goblins" from the Goblin King Battle set as Morodor Orcs since they look so similar... Nice! I like them, too bad they aren't just a teensy bit longer...

Any chance we could see a pic of it, with the small blue cape over the longer one? This was asked before but the other guy who first received the long cape never did it

Everyone is though.. we don't even know if this is real yet and we have people talking about it being a real set, price point, figures included, etc. Of course it's fun to speculate, but just saying everyone is imagining the possibilities. If they include Saruman in an Orthanc set I see no reason to buy the Wizard Duel set. Unless maybe Gandalf has a new hair mold. If it is real, I doubt it would be in a March wave. I mean we got prelime pics from the June wave, wouldn't that have been in there as well? Unless of course it was on a different page not photographed...

It seems everything was on sale over the holidays, even An Unexpected Gathering which has sold out at a ton of places. I wouldn't be too worried. I think the line sells well, it's just a question of how well.. will we only get 1-2 more waves, or half a dozen? Yup, that's them! Really they wouldn't be hard to mod now, especially with the hood from the Mirkwood Elf polybag and Eomer's cape. You would just need a suitable brown torso and a face with a black mask over the mouth part (maybe we will get one in the Lone Ranger line...?). I would LOVE to see an Ithilien Ranger Ambush set that includes Faramir, 1-2 rangers, 2 Haradrim, the Haradrim chief, and an Oliphant and some trees for around 50-60 bucks. That might be a nice way to get two more types of soldiers, Faramir, the Haradrim Chief, and an Olphant all in one set!

Well, no polybags have been discovered yet, but most of the ones just found seem to be for themes already released or that will be released in early 2013. That means there is at least some hope. I would assume they will probably just do 2 polybags for LotR if any turn up. One will be a decent army builder like the Uruk-hai and Mirkwood Elf, and the other a main character already available in at least 2 sets that no one will really want or need. I am glad to see in the next wave that we get more main characters such as Arwen, a more readily available Elrond, the Mouth of Sauron, and especially Saruman (our first main evil character, yay!). We also get some nice variations like Gandalf the White and Aragorn in Gondor clothing. The only "main" characters we will be missing are Treebeard, Faramir, Eowyn, the Witch King, and Gondor Soldiers. I would love to see them do some of the more obscure or lesser shown characters though like Galadrial, Haradrim, Easterlings, Ithilien Rangers, etc. I also would really like to see an Oliphant and Fel Beast. If we got all these I could die happy. I think they could easily cover all of them in two more waves if they are decent sized waves (5 or so sets each).

Personally I have mixed feelings about the Mouth of Sauron minifigure. While I LOVE the fact they are actually making the fig, it's a little disappointing this set includes him from an army building perspective. I mean Aragorn in Gondor clothing, Gandalf the White, and Mouth of Sauron leaves only 2 grunts, a black horse, and an eagle in this set. For a $40+ dollar set that's not a very good ratio of grunts to named characters. I can't see myself buying more than 2 of this set, and even that's a stretch. I will prolly just eBay or BrickLink the other minifigures and save myself a load of cash. We could always get a set with a Fel Beast in Minas Tirith where the Witch King faces Gandalf the White and breaks his staff. Not as good as versus Eowyn since we already are getting Gandalf the White, but another possible option nonetheless. Actually that would still be two less sets in the June 2013 if we got a fifth exclusive set not shown in the catalog. That would mean the June 2013 wave would have five sets (Wizard Duel, Rivendell, Black Gates, Corsair Ship, and fifth retailer exclusive set) while last years first LotR wave had seven sets (Gandalf Arrives, Shelob Attacks, Uruk-hai Army, Orc Forge exclusive, Weathertop, Moria, and Helm's Deep). I would be fine with only 5 sets as long as the fifth is something super iconic and great, but I have a feeling based on the exclusives so far it won't be. Still, I can hold out hope we will get something awesome like a D2C $200 Minas Tirith set.

I am guessing no since it doesn't look like it in the pic, but there is a black rider so that would make me think there is a Fel Beast as well. Is there?