Deathleech

I got a third Warg Attack and third Barrel Escape sets for Christmas. I will be returning the Barrel Escape as I have no use for it, but will definetly keep the Warg Attack set. Can never have too many of them! I also ordered 16 more Uruk-hai from BrickLink for under $3 a piece (fully armored), bringing my total to 100 exact. I also got a $50 Lego Shop gift card which I will be using to buy my final Orc Forge set with so I have 10 sets of white hand armored Uruk-hai in addition to my 100 normal armored ones. Now I am pretty much done with the first LotR wave and need to start in on some of these Hobbit minifigs!

As much as I wish it were true, I don't think so based on the name. Why would Lego make a chess set centering around a single battle and eliminating any potential for all the other main characters/factions in the films? If it were a chess set I would expect it to be named something more broad like Battle for Middle Earth. I have a feeling it will be another board game. I REALLY hope its not true though because I would love a $50-70 set that has dozens of soldiers in it for army building, as well as all the main characters. I would buy like five just for the minifigs alone.

Isn't the "start up gear" just called a rip cord or something? I know this mechanic has been used in a few other toy lines before. Anyways nice review, I may or may not need to check this line out more when I see it in stores near me depending what my other Lego purchases look like next year.

That's the million dollar question. Something to point out is that the Castle page has 5 sets shown on one page so why does the LotR page seemingly only have 4? And the Star Wars sets seem like the picture was taken way zoomed in so maybe there are more on the page? Or maybe they only have certain set types on each page? Who knows, just some things to think about.

As a kid I wanted BOTH named characters and lots of grunts. I always tried to get all the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then at least a couple Foot Soldiers along with Shredder, Rock Steady, Bebop, etc. It was the same with every line, multiple Stormtroopers or what have you as well as one of each of the main good and bad guys. I also think it's important to note that as this line progresses kids and AFOLs alike are going to start becoming less and less interested in sets with only named characters. Why would a kid buy Riddles for the Ring when they already have a similar Gollum from the Shelob Attacks set and Bilbo comes in two other sets? Sure some lines you can do dozens of variations of the characters to keep them different and appealing, but in LotR the main characters only have 2-3 outfits each throughout the entire trilogy and different facial expressions are easily passed up. I have already heard dozens of people saying they have no interest in Riddles for the Ring and will be passing it up. Seeing all of these sets collect dust on the shelves only reaffirms that among kids as well. Another thing to keep in mind is that a battle pack doesn't need to be bought multiple times to be profitable. Even if kids buy 1-2 that is still great for Lego and more than they are selling of the current small set offerings. I mean every kid wants at least a few nameless bad guys to throw at the good. As for adults buying 10+ that's just icing on the cake. If the battle packs sell slightly better than the current low price offerings and don't hinder the big set sales then why not offer them?

How does it not make sense? LotR is all about the big battle scenes so why wouldn't you play to this strength with an array of battle packs? Heck I remember when the film first came out and the designers were touting how they had created the largest armies ever using CGI. If that doesn't tell you to make battle packs I don't know what does. Not only that, the current sets have caught a lot of nagative criticism because Lego isn't able to really capture some of the big structures and landscape scenes where as with a battle pack they could easily enhance the existing sets and allow people to amass huge armies. They would play to the line's strengths. Like I said before, I see the small sets currently clogging shelves. It seems kids and AFOLS alike are passing the sets up because they don't offer anything interesting with the set and the minifigures are available in other bigger, more appealing sets. You don't even have to be an army builder to get the most of battle packs, I am sure kids would love to buy one or two just to make their armies a little bigger. Meanwhile AFOLs can buy them in droves. And as I mentioned before, how would a small complimentary set hurt sales of a big set if the big one has a great exclusive build and minifigures? I understand the line is still in its early stages but if we don't get a battle pack by wave 3 or 4 I am going to be severely disappointed. I know Lego has limited set space per wave and they need to get all the main characters taken care of but after that assaulting us with 20 more Aragorns is going to get real old, real fast. Heck I would even settle for another Uruk-hai Army type set but it appears even something like that won't be available in wave 2 and there was no real army builder in the Hobbit wave just released either.

Yes, and the fact that four of the six sets are in the top 15 best seller list for bulding toys at Amazon shows this wave is doing VERY well. Especially when you consider the fact that Amazon is out of stock of the Unexpected Gathering set, and the Barrel Escape is a TRU exclusive or theoe two would also probably be in there. Heck, even the Goblin King Battle cracked the top 100 in the toys and games, which says a lot, though I am sure this was mainly due to it's heavily slashed price being almost 30% off at one point.

Lego only holds the construction toy license for the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Bridge Direct holds the action figure license. That means Lego cannot legally release an all figure pack as that would constitue an "action figure" toy set. I beleive they have the same license for Star Wars. Of course this is easily bypassed by just throwing in a small vehicle or building piece to build as we have seen them do in the Star Wars battle packs. Personally I agree with Elander, this line SCREAMS to have battle packs included with each wave. Right now the smallest sets are fairly boring and don't offer anything terribly interesting besides being a cheap buy. I constantly see shelves filled with Riddles for the Ring while the bigger sets only have 1-2 of each set, or they are totally out. If they made the cheapest set in each wave 1 or 2 battle packs I think this would drastically change things. I also don't think it would hurt the sales of bigger sets. Lego just has to make sure the bigger sets are appealing in their own right and have their own exclusive figures (special named characters, different exclusive version of grunts, etc.). Like I said in the 2013 LotR/Hobbit thread, a battle pack should compliment a bigger set (like Uruk-Hai Army did), not compete with it. If it competes Lego is doing it all wrong. For instance they could offer a big $60 Mumakil set with maybe an exclusive Haradrim grunt and the chief, and then a smaller 12-15 dollar battle pack with 3-4 more Haradrim. That way kids would still want one of each because both still offer something unique, and AFOLs and army builders would buy 1-2 Mumakil then dozens of the battle packs. I honestly don't see ANYONE buying the small battle pack and then being like well, I got my 4 random grunt Haradrim so I am gonna pass on that huge, awesome Mumakil set with the great looking exclusive Haradrim chief and royal guards. The only ones doing this would be the people who can't afford the Mumakil in the first place, and then it wouldn't matter since they can't buy the big set regardless. I look at the battle packs as being sold in the exact same quantities to everyone else as the small sets are now, and then to the AFOLs and army builders they would easily sell 5-20x better than the small sets currently do. All the while still allowing the bigger sets to sell as they normally would.

I gotta agree with Dwarf-brik. I know Lego is a business and wants to make the most money possible, but there also is a breaking point where consumers will just get sick of it and stop purchasing sets. I mean if Lego wanted to make the most money why not offer Frodo and Aragorn in a single $100+ set that people will have to buy if they want the two main characters? Why even offer the lower priced sets? I know we have some fanatic AFOLs, but I don't know of anyone buying more than 2-3 of the huge flagships each wave (at least not at full MSRP). Meanwhile I am sure most people would buy at least 4-5 battle packs on top of the main flagship set, and I am sure those people that buy multiple big sets would buy dozens of BPs (I know I would). I mean I get what you are saying, but the minifigures shouldn't be the only selling point of the large sets. If they are then Lego is doing a pretty poor job with the CONSTRUCTION part of their construction sets. To me I buy the bigger sets for the main structure they offer AND the minifigures. I would never pass up say the Corsair Ship if they also offered an Undead/Corsair Battle Pack. A battle pack should compliment a bigger set, not compete with it. To this degree Lego could and should keep offering special exclusive characters in the bigger sets to keep the minifigure selection appealing like they did with Theoden, Haldir, the Undead King, etc. Right, and I agree with that 100%... but the problem is this wave doesn't seem to have ANY really iconic scenes. Look at the first LotR wave, it didn't include all iconic important scenes either. You had the Orc Forge and Gandalf Arrives which were a little less important, but you also had Helm's Deep, Mines of Moria, Shelob Attacks, etc which were all really important parts and made for great sets kids would love (castles and awesome creatures). I mean sure Rivendell and the Black Gate are cool, but both see fairly small air time compared to say Minas Tirith or the Ents where whole battles take place and huge chunks of film time are devoted. The Corsairs arn't even on screen 5 minutes and yet it's the flagship set?!? It makes little to no sense from a consumer stand point. Granted it makes more sense from a business stand point, especially since it's one of the few vehicles in the trilogy and Lego loves to do pirate ships, but ya. Why didn't we get a Balrog set, Ents, Osgiliath, or Minas Tirith? These are all things that really stick out to me when I think back to the films. But that was sort of an army builder with 2 grunt soldiers, was it not? Sure it had Jack.. but buying him with 2 grunts wasn't that bad. In comparisson Orthanc would most likely have Saruman at the very least, and most likely Gandalf. Why offer a smaller section of the tower with the exact same minifigures a larger version would have? I mean the Uruk-Hai Army set is part of Helm's Deep but makes sense to offer both since they go together and both sets have different minifigures, or figs you would want multiples of. Also keep in mind Pirates of the Carribean only has so many scenes you can do, what with all the boat time, Lord of the Rings they havn't even begun to delve into all the possible sets so offering 2 from the same scene/location seems a bit silly this early on with the countless other possibilities. Of course there might very well be more sets for 2013 we havn't seen, and I sure hope so since we only have seen 4 so far and nothing Gondor. I just don't think we will see Orthanc this year (next year is a definite possibility though). Personally I like that they made the smallest set somewhat appealing this time by offering an exclusive minifigure. Usually the smaller sets are extremely unappealing to me due to their minifigure selection and limited builds, but getting Saruman would make this one a must buy.

I wouldn't count Corsairs out just yet. It looks like the goblin that Aragorn is fighting is just a fill in Moria Orc. If you look most the figures in the front left hand corner display look like concept drawings since Lego doesn't have the official figures made yet. They did the same thing for the preliminary pictures for the first LotR wave and used a lot of existing Fantasy orcs from the Kingdoms line. For those still wondering those original 8 sets were obviously a fake rumor. Lego isn't going to release a small wizard duel set with Saruman and then a huge Orthanc in the same wave. It would be pointless. It would be like making the Unexpected Gathering set then a Bilbo's Garden set in the same wave. The bigger set already contains the smaller so why make both? Personally I am a bit disappointed. Nothing Gondor themed at all, no battle packs, and only 4 sets? What a let down. If you are only gonna do 4 sets at least make one a huge Minas Tirith. I really hope there is at least one medium sized set that's an exclusive or D2C set. Are these generally not shown with the rest of a wave? As for the sets shown they do look decent but other than the Wizard Duel none really seem like huge scenes from the movies (compared to what they could of done.. Balrog battle, Ent attack, Minas Tirith, etc). It looks like a $10, 30-40, 60-80, and $100-130 price range for these sets?

My thoughts exactly. I think he did it mainly because of the stickers (there weren't really that many compared to say Mines of Moria that had over 30), and because it was originally suppose to be $60 but Lego jacked the price up to $70 when it finally hit retailers. I can understand being a little miffed about that, but everything should still be taken into consideration and a score not based solely on that change. I mean the set is just under 11 cents per piece, has several large pieces for the floor, roof, door and windows, and it has several unique molds and prints with the dwarves hair, hats, and bodies.

Where was that shown off at? What event? If you scroll to the right more you can also see ALL the dwarves with their Lego Hobbit counterparts (I know we have seen Gandalf and Bilbo and some of the dwarves, but I havn't seen most of those other pics till now).

Here is a super easy and quick change I made. I think it gives Gandalf's staff a similar shape to the movie staff and looks more like it. Not exactly the same details but you at least get something a little more interesting:

Ya that's what I am assuming too. Plus in the book, Gandalf leaves the dwarves right before they enter Mirkwood to go to the council and handle the necromancer, which would be a little bit after the second film starts (they go from the eagle's dropping them off, toBeorn's hut, then to Mirkwood).

Just want to point out the name though.. currently it's being listed as the Council of Elrond, not the The White Council (or something similar). If it were portraying the scene from the Hobbit I think the name would be something more along the ladder since it was Saruman who called the meeting and not Elrond? I certainly hope not because, as has been stated, a White council set would be MUCH better in terms of new minifigures offered. Well we did get a glimpse of Beorn in bear form in the movie scroll poster several months ago. Granted it was just his bear form, but ya. This actually makes me wonder if Lego did a set based on his home which Beorn would we get in it.. human, bear, or both? I would think human in that set since he is human for it, and then if/when Lego does a Battle of the Five Armies set we would get him in bear form. I have wondered about this too. I would think Lego would have to go back now since they already made two sets from the second film, but who knows what new stuff Jackson has added to the films. Right now the second wave could have a Smaug, Lake Town, Beorn's Hut, and maybe a Thranduil's Palace set if it's based strictly on the second film. I don't know when the Dol Goldur battle takes place so that may or may not be in the second film.

I would much rather get a Lego LotR Chess Set, though an Advent Calender would be better than nothing. I say that because the Advent Calenders usually only have around 7 minifigures if this years are any indication, where as a chess set has well over 20 minifigures.

Fair enough, but you still could of said something along the lines of "the Warg Attack set wasn't near as good as it could of been due to the off representation of minifigures and structures", or "they could of picked better scenes to make into sets such as...". Even better you could of used spoiler tags and supported your claims. Instead you just made it sound like the whole wave was total crap which definitely isn't true. As for the trolls, I think everyone else has pretty much hit the nail on the head. Three large, separate troll molds would easily put the set in the $50+ price range, and that's not including any other minifigures or brick built structures. Realistically we are looking at an $80 set with everything. That means it would of knocked An Unexpected Gathering out of this wave, and given the choice between a troll scene and Bag End, I am going to choose Bag End. Not only that though, like I said before we already have a cave troll from the Mines of Moria set and the Goblin King which both are somewhat similar big molded creatures (not exactly the same as the mountain trolls, but close enough). With both of these factors taken into consideration it makes sense from a business stand point for Lego not to release a troll scene. The same holds true for any possible sets, I am sure we won't be getting a Warg ambush set eitherfrom Two Towers nice since we just got Wargs in the Hobbit wave. There is just too much film content to cover in their waves, you can't expect Lego to hit every little scene their first go. They are going to obviously try and make the biggest, most iconic scenes first that are as much different from each other as possible, all the while having great playability and appeal to kids.

I would agree that this is one of the poorer Hobbit sets released, with Riddles for the Ring barely beating it out as the worst (and that's to be expected due to the low price point and limited nature of the smallest set). With that said I still don't think it's a bad set by any means, and I think it's really unfair to knock it simply because it isn't exactly like the movie scene. If this were normal circumstances I too would be disappointed it doesn't mimic the film more closely, but I think it's extremely apparent that Lego had limited information available to them when they made the set and they did the best they could. It doesn't help either the series went from two to three movies and as a result I am sure a lot of stuff was cut, added, and switched around to accommodate. Like Faefrost points out, this set is pretty much identical to the book version. The fires being lit by the orcs under the tree, the blue flames, etc. It also makes sense, from a book perspective, that Azog was not present in this set... Now, with all of that said I do think the Yazneg figure is probably one of the worse looking minifigures in the entire LotR/Hobbit line. The tree is much too fat and bulky compared to the trees the dwarves climbed in the film. I also would of loved had they treated this more like an army builder set and had a smaller skinnier tree, a gray and brown Warg instead of white one, 2-3 Orcs, no named dwarves, and an eagle or two all for around $30-40. Of course if Lego had done this I am not sure we would of ever seen the white Warg in another set, and I dunno if they would of been able to squeeze all 13 dwarves into this wave so I understand Lego's reasoning. I am guessing we got a fatter bulkier tree due to it being sturdier and offering more play features than a tall skinny one would of had. I can only imagine a skinny Lego tree like in the film breaking left and right when younger kids try to play with them and causing a ton of frustration. I think all of this is important to take into consideration before blasting Lego for not making the set totally accurate to the movie.

Not every post, just the ones where you blast the sets saying things like "they picked completely bad scenes" and "messed up the design, terribly of a few characters" and "left out things that should and could not have been left out by other toy brands that would have been making toys for a movie...". Sorry if you feel like I am picking on you, but surely you see how you could of came off overtly negative? I understand it's your opinion, but you complained about the sets and then didn't really offer any sort of examples or reasoning. It just came off as unnecessary complaining that didn't hold any substance. I do agree with you to some extent about the Warg Attack now that you have further explained, but I also think the rest of the sets are pretty good, and even the Warg set isn't terrible. And really I feel like a lot of the problem with the set wasn't even in Lego's control, it seems more like PJ and WB making the films into three instead of the originally planned two had a lot more to do with it than anything.

Who wouldn't. Over 20 orcs in a single set would make for an insane army builder!

After seeing the films (and recently re-reading the books), I can now say that I STRONGLY disagree with this. The dwarves are pretty much spot on save for some SLIGHT color variations. The scenes picked are pretty much perfect and touch on all the major parts of the film AND book. The only exception being the Warg Attack set missing a key character, which could be due to any number of reasons already stated by other members (Lego not having all the info, the scene being changed last minute, etc.). Other than that though, I think everything makes perfect sense. The only scenes that were left out that could of possibly been made into sets were the trolls, Rivendell, and maybe Radaghast's hut. We already have a troll from the first LotR wave and we have the Goblin King who uses a similar big mold so it makes sense Lego didn't do this scene as it would be redundant. We are also suppose to be getting a Rivendell set in the next LotR wave so again, it makes sense this scene wasn't chosen to be made into a set due to it being covered elsewhere. That leaves Bag End which is an amazing set and captures the film scene very well. Riddles for the Ring is obviously different due to the play feature being added, but other than a similar rock perch found in the Warg Attacks set there wasn't a ton that could be done with this set (a bunch of rocks and a pond doesn't make for a great iconic set to begin with). The Spider Attack and Barrel Escape sets weren't in the first film and Lego already had the sets made and ready to go so this is no fault of their own. Goblin Town gives the general feel of the movie scene while still being a fairly cost efficient set. I don't see how else they could of made all the hanging and suspended bridges way up in the air in the middle of a mountain any different. Finally ther eis the Warg Attack set which is a pretty hard scene to recreate due to the Wargs being featured a lot more in the book, and the sprawling nature of the landscape they are shown in. All in all though I think Lego did a fine job of creature the scene. The Orc Hunters could or probably used new molds/prints, but with all the dwarves and other new molds being created I totally understand why Lego would choose to re-use parts.

Why would they focus the first Hobbit wave on Erebor when it is undoubtedly going to be featured much more in the second and third films (entire battle takes place outside in the third), and it was merely a flash back in AUJ? That makes no sense. I know it looks cool and all but there will be MUCH better times to produce Erebor themed sets. I can't speak for the Netherlands, but here in the U.S. you could get at the very minimum half the total cost of the set back if you sold the minifigures. More realistically you are looking at 2/3 the total price back just from the minifigures though. For instance The Goblin King Battle is $100 MSRP. The Goblin King alone goes for roughly $17, each of the dwarves 8-9, Gandalf 2-3, and the orcs about 5-6. That's roughly 50-65 for the minifigs. If you get the sets on sale at all (Amazon currently has the Goblin King Battle for 20% off), you re looking to get everything for even less.

I haven't seen the movie yet (going in a few hours!), but based on the book the scenes make perfect sense. Lego basically did the major scene from each chapter in the book minus the trolls. Also Blakstone brings up a good point, PJ probably added a lot of cut stuff and extra footage to scenes AFTER the Lego sets were already finalized and ready to go so you can't fault them for that. Lego didn't design the LotR characters all exactly as they appear in those films either, the main culprit that catches a lot of flak being Aragorn. I'm not sure if this is just over sight on Lego's part, they couldn't make the figures look good in minifigure scale any other way, or what the deal is but it generally doesn't bother me. As long as I can immediately tell who the character is I am fine with it. Orangish brown hair instead of brown is totally fine by me, at least it's not black or blonde!

I would gladly buy a Minas Tirith like that in a heart beat. I am sure some people will be unhappy no matter what Lego ends up doing though. If they made a 150 dollar set people would complain it's too small and it lacks too much. If Lego did a $1000 set people would complain it's way to costly. Like Faefrost points out, I think Nuju Metru's model captures the essence and feel of Minas Tirith VERY well, while still being at a reasonable price point (and could be even lower without all the catapults and huge brick built Fel Beast). I mean look at Eurolock's Helm's Deep MOC. It looks almost identical to the real thing in some parts, but even still it's missing a lot (a lot of wall which isn't long or tall enough and there is no mountain behind the wall or on the left side). And he estimates it cost around $500 bucks! This is something I keep trying to explain to people but it's like they don't understand. Lego CAN NOT totally recreate a lot of LotR/Hobbit locations due to a number of limiting factors. They need to keep the price range accessible to their main audience of kids, make the set resemble it's movie counter part, fit several different set price points, and all the while still make a profit off the sets. Like the Mirkwood Spider set.. Lego simply cannot make an entire forest as that's impossible. Instead they made it a fairly cheap $30 set and only added a few trees. People complain these types of sets feel incomplete though. Does this mean Lego just shouldn't even try? No, they just do the best they can. I for one would love to see a Minas Tirith set, but I also am fully aware of all the limitations and except them. Some people, on the other hand, seem to expect a full 7 level city built into a mountain that is thousands of feet high made out of Lego all for under 200 dollars..

Well that's great to hear you will be finishing it! Any idea when we can expect to see more, or how many more sets you were planning on doing? Also any hints at what we might see in the future?