Deathleech

I said they would definitely scale it down and only include 2-3 levels plus the very top with the Citadel and White Tree. That's a given no matter how the decide to handle a Minas Tirith set. That way you still get the overall look and feel of Minas Tirith, it's just smaller and more cost saving (and eliminates redundant levels the average person wouldn't really care about). I don't think they will even bother with the mountain it's built into, it will probably just have an open back like Helm's Deep and a lot of the buildings Lego does (Arkham Asylum, Daily Bugel to name a new ones). I mean look at Helm's Deep for example, it is also built into a mountain as well and has a whole underground cave/mine that Lego didn't even try to tackle. Granted Minas Tirith is also built into a mountain, but ya. I am sure Lego will do the same with Minas Tirith and leave lots of the smaller details out to save money and make the set a more reasonable price. I am sure it will also cost a fair bit more than Helm's Deep. I think Nuju Metra did an AMAZING job making a realistic MOC of it that Lego might do. If you haven't checked out his thread, I would suggest doing so. He estimated the set costing $250. I dunno if this is a realistic number or not, but I do know you could easily get rid of the 2 catapults and Fel Beast he included and shave off anywhere from 50-100 bucks. These things could be added later in another normal set or an army/castle builder like the Uruk-hai Army set. Ideally I would of liked to see one more city level, but if it's too expensive what he did would still work great. Regardless Lego has tons of routes they could go with Minas Tirith (one huge $400 D2C set, a couple big sets that attach, one large $150-200 flagship set with accompanying army builder/castle builder, etc.), and I hope they do the set justice. That is probably so. I just took the info from an article I read the other day stating that it ended up costing 270 million for the first Hobbit film, and the second two are going to cost another 270 million making it the most expensive trilogy to date. Of course if you include inflation that changes things, just like when you are figuring gross movie income. My point wasn't it's the most expensive movie ever made, I just was adding that in because I thought it was an interesting fact, my point was for such an expensive film it doesn't seem to be getting a ton of hype or media attention which is disappointing. I have seen one billboard and maybe 2-3 commercials total vs when that last Twilight movie came out and I was bombard every 20 minutes with something promoting the movie.

I asked that because you mentioned seven different sets all based on the Minas Tirith location with none of them connecting. I know you were probably just rattling off possible ideas, but I don't see Lego devoting more than 3 or 4 sets tops to Minas Tirith (at least initially). There is just too much material in the LotR trilogy to cover. Plus some of those ideas just don't seem very appealing to children. Pippin lighting the beacon might be a fun set for adults, but for kids? I think not. What does a kid do with it? It might have a cool feature to mimick the torch being lit but beyond that its very limited in scope. Especially when Lego could be offering a Witch King and Fel Beast set that you KNOW kids would eat up. What kid doesn't want a big black dragon like creature?! And yes there have been a lot of Hoth sets with very few/any that connect, but also keep in mind they are from the Star Wars line that has been on going for over a decade and may were updated or re-imagined versions. Also keep in mind they cover an entire planet, not one centralized location like Minas Tirith (Wampa Cave, Echo Base, etc.) I am sure Lego will make a Minas Tirith set eventually if the line does well enough. I mean it is one of the biggest battles in the LotR films, it has too much importance to just pass up. For Lego to completely neglect it up for fear of failure would be silly. There are plenty of ways Lego could do a Minas Tirith set justice, they just have to be careful and smart about it. I do realize that we probably won't get all seven levels of the city (and people will complain no matter what Lego does), but Lego could easily do 2-3 levels and then the front gate and top since nothing really specific happens on most of the other levels of the city. That way they have literally just halved the size of the set, while still keeping all the important aspects and still making it look a lot like Minas Tirith from the films. As for a USC I have no idea if Lego will do it or not. I am sure they will if the line is popular enough. There are tons of locations that would make perfect USC sets. I do wish they would promote the Hobbit film a little more. I read the other day it's the most expensive movie ever made at $270 million, yet there hasn't been a ton of publicity it seems (not near as much as for crappy Twilight, or Harry Potter). Only time will tell how well it does though. As for the LotR/Hobbit Lego sets I do feel they are selling relatively well since I check the shelves regularly and notice the sets selling (no Orc Forge left at my local Target, TRU had 5 Unexpected Gathering the first time I saw them, went in a day later and only 2 left). Are the selling as well as some of Lego's other properties? Probably not, but then again I see Lego Friends and Ninjago on the shelves all the time and we know what hits they are. I said before I don't think LotR is selling maybe quite as well as Lego had anticipated. Then again I have no idea what they expected from this theme. I would assume they are smart enough to know it's a more adult oriented line and has no media backing it to the same degree Star Wars does. I also don't think the line is doing bad at all, I just don't think it's a huge block buster like Star Wars was but again, that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone all things considered. Some random guy first rummoed 8 sets being released in March 2013 with an $80 Orthanc set, a $60 Treebeard one, and a $40 Balrog. Then the German toy site reported 4 sets being released in June/summer 2013 and the names were Pirate Ship, Eagle's Nest, Frodo and Ringwraith, and a third set not named (just a number given). The latest news we have from Brickset/Youtube lists 4 sets again, this time Elrond's Council, Pirate Ship Ambush, Wizard Duel, and the Black Gates. I would say Brickset probably is the most reputable/likely, with the first guys rumored sets being the least.

And what makes you say that? So far we have only seen 2 Middle Earth-themed waves and other than The Battle of Helm's Deep and Uruk-hai Army, none have been sets from the same scene. I don't see them ever creating more than 2-3 Minas Tirith themed sets, and if they did surely they would connect somehow. It would be silly not to have them. As for Minas Tirith, I have mixed feelings how Lego will end up doing it. They HAVE to create it though, it's one of the most grand battles in the LotR trilogy and takes up most of the third film's run time. I think the best option would be make it into an upper and lower half, and maybe make a third army builder/wall set to add on as many as you like such as they did with Helm's Deep. Realistically though, I think they would just mimic Helm's Deep exactly with the one smaller add on set and maybe a single big $150-180 set. I hope they don't go this route though because even at that price it still probably wouldn't do Minas Tirith justice. Of course they will scale it down, there is no question about that, but I just hope it's Helm's Deep type scaling, not Weathertop where it almost looks comical because it's so small. Of course the only other likely option is a huge D2C set like you said similar to the Death Star.. but I just question if Lego is willing to put that kind of investment into a theme that's any less popular than Star Wars.

Well if the summer wave is a mix of LotR/Hobbit sets I would hope the winter one would be too to make up for the fewer LotR sets earlier in the year. However doing it this way doesn't really make sense for either license. Releasing all LotR sets in the summer, and then Hobbit ones in the winter (when the first two movies come out) and the hype for them is at it's peak makes the most sense. The only reason I could see Lego mixing the summer wave is to try and boost LotR sales by showing kids the Hobbit and LotR are from the same universe and trying to get them more interested in that license as well and play off the Hobbit hype. Right now the only source reporting we will have a mix wave is the German toy site, and for all we know they could be wrong with the wording and it could actually be referring to something else. I know it's probably a slim chance.. but maybe the "Eagle's Nest" set refers to Gandalf on the roof of Orthanc? That would seem to make more sense as every other source has mentioned an Orthanc or wizard duel set and nothing about a mixed LotR/Hobbit wave or eagles in the summer. After all they did call the Corsair ship just "Pirate Ship" so who knows? I dunno, I assume the Black Gate will be at least a $50-60 set, and the Corsair Ship sounds to be in the 100-130 dollar price range. That would leave either the $10-40 range for the Wizard Duel, or the $70-90 range. Based on the description I too think it sound like a small set. A duel is just two people. If they called it Orthanc Tower or Saruman's Tower or Isengard or something that would lead me to think it would be the entire tower, not just a small diorama of part of a room and Gandalf and Saruman battling. Who know though. I would LOVE for this to be a big 80 dollar tower and include Saruman, Gandalf, Wormtongue, a couple orcs, and maybe even an eagle. I never really like the small sets anyways so that's probably making me bias anyways. Right, and this is really a problem with ANY Pelennor Fields set. The fields are nothing more than flat, dusty land. There isn't even big rock out croppings or trees to make like with some of the Hobbit scenes. Lego could do a Pelennor Fields set but if they did they would have to make a brick built Mumakil to keep it a construction toy, a battering ram, and/or the Minas Tirith gates. I really would love to see them go with the ladder. They could make Minas Tirith in two parts, an upper and lower city. The lower could have the base wall and gate, maybe a battering ram, and include a couple orcs, Rohan soldiers, Theoden, and maybe Eowyn and Merry vs the Witch King on Fel Beast. The upper half of Minas Tirith could be another level or two and the very top level with the Citadel and White Tree and include Pippin, Denethor, Faramir, Gandalf the White, an orc or two and several Gondor soldiers. Ideally they would also make a battle pack/castle buildier like with Helm's Deep and it would have a siege weapon and Minas tirith wall piece to expand the city with, and then 2 Gondor Soldiers and 4 Mordor Orcs. Right, which is something I was talking about before. The more I think about it the more I think the Witch King and Fel Beast (if molded) should just be part of a Minas tirith/Pelennor Fields set, or an Osgiliath set. There really is no decent structure to add to a Eowyn/Merry vs Witch King set unless you make the Fel Beast brick built, which I would rather they didn't do.

Why on earth would you want the old horse?? Besides the lack of articulation, it just doesn't look near as nice either. I assume we will be getting nothing but new horses in all future sets regardless of the theme so I would get use to them now. Personally I am glad to finally see some more variety with the new horse mold color.

Ya, some guy claimed he had insider info and there were 8 sets to be released in March, but he quickly deleted his post right after that. He only told us the supposed price point and minifigures included in three of the sets which were the Isengard Tower, a Balrog set, and Treebeard. Speaking of Treebeard, that's one set I totally forgot about but definitely wanted to see in Lego form before this line ends. So, to up date, my "must haves" for the LotR line to be totally happy would be a Minas Tirith set, a Balrog one, a Witch King on Fel Beast vs Eowyn and Merry, and Treebeard with an Ent or two and Merry and Pippin. I would also love some Gondor, Mordor Orc, Haradrim (with Mumakil), Easterling, and Rohan battle packs (in order from most to least wanted). Also those sets on Brickset sound like a pretty solid and realistic line up. Of course it's yet another conflicting report with no mention whatsoever of the Frodo/Ringwraith set or Eagle's Nest set listed. No Gondor stuff either, but maybe (hopefully?) they are saving it for an end wave to go out with a bang? I will say four sets seems like a really small wave but who knows, there could be a fifth exclusive set or D2C one for the 2013 summer wave we just aren't hearing about. Both LotR and Hobbit waves have had one so far so I don't see why not.

I know it's just your opinion, but I strongly disagree with both of these ratings. Yes the stickers suck, they always do. I dunno why Lego didn't just give us printed wooden boards as we have seen them before in other sets and that would of cut down on the stickers quite a bit. That's really where most of the stickers came from in this set. The maps where the other big source of stickered material but that's perfectly understandable why we would get stickers for them since we will probably never see them used in another set again. Regardless it's less than 10 stickers total for a $70 set. I get that any stickers are worse than none, but that's pretty darn good. At least it's only 9 stickers and not the 30+ like in the Mines of Moria set! As for the price, how could you seriously give this set less than a 50% rating? Really? REALLY? It's just over the 10 cent per piece mark which is great for a licensed set. Factor in it includes numerous large plates and pieces, as well as a ton of new molds and this set seems like a GREAT deal. I could of easily seen Lego pricing this set for as much as $80. Now I will say it sucks they originally quoted the set being only $60 when it was unveiled, making $70 for it seems much worse when it was finally released. They did the same thing with the Orc Forge set and originally showed 5 orcs in that set but then it turned out it only included 4, which I absolutely HATED. At least with the Unexpected Gathering you are still getting a great deal though. I even said when it was first shown off that 60 bucks seemed like a steal (and was at 9 cents per piece with such big pieces in the set). Overall I feel like you are being a little hard on this set. At very worst I would say it's an 80/100, and even that's being stingy. It is easily one of the best LotR/Hobbit sets, if not one of the best Lego sets ever. I know we all expect big things when our favorite toy line gets the license for our favorite franchise, but we also have to be realistic here. Other than that excellent review!

Well based on the game cover the Fel Beast doesn't look like it would require much more plastic to make than the Cave Troll mold... the wings, neck, and tail just make it look larger but these are flat or narrow/long pieces that don't require a ton of plastic: Compare to Shelob Attacks: Look at the Witch King and Eowyn's size compared to the Fel Beast, and Frodo/Sam's to Shelob. The Fel Beast doesn't seem bigger than Shelob based on these two pics, and actually seems a bit smaller (not done to movie scale of course, but that's how it looks to be portrayed in the game). Also don't forget Shelob attacks actually has three minifigures, one of which was an entirely new mold (Gollum). It also had the small cave for Gollum to flip off of on top of Shelob. Of course a Fel Beast set would need something brick built to pass as a construction set, but I think a small rock formation or perch would do fine. Really THIS would be the piece that decides if it's a $20 set or in the 25-30 range though. I would easily give up Merry in the set to keep it at the 20 price as I think it would be an EXCELLENT set for kids at that price range and a huge seller. I imagine a $20 Witch King w/ Fel Beast set being really similar to this, except molded instead of brick built, slightly smaller dragon, one extra figure, and a smaller structure. I think likeness to existing parts AND importance the item plays in the source material both play a big role in deciding whether a new mold is made for a certain piece or not. For example Orcrist looks kinda like existing swords, but more importantly it's hardly used or mentioned in the books at all. Because of this Lego didn't make a unique mold for it. Sting on the other hand is used at least a few times throughout the LotR trilogy (against Shelob, to warns of the coming goblins/orcs in Mines of Moria and Tower of Barad-dûr), it's used several times in the Hobbit (against the orcs, spiders, in the Battle of the Five Armies, etc.), and it also has a unique shape. I mean it's included in 3 or 4 separate sets already after just two waves. Lego took all these things into consideration and made a new mold for it. Nice sounding sets, but still disappointed at the lack of any Gondor-related structures, and possible lack of Fel Beast and Witch King.

Eh, if it were a smaller molded Fel Beast like the ones in the video game I could easily see it being in the 15-20 dollar range, albeit probably closer to 20. I mean I don't see them making the set any bigger than Shelob if the Fel Beast is brick built, which I doubt it would be.

Maybe, but I assume Lego would scale it down a lot and not include the mountains and walls on the side, just the wall around the gate itself. Imagine a slightly larger gate similar to the Mines of Moria set. I mean they made Weathertop a $60 set so who knows. Personally my wish list for the next wave would be Minas Tirith as a huge flagship set, a Balrog set with Gandalf and a couple Moria Orcs (with those cool helmets), and a small $13-15 set with Eowyn and Merry vs the Witch King on Fel Beast. If we got these sets I could die happy. Of course I would also love some battle packs.. a Rohan and Gondor one for sure, as well as a Mordor Orc, Easterling, and Haradrim one would all be fantastic. The Corsair ship does sound cool, but it's such a minor part in the films it's hard to get excited for. Then again I suppose it would be a good way for Lego to do the undead as well as Corsairs all in one set.

Very nice indeed! I love how you made everything more realistic and detailed. Instead of square base plates you "rounded" them a bit and built them up. The seating box with the canopies and checkered patterns looks great too! It's amazing what some darker earth tones can do to a set when replacing bright red pieces

Like was mentioned, the game needs to create different designs to serve different purposes. A Lego set doesn't need to show or have the entire Fangorn Forest, the game does. And while the game developers do use official Lego pieces (with some alterations like color and sizing, and "fake" building techniques), they still are separate companies. Ones making a game, the other individual sets that need to have only certain aspects in them and hit certain price points. I seriously doubt that is Smaug. Not only does he look odd, the art is dated 2008 which is before the license for the Hobbit was even obtained? I really hope not or I will be very disappointed. They could and should easily make some sand green, glow in the dark minifigs like was pointed out. This would look the best by far. Skeletons would look terrible. It could still be a 40-50 dollar set. The Orc Forge and Warg sets only have 4 and 5 figures respectively but they still are decent mid sized sets. I would guess it would by in this price range and just include the Black Gate as the main focal point for the building.

That eagle looks decent and is probably the right scale, but personally I would much rather have a molded eagle. I think brick built creatures work well enough for the really big monsters like Balrog, Smaug, and Shelob, but I like the smaller(ish) creatures to be solid molds like the wargs and cave trolls and such. If the Fel Beast and Mumalkil are molds surely the eagles will be too. Darn, they are copyrighted here in the U.S. so we can;t view them Definitely. Over half of this wave is in the $40-80 range with only one set over $100, and one under at $9.99 (not including polybags). A 15, 20, or 25 dollar set would of definitely been nice instead of so many in the middle range. I would of killed for a 15-20 dollar army builder that included two common nameless orcs and a common warg. All well, at least we got the excellent Mirkwood Elf Guard Polybag for army building. Unless you are talking about something else.. that is insane. I would gladly pay double or triple the price for Lego if college here in the states was free (and we got paid to "study"). Right now the average private college tuition is just under $30,000 a year with public college coming in around 8,500 on average. That would be a lot of free money to buy Lego....

He said Uruk-hai Armies, not polybags.

I could see Lego tackling a Minas Tirith set a couple of different ways, any of which would require a lot of scaling down like with the Helm's Deep set. First they could make it one massive, D2C $400 set like the Death Star. They also could break it into 2 different sets for around $130 each, an upper and lower half, with possibly a third much smaller army builder/wall add-on set like the Uruk-hai Army one. They could also just scale it down to rediculous proportions and make it a $160-180 set with the wall/army builder add on again (would be pretty much mandatory with this option imo).

I just wanted to quickly point out that I never said the LotR line has sold badly. I just don't think it has sold quite as well as Lego hoped. What their expectations were I have no idea, but I have a feeling they were up there with Star Wars. That is unrealistic given the circumstances, there is a complete lack of hype with kids surrounding any LotR related themes right now. If they released the LotR line after the Hobbit movie I think things would be different, but a lot of kids that will be buying the sets weren't even alive when the original LotR movies were released and I doubt have had much exposure to it. There are no cartoons or video games out right now supporting the line like with Star Wars either. Does that mean the line did poorly? Not by any means. It obviously did good enough to get at least 4-5 more sets next summer, and probably another Hobbit wave in the winter. And really who knows, maybe the line really did meet Lego's expectations and they were always planning to re-introduce a castle theme in 2013 regardless of the LotR/Hobbit lines like Faefrost points out.

Given the choice between Kingdoms (or any castle theme for that matter) and the LotR/Hobbit next year, I am going to pick the LotR/Hobbit every time. I say that not just because I am a HUGE Tolkien fan, but also because we will never see anymore LotR/Hobbit waves after the ones we are getting now. Lego needs to buy an expensive license to make them so uless the line becomes popular enough like Star Wars and is a mainstay, the line will probably end after a few years and that will be it. No more LotR/Hobbit Lego sets EVER. Castle on the other hand will make a return sooner or later. The question isn't if, just when. We have already had a few decades of castle sets and I am sure we will see many, MANY more. Based on all the rumors we have hard it would seem like the LotR wave this summer did decent, but not quite as well as Lego expected. Because of this, next year they are doing a more limited release but keeping the line going because the Hobbit films may generate a ton of interest and also because they already paid for the license. I don't feel the like rumored 8 sets released in March will ever materialize, I think a wave next summer with 4-5 sets and a castle line released around the same time seems much more likely (basically everything the German toy shop site reports). The only reason I am not totally convinced by the German site is the LotR/Hobbit set names seem absolutely horrible. Really, a Corsair ship instead of Minas Tiras or Osgiliath? They are featured not even five minutes in the film. And why would they release another Nazgul.Frodo set when you get the exact same minifigs in the Weathrtop set? I just don't see these sets happening. Personally I feel like Lego needs to change their Lotr/Hobbit direction. This line won't appeal to the target Lego audience (children) without tons of marketing. You can't sell sets based on a twelve year old PG-13 movie when your main target is kids ages 6-12. You also need to play to LotR/Hobbit strengths.. make army builders and let the hardcore fans eat them up in droves! Don't try to make a huge stand alone Mines of Moria set and only have bits and pieces in the one set because the setting is too big and sprawling.. make more smallers sets that can serve as both army builders AND add to the bigger sets. I think this, along with better marketing, is the key to success with the LotR/Hobbit line.

I figured it had something to do with this. What I find odd though, is some pieces like the Goblin bald cap with ears is rubberized while the Orc Hunter one with hair and ears is not. If anything I would think the hair/ears would be more likely to be rubberized than the bald/ear combo since the hair comes to a point in the back as well as at the tip of the ears, wherever the bald cap doesn't.

Yes, very nice! I love the water, the tree, and the bridge (so basically everything, lol!). The amount of detail in this is just amazing and really shows.

Has anyone else noticed a couple of the helm/head pieces for the new Hobbit sets are the soft flexible rubber? For example Bofur's hat, Oin's hair/beard pieces, and the bald goblin ears/cap. I find this interesting because it seems totally random, and often there are other head pieces in the exact same set made from the harder ABS plastic. Bofur's kind of makes sense since it's such a big floppy piece but why is Oin's hair rubbery while Gloins is the normal hard plastic, and why are all the goblin ear/bald caps the rubber?

I ended up getting two of every Hobbit set at TRU during the BOGO 50% off sale so I saved myself about 70 bucks off MSRP, or a little over 10%. I currently have 26 Mirkwood Elf polybags, with another 5 in shipping limbo from TRU (have a feeling this order will be cancelled). I plan on returning at least 5 of the polybags (10 if I get the TRU order, I bought more than I wanted during the BOGO to take advantage of the great price), or maybe selling them for cost to people who don't have access, haven't made up my mind yet.

That's what both my brick and mortar TRU stores had them available for as well. Yours were even higher...??

That's exactly how I feel. One day someone heard from their "inside sources" that the LotR line is doing horrible, and then the next week we see a poster for 2013 LotR sets coming and someone with a very vague list of 3 out of 8 to be released sets. Now we have castle sets listed from mid 2013. It's fun and all to speculate, but it's hard to believe anything with so much conflicting info coming at us.

It doesn't look like they do, no. I wonder if you go in store and show them MSRP at other places online, if they will price match at TRU and then give you the BOGO 50% off deal? That would make it a "real" 25% off everything which is fantastic for a new line just released.