Deathleech

It was in the Hobbit book. The elves were constantly bartering for wine and such from their neighbors. In fact it plays a huge role in the dwarves escaping the elves once they have been captured.

That is a GREAT polybag! It's on par with the Uruk-hai one from the first LotR wave, maybe even better since we have no better ways to build elf armies like we did with the Uruk-hai Army set. The only thing that would of made the polybag better is if it also included an alternate elf hair piece. Really that's the only way to distinguish an elf from a human with the Lego minifigures... all well. As for the hood, does anyone else find it odd the green is dark while the torso is the same sand green from the Barrel Escape set? Why not make a hood that matches color? I still think it will be ok.. all those Eomer cloaks I have laying around should match the hood perfectly and make the figure look significantly better. That, or you could also use it to make some Itilien Ranger mods! The mushroom and tree piece will be great for creating huge forests when you combine a few with the Mirkwood Spider and Attack of the Wargs sets, and the glass is always useful for creating feast scenes or what have you.

I got my last several Uruk-hai Army sets after already opening and assembling a bunch of the sets before them. As such I decided to just take out the minifigures and put them together and take everything else and put it back in a box. Rather than stuff it all in several boxes I tried to fit as many pieces in a single box as I could. I ended up easily fitting the contents of two sets in a single Uruk-hai Army box with a little room to spare. The amount of empty space Lego leaves in their boxes is a little rediculous. As you mention, I am sure some people feel like they are getting a better deal with that huge box, even if its less than half full. For others like myself, I am totally fine with smaller boxes since it means an easier time finding room to store them. I am sure it saves Lego a lot of money with cardboard cost and shipping since they are smaller boxes. It also allows retailers to have more sets out at once since each set takes up less shelf space and storage space. I would think all of these benefits would outweigh the small negative but then again who knows. Perceived value can be a HUGE deal in making sales.

I think it was mentioned in another review that Lego is indeed trying to cut down on their packaging size. It makes perfect sense to me, the Orc Force set was in a box that looks to be almost as big as the Unexpected Gathering, yet it was almost half the price and had tons of empty space inside. For those of us who keep the boxes, it's also beneficial.. more room to store the boxes! I checked a Super K-mart by us that had nothing, and a smaller regular k-Mart that only had the Mirkwood Spider set left. Kind of disappointed but it's only another week and a half till every retailer should be getting them in.

I was wondering the same thing for awhile. There is a thread that explains it though, and it makes perfect sense. Basically there was no new historic theme being release for 2012, so rather than have this part of the forums pretty much be vacant an entire year, the mods decided to put LotR in it. There were tons of other license themes in 2012 so no worry about that section of the forums being empty!

I really don't see Lego taking failed or forgotten lines and trying to bring them back. If they failed the first time, chances are pretty good they won't do to well this time around either. I mean I get what you are saying, Lego could take an old theme that could of been successful if they had done certain things differently, such as marketing or some design choices (heck, I feel like they kind of messed up with the LotR line already when it could of been huge). The thing is though, I think Lego would just be more likely to take a theme they KNOW sold well and re-do it. Look at all the people clamoring for Forestmen, Wolfpack, Black Falcons, etc. I really don't know what Lego was expecting from a license that has had next to no media exposure in the past decade. Not only that, the films are rated PG-13 yet the majority of Lego toy lines are aimed at kids under 13. They didn't even release the video game till just now. A couple commercials isn't going to sell a licensed them that they just release completely out of the blue. At least when they released the Star Wars Lego line it was right around the time of the pre-quels and cartoons and everything being out. Hopefully the Hobbit films being released will really help boost sales, and we will see more sets later in 2013 than the 4 rumored on the site. Regardless this could be seen as good or a bad thing, maybe it's the best of both worlds? We get a few less LotR/Hobbit sets, but still get a decent showing and also Castle is now coming back sooner!

I don't think his had the Barrel Escape set either. K-mart doesn't have it so that must be the TRU exclusive like The_Chosen_1 points out.

Mine was ordered online, not in store pick up. That might be another issue as it seems in store pick ups were fine...

Hmm.. interesting. That is going to make me even more upset if I was told they had no more minifigures left, I cancelled my order, and now they are sending them out. I would love to hear more about this from other people when they get the game.. if you pre-ordered the game from Gamestop here in the U.S., did you get a minifig with it or not? and when did you pre-order? It seems extra weird you only pre-ordered it last week when they weren't even advertising the fig and now you got a notice saying the figure has shipped.

Catchy song too, lol!

That's what I was asking in the LotR 2013 thread.. do we know if this site has any sort of credibility from past waves?

If this is a brand new theme, I would probably prefer the Greek Mythologies or something totally different and interesting/new. The Castle theme has been a main stay for many years so more knights and castles can only be so exciting for me... they would REALLY have to do something new, with new designs to impress me and make me want to buy the line.

Yes, I'm guessing the goblin in the upper elft hand corner in that first pic is suppose to be Scribe. He has a piece of paper in his hand just like we always see the Lego version having in the Goblin King Battle set. Also, his legs are severely tiny and messed up.. interesting Lego decided to use the short legs when his legs in fact look like nothing more than twigs! This probably explains why he is often seen sitting in the crane too... I hope there is some explanation in the movie for why all the goblins/orcs look the way they do. Otherwise people unfamiliar with the book are probably just going to assume the goblins from Goblin Town have been living near an atomic bombs radiation too long Actually, if I remember correctly, the goblins from Goblin Town only chase the dwarves and company through their town and caves and are waiting at the exit door. I don't think the book ever states whether the goblins that meet up with the Wargs are the same ones. I am almost positive their main goal wasn't to hunt down the dwarves though and seek revenge. They were planning to raid the good peoples of Middle Earth and kill them and it just so happened the dwarves were there at their meeting place.

Interesting Fred Meyer is the only store here in the U.S. that currently has the sets available.. usually it's TRU isn't it that comes out with them a few weeks early?

The Orc Forge set.

I don't plan using the armor part, I am just going to leave him as is with his normal torso. I think if they would of done his arms in the same tan color as the armor like in the movie it would of looked better. As is the piece barely resembles what it looks like in the movie and just looks odd

We are getting so many conflicting reports and the sad part is none of them really make any sense. The Dutch site only has 4 sets listed, a couple seem extremely unlikely this early on in the line's life cycle (Pirate ship (Corsairs) over Ents, Minas Tirith, or a Balrog? Really?), and to top it off those 4 sets are a mix of Hobbit/LotR waves. Why would Lego release Hobbit sets in the summer, instead of the winter when the second Hobbit film is released, and the excitement for them is at it's peak? The guy rumoring the next LotR wave made a little more sense with his "leaked" sets, but the price points and minifigure selection seemed way off and a March release seemed unlikely. Now the Brickshow is basically reporting both the rumors combined it would seem? I think I have pretty much had it will all these rumors. I am not believe anything till I actually see some evidence.

Wal-Mart currently has it available for $89.99. Not a great deal, but not terrible either.

These prices have all but been confirmed for almost a month now so I'm not really surprised at all. The prices were listed by a number of sites right before NYCC when they did previews of the sets, and a contest leaked the prices as well. Bag End is a little higher than originally quoted SDCC, but that's to be expected. The set seemed like a steal at $59.99. Overall the sets are very reasonable priced. They are all around 12 cents per piece which I feel is great for a license theme with so many new unique molds. No 14 cent or 16 cent PPP sets this time around like Gandalf Arrives or Attack on Weathertop!

Those goblins look more like the mutated humans from the Hills Have eyes imo. I don't think I am a fan... They probably just wanted to list them for when they were released. They did the same for the LotR waves here in the U.S. when they first came out. They listed them all, then right after listed them all as out of stock. A few weeks later they went up for sale for good. I would say give it a week or two and they will probably have them all listed for sale again!

Ya, it all seems a little iffy to me. Do we have any idea how accurate/reliable this website is? I mean the sets seem almost less likely than the ones the guy earlier this week rumored. Of course we don't even know anything about the list. Is it complete? Is it just from the summer LotR wave? There are so many unanswered questions.

Very cool! I would love to see a top down shot inside with all the roofing off. I also love the photoshop affects you added... for the most part. The ONLY ones I'm not digging are the first pic you posted, and the one you just posted, basically the landscape ones. The landscape looks really weird and blurry with your Golden Hall sitting on them. Maybe just use the backgrounds from these and cut them off at the bottom of your Lego MOC? Other than that the actual model looks amazing and I only bring this up because I think it hurts your model rather than help it like the rest of the amazing pics you posted!

Ori's isn't even that bad, it hardly peaks through and I could imagine it being neck hair or something. How do you explain teeth on the back of the goblin's heads though?

Possibly, but keep in mind a lot of older sets have a pretty basic, common assortment of bricks they were made up of. It really just depends on which sets they choose.

I really don't like the fact the goblin's faces peak through the bottom on the back. How hard is it to ensure the faces are printed high enough up, or the cap comes down far enough that the faces don't show through the bottom on the back? Honestly I would rather only have a one sided face over it showing through on the back, since the double sided faces are hardly that different anyways. Other than that it looks like a great set and I can't wait to get it!