Deathleech

Hey, someone finally voted for poor Ori! Though I get the feeling it was more a pity vote than anything else

Roughly how many minifigures for each side did you use for this diorama? Both attackers and defenders? It looks like well over 200 combined. I ask because I would like to do something similar using the LotR minifigures. Like I said before, you have a huge army there but the attackers look a little sparse in the back just due to all the empty grass plates you have there. If you cut off that back section it would make the field look so much fuller with battle and wouldn't really take anything away from the diorama.

I clicked the link and it looks like they changed it back to the Uruk-hai polybag for Saturday. When I first saw the poster on Brickset it had the Uruk-hai/Frodo shown, but when I would click the link there to the Sun page (same link you supplied), it just listed Frodo for both Saturday and Sunday. The whole LotR polybag thing has really just been a pain to be honest though. First it was suppose to be released a couple weeks ago through the Sun and now it keeps switching between Frodo and the Uruk-hai for Saturday. Here in the U.S. we don't even know when or if we will get the set. I heard it was available at Lego Discovery Centers, but have no confirmation of that. I realize it's just a fun little set and not suppose to be a big deal, but the complete lack of info on it is annoying. Luckily neither minifigure is that hard to get in a normal set, and you can buy fully armored Uruk-hai with the same weapon for around $3 on Bricklink, about a dollar less than a polybag would usually cost. Sure they don't have the bricks, but I doubt many people are buying the polybag for that dinky ballista

Lego is currently my only hobby, and the LotR line is the only one I currently buy anything from so over the course of the past five months it hasn't been that much really. A little less than 10% of my total expenses. I gotta say, I was planning on buying a lot more with the Hobbit wave but after seeing everything I am probably only going to get 2 of each set and then eBay or Bricklink any extras of the Warg/goblins I want. Those sets just aren't army builder friendly at all and I see no need to buy anymore than 2 of each with so many named characters in each set.

I just ordered 6 more Uruk-hai Army sets from Amazon, bringing my total to 21, since they have them on sale for nearly 20% off. I couldn't resist waiting to see if they get discounted any cheaper, and plus if/when they do I am sure they will sell out like hot cakes. I also picked up 2 of the Uruk-hai w/ Ballista polybags off eBay since we have no word when or if they will ever be released here in the U.S. That pretty much completes my LotR buys, just in time for the Hobbit sets to come out!

I was contemplating combining all the elves when the Hobbit sets come out and maybe replacing their torsos with all the extra Eomer torsos I have. Then I would have around 6-7 elves for the Helm's Deep scene that could act as a mini army. Still not a ton, and they wouldn't have any helmets, but it's better than nothing till we get some proper elf soldiers I figure.

This means we should be seeing the sets pop up at TRU (and other places shortly after) very, very soon I would imagine... I mean the movie is due for release in less than 2 months now and the Lego sets are spose to be "officially" released in just over a month...

I really like your choice of minifigures, the tower build, and the green lighting. They all work together very nicely to create this vignette. It has a very powerful enchanted, yet somewhat dark forest feel to it.

There are things I really like about this line, then some I absolutely hate. Overall I love all the minifigures. The birds, the wolves, the crocs, everything... except the lions which I can't stand. The Dragonball Z hair and the huge white eyeballs just make them look too cartoony and like anime characters. All the rest of the minifigures look great and like fierce animals so why did Lego decide to make the lion race look so silly in comparison? As for the vehicles, I have mixed feelings with them and pretty much like half of them and don't the other half. I love all the eagle/raven vehicles (as it seems everyone does), and I really like the croc boat but I'm not a fan of the rest. The two lion vehicles and the wolf one all look too similair imo and I wish they would of done another boat or something more tank like (like they did with the eagle vehicle) and less 4 wheelers. I just don't like the overall design period and then they did three in a similar style.. blah. As for the Speedzorz, I really like them. I think they will be a big hit with kids and I like how each seems to be a different game. You get targeting practice with some and others where you have to jump through hoops or steer into something, etc. Overall I will have to wait and see how the line looks when we get more shots. As of right now I am really torn on buying these sets or not.

I gotta say, I do really like the printing and color sceheme on the CMF Elf, but the very reason several people like it so much is the reason I don't! He is yellow and doesn't match the rest of my LotR minifigs without modding

Until he doesn't get his food

The Orc Forge was originally shown off having 5 minifigures at Toy Fair this year but it ended up only have 4. I could see them changing the price, especially because the set seemed to good to be true at $59.99. It definitely seems more like a $69.99 set what with 5 unique minifigures, all the accessories, and of course the beautiful Bag End structure.

That was the price also quoted in the contest where it listed the Unexpected Gathering set as one of the prizes. I think that seems pretty likely considering how large the set looks.

A nice little house in the mountains. Like others I really like the windows, roof, and "front porch"

I thought the elf in the red clothing was the elf butler in the Barrel Escape set, but in the HD pic you can see he has something hanging from his belt that kind of looks like keys so now I am unsure. I am still inclined to believe he is the butler since he looks like a slightly older elf but who knows. As per your question, for me it's between Hobbit Legolas, Tauriel, and the elf guard. I want to say the elf guard because I think he makes an excellent generic elf soldier, even though it's going to be hard to get many of him when he is in a $40 set..

I know there aren't thousands, but it does mentions hundreds of Wargs and Goblins when the dwarves get stuck in the trees. That's a pretty sizable force. It does seem most likely we would get battle packs for the third film when the Battle of the Five Armies takes place, but still I would think they would release some battle packs before that. The battle has huge companies of dwarves, humans, elves, goblins, wargs, and eagles so it's going to be impossible to cover battle packs for each faction while still offering normal sets that wave. They would need 4-5 battle packs alone to cover each faction. Lego should get a jump on it now and offer the warg/eagle battle pack since we have a scene featuring large numbers of each in the first film, and then later offer a couple battle packs with strictly soldiers that have a lot more goblins, humans, elves, and dwarves in them. Personally I don't think The Hobbit lends itself anywhere near as well to battle packs as the LotR does though. I do get what you are saying and I totally understand, I have had this conversation with other people before. I just think certain themes really lend themselves well to battle packs. Obviously a theme like City, or even moresoe Friends doesn't lend itself to army builders in the slightest. What are you going to have, an army of Jennifers and Mias? And for City, you usually get a decent size force of police officers or firefighters just from buying all the other sets so there isn't a huge demand for "battle packs" there either (though I do know they offer them once in awhile). On the other hand look at Star Wars. The theme screams for battle packs. So much so (If I am not mistaken), one wave this year alone had four army builders. That's nuts and obviously shows that battle packs can outsell a more iconic set if placed in the right theme and done right. I think LotR is such a theme. I mean we already know LotR isn't as heavily targeted to children. There is no recent cartoon or tie in yet and there has been nothing other than a few video games released here and there for the past ten years to hype up the new Lego theme. Sure we are getting a Lego video game, but it's coming out almost 5 months after the first LotR wave was released. Not only that, the line is based off of movies that are somewhat violent for kids and rated PG-13. For most Lego toys, 13 is the cut off age they list on the box (I know it doesn't mean much, but it's interesting to note). With all that in mind, why not try to make a battle pack? Like I said before, I think the LotR franchise is tailor made for something like that. You have so many huge armies doing battle throughout the films and books it's not even funny. There are so many factions and soldiers in each, the line is just meant for battle packs. You have Orcs, goblins, trolls, Rohirrim, Gondorians, Haradrim, Easternlings, undead Oathbreakers, elves, rangers... the list goes on and on.

Same here, even if it was more expensive than the actual Helm's Deep fortress. That would actually be kind of cool if Lego made a D2C set that you could add on to really make a set accurate. The Helm's Deep set could be mass produced and sold at stores like it is now and then they could have an add on D2C set that's like 250-300 bucks and makes the set nearly identical to the actual thing in the movie for the really hardcore fans. No figures or anything, just stuff to make it more accurate.

I suppose, but even if I weren't an AFOL I dunno if I would pick up the Riddles for the Ring set over an awesome looking army builder. I mean Bilbo Baggings and Gollum with a rock and small boat are nice and iconic, but would I really buy them over a Warg (wolf), eagle, goblin and elf? Tough call there... plus the battle pack could serve as an army builder or be used for other MOCs and custom works just as easily.

Hey now, Peter Jackson did drop a lot of weight! Though I think he was starting to put some back on...?

I could see Theoden appearing in a Battle at Pelennor Field or Witch King set, but the other two definitely won't be in any other set unless it's a remake of Helm's Deep. Also prices on them have dropped dramatically in the past few months. Haldir and Theoden are only fetching around $12-13 now, and the Berserker is at 6-7 bucks. Still, that's roughly $32 bucks just for those three alone. Add in 3 Uruk-hai Orcs at 3 bucks a shot, and Gimli and Aragorn at $5 each and you are easily looking at $50 back for the minifigures. Still not a bad deal at all. If he bought two battle packs he would have 2 more minifigures than normal all for 20 bucks less than Helm's Deep MSRP.

Did you ever try to just lower the roof inside the structure so it's a level of the building rather than an actual roof? Then you could leave the top open with the walls coming up and broken in various spots. I think this would look MUCH more accurate and you wouldn't really need to use anymore pieces than you already have.. in fact you could probably use less!

I just wish they would of done something more with Riddles for the Ring. At least with the Gandalf Arrives set we were getting two unique figures at the time. Gandalf was not available in any other set yet and Frodo in his green shirt was not to be released in the polybag for a couple more months. I do agree that it could of probably been done without though, they could of just as easily included Gandalf in the Mines of Moria set and scrapped Gandalf Arrives. Then again I think the Riddles for the ring set could of also been done without and like I said before, just included with the Goblin King Battle for 10 bucks more. I know these low price sets seem to suck to us AFOLs and are made for small children with limited funds or people who just want to invest a small amount into a LotR/Hobbit set and pick it up on a whim.. but man. I really wish I had some sale figures to see how well the Riddle for the Ring set would sell compared to an army builder. It's so hard to imagine small children and people only slightly interested making a set sell more than ravenous AFOLs buying dozens upon dozens of army builders per person.

That's PJ's take on him. He is extremely obese and over sized.

Well the tower is mostly made of large, panel type pieces, but other than that nothing else really is in the Helm's Deep set. Overall it's a great set with or without the minifigures, but I gotta say the LotR minifigures are some of the best and really a huge selling point of the sets.

And they don't appear to go far enough down the back to cover up the back side head printing. If this is the case, I would of rather Lego just not even do a double sided head print, I mean really the faces arn't that much different so why bother if it's going to make the figure look so bad from the back?