Deathleech

So did we ever find out what the "exclusive" LotR/Hobbit items given out were? Supposedly they were suppose to be given out at 4 today and yesterday, but I have not heard a single thing more about them.

tobiasgeserick - 1 point Cara lego - 1 point Dog Ironbones A.K.A. SalmonFifteen - 1 point

Well, technically he didn't say if he bought or sold the minifigures, and didn't say which figures specifically he eBayed.. but ya, obviously he would be buying them and not selling. I wasn't even thinking, durr

That is banking on the fact that people wouldn't buy ANY of the current Uruk-Hai Army sets though, and would wait to go buy oodles of Uruk-hai battle packs if/when they are released. I think more realistically people who are fans and plan to buy lots of sets to army build are already doing it and not waiting around hoping for a battle pack down the line, at which point they will jump in. You know what I'm saying? If people are going to army build I think most are doing it now with what's available and not holding off for something that may or may not come. Basically Lego gets moderate sales from the Uruk-hai Army set now and moderate sales from the battle pack later rather than amazing sales now from a battle pack now. It's hard to say though. I just know my own personal habits. Right now I am pretty much set with the Uruk-hai Army. If Lego would of released a proper battle pack instead, I would of easily spent $50-150 more on them than I currently did. I think a lot of people feel the same. If they release a proper battle pack in the future I will probably only buy one or two, as I am sure most would who havn't already started army building, which means no where near the $150 I might of spent. Also most people who are fanatical enough to army build I think have knowledge of BL/eBay to get cheaper minifigures if they want them.

My favorite is probably Bifur due to the fact he is the only dwarf that has awesome beard printing. Lego including the axe piece in his head is pretty epic too. Nori and Dwalin are a close second and third due to the cool hair pieces on Nori and Dwalin's spiffy head tattoos and color scheme (love that color green and his bare arms). My least favorite dwarves are Thorin, Oin, and Ori. Thorin's minifig just doesn't do him justice, you can barely see the fur on his torso and his beads being printed on the torso take away more than they really add anything. I really hate how Oin's bear and hair are two different colors and seem to really clash. Ori I just think looks silly. I don't hate Gloin, but I think printing on his beard could of made him significantly better. Btw mods, whenever you see this and add a poll for most favorite, maybe you could also add one for least favorite as well?

What?! The minifigures were like the best part for the majority of those sets. How could you sell them??! As for where to buy the Hobbit sets, I would say online. Sales taxes are minimum 6%+ most places, and VIP points only give you 5% back basically, so you are saving a minimum of 1%. More realistically though it's 3 or 4% more savings from not having to pay sales taxes over ordering at the Lego store and getting VIP points. Of course if there are double points going on, or free shipping, or some sort of give away that could seriously change things... personally I plan to buy everything from B&N for 10% off, plus an additional 15-20% off hopefully with coupons like I did for the LotR sets. It just sucks waiting an extra month or so for them all to become available at B&N The poster was only available at TRU I believe, and it stated all the sets would be available December 1st (as have several other sources). More realistically though I am betting everything will be popping up mid-November. The LotR wave was suppose to hit early or mid June and was shipping early May from TRU and Target stores. That Sherway Garden store and the employee seem to be severely misinformed. I would bet money it's one head with double sided printing. The ear/bald cap seems to go far enough down in the back to cover whichever face is there. The Moria Orc was done the same way with a double sided printed face that looked extremely similar on both sides. I'm not really sure why Lego created double sided face printing that had two nearly identicle faces on it.

Oh, I am not complaining at all... not when we are getting over half a dozen new hair/beard molds with the dwarves. It would just be nice in the future if we got a hair mold for Gandalf since he doesn't even wear his hat that much in the films and they obviously plan to reuse the minifigure quite a bit. Getting three different goblin torsos in the Goblin King set was definitely a pleasant surprise, but they did reuse the Mordor Orc head and torso in the Warg set, and they use the same Warg orc legs in the Golbin King set and the same head for all three goblins. Really we are looking at 1 new head/cap for the goblins this time around, 1 new leg print, and 3 new torsos. There first LotR wave had a lot more new molds when it came to the orcs/goblins. Again not that I am complaining though, I think it's a great way to mix and match parts and keep cost down while still offering a little new and a little old to make new minifigs.

I noticed a lot of people were listing their favorite dwarves in the main LotR/Hobbit thread. I figured it might be nice to have a separate thread to discuss which is your favorite, as well as have a poll to vote so we can see which is the most popular (could I a mod please add a poll with all 13 dwarves?). Thorin Balin Dwalin Fili Kili Bifur Bofur Bombur Oin Gloin Ori Nori Dori Here is deskp's banner to easily see the names of all the dwarves and their Lego minifigure counterpart: Click the picture below for a larger version! http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8334/8096861808_673a494598_k.jpg

I imagine it's like the current Cinderell'as Carriage and Snow White's Cottage sets. You would think a whole cottage set would be larger than a carriage set, yet Cinderella's is 10 bucks more.

What are you looking to create anyways? A peaceful, tranquil scene, a small skirmish, a grand battle? Knowing this would help us give you some ideas. Personally I would suggest doing something different that hasn't been done a ton. A lot of people have created Helm's Deep MOCs so I probably wouldn't do that. Maybe something like the Sam scene in Barad-dûr when he rescues Frodo? Or the orc attack on Osgiliath when they all come in by boat? I don't think I have scene a MOC of either of these.

Cause he is covered in tar? Why else!

Am I alone in my opinion that Splinter looks like one of the worst minifigures ever?

Well I can't speak for everyone, but I know I would of bought double or even triple the amount of battle packs instead of the Uruk-hai Army sets. I feel like after the first couple Uruk-hai Army I bought, the wall and catapult started becoming totally useless and have made me more reluctant to buy any additional sets yet I still want tons more orcs and Rohan soldiers. Unless they release a battle pack in the future which has totally new Uruk-hai orc designs that also match my existing army, I probably won't pick them up. I would rather just buy the fully armored Uruk-hai off BL which are now going for under 3 bucks. I can pick 4 of them up, with all the armor and everything, for $12 and then pick and choose which weapons I want for another buck or two. Me buying them there makes Lego no money beyond the initial sale to the seller. So, to sum it up, I would probably of bought 30-40 Uruk-hai battle packs at $15, which is $450-600 for Lego vs the current 15 Uruk-hai Army sets (also $450) and any additional Uruk i buy off eBay/BL ($0 for Lego). Sometimes forcing people to buy bigger, more expensive sets to get what they want doesn't always pay off.

Speaking of Gandalf, I wish instead of getting three (almost?) identical versions they would of gave us one with a hair mold instead of the hat.

I read on one of the other news sites that it's a TRU exclusive this time around, so people earlier in this thread were right. It still strikes me as odd TRU didn't make a bigger deal about it on their poster... I will probably end up buying it at Lego's store so I don't end up paying 45-50 bucks for it due to TRU ridiculous mark up. Lame. My thoughts exactly. LotR was a killer at $373 for the entire wave. It also had the Uruk-Hai Army which I had to buy multiples of, and the Orc Forge which I ended up getting several of too. Not cheap at $30 and $40 bucks, even on sale. This time around the whole wave is almost 100 bucks less and there isn't a single army builder to speak of. I will probably end up buying some of the minifigures on eBay or BL which I doubt will be cheap, but even still this wave should be MUCH easier on the wallet. Both a good and a bad thing! Time to buy more Uruk-hai Army sets now...?

When I first saw this MOC I knew instantly it would be one of my all time favorites. After seeing more pictures I can only say that has been confirmed. I never even realized before that you had so many tunnels underneath for the caves... I know there have been a lot of Helm's Deep MOCs, and most of them look fantastic, but what sets yours apart is how effortlessly it looks like it totally fits with the current Helm's Deep set Lego released. Rather than totally rebuilding the walls and front castle like so many others, you just tweaked it here and there and added a lot on. It looks like the official Lego version if they would of made it a (much) larger set. I hope to sooner or later try my hand at my own Helm's Deep MOC, and when I do I will probably use yours as inspiration!

You should check out these custom minifigs if you need some inspiration:

Overall I really like this MOC. I like the choice of minifigures for the most part, the elevated board, how you included all 9 Fellowship characters as pieces, and really just the general idea of a Lego Chess set! With that being said, there are a couple things that I would change. Some are more of personal taste/preference so take the suggestions with a grain of salt. The majority of my criticism comes with your towers. I know you had limited bricks to make them, but the Ents feel really blocky and I am not a fan of their legs. As for the black sides towers, I think they look fine by themselves, but as a pair look a little odd. Maybe if you tried to make them closer in height and girth? I would probably also use Saruman as the queen and Sauron as the king when/if they get released and ditch the eye, since you already have the tower it rest on as another piece and it seems a bit redundant. Lastly I love the board, but I do think the design is a little much for the checkered part. You have square patterns within square patterns within square patterns all over, even for the borders and corners. Maybe just making some soldier outlines or using some colors that contrast better would make it easier to look at? Right now it seems to take a sec to differentiate the squares rather than being instantly recognizable and I think thats due to how much you have going on with the design. Other than that I think the set looks fantastic! And, like I said, most of these critiques are a matter of preference so take them for what they are worth

If you haven't watched the videos of this on their Flickr, I would suggest doing so. The set has several moving parts that you don't see moving in the still pics. The Batmobile platform spins, the Bat Jet launching pad moves up and down, etc.

Ya, here is the current April O'Neil... it makes me puke in my mouth a little Also Lego will most likely never ever do a Transformers line. Not only am I unsure how well transforming robots that look like vehicles would cross over to building brick sets, but Transformers is owned by Hasbro to boot. That mean the chances are zilch to none.

Wow, I totally misread the title of this topic at first and though it was Trojan Horse, then I opened it up and saw the house and was like whaaa? Anyways, that is a nice Trojan HOUSE. My only critique would be maybe make the blue color on the ground and roof more gray? As is it sort of looks like water. I can see why you did it though, as the source material you used does seem to have a blueish shade to it.

They are DEFINITELY moveable. Here you can see the gray warg with it's mouth open, and the higne on it's jaw (their heads can move up and down as well):

Wow, that really is impressive. I like how the made the mountain around it to so you can see the inside and get the feel it really is built inside something.

My ONLY criticism would be it doesn't look quite wide enough and looks a little squashed. If you made it 2-4 pegs wider I think it would be completely perfect!

I did the same thing deskp did, except to the gray warg to give it a darker gray/black mane and some yellow eyes. Sorry it's a bit sloppy, I rushed it but you get the idea. I still think the brown one deskp did looks the best, but i think having a colored mane regardless of the warg color also helps break up the monotone color on the head/body and give it a little flare: