Deathleech

I kinda hope they are the same because I don't see us getting any other sets with the Moria Golbins in them other than maybe a Balrog set, and I want to create a huge Moria Golbin army

Without seeing pics of the sets or anything, and just having these "possible" set names to go on, I would have to say most anticipated sets are either the warg or orc king one. I love the fantasy creatures and the orcs/goblins and these sets should have plenty of them! I will reserve voting till we have some concrete ifo and some actual pics.

Ehh, if the pre-order bonus does turn out to be Gandalf the White I hope it's just a slightly alternate version of one we get in an actual set. Or the exact same version of one we get in a set. As for Lego having the LotR/Hobbit license for 4 years, I can believe that. I see this franchise being much like Star Wars with new waves every year for some time to come. There are just soo many iconic scenes to draw from. I mean I can think of like 20 different sets they could do for LotR alone off the top of my head, and probably another 10 or so for the Hobbit. And that's not even delving into the scenes that get little footage time.

That's where he is "born" in the movie. He pops out in a muddy sac and they tear him out of it (at which point he proceeds to kill one of the orcs, lol).

Can you take a pic of the silver and gray belt buckle torsos side by side for comparison? Both my Nazgul I received were the same but I am interested in seeing the difference.

Nice polearm! Simple but effective. I dunno if I am crazy about the helm on your crossbowmen, I think the standard helm the Uruk-hai come with is fine. Here is a picture for referance: Btw, what is that orc head you used for the pikeman pointing his pike towards the camera? It looks like a yellowish/orange head.. too yellow to be Lurtz but too orange to be a Mordor Orc? Unless the lightning is just making it look off.

I like how the background depicts the inside of their home yet a flower is growing out of the wood floor

Nice! Now we just need the one that is actually useful to be available...

Ehh, this is starting to get WAY off topic and is turning into a discussion about good/evil in LotR now. I don't recall any of that about Smeagol, but then again it's been forever since I read the books (12+ years) and I never read all the Similarion. All I really remember about Seamgol before he became corrupted by the ring was him living with his grandmother and killing Deagol on his birthday because he wanted the ring as a present. As for the Balrog being an animal like Shelob, it's different because it wasn't chasing the Fellowship to eat them as far as I know. Every time Shelob attacks she is acting like a predator because she is doing it to capture and eat her prey. I can't really comment on the Fel Beast or horses because we don't really see them do anything besides serve as mounts controlled by the Nazgul. People seem to view these creatures as evil solely because they try to stop the protagonist rather than their actual motives (if there even are any). If Faramir wouldn't of let Frodo and Sam go, would he of been evil? Even though he was only fulfilling his orders and doing otherwise would of forfeited his life? It's not always so simple when it comes to good and evil. I still have yet to see anyone comment on Shelob/Gollum being anywhere as near evil as Sauromon or Sauron, which was my original point in us not getting a main evil character yet. Shelob and Gollum are no more evil than your common orcs and the only reason they stick out is because they are different creatures that are given important roles in the books/movies. If you really wanted to get down to it though, you could argue the orcs and everything else in Tolkien's universe is only being controlled by Melkor/Morgoth since he corrupted and twisted these otherwise decent creatures. Like I said though, that's a whole nother topic in itself...

I agree, maybe add some horn/teeth/pointy pieces to the end of the legs like Shelob has? And also round off the abdomen on the spider? Other than that though, this MOC looks great and the spider is also really cool as is. Very nice work!

Did you get all those Moria Orcs in extra Mines of Moria sets, or did you buy them off Bricklink? I was thinking of getting 6-8 more myself off BL, but I was hoping we would see more pics of upcoming sets to help me decide. If we get a bunch more sets with rhe same Moria Orcs (the Goblin King and Warg sets rumored perhaps?) I will prolly hold off. Anyways, fun pics!

Ya sorry, that's a bad habit of mine from when I was younger. I will prolly do it plenty more times too, despite me being well aware of the proper spelling Also, it's interesting to note at least some people view the Orc Forge as an army builder. After reading the first couple of pages it didn't seem like anyone was really.

I really hope we don't get Sauron as an exclusive with the video game, unless it's some kind of variant. I'm not really sold on buying the video game yet and would hate to have to spend 50 bucks just to get such an important minifigure.

That looks very nice! I am not sure if you meant it to, but the waterfall almost looks like it's freezing over and turning to ice because of the teal tiles you used.

Well that thread can be used for the same purposes, can't it? They are close enough? I see a lot of people just talking about their recent purchases in this thread and that definetly could go in the other thread. Dunno about prices and availability so much...

What do you mean it was closed? The thread is still open and very much alive. In fact people posting in this thread about their recent purchase also posted nearly identical posts in that thread about them.

Only because she is the only one who really comes in contact with him. Other than her, Frodo is pretty much able to slip under the radar and go unnoticed to the rest of Sauron's forces. Though he did get stabbed by the Witch King, which I assume did far more damage to him than Shelob as he says his shoulder still hurts from the stabbing more than a year later. We were talking about Sauron and Shelob having a deal, not Gollum and Shelob. Regardless though, I'm still not seeing how that makes her inherently evil or on the same scale as say Sauron or Sauromon. So she lets Gollum live if he brings food to her cave? Big deal, real world people and animals have the exact same coexistence and have for thousands of years. Dogs sniffing out pray and being rewarded with food, birds traveling long distances and being fed, etc. Gollum I see more as being mind controlled and that's what lead to his evil actions rather than being inherently evil himself. Had he never came in contact with the one Ring, do you think he would of done anything bad? I don't. The ring is known to twist and control people because that was how it was created. It only has one master and everyone else it just warps as can be seen by how almost everyone reacts to it, no matter how good they originally are. Shelob, as I already stated, just seems to be more worried about killing to feed herself (and her brood?) than anything else, much like a predator. Ok, so she is smarter than your average real world predatory but that doesn't change her motives one bit. You guys keep arguing Shelob is soo evil but have yet to provide a SINGLE example where she kills for any other reason than to feast. I mean I suppose both these characters can be seen as evil because of their actions and they are antagonist coming in conflict with the protagonist, but I just don't seem them as main evil characters in the LotR trilogy. They are no worse than your common orc grunt. That was my whole point, we don't see any main evil characters. To me that's Sauron and Sauromon (and maybe to a lesser degree the Witch King since he was a high ranking officer). These three all wanted to conquer everyone else and enslave them.

Thanks for the review! That's disappointing to hear about all the quality issues. I would of easily paid 60, or even 70 bucks to get better coloring, more durable plastic, and a few more pawn head options and maybe a minifi rook and better red knight. All well, at less than 2 bucks a minifigure I guess this is to be expected. One question though, the Queen's head being printed off center, was that an isolated incident or is it the same in all of the chess sets like the gold and green coloring being darker?

Did you simply not read the quotes, or did you just not comprehend them? Let me repeat the bolded parts: "and she served none but herself" "being a pet that did not accept his authority. She knew and cared little for rings or towers, existing only to gorge her insatiable appetite for flesh and blood." It CLEARLY states she only acted as a predator and did what she did to feed. She served no one but herself. Sauron and her never discussed things or had a deal. She wasn't helping him because she wanted to, she never went to Sauron and said "hey let me stay in Morodor and I will guard the tunnels for you". Instead she was helping him because her natural predatory habits just so happened to aid him in guarding the tunnels. I'm sorry but you have yet to show me how Shelob is little more than an animal acting as a predator. Both my quotes supported this stance and nothing you have said has proven otherwise. In fact you have only further supported what I said all along. Now if you have something else to say regarding the subject, I would love to hear it. Otherwise can we stop derailing the thread and actually get back on topic? No one has yet to show me how Shelob, or Gollum for that matter, are anywhere near the same league as Sauron, Sauramon, or the Witch King in terms of being main evil characters.

All that may be true, but what is Shelob's driving factor? What are her motives? Does she plan to raise an army, conquer all the free people, and enslave them like Sauron or Sauramon? Is she a high ranking officer in either of their armies? No, she is none of these and that's what I meant when I said we don't see any main evil characters in the first wave. She may be "evil", but she is not the main driving antagonist in the film with the same motives like the other evil characters are. If she would of killed Frodo that would of been the last we would of seen of her, it's not like she would of raised an army and went out and conquered Gondor/Rohan/etc. Also here is a quote from TT, take specific note of the underlined/bolded part please: "But still she was there, who was there before Sauron, and before the first stone of Barad-dûr; and she served none but herself, drinking the blood of Elves and Men, bloated and grown fat with endless brooding on her feasts, weaving webs of shadow; for all living things were her food, and her vomit darkness." Here is another excerpt from the wiki: "It proved to be beneficial to them both: in return for protecting the most secret passes into Sauron's domain, Shelob got free reign to do as she would. On occasion Sauron even left prisoners where she could find and devour them, or sent servants who displeased him there to their doom. Sauron with a rare show of humour called her "his cat", as she functioned like a cat, being a pet that did not accept his authority. She knew and cared little for rings or towers, existing only to gorge her insatiable appetite for flesh and blood." Both demonstrate EXACTLY what I said. Their relationship was beneficial but Shelob did not willingly help Sauron. Sauron kept her around because she aided him, while Shelob unknowingly helped him out just with her normal activity. I'm sorry but you aren't really making any sort of point here other than Shelob may of been smarter than your average real world predator. That's great, but my point all along was we don't get any main evil characters in the first wave. If you guys are seriously arguing Gollum/Shelob are anywhere on the same level as the Witch King, Sauromon, and Sauron then you need your heads checked because that simply is not so. You don't need to study Tolkien's work intensively to figure that out, you just need some common sense.

There is only one Mordor Orc head design used and it's the same for both of the Morodor Orcs in this set. They are one of the few LotR minifigs with only one sided head printing. Anyways, nice review! While this isn't an amazing set, I don't think it's a terrible set either. I would say it's average, right in the middle of the pack for the first LotR wave (with Weathertop and Gandalf Arrives being the worst sets and Uruk-Hai Army and Helm's Deep being the better). I do agree that a Sauramon figure would of made this set significantly better and was just saying that in another thread. Heck, even another Mordor Orc(like originally shown at Toyfair with 5 orcs)or Uruk-Hai Orc would of made this set better. All well, still not a bad set by any means.

Ya, he did all that only because the ring had control over him. Boromir also tried to take the ring from Frodo, and might of done it or worse had Frodo not put the ring on to disappear. Does that make Boromir evil as well? I'm not saying Gollum's actions weren't evil, but he didn't have much control over them. In case you missed it, that's kind of the whole plot with Gollum, the struggle within himself to be good and not succumb to the Rings sway. It's mentioned multiple times by Gandalf and Frodo and can be seen when Gollum/Smeagol talks to himself. No offense, but you didn't really prove anything except exactly what I was stating. Shelob was nothing more than a predator looking for prey. Are lions, bears, sharks, etc. considered "evil" or "bad guys"? No, they are simply animals trying to survive and to do so they need to hunt other animals. You say she was guarding the tunnels for Sauron? I doubt she knew that or really cared about Sauron at all, she just did it for the prey. It's even said she kills orcs when she gets hungry, and orcs serve Sauron. It's not like Sauron told Shelob to go kill Frodo and she did it. Heck, Sauron didn't even know Frodo was in Morodor even after Shelob attacked him so obviously there was no communication going on between the two. Shelob may of helped Sauron out, but she didn't do it willingly or knowingly, her presence just so happened to assist him. And I find it funny it took multiple Balrogs to drive her away, when a little chubby Hobbit with a glowing vial was able to drive her away as well

Gollum isn't evil in the traditional sense, he doesn't want to rule the world or kill everyone, he is just driven by his lust for the Ring. Shelbo has a name, sure, but she is nothing more than a big dumb creature, she isn't a scheming plotting entity. She has nothing to do with Sauron or the main power struggle going on throughout the trilogy. It's like saying Shadowfax is a main good character

TRU has the Hobbit board game up for pre-order. They have it listed for $26.24 and expected in stock 9/24/2012.

Good point. I wonder if when Lego gets around to doing some more RotK themed sets, if they will use the same Mordor Orcs or not? I mean technically they could and just give them some armor to go over their torsos and heads, since that's really all that differentiates the workers from soldier, but we will have to see what Lego opts to do. I think it would be kind of a shame not to see more of these orcs after only having them in one exclusive set. Interesting notion. I'm kind of surprised they didn't throw Sauramon in this set since he is seen there in movies overseeing production almost every time we see the orc forges. It seems weird Lurtz is the only named bad character we got in the first wave considering he has minimal screen time and dies right away.