Deathleech

Is this just in your LotR sets, or are you talking about across all your Lego themes? And if your LotR sets, is it just the orcs or flesh colored heads as well that have the 3 bar design?

I dunno, Mines of Moria came with the huge Cave Troll which has to count for something. If I had to guess, I would say $50-60 depending on the piece count and as long as we don't get any other big molds. That's right where Weathertop was, and Weathertop had 5 minfigs + 2 horses and was slightly over priced compared to the other sets. I just can't see Bag End being 80 bucks and only having 6 minifigs, unless they do a fully enclosed set. Who knows though, we will hopefully see in a few more days!

Does anyone have any other new sets like the Monster fighter series, or new Star Wars sets from Summer 2012? What do they have, filled heads or the 3 bar?

Well it's not something I sit there obsessing over, but yes it does sort of bug me that they aren't all the same. It more so makes me wonder why some have it, and some don't though. I could understand different factories having slightly different molds, but what I don't get is why the same set will have both kinds in it? And as for just covering the holes, that isn't an option for all the minifigures. As I pointed out both Mordor Orc's have the 3 bar stud on their head and only one of them comes with a head piece.

Hmm, interesting. Does anyone else have the 3 bar design on their flesh colored figures? I have only seen it on the Mordor Orcs and Uruk-hai Orcs. I also can't tell any different with the quality or colors with the rest of the figure other than the peg being filled or not on the head.

The vast majority of my Uruk-Hai have the filled design. I have 31 normal Uruk-Hai right now and of them, only 7 have the 3 bar design. The rest have it filled. I have no idea if it's the newer or older LotR sets that have the bar design, but it seems the newer do(the set I bought today had 3 out of 4 with the 3 bar design where as before I had 27 Uruk-hai all bought a month and a half ago when they were first released and all but 4 had the solid filled peg). I kind of like the filled design more, but really don't care. It more so bothers me that they arn't all the same

I first became aware of this after reading the big LotR 2012 thread (page 324). Right after it was brought up the new Hobbit minifig pictures were released and this issue got pushed to the side. It seems some of the LotR minifigures have their head pegs filled while others have the 3 bar design. Even more odd is that figures from the exact same set can have a mixture of filled and non-filled pegs. I went out the other day and picked up another Uruk-Hai Army set and in it 3 of the Uruk-Hai have the 3 bar design on their head peg while 1 of them has it filled. This doesn't seem to effect any of the flesh colored minifigs as every one I have has a filled peg (do yours?). At first I thought maybe they were just produced in different factories, but now I have no idea seeing different kinds in the same set. The only other figures this seems to effect besides the Uruk-hai, are the Mordor Orcs which all seem to have the 3 bar design. I have been trying to figure out the reason but so far have no idea why this is. Does anyone else have any ideas? What types of heads does everyone else have?

I hope they stay similar to Two Towers just for continuity sake. I really don't want "Hobbit" Wargs and "LotR" Wargs when they are suppose to be the same thing.

Plus I don't want twenty of every dwarf in the Hobbit. I would rather they only have each of them in 1-2 sets and use the minifigure space for other figs like more goblins or baddies.

This made me check ALL my LotR minifigues. To my surprise almost all of them have the filled head design. All except 2 Mordor Orcs, and 4 Uruk-hai. This seems weird to me because NONE of my Eomer/Rohan soldiers have the 3 bar design, and my Lurtz and single Uruk-hai that came with the Orc Forge have the hole on their head filled while the 2 Mordor Orcs do not. Why do some minifigs in the exact same set have their heads filled while others don't? Heck, why are some filled in this wave at all while others aren't???

Interesting! So we finally got a glimpse of the second wave from Lego!

Ya, I am a little surprised Lego used the halberds with the Uruk-hai. I would think they would of used something more polearm like, such as this, or even these spears. Some crossbows also would of been nice, if nothing else for variation. All well, all in all I am really happy with how the Uruk-hai turned out. I personally hope they move on in the next few waves and start doing some of the different factions as figures that we haven't seen yet and leave the Uruk-hai alone for awhile. As of right now I have 7 Uruk-hai Army sets, 3 Helm's Deep, and 3 Orc Forges. I am keeping 1 of each in the box and am debating on taking back 1 of the Helm's Deep sets. That leaves me with a little over 30 opened Uruk-Hai. I plan on getting a couple polybags when they are released and at least 3 more Uruk-hai Army sets if/when they go on sale. Who knows though, if they get really cheap I could easily see myself buying 5 or 6 more of those, I just love them so much!

Fair enough, and just to be clear I really do like your sets! I like them so much in fact I think they could easily pass off as official LotR sets. That's also party why I commented on the price/size so much. The sets individually could totally be official sets, but as a whole wave they just seem to be off in price/scale a little. Lego generally has 5-8 sets per wave, and they range in price from six bucks all the way up to $130+. They usually only have one or two sets at each price point too. Granted you may not have been trying to structure your sets as an official wave, but everything else seems so professionally done I figured this could be too! Anyways, great work and I can't wait to see what you come out with for the RotK sets. Do you think you will also do your own Hobbit inspired sets as well when those films get released, or after you are done with the RotK stuff?

Interesting topic. I buy at least two of every set and sometimes three or more if it's an army builder type set. My general rule of thumb is I buy one to open and one to keep sealed. As of right now I don't have any specific reason for doing this other than my OCD. What I mean is I don't necessarily plan on selling off the extra of every set, but I don't plan on opening it either for any specific occasion or at any specific time. I have the extra sealed "just in case" (whatever that may be for ). Of course with some sets, mostly army builders, I will go crazy and buy ten or more. I will open all of these but one. Keep in mind that as of right now I have exclusively bought only the LotR sets and I intend to keep it that way (except for a few wave 7 CMF and unless the Dino sets get heavily discounted). So while this may seem super expensive and silly, it's not too bad when you stick to only one or two themes like I plan on doing.

I recently just got back into Lego when I heard of the new LotR sets coming out. When they were eventually released I quickly bought all of them up. They have China listed as a manufacturer on the box but everything seems to indicate the minifgures, at least, were produced in Denmark (or somewhere besides China). I heard some people raising the issue of Chinese produced Lego pieces being of lesser quality and specifically the CMFs all being produced in China. Because of this I went out and got one specifically to compare the Chinese minifigs to the non-Chinese produced ones in the LotR sets. I dunno if the Chinese plastic itself is really lower quality (at least anymore), but it still doesn't seem to be as up to pa at least in terms of how it's made. The plastic don't seem transparent in the minifig I got which was the dark navy blue colored space marine. However, the legs don't seem as stiff and it's especially noticeable when you try to push the figure onto pegs, the legs will give way at the waist under the stress and bend forwards or backwards much easier than the other produced minifigs. it's like they aren't as tight and "looser". Same with the figure being attached to the actual pegs, they don't seem to grip the pegs as well and hold as tigh with their legs. The right leg also seems ever so slightly shorter than the left leg. While none of these are huge glaring issues, they are noticeable. It seems like the parts in China are definetly getting better, but they still aren't perfected.

That's the thing that worries me though. Lego has released a couple dino waves in the past and they have all been a few years apart yet none of them really share a cohesive look. If they don't release a new Dino wave till 2013, will it again be overhauled and have vastly different looking dinosaurs from what we got this year? I also agree with others. I could easily of seen them makig 2-3 more sets with a few new dinosaurs included in them. For instance we could of got a stegosaurus set with a gang of hunters on motorcycles, a plesiosauras with a sub command station or a big boat command center, and a brochosauras dino with a watch tower built in a tree. That's just three ideas off the top of my head that are vastly different from the sets we already got. They also include some dinosaurs we didnt see this year.

Right, the hair does not allow you to use the breastplate as it comes down too long and close in the back. Also I don't think the poly with the Uruk-hai and ballista is the most effective way of building an army with maximum different combinations. You only get a single Uruk-hai with helmet and chest armor and a halberd. That's only 1x helmet option, 1x weapon, 2x face, and 2x chest for a total of 4 possible outcomes. With the Uruk-hai Army set you get 2x helm, 2x head, 2x chest, and 4x weapon (axe, axe + shield, sword, sword + shield) for a total of 24 possibilities. Not to mention the Uruk-hai Army set just seems like a way better deal overall.

I agree, I like the throne room. My only suggestion would be start building the mountain back several more pegs so you can keep the room. Other than that it looks nice.

Maybe you are right. Who knows though, maybe in the future the theme sets, rather than just having minifigs be flesh color, will also be more life like while the original theme sets are kept yellow and more simplistic. I mean they already sort of did this with the Friends line. I doubt it would ever be anything as drastic right from the start though, I see it as being an evolution with them adding small changes here and there every few years.

I will start with the critiques this time. Your Ruins of Osgiliath seems like a steal at 50 bucks. Your Mines of Moria set was $65 and looked to use less set pieces than Osgiliath, and the Balrog was much tinier than the Fel Beast. I could see them adding a Mordor Orc minifig and upping the price to at least $60, maybe even $70. As for your Warg Skirmish this is pretty much exactly what I had imagined. The only differences being I would love for Lego to make a Warg mold instead of using a built brick Warg, and I would much rather see it include 2 Rohan soldiers rather than Aragorn/Gimli so they could keep it a battle pack/army builder. Lego could also make it have 3 Orcs/Wargs and 3 Rohirrium/Horses and a little more scenery and increase the price to 30 bucks, since you really don't have anything in that range right now and have 2 sets at 12 dollars. Lastly I actually think your Treebeard set is a little over priced at $20. With Shelobs Attack we get a spider that looks about the same size as Treebeard, if not a little bigger, Gollum's cave entrance, and 3 minifigures rather than 2. Maybe you could include a small tree with the set to represent a Huorn, and an Orc? Other than that I think your sets are PERFECT! I especially like Osgiliath, and of course Edoras. Everything about Edoras is amazing. The modularity, the keep, the figures... EVERYTHING! I would guess it could be anywhere from 80-100 bucks though, it seems like a steal at 70 bucks. I also really like what you did with the buildings in Osgiliath, as well as the minifigs, and of course love the Fel Beast. I think Treebeard is also exceptionally well constructed and looks great. Probably my least favorite set is the Dead Marshes, though I still think it's nice. I only wish you would of included another set or two. I know you wanted to do Helm's Deep, but said you scrapped it because of Lego's official set. Maybe after you finish your RotK sets, you could come back and do a couple more for the previous two movies? Maybe try your hand at your own Helm's Deep like you mentioned? I would greatly like to see your rendition.

Battle Packs right now usually have 4 minifigures and small scenic piece which totals about 85 pieces for $12.99. The wall sections alone look fairly small so I don't see them being significantly more than that, if at all. At most they might be $14.99-19.99, anymore and they could just cut down the size of the corridor to make the price lower. Personally I love the idea. I really liked how Lego did it with the Uruk-Hai Army set and hope to see the idea carried on with other sets/themes. For instance I would love them to make a Moria Orcs battle pack that includes a small bridge, stairs, or wall to add to the Mines of Moria set. To see this idea incorporated with Star Wars is just great.

I absolutely love all the sets you have made. Your Balrog encounter and Amon Hen set are almost exactly what I imagined. Your Black Rider set is unique and would be a great way to beef up your Nazgul count and reach 9 total for fairly cheap. I really like your Weathertop set, so much in fact I prefer it over the official Lego version we got. These sets could easily pass as real Lego sets. Now, with that said, my only critique would be to make some bigger sets! I understand if you did this to keep your cost down, but if this were ever to become an actual wave, your sets are pretty lopsided in terms of price point. You have four under 25 dollars, and your most expensive is only $65. I know there aren't a ton of huge scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring movie, but I think you could squeeze out a few. Maybe a huge $130 Rivendell set where the Fellowship forms? And maybe make Orthanc into a full fledged tower for around $80? Just some suggestions. Also for the Mines of Moria set, I would love to see the Balrog ever so slightly bigger. I know you did these before Lego announced/released their LotR sets, but since they did you could also ditch the brown gate piece in your set, the well, and the tomb and maybe drop the price down to $49.99-59.99 (depending how big you make the Balrog). As for the Bag End set, I would personally like to see more hill/home with the set, Bilbo instead of Gandalf, and maybe increase the price to $29.99. Of course these are really just personal preferences rather than actual criticisms. My suggestions would give you a much nicer price span and something almost identical to Legos first wave: $13 - The Black Rider $25 - Weathertop Ambush $30 - Bag End $40 - Ambush of Amon Hen $60 - Mines of Moria (Balrog set) $80 - Orthanc $130 - Rivendell Other than that, I really think you did an amazing job on these sets so kudos to you sir!

I agree, I think it's just the fond memories people have of classic minifigures being yellow which makes them dislike the newer flesh colored ones. In your pic I think all the flesh colored figures, even on the really old knights, looks great. Personally I love them both and think both look fantastic (Frodo does look a little odd in yellow though! ) The level of detail now compared to 10 years ago is just incredible on the minifigures. It makes me wonder what they will look like in another 10-20 years. Who knows, maybe someday we will get detailed facial features like noses that stick out and contoures on the figure around the cheek and jaw.

Problem is, there are only 1 or 2 big "castle" sets per wave. The rest of the sets are smaller stand alone ones, or they are only small parts that connect to a larger set (aka Uruk-Hai Army). Keep in mind too that Lego is still a child's toy so they generally try to keep the appeal to them. Not many younger kids have 100+ bucks to blow on a bunch of huge castle sets. The sets also need minifigues in them to play with otherwise it's just a display which most kids would get bored with fairly quick. I think people love the minifigs soo much because, unlike with the bricks and castles, you can't really create your own Elrond minifig. I mean sure you can customize one, but it's much more permanent and difficult than making your own MOC castle with a bunch of bricks then taking em apart and using em for something else later.

Ya, £30 for the Uruk-Hai Army set puts it at just over $47. That's a $27 mark up on the set, compared to $15 on Weathertop in Canada. That's extremely high at almost double what we are paying here in the US. As for Elrond, I personally don't see him appearing for a few more waves. He just isn't featured in the movies a ton and other than quickly at the very beginning in the flashback, he isn't apart of any wars or battles. That's not to say we won't see him eventually, as I am sure we will if the line continues long enough, I just think they will focus on more iconic scenes first like the Balrog duel, Warg Ambush, Minas Tirith battle, before they get around to putting him in a set. Not only that, there are other figures that play much more pivotal roles who we still haven't seen either. Ewoyn, Faramir, and of course Sauramon and Sauron. Who knows though, there seems to be a ton of love for Elrond so maybe we will see him sooner rather than later.