Deathleech

It's hard to see in the pic he posted, but if you click his Flickr like he said you can see some of the errors much better. for instance, Merry His Ringwraith looks a lot like my Theoden with a smudged/scratched torso

I'm sure they will. We still haven't seen two of the main evils yet, Sauramon and Sauron, in any form so I am sure they are also due soon. I really just hope come next wave it's not all Hobbit inspired sets. I would love to get another LotR wave before we get a Hobbit one, or at the very least have the wave be mixed and give us a couple sets from each. I'm totally drooling in anticipation for a Warg Rider set, a Gondor-themed set, a Balrog, and some proper army builder packs.

Gotta agree with others, I don't see this ever being a fully fleshed out wave or series of Lego sets. I could maybe see someone making one really iconic scene into a single CUUSOO set, but that's as far as it would prolly go. Like others have mentioned, Shakespear just don't have the same appeal as LotR. There are no epic battles or huge multi-million dollar films made after the books. The forces of good and evil arn't quite as clear and they probably wouldn't have near as much appeal to the younger crowd (pre-teen and early teen). At least with LotR you get some crazy figures like the Cave Troll and orcs which kids will love regardless if they have seen the movies or not.

I really like the tent idea for a battle pack. It makes perfect sense too. I can just see a whole camp full of them readying for battle. My only suggestion would be ditch the two named characters and place 2 more Rohan soldiers in their place. It's gonna be a pretty bad army builder if 2 of the 4 characters are named, specific people. This is the same complaint I have with the Uruk-Hai Army set, and really my only main complaint with that set.

Just out of curiosity, but why are you trading off the Uruk-Hai for Rohan soldiers? In the film/books the Uruk-hai vastly out number the Rohirrium. I am guessing you just like the way they look a lot more and plan on using them for other things?

I dunno if I would say they all suck. I do think Gandalf Arrives, followed closely by Attack on Weathertop, are the two weakest in the line. I really enjoyed Helm's Deep and Mines of Moria though, and Shelb's Attack delightfully surprised me. I thought the Uruk-Hai Army set and the Orc Forge set were also pretty good. I will say, I hope in future waves we get more standard battle packs at the $12.99-14.99 price range that include 4 minifigs and a small structure. The Uruk-Hai Army set was kind of cool and unique, but I don't want to have to spend 30 bucks every wave to increase my army size.

34 x $2.99= $101.66... if he got them all at MSRP.

I have heard the line is almost as popular as the Star Wars one, and look how long it has gone on! If it's even a fraction as popular, we should get many, many more LotR waves. Really? I coulda swore he was in all versions, but I haven't watched anything but the extended version in so long I could easily be mistaken. Regardless I still think it would be cool to have this set with him for the really hardcore fans, maybe make it an exclusive? I heard this line was more aimed at adults anyways. If not they could always remove the Mouth of Sauron and just include another Mordor Orc Ya, I could probably include some more named characters like Denethor and less soldier grunts. I really love the army building aspect though! I don't think 30 orcs is too many considering the first wave alone had 14 orcs, not including Lurtz. We got 10 Uruk-hai, 2 Mordor Orcs, and 2 Moria Orcs. You will notice I didn't include any Uruk-hai since I think they will be plenty available now what with them being in an upcoming polybag, Helm's Deep, and the Uruk-Hai Army sets. Some of those ideas like Lothlorien and the Forbidden Pool had very limited screen time in the movies and they weren't really huge action sequences. Not that every set needs to be centered around a huge epic battle from the movie, but I do think those sets are more appealing. Since the Lego sets seem to be focused mostly on the movies, I don't see them coming along till much later waves if at all. For this reason I didn't include any sets like the Barrows either. I do like the Prancing Pony idea a lot though, and would probably include that in the forth wave, along with a Battle at Amon Hen set. Also note the first wave had roughly half of it's sets made up of scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring movie. That's three out of seven sets. I had another four sets from the first movie- the Watcher in the Water, Balrog, Rivendell, and the Shire, which would bring the total to seven. If you exclude the army builders (which aren't really movie specific in my eyes), then you only have around 22 sets with the first wave and my proposed ideas. That's almost 1/3 of the sets exact inspired by the first film. Yes, they would be army builders. I noted in the second wave they would include some piece of scenery or building, but I didn't really specify and that's because I am not even sure myself what they should include! Ideally I would like them to be treated like the Uruk-Hai Army set where they come with a piece that can be connected to a larger set to expand it. For instance the Moria Orc set could have some stairs or a small wall that could connect to the Mines of Moria set. Of course this would only be a very small piece since these sets would be focused more on the figures than say the Uruk-hai Army set was. I think I probably need to either raise the price on those to 19.99, or exclude one figure because 4 figures and a horse for most, on top of a small structure seems like way too much for $14.99. I imagine the next wave will be either all LotR, with wave 3 being Hobbit centric, or have at least 2 sets from LotR. Since the Hobbit is broken into two parts they will probably only do sets based on the first half. I don't think the first half has a ton of action sequences. Because of this they could easily fit in some LotR sets. Heck, who knows though. Depending when the next wave hits they might op to just wait to do Hobbit inspired themes till more people have seen the film as to not give anything away with the sets. If that's the case we might not even see any Hobbit inspired sets till wave 3!

I guess they both do look a little angry. The one side looks more stone faced to me, which is the expression Legolas has through most of the movies iirc. He rarely smiles, and when he does it's usually just a little grin.

Interesting. Honestly I think they could go either way. It's nice having moveable legs, but at the same time the mini legs are probably a little more accurate. I wonder how they would look with black or gray mini legs?

I pretty much agree with your review, it's spot on BeerBeard! A decent set overall, but nothing great. Definitely the weakest in the LotR line thus far. Wait, what? How did you get both Gandalf and Frodo in the wagon without some modding? The cart seat is only 3 pegs wide but 2 minifigs take up a minimum 5 pegs side by side. The only way they both fit at the same time is if you have them looking sideways out of the cart instead of forward, or throw Frodo in the back of the cart. This is actually one thing that really bugs me. Not only do Frodo and Gandalf not fit side by side in the wagon seat, the seat is only 1 peg so Gandalf sits off the the side in it. What's the point if Frodo doesn't fit? I mean sure you can easily replace the 1 peg brick with a 2 pegger, but it just seems weird to me that they didn't do this themselves. In general I am not really a fan of the wagon because of this, and also because the back doesn't open without taking apart the sides. They are little things that bug me. Since these sets are based off the movies, I gotta agree Faefrost and Hawkman. Here is how the staff appears in the movie: All they really have to do is add a brick like so, and it looks significantly better and less plain: Or two prices for a little more detail: All in all the only REAL reason to buy this set is for the minifigures imo. Gandalf looks good and Frodo looks great! In fact he is one of my top 5 LotR minifigs. The accessories also aren't bad, but everything else about this set is mediocre. The set has the highest price per piece of all the LotR sets released so far at 0.16 cents. I know it's a smaller set so it's gonna have a higher price, especially with 2 minifigs and a horse, but I still feel like it would of been a much better value at $9.99-11.99. I also feel like the wagon could of been done a little better like I expressed above. There were a lot of odd design decisions made. I realize this is a small set so it's going to be limited, but the Shelob Attacks set is only 7 bucks more and INFINITELY better. It hangs right up there with the 80 and 130 dollar sets imo and it's only 20 bucks!

That's my favorite as well. The pointy ears and funky green skin coloring are what really did it for me. I wonder though, would they of looked better (or at least more movie realistic) with the shorter legs like those used for the hobbits? Regardless I hope more sets come out that have this figure so I can start working on building my Moria Orc army after my Uruk-hai one is complete Really though, this was a tough call. My other top pics are the Cave Troll, Gimli, Nazgul, and Frodo from the Gandalf Arrives set with his green shirt (even if the skin color on it is off, still a beautiful fig imo).

I love what you have done so far, it looks much more movie accurate already. Have you made any updates since? I can't wait to see the finished product

This set initially didn't look that interesting to me. I usually like the sets with more army building type figures included and structures (like the Uruk-Hai Army set). The only real selling points in my eyes were Sam and Gollum, who are exclusive to the set as of right now. I gotta say though, after getting it and building/playing with it, this set REALLY impressed me. I pretty much agree with your review completely. For a 20 dollar set this one is an amazing value. I third that. Shelob's size is perfect. Weathertop on the otherhand, is pathetically small. In fact most of the building sets are. Helm's Deep, the Orc Forge, and Weathertop seem to be roughly 1/3 their real scale. The Mines of Moria and Shelob Attacks seem to be about spot on. I guess that's to be expected since those sets would cost a fortune if they were done more in scale.

So far the Lord of the Rings line up looks AMAZING! I haven't bought a Lego set in years, but after learning about the new LotR sets coming out I got super excited to get my hands on all of them! Of course after seeing the initial sets out I immediately thought of all the future possibilities with this license. I realize LEGO is already brainstorming/working on some of these ideas and has a lot of plans for the license. I also realize I have a TON of sets below, some of which would most likely never get made. If the line is popular enough like the Star Wars one, I'm sure we will see many more sets though! Sorry for the text heavy thread, I figured I would make my own thread for this stuff rather than spam one of the existing ones since I think my ideas are a little more elaborate and there are a large number of sets listed. I have some drawing I am also working on to accompany these sets and give a better idea of what I imagine. Hopefully I can post them soon. Anyways, without further adieu... Wave 2 The Shire MSRP: $19.99 MiniFigures: Bilbo, Frodo, Samwise A pretty simple set, this would be the home where Frodo and Bilbo live. It would include an older Bilbo, Frodo, and Samwise, along with a small rendition of their home built in the ground and some foliage outside with a fence. The Black Gates MSRP: $24.99 MiniFigures: The Mouth of Sauron w/horse, 2 Mordor Orcs For the sake of having a cheaper set in this wave, they could throw in the Black Gates. This would be a pretty simple set consisting of just a gate piece and a couple mini figures. They could also make the set link with other Black Gate sets, so if you want you could buy multiples and build a much longer and larger set sort of like with Helm's Deep and the Uruk-hai Army sets. If they did that though, I probably would prefer a mountain troll or something in place of the Mouth of Sauron minifig w/horse. Warg Ambush MSRP: $29.99 MiniFigures: 2 Moria Orcs, 2 Wargs, 1 Eowyn(?), 1-2 Rohirrium soldier, 1-2 horses I could see this set going one of two ways. It could include some rock outcroppings and boulders, or even a cliff and be more of an actual set and include some named characters like Eowyn and have less overall figures. Alternately it could be more of an army builder set, in which case it wouldn't have many set pieces and would focus more on the Orcs/Wargs and ideally would just have no name Rohirrium Soldiers as the "good guy" characters. I would definetly like to see new Warg models though rather than brick built Wargs. Battle the Balrog MSRP: $49.99 MiniFigures: Gandalf the Gray, Balrog, 2-3 Moria Orcs(?) This set would depict the epic show down between Gandalf the Gray and the mighty Balrog. It would most likely include some crumbling runic steps with a long thin bridge that could break away in the middle. The set could also include a few Moria Orcs, and possibly one or two of the Fellowship members who aren't featured in many of the other sets depending on the price point of this set and how much structure is included. Seeking the Undead MSRP: $59.99 MiniFigures: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, 2 Undead, 1 King of the Undead This one would be inside the mountains where Aragorn and company seek out the Undead so they can fulfill their oath made long ago and have their curse lifted. This set could have bone and skull piles all over and a small part of the city where the undead reside along with the King and a few undead soldiers. Of course these figures would have to be green and glow in the dark ;-) Saruman's Tower MSRP: $99.99-129.99 MiniFigures: Pippin, Merry, Treebeard, 1-2 Ents, 3 Mordor Orcs, Saruman This would be a set modeled after the Ent attack on Saruman's Tower. Of course the focal point would be Sauruman's Tower, but it could also include some wall pieces and siege weapons the orcs have built. Saruman's Tower could open up so you could also see/use the inside. Army Builders The following would be strictly army builder sets consisting soley of figures and a small built piece. Riders of Rohan MSRP: $14.99 MiniFigures: 4 Rohirrium Soldiers, 1 horse Orcs of Moria MSRP: $14.99 MiniFigures: 3 Moria Orcs, 1 Cave Troll Wave 3 Battle Overhead MSRP: $19.99 MiniFigures: Nazgul, Fell Beast, Great Eagle, Gandalf the White(?) This set could also be treated as sort of an army builder if it didn't include Gandalf the White. It could have a Nazgul on Fell Beast, a Great Eagle, and could include a small piece of Minas Tirith wall to add to the Minas Tirith set sort of like the Uruk-Hai Army set has walls to add to Helm's Deep. Mount Doom MSRP: $39.99 MiniFigures: Frodo, Samwise, Gollum This set would be pretty simple and straight forward. It's iconic and the final conclusion to the War of the Ring. The set would consist of a volcanic mountain play set(Mount Doom), that would ideally be a little smaller than the Attack on Weathertop set but open up the same. It would have to include a patch into the mountain, a small ledge, and some running lava below. It would include just 3 minifigs: Frodo, Samwise, and Gollum. Sauron's Tower MSRP: $79.99 MiniFigures: Sauron, 5 Mordor Orcs Possibly the only set to feature Sauron, this would be his tower. Of course it would include his all seeing at the very top. Like Saruman's Tower, this one could open up to reveal the inside. Since there would already be tons of sets with Frodo and Sam, and since they are the only two good guy characters to ever really visit the tower, I figure they could sit out to make room for more Mordor Orcs to beef up your orc army. Minas Tirith Since Minas Tirith is such a grand and enormous city, I figure they could split it into upper and lower city sets to cut down the cost. This way it would be more affordable for people who may only want one piece and not the other, or for people who want to space out blowing huge chunks of cash on them. I mean they could easily make another 400 dollar Death Star like set out of Minas Tirith, but this seems much more flexible. Just make it so the sets interlock together! Now, with that said: Lower Minas Tirith MSRP: $129.99 MiniFigures: King Theoden, Eowyn, Merry, 1 Rohirrium Soldier, Witchking, Mumakil Muhad (chief), 2 Mordor Orcs, 3 horses This set would only include the lowest level of Minas Tirith and the gates to it. It would mostly focus on the bottom seige of Minas Tirith and the Battle of Pelennor Fields. It would include a couple ladders and siege weapons for the orcs, and several good characters to combat them. Upper Minas Tirith MSRP: $129.99 MiniFigures: Faramir, Gandalf the White, Pippin, 2 Gondor Soldiers, 1 Nazgul, 1 Fell Beats, 2 Mordor Orcs This set would focus more on the actual city of Minas Tirith. It would include the very top tier with the Citadel and courtyard with the White Tree. It would also have one or two tiers of walls below that with a couple trebuchets (catapults). Army Builders Rangers and Elves MSRP: $14.99 MiniFigures: 2 Rangers, 2 Elves, 1 horse Men of the South MSRP: $19.99 MiniFigures: 3 Haradrim, 1 Mumalik Wave 4 Grond, The Wolf's Head MSRP: $19.99 Minifigures: Gothmog, 1 Mordor Orcs, 1 Mountain Troll A fairly small set, this would only include the 2 orc minifigures, one of which would be the orc general. The set would also include the massive battering ram known as Grond, being pushed by a Mountain Troll. Watcher In the Water MSRP: $49.99 MiniFigures: Frodo, Samwise, Pippin, Merry, Aragorn This set would be a small wall with the entrance into the Mines of Moria, and a formation of water outside where the Kraken attacks the Fellowship. the Kraken could be a solid plastic figure kind of like the old octopi but bigger, or more likely would be like Shelob and a piece made out of bricks. If it were the ladder the tentacles would be able to bend all over and grasp the mini figures much like the Kraken did it the movie (and parts could be removed like when they get cut off in the movie as well!). Battle of Osigiliath MSRP: $59.99 MiniFigures: Faramir, 2 Gondor Soldiers, 3 Mordor Orcs This set would capture the scene where Faramir is sent with his company of soldiers to try and attack/defend Osigiliath. The set would include a staircase or two and mostly be made up of crumbling arches and pillars. Forming of the Fellowship MSRP: $129.99 MiniFigures: Elrond, Arwen, Boromir, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Frodo, Gandalf the Gray This would be a set that is modeled after Revendell. It would include the Elvish city with a waterfall in the back, and the area the council meets to decide what to do with the ring. You will probably notice I didn't include Merry, Pippin, and Samwise in this set and that was intentional to keep the amount of mini figuers lower, and also because they are already in a number of other sets I have listed as is. Army Builders Gondor's Soldiers MSRP: $14.99 MiniFigures: 4 Gondor Soldiers, 1 horse Orcs of Mordor MSRP: $14.99 Minifigures: 3 Mordor Orcs, 1 Mountain Troll Men of the East MSRP: $14.99 MiniFigurers: 5 Easterling Warriors More Wave 4 sets coming soon ;-)

Well luckily almost all of the LotR figures have double sided faces! As for myself, I don't really have a preferance for yellow or flesh colored minifigues. In fact I kind of like that most the original stuff is done in yellow while a lot of the licensed stuff is done in flesh color to look more like it's source.

I made a topic on another forum (and will be posting it here shortly) with a bunch of my ideas for sequential LotR waves. Funny how a lot of my ideas were really similar to yours. For the Gates of Moria I agree with Jacob. I think you could include a better mix of figures and make the Watcher slightly bigger and better. I know you said you wanted to keep it small, but it looks about the same size as a minifig in your picture, where as in the movie it's about 5-10x that size! Also I would much rather see some other figures included in this set that arn't really in a lot of other sets. We already have Frodo in 3 sets and Gandalf in one set (both in the cheapest set too). I would much rather see the other Hobbits in this set and maybe Legolas or Aragorn or someone. Definitely ditch the horse though, it plays no role in the scene and is actually sent away before the Watcher even appears if my memory serves correct. As for the Balrog Fight set I think you did pretty good, but you just need to include some structures, similar to Nuju's. Maybe not as much as him, but as least some stairs and a long thing bridge? Your Warg Ambush set was pretty much exactly what I had in mind for the set, except I didn't include any named orcs or characters other than possibly Elowyn and Aragorn (probably not him). I really liked your Path of the Dead and Witch King sets. My ideas to include these figures were much different, but had a lot of the same figures. It's funny how that worked out.

That looks awesome! I originally wasn't going to get any of the Elves because they are yellow while the rest of the LotR line is the more realistic "flesh color", but this almost makes me reconsider... if only they were still readily available

This is a really tough call because there are a ton of great sets in this line. I would have to say my least favorite is Gandalf Arrives though, followed by Attack on Weathertop. My favorite sets are Helm's Deep, Mines of Moria, Uruk-Hai Army, and Shelob Attacks. Uruk-hai Army has a ton of minifigs and is great for army building, as well as adding on to Helm's Deep set. Unfortunately they had to include Eomer with it. I woulda rather seen him in another set and a second Rohan soldier in this one. Shelob Attacks, for it's price point, is an amazing set. It is a really good value, comes with 3 nice minifigs, and the spider is really, really cool. Considering it is competing with other sets that are in the 80-130 dollar range I think that says a lot. Helm's Deep is really a nice castle with lots of cool little features and details, and some nice exclusive figures. I have to say though, my favorite set probably goes to Mines of Moria. While the mass amount of stickers is kind of a bummer, the Cave Troll and all the other minifigs more than make up for it. I totally love the little Moria Orc hair and ears, and think the Fellowship figs look absolutely astounding!

I haven't noticed any issues with the weapons other than some of the bows and Uruk-hai swords. It's mostly where they are "ribbed", the plastic there kinda gets mushed up from putting them in and out of the figures hands. I wish they would just make these parts smooth and save us the trouble... I also noticed some of my figures have some super small scratches on their torsos or legs. The worst is my King Theoden who has his a huge scuff on his chest. I assume this is from the figures being thrown about during shipping and whatnot and getting scruffed up by the other bricks in the bags with them