MAB

I imagine they will be available while any sets that contain them are still on shelves, plus a few months. That is when they usually retire them from PAB but still have stocks for replacement parts. Although it could be longer if they have large stocks available. Of course, you cannot buy complete figs on PAB, but actually the parts for the figures. This means that some parts might go out of stock before others. So even if the shield or the legs went out of stock, you could still buy other parts, for example. However, I doubt the bricklink price will go above about 1.50 Euro for the BF torso or 1.00 Euro for the legs for next five years. There are huge amounts already on bricklink and in reseller storage ready for bricklink. That will keep the price down for a long time if you miss the PAB stock. I know people like their new modern look, but I prefer the modern BF torso to be paired with black arms and plain black legs, with a black conical / neck protector helmet. They look a bit more traditional and can also be posed without the printed legs looking strange.

That is where using what is available is necessary. I collected a number of the Basil / Batlord figure. I keep one as the leader, then use black arms and legs and a plain black conical helmet to make foot soldiers using the other torsos. I never really got into Black Knights, I found them too multicoloured. But I have a faction based on the Hun torso plus black helmets. It is a case of when you find a good torso, get them as they usually work well with plain legs, matching arms and helmet. And if they have a shield, that is even better.

Classic Space and Pirates fans have it worse. Castle fans have had it rather good recently with all the parts for Black Falcon and Lion Knights on PAB so easy to build large armies, along with barding for horses and shields if needed. When first released before the price increases, you could get torsos for about 80p, legs about 50p, a head for 20p and a basic helmet for 20p. So that is equivalent to about 2 Euro for a complete figure. Plus castle fans have access to Wolfpack figures now and Batlord figures for parts to build a dark army if willing to put in the effort to search for them. And for peasants, the goatherder can be picked up for about 2 Euro (without goat). There have also been various civilian torsos and those from the vikings available on PAB, all good for castle settings.

You might get lucky and have only a 4 sided box, with no top! I've not been interested at all in this set since the original leak for the same reason. I expect it to be a 16x16 plate with walls on three sides and a little vignette in the middle. With a Gandalf minifigure (which I already have lots of) and a fairly flat and small brick built Balrog.

That looks great. Just make sure not to put any LEGO logos on it or near it when trying to sell it. The economics of something like this can be difficult. You have to work out what you could realistically sell it for and then price up getting the parts. If the numbers are close, then it is not worth doing. The amount you sell it for has to be significantly above what the parts cost. Getting parts for MOCs can be time consuming but doing it for yourself is a labour of love. If you are doing it to sell them, it has to be worth the time it takes to both source them, and to sort, pick and package them which of course is not quick when you are using over 1000 pieces. People might also look at it and think I can buy a real LEGO set with better value. Ad of course LEGO has a great advantage in that they can make the parts much cheaper than consumers can source them.

That is very nice. Even though blocky up close the rust works well from a distance. But to make it more realistic needs even more graffiti plus a couple of homeless people sitting next to a fire in a bin. Or maybe a mainly black carriage where someone has burnt it out.

An issue with it is that they might not have the moulds used for some of the accessories and headgear any more where they were exclusive to the CMF. The early series had numerous parts that were made in a (non-LEGO) factory in China and I don't think they use that factory any more since they have had their own ones built since then. Parts that were produced there might either need to be redeveloped or they skip those characters. For example the Roman soldier helmet, the gladiator helmet, the graduate's mortarboard, the Spartan helmet, etc have not been seen for over a decade.

Yes, I meant the actual design makes it looks like it has been placed too far back. They selected a different colour for that bit so I don't understand why they didn't go for the continuous flow. I wonder if they had a more detailed design using more parts and were told to cut it down and so to make lots of changes and missed something like that when updating it. Same with the tree. I cannot believe any designer would be satisfied with producing that. I treat LAN reviews as LEGO adverts with more close up photos than available on the website and press release. Nobody is going to say anything bad and risk getting cut off, especially the youtube ones where they get both the free stuff from LEGO and get paid by youtube for views. Yeah, I prefer the stacked plates as you can have a bit more variation rather than the same radius smooth curves everywhere. And given that the pieces they would be replacing are large (and expensive to them going by PAB prices), using plates would increase the part count without increasing the cost. As you say, adding a few flowers or foliage can help break the continuous smooth edges. Even just a 1x1 cheese slope by the left hand chimney would help disguise the hard edge left where the curved slope butts up against the chimney. Tiny details make it look unfinished.

It also shows just how dominant those big round pieces are in the landscaping. The tan path looks a bit like it has been placed one stud too far back on the left.

The butterbeer cups from HP also make useful alcoholic drinks.

Yes, that shows that if you add about another 200 parts to that set, making it about double the size of the original part count, then it looks better. But presumably then it becomes too big for the GWP budget the designer was working to. I know when I've done my own trees, adding small leaf parts to the big leaves can completely elevate the look of an otherwise fairly plain tree but it really adds to the cost. There is probably about £15 worth of leaves that have been added.

I'm not up with all the Star Wars anniversary tiles, but don't they tend to print parts to celebrate anniversaries of LEGO Star Wars rather than the Star Wars movies? There has been the occasional Insiders reward, stickers for parts and advertising on boxes for movie anniversaries but pretty much all the printed parts I have celebrate LEGO SW anniversaries. Plus Star Wars is a major theme for LEGO with a long history so there has been significant LEGO anniversaries to celebrate. I'll be really surprised if they print bricks to celebrate the release date of the FOTR movie as they had nothing to do with it. Maybe they would use it as advertising on the box but printed parts seem unlikely. I imagine they would just do the next set that they want to do (if any) rather than trying to fit in something else from FOTR again just to match a movie release date. They are doing probably the iconic FOTR location this year. If they really wanted to tie it to an anniversary they could have waited a year.

There is a worrying phrase in the press release ... A true collector’s item that completes the trilogy of sets, following previous Barad-dûr and Rivendell launches, the LEGO Icons The Lord of the Rings: The Shire set is a testament to the enduring power of friendship, adventure, and the magic of Middle-earth I wonder if this is just bad writing, or if they mean that it is the last set.

That is really good, especially at this scale. I think the only downsides are the squared of corners in the mudguards / wheel arches and the tyres too close to the edges. Do those old tyres still rotate OK or are they touching the edges?

I'm still hoping for Barney, Moe and Skinner, probably in that order. Even if they do Barney with an astronaut, Be Sharps or Plow King torso, so long as he has a decent head if they want to avoid him being a drunk minifigure. Same with Moe, Be Sharps or Pin Pals would be fine. I still cannot really understand them not doing Skinner first time around, but including Edna Krabapple.

So that will be a series of six castle figures and six different coloured Classic Space figures!

If those minifigures were loose and not with the set, I would not have guessed that they were Sméagol and Deagol, or even that they were LOTR. You are not missing out on anything. You are choosing not to buy. They are different things.

That was always my take on it too, but more that the visors were (thin) glass that you couldn't see.

100€ is probably low for the main build. It is significantly more substantial than the original in terms of parts. I think the main build is likely more than 2x the value of the cart and side builds, but could see the latter being $50. So probably $200-220 does feel right. $270, not so much. However, it does show how good value the sets used to be for collectors that started in the early days. For $70+$13 (or £60+£12) you could get Bag End and Gandalf Arrives, so including 6 (The Hobbit movie) minifigures plus a Frodo and a duplicate of Gandalf and his horse and cart. I just looked back at what I paid for my original set, it was £42 from amazon. They must have been price matching a 3 for 2 offer at Argos or similar to be doing the 30% off discount. And Gandalf Arrives was £8 (again, from Amazon). As to FOMO, I think it is less FOMO and more the realization that LEGO is expensive and they get you if you have the must-have-it-all mentality. Nobody is going to miss out on the main Bag End set if they can afford it, it will be on shelves for a couple of years. I imagine it is just the realization that they might as well buy it early and have the GWP than waiting and still probably paying near to full price for it due to the popularity of LEGO and the lack of discounts. When I bought my sets in the original theme, they were all sold in supermarkets and I knew I could wait and get a substantial discount (aside from Orthanc as that was a LEGO exclusive). There was an incentive to wait and no incentive to buy early. It is very different now.

No doubt there are strict guidelines as to what they can release and when in the contract with the IP holder, and what happens in the case of a delay in the movie. Especially if there is even a small spoiler in what LEGO release, then there is a reason to delay set releases if the movie is delayed. CMF are also different to regular sets in that they tend to disappear after about 4 months. Without the movie, they might struggle to sell as merchandise does better when it is released alongside the movie.

I have made hobbits using torsos from other licensed themes and occasionally yellow skin sets. The Lone Ranger had a very good range with Barret, Butch, Frank, Danny, Frank, Jesus and Ray. The coachman from PotC is also useful. Most of the female torsos from both those themes are good too. Ault characters from Harry Potter can also be a good source. I've also used Short Round from Indy and ostrich jockey from PoP in the past. CMF prospector can be useful for one working in the fields, as are any plain shirts like that for Owen Grady.

That depends on how long you have been collecting and what you already have. For me, an overpriced remake of a set (The Hobbit version) I already own is not necessarily better than nothing since I am happy with the original which I already extended. This adds a few minifigure prints and maybe an accessory or two which are nice but can hopefully be picked up on the secondary market. Whereas if it was an expensive set that was truly new, then I'd be more inclined to buy it.

There could still be hidden items, possibly under the mat in the entrance or the green mat under the office chair. Presumably that 'tail' piece in the ceiling does something too.

Presumably an error in the unofficial app as LEGO doesn't publish a guide to the codes. If LEGO wanted to they could use the same QR codes for different figures produced in different batches but have some other identifier like a date code so they know which set of codes to use. But presumably they don't think it is necessary to use an Enigma Machine to hide the contents.

I wonder if there is some other function hidden under the floor of the main build or whether the thickness was necessary just to strengthen the angled design. It's gone from a "probably not" to a "definitely not" for me.