Venkefedo

I forgot today's the date the game is released and forgot to cancel beforehand--however, I just got a shipment notice of "Premium LEGO LLOR mini-fig" from GameStop, so hopefully that's good news about Elrond! When I ordered last week, it no longer featured Elrond on the site--it just said "bonus included". Fingers crossed!

Considering Frodo still has his coat on in Shelob Attacks, and Aragorn's still wearing the same (misprinted) outfit in Helm's Deep instead of the slightly more armored version, then yeah, it probably is :(

I think it's the wide-set eyes on the wolves that kinda kills 'em... great prints, but without the helmets they look a bit wonky with the eyes so far apart! The legs of them and the lion look great for all kinds of reuse--provided you remove the 'claw' prints on the toes (or maybe the custom figures have claws attached to their boots/shoes?)

Ouch... I just preordered it the other day, noticing it didn't say the Elrond figure was included, just that a 'bonus' was included

Not a clear view, but you see some of the back of Fili's hair when he's putting Kili in the cocoon. It looks like there MIGHT be a braid there in the center, but that area's obscured by the cocoon--could be a braid, could just be a shadow on the hair making it look a bit different.

If I wasn't sold already, that video of Barrel Escape convinced me. Lots of weapons, cool elves, cool dwarves, and a sparse building that looks easy to beef up into a more substantial cellar. Good thing I've got plenty of tan bricks from Pharaoh's Quest and PoP! The Mirkwood set looks great, too! I like the idea of using Legolas & Tauriel's legs for Rohirrim. Might have to get a few.

I agree, the long LOTR hair is much cooler, but the short has one key advantage: the quiver! For elven archers, it's really nice to have room for a quiver. That said, (and I may be repeating myself), I hope we get another CMF Elf with a yellow-ear LOTR hairpiece sometime. I don't care if it's a maiden, mage, warrior, sorceress, or butler... more yellow-ear hairpieces (long AND short) in various hair colors! I wouldn't even mind the Moria/Mordor Orc hairpieces with yellow ears. It could just be an elf with wonkier ears than normal (but could be pretty cool on an Elven Rogue/Thief maybe)

Also, if--like many--you've got extra Uruk Hai Army sets, you can have your Caped Eomer AND donate an extra's long cape to Elrond, freeing up the short green cape for Sam or one of the other Hobbits.

While I doubt they'll change formats, I kinda want some SW-style Battlepacks. Moria Orcs, Mordor Orcs, Gondor soldiers, Rohan soldiers, etc. Some ballistas & catapults, maybe some ruined wall pieces (a broken column from Moria, a bit of an Osgiliath wall). I like the Uruk Hai Army set, but I don't want that the be the only way (ie, a $30 set) to get several army-builders in one set... but even if not, I'm still thrilled there will be more! I hoped they wouldn't leave things with Weathertop being the only Nazgul set, and Shelob Attacks the only ROTK set. Can't wait to see what the next wave actually looks like!

I like Balin, but it's a narrow lead over Oin, Gloin, and Dwalin. Balin's hair/beard look great for use on any number of older dwarves, or wizards/sages/etc. Oin & Gloin avoided the lead by my slight dislike of their beard coloring; Gloin lacking printed braids makes his big mass of reddish brown rather bland, and Oin's beard & mustache being a different tone entirely from his hair kinda disappoints me, too. Dwalin missed simply because his look, aside from the tattoos, isn't as unique as the others. I can pop the helmet off any of my yellow dwarves and achieve something similar. That said, Dwalin's lack of hair means his beard is possibly the most versatile of the bunch, as we'll probably be able to throw on various hair & helmet pieces to add another black-beard variety to our dwarves & vikings. But really, I love 'em all!

Most of the ghost polys in Targets in my area sold out weeks ago. I grabbed mine the first day I saw them out, back when the Halloween section was set up. I figured they'd stock more, and I check every time I'm in the Targets near work & home, but--no. Same with the Friends sets; seems like each Target got one case of those, too (which means just one type of set) and that's it, which would make it tough for those wanting to collect all 5 or 6 Friends sets. It's pretty disappointing that one case of each is all any store got.

Consider them Drow, then... only instead of dark skin like in Forgotten Realms, they have pale fleshy skin like you might expect from beings living in fancy caves all their lives! :D And...they dye their white hair to achieve browns & yellows. Yeah, that'll do it!

I picked up Shelob Attacks on Tuesday--but still haven't opened it. That just leaves Mines of Moria to finish off the Fellowship!

I think I'll go with CMF Elf as well, tho I like all the LOTR elves, too (particularly the Elf Guard, Haldir, LOTR Legolas, and Tauriel). CMF's the first, has a great print (all the elves do), nice short hair so you can turn his head easily. Things I wish for Lego elves: CMF elf hairpiece in reddish brown or dark brown with Fleshie ears, for some more variety among LOTR Elves (not movie-accurate variety, perhaps), CMF elf hairpiece with different hair colors (reddish brown, black, dark orange, etc) but the yellow ears for more variety among yellow elves, and LOTR elf hairpiece in a variety of hair colors with yellow ears. Also, more elven troops! Hopefully we'll see plenty of Woodland Elves for later Hobbit sets based on the later films, but I'd love another Helm's Deep-themed army-builder with a couple elves to join Haldir (helmeted is fine, as he was pretty much the only bare-headed elf in the group). Lastly, if/when a non-LOTR Castle theme returns, I'd love some further expansion of the CMF Elf 'faction' (with the different hair colors & lengths mentioned above) to give 'em a little 'oomph'. I'd love a yellow elf with that shield but a different body print and a neat elven sword. One thing to keep in mind with the plethora of fleshie elves: maybe it's a GOOD thing the skin tones don't match the yellows! Elves aren't human, after all. Perhaps their skin tone could work as a way of making them distinct from your yellow figures? Just a thought.

Monkeys would be nice...and make these that much closer to "LEGO Thundercats" (if you fudge the crocs into lizards and the wolves into jackals). Not that it needs to be close to Thundercats to be cool! There's a lot to like. The small lion 4x4 looks a little 'Tinkertoy'-ish, to borrow the description someone else used, but the lion tank looks really good. The wolf 4x4 works better, and all the bird vehicles look like fun. Not as big a fan of the croc vehicles, but the boat--which I initially took to be an airship--has promise, and the small vehicle will be fun on its own (needs a little customizing in the midsection to beef it up, maybe). I didn't expect to like this line as much as I do so far!

Balrog, Gandalf w/ hair instead of hat and crystal-topped staff, maybe a Moria Orc (an archer? With black bow & quiver?)... might be too much for a $19.99 set (ala 6862 Superman vs Power Armor Lex)? Maybe... or a more expensive set with a Bridge of Khazad-Dum to build, too?

I get the impression Saruman's beard & hair are one piece, but two-toned like Oin's. Could be mistaken, as game artwork often takes liberties with actual minifig proportions & construction (like Legolas having a standard quiver piece in some artwork). Could easily be a hair piece similar to the CMF Hippie, with a Gandalf-beard beneath. I can't wait to find out for sure!

Just wanted to compliment these as well! I got about half a dozen Evil Knights and haven't done much to customize them (aside from replacing a couple heads with an Evil Dwarf and Alpha Team villain Oleg). It'd be fun to customize some more to that faction beyond rage-filled knights. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, that one's great... also love the Troll Mountain Fortress prototype. I love the production version (I have two!), but the proto is really cool as well--it reminded me instantly of the Grom'Gol Base Camp in Stranglethorn Vale, from World of Warcraft, also populated by a bunch of green-skinned warriors :) I think it's the cloth-topped towers more than anything else.

I got my first of each of those recently, along with: 2 CMF Roman Centurion 2 CMF Minotaur 1 CMF Highlander

Helm's Deep arrived over the weekend; I've only built a small portion of it (bags 5 & 7, mostly so I could build Gimli & Haldir). All I'm missing from LOTR is Shelob Attacks and Mines of Moria. Also ordered a Viking set off eBay, and some medieval minifig gear from BrickTW and BrickWarriors

To be fair, the staff in Gandalf Arrives shouldn't be the same staff he uses in Moria, in the game footage we've seen. He lost the Gandalf Arrives staff when he was captured by Saruman (I just looked thru Art of Fellowship Of The Ring the other day, and either Alan Lee or John Howe noted how Gandalf needed 3 staff designs: the one he loses in Orthanc, the one he loses in Moria, and his staff as Gandalf the White). Perhaps a Moria-Gandalf minifigure (if we get Gandalf v. Balrog set, maybe) will have a brown technic bush and a clear jewel to turn the Gandalf Arrives staff into a proper Moria one--of course, the game art poster shows a different connector to mount the jewel on the staff, so who knows?