Str0ngbad

I was a little disappointed with how silly Unexpected Journey was in places (coughbunnysledgoblinkingcough) but I still went back to see it over and over. The book was much less dark but not really silly. The huge shift is partially writing style but also largely due to the fact that Bilbo goes on the adventure for adventure's sake where LOTR has a cloud of imminent doom over it. You really should pick it up and read it if you're an LOTR fan. It's a much easier (less dense) read and it will give you added perspective for LOTR. Plus, I know you can find it almost anywhere for cheap since the movie came out. The not "present" storyline that jmagaletta is referring to is mentioned in the book but only as an aside; no details are given. In The Simarillion however, Tolkien gives us a very brief run down of what happened. God bless Jackson for working that story in. It was something I felt to be needed in the book and now we will have legos of it to boot.

I'm afraid those three dwarves in that set would be a bad idea.

You have a point in regards to the ratio of the piece count to figures. I was surprised to find that Uruk-Hai Army has 45 pieces per figure where the SW Mandalorian Battle Pack has only 17.5. If there is this kind of licensing limitation, I have to say it doesn't make a lot of sense from WB's perspective considering it doesn't appear that it would conflict with anything else from the theme but I guess I wouldn't put it past them. But even assuming that, it's surprising to me that there haven't been more pseudo BPs like Uruk-Hai Army. Regardless, I'm beyond ecstatic that LEGO Middle Earth exists at all and I only hope it doesn't end before they've given it a good fleshing out; battle packs or not.

If you really think it's the license, what makes the Uruk-Hai Army set different? Is it just the price point? I have a hard time seeing how putting four generic figures in a set with a small build competes with the companies selling action figures. It's not like they are banking on selling dozens of Yaznegs.

It seems to me the entry level Lone Ranger set puts an end to all of the excuses for TLG not making BPs for licensed themes. I know as a kid I would have certainly asked for a battle pack type set before something like Riddles for the Ring. I mean it's a cannon, a new white horse, and four people compared to a rock, a dingy raft, and two people who can't even move their legs. It's not like BPs are geared toward adults instead of kids. Now I like the LOTR entry level sets just fine but I have a hard time seeing how BPs wouldn't be far more successful. I almost wonder if they're worried about competing with Star Wars but that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. I do think the fact that we didn't get a Gondorian equivalent of the Uruk-Hai Army set bodes well for at least a third wave though. I don't think TLG will pass over such an obvious success.

...and they're made of the flimsy plastic stuff.

I agree with you here. It would have been better to have made two identical Ghosts of the Dead and a new Orc print. I guess the main reason I don't mind has to do with the number of the current Mordor orcs I have. They've only been released in a couple of sets and not in huge numbers or at a price that allows for army building. I am more miffed about them not giving us any hairpieces for them in either set but I agree that the appropriation of the new prints is a little odd

Your wife got you a wonderful set. I'm glad LEGO is finding you again and thank you for sharing your old sets with us. That 12V locomotive in particular is amazing. I'm quite new here myself but welcome aboard!

Sorry. Quote button is not the edit button.

If it's just pieces in general you're after, you might try searching ebay listings for 'Lego no minifigure'. Often, people will sell sets that they bought for the figures and these sets can be bought for much less. If you're also wanting to collect figures then this is clearly a bad idea but by buying just the bricks you can get a lot more pieces for your money. Hope this helps but either way, I'm glad you're here and I hope you can get started soon.

Yes, yes and yes. Everyone would love to get all new minifigs in each set but that's just not realistic. I just can't join in the clamoring for new orc prints when there are still so many characters that NEED to be released and specifically over a set that already gives us four exclusive characters. It's already been said that by mixing the different orcs you can make quite a variety (and Yazneg's head still mixes well) but it doesn't stop there. It's LEGO. There are plenty of ways to mix your army up. Mix your weapons, helmets, armor and shields then stick a skull on someone's head and be happy. As an aside, is there really a significant difference in price between licensed and unlicensed themes? I've heard a lot of moaning about licensed themes for this reason but when I've looked at the store, LOTR and non-licensed sets seem to have about the same cost per piece count. Can I just not divide correctly anymore or are some licensed themes worse about this?

! White horses! I'm going to have to get a couple of those for Gandalf and Theoden. You guys with your wonderful little battle pack are killing me. I love the upcoming LOTR stuff but I'm still quite jealous.

I know. I don't mind the whimsical nature of The Hobbit. I'm even okay with the campy humor in the film but that Goblin King took me out of Middle Earth and made me feel like I was watching Saturday morning cartoons. Anyway, I think LEGO did a good job with the set aside from the goblins headwear. My beef is more with Jackson's version of the scene. I DID appreciate Goblin Town though and I could never stay angry with PJ.

In Middle Earth literature they do but it takes an incredibly long time or brutal conditions. Cirdan the Shipwright of the Grey Havens was old and grey and even had a beard. For your own elves of course, do whatever you like. I like them aging over centuries. Elves are almost too perfect already. :)

EDIT: I got these questions answered in an e-mail today. However, I'd still love it if someone that knew their stuff here would take a look at what I've done and give me some feedback. I really want this project to turn out great without too much trial and error and I'm dying to get past the bulk of the learning curve. Here I go reviving an old thread again. I have designed my first torso, back and legs but have a few questions that I need answered before I can turn it into a decal. A couple of these have more to do with design/printing preparation than printing but as they don't appear to fit neatly in any of the other topics, I'd rather revive just one thread. First of all, when I use CMYK values from the Color Chart , I get a completely different shade than what I'm after on my computer. Could this be because of the program I'm using (GIMP) or will it print out correctly regardless of what my screen shows? Second, should my lines blend into the adjacent colors through color gradients? They do at the moment and it appears to help smooth them out but I'm worried this might be a problem with lines that border transparent areas. They blend into transparent with grey gradients but once the decal is applied the lines will be next to the color of the lego piece (sorry if that is confusing). Also, for printing on a professional quality printer I read on an old MCN how-to that I should have my design separated into three layers; one for the white undercoat, one for metallics, and one for CMYK colors. Is there a way to extract these parts from a design into different files? Sorry if any of these questions are out of place here or just dumb and thanks to anyone who offers the least bit of help. I'd be happy to e-mail a copy of the image to anyone if it will help.

Hahaha! I love Wolverine's arm in that pic! Awesome figure too. It looks surprisingly fluid for having two torsos stacked together and that may be due to you choice to use short legs. Great work!

Since I am of the evil fleshy persuasion, I'd love it if some suggestions were made for flesh heads as well. You yellow guys might be able to make use of of the CMF Ocean King Edit: Never mind. He's already on pg 2 of Aanchir's very helpful link. I'm specifically looking for a fleshy, elven face with gray eyebrows. All I've come across are Magneto and Gandalf and neither are quite right for it.

I know. I figure it'll be xmas of 2014 if we get anymore.

^^Mirkwood spiders is a fantastic set and has great colors too. I'm tempted to buy a second one of it and barrel escape and then sell off the dwarves. I don't think it was terrible. They had to use their piece count on five different things and it had four exclusive minifigs that resale for half the price of the set. And as much as I LOATHE applying stickers, i'd sacrifice there before anywhere else to meet a price point. I hate the goblin king battle so much more but that's probably largely because I hate Jackson's goblin king... And that cage... And that the goblin's headgear doesn't cover the face on the back of their heads and... Ok, I hate everything about it except for that cool little basket thingy.

The two polybags are only available at TRU and have very limited availability even then. I know it's been said ten times already but Unexpected Gathering. Its twice as good as any of the others. Ten times better than the Goblin King as far as I'm concerned.

Edited 2/18/2012 Howdy! I'm in the US but I'm happy to ship internationally if enough is being traded. Have: S10 Roman Soldier Skydiver Mechanic x2 Baseball Player Bee Costume S9 Forest Maiden x9 Vampire Battle mech Mr. Good/Evil Judge Alien Avenger x2 Want: S5 Dwarves, LOTR, TMNT, Marvel, misc parts... Detailed trade thread here.

I could die happy . I wouldn't be surprised if they don't make a set over $100 for the Hobbit but your suggestion still makes me giddy. Both Cirdan and Celeborn are in the LOTR movies albeit with tiny roles (I don't think Cirdan even made the credits and Jackson didn't make him old or give him a beard :angry: ) just not in the Hobbit. I'm trying to learn to customize figs to fill in the gaps LEGO is going to leave.

I highly doubt they'd do it but a trans or trans lt blue figure would be sweet.

How about either a swan or stars on DarkBley and white with silver accents?

I'm really curious too. Outside of the last march of the ents and when gandalf and company catch up, there aren't many characters I associate with it. Grima, Saruman and... orcs? I guess they might put an eagle in since it would give them an excuse to give us yet another Gandalf.