DaleDVM

The uruk swords look pretty perfect. I can't see the horses close enough to see their articulation. I also noted their is no box art for the orc forge set. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of brick in the orc forge set. Similar to the uruk hai army set, it will make army building a bit more expensive. Atleast the parts look useful. I wonder if they will come out with battlepack type sets like they have for star wars or even better like the ones for castle? A guy can always hope. Weathertop looks much more substantial than is shown on the preliminary box art. This would explain the high piece count it has. The orcs in the orc forge look the same as the ones in moria? Not sure though. The troll is sand blue? It looks like a good color to me. As a MOCer who builds castle I love all of the grey!

Why in the world do people want individual characters in army building sets? A Saruman minifig would be a total waste in the orc forge set. What in the world would I do with 20 Sarumans after I build my orc army? Worse yet I would have 20 less orcs at the same time because he would have to replace one of those figs for the same price. Putting a figure or element people only want one of in a set meant to sell multiples is a really bad idea. Examples: the pirate captain in the pirate battle pack, the sarcophagus in the pharoahs quest battle pack, Jack Sparrow in the POTC battle pack. Because of this TLG has had a hard time selling these battle packs and in some cases have had to sell them at a loss to get rid of them. I'm glad TLG has the sense to not repeat huge mistakes like this in the LOTR line. Don't worry about getting Saruman. He will be on a Orthanc or Isengard set in the future. If you can't or won't buy the set you can get him on the secondary market. I feel the most important news is the articulating horse. This is incredible and will forever change the way historical themes (plus many others) are portrayed! I hope this source can be trusted. The preliminary pics looked more like a solid mold and don't look like they can move at all? Obviously those pics were preliminary though. The ring is great. I don't think it will be thick enough to allow for stud to stud construction techniques. I agree that boromir looks more like Theoden (too weathered looking), Gandalf needs hair and a staff, and Sams hair is too long. Other than that I think the rest of these figs are spot on. Sam even looks like a fat hobbit. The olive color is great for LEGOlas. Gimli is full of awesomeness! I am amazed that you can make a minifig head look like anyone let alone have them be so easily recognizable. Kudos to TLG! My dream of articulating short legs is over. If they didn't make them for the hobbits and dwarves they have no plans on making them any time soon.

IMHO the dots on the back of the package are by far the fastest way to find what you want. You do have to have good lighting and good eyesight for this to work. The key is to do your own groundwork and don't rely on dot codes off of the internet. On my first visit for CMF series 6 I went and spent 1.5 hours at 1 LEGO store. I go through by feel and find one of each of the 16 different figures. When I find a fig I write its name on the package and highlight the bumps with a Sharpee. To speed up the process, I compare bump patterns to the ones I've already confirmed. I don't need to feel any that have matching bump patterns. Once you have all 16, you go through the remaining packages and find the ones with matching bumps that you want multiples of. My first trip I scored 21 highlanders, 15 minotaurs, and 11 romans plus one of every other type with 0 mistakes made. I then take the 16 packages with the dots and names. I punch a hole in them and carry them on a keyring with me to the store. This way each trip after the 1st is really quick and I can also help other people find what they want. Unfortunately some packages do not have the bumps very prominantly on them. Those I have to resort to feeling and it takes way longer. Any package you can see the bumps on takes only a couple of seconds to identify. I have been to two other LEGO stores here in Chicagoland and the bumps are exactly the same. I went through about 4 cases of figs at one store in about 30 minutes while chatting and being distracted. Unfortunately the figs were picked through so fewer minotaurs, romans, and highlanders but I added to my totals. It is time consuming the first time you inspect the collectables but if you are looking for a lot of certain minis it is well worth your time on subsequent visits to LEGO stores. I just wish I could find CMFs in other stores here in Chicago. It seems like target and walmart never seem to get them here.

He looks sand green or possibly olive green. I haven't seen enough of that color to know it well. It is definately not dark green or bright green.

I would love to set up a budget. However, I never know what they are going to release until it is too late. We don't even know what is coming out in the fall yet. The one thing I never want to do is not buy sets that I later will pick up on the secondary market at a large markup. Mistakes like that make my LEGO spending that much worse.

I like his eyes the original way as well. I think this is a good representation of LEGOlas. We will have to wait and see if they worked some new quiver/hair/weapon clip combination. Yes that is the gladius from the CMF gladiator. It actually looks great as a rohan sword. Thank goodness the torso has no flesh on it. I think anyone hoping for flesh on the torso is incredibly short sighted? Personally I don't want yellow on my torsos either. Then yellow figs can be switched to fleshies for those who want them that way. That way torsos can be used both ways.

I can't believe that people are actually using that poster as a basis for a new element. You do realize that is a computer generated picture and not a real minifig? The speculation is just a little out of control. If you are wrong and no new sword shows up are you going to come on the forum and troll the LOTR sets?

Thanks again to everyone who read this thread and posted a reply. I am hoping everyone who wanted a King's Castle got it. Sad that it didn't make two years on the market. Lets hope Kingdoms is visited again some time in the future.

Trust me these sets will be complete and big news at the toy fairs in the next month. We just need to wait a few more weeks for official pictures. This is LEGOs largest rollout this year.

I appreciate the effort Hive, and I do like to debate these type of things. However, I cannot respond to those comparisons because I feel it is fatally flawed. I am in the camp that some of the best fantasy era sets are not even included. I'm surprised noone has mentioned the Ultimate Castle Chess Set yet? That set was incredible and groundbreaking. I also realize it was expensive and not many people have it. I feel it almost impossible to compare the two lines. Fantasy era has almost double the sets and it makes it an unfair fight. I also think it is difficult for people to compare when they don't even own all of the sets.

Madoka, all of those minifigs in the bags should be easy to sell... to me perhaps? You are one mad collector! But in a good way.

My significant other is very tolerant. Our attached two car garage holds only LEGO. She will also sort a little, help build repetative elements, and buys LEGO gifts for my birthday and Christmas. We also built the winter village sets together this year and displayed them in our living room. I consider myself lucky to have her in my life. I don't think I am deserving of her if she becomes an AFOL! But I would welcome it.

As simple as this technique is I haven't seen it described before on a forum. For an easy and very tight curved wall alternating 1x2 log bricks and 1x1 rounds is great. The log bricks allow for a lot more bend than normal 1x2s. This technique can create a very tight radius and the log bricks give a more uniform look with the 1x1 rounds when compared to normal 1x2 bricks. I can achieve a 24 stud circumference and 9 stud diameter round tower without any real tension on the bricks. I also developed this technique for a roof. It takes on the appearance of a clay tiled roof. I would kill for that brick in dark orange. Dark red looks great as well. It does leave a row of studs going up the ridge of the roof but there are ways to hide them.

Yes Ralph everyone has there own way of doing things. Unfortunately for me I can't exactly take it apart to make a new MOC either. Since I am building upon an already existing MOC I have to just keep buying more. However one day a few years from now, I will take it all apart and move onto something else. Also we have to take into account collectors who never even MOC at all. Some people spend loads on LEGO just to keep the sets as they are. I couldn't do that, but I would think that us MOC builders are actually the minority of LEGO fans.

Hey Ralph. I really love your vehicles and even moreso your aircraft. You do excellent high quality work! And yes you create a lot of MOCs! I am one of those who spends a decent sum annually. I can honestly say I have never traded or sold a single LEGO piece. I have given a few pieces and minifigs away to friends but otherwise I still have it all. Where does my LEGO go? A majority goes into storage for future projects; my mind is always planning. I hope those plans come to fruition or else my car is sitting out in the snow for nothing. The rest of that LEGO has gone into this. These are two photos of the first 5 feet of my castle layout. The entire city is almost 24 feet long now. I am guessing 125,000 pieces give or take a bunch. I have been building it for so long and honestly I really haven't been counting. Considering the large structures and moreso the lanscapes they sit on it is a whole lot of brick. I suppose I don't do a lot of MOCs. I guess I just do one big one that goes on and on. I have never posted one of my MOCs online before this. I really don't even like to take photos of it. I feel it is still a work in progress. Perhaps when I am satisfied with the whole layout, I will put some good detailed photos of the entire thing on the internet. I just wanted to show you that there is a lot of LEGO out there that hardly ever gets seen for one reason or another. My stuff is so big I really only take it out for shows here in Chicago. I know I am not alone. There are others that have so much more than I do.

Hey Chris... my bricks are bigger than your bricks. And yes you are addicted to modulex. great photo Lego Godt Gud. You can lose a small animal in all of that unopened, unsorted, (oh dear that looks like a lot of work) LEGO.

This is a crazy coincidence. On my way home from my very 1st LEGO convention (Brickworld 2007) I stopped to fuel up the car and on the ground were a few scratched up LEGO pieces. If the gas station was near the convention I could see it, but it was a couple of blocks from my house.

Sorry to reinvigorate a thread that has been dead for several months but I just read through the entire thing. Very interesting and thanks to all who have shared. It seemed to me that most of the heaviest collectors of minifigs (who responded) are castle people followed by star wars, city, pirates, and space. It would be obvious that army builders have the largest totals of figs. I am impressed by some who have a lot of different civilian figs from various themes. That is cool. Davey I had no idea you had that many figs. Stash I want to come over and play with your minifigs. Madoka all I can say is WOW! That is some impressive collecting! I should also say thank you. You make me look much more normal. My girlfriend and family will be glad to know you are out there somewhere, and I am not as crazy as I could be. I have somewhere over 5000 castle army figs at this point. It really can be addicting aquiring armies of figs. I am so glad I have had a little control and have stuck to just one theme. I have about 250 medieval civilians and also 200-300 figs from city and the collectable minifigs as well. I was really hoping that some of you would tell me how you keep your collections. Madoka I can see how you have to keep yours. If you lined them up not only would it take forever but the space it would take would be crazy. I keep my armies lined up on 16x32 baseplates with about 27 figs on each. 3 rows of 8 troops and a group of 3 elites/leaders/standard bearers/musicians or some combo of those in the front rank. I tend to pose all of my figs slightly differently just because they look more realistic that way. It is amazing how long it can take just to line them up and try to make the units look natural. Yes, I used to play tabletop miniature games some time back, and yes I am getting my nerd on right now. These I put into cardboard boxes that measure 1 ft. x 2 ft. by 4 1/2 inches tall. (sorry to my worldly friends but Americans are metrically challened) These are tall enough to have cavalry, standards, and large figs like the big trolls in them with now problems. I can fit 4 units in a box. This leaves enough room so they don't hit each other too much. A box adds up to a little over 100 figs. These I mark with the faction, type, and number of units. These boxes stack nicely under my plastic folding tables that I keep my large LEGO castle display on. I can keep about 2000 figs under a 6 foot table. Storing them like this keeps both light and dust off of my armies. I can either set them out or grab a few figs to MOC with very quickly. My nephew can also find exactly what he wants to play with... and then pull them out... and play with them... and he never puts them back... and that totally screws up all the work I did... and On second thought... I need a more clandestine way of storing them! Seriously though, I have found that it is important to keep them orgnanized or I spend forever looking for the right figs. Alot of my figs spend a good amount of time in their original boxes until I get the motivation to actually part out the sets. Then the figs get built and put into a large plastic bag. There they sit until I get motivated again. then I line them up, arm them, and modify them as needed. Just recently I learned not to arrange any army factions until I am certain 1)those figs are no longer being sold and 2)I am not gonna try to get any more of them on the secondary market. Nothing is more annoying than making all of your units and balancing out your army and then you get 4 more troll mountain fortress sets on clearance and it screws up both your troll and crownie armies. Then you have to order more figs on the secondary market to fill out a couple of more full units and so on. Am I being anal? And wala 5000+ figs.

I would guess around $5000. Most spending was done at LEGO stores. Breakdown: 2000 on sets, 1500 on pick a brick cases, 500 on collectable minis, and 1000 on bricklink for those hard to find parts and figs. That has been about average over the last 4 years for me. When I came out of my dark age in 2007 it was $15,000. What is wrong with me?

@DaMaximus No I am not a part of the guilds. I have a massive castle layout 40" x 22' so far and I spend my spare time trying to finish it up properly. Most of my figs wouldn't have fit in well with guilds anyway. They are arranged on baseplates with heraldry and all for each of the LEGO factions released over the last 25 years. The color scheme of most is off and there are too many to modify on the fly. And then I would have to change them all back. I just don't have the spare time. However, I am thinking about building a display piece of terrain for my armies. It would leave blank spots for me to place the armies on for photography. I have never put photos of my armies online and I probably should. Those who have come to brickworld have seen them in past years. I might wait for the impulse sets. However, I have waited in the past hoping for a better army builder and gotten burned. It looks like a pretty good parts set anyway. Last but not least. IMHO, I don't think that is Eomer. If it is I doubt we are going to get a seperate helmet for him and the other riders so I want a lot of Riders anyway. I just need to swap out some heads.

Awesome complete review! Thanks for the King's Castle and MMV comparisons. I parted mine out long ago so I couldn't see them side by side. It truly is a beautiful set. I think your review is pretty spot on from the way I felt when building it. I would score a little better on playability and parts. I think you can joust over and over. There are enough different figs to play out plenty of scenarios. The interiors are detailed enough IMHO to do some play there as well. As for the parts, I just love all of the bricks with a stud on the side and the small plates/cheese wedges. I think it is a much more useful part selection for castle building than MMV. Thanks again KristofBD for all of the effort you put in.

@ TheLegoDr. It didn't seem like that much at the time but it just kept adding up. I did buy a bunch of classic castle figures that year off of bricklink/ebay. That was likely half of the total amount. Ihira how bad were the prices for picking up the older sets? I know they can cost quite a bit.

This is great work. You really made my day! Now please do a spider man one where spider man goes up and down like he is swinging on a web and at the same time the city scrolls by. too much to ask... perhaps but I did say please.

Heck we all want to see them... At the very least it will be ammunition for next brickworld! If this was Americabricks the photos might be too racy. After all we are american tighta__es. But eurobricks should be a site totally comfortable with explicit photos.

Now that this topic is active again I guess I could chime in. Personally the Ninjago line is enough for my desires. I find the structures very well done and some great printing on the pieces as well. I just added a handful of samurai from the collectable figs. Then I moved the silly skeletons to my fantasy era skeleton armies and boom there is a nice far eastern ninja theme. I just didn't buy any of the goofy vehicles. Those were truly aweful.