naf

Perhaps they could somehow do a mold of gollum that looks like he's attacking Frodo, he could attach to some sort of backpack piece or something. Sam and Frodo also dropped the orc gear by this point, and I believe Sam also abandoned his pack with pots and pans. What they could do is give us a dirty version of the hobbits, with torn clothing, dirty messy hair, cuts on their face, etc.

When looking for replacement thread, make sure you get a good quality cotton thread as opposed to nylon. I bought a reel of black nylon jewelry cord at JoAnns to replace the drawbridge strings on my black monarch's castle, but the string is too slippery and won't stay wound on the lego technic axle. The drawbridge just falls back down after winding it back up. Cotton string isn't as slippery and will work better for things like this.

I wouldn't call this a minor quibble, those bricks look horrible. In this pic, you can't even push the brick down all the way: http://shrani.najdi.si/?z/PK/1zt1LORi/p1010089.jpg And here, it looks like a 3 year old sibling got a hold of the bricks and start gnawing on them: http://shrani.najdi.si/?1D/Ph/1DtqaLeB/p1010096.jpg Honestly, I'd just pack the set up and return it to the store, get a replacement of refund. I would still send the pictures to Lego to let them know about the quality issue.

I voted generic, although it seems the castle theme has always had factions. I grew up in the 80's, so I had black knights, falcons, crusaders, etc. However, these were generic enough that they could represent anything, and there were no named or special figures. I think this is better since it doesn't force you into a specific story, and you can use your imagination to come up with your own kingdom. I think the recently retired Kingdom's line did a good job of balancing generic castle with a theme. There was definitely a theme with the Lion kingdom vs. the Dragon kingdom, and there were special king and queen figures (in fact he doesn't even have a name that I know of,he's just referred to as the Lion King), but other than that it reminded me of the old 80's castle factions. It's sad that Lego decided to kill the theme, I hope they come up with something similar in the near future.

I was planning on buying this set for army building purposes, but after reading about the quality issues I might reconsider. Seeing as how this review is a year old, has anyone bought a copy of this set recently? Does it still have the same quality issues?

I think either one would work, I always envisioned Mt. Doom as a smaller set as it's just a cave in a volcano really. Some lava as a base (lave baseplate??), an arch for the entrance, and a rock path to the edge of the lava. I would probably prefer the 2nd age version as we already have Frodo, Sam, and Gollum. Sauron would be difficult to do in Lego form. He should be taller than a regular minifigure, he looks almost twice as tall as the humans in the movie.

I'm actually glad that there is no conflict right out of the box with this set. Instead of wasting pieces, and driving up the price, on a skiff and sarlacc, more attention is made on the actual sail barge model. Conflict can be had by buying the desert skiff set, which can easily be had for under $20 on sale. If these were included 75020 would have easily been a $150 set with people complaining about the high price. With having the sets separate, more focus is paid to the main model, so I'm happy they went this route.

While Minas Tirith would be a great set, I think the location is just too large and epic to properly in a single Lego set. It was compared to the Death Star above. I am a big Lego Star Wars fan, but I don't really like the Death Star set and I'm not planning on buying it. It's expensive, and amounts to a display of various scenes that took place in the Death Star over 2 movies. I know Lego is not necessarily supposed to be to perfect scale and accurate, but I'd prefer, for example, a larger stand alone set of the emperor's throne room as opposed to the small one they jammed into the Death Star. That being said, I suggested a few pages back that I think a good set would be just the court yard with fountain, tree, throne room, etc. Make it the largest set of the wave, $100-$150. It can include Aragorn, guards, nobles to recreate the coronation scene, and can also include Denethor, Faramir, and Pippin for the bonfire scene. If they ended up making a huge $400 Minas Tirith, I'd probably have the same feelings towards it that I have for the Death Star. Also, even though Minas Tirith is an important locale, there are many more scenes that are important to the story that haven't been done yet. Eowen vs the Witch King, the Balrog, and Mt. Doom. I really can't seem them ending this license without doing something with Mt. Doom.

I also just ordered the 7965 Millennium Falcon from Amazon, they have it for $103.19 right now! I was really on the fence with this one, I've been eyeing it for the better part of a year now. I knew I wanted a Lego Falcon, and I while I like this version, but there are some pretty big inaccuracies (size and location of the cockpit, etc). However, I'm also not going to shell out big money for the retired UCS version. I decided to pull the trigger on this, as this is a good price. I feel like this set is due to retire soon, and who knows if and when Lego with remake it. It's also Lego, so I can try to mod it to make it a little more movie accurate. http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Star-Wars-Millennium-Falcon/dp/B004P95ABG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381332150&sr=8-1&keywords=lego+millenium+falcon+7965%5C

6208 B-Wing Fighter - Good deal on ebay, used but in perfect condition with box and full sticker sheet 8038 The Battle of Endor - Another good ebay deal, NISB for $100 + shipping, I never complain when I get a retired set close to retail. Bought it to go with the Ewok Village, which I plan on purchasing this month. Double points!!

I noticed this when I got out of my dark ages, and it doesn't really surprise me. Probably a combination of cost cutting/internet and the fact that there are a lot more themes now than there used to be, making the catalog larger and more expensive to print. I have a pile of those old catalogs from the 80's and early 90's. It's always fun to browse through them. Each theme had a big scene that included all of the sets currently available on a nice looking backdrop (moon for space, a Caribbean island for pirates, etc) I used to circle the sets I wanted for Christmas or birthdays and give the catalogs to my parents

I wasn't paying attention to Lego much when the first sail barge was released, so I haven't seen it in person to compare this to. But, my lego store has this setup with the desert skiff in a display case, and I can say that it looks absolutely fantastic in person. It went from not on my radar to a must buy for me. Jabba's palace and the sail barge are such an iconic scene, any fan of star wars lego should have some version of each. I don't understand the heavy use of stickers though. Why couldn't they just use a handful of grille pieces (http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2412a) instead? I plan on doing this instead of applying the stickers.

I'm a bit surprised that they'd include Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in the series 13 lineup. If they're releasing a Simpson's house set, those figures will probably be included there. The CMF series could include all the other characters like Millhouse, Crusty, etc. I personally don't like having the Simpson's lineup take over an entire CMF series. I've collected all the CMF series so far, but I'm not that interested in the Simpsons. So, I can collect these figures I don't really want for the sake of completeness, or have a big gap in my collection where series 13 should be.

Does anyone think we'll see the nazgul in any possible future LotR sets? Attack on Weathertop is retired, and is kind of expensive to get it just for the nazgul included. If they do a prancing pony set, they could appear there on horses. Other than that, it'll probably only be one (which king perhaps), on a fell beast.

Oh man... I told myself I wasn't going to start collecting everything in this theme.... These purchases have been spread out over the summer: Attack of the Wargs - $30 Walmart deal Helms Deep - $90 Target clearance Mines of Moria x2 - Bought one on ebay sealed for $54 shipped, and saw one at Walmart for $55. Not sure if I'm going to keep both, I'd like the 2nd cave troll to put with The Black Gate (they turned the crank to open the gate in the movie), and I can use the parts for castle MOCing. An Unexpected Gathering - $50 Walmart clearnace Barrel Escape - $30 at TRU. I think they might have made a pricing error, they had a sign with the $30 price, but rang up as regular. They gave it to me for the cheaper price Goblin King Battle - $65 Walmart Clearance. I don't really like the set, but I wanted the figures and will use the parts for MOCing. I want to wait for a good deal on Uruk Hai Army before I get any of those. They had a ton at the local Walmart, and I'm assuming they will eventually discount them like the other sets. Makes me dirty doing all this shopping at Walmart, it takes Lego to get me to walk into that store..........

Agreed, that's why I thought it would be best, and more feasable, for Lego to do just the throne scene as a way to get the possessed version of the Theoden minifig, and a way to get Grima w/o spending a ton of money on Orthanc. They could even do different print to keep the Orthanc version exclusive. The version of Saruman in Orthanc is exclusive as well (has the skirt/robe instead of legs), so there are still exclusives in that set. The cuusoo version linked above is ok, but still looks way too small, especially with the minifigs next to it.

Beautiful work! How tall is it?

Fellowship of the Ring: The Prancing Pony Inn: Something in the style of the Medieval Market Village - a 2 story building that can open up to access the features inside. The lower level would be the bar area with some barrels, tables, and a fireplace for Strider to sit by. The 2nd floor would depict the scene where the Nazgul attempt to stab the hobbits in their sleep. This set would be minifigure intensive, needing at the bar minimum the 4 hobbits, strider (the print that came with weathertop, but with a cloak and hood), a barkeep, and 1 Nazgul. Lego seems to split up the main characters, so it seems unlikely we'll see all 4 hobbits in one set. The Two Towers: Meduseld throne room: This would be a smaller set, around the $20 range. It would depict the scene where Theoden is under Saruman's spell, and would include the entranced Theoden, Wormtongue, and Gandalf the White. It would allow for us to get an alternate Theoden figure, plus a way to get Wormtongue without having to shell out for Orthanc. Could also include some banners with Rohan horse iconography. Return of the King: Aragorn's coronation: Would depict the scene at the end of the movie. The set would have the courtyard and fountain with the white tree, the statues in the foreground, plus the front of the building (throne room) and doors on the other side. Minifigs would be Aragorn and Arwen in kingly/queenly attire, and some generic Gondorians, some in armor as guards and some in formal attire. Depending on the size of the set, they could also include Elrond and perhaps another Rivendell elf. I think this set would be a good compromise. The fans want Minis Tirith, but I think the scale is too grand to depict either the whole city or the battle of the Pelennor Fields (we already have the black gate battle and a Pelennor Fields set would look similar, a battle in front of a wall).

Great review. At first I was only going to get 'An Unexpected Gathering' from this theme, but after reading up on some reviews of the rest of the sets they're all growing on me. I love the figures, I haven't seen a LotR or Hobbit minifig I didn't like. I do wish the goblin king had a studded head like the Moria troll has, so that the crown could be a separate piece. Having the crown built into the figure limits it to just being the goblin king. I really like how they built the rope bridge instead of using the plastic molded one: http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2549 This set does a decent job of representing the goblin city in Lego form given the typical constraints, but it looks a bit boring due to all the repetitive brown and grey colors, stone structures, etc. It's really just one stone and wood platform after another. The action sequence looks great in the film (despite the fact that Peter Jackson decided the laws of physics don't apply in Middle Earth), but it doesn't translate that great to a full Lego set. I think they missed an opportunity with The Hobbit theme by making this the largest set in the first wave. I think they should have made Bag-End the big set, and fleshed it out a bit more than the current set does. However, this is from an AFOL perspective, and you can't cram too many play features into a hobbit hole ("Uncle Bilbo, why did you install those flick fire missiles?" "To keep those dirty Sacksville Baggins' away, my dear Frodo. You cannot be too careful"). I think this set would be a lot better if they had just used the goblin king's throne part of the set and scrapped the rest.

I don't quite agree with that the older sets are all that "blocky," I have a fair collection of classic space sets, and they all incorporate some interesting pieces and designs, and I feel like they can stand up to any set released now. I think the main difference is that SNOT is all the rage, and Lego has incorporated this technique into it's models. They also tend to cover the model with specialized slopes, wedges, and tile pieces to "hide" the studs on the bricks (never really understood this, how are we supposed to attach minifigures or modify the model with accessories?). I think if you take a minifig along the lines of the spaceman/intergalactic girl from the CMF series, give them the classic space white, red, black, yellow, and blue uniforms, and use some of these more modern pieces and techniques, you'd have a winner that will appeal to both AFOLs and kids alike.

It's really bad business practice to issue a coupon, and then deny it's use based on some asterisk that gives Lego the ability to deny specific sets at whim. It's classic bait and switch, gets you into the store but you can't get the discount that was advertised. They should be honoring this one for any set, and then for the next coupon explicitly state the sets you can't use it on.

When the series first came out, I bought half of a full box at TRU (I feel the packets at home, and return the ones I don't want. Call it unfair but I just don't feel like sitting in a toy store for an hour feeling packets). I got a few doubles but the most I ended up with was 5 welders. Must be an unpopular figure. As for the looseness of parts, I find it's really hit or miss. I started collecting during series 9, and I found it's pretty random whether I get loose legs or not, even among the same figures from the same box. Chinese "quality"..........

I liked the figure just as a generic figure for my castle settings, and it's always nice to get foliage pieces. I also liked the green hood. I'll have to keep my eye out for the new mirkwood set.

I just found out about this set, and I'm pretty disappointed that it's nowhere to be found. If this thing was selling so well, why won't TLG make more? I don't mind the occasional collectible like Mr. Gold or the Comic-con figures, but it seems like every licensed theme has these hard to find exclusives that are only available a short time, and a lot of them end up being sold online at ridiculous prices. It's sad to see a company like Lego encouraging this type of collecting. Since this set only came out last summer, and the Mirkwood elves play a prominent role in the 2nd movie, I'm at a loss as to why these aren't being re-released.

If people are unhappy with this policy, I encourage you to express your dissatisfaction with the TLG, The Lego Store (if you live near one), and online. This sounds like one of those very short sighted cost cutting measures a lot of companies get themselves into. It's a 10% coupon, we're not talking a huge discount here. Don't know if it's worth it to piss off every AFOL within the vicinity of a Lego Store. With the no discount policy, does that include using VIP points to purchase items? That would really piss me off as I've saved up a bunch and was planning on using them to bring the price of the Winter Village Market down a bit.