Darth Caedus

Honestly, if they remade Gimli's mold in that slate/gold combination and gave the dwarves a new shoulder armor mold like the gundabad orcs, I'd be fine with that. If it's a choice between that and either an armored Mirkwood Elf helm or a new Orc helm, I'll take either of those over an Iron Hills helm.

Woah, what? How'd you get $50 off?

This BO5A is all about quantity. I suppose the Orc General could be dropped for Lego's coveted 'at least one unique character' but it should be someone as generic as possible (captain of the guard, a Company dwarf in Erebor armor that can be reused, etc.) The Orcs must NOT be the Hunter Orcs from the TDOS wave, that would ruin it - we need genuine DG armored Orcs (which can substitute for Mordor Orcs, to be honest). Lego should make one new Orc Helm mold that can be used for both DG and Morgul/Mordor Orcs and then use it an LOTR Wave 3 as well as a Hobbit Wave 3.

#1 I think we can all get behind. I'd actually prefer this to a Bard vs. Smaug set, we have Bard already and an Erebor Smaug set could give us a few more of the Dwarves in their TDOS garb. Or heck, just make them armored, who cares. #2 We have Radagast and Saruman already, better to give us Galadriel and then a new-outfit Elrond - the only proper Elrond is the Rivendell one, the Last Alliance one really doesn't resemble him in the least (in fact, I've been considering just using him as Gil-Galad!) We could get him in his Red Elven armor from AUJ, assuming he wears that to go fight at Dol Guldur. Use the spare slots to reduce the price and/or toss in more Twilight Ringwraiths, doesn't matter whether they're there or not, there's no other way we could get them and that would be very very cool. #3 We do need at least one Dwarf in any BO5A battlepack. #4 The big players at the BO5A should be in a large, expensive set so the cheap sets can have a prevalence of non-uniques. A big set with Bolg, armored Thorin, an armored Thranduil, maybe an armored Bard if her wears armor, Dain, Beorn in superbear form, etc. Honestly, Lego should lay out some basic rules for the BO5A wave (so they can assume it's their last Hobbit wave, and anything after that is gravy) -Any battle pack must include all 3 armies of Good, with armored Elves and Iron Hills Dwarves prioritized, and an equal or greater number of Evil characters. -Armored Thorin must be produced. -All characters who have appeared previously must be in armored BO5A gear, if they are included at all: Thranduil, Bard, any members of the Company, Bilbo - and Tauriel and Legolas too, if they get armor. -New characters should be focused on: Galadriel, Dain, Bolg - these are essentials -At least 1 battle pack must be produced, preferably two, each of a smaller denomination (4 figures in a $20, perhaps). -Large beasts should be included at some point - Eagles, Giant Bats, Beorn Superbear-form, Wargs - but they must never take precedence over infantry. A Warg or Eagle should not replace a slot that could be taken by a new-styled Dol Guldur Armored Orc or an Armored Mirkwood Elf. -Battle packs should not be tainted with unique characters, and if they are, they should be easily swappable characters (like Eomer in UHA, NOT Thranduil in MEA). That captain of the guard dude from Laketown would be ideal - an excuse for a named character who can just be reused as an officer-class Esgaroth Warrior. Bolg is an example of a non-ideal character, he is too distinct and would have a unique mold that would preclude him from being reusable. You'd think these things would be obvious, but I'm sure they fumble the ball on at least some of them. Minifigure distribution is hands down the most important thing in any licensed wave.

And yet he leaves far more of a lasting impression than most of the other villains. His image and form are instantly iconic. A good 20 minutes of the movie is spent fleeing from his very presence, and he's heavily foreshadowed throughout the movie. And then he comes back in 2 epic flashbacks in The Two Towers. Now, the Mouth of Sauron - that's a "neat" characters for us collectors. Awesome villain design and a niche persona, but few kids sit in awe of the Mouth of Sauron, who never draws a sword and has 5 minutes on screen at best.

Lego would be wise to make a Sauron mold *now*. Put a Last Alliance Sauron in either a coming summer 2014 (or perhaps 2015, or exclusive at some point, whatever) in his armored grey form. Use the same mold for a White Council Attacks set in the TABA wave - except make it part black, part fiery, like they do with ninjago or something like that. A White Council Attack set could include another chunk of Dol Guldur, the Necromancer/Sauron, Galadriel, and maybe a new armored Elrond (we don't really need another Saruman at all, I'd rather they put in a battle-damaged Gandalf the Grey than Saruman, or just another Orc or something.)

See the movie, don't believe the haters. It's great, sure they go off the rails but it's been over the top since Goblintown. Enjoy the ride. There's a lot of cool little canon nuggets in there. Ered Luin. Rhudaur. More references to the Nauglamir. And all the new characters are excellent - Bard plays it perfectly, as does Thranduil.

I agree that a single, 100% generic armybuilder would be ideal for the BO5A - preferable to any spread-out BP arrangement. For example, the ultimate Hobbit BP: The Battle of Five Armies $29.99 Includes: Ruined Dale archway/house with ladders, flickfires, little catapult, all Lego's typical garbage. Should be a good grey/tan stone & red shingle parts pack, modular. This could also be swapped with an Elven tent or something. -1x Mirkwood Elf Armored Warrior w/ gold elf spear and MEA shield -1x Laketown Soldier with sword and LTC boatshield -1x Iron Hills Dwarf -1x Armored Dol Guldur Orc: a fresh Orc design with hair or helmet, 2 significantly different face options -1x Goblintown Goblin (assuming they show up at the BO5A, if not, just another Armored Dol Guldur Orc) -1x Black Gundabad Warg -1x Giant Bat or Eagle - OR if Lego MUST have a named character in their eternal foolishness, make it someone who can be converted to a generic easily, like that Laketown captain of the guard dude, or a Tauriel with different facial expressions (she can easily be headswapped for a female Elf warrior). Leave the Beorn in bigbearform, Bolg, Dain, and other uniques to bigger, non armybuilder sets.

I can pass on a Lakemen BP since we've got the polybag. Any Elf BP should be exclusively armored Elves with shields and spears. An Iron Hills Dwarf BP would be pretty solid though. If we get more Wargs, let them be black or light brown to round out the color palette.

Can't fault Lego for the last bit. Necromancer's Fire-Sauron form in Dol Guldur was most likely not finished until a few months before release. They were working with AUJ Necromancer design, to which this is accurate. DGA is still a stupid set though, agreed. I really hope they put Bolg in a TABA set. As for Beorn and the Master getting figures when they have only minutes of screentime - both had material that's been cut for the EE. Beorn was supposed to have a 'chopping wood' sequence as his introduction, and the feast that Bofur wakes up hungover from we will also see in the EE. Both are 'slower' sequences that interrupt the pacing, so I can see why PJ - and likely studio pressure - had them cut. I think PJ is also more open to cutting stuff if the studio is complaining because he knows that the true fans who care will all be buying the EE anyways.

Wrong. The Witch-King was never killed or buried. He only fled from Glorfindel, and that's when the prophecy of 'No Man Can Kill Me' was made. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch-king_of_Angmar

Easy solution to that would have been - put a Rohan soldier and Gondor soldier in BlackGate, drop Gandalf the White and put him in Isengard on Shadowfax to drive up the exclusive appeal of that set. A much stronger, more popular wave would have been the result.

It was a big screwup on Lego's part. They could have put 1 armored Elf in MEA and it would have attracted much more attention, then they could simply reuse the same mold for a slightly different (or even identical) print in a TABA wave, and people would still buy more since it's such a cool design. Mold reuse is often poorly thought out by Lego; for instance, they could have tossed a warrior of Rohan with a sword into the Battle of the Black Gate and made that set all the more attractive; they could've put hair on one of the Orcs in Black Gate or Corsair Ship Ambush to make it slightly more interesting. Same principle here: you put one armored elf in MEA, people go nuts, buy tons, scalp him on bricklink and ebay. And he's so expensive that there's still a solid demand. Drop 1 into a cheap set or 2 or 3 into a more expensive set in the TABA wave and people come rushing back.

I grab the occasional Superhero set for specific heroes that I'm a fan of, but it's a rare event. LOTR and Hobbit are 99% of my purchases right now. If Lego wants to kill the LOTR and Hobbit line and still keep me hooked, they're going to have to make a Game of Thrones theme (I'd spend 10 times as much on that). :P

Clothes =/= crowns. Crowns are crowns and would never change, especially for an undead spirit that's locked to a specific form. He can only allude to that material in a variety of ways - Blue Wizards, the Nauglamir in the Extended Edition, etc.

We should actually find a PJ source that confirms it's the Witch-King, because the crowns actually don't match. However, the faces are pretty similar (go rewatch the movie scene, I just did, it's a close resemblance). FOTR Witchking's crown has four tall spikes, AUJ Twilight Nazgul's crown has two curved crisscrossing in the front. AUJ: http://www.thelandofshadow.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/DolGulderWitch-king4.jpg FOTR: http://media.theiapolis.com/b000000/d4/hLC/i1ZAN/k4/l1ZX0/s6/t3/wSG/y04/the-nazgul.jpg?cdn=1386107633

Lookin' good. I honestly would have paid 99.99 for a Dol Guldur Battle that included a tower of that size and detail along with a twilight Witch-King (and why not some twilight Nazgul to boot?).

Only thinking within the bounds of if it had to be a named character, a Tauriel polybag can be easily used to armybuild female elves. Of course I'd rather have an armored, haired Gundabad Orc polybag.

Agreed. A Tauriel polybag would have been a much more useful choice.

Don't be too hasty to slap such labels on Tolkien, and keep in mind the modern lens through which we view things. Having examined these issues thoroughly in an academic setting, Tolkien is never outrageously racist: the Haradrim are vague and peripheral enough that there's not really an issue there (especially since their evil only stems from being in Sauron's thrall), and Dwarves are Semitic in origin but are nothing if not a proud and noble race. The true outrageous racism was in Tolkien's peer, C.S. Lewis - a quick reading of blatant anti-Arab prejudice wrapped in all the Tash/Calormene stuff The Last Battle makes that painfully clear. But your point is accurate - despite all the questionable elements in both Tolkien and the PJ films, Lego took the license because it makes money. The Balrog-Devil theory is pure malarkey - an unfortunate symptom of the depth of the Lego fandom. We love this stuff and pine for it every single day, and new waves come but twice a year, if that. So in the meantime, it's very easy to get wrapped up in theories and delusions about why certain fan-favorite characters and scenes remain unproduced in Lego, when the explanation is probably quite simple and technical: the Balrog is a massive, extremely kinetic character, and translating that to Lego at an effective pricepoint, without it looking stupid or out of place, and still being highly pose-able is quite challenging - so it's no surprise that they opted for sets that would be easier to design and produce for the second wave: a ship, a couple of small dioramas, a gate. Also remember that the development cycle for Lego LOTR and the Hobbit is easily the most tumultuous they've had to deal with yet - 2 movies being split into 3, release date for the 3rd movie being shifted half a year (July-Dec), plot demarcations shifting drastically in the editing process (Dol Guldur arc), entire characters being revamped (Bolg)... honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they planned the 3rd Hobbit wave for Summer 2014, when TABA was supposed to come out - and are now either scrambling to get some LOTR sets together for the Summer, or prepping a final sendoff wave for 2015. More evidence that supports how jumbled things are: the Hobbit game is coming in Spring 2014, which would have been perfect if TABA was coming out in the summer as it was planned, but it got shifted forward 6 months, and the game gets left out to dry.

*storm of expletives* the Hobbit sets are now in stock, but the polybag is out of stock. Can't catch a break, can we? Guess it's just down to waiting for the polybags to hit stores... If they'd raise the darn limit the problems would be over. We could all order 20 lakemen apiece for BOGO50 and everyone would live happily ever after.

Sorry gents, looks like this one's a bust. Tried putting 2 MEA's in the cart, the BO50 didn't aggro. Alas.

I agree. As iconic as Narsil/Anduril is (1 mold could be used for both, in theory), it's *much* more important to get armor. I'd rather have an Uruk-hai siege helmet than Anduril, and that's a pretty niche piece of armor - Gondorian helms are essential. And honestly, I wish we'd gotten true Moria Goblin helms, they're just so darn cool. Personally, by sight I can identify, distinguish, and would enjoy having distinct molds for Anduril, Narsil, Sting, Glamdring, Orcrist, Boromir's sword, Hadhafang (yes, I know it's made up), Herugrim, and Eowyn's sword. But that's obviously a pipe dream. However, I think we DO *need* a proper Elven sword-mold: they really missed the boat by not including one in MEA. The Daggers of Time and Thranduil's longsword are absurd.

With LOTR/Hobbit for me, it's a binary: either give an iconic scene or location and do it right (Isengard, Helm's Deep, Bag End, etc.) or just give me filler and as many figures as possible. LOTR/Hobbit have the greatest on-screen armies in all of film. And Deathleech, Polybags are 4.99, so 7 hurts but is just barely justifiable. The limit of 4 is the real problem. Maybe a way around that could be to call up Toys R Us and place an order over the phone like the olden days, and haggle with the sales rep - they could well have the ability to override such a petty limit.

I just had a long interaction with my local TRU over the phone - the polybags haven't been shipped to the stores yet, and there's no 'ship2store' option online, so online is the only route. The 7.99 shipping hurts, but as a fan I must put my money where my mouth is, I just ordered 4 - would've ordered 11 to aggro free shipping but limits suck. It's a hefty price to pay - basically $7 a polybag - but it's not worth the risk of them never showing up in stores, and there's no way to know if they'll ever be put in an armybuilder in the TABA wave. If you're going to try local stores, definitely call ahead and check.