Darth Caedus

Gonna wait for Orthanc to hit in order to get the Jor-El polybag, since Orthanc is an exclusive. There's no point in buying anything else from Lego.com when Amazon marks down almost everything by 10-30% very shortly after release.

Yes. But at this point, the Extended Editions are *the* versions - although they have a couple minor flaws, the stuff they add makes the theatricals totally pointless (e.g. no Saruman in ROTK, no Denethor flashback in TTT). The glow in the dark teeth is an inspired touch.

Alcarin, there's a difference between you not liking something, and accusing the designers of actually doing a 'half-assed' job on it. Who 'wanted' the Wizard Battle is totally subjective, price points are always higher in the EU, the Orcs are the *one* weak aspect of The Black Gate set (not its defining feature), and you can't compare the PTP of Helm's Deep with the Corsair Ship - one is a $130 set, the other is $100. The Corsair Ship's PTP is still low, but we get some dope minifigures and a lot of extra-large ship pieces and hull components. Furthermore, the prices of the big sets isn't as bad, as they tend to drop off by about $25 pretty fast on Amazon (this is currently true for both Helm's Deep and the Gobbo King Battle). Yes, I feel the pain of not having any battlepacks this wave. It sucks, but we've covered this ground a hundred times. No sense dwelling on it - we'll see what Lego gives us in the next (and possibly last) 3 Tolkien waves (TDOS, LOTR, TABA), and hope for the best.

Agreed, but PTP matters a lot as the foundation of a worthwhile set - and the Black Gate has a solid look and the best minifigs in the wave (minus the undercooked orcs).

Interesting. The all-black nature increases the appeal for me - it's fearsomely imposing, and I can't wait to build it and display it.

Where the heck did you score UHA's for half price? Agreed. It's like a review done by someone totally out of touch with lego, who randomly picks the first criticism off the top of their head and acts like it's some huge deal. There are many other reason to bash MoM - spreading out the Fellowship is not a scam, it's good business. Besides, a true fan will be buying more than one set from any given wave anyways.

The problem with TBS' Black Gate review is that he complains about the price. You can't slag a $60 for having 656 pieces - the standard "golden" ratio is a 10 cent PTP, and this set beats that - and you get double the savings when you buy it twice, as many are going to do.

Was there ever a reason they stopped using the superb tommygun and handgun molds from the Batman line? The galaxy patrol gun is supremely dumb looking, they should use the classic Batman handgun piece more often.

Just to kill the rumor about more Iron Man 3 sets, it's pretty clear when you read the whole article, that the actor kid who plays Harley is pretty much just spinning his wheels (pardon the pun). He speculates randomly on Avengers 2 and Iron Man 4, and when asked about the toy stuff, he just kind of spits out every possible thing he hopes will exist. There won't be a game based on Iron Man 3 - Lego doesn't get that specific with its games (that's like saying we'd get a whole game for each Hobbit film). The kid's clearly a good fellow, but he obviously knows nothing real about the upcoming movies and merchandise. I reckon we'll see 2-3 sets each for Thor 2, Captain America 2, and Guardians of the Galaxy - then a full wave for Avengers 2 when it hits. That pretty clearly seems to be Lego's business strategy with the "intermediate" movies - a modest wave of 3 sets (Iron Man 3, Man Of Steel). If Thor 2 also has 3 sets, we can assume that this is the standard estimate from now on for anything other than an uber blockbuster (Avengers 2, the Hobbit movies, a new Star Wars movie, etc.)

Anyways. My thoughts on the new sets: Tank Druid: Best set of the wave - cheap for a great price with a minifig we've needed for more than a decade. Works as an armybuilder too. Homing Spyder Druid: Decent price. Stass Allie is cool, I'll probably pass though - just not quite novel enough to justify shunting funds from LOTR purchases to SW. Geonosian Drool: See above. The environ they created is decent, but just a liiiitle too big for me to care. I guess it pairs well with Dooku's Sholar Shaler from way back when - I'll have to dig that out of storage if I pick this up. Poggle is a nice fig. Would've been cool if they tossed in another Geonosian or two to make it more worthwhile. On the fence as to whether this is a buy, but it's a very good Star Wars set. JEK-14: Waste of a slot on Lego's utterly banal stuff. This looks like bad fanfic as a set. And 70 bucks? Run me away from this boulder. AT-TE: Interesting they tightened it up for a 90 buck release. Reasonable. The 2002 one still suits me fine, though. Trebor is awesome, but just another example of Lego's infuriating tendency of remaking tired vehicles and trying to lure in the AFOLs with must-have minifigs. Why not make an UT-AT or something? Jobba's Shale Burge: Looks like a log of feces and isn't much different in quality. Smaller and derpier than the old one, and horrendously overpriced. Max Rebo and Ree Yees are really cool designs, but not worth $120. Republic Gunslip: Finally, a proper AOTC Padme. Should've been in a smaller set with a Nexu - another dang gunship. Considering this one is destroyed at the end of the scene it's in, they could at least construct it so it could shatter into multiple fragments - if you're going to have another gunship, might as well do something new. Mandalorian Speeder: Reaaaaally should have a 3rd Mando (or Starbuck) but it's a solid set and a probable buy. Good work on the Maul. Starhopper: Bleh. Cad Bane minus his neck thingie, random Nikto and Obi-wan's silly disguise. The set itself is sort of okay, but it's not particularly striking. I'm glad we're done with TCW. TOR Defender: Didn't expect another TOR set. It's annoying that they draw from TOR (which was a failure of an MMO, so why are we still getting stuff from it?) - but at least these minifigures are cool. The ship itself is pretty squished and just not impressive enough to drop down a whole Benjamin on it. That Sith Warrior *needs* to show up in a battlepack though. Such a sweet design.

That's a shame. Kids can be taught to appreciate quality entertainment, but it takes time and patience. But it's probably just a phase - I wasn't into the OT as much from age 8ish-13ish (basically while the prequels were coming out) - but as a teenager I quickly realized the crappiness of the prequel era stuff and better recognized the OT as true pieces of art.

Alcarin, you're getting pretty hostile over an MOC concept that will probably never become an actual set. Save the passion for when pictures of The Hobbit Wave 2 hit. Until then, we're twiddling our thumbs.

No it doesn't. It makes Minas Tirith into a functional playset, and a reasonably affordable price (est. $250). Will it happen? I sincerely doubt it, but who know what Summer 2014 holds.

I wouldn't say they're trying to screw us, but I DO agree with you that a unique draw of the LOTR films is the massive armies. No other film before or since has made colossal hordes of evil and valiant legions of good look so freakin' cool and appealing. I agree with the people who have said that large sets like Orthanc cannot be the norm since it's out of many folks' price range - which means Lego can only do so much to capture the grandeur of LOTR's locations. But minifigures are straightforward, simple, and there's a proven model for their distribution - the battlepack. Sets below USD $30 should be Gondorians with modular Osgiliath rubble, Rohirrim Riders with a Fangorn tree, Uruk warriors with Amon Hen ruins, Last Alliance Elves with Mordor rock formations - etc. You can toss in one unique/semi-unique figure in there to make it more appealing to those who seek main characters as well (e.g. Faramir, who with a simple headswap can become a generic ranger or gondorian knight, depending on the costume; Last Alliance Elrond = Last Aliance Elves; Flashback armored Boromir = Gondorian Soldier; Elendil or Isildur = Numenoreans; Lurtz=Uruk-hai; Shagrat=Mordor Uruk; Gorbag/Grishnakh/Snaga/etc. = Mordor Orc...) The minifigures included in a set are almost as important as the set itself - sometimes more so (it does vary). Lego showed they can artfully distribute characters throughout sets in The Hobbit Wave 1, and make great armybuilders with the Helms Deep wall. All we 'complainers' ask is more of that. It's clearly not that tricky to think up - we brainstorm viable set concepts like this in a heartbeat. So when so much planning and development time results in lackluster minifig selection in a theme equally about its iconic characters and heroic armies, there is frustration accordingly.

The complaint about the Orcs is that they have Uruk-hai helmets or none at all, both of which are aesthetically meh, when there's a great Orc hairpiece from the first LOTR wave. Why not re-use that? It's not like they have to change the colors or anything - just reuse the one that was in the Orc Forge.

Agree with Strongbad about the Goblintown set. It's a really weak $100 set (weaker than the Corsair ship, in fact) with little visual appeal for what should be a ramshackle swirl of chaos like it is in the film. Connecting the bits helps, but it's almost literally polishing a turd - the set is brown and squashed, with no room to breath. At least the Corsair ship is a solid depiction of an interesting vehicle from the films. Goblintown is such an entertaining messy mass in the film, a better designer would have focused on that (probably would have been better off with two of the rope bridges at different heights to convey the architectural haphazardness). As for the Goblins themselves, I think Lego did the best they could there - the Goblin design in AUJ is just plain bad. They made a terrible decision in straying from fearsome look of the Moria Goblins in Fellowship of the Ring. Just look at the difference: FOTR: Menacing, spiky, eerie. AUJ: Obvious CGI, snivelling, way too clean, all-in-all mediocre. The second one looks like a rejected puppet from The Dark Crystal.

The autumn foliage is nice, I'll give you that. The set doesn't hit the "iconic" box for me though, as rather stunted - a roof and a cramped circle of chairs doesn't really capture the iconic glory of Rivendell, which I think would have been better off as a larger, modular set (I also feel it's a waste of an LOTR slot, as Rivendell is a location that can appear in the Hobbit line, whereas our chances for Gondor stuff are dwindling fast). Also, Gimli's really only there for the goofy action feature, which - let's be honest - nobody's buying this set because it has a Gimli-launcher. It could have been Boromir, or better yet, Aragorn's council outfit. I'll admit bias on the Elrond front since I prefer the aesthetic of the Last Alliance version. But overall, I think Lego's minifigure selection has been notably lackluster in the 2nd LOTR Wave compared the the 1st LOTR wave and the Hobbit wave. Pathetically bad orcs that lack hairpieces for no reason, orcs in places nobody wants or needs them (taking up Corsair slots in the ship), no Army Builder set and Army builder characters in expensive sets (oathbreakers in the ship), cut and paste rehashes of several Fellowship members, and all-in-all sloppy choices (identical Gandalf the Greys in Isengard and the Duel set, while shunting Gandalf the White into the Black Gate - a set intended to be purchased multiple times - rather than a Gondorian, or at the very least, a Rohirrim variant). I harp on it because it's a far cry from the deft distribution of the previous waves. Look at how the Dwarves were well sprinkled throughout the Hobbit sets, which also managed to include just enough Bilbos without it being overkill. Or LOTR wave 1, where you could effectively build up important factions of Uruks and Rohirrim while buffing your Helm's Deep set - and all the Fellowship members were inserted here and there with doubles of the important ones (Aragorn, Frodo, etc.) We - or at least I, as an AFOL - comment on these things because we know Lego can do better - Lego CAN make "perfect" sets with great elements, a cool model, great minifigs. Look at Uruk-hai Army, or Shelob's Lair, or Bag End (or the Cavalry Builder or Stagecoach over in the Lone Ranger line).

Really? I think the Rivendell set is pretty weak. The colors are nice, but it's pretty bare-bones and the minifig selection is lackluster - instead of Rivendell Arwen and a rehash Frodo, we could have had a wounded Bruinen Frodo and a travel-outfit Arwen on Asfaloth. Besides the lackluster Orcs, I think the Black Gate and Corsair Ship are far superior sets for the LOTR line. Though Helm's Deep is still the best overall for LOTR.

Hmm, to calculate expenses for July 2013... 199.99 Orthanc 99.99 Corsair Black Ship 119.98 Black Gate x2 for complete Black Gate Minimum: $420 Probably going to hold off temporarily on Rivendell because I don't desperately need Elrond and Arwen. If it was better figs than Captain Fordo and Gimlaay, I might. Palantir Battle I might grab as well, if only for the proper Palantir.

Dangit, I wish it was $50 more and actually had all four sides. It was a weird choice to make it 3-sided when they could have built a fourth side and had it swing open...sigh. Still, the interior is very awesome. Probably going to get it.

Not really. It's an excellent battle pack for the following reasons: -generic white horse 2.0 -cheap way to acquire cannon for ships -3 Union soldiers -2 rifles -5 revolvers -assorted stockade pieces, etc. -Lone Ranger figure makes a great Sheriff piece, and has a nice white western hat - just a simple headswap.

Stagecoach is inbound and I got the Civil War builder. The Union soldiers are superb, best battle pack Lego has made in years. 10/10 value. LOL Troll of the day with that comment. Nice. But seriously, the more realistic the weapons, the better. Don't understand why they stopped doing the excellent guns from the original Batman line.

Robert would totally go without a helmet, it suits his brash and bold style. And it could have been knocked off in the battle. Superb GOT MOCs. It would be the ultimate Lego line that could sadly never happen. Probably for the best, because I'd go broke... And I applaud your use of fleshies. For licensed properties like this it is far superior to the hokeyness of yellow - even having grown up with Lego since the 90s, I much prefer fleshie. Because, let's face it - yellow is pretty much just cartoon code for white people (Simpsons, Spongebob...)

So is there a set release date for these at Lego stores? Eager to get army-building.

Unfortunately, the Eagle was not yet designed at this point, as the Hobbit sets were developed long in advance (well before the 2-to-3 movies split, in fact). Extremely unlikely. Wave 2 is a TDOS wave, and Wave 3 is a TABA wave - those movies will be 3 hrs long as well, and have more than enough content for a full wave of sets without any room to go back to the first film. At this point, the first, and perhaps only, logical opportunity for a "mixed wave" is Summer 2015, after the TABA wave comes out. Also, 3 custom molded trolls are not worth the expensive costs for a one-scene-specific set. Shame to miss it, but not everything is practical. Not sure where you're seeing blue, pretty sure he's a black dragon. Semantics, though. A gold hoard would be tricky to depict, so I see no reason why he would not be in the flagship set of the TDOS wave - a laketown attack. Every kid's going to want that big scene. Molded would indeed be pathetic and stupid. I'm not one for recreating scenes, especially since Lego's depictions of most of the environments are quite divorced from their actual appearances in the films. For instance, I have some dwarves scattered throughout the Goblin Battle, and others clinging to a couple copies of the Mirkwood spider trees, with still more milling about Bag End. As for your specific questions...Rivendell as a set is too small for the full Fellowship. I despise the "Mines of Moria" set for its pathetic lack of substance, but that would also require the full Fellowship as well. Weathertop needs the Hobbits, Strider, and five Dismounted Nazgul. The only Goblintown Goblins are hard to get, since they come exclusively in the $100 Goblin King set, so amassing them means a big payout. I'd advise waiting before you armybuild any one expensive minion piece, and collect what you can (e.g. Uruk Hai polybags at Five Below, Mirkwoood Elf Guard polybags at Toys R Us, Helms Deep wall sections). No set to date has a cheap way to amass Orcs or Goblintown Goblins or Moria Goblins, but if you wait until the future waves, they'll probably be easier to get. There won't be many orcs in the Dec 2013 TDOS wave, but the Dec 2014 TABA wave, since it's centered on the Battle of Five Armies, should have Orcs and might have Goblintown Goblins aplenty. As for other Orcs or Moria Goblins, the Summer 2014 LOTR wave - assuming there is one - could help out on that front. Lego's biggest misstep with the LOTR line is thinking that AFOLs only want to recreate scenes and environments, when a colossal portion of the fandom wants to build what makes the LOTR and Hobbit movies distinct: giant, epic armies. A battlepack of Gondorians and Orcs is probably the most yearned-for set around here (apart from an affordable Fellbeast and/or Eowyn set). We'll never see Tom Bombadil or his house, as that's too based in the books. Minas Tirith is clamored for, but its pricetag would be a hefty one indeed. Personally, I think future LOTR sets should avoid any peaceful or Hobbit-heavy scenes, since we have an abudance of those already. Gondor is sorely, sorely neglected, and ironically the only Return of the King scenes we are getting in the Summer 2013 wave are from the extended editions! I love the EE, and consider them the true version of the films, but the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth are really getting screwed over. Gondorian Soldiers, Gondorian Knights, Gondorian Rangers... and don't forget Faramir. Honestly, Lego should seize one of the most obvious, easy army-builder pack opportunities: a 12.99-19.99 White Tree of Gondor - simple brickbuilt construction with two Gondorian Soldiers and two Gondorian Citadel Guards. Shards of Narsil is a cool concept. We'd get a cheaper shot at Boromir, and a peace-garb Aragorn. Wastes a small-slot set though on a scene with characters who have already been produced - and honestly wouldn't be too hard to custom-build. Shards of a Lego Sword is a tricky idea to depict as well. Although I'm incredibly glad we're getting the sets that we are, I'm disappointed with Lego's choices for what I consider the most important slot in any wave: the small set, which is the most bought for gifts, by casual shoppers, for a kid begging their parent, or bought in multiples. We've gotten the incredibly lame Gandalf's cart, with a dull version of Frodo and Gandalf the Grey who shows up ad nauseam; the even more pathetic Riddles for the Ring, which is literally a lump of gray fecal matter accompanied by an infinitesimally different Gollum and a Bilbo identical to superior Barrel set; and the Wizard Duel, which has a hatless, but still unimpressive, Gandalf the Grey, and a palantir and Saruman which will be redundant if they appear in the Orthanc tower (as they should).