Alcarin

They have covered Gandalf also and they reused him many times over..... The Elf will most likely be Thraunduil not a generic Elf warrior I am 99% sure.... and we wont get 4 good guys and 1 orc....... it will be fairly similar in numbers........ if not the same! good guys need someone to fight with, so if Dain and Thorin are liek 99 if not 100% you can expect minimal of 2 bad guys if not three, sicne I expect 6 figs 3:3 ratio 2 generic bad guys and 1 named and 3 named good guys..... just like the Black Gates. (switching Eagle for a named good guy)

Battle of the five armies wil lbarely have anything I bet..... I expect: Dain Thorin Thraunduil Azog 2x generic orc (with hairpieces) the end.

The thing is next year around fall/winter comes out another release of LOTR with Hobbit that will surely have media support....so thats the last good chance! Also when kids and new generation will watch Hobbit they will possibly be introduced to LOTR and thats again ''support'' for sales....

I could've sworn on 1:24 archers looked like Gondorians.... I wonder are those elves? Cos Lake town never had an army so it must've been elven archers....

See i differ between fiction with realistic physics and fiction of cartoons or fiction of ''overphysical'' nature...... LOTR has physics in ''check'' being realistic yet its still fictional world and it still has fireball, but you dont see Gimli doing Legolas stunts like Bombur the rambo...... and he is uber fat btw.... so if he is as awesome, what are then other dwarfs..... Its a bad move in my opinion.... the current dwarves also make Gimli look like a stoned noob in fighting......... No continuity or anything and we got same director...

There was word that LEGO set needs about 2 years from idea and design to the shelf for selling...... So LEGO probably did more designs for LOTR/Hobbit sets and then picked out some and left some for now... now how much is from designer completing set to production I would not know...... but producing shoudl be easier than creating the whole set from scratch :) As I said I hope we get news of LEGO LOTR for October release next year.... would be perfect!

Yeah at this point I would be happy with a Gondorian battle pack Faramir + 2 gondor soldiers with unique helmets and shields and 3 Moria orcs (2 with new helmets and shields) would be perfect :D

To me Smaug came off as a bad dragon and as such made Whole Erebor and Dale look incompetent.... he could not kill a single dwarf when there were supposedly been 13 of them there yet he obliterated thousands of dwarf warriors and dale soldiers?????? How can I buy that.... I would much rather it was kept true to the book and be a conversation and the storming of the secret passage + his anger for Lake Town and ''barrel riders'' would keep the Smaug intact in terms of awesomness... how can i call him awesome if a hobbit and a few dwarfs can joke with him and he cannot kill them.... The molten gold was just sad attempt and made dwarves look even dumber really.... the whole second film was a huge let down in terms of staying true to the book, worst 2 things apart from Smaug sequance (and dont get me wrong Smaug sequance was amazing up until the end of Bilbos conversation with him.... I liked that) and then there was Bombur rambo in barrel catastrophy, and Lake town orc invasion with Bolg..... so untrue and illogical. Not to mention the addition of Legolas..... but while I can atleast close my eyes and live through that (like 13 characters and Gandalf + other cast needs Legolas again.... i simply cannot forgive such crazy effort to add more action in a movie, and make it as bad as it is done.

Atleast that physically half realistic..... but for bombur rolling and rambo with barrel on him is just cartoon type of realism..... Now to mention the Orcs assaulting Lake town and amazing thought of dwarfs and Bilbo to put liquid gold on Dragon..... oh and Smaug killed thousands of dwarfs yet he could not catch any in the movie.... so fearful :P Thats what it is indeed :)

Well to be honest, when you leave out Witch king for Mouth of Sauron vs regular Ent for Treebeard thats a good trade off..... its alot harder to make Witch King helmet from official LEGO parts than Treebeared from Ent parts.... so ye Loads of LEGO decisions regarding sets or figures makes no sense.... You can easily justify that name was NOT Treebeard.... that way you can easier ''pretend'' to army build them.... see what i did there... :P :P :D ;) ;)

Ofc the 2nd hobbit film made less money its not even Hobbit film anymore.... its a disaster to say the least.... a made out PJ film and he picked out all characters from Hobbit..... the Bombur rolling in barrel and rambo style just made it officially over the top for me..... luckily LOTR is watchable and realistic.

One thing I dont understand is such HUGE wish of quite a few people for Treebeared..... I mean with all due respect Treebeard is a fun character of Middle Earth, but while you can make Treebeared with lets say extra 40 parts of existing Ent there are many more things (Like Olifont) that is far harder to recreate Treebeard is the least fun set of the listed and with worst figs ever imo.... actually half figs (which is what i consider dwarfs, hobbits and children to be

Leave the accessories... can always put them off :P

It would be believe me.... Castles usually had no dragons and they were interesting, far more than some lesser sets with dragons.... just think about Black Knights back in 1992.... Would you rather have Black Knight's Castle or Dragon Wagon WITH A DRAGON! :D :D :D ???? But its alot more effort to make it interesting then yes.... guess LEGO is going lazy mode with too much success .)

I think LEGO made a mistake with this wave as far as the figs and what to put in set goes..... I think Erebor should be 1200 pieces and no Smaug instead it should come with 5 dwarfs + Bilbo + armored dwarves (2) and Dain (a different print perhaps) OR even remove dain and 2 dwarfs and put in 10 dwarves here and only leave out 2 least important ones. Lakte Town addon should come with Bard + Bain + Smaug and should cost 60-70$ And Battle of Dale should cost 40$ and be armored orcs(2) + Bolg + Dain(armored) + 2 armored dwarfs and the smallest set as it is. Thats would be much better imo.....

Thats what you say.... LEGO doesnt look at it like that.... For me Gandalf is forever covered with Black Gate and Gandalf arrives.... dont need another EVER after that 2 sets :)

Ao this Exo Suit is not coming to Europe on August first? Its not listed on LEGO shops in Europe regions, what a huge disappointment, was hoping to pick it up during my rare visit to LEGO shop in August... or can anyone she some light on whats happening?

Sadly even with more pictures I have only 1 good thing in words for this set.... perfect parts pack...... for MOCers of mines, landscape and earthern colors..... rest is pure sadness... 130$ probably 140€ which means same as Helm's Deep..... It wil lbe a good purchase at anything below 100€ probably and sell the figs + possibly Dragon and then 800 parts will cost about 30€ I hope....

Exactly I am slowly moving out also, mainly due to the fact that everyone is trying to make ''easy'' money... well there is no easy money.... I will keep the sets I have (about 20) might've add a few third wave Hobbit sets (if they fail ill use them for parts) and thats about it.... unless there comes 3rd LOTR wave I am 95% done with LEGO investing.

Simply because they might've decided to go with the 3rd run and by then catalogues might've already been in productions.... its a long shot but as long as there is 1% chance (and 1% = 2015 set list) I will let it be.

Bricklink.com is a better place for such discussions..... But yes I invest in LOTR..... have about 18 sealed sets from LOTR...... I got them cheap, so its going ok.... but you will not see any returns on them before 2016 or maybe even 17..... besides you missed the train on everything except the Orthanc...

Have to say absence of advertisement is not 100% end of LOTR though... I believe a true end to LOTR is once we have the whole 2015 set list and LOTR is not on it... that is when Ill be certain!

Must say I am greatly disappointed especially with the lack of figs (it should be 7 minimum) the lack of Thorin suggests he will be in bo5a and bo5a will be another useless set in terms of army building..... So the good things I see in this set are 2: 1. Smaug looks gorgeus, allthough not perfect, but I wont nitpick that. 2. its an amazing parts pack for people like me who are Landscape, hills, mines, builders....... cannot ask for more than whats inside :)

You know what it reminds me off? Man of steel bad guys vehicle :P :P :P

the thing is there is a bunch of people who would buy 100 or even 1000x XYXY sets if there were armybuilders........ I am yet to see someone buying 100 Elrond's Councils, I know I would buy way more Gondor battle packs than I would buy Elrond's Councils.... and the kids would get the same most likely, so its a win-win-win..... You think A kid would say Daddy I want Elrond's Council over big black Balrog Beast with 2 Moria orcs and Gandalf??? Or do you think Kid would mostly go hey I dont want that big Olifont set I want that Black Gates? Forget it , mostly they would choose the sets that are missing, thats why I believe LEGO shot themselves in the knee with set choices..... especially in wave 2...... Wave 1 was okish though.