Nuju Metru

Do we know yet where the Orc Forge set is going to be exclusive to?

[/shamelessadvertising] I don't mind that Legolas doesn't have a special bow. There were so many other special new molds, and the bow wasn't a very important one.

The final set, "Ambush at Amon Hen" has been uploaded! Go take a look! Neither I nor LEGo would plausibly include more than one brick-built creature in a set like this. Seeing as I found the Balrog to be more interesting and signature than the Watcher or Cave Troll, I decided to make it rather than the other two, and focus my set accordingly. That's why the stairs/bridge is biggest, and the other two are less realized in bricks. However, I also felt it'd be inaccurate and uncool to not include those parts of the Moria scene, too, so I added them to an extent. If I'd made them as fleshed out as the main part, the set would have been too big for the price point I envisioned. It absolutely does! Thanks everybody for the feedback. Stay posted in the Minifig Customization Forum for a full look at all the Fellowship of the Ring figures!

Mines of Moria Set added! Go check it out for a brick-built Balrog and more!

New set has been added to the first page - Weathertop! ...Huzzah for direct competition with LEGO...

I am incredibly impressed with these new pictures. Well done, LEGO.

New set, "The Black Rider" has been added! Take a look.

First post has been updated with a new set! I tried Harry Potter hair, but it was a little comical on Frodo - too afro-like. I do indeed have more sets in the pipeline! They will be published as soon as they've been photographed. For instance, the second set shown. As for the hill, that would have made the set a little too big for the price point I picked, but I'm glad you like the colors! Didn't have those parts in orange, unfortunately. Yeah, I can see what you mean - however, the 1x6 arch makes a cleaner exterior, adds more stability, and keeps with the whole circles/semicircles theme going. The window itself, in my fantasy life, would be round. It unfortunately isn't. The largest set in the lineup for the Fellowship of the Ring is going to be the Mines of Moria, at about a $60-70 price point. Thank you everyone for your feedback!

For reference: II. THE TWO TOWERS III. THE RETURN OF THE KING I. THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Howdy guys. This is the project topic for my custom-made sets of The Fellowship of the Ring. I realize that LEGO is making official products of the LOTR movies, too, but this project has been my brainchild since this past summer; having already poured lots of time and money into it by the time LEGO made their announcement, I decided I might as well keep going on mine. The creations below are built to be like sets that TLG themselves would make (ironic, huh?). Each one thus has specific minifigures, and even an imagined price point. My sets are built for stability, detail, playability, and differentiation of sizes. So, without further ado, let's get started! Newest Content is at the Top! 6) Ambush at Amon Hen The Fellowship makes camp near the ruins at Amon Hen, and the One Ring exerts its inexorable pull upon Boromir. Frodo makes his escape with the arrival of an Uruk-Hai troop. The Fellowship is broken. Imagined price point: $40 Features include: Launching pad Includes 5 minifigures: Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Boromir, Lurtz, Uruk-Hai 5) The Mines of Moria The Fellowship has been forced to take the dangerous route through the Mines of Moria. Gandalf must lead his companions to safety and defeat the evil Balrog! Imagined price point: $65 Features include: Collapsing Stairs, Breaking Bridge Includes 6 minifigures: Peregrin Took, Gimli, Legolas, Gandalf the Grey, Moria Orcs (2x) 4) Weathertop Ambush Frodo and his companions have made camp at the abandoned watchtower of Amon-Sul, on Weathertop hill. But they are attacked by the Nazgul... Aragorn must save Frodo in time. Imagined price point: $25 Features include: modularity, Nazgul launcher Includes 4 minifigures: Frodo Baggins, Aragorn, Nazgul (2x) 3) The Black Rider Frodo and Merry are making their way along the road to Bree, but a dark force pursues them. The Nazgul will stop at nothing to get the Ring. Imagined price point: $10 Includes 3 minifigures: Frodo Baggins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Nazgul 2) Wizard Duel Gandalf has arrived at Orthanc, only to discover that his superior, Saruman the White, has turned to the side of evil! Can Gandalf escape? Imagined price point: $7 Includes 2 minifigures: Gandalf the Gray, Saruman the White 1) Bag End The wizard Gandalf has arrived in Hobbiton, and as always he brings adventure. The One Ring is destined to draw Frodo into the quest of a lifetime! Imagined price point: $15 Includes 3 minifigures: Frodo Baggins, Gandalf the Gray, Samwise Gamgee See the Fellowship Flickr Set for more in-depth pictures of everything, plus other preview shots. Thanks for viewing! More sets will be posted soon! Nuju

Yeah, I definitely noticed in the BF lineup some very clearly-LOTR-influenced parts, and I've tried to use those to their best effect. Maybe you guys should just sponsor me, I'm already a walking advertisement. I chose the Boromir face mostly for its beard and changeable expression - he can smile in a sorta off-putting way, i.e. "Look at how pretty that ring is..." As for Merry, I'd disagree with you, and say that if anything, it's his hair that looks out of place. Thanks - personally, though, I much prefer the new LEGO Hobbit hair.

The helmet was made by the person in charge of the eBay shop referenced in the first post of this topic. Thanks!

In lieu of LEGO's recently released images of their nine Fellowship of the Ring minifigures, my hand has been forced. Hence, this preview! Here are my figures of the Fellowship - all of which were designed, if not completed, before LEGO's announcement that they would be making LOTR sets. (To those of you who aren't yet aware, I ironically assigned myself the project of designing full LOTR sets this past summer. After I'd already funneled away lots of time and money towards this end, lo and behold, LEGO goes and declares their intent to do exactly the same... since I can't think of any way out but forward, my project continues). There were a number of really interesting (and now evident) parallels between my and and LEGO's minifigure design processes, which of course serves to bug me a bit... But enough whining about unfortunate coincidence. Here's my Fellowship! (Flickr Set for more pics and other previews) More detailed photos, and the photos of the complete Fellowship of the Ring sets are forthcoming! Thanks for viewing!

True - however, finding dark pearl gray spraypaint would have been a real challenge. Metallic silver seemed more logical, since it perfectly matched an existing LEGO color. The wooly/furry material is what I had to work with, really - it's sort of a thin, stretchy polyester material which I've used before for wings on dragons. Since I had to cut it myself, and didn't have any of TLG's cape material (If only!), that was what seemed the best option. It's too bad that the edges don't stay sharp, though, I agree. If TLG made a LOTR-version Sauron I think I'd have to cry... I should hope that my Sauron, and a few other figures/sets, will be things that LEGO doesn't make, just so that my project has a little distinction.

Thanks, Shilo! Means a lot coming from you. Indeed. I picked them up at Brickfair '11 for this exact reason... had to make him taller! My skills with that kind of thing aren't really good enough to add spikes... besides, he's intended to be almost like a minifig TLG would have in one of their sets, so gluing and putty and the like isn't gonna happen. The figure has to be playable. Thanks for the feedback!

Thanks, I appreciate your support. I'm doing my best to make everything very movie-accurate, so yeah, I'm trying to keep the level of detail above the level TLG will probably put in, but without driving myself crazy or making the sets "unrealistic" as LEGO products (in other words, I'm trying to do LEGO's job with the theme, but better.... hubris much?). I can only pray that TLG doesn't just blow my stuff out of the water once we see pictures.

Hey y'all! Here's a little something I wanted to share with you guys. It's a minifigure from my upcoming project to make the three Lord of the Rings movies as LEGO sets. Before you point out that LEGO is doing the same, I can assure you that it was my idea first! Literally days after I posted that topic, TLG had to come and swoop my thunder... Anywho, though, this is a very special figure. Took me a while (and some money) to get him together just the way I wanted. But here he is, the Big Bad himself: Sauron. (Flickr photostream for other previews and bigger pictures) The mace is courtesy of Brickforge. Decals are by me. The helmet is from here. Spraypaint is from... the hardware store? Hope you guys enjoyed! Stay tuned for more previews and the (hopefully!) upcoming revealing of my Fellowship of the Ring sets! Nuju

That's true - my only worry is that, in light of the new sets, my MOCs won't be regarded as anything really special or original. When I took on this project, it was a really crazy idea, to MOC all the LOTR movies as sets - now, it's just what TLG is doing. Thanks! Yeah, I agree on the Dementor cape - cost quite a pretty penny to get all the ones I needed for my Nazgul, of course, but the effect was worth it.

It's the LEGO-made Dementor cape... I don't trust my clean fabric-fraying skills, so I opted for the officially-produced cape. Well, the irony of my situation brings out a slew of complicated feelings: on the one hand, I'm immensely excited as a fan of LEGO and LOTR to see this product line happening, and on the other, I feel a little (inevitably) betrayed. I have put a ton of work in, and still am, but I know now that my work will be forgotten in lieu of the official products, which is pretty depressing. However, I plan to nevertheless finish as much of the project as I can - certainly at least all of my figures, which are turning out beautifully and have been a monumental investment - albeit at maybe a less opulent scale.

Of course, it'd be fantastic if I had a perfectly-accurate hood part for the Nazgul (and for everything else in the movies for that matter), but those pieces just don't exist. Unless you've got a better solution for their hoods that I'm missing, I don't see how any other LEGO element would be recognizable as a hood.

Fantastic project! The level of detail you've managed to put in all of these creations, and the diversity of your builds, is really amazing. Everything is so well-executed and accurate; it's really great to see such a cohesive collection of MOCs from one of my favorite books.

Ironic, isn't it, that I posted my intent to make this project just days before TLG did the same... Thanks! I'm glad to hear that you liked them.

Lookin' good - how did you get the Atlantean shark head design on Tron's body? Shaved off the top and glued it?

Hey, Eurobricks! Last summer, I assigned myself a very large and very ambitious project; namely, to make LEGO sets of all three Lord of the Rings movies. Already, it has been proven clear to me that this will be a daunting and immensely time (and money) consuming project. There are so many iconic settings and characters to build, so many custom pieces or special heads to order... I feel a little like Peter Jackson in that I'm trying to make all the custom figures from all three movies at the same time, to save on shipping costs I'd be paying later. Since I'm also making as many figures as would be needed for all the sets combined (i.e. 5 of the same dark-coat Frodo, since he appears that way in that many of my planned sets) the result is about 100 figures I'm trying to complete more or less simultaneously. There are many many characters I've built thus far who are almost done, or are finished but from a movie other than The Fellowship of the Ring. So, not wanting to reveal all my tricks just yet, but still hoping to generate some traction and early excitement for this project/desperately seeking reassurance that this project is a good idea, I've decided to give y'all a little preview of what this project will be like. Here, I'm sharing a few completed figures from the first film, who conveniently adhere to a scene from Fellowship: the battle atop the forgotten watchtower of Amon Sul, at Weathertop hill. The figures pictured are Frodo Baggins, Ranger Aragorn, and some Nazgul. Thanks for viewing! Stay tuned for later tastes of the project!

Great review, thanks! I was hoping for some insight into the new HF sets for a while, so your in-depth look is appreciated. On the cuffs: Do they ever dangle down below his feet?

Fantastic functionality with such a small size! I applaud the winch and pulley system, especially, for their simplicity. I built a minifig-scale floating-arm trebuchet, but its mechanism wasn't nearly as clever as yours, and relied a lot more on hand-of-god action to load. I'm interested to hear, though, whether or not the trebuchet actually fires with distance - your counterweight (from what I can see) doesn't seem like it's relatively heavy enough to fling anything, being all bricks.