Lancethecat

I think that the cropped box picture for the Bo5A set is only showing the left half of the main step structure; Legolas and Bard may be on the right half fighting Azog's Warg (They can't just be standing there doing nothing).

Nice review! This set looks great, and the price isn't too hard to swallow either. But the figures are another case of LEGO trying to improve on perfection in this wave. The skirts look weird and the Imperial Officer has way too much detail on his face.

Why is there a skeleton hanging from the crane? I don't remember seeing that in the movie... It would have been great if LEGO had released a set like this in the Iron Man 3 wave instead of the sets that we actually got (just take that Zamboni with flamethrowers... Ultimate Showdown, my eye).

Even though I don't own it, my personal favorite is the 2004 version. Not only did it have a really good main model, but it also included Yoda, his hut, and an exclusive Luke figure (they really should release another Dagobah Luke soon...).

In the book, the wargs were very intelligent and independent, enough to qualify as an army. I'm guessing that the Great Eagles are going to be considered the fifth army in 'The Battle of the Five Armies' because, in the Peter Jackson movies, the wargs have basically been reduced to the orc equivalent of horses. Azog should have still come with his own white warg, though, since we weren't able to get them together in the Attack of the Wargs set.

After four months of designing, re-designing, parts-ordering, and building, I'm pleased to announce that my first LEGO Ideas project, the Lord of the Rings Advent Calendar, has finally been approved. Star Wars Advent Calendars have been immensely popular in the past, and I think that a Lord of the Rings A.C. would be even better. My proposed project includes micromodels of famous Middle-Earth locations and two exclusive figures: Santa Gandalf and Old Bilbo. I know that many people on this forum want to see LEGO release a set with an Old Bilbo minifigure in it, but since we're unlikely to get a Bilbo's Birthday set in any upcoming waves, this may be the only way to get him. You can check out individual pictures of all of the models in my Flickr photostream. If you want to see my Lord of the Rings Advent Calendar become a real set, please support it on LEGO Ideas!

I don't own any of those sets, but I know that of the three, X-men vs. the Sentinel is the most highly praised. The Daily Bugle set would fit nicely into a City layout, if you're building one.

Nice MOC! I love how you were able to fit so many details into such small spaces. I don't recognize those torch holders in the last picture. Are they a new mold?

Here is my opinion on the sets: Witch-King Battle Despite being the smallest, this is easily the best set of the wave, because it's basically what we were all expecting: Elrond, Galadriel, the Witch-King, and a bit of background scenery. What more could we ask for? Lake-Town Battle Five minifigures in a $30 set, and it's not even an army builder? I haven't seen such a deal since the Stagecoach Escape set! That being said, the choices they made with this set are kind of odd: we get the same old Bard as the Lake-Town Chase set, so people who want to expand their Lake-Town with this set will get two Bards with the same printing. They should have put the Bo5A Bard here instead. The new orc hairpieces are just a waste of a mold; why couldn't they make a Bolg headpiece instead? And did Bain even wear an eyepatch in the movie? Battle of the Five Armies Before these images were released, the biggest topic of conversation in this topic was which figures we'd get in the Bo5A set. Now they've finally been revealed and it turns out we should have just saved our breath. These are the figures we'll get: Thorin in Crown (woo-hoo!), Dain (yippee!), Legolas (wait, what?), Bard (aw, come on!), Azog (he's alright, I guess), orcs (no Bolg?), Great Eagle (huh? Where's Beorn?). They could have replaced Legolas, Bard, and the Great Eagle with Thranduil, a generic dwarf soldier, and Beorn, and everybody would be happy. Instead, we get this arrangement. Not even taking the lacklustre build into account, this is easily the worst set of the wave, perhaps even the entire theme.

This set looks great, but it seems about $10 overpriced... you can get the new Mos Eisley Cantina for the same price, and that one's a licensed set. Did anyone else notice that the doormat says 'Welcome Ho-ho-home'?

Wait, are you talking about the Eye of Sauron or the Mouth of Sauron? Neither of them count as actual Sauron figures anyway.

I think it's high time we finally got LEGO bacon. LEGO wouldn't even have to make a new mold; they could just print it on a 1x3 tile. I'd also like to see a proper floppy-eared dog mold (and maybe a LEGO Frisbee to go along with it).

Well, many Confederate soldiers didn't even wear official uniforms, so you could probably use the cowboy minifigures from the Lone Ranger theme to build up an army. If you really want Confederates in uniform, you may be able to use Imperial Officer figures from the Star Wars theme (or at the very least their hats).

The Dino Hunter from the new CMF line works great as a post-apocalypse survivor. A number of parts from the Monster Fighters line (like Jack McHammer's mechanical arm) would work in both post-apocalypse and steampunk settings. Bottom line, if you find any Monster Fighters or Lone Ranger sets on clearance, you should probably get them.

I like how you were able to use the new side you built to connect all of the floors. Could you take a few pictures of the back side's exterior when attached to the model?

It would be pretty cool to have a brick-built Smaug... maybe Eurobricks could hold a contest where you have to build Smaug out of parts from Infernites Mixels!

Why do all of the female Arctic explorers in big, furry overcoats have curved torsos? Does LEGO not understand how big, furry overcoats work? What's the point of creating an entirely new print to distinguish male Arctic explorers from female Arctic explorers when it doesn't work like that in real life? How does that make them look more realistic? And why am I asking so many questions?

My personal favorite is From Brick to Bothans.

We know for sure that we are going to get Thorin and Dain in the Bo5A set, probably along with an armored Thranduil, an Iron Hills dwarf, and/or Beorn in bear form, with enough orcs to balance them out (I'm guessing Azog's going to make an appearance with his white Warg). It's harder to tell with the Lake Town set because there's no knowing yet which scene it's going to depict. Bard and Bain we already know about, but plenty of other characters (Tauriel, Bolg) would fit into a Lake Town setting. Alfrid seems too obscure and unimportant to be made into an actual minifigure.

If Smaug is only going to be in a $130 set, I wonder what sort of conflict they're going to put in the Lake Town set (which I originally thought was going to be based on the scene where Bard kills Smaug, but that probably won't be the case). Depending on how the movie is going to play out, they might add some orcs, or even just a Lake Town guard or two (I doubt that we'll be seeing the Master again).

Does this mean that we're going to get all of the dwarves again in the third wave (just like in the first wave), or just the more important ones? It's kind of funny... of all of the 13 dwarves available, LEGO chose to put Fili and Kili in this set even though they were two of the only dwarves who weren't in this scene in the movie. You'd expect them to be put in the upcoming $30 Lake Town set. Will I be buying this set? Probably not. Smaug looks great, but I don't like the new printings on the minifigures, plus it's about $30 too expensive. It's interesting how they used Chi to make the Arkenstone, though.

They may have another pirates wave two years from now when the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie is released, plus we're going to have another pirate ship released next year (which may or may not be tied in with an entire theme).

That basically sums up the entire argument right there.

I think someone mentioned before that the second wave of Lord of the Rings didn't do so well because there were only four sets and they weren't sets that people actually wanted, but when you think about it, the same thing could be applied to the second wave of Hobbit sets. After the Mirkwood Spiders and Barrel Escape sets were shuffled to the first wave, LEGO didn't have many ideas for what to put in the Desolation of Smaug wave, so they just created some random battle sets. The Hobbit theme may be doing better than LotR because kids want to buy what they see on screen, but if half of the sets aren't based on anything that they see on screen, they probably won't buy them.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Lone Ranger... possibly my favorite film of all time. I went to the theater with high expectations for it and even those expectations were blown out of the water. Critics lashed at it for being overly long and boring, but it never felt too long for me, and the final action sequence... well, you'll just have to watch it to understand why it's so incredible.