Brick Fiend

The Wolf face and Paws protruding from the rock are brilliant. Very nicely done.

Lake-Town Chase. It's very well designed. A good representation of the location as it appears in the film.

It's the quality of the final wave of Hobbit sets that concerns me more. I don't dislike the most recent wave for DOS, but they don't exactly get me excited either. I can't see myself leaving any of them on display or wanting to Mod them any further either. Any final wave missing Smaug or the Gates of Erebor will be disappointing to my mind. Now that there are no outside factors (such as those suggested by posters on this forum ) interrupting the design/production/release processes, one would hope that the final wave feels more 'complete' than the recent Hobbit and LOR ones have. (To me anyway)

Oh God. Don't even joke about it. Just imagine, a $90 set featuring Gaffer Gamgee and his veggie crop ...

Love it. Great work!

Sticking with Rohan Battle Pack.

Rohan Battle Pack.

Love it. Great work.

Going from memory only, but I'm reasonably certain that he (PJ) explicitly states that this is the case in the directors commentary for The Hobbit extended edition DVD. It's during the scene where Radagast encounters him ( Witch King/ Twilight Ringwraith) at Dol Guldur.

Quite the opposite. As I've indicated in the above posts, I simply think that there is a possibility that the line isn't doing quite AS badly as some are suggesting. For me it comes down to expectations. Maybe these Store Managers that have reportedly said that sales are poor, had the expectation that huge volumes of sets were going to fly off the shelves, and are considering the line a failure now that sales are not quite as astronomical as they hoped. Maybe sales are good in some areas, better in others, and downright awful in yet more. Sales in general may still be good enough for TLG to consider it a success. My point is that we really don't know. For all we know, TLG are putting all their marketing resources into a big Xmas push for the new Hobbit sets, and once they hopefully achieve success with that, will turn their attention to the mid year release of another LOR wave. Rivendell and Gondor could indeed do good things for the line. But I get the feeling that while a large Rivendell set would be lapped up by older builders, a smaller series of Gondor based ones that could be joined together may appeal more the the younger target market.

I'm feeling your pain. It's somewhat frustrating. The irony is that if they don't continue, they could see sales of the first wave especially, increase significantly as people rush to buy up as many orcs, remaining army builder type sets as they can for future Moc's. I agree. When all is said and done, they are in the business to make money first and foremost. I'm hoping however, that they are seeing some value in a reduced 3rd LotR going some way towards keeping interest in the hobbit lines as well in the lead up to the last Hobbit film being released at the end of next year. I would have thought that at least some initial planning/design had already gone into a next wave given how long it takes to actually get a set to the store shelf. Maybe they are in the process of refining the sets based on sales figures/popularity of the first 2 releases. e.g. Less Council of Elrond and more army builder/iconic scene/playability for kids but still appealing to adults sets? Oh for Gondor. I'm not giving up hope just yet.

Are we all reading a bit much into this though? Does a line have to do 'really' well for it to continue? What if sales are just ok. Acceptable even. We don't really know at which point TLG judge a theme/line to be financially profitable. Maybe there is some middle ground between poor sales and great sales which makes it worthwhile continuing. I couldn't agree with you more about lost opportunities. The second wave was somewhat lacklustre (apart from the magnificent Orthanc). I am just hoping that they have something up their sleeve to finish with a stronger (even if reduced) third wave. I also will find it a hell of a shame if this doesn't happen.

This. Of all the LOR purchases I have made, perhaps one has been in store. Everything else has been online. It's all speculation at the moment imo. I for one will keep hoping to see something in terms of a third wave.

Thanks for that. Not quite as bad as it could be. $60 is still a lot for the MEA though. That's actually not bad value in terms of Aus price. Thanks.

Any idea on prices?