AFOLguy1970

I did not think it was too bad, but there were some things missing that hopefully the inevitable extended version will cover. To get the bad out of the way first, I did not care for the Legolas ninja/jedi tricks. Using enemy bats and being faster than falling stones are quite the stretch. If he could ride a bat like that, why didn't he just use of one them to take the ring to Mt. Doom in LOTR? If he is that fast and is that good a shot with arrows or Orcrist, he could have easily taken down Bolg and Azog together. They were MUCH slower and clumsier than our favorite superhero elf. I was hoping Legolas would not get an exaggerated role in the Hobbit, but we all knew it was coming. Dont get me wrong, I like the character in LOTR, but it just is not the time and place here. What I would like to see in the extended edition: (1) Thorin, Kili, and Fili laid to rest as Steph 104th indicated. (2) Dain becoming king (3) The arkenstone and perhaps Orcrist laid to rest with Thorin as in the book (4) Something indicating the survival and recovery of the people of Esgaroth, perhaps Bard alluding to the restoration of Dale (5) The treasure begin shared. Thranduil finally gets his clear gems, and the people of Dale getting some. (6) A little more regarding Bilbo's return journey. In one scene, he is saying bye to the dwarves, and suddenly he is on the edge of the Shire (7) In the end, when back in Bag End, maybe a flashback scene to where the company of Thorin was in his home. I can't believe PJ passed that up in the theatrical version along with 1-3.

Yes, definitely a touch above inflation. I hope pick-a-brick, both in store and online, does not follow suit.

Lonely Mountain certainly is overpriced, even when you add the "Smaug Factor". However, it is a nice set in itself. It is far more colorful than Moria. The minifigures are nice, and although they are variants of minifigs introduced before, they are each exclusive to this set. Smaug really was done well. Anyone who is a fan of Middle Earth and Lego would probably want him. It is tough to say what discounts might come about. I doubt the Lego stores or online S@H would discount it, but maybe there is hope in some of the other stores. As Flieger noted, the absence of Thorin is baffling. Actually, the absence of ANY king (Thorin, Dain, or even Thror) is puzzling. I guess they had to keep Thorin in the BOFA set to help generate interest in that particular set. It seems like the sets were certainly designed to make you feel like each one of them had some essential piece to the puzzle that you need to complete your collection. Sure, this is not the first time Lego has done this, but it is really obvious in this final wave. For Lonely Mountain, it is all about Smaug. Then, if you want to act out Bard vs Smaug in Laketown, you would need both Lonely Mountain for Smaug and Laketown for Bard and the black arrow shooter. Witch King Battle gives you three A lister characters, two of which have never appeared in a set. Then, you have Battle of Five Armies, where you have the Thorin in kingly attire and Dain, and this is the only set that has them.

I have to agree that the trend associated with size and more attention to the interior is not necessarily a good thing. I really liked the PR, but did not expect smaller buildings than everything before it to become the norm. It sort of reminds me of the Wendy's value meal. At first, it was great, and they had a nice dollar menu. Then, I noticed that either the food portions got smaller, or they bumped the price up, or they did both. This seems to be what is happening with Lego in general. We are getting smaller sets which cost more. Piece count might be comparable with the older ones, but there does seem to be a lot more of the smaller ones. I realize the vast majority of Lego is directed at children, but I honestly thought that the modular series and some of the creator/expert sets are geared more for TFOLs and AFOLs. This is not something you buy for an 8 year old. The DO is probably something I will purchase, but it is kind of unsettling to see how small it is compared to others. I do not mind some interior details, but I do not want it to significantly impact the exterior to where it does not compare to others. I also do not get the whole "cookie prohibition" thing either. There are wine bottles in PR, the Barrel Escape Hobbit set, last year's Thanksgiving feast set, a green one in this year's city advent calendar, and the Star Wars Mos Eisley Cantina does not appear to be simply serving Aunt Berus blue milk. Therefore, I do not buy the whole "no alcohol" thing that TLG supposedly is holding to.

A stockbroker launcher? Brilliant. If TLG thinks it is too violent, they could always make a Daily Planet modular and suggest putting it next door.

I wont rate CC, MS, or GG since I was in my dark ages when they came out and cannot really assess them. (1) PR, yes it is smaller, but it has a lot of nice details and reminds me of traveling. (2) PS, I like the two separate structures in one build, and residential stuff is always welcome (3) FB, great color scheme. nice and roomy inside, a believable design (4) GE, not a lot on the inside, but it is a fantastic corner building with nice detail (5) PC, still a nice modular, but the stickers and unnecessary limo bring the rating down (6) TH, the one I never bought. It is a nice enough structure, but it was too expensive, and it did not have details like the others. Someday, I might make my own TH

This set is now sold out on the US S&H site. When I was in the Lego store on December 2, there were stacks of them. I bought one then, because Santa's workshop was already gone, and that was the last remaining holiday set available for purchase. My prediction was that it would sell quicker with no other "competition" around. It looks like a nice set and would hate to miss a chance to have a carousel.

Bricklink is the way to go. There are multiple sellers offering the orange 1x6 bricks. Even if you waited until February to try and get them from Bricks and Pieces, there is always a chance they might not offer them, therefore the wait would be in vain.

It is worthy to note that Dol Guldur Attack (the one with Beorn and two orcs with hair) is currently discounted on the US S@H site. Considering that this is from the previous wave and the final wave of Tolkien sets are upon us, this might be a good time to buy some. You also get some extra parts in addition to the orcs. Just a thought......

Very nice. If this is your first modular free build, it looks like you will continue to make some good ones. Also, great job on that palm tree.

I have not received an email. Jan 5 would be much better, because of payday and the ability to purchase one of the new sets. My funds are depleted for the moment, therefore Dec 14 is not going to be helpful It looks like they are trying to stimulate a final push to buy stuff right before the shipping cutoff date for Christmas delivery.

Just like most businesses, Lego would not likely announce that they are discontinuing a theme. They just quietly let it die like Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Lone Ranger, POTC, etc. As much as I hate to say this, I agree that it is unlikely Lego would produce a LOTR Ideas project. Sure, a lot of us would buy a Minas Tirith, but who knows how difficult it would be for Lego to actually produce it? The license and large size of the set would be the biggest hurdles. The only hope would be that someone in Lego recognizes that there is a demand for something more, and many people feel like there is a gaping hole in the line. In other words, hope for a situation like Bionicle or Ninjago where Lego recognized there was a significant fan base. In the meantime, it is probably going to be very quiet from TLG in terms of LOTR. I would say unpin the thread and see what happens.

It is first come, first serve, and that is exactly why there are long lines outside the store. You have to get in line and wait in order to get a toy. It does not start until 5:00pm. There has to be eligible age children with you. Shortly before 5:00pm, they go down the line and pass out cards to each eligible person. I suppose it is the card that guarantees you a minibuild set. You only get the card if the child (children) are right there with you, therefore you (or they) had better not go to the restroom when that happens. Then they direct everyone to the tables to build. Once the tables fill up, and they do quickly, then everyone behind them has to wait for spots to open up. They have started allowing you to take your build home if you wish, but you still have to wait for the people ahead of you if they are waiting on a table. I could get flamed for this, but my suggestion: For a nominal fee, have some type of club you can join associated with the local Lego Store. Membership guarantees that they will have a minibuild for the member when they show up at the store. They go to the counter, present the member card, and are on their way. You have a time window in which you can pick it up. After the time window expires, any unclaimed models can be distributed to the general population. I would be willing to pay some money to avoid that line. At Dallas, if you do not get there by 4:00-4:30pm (earlier in the summer), you are going to be waiting for a while.

My thoughts are: bottom floor has the vault and the tellers, second floor has office space. You could also include a breakroom, mailroom, copy machine room, etc. If there is a third floor, how about a boardroom? Anyone who watched the original Godfather might recall the meeting where Don Corleone met with all the other dons. That was a boardroom in a bank. Perhaps you could have a large setup in a guilded style. Lots of story potential in a bank. Count me among the people who believes it is not necessary for every modular to have a story, but it seems like it has become necessary in either the minds of the creators or someone high up in TLG. It might be fun to MOC my own bank at some point, but my fear would be as soon as it is finished, they will announce a modular bank superior to mine.

Doubtful that it will be available earlier. PR was not released to anyone until January 1.

I built the Unexpected Gathering two Christmases ago, and still refuse to ever take it apart. It is a well designed and colorful set. The only changes made to it were to include all of the dwarves--yes it is crowded inside-- add the table, bench, and more food from last year's City Advent Calendar, and add a little green frog to the garden in front. To me, it is one of the best sets ever, not just in the series.

Creator offers a wide variety. This certainly got more of my money than any of the other themes. For licensed themes, LOTR and the Hobbit are nice. They helped get me back into this hobby.

Smaug is certainly the best I have seen in a Lego molded creature. If money is no object, it would certainly be worth it to give him a try. The model has received overall great reviews.

Hello railroad enthusiasts! This is just the thread I was looking for as I have finished our first motorized train set, the 2014 high speed passenger passenger train. I too would like an option to just buying AAA's over and over again. After discovering that Lego has also made a rechargable battery box, I immediately gave thought to purchasing this. Just one problem, and correct me if I am wrong, but it does not come with the charging cord, which is sold separately? They both are expensive, but there appears to be an even bigger problem with that. The charging cord has a shipping date of July 2015! Are there any generic power cords that could be used as a substitute, or do you have to buy that particular one? It would appear that unless you already have the charging cord, there would be no point of ordering the rechargeable battery box by itself. Why couldn't they have just sold the box and charger cable together?

Category A: #2 #4 Category B: #3 #5 Category C: #2 #3

Lego Smaug is not proportional to a minifigure, otherwise he would be prohibitively expensive and huge. Although the dragon is smaller than relative scale size, he is large enough to get the point across that he is quite big. The figure is highly posable and has been well received by most people.

I really like underdogs and can see one way Treebeard could win. Treebeard could be hiding in the forest, then the Balrog walks past him thinking he is another tree, just like Merry and Pippin did. Then, Treebeard sticks him from behind with a sharp object while he is not looking. After all, the Balrog is capable of being stuck with sharp objects. Just ask Gandalf. So, the narrow shot Treebeard has would be the element of surprise. Also, Maryanne would always be the better choice than Ginger. To make this a LOTR Lego related post, I would add that the Balrog and Treebeard seemed like they would have been possible for third wave sets had they been produced. Like others have stated, the ent in Orthanc was not named Treebeard probably in order to leave the possibility open if they ever decided to make him. Many will consider that ent to be "Treebeard" because that is the only ent we will get. Whether or not the ent is Treebeard depends on the owner of the set at this point. As for the Balrog, that has to be among the top memorable scenes in the trilogy. How we got the Mouth of Sauron and a ship that had all of 30 seconds of film time before this foe or Gondor is beyond me (beating the dead horse again, I know).

I graduated from CU in 1992 and really miss it in addition to Colorado in general. One of my goals is convince my wife that the north Texas allergies are detrimental to our kids, and only a place like the Front Range of Colorado would be a better environment for us all. Oh yeah--the model You did a fantastic job with those structures. I could instantly recognize Old Main, Folsom Stadium, and the Mackay auditorium. The Flatiron background also amazing! OK, I am ready to return home now.

These are getting hard to find at the moment. In the US, it is out of stock with no shipping date or even the option to order it. The Lego store was out of it on Tuesday, and they even removed the display model. If you happen to come across one and are still trying to decide, you might need to make your decision on the spot.

If it is time for a corner building, the first thing that pops into my head is: bank. Banks make great corner buildings, especially in some of the smaller towns near where I live. If each modular must have a story (love it or hate it), a bank would certainly offer a lot of possibilities. It is also an integral part of the community.