AFOLguy1970

A castle theme aimed at girls and competing with regular friends and Disney Princess? If they can find a large enough target market for that, then they can certainly do with the third wave of LOTR.

Yes, I sure hope those 4 stormtroopers are the "battle pack" so many are hoping for. OT stormtroopers means I will be spending money. Frowning helmet Rebels stormtroopers means funds will be appropriated elsewhere.

The most preferred way for me would be the Pick-a-Brick wall at a Lego Store IF the store is not far from you, and they happen to have a particular part(s) you need. There, you could find the most value if you can pack the cup tightly. The primary disadvantage is that their inventory is fairy random and limited in choice. My dream would be to have a Lego Store the size of a Walmart where the PIck-a-Brick area pretty well has every part and color being manufactured that is not attached to a license theme. Otherwise, I use Bricklink for 90% of the pieces I need for the MOC.

In itself, Orc Forge is a fun and imaginative set. The White hand prints are valued. Also nice to have the light brick and other accessories. It seems like it was well received when it came out. With this now being the end of LOTR, I agree it will be a set that some people might now wish was slotted for Witch King/Balrog/Gondor instead. Uruk Hai Army could have easily had the white hand prints, and Tower of Orthanc also provided similar characters.

This set certainly has its merits. While the build is not huge, it has nice colors and some useful parts. I like the shields especially. As for the minifigures, this is a good value and the only true army builder type in the Hobbit line. Yes, armored elves would have been great, but they minifigs still look good to me. Thranduil is one of my most favorite minifigs from the line. There is even some army builder potential in his torso and legs. Really, only the crown is too unique to use in multiples. The Gundabad orcs are nice, and the warg is certainly welcome in setting up a scene. The set must be successful at least where I live, because it is hard to find, even when other Middle Earth sets stay on the shelves.

I have some good news for you. The Bard minifig from SDCC is going to appear in the Battle of Five Armies set this year. He was not an exclusive,just an early release at the con. It could have been a whole lot worse. Imagine if they had released the armored Witch King from Return of the King and made it exclusive at SDCC. That would have been wrong on so many levels.

My biggest concern would actually be birthday parties at home or sleepovers where my boys have guests. Most children would probably not steal, but I really do not want to discover later that the only Darth Vader we have or a Ghostbuster has walked out.

Oh, I totally like this! My hope is to have our first cantina in hand at the end of the month. Your build inspires me think about getting a second and trying a first mod. The extra seating places and expanded band members really look good. Thank you for sharing your mod!

The nearest one I know about is 70 miles to the south of me in Waco, TX. We had a week of vacation in June and went to Ireland where we rented a car. At first, the roundabouts made us a little nervous, but we quickly became accustomed to them and realized we liked them a lot better than traffic lights and stop signs. It really helped with keeping the flow of traffic going.

Interesting that a lot of people do not like the inclusion of Bain. At least he is a new main character, and he may very well have a role to play in the movie. Since the sets are made for kids, would they not want to have him? After reading many of the posts, it makes sense that Lego would go with main characters rather than to give you a generic army type. Although, I think there is still no excuse to have 2 Bards in this wave. And Legolas in BOFA, that is just plain terrible. My worst case scenario included mains for the good guys and Azog bumping out Bolg, but even I was not pessimistic enough to predict the Legolas thing. It just seems like Thranduil is going to be more memorable among the elf faction unless PJ really screws that up somehow.

I build most sets as soon as I can. The typical day around here is having no unbuilt sets and waiting for the next paycheck to buy another set or make a Bricklink order. There are only a few exceptions to not building a set right away when it gets home. For example, if there is not enough time to do it before the day is over, I will hold off. One thing I cannot stand is being rushed. An Advent calendar of course will not be touched until December 1. On the occasions when there are multiple sets to build, only one set at a time will be built within a day to spread out the enjoyment of building the sets. We do have many sets that have been taken apart and stored due to lack of space. If, and only if more space can be created for display (ie moving to a bigger house), then there will be a backlog.

Your hopes are still too high, especially with that Gondor armor thing going on. I was thinking more along the lines of: Farmor Maggot's field: Merry, Pippin, some carrots, a few trees $15 Crebain from Dunland: Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Gandalf, a huge brick built rock for them to hide under, and several birds using the pet shop mold in black $25 Edoras: Gandalf the White, Aragorn, Theoden with two expressions, Grima Wormtongue, Gimli, a Rohan guard, a horse (but not Shadowfax), and the hall. The throne would have a feature which can eject whoever is sitting on it. There would be tables with food on it. Basically a rehash of the keep in Helm's Deep as far as stickers and setup is concerned. $60 Barad Dur, the flagship set, Very similar in appearance to Orthanc, but smaller since it is not a an exclusive set. Brick built eye on top with light brick. Contains Gollum in the basement attached to some torture device, 2 Nazgul,4 Mordor orcs, and the Mouth of Sauron. Features a room with a black empty throne, prisons with a break out feature, rotating eye on top, Collapsing bridge entrance, and lots of flick fire and spring loaded action. The eye itself would have the largest spring loaded shooter. $100

I cannot imagine the modulars going away any time soon. They have held on for several years now, and it seems like the demand for them is increasing as new AFOLS's come out of their dark ages and the kids get older. Plus, they do not need a licensing agreement. I have learned a great deal of building from putting some of them together. My first completed MOC will be a modular designed to blend in with the others. Anyway, the designs on all of the modulars have all been inspiring to me.

If Smaug were not in this set, you would still have about 800 pieces. Taking into account there are only 5 minifigs and a lot of the parts are cheese slopes and 1x1 round plates, I would say it is otherwise an $80 set, which means Lego values Smaug at $50. If the October 15 release date is true, we are very fortunate this time. The last two waves came out in December about two weeks before Christmas and basically coincided with the film's release. Toys R Us had them a couple of weeks earlier, but at the usual premium prices. Perhaps this wave is being allowed to be released earlier to help promote the film more. Either way, it seems like a win-win scenario for Lego and its consumers.

The most common tiles have a groove along the edge. My guess is that it has not always been that way, and some sellers might have the older part in inventory, or possibly it is mixed in with the grooved ones. My suggestion would be to not add the undetermined type to your want list, because far fewer of them fall into this category than the grooved ones of the same color. If you put the grooved one in your want list, you will be able to match it up with a lot more stores. This is of course assuming you are not after something other than the grooved type. BTW, the grooved edge is very small.

The available sets from earliest release to the present: Grand Emporium Pet Shop Town Hall Palace Cinema Parisian Restaurant Funny thing is I would not mind if the latest and greatest was not released right on Jan 1. It would give my budget a chance to recover from the holidays and focus on other things. Might even get that MOC closer to being presentable.

You bring some interesting points to the discussion, but here is where I must disagree Both this statement and Lego's endgame strategy for the Hobbit seem contradictory. You say a kid would not have bought DGB for Azog, but would be willing to save for the $130 set with Smaug? I just do not buy it. While I agree that older kids are more the audience (movies are too violent for young ones), it seems like too many people assume they would be happy getting the same thing over and over again because it is their favorite character. My 7 year old had this to say upon hearing Legolas was going to be in another set "Dont we already have him?" Since one movie comes out each year, kids have at least that period of time to try and acquire the sets they wish to purchase. Of course if they are lucky, they get some or even all as gifts. Unfortunately, many kids have very limited resources or poor parents, so they may have to settle for what they can afford. It seems like sometimes Lego halfway acknowledges that we do not need another (insert name here) in the set or wave. We FINALLY got a wave without the mandatory Gandalf, and you know his role is crucial to the final film. Yet, they still felt the need to squeeze in Legolas and Tauriel into valuable slots. If kids really drool over these two, then they probably have the Mirkwood Spiders set and really do not need this guy in BOFA. And I find it downright cruel that Laketown would have Bard and a windlance, but no Smaug. While you may be able to save $130 for the big Erebor set, for many parents and kids, this will be out of reach. Heck, I am not going to have an easy time putting this in my budget. Any kid who wants to reenact the whole incident at Laketown will have to pay $160 plus tax. Ouch. Simply moving Smaug to Laketown would have made Erebor and Smaug more affordable at the same time. Actually, the reaction to the final wave is not really overwhelmingly positive or negative. Most people love the Witch King Battle set, and Laketown is at least accepted as a decent set in the overall sense. Lonely Mountain gets a lot of raves over Smaug and lots of rants over the price. BOFA is the real stinker, perhaps not so much the fact it is not an army builder, but that Lego could have really put some thought into the character selection and made better choices. This was a golden opportunity to insert new characters into the mix. After all, with three Dol Guldur sets meant to be combined, two Lake Town sets which are meant to complement one another, and one of the Lake Town sets being meant to be purchased with Lonely Mountain to create the final Smaug scene, does Lego not expect you to buy other sets to complement the scene? You have four armored dwarves in the Lonely Mountain set (Two of which did not appear in the gold smelting scene). We all know they are meant to be used In BOFA since no dwarf would dare to pick a fight with Smaug with armor and an axe. BOFA could have still been heavy in main characters, but been so much better. I would have omitted Bard (keep him in Laketown), Azog, and Legolas since they already appear in other complementary sets. If you can buy Smaug and Bard in two different sets, then surely you can get Azog and Thorin in two different sets. Instead of Azog, have Bolg. Instead of Legolas, either have an armored elf, or armored King Thranduil. Trade in Bard for an Iron Hill dwarf or a generic human. Even a mithril Bilbo would have been better. The sad thing about BOFA is that all I need is Dain in order to recreate Lego's rendition of the BOFA right now, If I can get Gimli to stand in for him, no need to wait to October.

If there was a warg in the set, I would have to think it would be pictured near the eagle in the character box. Since Legolas and Bard are both skilled archers, maybe they are on top of the ruined structure we cannot completely see "shooting arrows" at the orcs.

If it began as a MOD, I would say it would be a MOC when you can no longer recognize what the original build was. JMHO

As far as the build itself is concerned, there is certainly more to it. It would be hard to critique the Battle of Five Leaders based on the set as a whole, but the minifigures and ballista are fair game since we can see them in completion. I think the official release of the Lonely Mountain images is where many of us got the clue that this was not going to be an army builder. We knew from the London Toy Fair that Dain was in it, so we expected that. However, the omission of Thorin in the Lonely Mountain set was the red flag that this set was likely to disappoint with two of the slots now locked up as mains. There is the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good: Dain and Thorin with crown The bad: Bard taking up a slot when he appears in Lake Town as well, Azog rehashed instead of the introduction of Bolg, and the ugly: the elven representation and no generic good guy soldiers in the whole set I get the whole thing about having this geared to kids, but just like us, they really do not like getting the same people over and over again any more than we do. If they are interested in The Adventures of Legolas and Tauriel The Hobbit film trilogy, then they have probably by now have seen the other two movies and collected at least some of the Lego sets associated with them. So, just like us, they are not going to be excited to get another Azog, Legolas, and Bard

I totally agree. Something would be better than nothing. As it stands, it is impossible to have someone stand in for Witch King because of his unique battle gear. My mental visualization of Faramir would involve the Gondor White Tree printing, but not the one that Aragorn has at the Black Gate. Eowyn would be far easier to MOC, and it appears you have created something judging by your photo. Thankfully, she is easier to improvise.

Your microbuilds are quite good! The main hurdle is to find a large enough audience. As someone stated before, we are a very loud minority. We are somewhat of a narrow band of AFOLS and older teens who happen to like Tolkein and/or have seen the movies. The next biggest problem comes with the characters. Even the die hard fans are not going to want rehashes of main characters. Old Bilbo will work fine, and Santa Gandalf is surely what everyone expects. Although, I would switch the Santa hat for a red wizard hat. For me, and I realize I am but one opinion, to get my attention, you would need new characters in the set. Get me a Witch King, Gondor Soldier, Faramir, even Barliman Butterbur, and I will buy your set. I already have my Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, and Frodo armies, so I dont need them. The fact that there is a no new mold rule on Lego Ideas is what really will hurt. Nice designs though.

Even if they did make a third wave, which I highly doubt, I would not expect to see everyone get what they are looking for. Just because they could finally make a Gondor set would not mean you would get generic Gondor soldiers. Hobbit Wave 3 has made it painfully obvious that having sets packed with rehashed main characters is all the rage. There were some nice things about Hobbit Wave 3, but they really wasted an opportunity with the Battle of Five Armies set. There will be no Iron Hill dwarves or armored elves in that line. If they did actually do Gondor, sure you might get Faramir, Witch King and Eowyn finally, but you would likely get rehashes of the umpteenth Gandalf, Legolas, and Gimli in the place of the Gondor Soldier. Orcs would probably be the only generic army builder type you could expect. The odd thing is that in places like the Lego Store or Toys R US, there are plenty of Hobbit, LOTR sets still on the shelves. However, it is much harder to find the Uruk Hai Army set as well as the Mirkwood Elf Army set. I wonder why?

My money is on some type of romantic death involving Kili at BOFA which will really leave Legolas disgusted. It will explain why it is such a miracle that he could ever become friends with a dwarf. Seeing both PJ and Lego's love for LEGOlas, I wonder if Legolas himself does not finish off Smaug, Bolg, Azog, and the Necromancer singlehandedly with his surfer/ninja/jedi tricks. Maybe this is what PJ has in mind: On a Lego related note, who else thinks that Dain's helmet is going to be very lucrative on Bricklink? That and the Smaug assembly will probably command a high price.

Thanks for the pics! Witch King Battle: Looks like everything I expected. Hopefully Galadriel's second face will be her more "queenly" look. I wonder if that is the starglass she later gives to Sam. Three good figures at a good price. Absolutely will purchase. Lake Town 2: I figured Tauriel would be there. The previews for the movie feature Legolas and Tauriel quite a bit, so the rehash was anticipated. Surprised to see an identical Bard from the last one, especially if this is meant to add on to the prior set. The omission of Bolg here is a surprise. The orcs, not so much, since you need some kind of conflict in the absence of Smaug. Bard firing the flick fire black dart suggests that Lego expects you to buy another set to complete the picture. Which one could that be? </sarcasm> I also could have sworn that the windlance was at the very top of the tower, yet the Lego set has it below the top. Maybe the movie will explain this scene a little better. BOFA: Not the worst case scenario at least. I remember the London reports stating there were only 5 minifigs, but there are more. So that is a plus. The omission of Gandalf is another plus. Thorin looks good, well done to the designer. Glad to have Dain, he is the new guy we all cannot wait to meet. Azog we could have done without. If you someone to buy Dol Guldur to get your Gandalf, how come this cannot also apply to Azog? In an ideal world, an Iron Hill generic dwarf would take his place. The two generic orcs are not surprising, given the nature of the battle. Bard I suspect is here to have the set live up to its name, the Battle of Five Armies. He represents the man faction. Tough to tell from the photo, but this might be the SDCC printing. In defense of Lego, the eagle is here, because it represents one of the five armies as well. Sure, I would have liked a ram, a stag, or a big bear. Surely, when the eagles arrive in the movie, it will be a memorable scene. Then you have Legolas. Sigh. That is all I have to say about him. It looks like they have rehashed to some extent the ballista from the Uruk Hai Army. It looks like Saruman took notes from BOFA! We pretty much figured this was not going to be an army builder set with Dain and Thorin already expected. I guess Lego assumes you have bought prior sets so you could use your Mirkwood elf army, Lake Town Chase, Dol Guldur 1 and 2 to add to your fight scene. Just pretend like Azog, Legolas, and Bard have twin brothers, and you will be fine. Is it the worst thing in the world? No. Could it have been better? I think we all know the answer to that.