Stiel

Oh man, the memories... I had so much fun back then... Anyway, the current (OK, outgoing) crop of castle is quite good, so yeah, today's kids should have a lot of fun, too. This is a nice little set, with useful accessories and I like the general feel of this little scene too, with all those bright colors.

Well, before this, the largest castle ever (for sheer size) was 8877 Vladek's Dark Fortress. http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=8877-1 I suspect it beats even Helm's Deep, but I'm not sure. It would be nice to have a photo of that and Helm's Deep side by side (from someone who owns both sets, obviously).

If they do it in NinjaGo dragon style, the fell-beast could easily go up to around 200 pieces, which is reasonable for around $25-35. I wouldn't worry, and I actually expect this scene to be released in set form at some point.

I wonder how many of the actual buyers will use this to play chess. It looks very good for army building. For $50, it's 22 regular soldiers & knights, plus 6 special figures, and a lot of equipment. The equipment is a huge plus; armored knights and ovoid shields are not so easy to get otherwise. Great! True, but that's still just 3 minifigures, and the rest look fine. At this price, I don't mind. Agreed. It compares better to 852001.

Yes, MMV is excellent either for the parts or as an investment. Buy it, you won't regret it. As an aside: no 7187...? It seems very good value for money to me. Much better than, say, 7188.

Excellent! The catapult is great, most reminiscent to the one in the movie. The flaming rock is a good idea. I also like that the wall is white, and the shape of it is also nice, but I think it's a bit bland (at least compared to Helm's Deep and the add-on set, where they included some discoloration and variation of basic bricks). The number of attackers and defenders is spot on, I also like the troll a lot, but I would include one more generic troll instead of the general (who should go to the 'main' set instead). On weapons: maybe you could have included an archer on either side, there were a good number of them in the movie.

While your ideas are great and the execution is very close to TLG's standards, you are still including too many minifigures. Keep in mind that the huge Helm's Deep had a total of 8, so any Minas Tirith set should have no more than that. Also, TLG is biased towards heroes rather than common soldiers for the good side. With that in mind, I think that for Minas Tirith a more realistic assortment is the following: Gandalf, Faramir and 2 gondorian soldiers vs. orc commander, 2 orc soldiers and a giant troll.

This picture includes many sketches that made it into actual production in different series. Does this imply we can expect a few more in series 8 as well...? (There is a monk in row 4!)

You are right, probably only those few crazy AFOLs care about coopers who have dioramas that are large enough to accommodate several different artisans. That's a very small market. For everybody else, there is always a blacksmith. Well, they did a temple recently in Atlantis (OK, it is actually more like underwater temple ruins from a culture long gone, but still), so who knows. Maybe they are not so rigorous nowadays about religion, plus a monk is not that associated with religion anyway (like, say, a cleric, which is still a no-go). That said, of all the ideas I listed, I think that the bard is the most likely to make it into the series at some point. It has enough character, no religious issues, it is perfectly fine with just one accessory, and there is already a sizeable music mini-theme going in CMF.

I am afraid that 'regular' jobs (like farmer) will be represented mostly in a modern setting (i.e. that fits into City). Actually, there has been a farmer impulse set recently, while the butcher and woodcutter have already been done in the CM series. I don't expect newer versions for any of those. That said, there are some medieval civilian professions that would look good in CM form. They could do a bard, with the typical cap and some instrument. A cooper (the guy that makes barrels) is also a distant possibility. Ladies are also welcome anytime! They could also do some sort of druid/hermit/monk.

Also, it is nice to see pearl dark gray as a weapon color used more and more. The Kingdoms dragon knights gave us the regular short sword, halberd, spear and crossbow, which was a good start, and the CM minifigs had the axehead, gladius, round shield and now long sword in pearl dark gray color (plus other themes had a few other weapons, like the khopesh in Pharaoh's Quest, and different guns etc., but those are less interesting to me).

And there are 5 of them in one box, so it should be a more readily available figure. From a production point of view, this makes sense, as no new moulds are necessary to produce this, and from a collector's/army builder's point of view, this figure is still awesome with all the exciting pieces of equipment (long sword in new colour, boar shield, armor with new print). Win-win!

2-4 copies of Uruk-Hai Army along with the one Helm's Deep, but that's the only battle scene I want to build (for now), so that's it. Single minifigures are fine from BL (Legolas comes to mind). Hoping for a battle pack-ish set with some elves somewhere along the line.

Hey, anyone who owns this set - I just wanted to ask for a couple pics where Sophie examines the hedgehog. Thanks in advance!

The lighting is poor, I can hardly make out the figures, let alone any details. Could you please retake the photo with better lighting?

Yeah, I would just go to bricklink too. Since it is in a relatively cheap set that contains some other stuff of value as well, the price of Gandalf's cape shouldn't skyrocket anyway.

Excellent Dune-inspired MOC! The sandwork around the wyrm with all the different angled slopes is really good. I don't even dare to imagine how huge the entire wyrm can be!

Especially since it is the new, posable mold! And I agree with the rest, too, in terms of value for money, the Uruk-Hai Army is really a standout set from this line.

So I liked your war lion so much I had to build it, too. Some minor details are different, but I copied most of it. Plus I also built the wolf! (From Bulk 3.0.) Mighty beasts fighting:

Oh dang, I knew I should have come back to this thread earlier. I put this request up at my local LUG's forum too, and somebody already helped me out. I already went with his design. It is based on the KKI bull shield by the way. I think now I have to share it as well. Credits go to apd from MALUG. But thanks anyway, your design is nice, and I guess I'm not the only one outfitting my group of minominotaurs with shields, so hopefully someone else will put your work to good use.

The two guards are frightening enough, I don't even dare to think about what hideous visage hides behind the black visor...

The factory here produces mostly Duplo parts, and some basic Lego bricks (like 2x4 etc.).

One SW set still comes into mind: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7956-1 Of course, you need to sell off the ewoks and the trooper, but the rest of the set should be exactly what you are looking for. Then there is Pick-A-Brick, for certain parts (mostly larger ones), it can be cheaper than BrickLink. Link: http://shop.lego.com/en-HU/Pick-A-Brick-11998 There is also LUGBULK. I sent you a PM about that.

Why not just buy multiples of the Uruk-Hai Army set...? I guess you would be paying $12-16 for 4 Uruk-hai minifigures; along with equipment, it would be closer to $16-20. At that point, you might as well consider the $30 set. I assume you need a few defenders as well, so it's not like a waste. The war machine is nice and the wall is excellent for parts, even if you don't like it that much. At the worst, the war machine+wall, the horse and the 2 human minifigures should each be easily sold for at least $4-5 (possibly more), so you could get rid of what you don't need.