Stiel

These are awesome, I just love the details and creativity everywhere. Yet they could still be plausible official sets. Very good job on the play features, figure selection and level of detail. I much prefer your version of Weathertop and Moria to the official ones. I will still offer some critique though. As has been said, you could bump the prices by a good 20% or so. Also, there are too many small sets. While I love the variety and selection that the small sets provide, TLG wants to sell, which inherently leads to larger sets. Some set specific critique: 1) Bag End The Book could be, you know, a book. There is an official book piece, why not use it. Otherwise, the hobbit house is excellent design. Maybe a little 'too good', in the sense that you could add some of the less detailed parts (walls, plates etc.) and it would still be worth it. 2) Wizard Duel Nothing against it (bar the price point). I love the solution of the candle globes. 3) The Black Rider Slightly bland for my taste. Sure, the bridge and tree are nicely detailed, but there is still not much in this set, if you know what I mean. Also, I would have liked to see a set with Arwen saving Frodo instead (which is probably too similar to have both in the same line). 4) Weathertop Ambush Excellent! My personal favorite. So much better than the actual set. Only thing I would keep from the actual set is the small statuettes instead of a minifig-sized statue. 5) The Mines of Moria Again, great set, and so much more than the actual set, which could be called just 'The Tomb of Balin' instead. That said, I can understand why they chose to drop the balrog scene (for a possible later release). In your version, the play features are excellent; the only thing that seems a bit unusual is that the smaller structures are too disjointed. 6) Ambush at Amon Hen Excellent set! You got the environment spot on. One minor thing (discussed in the stickied LotR topic as well) is that the Uruk-hai here were not as heavily armored in the movie, so you could probably settle for torso print. Then again, don't get me wrong, these are minor issues, your set designs are at least as good, and in several cases, much better than the actual sets, and I will still buy several of those, so... great job!

Yes-yes, crossbows I have enough, and the plates are in progress. Thanks anyway, it's always nice to have such info.

Well, yes, but these two sets are meant to be for the battle of Helm's Deep, where most Uruks wore heavy armor. For an 'Ambush on the Fellowship' set, plain armor would be perfectly reasonable. For now, I'm only interested in building the battle of Helm's Deep. One more thing I slightly miss is crossbows. In the movie, they were used by some of the Uruk-hai. Then again, it's easy to fix from BL (or even PAB, they actually offer pearl dark gray crossbows).

Here is a box pic of the Uruk-Hai Army from the toy fair; on this picture, the plate goes with the giant halberd/axe. I suppose there is no general rule, they just made a bunch of Uruk-hai with different equipment setups. It doesn't matter much, since you can just move the equipment around to your liking. I am a bit torn on the breastplate issue. In the movie, all Uruk-hai wore armor except the berserkers. But adding extra plates for all of them would kill most of the variety, and you can't show off the otherwise great torso print either. Also, it is possible that the long hair and the breastplate clash (can't be fit on a minifigure at the same time). Any info on this one? Both are existing pieces, so it should be possible to test.

So, how many uruk swords and shields are there in the Helm's Deep set...? In the toy fair pics, I saw 3 swords and 1 shield, but on the box pic from Brickset, I see 2+2. What do you think?

Thanks.

How tall is the genie's leg? Like a regular leg, or taller...?

Hehe. Yeah, it's useful to have a stud somewhere on the fig. Apart from the top of the head, the standard minifig has a neck, too, which is also useful for castle and related stuff.

Here you go, sir: a / A - just to make the copy/paste easy.

4 steeds in one set? It will simply not happen. Recent Castle and LotR sets show two horses at most (even in the largest ones). In a battle pack, I would be happy to see even just one.

Or you could wait some time to see what sets are coming up. By this time next year, information about the 2013 summer wave sets (presumably for the LotR movies again, not for The Hobbit) will be known, and this year's sets should still be available, so you can determine the best assortment of sets to get the entire fellowship from twice as many sets.

The issue is that the SW licence does not permit TLG to produce 'action figures' - whatever standalone minifigure they produce under the SW licence, they have to do something extra, like attach it to a keychain or a magnet, then it's OK. Otherwise, they have to put it in a set. The truth is, SW battlepacks are really not that bad (they don't have that many extra bricks compared to having 4 figures), and I wouldn't expect a drastic change to them in the near future. (Note that the price of the same type of set going up is a completely different thing.)

Could anyone design a shield decal with some sort of bull's head for a triangular shield please? It would be for my minotaurs. I know of this one, this or something similar would be nice (maybe more stilized, or whatever that looks good): Thanks in advance!

Bridge, pillars, ruins, rocks... that kind of thing.

There should be a Witch King vs Théoden & Éowyn set too.

One thing missing from these sets is common soldiers on the good side. There is a single Rohan archer in all these sets, and that's it, all the others are heroes. Don't get me wrong, I like them, but still, some regular elf/Rohirrim/Gondor foot soldiers would be highly welcome. SW-style battle packs could fix this easily. About the Orc Forge - it breaks the trend that TLC puts two opposing factions in comparable numbers in their sets. Other larger LotR sets follow this rule, but not the Orc Forge. Strange.

That is true -- as long as it is unintentional. Now please look at his posts again, and decide for yourself. Now back on topic: I was pondering a little over what sets to buy to get the best assortment of heroes. While it's nice to see the whole Fellowship spread over the sets, I expect most of them to appear in later sets as well, so there is no rush to get all of them. As for the others: Éomer is not an issue for me, as I will buy the Uruk-Hai Army set anyway, but King Théoden and especially Haldir are a different matter. Haldir is likely to be exclusive to the Helm's Deep set even in the long run.

You haven't managed to pronounce Gandalf correctly yet, coming up with a different version every time you mention him. And you say you're not a troll, eh...?

In a licensed theme, the minifigures are the main selling point (along with a few other theme-related pieces, like special weapons, painted parts etc.). Regular bricks are the same everywhere, but in licensed sets, you pay a higher price for them. This is the reason many (including me) like army-builder sets with more minifigures and relatively fewer bricks. Ideally, 'substance' can be obtained from cheaper sources. That said, the minifigures might still prove to be too tempting. It's a fine line: if TLC produces sets with lots of figures and fewer bricks, few people will buy larger sets (low profits), but if they include too few minifigures, people will get disinterested in collecting (low profits again). For the most part, I think they are doing it right.

Indeed it is.

Piece counts originally come from this page (which belongs to a Hungarian shop, but the main pieces of information can still be recognized nicely): http://www.legomarkabolt.hu/index.php?oldal=katalogus&by=csoport&cs=94

The neck part of the quiver is wider, and hides the lower part of the head, so the figure appears 'neckless'. Might be just poor CGI, but it could be a new quiver mold as well. Although what a wider neck part would be good for, I don't know. An additional clip on the back of the quiver would be much better (and it might just happen, too, there is something else on the back of the figure, behind the quiver). Otherwise, nice fig, I like the torso paint, less scale-y than the CM elf, serves as a nice counterpart. I'm looking forward to the other minifigs as well!

1. 5615 Knight vs. 7955 Wizard 5615 is an army builder with good equipment, and even the weapon rack has useful parts if you take it apart. The wizard is 'just' a decent impulse set, not much flexibility there. 2. 7090 Crossbow Attack vs. 7950 Knight's Showdown 7090 had lots of minifigures for a small price. The war machines are not very good in either set, not much of a difference there. 7950 lacks a dragon shield. 3. 7037 Tower Raid vs. 7948 Outpost Attack Nothing particularly wrong with 7948, it's just poor value for money, what with 3 minifigures and all. 7037 is much better. 4. 7078 King's Battle Chariot vs. 7188 King's Carriage Ambush I look at 7078 as a figure pack. Admittedly the chariot itself is much worse than the carriage, but the minifigure lineup is better and it costs much less. 7188 is overpriced. 5. 7093 Skeleton Tower vs. 7947 Prison Tower Rescue Both structures are good for their purpose, but 7947 has a lot more potential, plus it is also somewhat cheaper. The figure lineup is decent for both sets. This is a close one. 6. 7094 King's Castle Siege vs. 7946 King's Castle 7946 is small and has too few minifigures for a line's big castle. I don't like this tendency. How many figs will we get for the next big castle? 6? 7. 10193 Medieval Market Village vs. 10223 Kingdoms Joust Both are excellent, but I will go with the nice houses and lots of medieval fare-style accessories. This is still a close one. 8. 7979 Castle Advent Calendar vs. 7952 Kingdoms Advent Calendar It's close, but I like the civilian minifigures more than soldiers and skeletons in a set like this. The accessories are nice in both sets. This one is also close. 9. 7029 Skeleton Ship Attack vs. 7189 Mill Village Raid The mill and the barn is excellent and original; the skeleton ship and harbor is nice but somewhat generic. There should be a distinction between how good a theme itself is, and how good the individual sets of a theme are. While fantasy era had better sets value-for-money-vise, I like Kingdoms as a theme more (e.g. heraldry, color schemes, structures). Also, some of the better sets from both lines are absent from this poll (e.g. 7009, 7091, 7949, 7187).

Thanks for the excellent review. I wouldn't outright say that the parts selection is worse than MMV. It's just different, more castle-ish, but without any panels whatsoever, and lots of excellent useful parts, so I'll take it. The pure amount of bricks is huge. On playability: apart from the obvious jousting, you can also play Romeo and Juliet with the beautiful princess and the squire (or nobleman?), and there are enough furniture and food to make some good festive scene. It is a definite buy and the set of the year for me.

Nice review! This is a cute little set, worth it more for the figure and accessories than anything else. Shields were somewhat hard to come by in the theme, so it is definitely welcome. Tips: add some scores, e.g. minifigure 8/10 etc. You can get a good idea from other reviews of what I mean. Also, pictures are a little dark.