Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I would drop $1000 for a huge Minas Tirith in a heartbeat

[hikouki]

On 2/19/2025 at 12:12 PM, Khargeust said:

The map in the 10316 Rivendell set represents five iconic locations in Middle-earth: Orthanc, Rivendell, Barad-Dûr, Bag End and Minas Tirith. We've already had the first three.
Barad-Dûr also has a sticker of a map depicting several iconic locations : Orthanc, Barad-Dûr, Minas Tirith, and something like Edoras or Helm's Deep (I can't really see). There is also the reference "Baggins? Shire?" and the palantir representing Bag-End and Minas Tirith on fire.
We know we sure are going to have a Bag End set soon. To the extent that sets 10316 Rivendell and 10333 Barad-Dûr included clues of the potential set to follow, what could be the ones present in set 10354 Bag-End to announce Minas Tirith? Or Edoras / Helm's Depp given that the latter appears on the map in the barad-Dûr set (unless it's a false lead)?

 

19 hours ago, MAB said:

It wouldn't be a very good map of Middle Earth if it didn't have the iconic locations of Middle Earth on it. We have also had Bag End, just under The Hobbit branding. Will they do other iconic locations in future? Probably, but because they are iconic locations rather than because LEGO is hiding future releases in plain sight in an existing set.

I think there may be truth to both of these arguments. Of course, I do not have any insider info. But historically, Lego develops many possible sets in parallel and sometimes chooses what it thinks is best to feature depending on how market conditions are and depending on how the set development is going along.

Disney, Indiana Jones have suffered some of these of late.

Very exciting if we get Minas Tirith or Helm's Deep!

[BrickBob Studpants]

Not that LotR wouldn‘t deserve a $1000 set, but I‘d rather they release a $500 microscale Minas Tirith and call it a day  This is just outside the range of what most people can afford. We‘ll see how well the new Death Star does, but even for SW that price point‘s a huge gamble, the way I see it.

[Blazej_Holen]

14 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Not that LotR wouldn‘t deserve a $1000 set, but I‘d rather they release a $500 microscale Minas Tirith and call it a day  This is just outside the range of what most people can afford. We‘ll see how well the new Death Star does, but even for SW that price point‘s a huge gamble, the way I see it.

Microscale MT? I would rather get nothing, if its not minifig compatible… If I had to choose whether $500 microscale or $1000 minifig compatible, I would go with the second option…

[BrickBob Studpants]

3 minutes ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Microscale MT? I would rather get nothing, if its not minifig compatible… If I had to choose whether $500 microscale or $1000 minifig compatible, I would go with the second option…

Let‘s be honest, even a $1000 set would still be microscale  Sure, you could make it somewhat minifig-compatible, but I‘m not sure how good that would look overall. A $1000 set needs to be an absolutely impeccable model!

[Blazej_Holen]

3 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Let‘s be honest, even a $1000 set would still be microscale  Sure, you could make it somewhat minifig-compatible, but I‘m not sure how good that would look overall. A $1000 set needs to be an absolutely impeccable model!

Yes, it would be. I imagine tht it will be something like Barad Dur is. But what will be the selling point? Minifigs. A large asortment of main characters and regular soldiers. And then I can justify for myself to spent this amount of money on one single set. Microscale MT without figs for $500 is out of my interest :)

[KristinnK]

I feel like a lot of people here are forgetting this comment by RichardGoring from a few weeks ago. Even 1000 dollars/10,000 pieces doesn't even come close to doing Minas Tirith justice at minifig scale. It's a complete non-starter. There might not be a need for a full 100,000 pieces like in the other build, but at least 20-30,000, and that's obviously not going to happen.

Personally I'm very fond of microscale for these huge locations. It creates a very displayable but compact build that is very elegant. Something like the Hogwarts and Grounds set (2700 pieces/170 USD), or perhaps a bit larger, but not more than lets say 3000-4000 pieces/200-250 USD, would be perfect. There are some microscale Minas Tirith MOCs out there that can act as starting points for speculation, like this one with 2000 pieces. Take that one, maybe ever so slightly expand the fields around the city, and swap out the white roofs in the city for colored ones like in this crazy 10,000 piece monster, and you'd get something I'd buy in a heartbeat.

The only way Minas Tirith will ever be a adult-oriented set at minifigure scale (barring possible 20-30,000 multi-thousand dollar far-future sets) is with sub-locations or a diorama. It could be a "Citadel of Minas Tirith" set, with the courtyard, the White Tree, the Throne Room and the Tower of Ecthelion. Or it could be a diorama set showing Gandalf confronting the Witch King as he breaches to Gates of Morder. The quote on plaque would be "In rode the Lord of the Nazgul, under the archway that no enemy ever yet had passed, and all fled before his face." I'd buy that.

 

On 1/30/2025 at 6:27 PM, RichardGoring said:

Even looking at this 10,000 MOC on Rebrickable, it feels like it's not enough pieces to do the full city justice, and I'd prefer to have the Citadel and King's House, with maybe a suggestion of a single wall, as it will allow the presence and detail of part of the city to come through.

LEGO MOC Mina Tirith - The White Castle by DaggerR | Rebrickable - Build with LEGO

 

Alternatively, I don't know why I hadn't seen this before, but does anyone fancy the first $10,000 LEGO set?!

LEGO MOC The Seven rings - Part A by STEBRICK | Rebrickable - Build with LEGO

[MAB]

2 hours ago, KristinnK said:

I feel like a lot of people here are forgetting this comment by RichardGoring from a few weeks ago. Even 1000 dollars/10,000 pieces doesn't even come close to doing Minas Tirith justice at minifig scale. It's a complete non-starter. There might not be a need for a full 100,000 pieces like in the other build, but at least 20-30,000, and that's obviously not going to happen.

 

It depends what you call Minas Tirith, and depends what you call microscale. Minas Tirith will mean different things to different people. It can mean the entire city, the Pelennor Fields and the City, or just part of the city where a scene takes place. Similarly, some people call Barad-Dur microscale as its overall heigt no way scales with that of a minifigure, whereas others call it minifigure scale as it is designed to have minifigures inside it. So it is completely possible to do a minifigure scale version of Minas Tirith and do it well, depending on how you define the two terms. I'd take a part of the 7th level including the courtyard, tree and some background scenery such as a facade of the hall and citadel if it is done with a decent selection of minifigures  over a minifigure-less white 40x40x40cm inverted cone shaped object representing a multiple level city with a grey bit sticking out the side. But no doubt others would prefer the latter.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I’ve seen so many people over the years say “lego wouldn’t be able to do that” over and over and over and they still manage to come out with something awesome and prove those people wrong. They have some really good designers. I can easily see a $1000 Minas Tirith set in the style of Barad-dûr being done justice. 

[kuzyabricks]

Reliable source on instagram confirmed we are getting a GWP

[Lordhelmet]

9 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Let‘s be honest, even a $1000 set would still be microscale  Sure, you could make it somewhat minifig-compatible, but I‘m not sure how good that would look overall. A $1000 set needs to be an absolutely impeccable model!

I think there are four best approaches to try to do minis tirith.  (Not in any particular order)

1) full mini scale like hogwarts

2) mini scale with interiors for play like Brad dur

3) recreated sections like Rivendell (thinking mostly the throne room and white tree courtyard

4) multiple sets to build together like the current  hogwarts playsets

I think any of these could do a good job depicting minis tirith.  If I had to pick a favorite it would be 3 or 4 for the minifigure possibilities.  If option 1 came out they would desperately need to make other sets with Gondor minifigures.  

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I’m really surprised we don’t have a price confirmation for Bag End yet to be honest 

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Lordhelmet said:

I think there are four best approaches to try to do minis tirith.  (Not in any particular order)

1) full mini scale like hogwarts

2) mini scale with interiors for play like Brad dur

3) recreated sections like Rivendell (thinking mostly the throne room and white tree courtyard

4) multiple sets to build together like the current  hogwarts playsets

I think any of these could do a good job depicting minis tirith.  If I had to pick a favorite it would be 3 or 4 for the minifigure possibilities.  If option 1 came out they would desperately need to make other sets with Gondor minifigures.  

They could also use microfigures like in the big Hogwarts Castle. Though I have to say, anything that doesn´t include Minifigures and a way to include them in the set (so no Microscale with a minfigure stand) seems unlikely to me. 

1 hour ago, kuzyabricks said:

Reliable source on instagram confirmed we are getting a GWP

I guess that is all the info he got?

[Cyprinus]

3 hours ago, MAB said:

It depends what you call Minas Tirith, and depends what you call microscale. Minas Tirith will mean different things to different people. It can mean the entire city, the Pelennor Fields and the City, or just part of the city where a scene takes place. Similarly, some people call Barad-Dur microscale as its overall heigt no way scales with that of a minifigure, whereas others call it minifigure scale as it is designed to have minifigures inside it. So it is completely possible to do a minifigure scale version of Minas Tirith and do it well, depending on how you define the two terms. I'd take a part of the 7th level including the courtyard, tree and some background scenery such as a facade of the hall and citadel if it is done with a decent selection of minifigures  over a minifigure-less white 40x40x40cm inverted cone shaped object representing a multiple level city with a grey bit sticking out the side. But no doubt others would prefer the latter.

I'm pretty sure that when most people say "Minas Tirith", they mean the whole city. Not like Pellenor fields had much going on beyond the orc armies anyway...

1 hour ago, Lordhelmet said:

I think there are four best approaches to try to do minis tirith.  (Not in any particular order)

1) full mini scale like hogwarts

2) mini scale with interiors for play like Brad dur

3) recreated sections like Rivendell (thinking mostly the throne room and white tree courtyard

4) multiple sets to build together like the current  hogwarts playsets

I think any of these could do a good job depicting minis tirith.  If I had to pick a favorite it would be 3 or 4 for the minifigure possibilities.  If option 1 came out they would desperately need to make other sets with Gondor minifigures.  

4 doesn't work all too well due to a lack of locales from the movie to build the sets around. Hogwarts was explored (for obvious reasons - it had much more screen time) in far greater detail.

[RichardGoring]

4 hours ago, MAB said:

It depends what you call Minas Tirith, and depends what you call microscale. Minas Tirith will mean different things to different people. It can mean the entire city, the Pelennor Fields and the City, or just part of the city where a scene takes place. Similarly, some people call Barad-Dur microscale as its overall heigt no way scales with that of a minifigure, whereas others call it minifigure scale as it is designed to have minifigures inside it. So it is completely possible to do a minifigure scale version of Minas Tirith and do it well, depending on how you define the two terms. I'd take a part of the 7th level including the courtyard, tree and some background scenery such as a facade of the hall and citadel if it is done with a decent selection of minifigures  over a minifigure-less white 40x40x40cm inverted cone shaped object representing a multiple level city with a grey bit sticking out the side. But no doubt others would prefer the latter.

Agreed with this. Barad Dur felt a tiny bit compromised in proportion to get the internal floors done, but I understand that you really can't do a cut out of Barad Dur at minifigure scale, especially as so little of it was shown in the films.

But those locations for Minas Tirith really do feel like they'd do the city justice, and the whole thing could be minifigure scale.

[Lordhelmet]

2 hours ago, Cyprinus said:

doesn't work all too well due to a lack of locales from the movie to build the sets around. Hogwarts was explored (for obvious reasons - it had much more screen time) in far greater detail

Agreed that there is less detail than what hogwarts is doing, but I could see something like four or five sets working together (for the record I think this is the least likely of the four options).  Have a set for the courtyard/top level throne room (maybe two here).  A city set representing a level of the city maybe have houses of healing, outer wall battle with a siege engine, then the gate with grond.  Multiples of the battle wall and city sets could be combined to make a really big display (in the helms Dede’s set fashion).  Would be awesome for figures, but would look more like a playset version than the detailed ones we have seen recently. 
 

I think my biggest hope is two sets, a micro scale one like hogwarts and grounds, and then a Rivendell styled set of some key area or capturing some key areas.  (And then a whole Gondor group of playsets including battle packs, witch king, grond, and cmf series)

[RichardGoring]

It occurs to me, what if they tried both scales and did a forced perspective, with the citadel and courtyard minifigure scale, on top of a microscale set of walls. I can't see how they'd pull it off. But it might allow a wider range of figures, and scenes at the gate too.

[MAB]

19 hours ago, Cyprinus said:

I'm pretty sure that when most people say "Minas Tirith", they mean the whole city.

Do they? I would have thought that most people wanting a minifigure based Minas Tirith set would want buildings that represent some of the city.

10 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

It occurs to me, what if they tried both scales and did a forced perspective, with the citadel and courtyard minifigure scale, on top of a microscale set of walls. I can't see how they'd pull it off. But it might allow a wider range of figures, and scenes at the gate too.

I think they could do a gate at ground level off to the side with a wall , a platform maybe 8 studs high for the main build of the city as a second level, then the beacon on a rocky outcrop another 8 studs higher. The geography would be wrong but you'd get the main scenes in.

[THELEGOBATMAN]

On 2/21/2025 at 8:27 PM, Balrogofmorgoth said:

I’m really surprised we don’t have a price confirmation for Bag End yet to be honest 

Right? I've been waiting for quite some time to see if it'll fit into my LEGO budget for this year, but most Icons sets still don't have any prices for this year, even though we know the piece counts.

The previous two sets have had really good PPP ratio though, so I don't think it'll be anything above 200€.

[Cyprinus]

If they go with a PPP similiar to Barad-Dur and Rivendell, it would be around 170$. With the PPP of the upcoming book nook, 200$. It really shouldn't go above that (and I'd expect pricing closer to the former tbh - don't think the set would need too many large pieces or new moulds (whereas I can see the nook having a balrog wings element, boosting the price).

[Lordhelmet]

I planned for $350 (but $200-$230 would be nice).  
 

if it’s at the once rumored $350 price they will have to go crazy good value with lot of minifigures.  (10-12 minimum with good quality)

if it is closer to the $200 price I would be good with 7-8 on the minimum range (bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, merry, pippin, Rosie, one more hobbit). The. I would hope the gwp has another hobbit (I would actually prefer a different hobbit in the set and have Gandalf be the gwp but I think people would be upset without Gandalf in the set)

[Ben S]

1 hour ago, Lordhelmet said:

if it’s at the once rumored $350 price they will have to go crazy good value with lot of minifigures.  (10-12 minimum with good quality)

So, I can still have hopes of getting a The Hobbit version with dwarves? 
I have been following your conversation, but I'm a bit out of date. If I remember correctly, the consensus was for a LOTR version right? 

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Ben S said:

So, I can still have hopes of getting a The Hobbit version with dwarves? 
I have been following your conversation, but I'm a bit out of date. If I remember correctly, the consensus was for a LOTR version right? 

Presumably, as the recent output has all been LOTR and nothing from The Hobbit for about a decade.

[RichardGoring]

Also, the number of new moulds and printers required for this to happen feels unlikely, although not impossible, for a set like this. Especially if it's closer to $200.

[Cyprinus]

I'm not sure what they'd need to put into the set to make a 2000 piece build like this worth 350$.