Balrogofmorgoth

Building now! My store had about 40 of them. I was 11th in line. I circled back later to see how many they had sold and they only had 4 left. Seems to be doing very well so far. I know 40 sounds like a lot. But I’m almost positive that’s what he said, and the line was very long

It’s the deep breath before the plunge

Called my local lego store and they said they’re getting a lot of Rivendell sets for launch. So it sounds like they’re going to be pretty well prepared for a launch for once. Which is good because I won’t be able to get there until a little bit later in the morning on Sunday

I would argue Legolas’ faceprint from The Hobbit sets was more accurate to the character than his LOTR faceprint, not counting the alternate angry face. I have multiple of that figure from The Hobbit since he came in three sets I believe (Mirkwood Spiders, Five Armies, polybag). I think I’ll be giving him that head. Come to think of it I’m pretty sure it’s the face they used for the Dimensions figure as well

Mae Govannen and welcome to the Tolkien community Mellon! The best thing any lego set or tv show or movie could do is bring new people to the original works and it looks like this set has done just that!

This was one of the many studio mandated things that Jackson was forced to do. The love triangle also. He didn’t have a say in those things

Yes! I found that very interesting as well although not surprising. I’m very happy they ended up deciding on a minifig scale set and I think the sales will reflect that

I think it’s supposed to be this device on the left. Pretty sure this is a BTS image

The first thing I thought when I saw that CMF Viking figure was that the helmet was remarkably similar to Eowyn’s helmet in Return of the King. Ever since I’ve longed for them to use it for her

I believe he’s referring to the one map that shows two arrows. One goes right and one goes left towards the image of Barad-Dûr. It’s supposed to be a reference to the extended scene where Frodo says “Mordor, Gandalf. Is it left or right?” And Gandalf replies “left” Yes, I agree with this for sure. I’m not saying everyone has to be a die hard Tolkien scholar but if you know absolutely nothing about LOTR just tell us and don’t try to act like you do for a lego set review. But on the flip side, I do understand that as members of LAN they need to come across a certain way for views, which is just inherently a part of the nature of what they do. But I’m happy to enjoy it for myself and find all the references that I know I’ll understand without someone who doesn’t actually understand it pointing it out to me half heartedly in some video. Also, Men of the West and Nerd of the Rings are remarkably knowledgeable Tolkien channels and I love them both. I’m actually in both of their Discord servers and talk with them regularly about all things Tolkien. Matt from Nerd of the Rings may very well end up buying the Rivendell set and making a video of it, he has mentioned a few times that he probably will Yes, he is a true Tolkien fan, I exchanged a couple comments on Instagram with him about a copy of The Children of Húrin I saw in one of his posts. It was definitely refreshing to see that

To be fair, they pronounce Gloin’s name wrong in the movies. So I tend to forgive that one. But Tolkien pronounced it as “glow-in” instead of rhyming with “coin”

I don’t want to watch the reviews. I don’t feel like cringing that hard when all the people who know nothing about LOTR butcher everything about it lol including the name Nah it’s Orthanc. It’s definitely a mistake on the map and it’s definitely inside Mordor, east of the Ephel Dúath

The first nine to buy it become Ringwraiths. ”nine sets were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else, desire Lego”

And into this set he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate the lego market

Nine companions…so be it. You shall be the Fellowship…of the Brick!

Don’t forget Hogwarts had four minifigs. This has 15 plus 5 statues. Gotta count for something. Plus a lot of new accessory molds. Clearly this set had more invested into it

After perusing Brickset’s review, I did some digging and it turns out the one painting is indeed Ost-In-Edhil and not Gondolin. Learn something new every day. For some reason I always thought that Alan Lee piece was Gondolin. It does bear striking resemblances.

I’m not sure about this, most LOTR fans and LOTR collectors are used to very expensive collectibles. Many people in some of the Tolkien communities I’m in that don’t buy lego have expressed serious interest in the set already

Yeah, I’ve made lists for CMFs that aren’t accompanied by anything else and I’ve made lists for CMFs that go along with possible sets and it’s a lot of fun to come up with the lists

I’ve mapped out so many CMF series concepts for LOTR it’s ridiculous. It would be hard to narrow it down to one series of twelve figures. But knowing lego, four slots would most likely be the Hobbits. I think the best CMF options would be variants that wouldn’t appear in sets. For example, the most likely version of Eowyn to appear in a set down the line is a Dernhelm version from the Battle of Pelennor Fields. So maybe a Helm’s Deep version or an Edoras version would be perfect for a CMF

Same, about 25 years of Tolkien reading here. I’ve read everything, most of it multiple times, some a ridiculous amount of times. I’m certainly no stranger to the deep lore, to put it lightly. And I had a blast with the show, even if I hated some things. Do I wish they stuck more closely to the writings? Of course. But so I wish the showrunners had a bit of a different approach? Yes. But they also had so many incredible things in there that blew me away. They didn’t have to have to have the Bough of Return on the prow of the Númenorean ships, but they did. Things like that really impressed me, even if the actual story was mostly original for the first season. Not to mention the music and the visuals. And I’ll say it, there was plenty of moments with bad writing but there were also a lot with excellent writing. Same with acting. Overall I thought it was beautiful, even though there was a lot I would have done differently. And to bring it back to lego, I would prefer Peter Jackson film sets, but I think Rings of Power earned some recognition in lego as well.

I do feel that any Tolkien fan that is familiar enough with his work should be able to appreciate the great aspects of the show (there are plenty), regardless of the terrible aspects (there are also plenty of these). Just saying “the show is trash” is objectively untrue. I’m really not sure why so many people can only see things in black and white these days

I agree with this completely. It always seems so black and white to people these days. Either something is amazing or it’s terrible. Why can’t something be just fine? I think the show had some really great aspects and some really bad aspects. But I think it is certainly worthy of the lego treatment either way. I think it’ll come down more to licensing than anything else. Merchandise for the show has been absent because of the transition and acquisition of merchandising rights but it’s coming

Best we’ll ever get are Easter eggs and small references to the books, like the Gondolin, Vingilot, and forging of the Rings stickers, which are all based on unused Alan Lee artwork that were going to be featured in Rivendell in the films but didn’t make it, if I recall correctly. I’m terrible at getting images to post here but you can look them up, they’re based directly on those pieces by Alan Lee