Balrogofmorgoth

I mean I have every set from LOTR and The Hobbit but that certainly doesn’t diminish any excitement for what we might see from this set. 10 years is a long time, and lego designs have come a long way. I’m very excited to see what they do with it

Exactly, those sets and figures were ahead of their time but that certainly doesn’t mean they can’t do better now. I for one am very interested in the figures and seeing what improvements and updates they make

you’re not wrong, but it’s usually a lot harder with D2C sets. Although minifig leaks for D2C sets have been fairly common lately (Lupin, Kuiil, Mythrol, Sinister Strange, etc.) so hopefully we’ll get to see some juicy minifig leaks for Rivendell at some point

They didn’t make a set where the Witch King fit, which is a completely valid frustration in and of itself. But the Mouth was perfect for the Black Gate set. To leave him out of that set just because we didn’t have the Witch King yet would be stupid. I mean that’s one of the best minifigures lego has ever released, it would be such a waste to exclude him based on simply not having the Witch King

The current secondary market prices for the old LOTR sets makes me wish I had gotten a second Orthanc and kept it sealed! Some of the regular sets too for that matter. It’s insane how much people are selling them for. I may have to get multiples of the Brickheadz just in case

Yes but imagine if those were the only Star Wars sets…think of how much would be missing When have a said it’s one set I don’t like? I’ve specifically named several. It’s becoming a trend. Also I never said the LOTR sets that came out before were perfect. There will always be nitpicks. But there’s a difference between a good set with some negative aspects and a set that has very little or nothing to offer. The overwhelming majority of people I’ve talked to have shared the same frustrations with some of these sets, I’m not making this up based purely on my own personal opinion. I’ve also talked to lego employees whose stores are struggling big time to sell these sets. I’m not sure why you’re trying so hard to make me trust lego with a purely adult oriented LOTR theme, it was never my intention to take this discussion this far. I’m merely stating my concern. Side note: anyone who complained that the Mouth of Sauron was in the set is not worth listening to. That’s just straight up nonsensical bs

I’m not saying this set will be bad. All I’m saying is that based on observation of other sets, I would be worried if lego launched this theme with only adults in mind. And yes, 5x vip points of specific sets is a very clear indication of desperation for sales.

I’m not even trying to make it about those other sets honestly, my main point is that we can look at a lot of recent D2C sets, mostly licensed ones, and see that not very many adults like them or want them. Even leaving out sales numbers, it’s hard to find members of the lego community that don’t dislike a lot of these sets. With that in mind, I think it’s a valid concern that if lego decides to only aim LOTR at adults, they very well could miss the mark and design sets that people just don’t want and offer very little value to people

5x vip points is a clear indication. And yes, I’ve spoken to lego store employees so I know what sets haven’t sold well. Besides, you don’t have to go very far into the lego corner of the internet to see that nobody wants this Hulkbuster

Let me rephrase. They are out of touch with their adult market in licensed themes. There might be a good one every now and then, like the Sanctum. But more often than not it seems to be a Hulkbuster situation. A lot of their licensed D2C sets have not been selling well

It’s not just the Black Panther set. Hogwarts Icons? Hogwarts Express isn’t terrible but nobody wanted it, and I don’t know very many people that are buying it. And then there’s the Hulkbuster…yikes. It’s very clear that lego is completely out of touch with their adult market, which is why I have little faith in a LOTR theme if they only target adults

So many people are saying “I have zero interest in Brickheadz but I’ll buy these because it’s LOTR”. I think the demand is higher than people understand. Hopefully Avatar will fail and they can scrap it for LOTR lol

That would certainly be better than nothing. But it would mean missing out on so many possible minifigures and scenes. I’m still holding out hope (however slim) that we’ll get at least a few waves of sets before they cancel it again

This is all true, but my fear is that because lego seems to understand very little about their adult market, they will run it into the ground if that remains their only target audience. They seem to think we don’t like minifigures and only buy statues and busts and over scaled builds that nobody ever asked for. And then when those don’t sell, they turn around and say marketing to adults doesn’t work. Their marketing data clearly doesn’t reflect reality sometimes

It’s dark, but overall I would say it’s more child friendly in other areas. It doesn’t rely on crude humor and bad language like Marvel movies for example. It has a wholesomeness to it that most movies don’t

That’s my thought as well. They’ll release a $500 set and three Brickheadz and say “LOTR doesn’t sell well” no you just don’t understand your market

I’ve just never met a kid that didn’t love LOTR after being introduced to it. Kids love sword fights and bows and arrows and dragons and things like that. I think the circumstances around The Hobbit films had way more to do with the theme being cancelled least time than kids not liking LOTR sets. I do agree that they overdid some of the play features but most of the time they were pretty well hidden so it just didn’t bother me. I think the style they had going last time was almost perfect, they just chose some of the wrong things at the wrong time to make into sets. I don’t think anyone would want only big D2C sets and no regular sets, most afols don’t think that way, even though lego refuses to understand that. They also had the disadvantage of The Hobbit splitting into three films and then ultimately not being very well received.

I still don’t get how they got the hair color wrong for Aragorn and Frodo when the source material has been available for over 20 years now. But other than that and Frodo’s receding hairline, I think these are awesome! Seeing the higher quality images makes me more excited. I’ll definitely be getting all three

Thanks! Lego has updated a lot of parts even since I’ve made this, so I’m sure they could design something really good if they just gave the theme a real fighting chance

If the Gollum mold doesn’t come back, we riot

There are a couple LOTR molds that are still in circulation. For example, we got the hobbit hair piece in a Jurassic World set in 2020, and the Uruk-Hai sword has been used in several themes like Ninjago and Star Wars. But the molds don’t last forever so if they aren’t being used, I believe they are typically discarded, because it wouldn’t be worth the upkeep for a mold that isn’t being used. But there are examples of old molds coming back like the Bellatrix hair piece for example, which was only used once (for Nexo Knights) between the old Harry Potter run and the reboot so maybe it’s not so hard to recreate old molds that have already gone through the design process.

The annoying thing is that the helmet for the 2020 CMF Viking is a very close match to Eowyn’s “Dernhelm” helmet. They just like to tease us

If the theme really gets revived, I hope to see multiple versions of Arwen. She has so many gorgeous costumes in the films, I’d love to see a handful of them in minifigure form

Gotta be honest, I’ve never understood the hate for Pirate Ship Ambush. It’s a great set

It’s such a tough balance. If lego makes a Balrog, I think their best bet is to have a molded head, cloth wings similar to the 2022 Horntail, and most likely a new whip piece. I just don’t see any other way that would work well for an official set. They could probably brick build a fiery sword, if they include it at all, and then the rest can also be brick built