56 minutes ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

I'm going to say something that might surprise some, but... I hope Lego does NOT release another big LOTR set for a while, at very least until after they retire either Rivendell or Barad Dur. Sure most people would LOVE Minas Tirith, but let's think about this from a consumers perspective. Lego is about to have TWO MASSIVE LOTR sets on shelves, one is good the other is bad. Do they REALLY need Minia Tirith at this point? I would argue no. I think it's time for sets under $100, to fill out the theme, not another $500 plus set. I'm not saying they should be "playset" style, they could be diagrams, or CMF, etc. 

What do you all think? Agree with me or no?

I could not disagree more. I really hope they will continue releasing one big set every year, starting with Minas Tirith next year. This does not prevent them from releasing also smaller sets if they think there is a market for it.

1 hour ago, Altair1 said:

I could not disagree more. I really hope they will continue releasing one big set every year, starting with Minas Tirith next year. This does not prevent them from releasing also smaller sets if they think there is a market for it.

Oversaturating the LOTR D2C market would be a bad move for the theme’s survival. I agree that after this year we need playsets, and then do more large scale D2Cs in a couple years

2 hours ago, Captain Pirate Man said:

I'm going to say something that might surprise some, but... I hope Lego does NOT release another big LOTR set for a while, at very least until after they retire either Rivendell or Barad Dur. Sure most people would LOVE Minas Tirith, but let's think about this from a consumers perspective. Lego is about to have TWO MASSIVE LOTR sets on shelves, one is good the other is bad. Do they REALLY need Minia Tirith at this point? I would argue no. I think it's time for sets under $100, to fill out the theme, not another $500 plus set. I'm not saying they should be "playset" style, they could be diagrams, or CMF, etc. 

Completely disagree. I hope LEGO continues to roll out big sets for LOTR every year. We are going to have two absolutely amazing sets by the end of this year, and I believe LEGO can go 3 for 3 next year with a Minas Tirith. That is not to say I don't want smaller sets, but given the option between the two, I would rather get big, detailed sets packed with figs.

Everybody seems so convinced Minas Tirith would be next year’s D2C. I think Helm’s Deep would be much more likely considering it will be coming back to the screen with War of the Rohirrim at the end of this year

30 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Oversaturating the LOTR D2C market would be a bad move for the theme’s survival. I agree that after this year we need playsets, and then do more large scale D2Cs in a couple years

If we look at Star Wars and Harry Potter that doesn´t seem to be an issue, although surely many buy just some and not all of them. 

34 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

If we look at Star Wars and Harry Potter that doesn´t seem to be an issue, although surely many buy just some and not all of them. 

I’m not sure it makes much sense to compare it to two of legos most popular and successful themes ever. It hasn’t really gotten off the ground yet. 

Personally I’ll take whatever (non-BrickHeadz) sets LEGO gives to us. I am leaning to wanting (and my pocketbook would appreciate) smaller play sets. I believe the smaller sets would sell very well, and would increase the likelihood of more smaller sets down the road. However, if we get one or more large sets like RD and BD, then so be it. Right now anything is great! For the larger sets, I hope for as many new or unique minifigures as possible, like RD. Can’t wait to see the official release of BD (Tuesday?) The GWP sounds exciting and may cause me to purchase day one. Will this be June 1st, or is there a chance of it releasing a couple days early for VIP members? 

I do want to see the really big sets continue. But they’re very popular, I don’t see Rivendell retiring in the usual time frame. So it doesn’t make sense to have four or five $500 LOTR D2C sets on shelves at once if they do one every year. They’ll have to start skipping a year if they want to keep making those sets, which is fine with me as long as we have other LOTR sets in the meantime. I’m banking on a regular theme at this point. Playsets, dioramas, and definitely battle packs are all on the table. All I can say is I hope they do it

12 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

I do want to see the really big sets continue. But they’re very popular, I don’t see Rivendell retiring in the usual time frame. So it doesn’t make sense to have four or five $500 LOTR D2C sets on shelves at once if they do one every year. They’ll have to start skipping a year if they want to keep making those sets, which is fine with me as long as we have other LOTR sets in the meantime. I’m banking on a regular theme at this point. Playsets, dioramas, and definitely battle packs are all on the table. All I can say is I hope they do it

I am good with an every other year approach to get the theme going.  We need sets in the $20 range, $50, and $100 to let the theme grow (especially with all the movies coming up).  Having 3-4 giant sets on shelves without any lower cost sets seems like a mistake in approach.  

All I know is that as someone who has been an avid Harry Potter theme collector who is feeling very, very burnt out by the theme this year (and it's constant repeats). I am loving the once a year huge Lord of the Rings sets. Finding since i've gotten into the larger D2C sets that I have very little interest in displaying smaller sets now. Even my old Helms Deep set feels too small and basic to want to build and display now. But maybe i'm just not that desperate for smaller sets because I have most of the old ones and have a near complete figure line up anyway. 

So glad I got my wife the Smaug set for Christmas when it came out after seeing the price of that guy now! Lol.

 

18 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

I am good with an every other year approach to get the theme going.  We need sets in the $20 range, $50, and $100 to let the theme grow (especially with all the movies coming up).  Having 3-4 giant sets on shelves without any lower cost sets seems like a mistake in approach.  

I really don't understand why we are getting 2 gollum movies coming.  I don't think this is a good idea for LOTR.  That being said I hope we get sets for the War of the Rohirrim and the Hunt for Gollum.  But we don't know what lego has the rights to and if they even can make sets from those movies.  

I wonder what the wider public would think of LOTR playsets? I'd personally probably be a completionist with the theme if they produced them. Like, I'd borderline consider collecting all LOTR brickheadz if they continue the line, even though I've never bought a brickheadz set before. 

My hunch is there would be a great market, as lots of older collectors grew up with LOTR and have some income to invest in the theme for LEGO. But, I just don't know if the theme would have the same appeal as evergreens like Star Wars and Harry Potter.

4 minutes ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

I wonder what the wider public would think of LOTR playsets? I'd personally probably be a completionist with the theme if they produced them. Like, I'd borderline consider collecting all LOTR brickheadz if they continue the line, even though I've never bought a brickheadz set before. 

My hunch is there would be a great market, as lots of older collectors grew up with LOTR and have some income to invest in the theme for LEGO. But, I just don't know if the theme would have the same appeal as evergreens like Star Wars and Harry Potter.

That would depend on the sets that would be made in my opinion.  I think that a lot of LOTR fans would like to collect some new sets and maybe update some of the older sets that came out a decade ago.  If the sets that are made are good quality and have good figs I think that people would definitely buy them up.  

35 minutes ago, chris6507 said:

All I know is that as someone who has been an avid Harry Potter theme collector who is feeling very, very burnt out by the theme this year (and it's constant repeats). I am loving the once a year huge Lord of the Rings sets. Finding since i've gotten into the larger D2C sets that I have very little interest in displaying smaller sets now. Even my old Helms Deep set feels too small and basic to want to build and display now. But maybe i'm just not that desperate for smaller sets because I have most of the old ones and have a near complete figure line up anyway. 

So glad I got my wife the Smaug set for Christmas when it came out after seeing the price of that guy now! Lol.

 

I think the Harry Potter reboot theme was initially approached perfectly. Then the team became obsessed with revisiting all the same old things over and over and over again. There’s so much they just refuse to cover for some reason, always going back to the same stuff, with only one or two new things per year. A LOTR reboot would have to avoid that trap in order to succeed. I think there’s definitely enough material to cover and plenty of characters and variations of characters to keep it going long enough to cover everything important. A handful of solid years of good full waves of sets and D2Cs is all it would need with very little repetition. Throw in a CMF or two and it’s pretty much all covered 

15 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

I think the Harry Potter reboot theme was initially approached perfectly. Then the team became obsessed with revisiting all the same old things over and over and over again. There’s so much they just refuse to cover for some reason, always going back to the same stuff, with only one or two new things per year. A LOTR reboot would have to avoid that trap in order to succeed. I think there’s definitely enough material to cover and plenty of characters and variations of characters to keep it going long enough to cover everything important. A handful of solid years of good full waves of sets and D2Cs is all it would need with very little repetition. Throw in a CMF or two and it’s pretty much all covered 

I'm definitely not against them making smaller sets, and agree the original few waves of the Harry Potter reboot were great. I was originally buying everything and then it started not just repeating and getting more and more expensive but coming a bit too thick and too fast. For now i'm just going to enjoy the Lord of the Rings sets with one big beautiful build at a time and a breather for my wallet in between. :-) 

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be quite this chill about it if I didn't have the old sets though. I'll admit that!  It's not all about me after all! 

Given that the characters in Lord of the Rings don't exactly have a lot of costume changes if there was to be a CMF (Which I don't see happening), what do you all think would be in it given that it would have to appeal to a wider audience they probably wouldn't do super obscure characters?

Edited May 13, 2024May 13 by chris6507

I do genuinely believe there’s more demand and popularity around a LOTR theme than a lot of people understand. There are a lot of reasons why it failed last time. I strongly feel that it would be different this time. One thing last time was that there was a lot of repetition in minifigs. While some characters would repeat, I think they would focus more on exact outfits characters are wearing during different scenes, something they didn’t really do as much as they could have last time. They excel at this with Harry Potter, and judging by Aragorn’s Rivendell-specific attire in the D2C last year, I think they would do well with it here too, which could be a big draw to certain sets

Edited May 13, 2024May 13 by Balrogofmorgoth

1 minute ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

I do genuinely believe there’s more demand and popularity around a LOTR theme than a lot of people understand. There are a lot of reasons why it failed last time. I strongly feel that it would be different this time. One thing last time was that there was a lot of repetition in minifigs. While some characters would repeat, I think they would focus more on exact outfits characters are wearing during different scenes, something they didn’t really do as much as they could have last time. They excel at this with Harry Potter, and judging by Aragorn’s Rivendell-specific attire in the D2C last year, I think they would do well with it here too, which could be a big draw to certain sets

Do you think the transition to mostly Hobbit related sets hurt the theme? I liked getting all the characters, but the sets kinda sucked and didn't feel very iconic.

I love Rivendell, and think Barad Dur will be great, but a $500 set every year will tire very quickly. Money and/or space will become limiting factors for many, the subject options will be too limited and you'd miss on things that could be great, but wouldn't make a $500 set. Weathertop is an obvious example. I'd love a mix of UCS sets, dioramas, and playsets. Dioramas are great and I love the look, build techniques, and subjects, but they are expensive, so trying to mass figures doesn't work. Some battle packs/playsets would be really valuable for this.

7 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

I love Rivendell, and think Barad Dur will be great, but a $500 set every year will tire very quickly. Money and/or space will become limiting factors for many, the subject options will be too limited and you'd miss on things that could be great, but wouldn't make a $500 set. Weathertop is an obvious example. I'd love a mix of UCS sets, dioramas, and playsets. Dioramas are great and I love the look, build techniques, and subjects, but they are expensive, so trying to mass figures doesn't work. Some battle packs/playsets would be really valuable for this.

Agreed

8 minutes ago, chris6507 said:

Do you think the transition to mostly Hobbit related sets hurt the theme? I liked getting all the characters, but the sets kinda sucked and didn't feel very iconic.

I think it had a lot to do with it, especially with the way The Hobbit films were received. Unfortunately that means it’s unlikely we’ll get anything from The Hobbit. While I would absolutely prioritize LOTR, it would be nice to get some things we never got from The Hobbit movies

1 hour ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

I wonder what the wider public would think of LOTR playsets? I'd personally probably be a completionist with the theme if they produced them. Like, I'd borderline consider collecting all LOTR brickheadz if they continue the line, even though I've never bought a brickheadz set before. 

My hunch is there would be a great market, as lots of older collectors grew up with LOTR and have some income to invest in the theme for LEGO. But, I just don't know if the theme would have the same appeal as evergreens like Star Wars and Harry Potter.

I think the key is to keep the theme adult oriented. Focus more on affordable display pieces such as dioramas and buildable creatures rather than simplified builds targeted towards kids.

1 hour ago, chris6507 said:

I'm definitely not against them making smaller sets, and agree the original few waves of the Harry Potter reboot were great. I was originally buying everything and then it started not just repeating and getting more and more expensive but coming a bit too thick and too fast. For now i'm just going to enjoy the Lord of the Rings sets with one big beautiful build at a time and a breather for my wallet in between. :-) 

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be quite this chill about it if I didn't have the old sets though. I'll admit that!  It's not all about me after all! 

Given that the characters in Lord of the Rings don't exactly have a lot of costume changes if there was to be a CMF (Which I don't see happening), what do you all think would be in it given that it would have to appeal to a wider audience they probably wouldn't do super obscure characters?

On the contrary, I think there’s plenty of variation in designs throughout the films. The Hobbits alone have several options. Party attire, travel attire, jacketless, vestless, Gondor for Pippin, Rohan for Merry, Sammath Naur versions for Frodo and Sam (which I hope we’re about to get), as well as Orc disguises, coronation attire, outfits they wear as they re-enter the Shire, and Grey Havens outfits. Aragorn has his ranger attire, Rivendell attire (done), Ranger attire without the coat, Helm’s Deep chain mail attire, Black Gate outfit, coronation armor. Arwen and Elrond have a ton of beautiful outfits. Éowyn has a handful. Legolas has a few. Théoden has a few. Faramir has a few. Bilbo has a few. You get the idea. There are also plenty of soldier type characters they could do that might not fit in sets. Not to mention the sheer number of named characters that could take up several CMFs without any repeats with different outfits.

38 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

On the contrary, I think there’s plenty of variation in designs throughout the films. The Hobbits alone have several options. Party attire, travel attire, jacketless, vestless, Gondor for Pippin, Rohan for Merry, Sammath Naur versions for Frodo and Sam (which I hope we’re about to get), as well as Orc disguises, coronation attire, outfits they wear as they re-enter the Shire, and Grey Havens outfits. Aragorn has his ranger attire, Rivendell attire (done), Ranger attire without the coat, Helm’s Deep chain mail attire, Black Gate outfit, coronation armor. Arwen and Elrond have a ton of beautiful outfits. Éowyn has a handful. Legolas has a few. Théoden has a few. Faramir has a few. Bilbo has a few. You get the idea. There are also plenty of soldier type characters they could do that might not fit in sets. Not to mention the sheer number of named characters that could take up several CMFs without any repeats with different outfits.

Plus CMFs add extra details that a playset minifigure may not have (side leg printing, arm prints, custom molds, etc.)  this would allow for more detailed characters in addition to the dozens of orc options.

 

i do think the hobbit line hurt LOTR at the time.  I was buying them and made some decisions to hold off on buying certain sets (multiple copies) because there were a bunch of hobbit sets competing with LOTR.  Later in the theme I chose not to buy some of the hobbit sets holding out for Gondor sets which never happened (was saving to buy as many as I could - Lego didn’t make them so I stopped collecting for a long time).  I’m one example but I am sure there are others who would have bought more copies of LOTR sets if the hobbit line wasn’t out (and honestly wasn’t as good - bag end was great and the minifigs were but the sets overall were not).

I’ll take whatever I can get but would prefer smaller sets as they are more accessible for average consumers so I can find them in bulk lots in 3-5 years. It’s also much easier to army build with $30 sets. I do feel like the design quality of the hobbit sets was a bit of a let down although I am glad we got An unexpected gathering.  

I think Lego should make a third large D2C featuring the a scene/ location from ROTK. Then they can take a 'break' and perhaps offer small insignificant sets like Brickheadz. I wouldn't mind playsets though, or any smaller set for that matter.

Wasn't the Frodo Brickheadz set the GWP with Rivendell? What if this Fellbeast set will eventually be for sale later on?

5 hours ago, chris6507 said:

All I know is that as someone who has been an avid Harry Potter theme collector who is feeling very, very burnt out by the theme this year (and it's constant repeats). I am loving the once a year huge Lord of the Rings sets. Finding since i've gotten into the larger D2C sets that I have very little interest in displaying smaller sets now. Even my old Helms Deep set feels too small and basic to want to build and display now. But maybe i'm just not that desperate for smaller sets because I have most of the old ones and have a near complete figure line up anyway. 

So glad I got my wife the Smaug set for Christmas when it came out after seeing the price of that guy now! Lol.

 

Same here. I am a long term collector and have all the original sets, so smaller sets don't interest me too much if they don't add anything new. Looking at what has happened to HP, they repeat so many small sets, even if they are not necessarily repeats. A bit of Hogwarts plus a Harry/Ron/Hermione and someone else. That works where many smaller sets are bought by/for kids. Then the more adult oriented high end sets. Without the large kid fan baselike for HP or SW,  I cannot really see a similar model working for LOTR. Hence keeping the adult focused sets but not the kid ones.

3 hours ago, Lordhelmet said:

Plus CMFs add extra details that a playset minifigure may not have (side leg printing, arm prints, custom molds, etc.)  this would allow for more detailed characters in addition to the dozens of orc options.

 

i do think the hobbit line hurt LOTR at the time.  I was buying them and made some decisions to hold off on buying certain sets (multiple copies) because there were a bunch of hobbit sets competing with LOTR.  Later in the theme I chose not to buy some of the hobbit sets holding out for Gondor sets which never happened (was saving to buy as many as I could - Lego didn’t make them so I stopped collecting for a long time).  I’m one example but I am sure there are others who would have bought more copies of LOTR sets if the hobbit line wasn’t out (and honestly wasn’t as good - bag end was great and the minifigs were but the sets overall were not).

Yet we possibly would not have got LOTR at all if it had not been for The Hobbit.