Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[MAB]

47 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

The inflation calculator I used said that $70 in 2011 would be $98 these days. Plus, that set was possibly just slightly overpriced because it had several exclusive, non-reused molds - A new one probably wouldn't need any new molds, just some new prints. So, I think there would be room to expand it a hair, or add in another minifigure.

Clean up the design, switch out the dwarves for Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, and maybe Rosie - or, heck, make it a little bigger and make it $120 - and I'd be all over that!

LEGO hasn't really followed general inflation as it has become much more popular than 10 years ago. Look at what $80 or $100 gets you in HP or Marvel these days. If they released exactly the same Bag End for today's market, I doubt it would be $98 when LEGO know they can squeeze more out of buyers (or include even more smaller parts instead of larger ones).

[Flawless Cowboy]

Is Jedi Bricks a credible leaker? He’s claiming Hobbiton is based on the Hobbit rather than Fellowship, but I don’t see this being confirmed by TandN or anyone else. 

[a_clay_brick]

2 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

Is Jedi Bricks a credible leaker? He’s claiming Hobbiton is based on the Hobbit rather than Fellowship, but I don’t see this being confirmed by TandN or anyone else. 

Seems like he has a legit source, but has a problem with including WAAAAAAAAAAAAY too many assumptions in his graphics. If he would stick to only posting the confirmed stuff from his sources, I think he can fix his reputation as a leaker. Also I'll say he's a very nice guy

[ForgedInLego]

There are a lot of LOTR things I am willing to spend $400+ on, in fact I have both Barad Dur and Rivendell! But the Shire is not one of them. Should have been in the $200 range, especially because any of the figs I would care about will be repeats

6 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

Is Jedi Bricks a credible leaker? He’s claiming Hobbiton is based on the Hobbit rather than Fellowship, but I don’t see this being confirmed by TandN or anyone else. 

One less reason for me to get it, I despise those movies 

[Flawless Cowboy]

5 minutes ago, a_clay_brick said:

Seems like he has a legit source,

I’m thinking the opposite, he made a video claiming it’s based on the Fellowship, and half an hour later he flip flopped. Based on what? He’s not a big leaker. And this would strike me as very odd considering the Hobbit films were not well received and are nowhere near as popular as the LOTR trilogy. 

[a_clay_brick]

10 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

I’m thinking the opposite, he made a video claiming it’s based on the Fellowship, and half an hour later he flip flopped. Based on what? He’s not a big leaker. And this would strike me as very odd considering the Hobbit films were not well received and are nowhere near as popular as the LOTR trilogy. 

A few of the things he was the first to report recently have been semi-corroborated by reputable sources, I say semi because every time its just been corroboration the set exists but nothing about the details. I think he gets a tip like "There's a shire set coming" then fills in the details with guesswork.

[Flawless Cowboy]

23 minutes ago, a_clay_brick said:

A few of the things he was the first to report recently have been semi-corroborated by reputable sources, I say semi because every time its just been corroboration the set exists but nothing about the details. I think he gets a tip like "There's a shire set coming" then fills in the details with guesswork.

TandN was the first to leak it, I believe 

[a_clay_brick]

4 minutes ago, Flawless Cowboy said:

TandN was the first to leak it, I believe 

He credits Jedi.Sam!

[Flawless Cowboy]

2 hours ago, a_clay_brick said:

He credits Jedi.Sam!

Curious. He just deleted his post about Hobbiton being a Hobbit set too…

[mirkwoodspiders]

Man, if this is true we have to wait a whole year... I'd almost rather not have the news and be blissfully ignorant. I wonder if it will be the big-ticket Black Friday item for next fall.

[Lordhelmet]

I am rooting for Rosie to be a minifigure. If the rumor is true At $400 for a shire I expect at least 10 minifigures.  And if Lego was feeling like being awesome it would be closer to 20 like the cantina.  I figure if it’s the shire we get Gandalf, bilbo, Frodo, merry, pippen, Sam,  that should give us at least four extra hobbits.  I would vote for the following (Rosie, odo, lobelia, lotho, hamfast, farmer maggot). It also might be nice to get one or two random hobbits on top so 14 total.  Seems reasonable at $400.  Plus for Lego it’s no leg printing on all but one character, reusing at least five characters.

 

this is all assuming it’s LOTR not the hobbit.  

[hikouki]

So happy to hear we will be getting a new set. Although I was really hoping something more along the lines of a Minas Tirith set.

[JohnTPT17]

Look, @Horation - I get that you're an opinionated fellow. You've shown in multiple threads across the site that you have some very strongly held beliefs, and I don't think either of us will be changing each other's minds, so I'm just not going to respond to your counterpoints, since I'm sure that you will have issues with any opinions that aren't your own. Still, comments like:

6 hours ago, Horation said:

if you were to go back and fully read my comment

6 hours ago, Horation said:

I really don't understand how you could understand this part

Are not helpful to making your point - you're just being an aggressive bully by trying to attack me personally, and not my comments/ideas (and if you want to disagree with those - that's fine). I, and other people on this site, are not illiterate idiots - we we just have different ideas that don't always line up with yours. And, frankly, this is a tactic that you've pulled multiple times before. I come here to get news, advice, jokes, and some civil discussion - not to be cyberbullied.

I got into an argument once before and muted you, but thought I'd give it a second chance - and I'm just not going to engage with you any further. Go find someone else to pick on and belittle, because I'm done with your bad attitude.

6 hours ago, MAB said:

LEGO hasn't really followed general inflation as it has become much more popular than 10 years ago. Look at what $80 or $100 gets you in HP or Marvel these days. If they released exactly the same Bag End for today's market, I doubt it would be $98 when LEGO know they can squeeze more out of buyers (or include even more smaller parts instead of larger ones).

That's fair - but I can dream!

[Roebuck]

3 hours ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

I'd almost rather not have the news and be blissfully ignorant.

Sometimes it actually is better to be blissfully ignorant so I get your point, with the MTS I had huge expectations for a year after that damm survey leak. Was expecting maybe one of the best sets off all time with a lot of animals and minifigs, instead we got a decent set restricted by budget with one goat and few minifigs

In this set I expect Gandalf in the horse-drawn carriage, but maybe some hobbits tending crops, vegetables and maybe a pig and a couple of sheep if we are lucky like in the movie:
 

 

[MKJoshA]

I own Rivendell. I passed on Barad-dur because it's just not a location I prefer to display and isn't a good enough parts pack to get it for that reason. But I am very excited for a Shire set. Sure, I want Edoras and Gondor. But it seems like Lego is prepared to release more LOTR so I fully expect we'll see those eventually.

11 hours ago, Horation said:

Now it's true that they could make army-building sets, but people around these parts way overestimate the sales this would generate, I've in my whole life rarely seen a Lego army of even a hundred figs, and almost all of these were from "clone bros" buying loads of sets because of the community around Star Wars army-building. The truth is that the additional sales would be relatively small, since few people really buy more than one set, and even then, you'd need a lot of sales to make up the difference. Now do you really think a 20$ battle pack would sell 25 times more copies than the 500$ Rivendell? Don't forget that lots of people who'd buy 10 or 20 battle packs would also buy the bigger set.

Welcome to the LOTR part of the forum. This is strike 1 and 2. Strike 3 and you're out. As for a finer point of critique, just because you've never seen a Lego army of one hundred or more figs doesn't mean they don't exist. Lego has made many types of army builders including LOTR ones back in the day. If it was such a horrible financial choice why did Lego do it in the past and why are they continuing to do it now?

[Artanis I]

Another shire set? Pass. I'll army-build with D&D minifigs instead.

[Black Falcon]

14 hours ago, Horation said:

Now it's true that they could make army-building sets, but people around these parts way overestimate the sales this would generate, I've in my whole life rarely seen a Lego army of even a hundred figs, and almost all of these were from "clone bros" buying loads of sets because of the community around Star Wars army-building.

I think you are underestimating the demand for Army building in other themes a bit. Especially Fantasy- and Medieval- themes have always been quite popular for Army building. You can also see that quite well when you´re looking at the CMFs and which figures are the most popular there. Or Pick a Brick when new Medival figures are released there. Some people got huge Armys of the Black Falcon and/or Lion Knights avaiable now to build their armys and the same goes for all the older castle and fantasy factions such as dwarfs, trolls and orcs. 

As for Lord of the Rings, Rohan Army´s also exist, though as the figures are quite expensive nowadays that also limits the number of course - but with a new source for reasonable priced Gondor or Rohan-Soldiers aswell as Orcs those numbers would surely increase.

14 hours ago, Horation said:

The truth is that the additional sales would be relatively small, since few people really buy more than one set, and even then, you'd need a lot of sales to make up the difference. Now do you really think a 20$ battle pack would sell 25 times more copies than the 500$ Rivendell? Don't forget that lots of people who'd buy 10 or 20 battle packs would also buy the bigger set. 

d They would buy the bigger set but only once. More people would buy the smaller set and while surely there are many that buy it only once, and the number of people that buy ten or more copys for army building would be relatively small you shouldn´t forget that people also buy those sets for their bricklink stores to sell the figures seprately - or well ebay, amazon etc. So I wouldn´t underestimate the numbers some single people might buy for themselves or their stores.

Aside from that I don´t actually think that the number of people that would buy 2-5 copys would be that small either.

14 hours ago, Horation said:

C)Speculation doesn't, but observations do, if making small LOTR sets was such a good idea, they'd surely be doing it, yet we see the opposite, and since we can't see their spreadsheets, why would we think that we know better than they do?

You could have said the same for LotR Sets in general though. They haven´t done them for years. And yet when they did it again it was a success still. ;).

2 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

I own Rivendell. I passed on Barad-dur because it's just not a location I prefer to display and isn't a good enough parts pack to get it for that reason. But I am very excited for a Shire set. Sure, I want Edoras and Gondor. But it seems like Lego is prepared to release more LOTR so I fully expect we'll see those eventually.

I can understand that. I had no interest in Barad-Dûr at all really. I mean it looks great and all but it just isn´t soemthing I would like to display. On the other side I really do like Rivendell but havn´t bought that either yet. Still not sure if I will, since I don´t really have a place for it and it is still a lot money. I´d need a bigger appartement first. Might regret it later if I am not getting it though, but for now I still have time to think about it before it retires.

Bag End on the other side is again something I am not as interested in. So would be an easier skip again, though you never really know before you´ve seen it. But personally I would rather have a small Gandalfs Arrival Set again, that would be enough for me actually ;)

[RichardGoring]

17 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

...

I can understand that. I had no interest in Barad-Dûr at all really. I mean it looks great and all but it just isn´t soemthing I would like to display. On the other side I really do like Rivendell but havn´t bought that either yet. Still not sure if I will, since I don´t really have a place for it and it is still a lot money. I´d need a bigger appartement first. Might regret it later if I am not getting it though, but for now I still have time to think about it before it retires.

Bag End on the other side is again something I am not as interested in. So would be an easier skip again, though you never really know before you´ve seen it. But personally I would rather have a small Gandalfs Arrival Set again, that would be enough for me actually ;)

It's definitely not one for army building, and it doesn't really fit into most castle setups, but it looks so nice. It really does. I enjoying seeing it every day and the build was genuinely fabulous. Definitely worth strong consideration before it retires!

[MAB]

I have all the original minifigures so couldn't really justify buying Rivendell, and also have the issue of space to display it. So instead of buying it, I bought the parts and built the gazebo (almost exactly as in the set), a courtyard for the Council or Elrond (mainly the chairs, plus a MOC base and a facade of the buildings and the roof (buildings=MOC, roof similar to the set). It cost me about £60 in parts and fits my display shelf perfectly as it was made to fit.

The Shire sounds like they will re-re-re-release Frodo and Sam, and re-re-release Merry and Pippin. If they are in the same outfits, that set will be an easy pass. The original Bag End was a nice size to display with the Gandalf Arrives set, the other three hobbits and a few custom hobbits inc Rosie Cotton. No doubt a bigger set will look great but also take up a lot of space again so if it provides not much new, I'll leave it.

For Rosie I use .. hair=Madam Rosmerta, head=can't remember, probably an HP one, body=Endor Leia, legs=plain short. A better torso print would be nice, but my existing one is fine.

Edited October 4, 2024 by MAB

[Lordhelmet]

3 hours ago, MKJoshA said:

But I am very excited for a Shire set. Sure, I want Edoras and Gondor. But it seems like Lego is prepared to release more LOTR so I fully expect we'll see those eventually.

I believe this is right but after how the theme ended last time without Gondor I would like for them to hurry up and do it earlier than later :). I remember reading these forums ten years ago looking for news of Gondor and thinking “they will get to Gondor, how could they not do Gondor”?  Hopefully we get a full wave soon which would fix this.  Also Edoras would be awesome I like how in the upcoming movie it looks like they made it the same as before with all the details.

 

I am all about getting some army builder sets.  I only have 40-50 Uruk Hai, a dozen elves and a dozen Rohan.  Would love to at a minimum triple those numbers.  Rohan battle packs would be awesome but are tough because of the horses.  I think they could sell a Rohan battle pack with two horses (with unique Rohan printing) and two soldiers for the $20 or three of each at $30 with a small side build.

i would probably buy the most of a Mordor orc battle pack (could re use the Barad Dur orcs) and Gondor battle packs. But LOtR could do all the different factions and I think they would get decent to good sales.

CMF line would also be good if one or two spots were army builder options but that might end up being the most expensive as those army builders would be pricey quickly in the after market.

 

[MAB]

7 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

I believe this is right but after how the theme ended last time without Gondor I would like for them to hurry up and do it earlier than later :). I remember reading these forums ten years ago looking for news of Gondor and thinking “they will get to Gondor, how could they not do Gondor”? 

Yeah. they tricked us all into thinking that!

7 minutes ago, Lordhelmet said:

I am all about getting some army builder sets.  I only have 40-50 Uruk Hai, a dozen elves and a dozen Rohan.  Would love to at a minimum triple those numbers.  Rohan battle packs would be awesome but are tough because of the horses.  I think they could sell a Rohan battle pack with two horses (with unique Rohan printing) and two soldiers for the $20 or three of each at $30 with a small side build.

Looking at modern SW battle packs, I think $30 with a build is more likely, although two horses in one small set might be pushing it.

But I'd take any army builder at this stage. How about once Barad-Dur has gone, a LOTR version of this $10 set...

Sauron-mech and Witch King vs 2x Gondor soldiers. Even with multiple repeated Saurons and Witch Kings, I'd go for that.

(Joke over!)

 

[mtrsteve]

32 minutes ago, MAB said:

Yeah. they tricked us all into thinking that!

Looking at modern SW battle packs, I think $30 with a build is more likely, although two horses in one small set might be pushing it.

But I'd take any army builder at this stage. How about once Barad-Dur has gone, a LOTR version of this $10 set...

Sauron-mech and Witch King vs 2x Gondor soldiers. Even with multiple repeated Saurons and Witch Kings, I'd go for that.

(Joke over!)

 

Sauron-mech just made my day. I'm gonna MOC one after work now for sure. 

[Graupensuppe]

49 minutes ago, MAB said:

I have all the original minifigures so couldn't really justify buying Rivendell, and also have the issue of space to display it. So instead of buying it, I bought the parts and built the gazebo (almost exactly as in the set), a courtyard for the Council or Elrond (mainly the chairs, plus a MOC base and a facade of the buildings and the roof (buildings=MOC, roof similar to the set). It cost me about £60 in parts and fits my display shelf perfectly as it was made to fit.

I updated the 2013 model with some of the new parts and minifigures:

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

Sauron-mech and Witch King vs 2x Gondor soldiers. Even with multiple repeated Saurons and Witch Kings, I'd go for that.

(Joke over!)

I know it's a joke, but a small scale mech-like build for Sauron would probably be amongst the best and most useful of the mechs LEGO has done at this scale, given how much larger Sauron is than others.

And so, because there is a whiff of sanity to it, they don't do it.

$600 Hulkbuster style saggy Sauron mech that can fit a $40 buildable Sauron figure inside it though... now you're talking!

[Black Falcon]

2 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

It's definitely not one for army building, and it doesn't really fit into most castle setups, but it looks so nice. It really does. I enjoying seeing it every day and the build was genuinely fabulous. Definitely worth strong consideration before it retires!

You mean Rivendell I guess? Yeah, when I first saw it I thought I must have it. Honestly a bit disappointed about the minifigs, but aside from that it looks just great. If the Fellbeast would have worked on all LotR-Sets I would have gotten the Fellbeast then, but sadly it was just for the Tower sadly.