I may be chiming in late here (after 168 pages) but has anyone else seen these pics of the box art?

Yeah, those were the first pictures to leak, iirc

Obviously preliminary, but the rearing horses don't look like they have an articulation in their hind legs. Are they a solid piece like the horses of old, or do the back legs move - does anyone know?

Toy fair reports have confirmed that the horses do indeed have articulated hind legs.

That box art looks great, The Pyrate. It looks to me like the horse in Gandalf's cart is the old version.

It looks to me like the horse in Gandalf's cart is the old version.

Enough people have confirmed that the hind legs are articulated, and thus can be placed like that. No old horse in the set.

~ General Magma

Edited February 8, 201213 yr by General Magma

Wow. Looking good so far!

I just realized...aside from Shelob, there are no RoTK sets at all. Next wave? Ah, a Minas Tirith. Or, a Minas Morgul!

All things with time. When LEGO Star Wars first launched in '99, there were just five sets from the original trilogy, including just one tiny one from RotJ (with Luke and a couple biker scouts with their bikes), and a small one from TESB (a $20 Snowspeeder). Such important characters as Leia, Threepio, Han, Chewie, Lando, Yoda, Palpatine, Jabba, and Boba Fett (and even stormtroopers, aside from the biker scouts) weren't available in the entire first year of the theme, and in some cases didn't come until years later, but they eventually happened. Similarly, there weren't any Temple of Doom sets at all in the entire first year of LEGO Indiana Jones, or any minifigures of Elsa or Kazim, or any minifigures of Indy himself in any outfit other than his classic "adventure gear" look... but they all came eventually.

Middle-earth is a huge and hugely popular franchise, and I'm sure it'll be a major LEGO theme; we should get lots more sets with time, and I imagine lots of the "obvious" missing stuff will come.

Wow. Looking good so far!

All things with time. When LEGO Star Wars first launched in '99, there were just five sets from the original trilogy, including just one tiny one from RotJ (with Luke and a couple biker scouts with their bikes), and a small one from TESB (a $20 Snowspeeder). Such important characters as Leia, Threepio, Han, Chewie, Lando, Yoda, Palpatine, Jabba, and Boba Fett (and even stormtroopers, aside from the biker scouts) weren't available in the entire first year of the theme, and in some cases didn't come until years later, but they eventually happened. Similarly, there weren't any Temple of Doom sets at all in the entire first year of LEGO Indiana Jones, or any minifigures of Elsa or Kazim, or any minifigures of Indy himself in any outfit other than his classic "adventure gear" look... but they all came eventually.

Middle-earth is a huge and hugely popular franchise, and I'm sure it'll be a major LEGO theme; we should get lots more sets with time, and I imagine lots of the "obvious" missing stuff will come.

Thank you for the perspective! I remember wanting Yoda so bad, but it was awhile before he showed up. Getting all the Fellowship in the first wave is actually quite impressive, not to mention getting Gollum, Eomer, and others.

That box art looks great, The Pyrate. It looks to me like the horse in Gandalf's cart is the old version.

Those pics are prelim!

All the horses in the LotR sets are the new mould!

The new horse mould is posable!

Enough people have confirmed that the hind legs are articulated, and thus can be placed like that. No old horse in the set.

~ General Magma

OK but it's obvious that it's the old horse in the prelim photos.

OK but it's obvious that it's the old horse in the prelim photos.

It's obvious that those pics are preliminary, you even mention it yourself yet you forget about it somehow.

The more recent ToyFair pictures show a different horse.

~ General Magma

Edited February 8, 201213 yr by General Magma

Those pics are prelim!

All the horses in the LotR sets are the new mould!

The new horse mould is posable!

Well someone's mad today and see my other post. :hmpf:

Edited February 8, 201213 yr by RPGer

Have you noticed the lack of women in the sets? There's no even one, and it's no that Tolkien's work had so many but an Arwen, Eowyn or Galadriel would've been nice. It seems like both, Lego and Tolkien, aren't very interested in giving us much female characters

In other topics... I'm kind of dissapointed in the number of Black Riders/Nazzgul we're getting. I need to have 9 and we're getting only 2 in a set that should've come with at least 3. My counts tell me that is very difficult that Lego gives us enough sets to reach the 9 riders without buying repeated sets, or having to buy the minifigs separately:

- There should be a set with one Black Rider minifig sniffing/sensing the ring when the hobbits are hidden in the root of a big tree.

- There should be a rider minifig in the passing of the Buckleberry Ferry scene.

- Maybe 2 more riders minifigs in a sets that represents the attack in the Prancing Pony. (Without the horses probably though)

- And finally 2 more Nazguls in the scene of the ford, when Arwen and Frodo escapes from them by the rise of the river.

Being as optimistic as posible we're only getting 8 Black Riders with probably just 6 horses and who knows in how much time, because launching these sets may take a while. Let's hope LEGO think of a nice way for us to get all the Nazgul in it's Black Riders version just by buying diferent sets. What do you think?

Have you noticed the lack of women in the sets? There's no even one, and it's no that Tolkien's work had so many but an Arwen, Eowyn or Galadriel would've been nice. It seems like both, Lego and Tolkien, aren't very interested in giving us much female characters

In other topics... I'm kind of dissapointed in the number of Black Riders/Nazzgul we're getting. I need to have 9 and we're getting only 2 in a set that should've come with at least 3. My counts tell me that is very difficult that Lego gives us enough sets to reach the 9 riders without buying repeated sets, or having to buy the minifigs separately:

- There should be a set with one Black Rider minifig sniffing/sensing the ring when the hobbits are hidden in the root of a big tree.

- There should be a rider minifig in the passing of the Buckleberry Ferry scene.

- Maybe 2 more riders minifigs in a sets that represents the attack in the Prancing Pony. (Without the horses probably though)

- And finally 2 more Nazguls in the scene of the ford, when Arwen and Frodo escapes from them by the rise of the river.

Being as optimistic as posible we're only getting 8 Black Riders with probably just 6 horses and who knows in how much time, because launching these sets may take a while. Let's hope LEGO think of a nice way for us to get all the Nazgul in it's Black Riders version just by buying diferent sets. What do you think?

There should be a Witch King vs Théoden & Éowyn set too.

Wow. Looking good so far!

All things with time. When LEGO Star Wars first launched in '99, there were just five sets from the original trilogy, including just one tiny one from RotJ (with Luke and a couple biker scouts with their bikes), and a small one from TESB (a $20 Snowspeeder). Such important characters as Leia, Threepio, Han, Chewie, Lando, Yoda, Palpatine, Jabba, and Boba Fett (and even stormtroopers, aside from the biker scouts) weren't available in the entire first year of the theme, and in some cases didn't come until years later, but they eventually happened. Similarly, there weren't any Temple of Doom sets at all in the entire first year of LEGO Indiana Jones, or any minifigures of Elsa or Kazim, or any minifigures of Indy himself in any outfit other than his classic "adventure gear" look... but they all came eventually.

Middle-earth is a huge and hugely popular franchise, and I'm sure it'll be a major LEGO theme; we should get lots more sets with time, and I imagine lots of the "obvious" missing stuff will come.

Have you noticed the lack of women in the sets? There's no even one, and it's no that Tolkien's work had so many but an Arwen, Eowyn or Galadriel would've been nice. It seems like both, Lego and Tolkien, aren't very interested in giving us much female characters

In other topics... I'm kind of dissapointed in the number of Black Riders/Nazzgul we're getting. I need to have 9 and we're getting only 2 in a set that should've come with at least 3. My counts tell me that is very difficult that Lego gives us enough sets to reach the 9 riders without buying repeated sets, or having to buy the minifigs separately:

- There should be a set with one Black Rider minifig sniffing/sensing the ring when the hobbits are hidden in the root of a big tree.

- There should be a rider minifig in the passing of the Buckleberry Ferry scene.

- Maybe 2 more riders minifigs in a sets that represents the attack in the Prancing Pony. (Without the horses probably though)

- And finally 2 more Nazguls in the scene of the ford, when Arwen and Frodo escapes from them by the rise of the river.

Being as optimistic as posible we're only getting 8 Black Riders with probably just 6 horses and who knows in how much time, because launching these sets may take a while. Let's hope LEGO think of a nice way for us to get all the Nazgul in it's Black Riders version just by buying diferent sets. What do you think?

Yeah, what I'm hoping is that they give us sets to buy 8 Ringwraiths, and then give us a Witch King minifig. Really, the Witch King as he appeared at Minas Tirith is not a whole lot different from the standard Black Rider costume. He has that helmet (which would be TOTALLY AWESOME as a Lego element, woah man ) and he has some shoulder pads.

I think a great solution would be to make a set with the Witch King on his fell beast, and include a black hood...somehow.

I hope that a number of new minifigure items are created/developed for the Lord of the Rings theme: Mushrooms, Pipes, Food, Weapons, Armor, Candles, etc.

Also add a new quiver that can hold a bow to that wish list.

Have you noticed the lack of women in the sets? There's no even one, and it's no that Tolkien's work had so many but an Arwen, Eowyn or Galadriel would've been nice. In other topics... I'm kind of dissapointed in the number of Black Riders/Nazzgul we're getting.

One of the real failings of Tolkien's books in general, as far as modern audiences are concerned, is the distinct lack of compelling females who actually do something. Eowyn is really the only one who has an active role in the books, and Arwen's part there is even smaller than it is in the movies. They had to make up several scenes for her just to get her on camera. Which worked quite well in my opinion, I love her in the movies. For the Hobbit movies, they are actually making up a whole new character (Tauriel, played by Evangeline Lilly) so that they have at least one female who gets some action scenes. And it's possible that Galadriel will be in the fighting against the Necromancer, which was only hinted at in the book.

I think the lack of females and Nazgul will be corrected in future waves. I think it's a pretty sure bet that there will be a big set containing the Witch-King/Eowyn confrontation, since it's one of the iconic moments from the books and the movies. And if there isn't at least one set with Arwen in it, TLG will be missing a great opportunity. In both cases, the sets will most likely contain women and Nazgul.

And according to rumor, Tauriel will most likely have a big part in the battles of the Hobbit, first fighting the Dwarves and then in the Battle of Five Armies, so plenty of opportunity for her to be a minifig.

Since there are so many LEGO should have done this differently/wish lists popping up, I will start a wishes fulfilled list If I thought hard enough MAYBE I could come up with a better way for LEGO to have done the first wave, but I doubt it. Here is why I am not complaining -

1. LOTR theme! SCORE!

2. Brick built sets. Not many panels.

3. Not too overpriced.

4. Entire fellowships spread out over sets in first wave. All characters, less doubles, keeps cost down.

5. New weapons and armor.

6. New elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls.

7. Theme will surely continue for several waves, so things they missed will be included later.

That is my list. Feel free to add your own wishes granted!

Since there are so many LEGO should have done this differently/wish lists popping up, I will start a wishes fulfilled list If I thought hard enough MAYBE I could come up with a better way for LEGO to have done the first wave, but I doubt it. Here is why I am not complaining -

1. LOTR theme! SCORE!

2. Brick built sets. Not many panels.

3. Not too overpriced.

4. Entire fellowships spread out over sets in first wave. All characters, less doubles, keeps cost down.

5. New weapons and armor.

6. New elves, dwarves, orcs, and trolls.

7. Theme will surely continue for several waves, so things they missed will be included later.

That is my list. Feel free to add your own wishes granted!

Another wish fulfilled could be a special One Ring mold! Solution to curved walls in a system set! Good orc army building opportunities! Much better giant spider design! The list goes on!

Also, should we expect to see pics from the NY toy fair on Sunday night ( the night of the first day of the fair ), or Monday? I hope we see them Sunday night! The sooner the better!

Sorry for posting old pics, I've been through about forty pages of this thread and hadn't seen them posted/seen any mention of them, so my bad! I'd also seen plenty of posts where people were still hypothesising that the horse legs were articulated (only a few pages back) so I don't think getting so worked up about it was entirely necessary.

The Witch King is bound to get a helmeted version for the Battle of Pelennor, but since he didn't wear it prior to RotK I think the generic Nazgûl are fine. I'd like to maybe see a set of the 'Twilight' Nazgûl, but I don't think any other differentiation is necessary.

Curious as to what will be covered in next season's sets (LotR, not The Hobbit). Bound to be Battle of Pelennor, though I hope we see some Imladris as well - council of Elrond maybe? Except that seems like it would be overwhelmingly minifig heavy. Thinking of most of the scenes in LotR it will all be really minifig heavy, but I think TLG have done a great job with the current sets as they are now. I imagine the Hobbit will be a nightmare too with that massive party of Dwarves!

Have you noticed the lack of women in the sets? There's no even one, and it's no that Tolkien's work had so many but an Arwen, Eowyn or Galadriel would've been nice. It seems like both, Lego and Tolkien, aren't very interested in giving us much female characters

In other topics... I'm kind of dissapointed in the number of Black Riders/Nazzgul we're getting. I need to have 9 and we're getting only 2 in a set that should've come with at least 3. My counts tell me that is very difficult that Lego gives us enough sets to reach the 9 riders without buying repeated sets, or having to buy the minifigs separately:

- There should be a set with one Black Rider minifig sniffing/sensing the ring when the hobbits are hidden in the root of a big tree.

- There should be a rider minifig in the passing of the Buckleberry Ferry scene.

- Maybe 2 more riders minifigs in a sets that represents the attack in the Prancing Pony. (Without the horses probably though)

- And finally 2 more Nazguls in the scene of the ford, when Arwen and Frodo escapes from them by the rise of the river.

Being as optimistic as posible we're only getting 8 Black Riders with probably just 6 horses and who knows in how much time, because launching these sets may take a while. Let's hope LEGO think of a nice way for us to get all the Nazgul in it's Black Riders version just by buying diferent sets. What do you think?

I don't think LEGO would make that many sets based around the Nazgul. I think they'll have a set with 3 Nazgul on horses and Arwen on a horse, and then one set with the witch king versus Eyowyn. That way you only have to buy a double of the set with Arwen to get all 9. Just my opinion though.

So after this wave, is the Hobbit wave next? If so, are there going to be anymore after the hobbit one?

Kind of confused

I think that we will definitely see sets that will have all the Nazgul, just not all together. LEGO wouldn't for us to buy multiples of a set to get some very pivotal characters from the storyline. Also, I believe that Khamul, the most powerful Nazgul second only to the Witch King, will be making some sort of an appearance in one of the Hobbit films. But, don't quote me on this! I'm not sure, I just read a cast list a few months ago, and he was on it, but it may change.

Looks like Hobbit wave will be next, in December. Then next year we will see another wave of LoTR and Hobbit each....at least that's what I'm getting from everything that I have read.

As to that wishes fulfilled list, I agree! I am ecstatic about this entire theme. I did read Blake Baer express his excitement at the sets and at the same time a little unhappiness, because of what that means for the LoTR MOC'ing that is so original right now and could be very diluted after this. I can totally agree with that sentiment, but I am still very happy with beautiful looking sets, figs and new pieces....so all smiles and bubbles here.

Sorry for posting old pics, I've been through about forty pages of this thread and hadn't seen them posted/seen any mention of them, so my bad! I'd also seen plenty of posts where people were still hypothesising that the horse legs were articulated (only a few pages back) so I don't think getting so worked up about it was entirely necessary.

The Witch King is bound to get a helmeted version for the Battle of Pelennor, but since he didn't wear it prior to RotK I think the generic Nazgûl are fine. I'd like to maybe see a set of the 'Twilight' Nazgûl, but I don't think any other differentiation is necessary.

Curious as to what will be covered in next season's sets (LotR, not The Hobbit). Bound to be Battle of Pelennor, though I hope we see some Imladris as well - council of Elrond maybe? Except that seems like it would be overwhelmingly minifig heavy. Thinking of most of the scenes in LotR it will all be really minifig heavy, but I think TLG have done a great job with the current sets as they are now. I imagine the Hobbit will be a nightmare too with that massive party of Dwarves!

The Shire and Rivendell appear in both the Hobbit and LOTR, so I wouldn't be surprised to see sets from these places spread over the two sub-themes. In terms of what we'll get next wave, I'd bet a fair amount on more sets from ROTK, as we only got one this wave.

I think that we will definitely see sets that will have all the Nazgul, just not all together. LEGO wouldn't for us to buy multiples of a set to get some very pivotal characters from the storyline. Also, I believe that Khamul, the most powerful Nazgul second only to the Witch King, will be making some sort of an appearance in one of the Hobbit films. But, don't quote me on this! I'm not sure, I just read a cast list a few months ago, and he was on it, but it may change.

I've been following the Hobbit news pretty closely, but I don't remember anything about Khamul making an appearance, and that wasn't given until Unfinished Tales (if I remember correctly). Not saying you're wrong though1 As we know, Radagast, Frodo, Galadriel and Legolas all make appearances and weren't in the books.

Pretty wise move by Lego not to give us too many Nazgul so early on I reckon.

I don't think LEGO would make that many sets based around the Nazgul. I think they'll have a set with 3 Nazgul on horses and Arwen on a horse, and then one set with the witch king versus Eyowyn. That way you only have to buy a double of the set with Arwen to get all 9. Just my opinion though.

Minas Morgul is also another option. 3 more Nazgul on horses can easily be included along with Frodo, Sam and Gollum.

We should be, because we're not youngsters! Everyoneone must look out for their own "needs".

Even though I am quoting deskp, these comments are not all directed at him. I think being critical of the sets is important. I helps in the process of design to get feedback. However, I think too many AFOLs do not have the foresight to see what effect "their needs" might have on sales in general.

I do not want the LEGO company to make sets that are best for my needs. If they did they would probably be bankrupt in a few short years. Then how would my needs be met? AFOL's needs are best served by a healthy company selling tons of LEGO to future generations of fans. The exclusive sets more fully meet AFOL needs. Exclusives along with occasional perks (new molds, parts in wanted colors, minifigs, etc. )in the regular sets should be enough for AFOLs.

Complaining about what has not been released yet is useless. Ideas for future sets is fine but complaining that everything did not get released in the first wave is nutty.

I couldn't have asked for much more in this first wave of sets. BTappels list is a great example of how good this wave is going to be. Everyone crying about this character or that character not being released is silly. TLG has to leave some characters for the future waves of sets. These are AFOLs who want their own needs fulfilled. They don't seem to care about the sales of the LOTR sets over the next few years? It is this shortsighted thinking that bothers me the most. I am thankful TLG is smart enough to release the sets in a controlled manner. This leads to great sales over the long term.

I wholeheartedly agree with those on this thread that say be patient. Lets see what the final release is. Give constructive criticism about the current sets and ideas about future sets. But please don't ask for a set with 4 unique minifigs, 2 horses, 200 bricks, and new molds for every sword, helmet, and armor piece for $10.00. This isn't contructive and doesn't move the discussion forward.