LOTR & The Hobbit 2012

[deskp]

I just noticed something weird: in all of the minifig lineups on the boxes, none of the figs have accessories, which is odd, because usually the figs are holding their accessories in the lineup.

They didn't on the POTC boxes. And yeah as someone said, these are for sure not photograps.

Elander, it appears they will use the normal costume but the set should include white rope for spiderweb.

Here is the current Minifig list (nothing 100% confirmed)

Frodo + green shirt Frodo

Sam

Merry

Pippin

Gandalf the grey

Aragorn

Legolas

Gimli

Boromir

Gollum

Rohan archer

Theoden*

Eomer*

Haldir*

Nazguls 2

Goblins 2

uruk-hai soldiers

uruk-hai with hair no armor and helmet

helmet only uruk-hai

Cave troll

[Haltiamieli]

Here I've found a very good picture where we can see Frodo's spiderweb outfit. That outfit could be the perfect outfit for this set.

Dunno, it kinda seriously limits the playability of the set - it's a bit harder for you to act how Frodo wanders around cluelessly while the big ugly spider sweeps above him if he's wrapped up and apparently dead. It would be good for the collectors, by no doubt, but bad for the normal and casual customers, Lego's main audience. The set includes the infamous trio of Frodo, Sam and Gollum, so it will certainly be a set that also many non-Lego Tolkien fans will be buying, perhaps as their only pick in the theme. The desirability of the set could be hindered if the characters weren't in their iconic attires. It is possible, I suppose, that Frodo will have a "dead face" on the other side of his head.

The same rules apply, though in lesser extent, to the Attack on Weathertop and the ghostly white Black Riders. It might have happened if Lego would have designed another set that included Black Riders, but such a set is coming in summer 2013 at earliest (as far as we can tell). Now in this set they would have to either drop one of the Black Riders off to make room for the ghostly version (and that would leave only one Black Rider, which is not too nice option), or some other character. Even that would make their profit margin smaller, because a ghostly wraith would require at least a unique crown and printings.

[Masked Builder]

Wow, just wow. LEGO is doing a great job with these from what I can see so far. They've included a HUGE number of minifigures, and I'm all over the Aragon and Arwen figs.

[legofett5]

These sets seem really awesome to me. Better than PoT. Defiantly better than PoP. So to make the whole Fellowship you have to get Attack on Weathertop, Shelob's Attack, Gandalf Arrives, and Mines of Moria. Well, that is if they don't change any of the figures.

[wonkyeye]

Wow, just wow. LEGO is doing a great job with these from what I can see so far. They've included a HUGE number of minifigures, and I'm all over the Aragon and Arwen figs.

Where's Arwen?

[Henchmen4Hire]

Arwen is hiding in the barrel, we can't have her getting roughed up, Liv Tyler is a national treasure!

[Shroffy123]

I apologize if this has already been mentioned before, but so many posts its hard to keep up.

First when I saw these sets (regardless that I knew they were prelims and likely to change) I was a bit disappointed. After looking at them again I was excited. Then disappointed. Its been somewhat of I roller-coaster. Maybe I'm just anxious to get my hands on them, and thus being a baby. Anyways . . .

I think it'd be nice if LEGO, instead of re-creating scenes, simply created structures. E.g., the Prancing Pony, or Bag End. Something that really drew me to HP, is that a lot of the sets where structures, even POTC did so to an extent. Also, the sets do not look that detailed (compared HP e.g.) I really hope LEGO puts in extra effort for these sets. You know, as a castle fan, I'd always felt a bit disappointed, after building the set having it be so empty inside.

I'm sure once the official pictures come, these sets will look amazing. But so far, all of them are battle scenes. I'd rather have a Prancing Pony with the Hobbits, Strider, and a few civilians, than half of a helms deep :(

Just my thoughts.

Also, I truly believe that this theme will do well. I know for a fact all of us Castle fanatics having been asking for this for awhile, and will buy sets in the multiples. A lot of my friends, who aren't into LEGO are really considering buying up some of these sets. If LOTR becomes our SW, fingers crossed, can you just imagine all of the amazingly detailed exclusive sets that would come out? Hands down, I'd be willing to spend $300.00 on a Rivendell or Minas Tirith.

[legobodgers]

I like the look of the plain bley microfigs as details on the pillars in the weathertop set.

Overall the sets are about what I expected apart from the helms deep set which looks excellent, the two curved walls of the keep looks great!

[BTappel]

I think it'd be nice if LEGO, instead of re-creating scenes, simply created structures. E.g., the Prancing Pony, or Bag End. Something that really drew me to HP, is that a lot of the sets where structures, even POTC did so to an extent. Also, the sets do not look that detailed (compared HP e.g.) I really hope LEGO puts in extra effort for these sets. You know, as a castle fan, I'd always felt a bit disappointed, after building the set having it be so empty inside.

Also, I truly believe that this theme will do well. I know for a fact all of us Castle fanatics having been asking for this for awhile, and will buy sets in the multiples. A lot of my friends, who aren't into LEGO are really considering buying up some of these sets. If LOTR becomes our SW, fingers crossed, can you just imagine all of the amazingly detailed exclusive sets that would come out? Hands down, I'd be willing to spend $300.00 on a Rivendell or Minas Tirith.

LEGO cannot do only structures as they need a playability component to come with most of the sets (ie good vs bad). Otherwise the sets could be too boring for their target audience - kids.

Only $300 for Rivendell or Minas Tirith?! I'd pay way more if the set was really good

Anyways I am really excited for the toy fairs now!

[Gabe]

Arwen is hiding in the barrel, we can't have her getting roughed up, Liv Tyler is a national treasure!

Huh? What barrel? Are you talking about the Weathertop set, or something else??

ps. Are you trolling us with this talk of Arwen??

Edited December 20, 2011 by gabe

[Fives]

I was just thinking, I really hope they make a new mold for elven swords and Legolas's white knives.

[On Stranger Tides]

So, people with a different opinion are fools? I don't know about anyone else but between comments like this, telling Kingdoms where it can go, and the "I told you so" type comments that completely ignore the content of the comments they are supposedly debunking in favor of a cheap shot against an argument almost no one was making, I can really feel the love in this thread for fellow forumites.

As for the sets, scale issues with Helm's Deep aside (and I never expected it to be in actual scale with the figures, but it still looks small to me), I more or less like them. I hope they are improved and I believe they will be. The figure count is encouraging. If it ends up pretty close to what we see, and it isn't outrageously priced, I will get several of the Uruk Hai set for army building and for wall parts. Gandalf Arrives and the Shelob set aren't must haves for me, but if I see them on sale or decide I just have to have Gandalf right now I will get them. If Helm's Deep is $100 or less (I'm hoping, but I accept that it might be more like $110 or 120) I will try to get more than one, mainly for the mass of parts. The Moria set is a multiple purchase for me if the price is right and the Goblins and Troll are decent. I just hope the larger, armored Trolls from Mordor make it into a set. Now we can only hope the Orc Forge set is an impulse set. Maybe we will see some baggies too since we got them for just about every other license, and hopefully they are generics.

The reason I said to hell with kingdoms and star wars is because this is a LOTR LOTR LOTR LOTR thread. Lets talk about LOTR good or bad, that you like or hate, I don't care just quit complaining about it killing kingdoms. Go cry in Kingdoms thread. I have religiously read all these pages and don't wanna waste time on kingdoms posts one after another.

Edited December 20, 2011 by On Stranger Tides

[Artanis I]

I like the look of the plain bley microfigs as details on the pillars in the weathertop set.

Interesting that a few have mentioned this. There was one used in a similar fashion already in the Heroica set Waldurk Forest.

Of the sets we've seen, none of them were featured in the book ROTK (Shelob was in TTT book but 3rd movie). Very curious. There are no Gondor soldiers (besides Boromir in Moria). I am hoping that the Orc Forge is an Isengard set with ents (inc. Treebeard), & Saruman (maybe Wormtongue?) - he is strangely absent despite having quite a lot of focus in the first 2 films. Or maybe down the track we could get Orthanc(!).

You'd think that they'd have a big playset for Osgiliath at some stage: Gondor soldiers (inc. Faramir), orcs (inc. "Gothmog") + ruins aplenty. (Maybe a catapult to fire the heads with? ) Another TTT idea is the ambush of Haradrim (mumak/oliphaunt!) by Faramir&Co. There are stacks of other ideas but I think these are two less obvious ones that Lego could easily make an action scene with. (Which seems to be what they do these days, apparently it sells.)

[On Stranger Tides]

Interesting that a few have mentioned this. There was one used in a similar fashion already in the Heroica set Waldurk Forest.

Of the sets we've seen, none of them were featured in the book ROTK (Shelob was in TTT book but 3rd movie). Very curious. There are no Gondor soldiers (besides Boromir in Moria). I am hoping that the Orc Forge is an Isengard set with ents (inc. Treebeard), & Saruman (maybe Wormtongue?) - he is strangely absent despite having quite a lot of focus in the first 2 films. Or maybe down the track we could get Orthanc(!).

You'd think that they'd have a big playset for Osgiliath at some stage: Gondor soldiers (inc. Faramir), orcs (inc. "Gothmog") + ruins aplenty. (Maybe a catapult to fire the heads with? ) Another TTT idea is the ambush of Haradrim (mumak/oliphaunt!) by Faramir&Co. There are stacks of other ideas but I think these are two less obvious ones that Lego could easily make an action scene with. (Which seems to be what they do these days, apparently it sells.)

This is whats weird to me and NO ONE is pointing out. There is not 1 ORC in any of these sets. I reallllly need to see the orc forge

[deskp]

This is whats weird to me and NO ONE is pointing out. There is not 1 ORC in any of these sets. I reallllly need to see the orc forge

Its not wierd because none of those scenes in the movies had orcs in them! The hobbit wave should have some orcs in them, unless all the orc stuff is in the 2. hobbit movie.. if so then you can expect propable orcs andmore of a focus on the return of the king!

[On Stranger Tides]

Its not wierd because none of those scenes in the movies had orcs in them! The hobbit wave should have some orcs in them, unless all the orc stuff is in the 2. hobbit movie.. if so then you can expect propable orcs andmore of a focus on the return of the king!

There's orcs with the uruk-hai at isenguard chasing ents.... in all three movies...

[Tyrant]

The reason I said to hell with kingdoms and star wars is because this is a LOTR LOTR LOTR LOTR thread. Lets talk about LOTR good or bad, that you like or hate, I don't care just quit complaining about it killing kingdoms. Go cry in Kingdoms thread. I have religiously read all these pages and don't wanna waste time on kingdoms posts one after another.

Thank you for continuously proving my point far better than I ever could. As for the thread and why post about Kingdoms, this theme is apparently going to kill Kingdoms. LotR is the reason Kingdoms is dead. That makes it relevent. Also, for some reason, this is in the Historical section, which is like salt in the open wound. Beyond that, no one had any problem going on and on about LotR in the Kingdoms threads and no one was as hostile as you have been repeatedly. This is apparently hard to believe, but some people don't view this as good news and as this is a discussion forum and not a cheerleading forum, I believe they are free to express their discontent.

As for the Orc issue, Uruks are a type of Orc. As there are no Mordor sets Orcs won't be plentiful because Saruman almost exclusively used Uruks.

[Gabe]

This is whats weird to me and NO ONE is pointing out. There is not 1 ORC in any of these sets. I reallllly need to see the orc forge

Not true - there are 4 Uruk-hai in the army building set, and looks like another 5 (at least 4) in the Helm's deep set. Uruk-hai just means "orc-folk", after all. And we get a couple of goblins, and a troll in the Moria set! For Mordor orcs (or snaga ) i guess we'll have to wait for the second wave of LOTR sets in 2013, but i see that as less of an issue than the lack of Arwen or Galadriel or Eowyn.

Edited December 20, 2011 by gabe

[Fives]

Ya, the Orc thing doesn't bother me much. I'm glad that this wave is more centered on Helm's Deep, because it is my favorite battle in all of LOTR. Also, goblins are pretty much orcs, and Tolkien did use those two names interchangeably.

[On Stranger Tides]

Sorry im too nerdy, Uruk-Hai is elvish for orc people. Uruks are tall strong black skinned orcs... duh. Im talkin about regular orcs that created all of the Uruks. AAnd the orcs in moria are Morian Goblins...with huge eyes. there are differences and when i say orc i mean regular orc.

[Gryphon Ink]

Its not wierd because none of those scenes in the movies had orcs in them! The hobbit wave should have some orcs in them, unless all the orc stuff is in the 2. hobbit movie.. if so then you can expect propable orcs andmore of a focus on the return of the king!

Actually, all of the "orcs" in the Hobbit are the smaller type refered to as "goblins". The guys in the Mines of Moria are this type. There are only two specific references to Orcs in the Hobbit, and neither of them is in reference to the creatures the heroes are fighting. The baddies that actually appear in the books are always called goblins.

If PJ is consistent, and his record shows that he usually is, the orcs in the Hobbit will all be the small Moria type.

[On Stranger Tides]

Thank you for continuously proving my point far better than I ever could. As for the thread and why post about Kingdoms, this theme is apparently going to kill Kingdoms. LotR is the reason Kingdoms is dead. That makes it relevent. Also, for some reason, this is in the Historical section, which is like salt in the open wound. Beyond that, no one had any problem going on and on about LotR in the Kingdoms threads and no one was as hostile as you have been repeatedly. This is apparently hard to believe, but some people don't view this as good news and as this is a discussion forum and not a cheerleading forum, I believe they are free to express their discontent.

As for the Orc issue, Uruks are a type of Orc. As there are no Mordor sets Orcs won't be plentiful because Saruman almost exclusively used Uruks.

Haters gonna hate, everyone's unhappy with something... Castle has been out since like 1978, It is good and well time for a LOTR Lego. I still love castle and im still doing a huggge display in Jan. but It is time for the fans. Im proud of Lego. We asked for it. Now its ours.

My castle

Edited December 20, 2011 by On Stranger Tides

[wesker]

Shelob's attack

Here I've found a very good picture where we can see Frodo's spiderweb outfit. That outfit could be the perfect outfit for this set.

Found a better one based on the action figure:

http://photos.lordoftheringsguide.com/showphoto.php?photo=3791&cat=949

With any luck the final wave will come with 3 different Frodos - Shire, Fellowship and Shelob's Lair. Same goes with Aragorn. Weathertop needs to come with Strider, Helms Deep should come with the armored version.

http://photos.lordoftheringsguide.com/showphoto.php?photo=3148&cat=811

http://photos.lordoftheringsguide.com/showphoto.php?photo=3771&cat=887

[ETAV8R]

Why hasn't this whole discussion been moved to Licensed Themes yet?

[Ceroknight]

Why hasn't this whole discussion been moved to Licensed Themes yet?

It was in the Licensed Themes but it was moved here just like Pirates if the Caribbean discussions are at the Pirates Theme