Skipper Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 After seeing the preliminary box pics, the only set I was seriously considering buying was the Battle of Helm's Deep. After the Toy Fair pics, I"m not so sure - while for a LEGO set, it does a great job of capturing all the main features (much better than I expected it to), it just seems kind of hollow - a big facade of curved wall panels.
LegoBrickSteve Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Yeah. Kind of a waste of a theme here. I'm no big Lord of the Rings fan, so I may not get the names and stuff right...but just imagine how cool a really slick set based on that Elf-World place. All water and glass and dudes in headbands. Instead...we get..."Gandolf Arrives".
deskp Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Instead...we get..."Gandolf Arrives". They always do small sets for themes, and a cart and a horse is much better than the usual piece of rock. Especialy if this is the new horse.
Henchmen4Hire Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Heh, those hair pieces look great for '70s rock and metal bands Too bad the figures will be $20 a pop on BL :/
narbilu Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 People expect too much from this theme. I think the sets are amazing, I will for sure buy all sets at least once. The figs are great, the weapons are great, the moc opportunities are great. I expect a whole new community of fanbased Lego creations, based on the movies. Enough thought on playability for kids and more than enough new possibilities for us "bigger kids". What more can you expect of TLC. 2012 will be a great year for my Lego collection.
joeygunns Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 I think the sets look great!! My 7 year old self would go mental over these sets, as a matter of fact I know my nephews will go absolutely mental over these sets! I'm a huge fan of Sean Bean so I cannot wait to have a Sean Bean minifig!
Bobskink Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 I would like to see the comparisson: Castle/bricks/price VS LOTR/bricks/price I think that will be the mayor reasons fans won't like these sets. When buing Licensed sets, you don't get that mush for your money in Europe. Only Star Wars has a big enough fan base to survive. But so far, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Price of Persai and Pirates o/t Caraiban have all been on sale because they don't sell good enough. You don't get enough for your money. I'm 99 % sure that the same hing will happen for LOTR.
TenorPenny Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Lord of the Rings has an even greater fanbase than Star Wars, I would argue. Some are certainly more passionate! And although the sets are explicitly from the movies, that doesn't mean there isn't potential for more than these sets the the Hobbit wave. As for the debatably petty concerns of some people, if you don't like the sets, don't buy. Anyone consigning LotR to the same bargain bin as Prince of Persia (one Disney Movie) and other licensed themes are pretty pessimistic.
Solitary Dark Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Having seen the long-distance pics of the actual sets I'm pleasantly surprised - remembering that these were designed as toys, not tothe level of detail as MOC's I actually am quite impressed. I'll be having 'Gandalf arrives' as soon as I see it and will then work my way up through the sets as budget allows. My son may well end up getting the Helms deep set for a Birthday present, but he loves the look of it already. As a play theme I think it has huge potential, as these sets have barely scratched the surface of the LOTR world and there are plenty of variations of each character to be made yet. Still want a 'Prancing Pony' set - Maybe my first LOTR MOC once I have Frodo and Aragorn and one of those Horses...
Bart Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Just showed my sister the picture of the Fellowship, almost the first thing she said "Where is Sméagol?" And indeed where is he? He could be both in the Moria and the Shelob set. Bart
TenorPenny Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 He's in Shelob. I'm not sure his presence was integral enough in Moria to mean he gets a starring role in the minifig count.
King of Nynrah Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 With a Hobbit movie coming out this year and next year, I really hope LEGO continue to do LOTR sets past 2012 as well as Hobbit sets, and not just ditch LOTR as soon as the Hobbit comes out.
Haltiamieli Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 (edited) Oh, and I love the sets so far! I MOC, so it is all about pieces I can reuse. I don't see any prefab wall pieces, I see brick built walls! While I don't see any prefab wall pieces in the Uruk-hai Attack, there's definitely at least a few of them in the Helm's Deep: in Huw's photo from the toy fair you can see that one of the prefab pieces behind Haldir has been put facing the wrong way, making a dent in the wall. Interestingly it seems that the windows of the outer wall are slimmer, so they are apparently not prefab. If the fortress is 1300 pieces as has been claimed, about 7 wall pieces isn't too bad. Weathertop seems to have the function to open wide with hinges, which is interesting as no interior of the hill was shown in the movies. Edited January 26, 2012 by Haltiamieli
JackJonespaw Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 (edited) Weathertop seems to have the function to open wide with hinges, which is interesting as no interior of the hill was shown in the movies. True. There is probably some play feature in there, like the tree in the 2011 Endor Set. I wonder if the figs are going to have double sided faces. And if so, maybe it is only for certain sets? Edited January 26, 2012 by JackJonespaw
andhe Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 With a Hobbit movie coming out this year and next year, I really hope LEGO continue to do LOTR sets past 2012 as well as Hobbit sets, and not just ditch LOTR as soon as the Hobbit comes out. The offical announcement was for LOTR sets in the summer, then Hobbit sets around the time the movies come out (December 2012 and 2013).
Bobskink Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Lord of the Rings Really think so. did a google search, Star Wars 460.000.000 pages, LOTR 131.000.000 pages. Not that the number isn't impressive, but when going to conevntions, 75 % of what I see is Star Wars. I just don't see it working well in Europe.
King of Nynrah Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 The offical announcement was for LOTR sets in the summer, then Hobbit sets around the time the movies come out (December 2012 and 2013). Yeah, I know.
Gryphon Ink Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 After seeing the preliminary box pics, the only set I was seriously considering buying was the Battle of Helm's Deep. After the Toy Fair pics, I"m not so sure - while for a LEGO set, it does a great job of capturing all the main features (much better than I expected it to), it just seems kind of hollow - a big facade of curved wall panels. Well, there really isn't supposed to be anything behind the curtain wall, since all it's supposed to be is an outer barrier. But I'm sure that the citadel isn't completely hollow, because even in the blurry Toyfair pics you can see that some of the windows in the citadel are shadowed - meaning there is some structure in there blocking the light. I do get what you mean, and it's a shame the citadel doesn't have a complete top floor, but the whole thing looks solid enough to me, with the visible ramparts and whatnot. The Moria set gives me the same feeling you're talking about, though, and that's a big disappointment to me. It just looks like a shell. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by it when good pics come out, because all the other sets look awesome.
General Magma Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Really think so. did a google search, Star Wars 460.000.000 pages, LOTR 131.000.000 pages. Not that the number isn't impressive, You forget that LOTR is part of a fictional world that also has several other stories. A search for LOTR shows me 159.000.000 pages, The Hobbit gets me another 144.000.000 pages and Middle-Earth gets us 346.000.000 additional pages. Together, those already count for 649.000.000 pages, which beats Star Wars there. Don't tell me that those 3 are different things, because they all belong together, while Star Wars is a designation for everything within the SW universe. With that said, there is no doubt about it that this will be a very successful theme. I'm sure that the theme will continue until some point even after 2013. ~ General Magma
Albero - BEL Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 The sets look to me disappointing. But I hope everything is preliminary and when they will come out I will change my mind. Minifigs are certainly better than the sets, even if not so impressive in general (Gandalf and the hobbits don't look special to me, I don't like Boromir).
DaleDVM Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 (edited) I agree. I know people are fired up because they are Lord of the Rings fans, which is understandable, but the sets...at least from available photos, so far...really seem sub-standard for a theme that has the potential of this one. I mean, come on..."Gandolf Arrives"? That's just a horse-cart, but it will move because you get a Gandolf and Frodo mini at a low price point...not because it isn't any cooler or different than a thousand castle carts before it. Seriously? It is the opening scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. I can't think of a better cheap set to start the theme out with. Should they have made it a rocket cart with lasers so it would be different than previous castle carts? We should remember that people buying LOTR may not have ever bought a single castle set before. Gandalf arrives depicts the scene from the movie and that is exactly what TLG was trying to do. Perfect IMHO. As far as the rest of the sets go. I think they are pretty good recreations. TLG is trying to make playable scenes from the films at a reasonable piece count. I think they depict scenes from the movies pretty well. The prices I have seen are pretty good value for the piece count in the sets. Sure we can MOC these locations much better than this, but they would never sell because they would cost too much. Yeah. Kind of a waste of a theme here. I'm no big Lord of the Rings fan, so I may not get the names and stuff right...but just imagine how cool a really slick set based on that Elf-World place. All water and glass and dudes in headbands.Instead...we get..."Gandolf Arrives". I don't mind people expressing their opinions good and bad. I do it all the time. However, coming onto the forum and complaining that Lothlorien or Rivendell would have been better than Gandalf arrives is nutty! How could TLG do a set like that at a price of about $10 - 15. I wouldn't be worried about getting scenes like that either. TLG is going to do a lot more locations before this line is exhausted. Edited January 26, 2012 by DaleDVM
Nagyzee Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 I don't mind people expressing their opinions good and bad. I do it all the time. However, coming onto the forum and complaining that Lothlorien or Rivendell would have been better than Gandalf arrives is nutty! How could TLG do a set like that at a price of about $10 - 15. I wouldn't be worried about getting scenes like that either. TLG is going to do a lot more locations before this line is exhausted. Just ignore LegoBrickSteve. He's a troll. And compared to his behaviour in the Ninjago topics he is pretty tolerable here.
Algernon Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 "Gandalf Arrives" is definitely an odd choice for TLG, but I'm glad there's a cheap way to get Gandalf. And since I'm not really a Castle collector, I don't mind picking up a carriage set (though I do recall there being a lot of them). Besides, the smaller sets always tends to be throwaway minifig packs.
surrideo Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 "Gandalf Arrives" is definitely an odd choice for TLG, but I'm glad there's a cheap way to get Gandalf. And since I'm not really a Castle collector, I don't mind picking up a carriage set (though I do recall there being a lot of them). Besides, the smaller sets always tends to be throwaway minifig packs. You have to have an introductory set, so why not the introductory scene from the first film? If they release a bag end set later then you'll be happy that you bought Gandalf arriving
Seaber Posted January 26, 2012 Posted January 26, 2012 Not sure why Gandalf Arrives is getting so much stick. Lots of previous Castle subthemes have had carts or carriages as one of their smaller sets. They're a good starting point of collecting a theme. As a bonus, you get two major characters, a horse, fireworks and a fairly decent looking cart. The cart is on screen for about five minutes from the start of the scenes in the Shire, and has a fairly important scene setting aboard it, whilst driving through the beautiful countryside. I for one am delighted we get this made into a set.
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