LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[LegoDad]

Alcarin, you're getting pretty hostile over an MOC concept that will probably never become an actual set. Save the passion for when pictures of The Hobbit Wave 2 hit. Until then, we're twiddling our thumbs.

Get used to it, he's this way on other boards as well.

[8BrickMario]

Get used to it, he's this way on other boards as well.

I'm not sure that's the right attitude. Why should we tolerate rudeness and negativity?

[Archer]

I bought and built the Lone Ranger Silver Mines Shootout yesterday, and I have to say that although it is a 70$ mountain, the set is a really fun, non repetitive build, that looks spectacular when complete. I gives me a lot of hope that any future Erebor set could be equally thriling to build despite the fact that Erebor is nothing more than a mountain face with an ornate entrance. I think Erebor will probably not get a big representation until TABA comes out though, most likely the setting for the Battle of Five armies.

[Alcarin]

I bought and built the Lone Ranger Silver Mines Shootout yesterday, and I have to say that although it is a 70$ mountain, the set is a really fun, non repetitive build, that looks spectacular when complete. I gives me a lot of hope that any future Erebor set could be equally thriling to build despite the fact that Erebor is nothing more than a mountain face with an ornate entrance. I think Erebor will probably not get a big representation until TABA comes out though, most likely the setting for the Battle of Five armies.

Yeah I expected the mine will be great.

I dont know how could they do Erebor though, like Mines of Moria?

[Nagyzee]

LEGO LOTR is what brought me back to LEGO after all those years of Wild West theme. It was finally a line I would love to buy and put on display. I love Gondor most of all things in LOTR so I want it to be done right not half-assed ... Sorry if my standards are way above yours or Nujos project ones but so it is and it will not change.

You chose the wrong medium for your hobby. Modelling would probably be better for your plans. Unless of course you are prepared to start building your own MOCs.

LEGO is first and foremost a building toy for kids and you want them to not make a playset out of the most iconic place in this franchise because it can't be done according to your most sophisticated and highest standards? I'd love to see TLG announcing in 2014 that: Because of a certain fan's standards we have decided to make a small Architecture set out of Minas Tirith instead. Sorry kids, you'll have to play with that if you can. We hope you'll still have much fun watching it gather dust on your shelf.

[SheepEater]

Guys!

Look what was posted on the upcoming Galaxy Squad set review topic on EB... it's instruction booklet's last page!

Edited May 5, 2013 by SheepEater

[Legomaster34]

Guys!

Look what was posted on the upcoming Galaxy Squad set review topic on EB... it's instruction booklet's last page!

*snip*

Wow! That picture looks really awesome! Anybody have a better view of it?

Edited May 5, 2013 by Legomaster34

[Infernum]

Yeah, what does it show? I can see Saruman, as well as Aragorn in his royal outfit. What else is there? Anything new?

Speaking of new, is there a possibility of any polybags for this wave? Easternlings for the Black Gate?

[Fives]

Yeah, what does it show? I can see Saruman, as well as Aragorn in his royal outfit. What else is there? Anything new?

Speaking of new, is there a possibility of any polybags for this wave? Easternlings for the Black Gate?

From what I can tell from that picture, its just showing the figures in the new sets for this wave. And a Easterling polybag would be amazing!

[Kez]

Yeah, what does it show? I can see Saruman, as well as Aragorn in his royal outfit. What else is there? Anything new?

Speaking of new, is there a possibility of any polybags for this wave? Easternlings for the Black Gate?

That advertisement looks really cool, I can make out on the left side (good side) the figures: Frodo; Aragorn; Legolas; Gimli; Ghosts; Arwen; Elrond and Gandalf. On the right side (bad side) I can make out an Orc; Uruk hai; Saruman; Pirate of Umbar and Grima, there also appears to be another few figures that I can't really make out but I can see Barad Dur and what appears to be a dragon (fell beast) so hopefully this is a teaser for upcoming sets/ figures that we don't yet know about

[SheepEater]

From what I can tell from that picture, its just showing the figures in the new sets for this wave. And a Easterling polybag would be amazing!

I'd much prefer a Gondorian soldier polybag!

Especially if he looked like this

[Str0ngbad]

I'd much prefer a Gondorian soldier polybag!

Especially if he looked like this

I think we all would! I don't expect LEGO to give us any polybags that have new pieces in them though. New prints and new characters are one thing and still not common but I don't know that I've ever seen a regular polybag with a new piece. I'd be pretty happy with an orc (with hair) polybag if it were released over here I guess. That Uruk bag made me so sad... There aren't a lot of other things I could see them doing this summer that would be suitable for army building.

[brodey1]

My ideal Minas Tirith set would be the courtyard and citadel at the very top. We could get a Denethor figure (maybe flaming haha) and maybe even a few citadel guards. I would imagine its design as being very similar to its portrayal in the video game.

[8BrickMario]

I'd love to see the twilight (white spectral with crowns, as seen in the LEGO LotR game) Nazgûl somewhere along the theme.

[Fives]

I'd love to see the twilight (white spectral with crowns, as seen in the LEGO LotR game) Nazgûl somewhere along the theme.

Unfortunately, we are likely not going to since their most prominent appearance is Weathertop. The only chance we can hope for is a Dol Guldur set with the ghost of the Witch-King that Radagast fought.

[Deathleech]

I think we all would! I don't expect LEGO to give us any polybags that have new pieces in them though. New prints and new characters are one thing and still not common but I don't know that I've ever seen a regular polybag with a new piece. I'd be pretty happy with an orc (with hair) polybag if it were released over here I guess. That Uruk bag made me so sad... There aren't a lot of other things I could see them doing this summer that would be suitable for army building.

Ya, I agree. I am sure one polybag will be a main character that appears the exactly the same as s/he does in another set being released this wave (like Gandalf and Frodo previously), and then maybe if we are lucky an army builder of sorts with mixed and matched pieces like the Mirkwood Elf. I also would like to see a Mordor Orc polybag, though an Undead or Corsair one would be amazing. I'm not holding out for either though

[8BrickMario]

I would love a Soldier of the Dead poly! That would be amazing! Not hoping for it, though.

[Fives]

Ya, I agree. I am sure one polybag will be a main character that appears the exactly the same as s/he does in another set being released this wave (like Gandalf and Frodo previously), and then maybe if we are lucky an army builder of sorts with mixed and matched pieces like the Mirkwood Elf. I also would like to see a Mordor Orc polybag, though an Undead or Corsair one would be amazing. I'm not holding out for either though

What would be nice, although kinda needless, would be a King Aragorn polybag. But an Orc polybag would be ideal, even better if it had a Warg, but that is very unlikely.

[Faefrost]

Problem is They need to scale Minas Tirith to helm's Deep/Orthanc/Black Gates which means Minas Tirith has to be about 1,5-2x size of Orthanc Tower which is like 70cm???

So In order for Minas Tirith to even REMOTELY look like it should even compared to minifig size it should be about 100-115cm tall minimum(top of the white tower that is)

It would be absolutely HORRID if Minas Tirith is not TALLER than Orthanc.... Black Gates so far are the worst when we talk about those problems , oh an ofcourse the Weathertop, but ok we can imagine weathertop being only the upper part of the once mighty tower and it passes ok.

Houses of healing, inns, each wall lvl had its own garrison with stationed troops, and all these people need to sleep somewhere ... I am sure they had library (possible multiples) and tons of other stuff...

Minas Tirith is not passable exactly because of its size...

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion and me as a LEGO and LOTR fan say I rather get NO Minas Tirith as a whole) than to get a dumbed down version that does the beautiful White City injustice....

Anything smaller than Orthanc would make it injustice btw.

SIGH! Once again you are missing a key point of System Scale Lego sets. They are rarely if ever true scale models of what they are seeking to represent, nor are they very often scaled properly to each other when they represent a licensed subject. The best clearest examples of this can be found over in the Star Wars line. The X Wing is not scaled to the Millennium Falcon is not scaled to the Death Star. Yet they all do a more then passable job of communicating the idea and shape of the subject for play purposes. And even with their scale discrepancies they still have a huge fan following of fans and adults who like their overall charm. If this isn't the type of set you wish, then fine. You are obviously not its target market. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you want your hobby to capture the true scale and magnitude of Minas Tirith then you will have to either MOC it yourself, and dedicate a fairly large amount of space in your house to the project. Preferably someplace with cathedral ceilings, or you will have to go the true modeler and architects route and build yourself a true model at an acceptable scale using Model Railroad type materials such as Plasticard, Plaster and Woodland Scenics products. (They have some really neat foam carving products these days that would work well for much of the layering).

To put this all in perspective. The actual shooting miniature of Minas Tirith was 1/72 scale, and at that scale probably filled somewhere between 1/4 to 1/2 of a soundstage. Lego System or Minifig scale is actually closest to 1/48 (with the figs slightly oversized for that.) So a minifig scale Minas Tirith would be double the size of the filming model, or the size of a small house. Figure at a minimum it would be slightly larger than the full life size Bag End set that they made. Show of hands... Who here thinks they would box such a thing up to sell to the general public? (Note as a general rule Lego does not issue sets that would require a local building permit to assemble.)

Personally I am on the list of those that will be more than happy should they issue a stylized and compressed play set that gives off he wedding cake vibe, and falls somewhere in size between Helms Deep and the Death Star. I also accept hat we will be lucky to get 1 or 2 much smaller sets, with very little of the actual city (note the Rivendell set). Your preferences may vary, but that us certainly no reason to be getting worked up over the possibilities. They will make something or not. If they do you may choose to buy it or not. If you have a clear mental picture of what you want, then rather than simply collecting stuff, start building. Share with us what it is you wish to see.

Edit, if you do seek to model it yourself, either as a Lego non play set, or as a scale model I would suggest going for a scale of 1/220, also known as Maerklin Z scale. While I have not done the math, just eyeballing it makes me think that at that scale you could probably get the whole thing within about a meter cube worth of space. So appropriate for a smaller table. Plus at that scale is about the smallest you can really effectively get or make scale human figures for.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Faefrost

[Leo604]

If it were my guess for polybags, I'd roll with a Mordor Orc and an Army of the Dead minifigure; a possible 3rd could be a Ranger of Ithilien dressed in something similar to the Mirkwood Elf Guard. Nothing else prominent really comes to my head.

[Faefrost]

If it were my guess for polybags, I'd roll with a Mordor Orc and an Army of the Dead minifigure; a possible 3rd could be a Ranger of Ithilien dressed in something similar to the Mirkwood Elf Guard. Nothing else prominent really comes to my head.

I think we would get either the Orc or a generic Army of the dead guy. But probably not two villains side by side. The Polybags are pretty much always some combination of minifig parts we have seen before. My best guesses, one of those two or maybe a Rohan Soldier. If we are really really lucky maybe a Ringwraith.

[8BrickMario]

I doubt we'll see a Ringwraith. The polybag figure will be connected to the summer wave, so an orc or Undead Soldier are the two most likely possibilities, as they are generic army builders connected to the summer sets.

[Yooha]

Looks like Minas Tirith is a huge problem for some people..My opinion:

Building the whole city in minifig scale is impossible for an official LEGO set. Since the city is twice as high as Orthanc (I didn't know that!) it would be 1,5 meter high! No one could possibly think that lego will ever do such a big set! But it is not necessary, since some of you already mentioned, not all buildings and vehicles are comparable in size. What is important is playability and the recognizable shape. One major issue about Minas Tirith that it is a half-cone attached to an almost vertical surface. Even if TLG built it, they either had to use millions of grey bricks for the mountain, making a huge cavity in the middle of the structure, or leave out the mountain completely, but that case there would be a huge “hole” inside which would be hard to access and hard to be seen.

(Telling the truth, I could never imagine what's inside Minas Tirith? Streets and buildings lit by torches? A huge dungeon? Or does the city follow the shape of the montain?)

Maybe they could build it so that it could be opened in half using hinges, but still it would be huge. But acceptable alternative would be just building parts of the city, as mentioned by others as well. I’ve found one nice looking MOC that shows the citadel with the steward’s hall, the White tree and some buildings:

But in a smaller size maybe, or with leaving out the long part.

Others ideas:

- The gate with the huge battle ram, Gondor soldiers, Pippin, Gandalf, orcs

- The tower with the fire to signal for Rohan with Pippin and Gondor soldiers

[Alcarin]

Now that MOC posted by Yooha is 10 times better (thought still too much black :P but thats easily fixable for LEGO) and I would love such SET.

and Yooha yes the City is actually made out of the mountain...

As for the polybags... I hope we get Orc if not anything Gondor related....

[deskp]

The citadel/top part of minas tirith is not really that recgnizable and it features 0 action. and the drama that happens there is I imagine too too dark for lego's audience.