LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[Str0ngbad]

The Ghost ship's Army of the Dead minifigures in my opinion kind of suck. They just look like green d00ds. Wish they were transparent and tried a little harder. There's no way I'll be getting that set.

And where's my Sauron minifigure? I want one already. Tall like Woody and stuff. :)

The plastic that transparent bricks are made of is too brittle to be used for moving parts/joints in general from what I understand. Regardless, I think the sand green looks awesome.

The_Chosen_1, I completely agree. We will see these sets on June 1 if not before. It will take GRogall telling me differently to believe otherwise.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Str0ngbad

[Faefrost]

He only puts on pauldrons, so the Mines of Moria one is fine. Maybe cut down some Brickforge pauldrons and vambraces to improve the look.

The same figure comes with the Pirate Ship set, so the price may drop a small amount.

The silver Ninjago Pauldrons might not be bad either if only his hair would allow them. I can't remember I's there a version of them that does not have the sword holder on the back?

The Ghost ship's Army of the Dead minifigures in my opinion kind of suck. They just look like green d00ds. Wish they were transparent and tried a little harder. There's no way I'll be getting that set.

And where's my Sauron minifigure? I want one already. Tall like Woody and stuff. :)

We've been through this many times. Transparent Polycarbonate does not work acceptably for the design of Lego Minifigs. You cannot do polycarbonate to polycarbonate joints. You can do a clear head (which they have done, although they are harder to take off.) they can do clear arms (as we are seeing with Jekk 14) and they could in theory maybe do clear legs. But hands hips and torso are right out. The brittleness of polycarbonate will not work with them.

[SMC]

July seems too far off. I just got a new issue of the Lego magazine, and there is a LotR fold-out featuring the new sets and minifigs. Makes sense that they'd be available June 1...

can anyone post a pic if this as would like to see it, thanks

[scottjs]

The Ghost ship's Army of the Dead minifigures in my opinion kind of suck. They just look like green d00ds. Wish they were transparent and tried a little harder. There's no way I'll be getting that set.

And where's my Sauron minifigure? I want one already. Tall like Woody and stuff. :)

Have you had a look at the high res pictures of the army of the dead minifig's? I personally think they look fantastic but to each their own.

I am really curious what Lego has planned for the next wave of Hobbit sets. I mean do they continue with their original plan and release everything in December and that's it (if that was their original plan)? I really hope not, but once they found out PJ was splitting the Hobbit into another film did they immediately get to work on more sets or did they wait and see how the current sets would sell first? If we presume that Lego had planned for another 5 sets with a total value roughly the same as the first wave what would you expect to see? I would want to guess that a big set was planned for the Battle of the 5 Armies, however would the supposed "no action figure clause" or whatever is preventing Lego from releasing Battle packs, limit a set like that? Would a burning laketown with Smaug be the big set of the year? I just finished reading The Hobbit last week (it's been a good 5 years since I read it), and I couldn't believe the differences between the book and the movie (and I loved both). But now I'm curious as to how PJ will have the other movies play out and what sets Lego will have for us.

[Alcarin]

@scottjs

What we can expect for Hobbit weave 2 HIGHLY depends if LEGO changed plans or not...

If LEGO did not change plans (and still is producing liek it was 2 movies) then we can almost 100% expect Smaug and Laketown and Battle of the 5 armies (with another lame eagle) and ofc Beorn....

If they changed I expect no Smaug but only Beorn and some other sets.... Possibly the biggest might be Battle for Dol-Guldur...

[Proximo]

We've been through this many times. Transparent Polycarbonate does not work acceptably for the design of Lego Minifigs. You cannot do polycarbonate to polycarbonate joints. You can do a clear head (which they have done, although they are harder to take off.) they can do clear arms (as we are seeing with Jekk 14) and they could in theory maybe do clear legs. But hands hips and torso are right out. The brittleness of polycarbonate will not work with them.

Maybe polycarbonate won't work. But nobody says that you have to use polycarbonate, there are enough transparent plastics on the market from which you easily could make transparent minifigs if you are willing to do so. But beside that: Even if they weren't any other materials they could have made at least the parts transparent which are possible, like head or arms. This sand-green looks totally awful in my opinion too. Not to mention that it is absolutely inaccurate.

[Seaber]

It is thought that the next two films will have a large battle each, probably with Dol Guldur in DOS and BO5A in TABA. We know we will get up to Lake Town and Bilbo talking to Smaug, but it may go further than that.

We will definitely see Beorn, Thranduil, Legolas, Tauriel, Bolg, Master of Lake Town, Alfrid, Braga and Bard introduced in this film (i know Thranduil had a cameo before). Possibly others will appear too.

I hope we don't get Legolas or Tauriel figures again this wave, unless they are different in some way. The dwarves and Bilbo change outfits, so I hope this is shown rather than just releasing the AUK versions.

[The_Creator]

Can anyone post a pic if this as would like to see it, thanks

LotR fold-out in the May-June Issue of LEGO Club by «†Knight~Man†» / The_Creator, on Flickr

Edited May 13, 2013 by The_Creator

[Faefrost]

Maybe polycarbonate won't work. But nobody says that you have to use polycarbonate, there are enough transparent plastics on the market from which you easily could make transparent minifigs if you are willing to do so. But beside that: Even if they weren't any other materials they could have made at least the parts transparent which are possible, like head or arms. This sand-green looks totally awful in my opinion too. Not to mention that it is absolutely inaccurate.

The problem then becomes the molds and tooling. The current minifig tooling and engineering, especially the torso, is designed to use fairly specific types of plastics injected at specific temperature, pressure and consistency. The slightest variation will produce poor results. The types of plastic such as Megabloks uses for the transparent Halo figs would not work in those molds. (Although you might be able to get a classic skeleton or a BattleDroid made from it? Interesting thought.) but for standard Minifigs they would pretty much need to re engineer and retool the entire minifig.

[Fives]

I love in that fold out picture how outnumbered the evil side is. I means, the Mouth and Saruman with a few orcs cannot possibly win against The Three Hunters, Gandalf the White, Elrond and Arwen, and the Army of the Dead. Really shows how much we need more generic good soldiers.

[Deathleech]

I love in that fold out picture how outnumbered the evil side is. I means, the Mouth and Saruman with a few orcs cannot possibly win against The Three Hunters, Gandalf the White, Elrond and Arwen, and the Army of the Dead. Really shows how much we need more generic good soldiers.

Well there are at least a dozen more orcs coming out of the Black Gates, but ya, the sides of the poster seem to include the figures from just this wave and the evil side is pretty badly out numbered

[Ardelon]

Before pictures came out, I was rather hoping the army of the dead would come with transparent yellow-green helmets and weapons. That much at least would have been doable and more accurate IMO. Transparent heads would also have been neat, but these skeletal heads are nice enough. Of course I didnt know back then that tranparent arms are also an option...

[australopithecine]

Elrond looks really good. Can't wait to get these.

[SMC]

LotR fold-out in the May-June Issue of LEGO Club by «†Knight~Man†» / The_Creator, on Flickr

Thanks that's great, wanted to see what they did with the black gate and how they used more than one. Is there only one tower, it does look odd with all the door handles. Think two sets could look good if done right.

[Knight Solaire]

Maybe polycarbonate won't work. But nobody says that you have to use polycarbonate, there are enough transparent plastics on the market from which you easily could make transparent minifigs if you are willing to do so. But beside that: Even if they weren't any other materials they could have made at least the parts transparent which are possible, like head or arms. This sand-green looks totally awful in my opinion too. Not to mention that it is absolutely inaccurate.

Even if they could be molded in trans it would still look terrible as you could see all the pegs which attach the arms and legs.

[Deathleech]

Even if they could be molded in trans it would still look terrible as you could see all the pegs which attach the arms and legs.

I was going to say the same, but then I did a search and these customs don't look to bad really...

Of course any printing on them might be really hard to make out.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Deathleech

[Proximo]

The problem then becomes the molds and tooling. The current minifig tooling and engineering, especially the torso, is designed to use fairly specific types of plastics injected at specific temperature, pressure and consistency. The slightest variation will produce poor results. The types of plastic such as Megabloks uses for the transparent Halo figs would not work in those molds. (Although you might be able to get a classic skeleton or a BattleDroid made from it? Interesting thought.) but for standard Minifigs they would pretty much need to re engineer and retool the entire minifig.

I don't know much about the tools or machines which Lego use for their figures. But always when it comes to that transparent-fig-issue, you get the impression, that it's technically impossible to produce transparent figures due to the lack of adequate materials. But that's NOT the case. Maybe there will be some investments necessary but investments which would be profitable after all. At least it would open new ways to design complete new minifigures

[The_Creator]

Thanks that's great, wanted to see what they did with the black gate and how they used more than one. Is there only one towe,

Yes, only one tower.

[SMC]

Yes, only one tower.

Odd don't Lego know what its meant to look like, why not just have two sets together, im sure lots of people on here will make better looking gates with two sets than that.

[Knight Solaire]

I was going to say the same, but then I did a search and these customs don't look to bad really...

Of course any printing on them might be really hard to make out.

I guess they don't look too bad, but you have a good point about printing. And I still think even if the printing could be done I would still prefer sand green.

Edited May 13, 2013 by Knight Solaire

[8BrickMario]

I don't want to be a party pooper, Knight Solaire, but one recommendation on Eurobricks is not to quote pictures, as it clutters pages. Just type *snip* or *pic* so we know what you're talking about.

I like the Dead, but trans-helmets and arms would make them significantly better. But think of it this way: if they looked that good, we'd never have a chance of one in a polybag!

The Black Gate combo, as discussed before, is annoying, because you have two sets of doors, one on each side. It should really allow one central pair of doors when combined. Deskp's photoshop looks much better.

[Faefrost]

I don't know much about the tools or machines which Lego use for their figures. But always when it comes to that transparent-fig-issue, you get the impression, that it's technically impossible to produce transparent figures due to the lack of adequate materials. But that's NOT the case. Maybe there will be some investments necessary but investments which would be profitable after all. At least it would open new ways to design complete new minifigures

I think the main thing is the Torso mold. TLG has experiemented with doing clear figs, but the existing mold does not work well with the trans clear plastics. You get a lot of cracking under the arms very quickly. The figs look acceptable as display pieces, but can't really stand up to play. (A flaw that some of the early Halo figs also suffered from). But that minifig torso tooling is probably among the more complicated and expensive that they have. To re engineer and replace it is a massive and expensive undertaking. It is probably not economically worthwhile to do just to permit slightly foggy clear minifigs.

[SMC]

^{A new pic of the black gate I just made from the one above}

Edited May 13, 2013 by SMC

[8BrickMario]

That one looks so much better than the official combo. Would that be possible in real life?

[SheepEater]

Well there are at least a dozen more orcs coming out of the Black Gates, but ya, the sides of the poster seem to include the figures from just this wave and the evil side is pretty badly out numbered

They could have included Grima Wormtongue to even it out a bit...

He's a much more important character than Mouth of Sauron, who gets decapitated 3 minutes after he's introduced.