LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[legomonk]

I don’t think I am alone in this but the figures in these sets look, amazing sadly the buildings don’t. The only cool looking buildings are the ones from 79013 lake town chase set. Mostly the random wall buildings are kind meh to me in the rest of the sets. Luckily the figures are really nice. I am excited about the new orcs. With some parts mixing you can have a truly diverse group. The elves that are nicely represented in 79012 Mirkwood Elf Army are a great start to any army. I am personally happy that overall only 3 repeat figures in this year’s sets Gandolf, Bilbo, and Thorin. No more getting Bilbo in every freaking set. I very rarely buy more than one of each set (with my limited funds and other hobbies it’s hard). I could actually see myself getting two 79012 Mirkwood Elf Army and 79011 Dol Guldur Ambush for the minis alone.

[Only Sinner]

Wow, seven pages of freaking commentary since yesterday. Jesus.

The sets look good. I'll get one of each. Good thing this coming Star Wars wave is pretty lame so no competition for my money there.

The minifigs look great and the sets look like easy MOD material or parts packs.

[Gryphon Ink]

Personally I think the elf set is awesome. I am happy they used classic Elven designs for the warriors instead of armor prints and helmets. It may be less splashy for people who were looking for the things in the trailer, but it will be more useful in the long run, since Elves are not typically shown in armor - especially the Sylvan.

Likewise, I don't have a problem with the Elf swords being straight. In Tolkien's writing, Elves almost always use straight swords. And even in the films, not all Elvish blades need to be scimitars. Glamdring and Narsil were both storied Elvish blades.

[SMC]

It all sounds too good to be true, but for some reason, my BS alarm is not going off. Could be wishful thinking, but I feel like this is legit.

So, brick built fell beast or molded?

mine is, it woke up the wife (shes not happy)

[ZCerberus]

I just moved a heap of speculative 2014 stuff out of this thread. Do NOT discuss that stuff here. This thread is for 2013 set discussion only.

Nope. No more of this discussion here. Next person to mention 2014 is on my list.

[SandMirror38]

I think the dol guldur sets are put together pretty cheaply..whack one on the side were it dosn't make any sense...

Also is that the same statue as in AUJ?? That would be cool as the stud could be the witch king coming out of the statue

[The_Creator]

Nope. No more of this discussion here. Next person to mention 2014 is on my list.

I apologize. Very sorry, didn't see your original post!

Edited October 20, 2013 by The_Creator

[SMC]

Nope. This ends now. This is not 2013 set info. Move it to the future LotR discussion now.

Thanks I am not usually a fan of moderation but we have just got the Pictures for the new sets and have lots to talk about.

If people want to talk about if that set list is real or not fine but lets not mix it with real news.

When do we think we will see the instructions for these sets to see if there is any news on 20** (sorry had to blank out the year or ZCerberus might tell me off )

Some people get the sets sent to them early to review right?

Also I don't know what it is but I really like the statue and count it as another minifig in that set

[SandMirror38]

^ The more minifigures the merrier!!

I think multiple MEA can be attached..Is it possible lego is giving us these battle pack like sets to build up armies for BO5A??

[Kez]

Well the play features in the 3 sets showcased yesterday look rather good, and their are lots of them in the DGB set which is by far my most favourite set of the wave, I also find it nice that lego have included two extra figures with this set (the statue and the skeleton)

[deskp]

Also I don't know what it is but I really like the statue and count it as another minifig in that set

The statue is great, But Radagast deserved printed legs so I had rather wished lego spendt their efforts on him instead of a statue.

^ The more minifigures the merrier!!

I think multiple MEA can be attached..Is it possible lego is giving us these battle pack like sets to build up armies for BO5A??

Nope, the armies in bo5a looks nothing like what we've seen so far in lego figs.

Edited October 20, 2013 by deskp

[SandMirror38]

^ True. But I'm just happy we got radagast!

Am thinking about buying multiple DGB and DGA and mashing them all togther for a MASSIVE Dol Guldur display

Also how do you know what the BO5A warriors look like??

Edited October 20, 2013 by SandMirror38

[SMC]

Well the play features in the 3 sets showcased yesterday look rather good, and their are lots of them in the DGB set which is by far my most favourite set of the wave, I also find it nice that lego have included two extra figures with this set (the statue and the skeleton)

yeah we get the two extra figures (the statue and the skeleton) but they are kind of needed as this is the biggest set without a new big mold, horse, warg, troll.

edit: apart from the ship but it did come with 9 figs

Edited October 20, 2013 by SMC

[SandMirror38]

Any idea on what AUD prices will be??

[deskp]

Also how do you know what the BO5A warriors look like??

The vlogs. And come on, Thranduil does not use the woodland guard as his main army.

[SMC]

Any idea on what AUD prices will be??

my guess would be same price as, Shelob Attacks, Uruk-Hai Army, Attack On Weathertop and The Mines of Moria as they are the same price as those sets in £.

Edited October 20, 2013 by SMC

[SandMirror38]

That revives my wallet a little bit

[Darth Malgus]

Cannot wait to pick these sets up! Shame no dragon unless its an exclusive.

[ZCerberus]

Thanks I am not usually a fan of moderation but we have just got the Pictures for the new sets and have lots to talk about.

Really going to ingratiate yourself with me starting the comment off like that! I'll do my best to not go overboard with moderating- but that was needed.

Back to the sets- I feel the failing in this line is the number of playsets. These sets are for older collectors and older to teenaged kids- they want well built iconic locations, not a bunch of playsets. It's clear that the focus is on the minifigures and the other items are largely afterthoughts

[Deathleech]

Well after finally seeing some better quality pics I am liking this wave a bit more. The orcs actually look pretty good and do in fact have all new pieces except the hair/ear piece, but I guess it's technically new since it looks like it's a different color? I know it probably sounds like Lego can't win with me, but I actually wished/hope the orcs are the same color as the Mordor Orcs and Goblin King goblins as that would allow more mixing and matching of pieces for variety. Right now it's just a shoulder armor and the hair/ear to differentiate the 6 Gundabad Orcs we have. All well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much as the orcs do look nice even if they are probably going to be re-used a ton like the Mordor ones have been.

As for the rest of the minifigures I am really a fan of Beorn, Radagast, and the Thranduil minifigures, I think they look perfect. Beorn's hair looks pretty tall, it's no Woody legs height booster, but at least it's something I guess? Azog looks fine in tan imo, I just wish his "claw" hand was curved more so it could actually hold things. Seems like a silly oversight? The Necromancer looks kind of plain and blah. He looks like a radioactive monkey. If that's how he looks in the films I guess there isn't much Lego could do, but I think the problem is his black parts are all solid black. Lego could of added some ripples or fold to give it some dimension and detail? All well.

The more I look at it, the less I actually like the Mirkwood Elf Army set. To me, the shining star of the set is the brown Warg though I wish it was a lighter tan to better resemble the LotR Wargs. I think it would look more pleasing overall then, especially with a dark brown mane. All well. With the elves, Thranduil is nice to get in a set but in an army builder is hard to do much with at all. He comes with the very distinct hair and crown so it's not like Eomer where you can easily blend him with the other soldiers and pass him off as a no name grunt. Had Lego included another hood or some sort of battle helm this problem would of easily been solved. As I mentioned before, I also feel like there are too many elves in the set and NONE in armor is a huge disappointment. If they were absolutely dead set on releasing 3 elven grunts, why not do more variety and have 2 in armor and one in leather? That way the set has infinitely more appeal. Ideally I would of liked to see Thranduil (with an extra hood or battle helm head piece on top of his crown hair), 1 fully decked out armored elf (Thranduil could serve as a second with his alt head gear), 1 archer with hood or hair/ears, 3 Gundabad Orcs (2 with hair/ears), and finally the lighter brown Warg. This would of made the set PERFECT for me! Also it seems weird this set doesn't "attach" to DGB but DGA does? I guess you just can attach the MAE sets to each other and make an outpost or something indistinct?

Lastly there is the set builds themselves. I feel like as has been the case with the past few LotR/Hobbit waves (except on rare occasion.. Bag End, Helm's Deep, etc.), the sets main selling feature is definitely the minifigures and NOT the actual build. This is a shame. I still feel like Dol Guldur Battle is a really poor representation of Dul Guldur. If you put the set in front of someone with no minifigures and told them it was from the Tolkien universe, how many would actually identify it as DG (even after seeing AUJ/DoS)? With Mines of Moria I can at least cut Lego some slack as that was a small room under a mountain in a huge labyrinth, it would be hard if not impossible to do the set justice. DG they could of easily made more recognizable though. All well.

Oh, and at this point I would guess Bolg has been completely removed from the film. Azog seems to of totally filled his role so I see no need for Bolg (unless Azog dies at the end of DoS or the beginning of TaBA). The more I think about it I probably will only end up buying like 5 MEA sets and just BL all the extra Warg and Orcs I want. I would rather take my chances for a Bot5A set and get some armored elves. All the rest will be single purchases.

Edited October 20, 2013 by Deathleech

[Legonardo]

Alrighty

first impressions

elf army

cool minifigs, thranduil is awesome, have enough haldier heads already though new orks are BA, would make a great addition to my slowly growing goblin army, and those shoulder pads .

Dk brown warg = win. parts, not the greatest but not the worst either. will probably buy and sell thranduil

Ambush

will get for the figs and red leaves, hardly anything else usefull.

Battles not very interseting again, but sweet figs, will try get and sell Azog and Necromancer, and gandalph, but no ones interested in him now

[Bilbo Baggins]

HR picture here:

http://www.lordofthebrick.com/2013/10/lego-the-hobbit-79011-79012-79014-visuels-haute-resolution/

[Floundie]

Damn these sets are fantastic.

Dol Guldur Ambush, pass.

Mirkwood Army. Don't really care for the Elf/Orc generics but I suppose they are nice, especially that awesome shoulder armor. The build is lackluster, the wall is especially lame and the flick fire is unforgivable. What is that even supposed to be. The same thing is in two sets. The whole set actually looks exactly like Helm's Deep, but smaller and tan. Thranduil looks great. Thick eyebrows are funny.

Dol Guldur Battle is sweet. Radagast is everything I ever hoped for but better. But the staff is bad. I can make an infinitely better one with little effort. Azog looks great too, though as has been said plenty of times, he'd look better in white. Compare.

And I think I'm the only person to say that I regret we didn't get Bilbo in his new outfit. Oh well, Thorin's torso will have to do.

[Shroffy123]

These sets look amazing, I'm really excited to get my hands on these. All the mini-figs look great! I'm glad this isn't the "typical" licensed theme where we end up getting multiplies of the same mini-figs (well except for gandalf, but he is alright :) ). As much as I love the dwarves, I'm glad they didn't re-release them in this second wave.

Wow, the orcs look fantastic. I'm loving the new shoulder armor mold. Think of all the possibilities :)

[The Legonater]

There's a lot of cool stuff here, but I'm kind of surprised at the amount of attention the Dol Guldor is getitng, while there is no Smaug anywhere in the wave. I was under the impression DoS was ending with the Battle of Laketown? Hopefully Smaug shows up in a D2C or next wave.