LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[Mr_Malfoy]

The new sets look great, if a bit bland (you can't do too much with a grey fortress). The minifigures are excellent, however, with Radagast, Thranduil, and Azog (I would hate to be of those people who spent $500 on the NYCC "exclusive" version) standing out the most. I only wish that there were a small $12 set as well.

(Wow I've been goen for a while...)

[SMC]

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.

Luckily I wasn't trying to ingratiate myself with you I was just trying to say in my own way thanks for moderating as I felt it was needed. I made the point that it is coming from someone who does not like over moderating to make it more meaningful.

The orcs actually look pretty good...

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...

All well, I guess I shouldn't complain too much as the orcs do look nice...

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...

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...

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!...

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 agree with all of this, some very good points

I do kind of like the hooded elves more than I thought I would, they look nice and could be used for a number of things as they don't have to be elves. I was thinking if you got another hood and put the plan brown elf ears on Thranduil that could work as a normal elf soldier.

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.

a new print would have been great

If you look I edited this before I posted it

Edited October 20, 2013 by SMC

[Brickity]

I feel like these sets are kinda dull The minifigs are great but I don't see much playability, just some things here and there.

[SandMirror38]

^Aye I agree. Accept for DGB the sets are very well bland.

Lets have a elf set!"

"Ok that sounds cool. Have elves, orcs. Wait.. we need a set"

"Oh dammit. Lets have a wall and tree!"

[Faefrost]

I like all of these. The only mildly annoying thing is Beorn in the Dul Guldur Ambush set. I love Beorn, and I am really looking forward to a fig of him. But since the Dul Guldur Ambush can be an expansion set for the Battle of Dul Guldur set, I will probably get a few of them. At least with Helm's Deep and the Uruk Hai Army set, you could easily play gear mix and match to flip any extra Eomer's into just generic Rohirim. But what are we going to do with 3-5 Beorn's? (Well okay pair them up with my small army of Gandalf's, Lone Rangers and Jack Sparrows)

[Gryphon Ink]

Not much playability? These things are oozing play features! You've got catapults and Elf launchers and a swinging cage and a revolving secret door and a GITY Necromancer and a spiderweb that swings out of the way and swinging axes and hammers and rock sections that open up. And armies of orcs vs. Elves and wizards. The playability is higher than it's ever been in this theme. I think kids will eat this up.

[SandMirror38]

@Gryphon Ink: Did you say elf launchers??? I need to go back and have a better look

[Mahtion]

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.

Well interesting that you mentioned that because I was thinking the same regarding the straight edge swords. This is PJ's Middle Earth so that is the way the Elves have been depicted, but I did immediately think of the book version when seeing Thranduil brandishing a broadsword. Now it is true that Glamdring is elvish being Turgon's sword but Narsil was dwarven made by Telchar, so it was not elven made though it was reforged iby the Noldor in Rivendell into Anduril.

Also I wouldnt mind some generic Elves in the style of Lothlorien or Rivendell robes, but the hackneyed green and brown color schemes are becoming lackluster and too generic, it does not seem Tolkien or PJ, more bland Fantasy elf cliche. The trailer elves were great because the provided Elves in new colors and designs we have not seen and thus yield new and stand out minifigs which Lego is all about showcasing.

[wesker]

Really impressed with the minifigures of this wave. Thranduil, Radagast, Beorn, the orcs and the Mirkwood Elves all look fantastic. Never cared much for Azog as a character, but its good to see he's available for those who want him. His inclusion does give me hope that we may see other Comic-Con "exclusives" appear in retail sets one day (fingers crossed for Phoenix and ASM2 Spider-Man)

The sets themselves aren't too bad. Dol Guldor Ambush is a nice little set, but Dol Guldor Battle doesn't seem quite as distinctive. I may just need to see more of the setting in the film though. I do like how Lego is promoting the modular aspect of combining these sets. Mirkwood Elf Army should be a good army builder and parts pack but the outpost itself looks pretty underwelming.

[kinggregus]

I have to say that the box design is astonishing. It makes the sets so appealing. I am so glad to see the series continue. Lego also surpassed itself in the design of the minifigs.

The sets could have had a better design but I do not care that much as we can modify it. After all, this is the point of legos.

[Darth Malgus]

Quite like them, the more I see I like the sets be interested to see how these sets fit the context of the film having read the book, a little curious.

[KristofBD]

The sets look great! Compared to the blurry pics, I think the orcs are the biggest surprise: they look superb! Thranduil, Radagast and Beorn look absolutely stunning!

Sure, this wave has no Bag End set, but I'm confident that TLG will give us some UCS somewhere in the near future (given how well the Orthanc seems to be selling). This wave is just a moneymaking in-between wave (people like us buying multiples of the sets) and quite good at it. For me that's ok, as long as it ensures this franchise to continue I'm happy!

[Hive]

Decent enough sets, these 3 new ones. Not the best designs I've seen in the LOTR/Hobbit range, but seems like some nice parts. And the elven wall is different enough to be interesting, with slightly unusual colors and stuff. The focus of these sets are clearly on the figures, of which only the hooded elves interest me personally, but I'll likely get the two big structures for the interesting parts and sell off the figs.

Together with the already announced river town it's a rather nice, but not fantastic, wave all in all.

[Legonardo]

agreed, there's hardly anything interesting in these, legos not done too much in terms of construction, but man those figures

its gonna be hard to sell some of them ...

[Propicz89]

These new Hobbit sets look great! Definitely going to pick up DGA and MEA.

[Seaber]

Bit disappointed we haven't seen any new Dwarf variants other than Thorin, but at least there's only one new Gandalf.

All the new figures look good, but the three new revealed sets are a bit wall-y. Look good though.

Do we know if the other two sets from the six promised are the Spiders and Barrels sets, or cancelled, or not revealed yet?

[MisterR]

wow the new sets look really cool... The fact that we dont see a dragon, may be meaning there will be a exclusive set coming or maybe next year another series of sets from the Hobbit :-)

Still no sign of Galadriel! :-( Too bad.. Lets hope we see her soon (and also Eowyn) in some summer Lord of the rings sets.

[Mutant Orc]

Looking at Azog rendered in tan and white I really think Lego should have created a new lighter-flesh colour, somewhere between flesh and white.

White is too bright, flesh too healthy and tan !!

With a new colour Wormtongue, the Mouth of Sauron, the Goblin King, Gollum and Azog would all look pale enough but not look unusual.

Why tan????

Edited October 20, 2013 by Mutant Orc

[Sandy]

Dammit, another batch of superb sets! Now I have to get all four of them again.

[Deathleech]

I like all of these. The only mildly annoying thing is Beorn in the Dul Guldur Ambush set. I love Beorn, and I am really looking forward to a fig of him. But since the Dul Guldur Ambush can be an expansion set for the Battle of Dul Guldur set, I will probably get a few of them. At least with Helm's Deep and the Uruk Hai Army set, you could easily play gear mix and match to flip any extra Eomer's into just generic Rohirim. But what are we going to do with 3-5 Beorn's? (Well okay pair them up with my small army of Gandalf's, Lone Rangers and Jack Sparrows)

The Dol Guldur Ambush isn't really great for multiple purchases though, even if it didn't have Beorn and had 2 generic orcs and 1 generic dwarf/elf/human instead. $20 for 3 minifigures is pretty expensive, most army builders are high on minifigures for their price point but DGA definitely isn't. I mean if you really want the bricks then it might be decent but speaking strictly of the minifigures there are much better options. For $10 more you can get a cool new brown Warg and 3 generic elves plus a named character.

If you really want the orc hair/ear piece then Dol Guldur Ambush is probably the only way to go, but even still I suspect the orcs will be pretty cheap on BL after a few months. You will prolly be able to get the ear/hair versions for around $4-4.50 and the non-hair/ear ones for $3 initially, then prices for both will drop to $3 and under after several months. The Mordor Orc with hair was like $5-6 originally and it was ONLY available in $40+ sets and one in each set at that. These orcs will be in every set in doubles and the DGA is only $20 so I assume the BL price per orc will be significantly lower.

[CardinalBricks]

Those new sets look wonderful! Lovin the Mirkwood Elf Army set!

[Infernum]

Both the Dol Guldor sets have grown on me, but I'm still disappointed with the MEA. The wall is just... pathetic. I really think TLG could have done better. The figs are great, even if the elves aren't armored, but the construction is very underwhelming. I wish there was more olive/dark tan, as the LBG ruins the color palette. I really wish that they'd included an orange-ish color in the wall. That would add a lot to the aesthetics. I do like the wall's angle though. It would be interesting to buy five (?) and get a complete wall.

[Alcarin]

I think I will buy 2x MEA (mirkwood elf army) and sell Orcs (keep shoulderpads) and Thraunduil and most of the bricks (keep brown stuff I use for more trees to decorate my display of LEGO)

They'll retail at 39.99€ in European Union and if our local shops will have those in December for same discount as Uruk-hai Army (25%) so for 30€ I'll instantly buy 2 .... otherwise I'll wait for 25%+ discount!

[Elrond]

I have to say I'm a little disappointed with these sets. I'm pretty sure a lot of people will only get them for the figures. That was already the case with the first wave but it's getting worse.

Also I'm not too crazy about Beorn's design (although that's of course not TLG's fault).

[Mutant Orc]

Also I'm not too crazy about Beorn's design (although that's of course not TLG's fault).

I know, he looks like he's wearing a gallon of hair gel and is impersonating a Marvel Superheroes weirdo!!