LOTR & The Hobbit 2013 Set Discussion

[Mr_Malfoy]

Welcome Narwhal! I like your enthusiasm but I don't see a blue banner, more like black. I also don't see how it continues unless the other sets like Castle and City didn't have the same color banner.

Oh and deskp awesome job on Rivendell. The tower looks skimpy and thin but this is a promising start and is inspiring.

Um, that's just a shadow. Deskp, I your Rivendell model. I think I'll try beefing up the Council of Elrond set once I buy it. Quick question: where there any towers with a dome top in Rivendell? I thought that perhaps the Council of Elrond set, a tower with a dome on top, a bridge, and a structure similar to the Council set would make a nice Rivendell.

[Rogue Angel]

I personally am glad they did not make the oaken shield, since I think they did a horrible job of incorporating it in the movie, and they made it a central item in the movie like Sting and Orcist.

[Delta 38]

But he has also in Attack of the wargs scene

That's true, but if there was any scene in which it would be absolutely necessary, I'd say it would be the Goblin King one seeing as the swords are identified as the "Goblin Cleaver" and "Foehammer".

Hmm, that building looks nice and it's possible we might see something like that. At this point, I prefer the Council of Elrond as it's depicted in the videogame (there's a bit more to the side structure thing), though time will tell which design they'll go for.

[Mahtion]

Hey deskp I would love to see your designs on a Hobbit Rivendell. The platform courtyard where Elrond and the Elf riders surround Thorin and the company would look really nice with the stairs leading up to the White Council. Maybe even a middle or side platform where the harpist plays and Elrond identifies the Gondolin blades.

[deskp]

Maybe even a middle or side platform where the harpist plays and Elrond identifies the Gondolin blades.

I believe the platfor where they have dinner is the same platform where the council of Elrond happens in LOTR.

I believe the only dome'd roof in rivendell is the white council place.

[Mahtion]

Either way I wanna see more Rivendell lol. Did you make all your concepts using LDD? I didn't see the new horse molds on there when I worked on it in November. Also where did the Elven Noldor helms come from?

[Mr Narwhal]

That still looks like the same page to me, besides there might be another lotr page showing the "old" sets if its a retailer catalogue.

You make a point, now that I'm looking at it again. Probably should have looked closer...

[Blakstone]

Regardless of whether the banner goes onto the second page or not, you can tell from the Star Wars page that the photographer only took pictures of certain items. The sets on the page to the left of that page had the same 2013 Yoda bar across them. In Star Wars case, it could be that those sets were already public knowledge and he felt we did not need grainy photos of them.

If there are more LotR sets on the following page, I would assume that it would have to be a larger set than the Pirate Ship Ambush since LEGO generally goes from small to large on these pages. I doubt there would be a larger LotR set released as the same time as the Pirate Ship Ambush. I hope that there are four Hobbit sets released at the same time. Some of them could plug the missing price point holes in the LotR sets. Otherwise it seems strange to me that we get two small sets and two very large ones without any medium size sets.

Personally, I plan on skipping the Pirate Ship Ambush at least unless I find it one good clearance. Hopefully it will be a good cross over buy for LEGO Pirates fans though. The other three sets are a must for me.

[HawkLord]

I personally am glad they did not make the oaken shield, since I think they did a horrible job of incorporating it in the movie, and they made it a central item in the movie like Sting and Orcist.

I wasn't crazy about the oaken shield design in the movie.

Fortunately, Thorin drops it as the eagle picks him up and you can actually hear it hit the ground. Given that it's a tree branch now lying somewhere in the forest will mean it will be near impossible for Thorin to find in the future. Unless one of the eagles grabbed and decides to give it back to him later on - maybe at the Battle of Five Armies.

[Mahtion]

Or Azog could pick up the shield for whatever nefarious reason. I liked how the movie really wanted us to see that Orcrist was picked up alongside Thorin, the Eagles must know of The Goblin Cleaver's importance even though Lego does not.

[Archer]

I am still holding out for exclusives in regards to next years wave, but since the pictures go from smallest to largest set in every theme, and we can clearly see a ~10 and ~100 USD set on one page, I think it is safe to assume those four are the only new sets in that catalogue.

[Lynx]

That seemed like a strange move from LEGO's side, since it's a rather unique weapon that looks nothing like the short sword Thorin actually received.

We have seen Anduril/Narsil in both the video game and an earlier poster, however. I'm pretty sure I should be right this time,

the sword I thought was Orcrist just looked a lot like it as for shapes, even in the blurriness.

If anything, I was right about both The One Ring being a new mold and Legolas using the olive green color that was newly introduced back in December/January,

so I haven't just been wrong about things.

And by no means did I mean to imply that you are usually wrong. It is for the very reason of your right picks that I had my hopes up for Orcrist in the first place. :) The video game seems a great source to get ideas for future LEGO sets and pieces, but one thing to keep in mind is that the whole Rohan army has custom Rohan swords in the game which (unfortunately) did not make it into plastic form.

*pictures referred to on Page 27 of this thread for anybody wanting to have a look*

Thanks for posting these! Based on the presence of actual sets (e.g. Weathertop, Helm's Deep) in the same bonus level and the prelim pictures, I would be shocked if these were NOT the final models. Elrond's Council even seems to feature the stud-less piece near the chairs from which you will be able to launch Gimli through the air. I like the colours on this set since it's always nice to add some variety to the predominantly grey sets in Middle Earth line. Arwen differs slightly from the video game in that she wears a dress. I've never had a minifig with a dress. Can anybody tell me if the dress part is a simple sloped brick? Does it come off very easily or are its studs elongated similar to the legs of minifigs?

Regarding the Black Gate, I am happy we get the Mouth of Sauron and thrilled to have a molded eagle in the set. Based on the prelim, it will be the same as in the video game. Different versions of Aragorn and Gandalf further add to the minifig appeal of this set. As others have said, it is disappointing not to get regular foot soldiers, however. A battlepack with one soldier of Gondor, one Rohan soldier and two Mordor Orcs seems like a perfect addition to this set (although I'm not sure about a meaningful piece to build alongside the minifigs). The set itself looks alright. It captures the jagged look of the gate and the tower, can be opened, display figs on its walkways and allows customisation for those wanting a larger gate with both towers.

My first lego MOC

http://www.brickshel...R2/p1020902.jpg

Nice!

I'm doing a little experimenting with some Rivendell structure. 305 pieces without any of the patform in the back.

*pictures on page 28*

Fantastic! That would be a beautiful addition to the upcoming Council of Elrond set.

[rpmac91]

My wallet will definitely be happier with only four sets this wave, as I don't have the Mines of Moria yet. I'm least interested in the Corsair Ship, I wish TLG had made the black gate the $100+ set, and made the ship smaller, because the black gate looks tiny.

[Wardancer]

What is with the figs in The Council of Elrond? The picture shows 3 red blobs which can be either figs with red hoods or chairs. At first I thought they were three elves, but the box only shows one red hooded fig in the lower left corner. A blue Galadriel will be nice, the blue eagle queen from Chima can be her sister.

I am very stoked about the eagles. They will make my EADS much stronger (=Elven Air Dominance Squad). Up to now, Harry Potter griffins were the only way to have small mounted air units (besides dinosaurs). With the new eagles, it might happen that the griffins suddenly look boring in comparison. What will they do with Smaug? With the red dragon being re-released in Castle 2013, dragons will be a bit more affordable than paying a huge sum for the green dragon and the hungarian horntail.

[Plissken]

I think there is still a chance to see an orcrist mold.

The short gladiator sword could possibly depict his dwarven sword. When orcrist was publicly revealed, the design and production of the sets was maybe to advanced to include another new mold. We only got one copy of every dwarf in the first wave. When the next wave of sets hit the shelves we will see more doubles and the chance to get another Thorin (with a new sword mold )will rise.

[Delta 38]

Based on the presence of actual sets (e.g. Weathertop, Helm's Deep) in the same bonus level and the prelim pictures, I would be shocked if these were NOT the final models. Elrond's Council even seems to feature the stud-less piece near the chairs from which you will be able to launch Gimli through the air.

I was wondering if perhaps the whole point of the bonus level was to hint at future sets, but they're likely not final models. Minas Tirith, in particular, looks very strange and looks like it's missing the back.

Orthanc is also a bit odd, namely the walls. The tower itself looks fine but the walls would be higher if it were released as a set, since I think they were only that low to be in scale with the rest of the model.

It's weird though. Are they perhaps giving a bit too much away, too early? If the Lord of the Rings/Hobbit theme is successful, we'd obviously see those iconic structures at some point anyway, but if those are exactly how they'd look in real life, I don't think that's too good for marketing. People could probably figure out how to build the models themselves if they wanted to.

[Faefrost]

Arwen differs slightly from the video game in that she wears a dress. I've never had a minifig with a dress. Can anybody tell me if the dress part is a simple sloped brick? Does it come off very easily or are its studs elongated similar to the legs

For skirts they use a simple sloped 1x2x2 brick printed on the flat side. It uses normal studs and does come off far more easily than normal leg pieces. I am sort of surprised that they would use a sloped skirt for Arwen, as it precludes her ability to ride a horse in order to rescue Frodo.

[Lordof theBricks]

I have all of Lotr and The Hobbit sets,adn I will always bought every set no matter how they look.But the thing I hate about LEGO Lotr team is that that we got in 2 wawes (let's say)

-3x Bilbo

.4x Frodo

-4x Aragorn

-4x Gimli

-6x Gandalf...........

But there is really a lot of important minifigures we need to get.Why LEGO is doing that? Instead of they include some new figs like Witch king,Faramir,Gondorian soldiers,Eowyn,Gamling,Galadriel,Denethor,Gothmog,some orcs (there shuld be a lot of orcs desing also as Rohan and Rohirrim soldiers) But LEGO give us over and over the same minifigures. WHY LEGO,WHY!!!!!!!!!!

[pathas]

I have all of Lotr and The Hobbit sets,adn I will always bought every set no matter how they look.But the thing I hate about LEGO Lotr team is that that we got in 2 wawes (let's say)

-3x Bilbo

.4x Frodo

-4x Aragorn

-4x Gimli

-6x Gandalf...........

But there is really a lot of important minifigures we need to get.Why LEGO is doing that? Instead of they include some new figs like Witch king,Faramir,Gondorian soldiers,Eowyn,Gamling,Galadriel,Denethor,Gothmog,some orcs (there shuld be a lot of orcs desing also as Rohan and Rohirrim soldiers) But LEGO give us over and over the same minifigures. WHY LEGO,WHY!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, but I think that Lego is trying to keep us in the game and they want more money from us..

[Faefrost]

Well, this is my first post, and I have some GREAT news. On the pictures of the preliminary sets, there is a blue Lord of the Rings banner going across the top of the page. If you look closely, it appears that the banner continues on to the next page, meaning the sets we know of now aren't the only ones. Here's proof: http://imgur.com/wXBw5 . Although I may be wrong, I think we still have something to look out for.

This is a store / merchants catalog, yes? Chances are that next page are the older sets that have not been discontinued yet. Stuff we are already familiar with like Weathertop and Moria. The person who took the pictures seemed to skip around a bit just picking out some of the new and unknown stuff.

With that said, I wouldn't complete rule out a long shot chance of a store exclusive set, such as this years Orc forge. I don't think those normally show up in the general merchant catalog, and they are more often than not in the middle price range that we seem to feel is lacking here. Maybe the rumored Treebeard or Balrog sets?

[Faefrost]

I have all of Lotr and The Hobbit sets,adn I will always bought every set no matter how they look.But the thing I hate about LEGO Lotr team is that that we got in 2 wawes (let's say)

-3x Bilbo

.4x Frodo

-4x Aragorn

-4x Gimli

-6x Gandalf...........

But there is really a lot of important minifigures we need to get.Why LEGO is doing that? Instead of they include some new figs like Witch king,Faramir,Gondorian soldiers,Eowyn,Gamling,Galadriel,Denethor,Gothmog,some orcs (there shuld be a lot of orcs desing also as Rohan and Rohirrim soldiers) But LEGO give us over and over the same minifigures. WHY LEGO,WHY!!!!!!!!!!

Because we are not quite the target market. They have to include the "main characters" more often in order to keep the play factor of the sets reasonable for kids who are not buying the full line. So you will get multiples of the hero characters. LotR is actually not as bad for this. And Hobbit is downright refreshing as each Dwarf only appears once. Go ask a Harry Potter fan how many Harry's they have? And let's not forget Jack Sparrow.

Also note in your counting, while Frodo and Bilbo appear multiple times, there are different versions of the fig. So the 4x Frodo is 2x Shire dressed Plain shirt Frodo, 1x traveling/adventuring Frodo with his green hobbit cloak and 1x adventuring Frodo with his grey elven cloak. There is a subtle difference between re using a main character and reusing the complete fig. Gimli, Legolas and Aragorn probably suffer the worst for this as they are the main action heroes, but have the fewest outfit changes.

[Lordof theBricks]

Well, this is my first post, and I have some GREAT news. On the pictures of the preliminary sets, there is a blue Lord of the Rings banner going across the top of the page. If you look closely, it appears that the banner continues on to the next page, meaning the sets we know of now aren't the only ones. Here's proof: http://imgur.com/wXBw5 . Although I may be wrong, I think we still have something to look out for.

I would kill for Treebeard encounter,Bridge of Khazad dum and Betreyal of Isengard sets :)

[Mr_Malfoy]

Actually, how does someone get a hold of one of those magazines?

[Hobbit]

Treebeard!!!!!!!!

[djmangunz]

We know that Lego takes about two years to put together a line, that being said, we could certainly see how that timeline can be affected when things change in a movie. There were certainly sets which didn't fit into this first Hobbit line like the Barrel Escape, and glaring omissions like the lack of Azog (aka the pale orc) in the Warg Attack. What I have to wonder about is how these changes will affect this next line of sets. While I am certain we will have a Smaug set, perhaps in the $100 price range, but certainly Lego will have created a Battle of the Five Armies set already, which supposedly won't show up until the third movie. What do you think? Will Lego keep the sets they have already created, or will they move some of them to the last movie and hustle create new ones to fit the material in the second movie?