Another fantastic review, I'll definitely be re-reading this when the set comes out.

Hi Big Cam, would it be ok for me to use some of these images for BrickLink? I just added this set to the inventory there but I can't get anywhere near as good image quality as you can.

I will cite your name when I add them to BrickLink, hopefully they will keep that listed so you get credit for it.

Love this set and the review, btw - I was just recently wishing I had 3x3 plates, glad they added them finally.

Impressive review !!! Can't wait to get my hands on this set. Love those minifigs and those new Wargs.

Hi Big Cam, would it be ok for me to use some of these images for BrickLink? I just added this set to the inventory there but I can't get anywhere near as good image quality as you can.

I will cite your name when I add them to BrickLink, hopefully they will keep that listed so you get credit for it.

Love this set and the review, btw - I was just recently wishing I had 3x3 plates, glad they added them finally.

Sorry for the late reply. Of course you can, I'd also appreciate the credit!

Nice review! I'm really liking these Wargs, and for some reason that rock Yazneg and his Warg are mounted on looks really cool to me!

Thanks for the great review and pics! The set looks just as beautiful as I expected and will probably be one of the first sets I buy from this wave. While I don't necessarily care for all of the dwarf designs, the part selection seems to be very useful and I love the orc minifigs. If I find a good deal for it, I can easily see myself purchasing more than one of this particular set and selling the dwarf minifigs I don't need. Who has ever enough baddies and tree parts?

I was in wal-mart this morning and this set was out to buy. Go get it!

Excellent review. IMO this is a poor set through and through, unfortunately. Yazneg is the only normal-scale identifiable villain in Wave 2 and he looks *terrible* - Lego really dropped the ball. The Mordor Orcs should have had new printing, or had at least one more included. Thorin's braids are awkward, although axe-head is one of the cooler Dwarves. The Wargs are a great new mold, although a white one makes the pack ineffective for army building. The bricks of the set would be fine as filler if this was 29.99, but instead we get a 50 dollar set (for 400 pieces) with a tree that rather resembles a spinning, moldy dog turd - and weird looking rock formations. Total waste of parts when we could have had more minifigures or wargs. Still getting this one, but I was really, really on the fence.

Yeah I was really excited about this set but the more detailed pics starting to make me concerned and now I think I will pass on this. The wargs are the best part and you can already get them on bricklink 10 bucks a pop. I wish Thorin had a fur lined cape or something and the lack of Orcrist just makes him look less distinguished from the other dwarves.

Great reveiw Big Cam! I will be getting this set soon but it's not out in my neck of the woods.

Excellent review. I just picked this one up. The minifigs and worgs are gorgeous.

My only nitpick... Where the heck is Orcrist? No really? Little stabby hobbit sword =| Orcrist!

PS I think the Worgs are the second best Lego animals ever! Behind only the wondrous "Sharks with Laser Beams"

Like most i only find this set appealing for the figs in particular the wargs, just reminds me too much of the endor ewok set, thanks for the review

Great Review:)

This is my favorite set of the Hobbit series

all the minifigure are excellent but figures of Warg are special. adore them !! :blush:

I would love to get more Varg minifigure. :blush:

thanks for great review

I think the wargs look more to wolverines than wolves. Which is fine for me :-)

I'm very fond of them and I can imagine them taking up many different roles in my castle world.

With the combination of orcs and dwarfs, this is a must buy set for me. I fear I will end up with little more than a forest if I end up getting the entire range.

IMO the rock formations look pretty worthless and the tree only marginally better, although most of the minifigs and the wargs look great (not so sure about the orc leader though).

In the end though, the pieces are useful for general castle MOCing so even if you only build it once and then pull it apart you'll still get some useful bits and some good minis and animals.

It's interesting to read that so many of you love this set, and voted for 'outstanding'. In my opinion it's a pretty weak set, although the bricks in the tree look to be very nice. Besides that Bifur looks cool, and more mordor orcs are always welcome Thorin does nothing for me. I don't like the orc leader for the simple reason that he doesn't look like an orc, which doesn't make him blend in nicely with the others. Like stated by the previous poster the rock formation looks a little useless too (I understand it's there for a function), but it's first impression is a little random. For some reason I don't really like the wargs either, probably because I would not buy this set more than once and having two wargs in different colours makes them weird.

I think this is the weakest set of the hobbit line so far, especially for its price (60 euro).

Edited December 13, 201212 yr by PassionateMOCNoob

It's interesting to read that so many of you love this set, and voted for 'outstanding'. In my opinion it's a pretty weak set

I agree; I think it's tied with Riddles for the Ring for weakest set in the Hobbit theme. Primarily, that's because I think the tree design is just plain ugly. It's too big and bulky, and doesn't have nearly enough foliage. I like the wargs, and two different colors doesn't bother me. The Hunter Orcs are great. But Yazneg looks terrible; he doesn't even look like an orc. The dwarves are OK, although I don't like the lines on their faces; the lines are too bold (I had the same problem with the Clone Wars faces).

At $50 for 400 pieces, it's got a $0.125 price-per-piece ratio, which puts it up in Star Wars territory; that's the worst ratio of all the Hobbit sets. With five minifigs and two wargs, a high price is somewhat justified, but even if we adjust the price down $2 for each minifig (and warg) it has the second worst ratio in the theme (after Goblin King Battle).

Lame design + expensive + some meh minifigs = I'll purchase on clearance only

I can see the point that this may be a weak set, but those wargs make up for it.... :)

The Wargs are great, and I actually kind of like the tree. It make a good fairly low real estate Verticle display for the Dwarves. Just keep sticking them on branches.

BTW, while not perfect, using oneof the extra "Sting"s from any of the sets with Bilbo or Frodo looks a little better on Thorin for Orcrist. Not perfect by any means, but at least it was some curves and looks a bit more elvish.

The rock formation wouldn't be so confusing, to those who have seen the film...

After seeing the movie, I realize how horrible this set is...

I really like this set when I first saw it (like the majority of folks I liked it for the wargs) but I liked the minifigures as well, but after seeing the movie I realized how poorly Yazneg is designed. In the movie he's huge, way bigger than regular orcs, I'm not sure how they could have done this in Lego form, but the lack of a hair piece makes him look shorter than regular orcs. As mentioned before I wish they had some kind of head piece for bald minfigures. He also doesn't wear that chest piece, in fact he doesn't wear anything at all waist up. Not to mention his hand is wrong...

The tree also looks horrible IMO, based on this set I thought the characters in the movie would climb up a short bulky trees, but in fact they climb up very thin tall trees. Again, I see the limitations in stability and playability, but I just think the likeness could have been greatly improved.

The rock formations are cool I think, as mentioned above, it makes more sense if you see the movie.

Despite this, I have 2 $10 gift cards for target, so I'll probably still end up picking this set up for 30 bucks. Mainly for the Wargs

Edited December 16, 201212 yr by yys4u

but after seeing the movie I realized how poorly Yazneg is designed. In the movie he's huge, way bigger than regular orcs

SPOILER if you haven't watched the movie, yet!!!!

I think you are confusing Yazneg with Azog, the pale orc. Yazneg was leading the initial pursuit of the dwarves when they were distracted by Radagast. Yazneg was killed by Azog on Weathertop. I agree that this set is a very poor representation of the scene. While I can forgive the wrong choice of the orc leader and the blue flames (presumably this was based on the info available to TLC at the time of design and the book, respectively), the tree looks nothing like it does in the movie or the book. I'd have preferred three slender trees with a collapsable play function to the turnable pile of brown bricks present in the set.