LEGO LotR - general discussion

[Mahtion]

Actually it is modular. Part 5 has the iconic gate and Rivendell entrance. This part has the most supporters. Check out the other projects by this person especially the Barad-dur one which is amazing and has almost 1000 supporters.

[Mr. Cube]

That Barad-dûr is amazing, but thing like that will be never produced, because technically, it´s just bigger Orthanc.

[Ardelon]

Then how can they get away with the Witch King Battle set? It has 3 minifigures and around 100 pieces for $13 or $15 bucks? I mean I am sure this is the reason, but maybe the set has to have a certain ratio of bricks to minifigures AND a certain amount of named characters or something?

The WK Battle is indeed the odd man out. Like you suggested, maybe TLG got away with it because all three figs are named characters? If so there are similar set options that could have given us most if not all the missing named characters, while still having some army-building potential, like:

- armored WK, Eowyn, Rohan Merry; with a small catapult or rock+bush or some similar inconsequential build

- ranger Faramir, Madril, Gothmog; with some Osgiliath ruins

- armored Faramir, Denethor, Gondor Pippin; with some White Tower interior

- decrepit Theoden, Gríma, Gandalf the White; with some Meduseld interior

Maybe even redo some older characters, like a set with Boromir (angry and sad/dying/regretful faces), Lurtz (with thorin hair to accomodate a quiver), Aragorn (correct colors on torso, unlike the inverted ones we got); and add some forest scenery.

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

i discovered maybe, the most beautiful Moc i have ever seen in Lego Ideas!

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/75868

Thanks for posting. I've subsequently supported the Rivendell projects.

[Black Numenorean]

no problem Sir basil.

HS: where do you live in italia?

[Faefrost]

Thing is, this will forever remain speculation, as there is zero proof from Lego that this is the case. Lego's PR is terrible in this respect - it would have taken a single sentence from a rep saying "there are ratios that we are contractually obligated to stick to, thus we cannot make battlepacks in the Star Wars style." Boom. Done. It's not like that's going to hurt sales of the line or alienate any fans. Why not tell us?

They have said pretty close to exactly that. I wish I could find the quote. It was from a Q&A session at one of the North American gatherings. I forget if it was LotR specific but they basically said each license contract is different. And each defines things like parts per minifig. Amount of build required. And any number of other details that surround things like battle packs.

[atreyu2112]

Yup, I remember TLG saying something to that effect as well.

[Faefrost]

Also regarding Battlepacks and pure Army Builders. Chances are that is NOT Lego's call. The absence of Army Builders and the inclusion of named characters makes a great deal of sense when you look at it from the perspective of the License Holders. Remember they also sold a specific Army Building license. Ie the miniature gaming license that Games Workshop holds or held. Any terms of Legos license would be specifically written to not risk a conflict with or diminish the value of that Games Workshop license.

Hence, no Battlepacks.

[SirBlake]

UrukHai Army was as close to a battle back as any of us would need for any of the missing/underrepresented factions. We can all go back and forth over the speculative minutia of license terms. None of it is a good excuse.

[Ardelon]

Also regarding Battlepacks and pure Army Builders. Chances are that is NOT Lego's call. The absence of Army Builders and the inclusion of named characters makes a great deal of sense when you look at it from the perspective of the License Holders. Remember they also sold a specific Army Building license. Ie the miniature gaming license that Games Workshop holds or held. Any terms of Legos license would be specifically written to not risk a conflict with or diminish the value of that Games Workshop license.

Hence, no Battlepacks.

Good point as usual, but I would think that TLG would come out and say it, in an official e-mail or via a LEGO rep, if it was really not its call, to avoid the backlash from AFOLs. Is there a reason TLG (or WB or whoever is involved) would be so secretive?

[Elrond]

I really find it sad that we're not even able to army-build the good guys (unless you're willing to pay a fortune on BL to get the same Rohan soldier multiple times...). Helm's Deep ends up looking a little empty. Something like a reversed "Uruk-hai Army" set would have been nice.

It's also a real pity that TLG completely ignored one of the 4 main factions. It's especially frustrating when you get a pirate ship but no Osgiliath or Minas Tirith.

[greenalfonzo]

Not getting Gondor is the one thing that will forever haunt my dreams with this line. I am convinced that the second wave was split, and the three unproduced sets were mostly centered around Gondor, but slow sales of the pirate ship and Rivendell doomed them to the void.

Lego obviously thought the 'variety' offered by the Council and the ship sets would be more attractive than just another round of soldiers and castles and monsters. They were wrong, so wrong.

[greeklad97]

Is a Middle Earth themed visual dictionary out of the question? There's a chance one more minifigure vacancy could be filled, but with how this licensed was handled, if one is made, we'll probably get another Gandalf! :P Also perhaps we get a polybag with the combo release of Hobbit and LOTR on blue-ray? No new parts, but Eowyn/Faramir are possibilities! I truly believe that the 2nd wave is what killed this theme. They still have wave two sets sitting on my local toy store shelves, while the new Super Hero sets are constantly sold out... I've debated wether or not to pick up a couple extra Black Gates, anyone think they'll go up in value?

Anyhow with LOTR basically dead, my wallet can breath a sigh of relief. I may pick up a Super Hero set every once in a while, but my collecting days are pretty much done. :/

Not getting Gondor is the one thing that will forever haunt my dreams with this line. I am convinced that the second wave was split, and the three unproduced sets were mostly centered around Gondor, but slow sales of the pirate ship and Rivendell doomed them to the void.

Lego obviously thought the 'variety' offered by the Council and the ship sets would be more attractive than just another round of soldiers and castles and monsters. They were wrong, so wrong.

Couldn't agree more with everything you said!

Edited August 29, 2014 by greeklad97

[wesker]

Getting Eowyn and Faramir with a Visual Dictionary or Blu-Ray would make the line ending much easier to deal with.

[greeklad97]

Getting Eowyn and Faramir with a Visual Dictionary or Blu-Ray would make the line ending much easier to deal with.

Agreed!

[Robert_88]

A combined wave with 6 or 7 sets would have been nice. Like the first waves but with the BofA sets and 2 or 3 LotR sets.

[Mr. Cube]

Robert_88: Yeah, that would have been nice. And there could be one "connecting" set like this - https://ideas.lego.com/projects/69033

Edited August 29, 2014 by Mr. Cube

[AFOLguy1970]

Not getting Gondor is the one thing that will forever haunt my dreams with this line. I am convinced that the second wave was split, and the three unproduced sets were mostly centered around Gondor, but slow sales of the pirate ship and Rivendell doomed them to the void.

Lego obviously thought the 'variety' offered by the Council and the ship sets would be more attractive than just another round of soldiers and castles and monsters. They were wrong, so wrong.

I totally agree that there were probably other sets planned. I blame the end of the line on two things: PJ splitting the Hobbit into three films, and Lego releasing Pirate Ship, Wizard Battle, Black Gate, and Council of Elrond in front of the Gondor sets. Had they reversed the order of release and stuck with the main scenes first in the second wave, we might have had Gondor sets and would then be getting the more obscure ones in a third wave as a sort of bonus.

Disclaimer: I acknowledge this is just speculation, but I simply cannot believe wave 2 was originally planned to be the final group of sets. Lego is smart enough to hire designers who have actually seen the films (I hope)

[Blakstone]

While I would welcome any additional Middle Earth minifigs, there will not be any LotR characters coming in a Bluray set.

It is possible that there will be an exclusive Hobbit figure, but that is not clear. The last Bluray came with an existing Legalos minifig.

[BrickBob Studpants]

Getting Eowyn and Faramir with a Visual Dictionary or Blu-Ray would make the line ending much easier to deal with.

Sadly, that's not very likely The Harry Potter DK books easily could have given us Tonks, Kingsley or Slughorn, but instead we got two (!) variations of Harry himself. If there's a Middle-Earth DK book on the horizon, we might get old Bilbo if we're lucky, but that'd be it

Edited August 29, 2014 by Lego-Freak

[SMC]

I think if we got just one Gondor set and a Middle-Earth book with old Bilbo then that would just about cover the minimum needed.

[TheLegoDr]

Sad face... Is there any other words to use regarding how LEGO handled this license? Maybe it was the license holders call on everything, BUT they must not want to make money either...

It hurts more playing the LEGO game and seeing some of these people, but never seeing them in LEGO form in real life. Isn't there a really good customizer out there that is willing to make some of these. Granted, the expense would be high, but having at least ONE really good Witch King and Faramir and Gondor soldier would be better than none...(I realize there are a lot more figures I'd love to see in LEGO form, but I only listed a few).

[Preuss]

It hurts more playing the LEGO game and seeing some of these people, but never seeing them in LEGO form in real life. Isn't there a really good customizer out there that is willing to make some of these. Granted, the expense would be high, but having at least ONE really good Witch King and Faramir and Gondor soldier would be better than none...(I realize there are a lot more figures I'd love to see in LEGO form, but I only listed a few).

My thoughts exactly. I am waiting to be 100% sure we won't get the official figures to start trying to customize them somehow, but I'm sure there are AFOLs way more qualified than me and would gladly help support their effort. Maybe we should start putting together a list of would-be customers for such a project. I would love a 3D-printed Witch King helm, but even some high quality Gondor decals would be very welcome.

[Borador]

My thoughts exactly. I am waiting to be 100% sure we won't get the official figures to start trying to customize them somehow, but I'm sure there are AFOLs way more qualified than me and would gladly help support their effort. Maybe we should start putting together a list of would-be customers for such a project. I would love a 3D-printed Witch King helm, but even some high quality Gondor decals would be very welcome.

I had a topic in the Minifigure Customization Workshop that was similar... I tried to list out all of the customizers who did printed/molded customs from Middle Earth... It went the way of the dodo, much like this theme... Interesting, I think...

Anyways, I'm not here just to promote that thread. Rather, I come to say that I made an error in logic before. I said Lord of the Rings CMF would be bad because we'd only get one series, basing that logic on the Simpsons being done... Well, I stand corrected. The Simpsons is getting another wave. BUT! I still think LotR CMF would not be much better, (and the Simpsons likely sold well, LotR did not), but now, I think maybe we could've gotten just a bit more. Oh well. It doesn't matter now anyways. We got what we got. The lack of an ad confirms it.

It's over. Now, I must go back in time and tell myself two years ago that we'd get a character I never heard

of (Mouth of Sauron) and no Witch King... I wonder how I'd react...

[Bugbot2008]

Looks like thats it then :(

I'll be supporting all ideas projects which I think are viable but in the mean time lego isn't going to get much money out of me for a while other than periodic pick-a-brick orders for making my own mocs of the missing locations

I expect Smallgreenpealtd on ebay will get a spike in sales soon for his customs like the witch king http://bit.ly/1qo4g9u...