LEGO LotR - general discussion

[Deathleech]

Do you guys think the Mines of Moria set is something decent to invest in? A local toy store by me still has it in stock and I want to know if its worth picking up

Of course! It has two Fellowship members, Boromir and Pippin which you can't get in any other set. It also has the Moria Orcs and Cave Troll which are also exclusive to the set. The minifigures alone make the set well worth it imo. The actual brick components aren't really that bad either, and if you aren't a fan of the segmented walls you can always buy a large gray baseplate for $15 to help tie it all together.

[cullmancreations]

I might go pick it up soon. maybe in the next week or two. I bought the Dol Guldur battle last night so I want to cool down with my Lego purchases for now

[atreyu2112]

Personally, I love the Mines of Moria set. Great mini-figs, and actually displays quite nicely. For a Lego set, it's quite accurate to the film IMO.I got a couple extra Moria Orcs and I have the Fellowship in there too. Love it.

[Bycougars]

Of course! It has two Fellowship members, Boromir and Pippin which you can't get in any other set. It also has the Moria Orcs and Cave Troll which are also exclusive to the set. The minifigures alone make the set well worth it imo. The actual brick components aren't really that bad either, and if you aren't a fan of the segmented walls you can always buy a large gray baseplate for $15 to help tie it all together.

I might go pick it up soon. maybe in the next week or two. I bought the Dol Guldur battle last night so I want to cool down with my Lego purchases for now

This set is great and if you actually buy two you can make a pretty good Mines of Moria. I bought two myself and am planning on getting a gray base plate for them as well.

[cullmancreations]

Well I already own one I just figured since the set is discontinued and this shop still has one more for retail price it might be worth it

[Blakstone]

Cullmancreations, it is hard to say whether it would make a good investment. I think we are in a bubble for LEGO investing personally. That said, I have one set, Battle of Helm's Deep, that I bought on clearance as an investment. My reasoning is that if I don't or cannot sell it, I can use it. It is all great brick and a second copy of Theoden would be welcome. He is my favorite Tolkien character.

So buy the Mines of Moria set as an investment if you are willing to risk not being able to sell it. After all, unlike stock investments, you can always have the minifigures and brick if you cannot sell at a profit.

[Borador]

Cullmancreations, it is hard to say whether it would make a good investment. I think we are in a bubble for LEGO investing personally. That said, I have one set, Battle of Helm's Deep, that I bought on clearance as an investment. My reasoning is that if I don't or cannot sell it, I can use it. It is all great brick and a second copy of Theoden would be welcome. He is my favorite Tolkien character.

So buy the Mines of Moria set as an investment if you are willing to risk not being able to sell it. After all, unlike stock investments, you can always have the minifigures and brick if you cannot sell at a profit.

That's pretty much my philosophy on LEGO investing. Though I try to be reasonable about it (for buying LEGO because one thinks one possibly could resell it is not good. LEGO is expensive and the value usually doesn't go up. Money does not grow on trees), if you can get it cheap enough and can afford it, then it isn't a bad idea, but just be careful since LEGO doesn't go up in value that much. assess the risk. It looks like a good set to me, but make sure your money is in the right place...

EDIT: Did the filter seriously change assess to megablocks? HA! Must've spelled it wrong!

Edited October 22, 2014 by Borador

[Deathleech]

So buy the Mines of Moria set as an investment if you are willing to risk not being able to sell it. After all, unlike stock investments, you can always have the minifigures and brick if you cannot sell at a profit.

I'm kind of in the opposite boat. I have doubles of every LotR and Hobbit set still sealed in their packaging. I may open them some day and use the pieces. If not I can always sell them though. I have no plans of selling them right now, but if I do I am sure I will make a nice profit (most were bought at least 25% off).

[Bycougars]

Check out the LOTR staff pick on Lego Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/dashboard

Edited October 22, 2014 by Bycougars

[cullmancreations]

Yay there is still hope for Minas Tirith

[Robert_88]

Very nice but I think that means nothing.

[LegoFish]

I think lego can go up a pretty good amount in terms of post-production selling, it's just that it may take a few years for it to be really worth a profit. Look at cloud city (10123) thats' sold for many times the retail price on things like ebay and amazon (or at least its listed for those prices dont know if people actually buy such highly priced out of production lego). I think with lotr it may go up in price quite nicely; allthough probably only AFOL's will buy them at higher prices i think the desire for making new creations with them (if there'll be no more lego lotr) should certainly make getting them while they're cheaper worth while.

It's also nice to see NujiMetru's Minas Tirith on the staff picks on lego ideas; it's gotten quite a few new votes the past few days :D

[MAB]

When the second wave was released, I thought it looked like they were definitely doing a third wave because they'd picked some relatively smaller/less significant scenes for sets (Black Gate, Council and Pirate Ship), and it probably was the plan to do a third wave, but for whatever reason, they decided not to.

The Council of Elrond is a fairly significant movie scene, as it is the creation of the Fellowship. They always have a range of set sizes, so one of them has to be small. Of course, we could have done without Gimli as he is in other sets, same with Frodo but he is a key character, but otherwise I find it a nice little set.

[AFOLguy1970]

The Council of Elrond is a fairly significant movie scene, as it is the creation of the Fellowship. They always have a range of set sizes, so one of them has to be small. Of course, we could have done without Gimli as he is in other sets, same with Frodo but he is a key character, but otherwise I find it a nice little set.

I too am OK with the Council of Elrond set. At that point, it was the only way to get Elrond without having to try and find the Gamestop version. There were some nice pieces in it as well. Many people raved about the gothic arches which were introduced in that set. Gimli and the Gimli launcher were indeed unnecessary, but Lego unfortunately added those and the eye sticker to try to make the set appeal to the younger kids.

Black Gate actually is a significant scene, however they chose the least significant part of that scene to produce. Not only did they have to appeal to a relatively narrow audience, they had to appeal to one that just happened to have the extended version to even realize there was a film version of Mouth of Sauron. They should have gone with Aragorn vs troll, Gandalf the White, Mordor orcs, and Gondor soldiers.

As for Pirate Ship, no more to say than has already been said.

[TheLegoDr]

^That's the interesting thing though, I have only seen the extended versions, so I didn't know there were parts missing compared to other people's viewing experiences. So seeing the Mouth of Sauron was quite neat.

I don't particularly care for the Pirate Ship ambush, even though I know the scene. But I am glad we got the Oathbreakers.

Council of Elrond is actually a neat little set. I like having Elrond, although having multiple of him now with the crown headpiece seems silly since it is hard to re-use them, but the torsos work quite well for other figures too.

[Bycougars]

^That's the interesting thing though, I have only seen the extended versions, so I didn't know there were parts missing compared to other people's viewing experiences. So seeing the Mouth of Sauron was quite neat.

I don't particularly care for the Pirate Ship ambush, even though I know the scene. But I am glad we got the Oathbreakers.

Council of Elrond is actually a neat little set. I like having Elrond, although having multiple of him now with the crown headpiece seems silly since it is hard to re-use them, but the torsos work quite well for other figures too.

Yeah, I that is why everyone thought that it weird for Lego to put mouth of sauron in the set because he doesn't exist in the shortened version. So anyone who hasn't seen the extended would wonder who that even is.

[Darth Caedus]

Yeah, I that is why everyone thought that it weird for Lego to put mouth of sauron in the set because he doesn't exist in the shortened version. So anyone who hasn't seen the extended would wonder who that even is.

Granted, no LOTR fan in their right mind would ever touch the theatrical editions again, the EE's are infinitely superior in almost every way (Oathbreaker surprise is undercut but that's about it). The problem with including the MoS is not that he's an EE character, it's that he's still incredibly minor compared to the Witch-King.

[Borador]

Check out the LOTR staff pick on Lego Ideas: https://ideas.lego.com/dashboard

It won't let me see it without logging in (don't have an account), but I'm using my context clues and guessing it's Mina Tirith?

I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you...

[Bycougars]

It won't let me see it without logging in (don't have an account), but I'm using my context clues and guessing it's Mina Tirith?

I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you...

I'm just happy because it will help increase the votes on the set. It is already over six thousand. I know that there is no guarantee that Lego will make the set just because it gets to 10000, but at least it will confirm one way or the other if a Minas Tirith set is possible. If they approve the project great! If not at least we will know that there is no chance at getting it made as a set.

[atreyu2112]

I think that both internally at Lego, as well as all of the fans around the world want SOME sort of Gondor set that would at least get us the core RotK goodness we are still in need of to complete out collection. If it's going to happen, NOW is the time to try and get it to 10k.

Besides the Balrog & a true Treebeard, this set could include ALL we really need... Armored Witch-King (who's to say they haven't already made the helm?), Fell Beast (Smaug body & wings, new head might already exist), Armored Eowyn, Faramir (either or), Denethor, Gondor Soldier, Gothmog, Guritz & some more Mordor orcs... plus a decent Minas Tirith build.

[Ardelon]

Someone on this forum already suggested that TLG made the sets fom the EE of LotR because kids from the current target audience are too young to have seen the original nonextended version in movie theatres, so they would only be familiar with extended versions from DVDs and other media. I think this is a plausible reason.

[Deathleech]

Someone on this forum already suggested that TLG made the sets fom the EE of LotR because kids from the current target audience are too young to have seen the original nonextended version in movie theatres, so they would only be familiar with extended versions from DVDs and other media. I think this is a plausible reason.

Even if that were the case, why make a minifigure out of such a minor character when there are much more important characters that could have been made? And why make a character who is kind of scary to younger kids and gets decapitated?

[cullmancreations]

I really want to see Pippin in Gondor armor he is my favorite Hobbit. but a Old Bilbo is plausible if DK would every release a Lego LOTR and Hobbit visual dictionary. If we are to get a Minas Tirith set we would need a Pippin in Gondor Armor and at least two Gondor soldiers

Edited October 24, 2014 by cullmancreations

[Blazej_Holen]

Did somebody ask TLG/ designers why they make such choices in Lotr sets?

[Lord_Tyrannus]

Even if that were the case, why make a minifigure out of such a minor character when there are much more important characters that could have been made? And why make a character who is kind of scary to younger kids and gets decapitated?

I don't get all the hate around Mouth of Sauron... I think he is awesome! Of course, he plays a minor role in the history, but the ones who used to play LOTR - Battle for Middle Earth II are already familiar with him (there is a mission that you play with him). Besides, it's cool to have a villain thet is not an orc/nazgul.. And, of course, LEGO wanted to make the Black Gate, he was the logical choice, because Withch King was already dead when the battle took place..

Now, why we didn't get any gondor soldier in this set is another thing (they cold easily put him in the place of one of the orcs, ok it would be 3 + eagle against 2, but if you look to all the other sets you can see LEGO doesn't take the numbers proportions in consideration, exemple: Mines of Moria).

Edited October 24, 2014 by Lord_Tyrannus