LEGO LotR - general discussion

[LegoFish]

Just got back from my nearest lego store; all hobbit botfa gone (even though lonely mountain and attack on lake town still on display). Now all thats left of middle earth set wise is orthanc. tbh it was all a let down; bionicle tucked away in a tiny space, all marvel gone, new dc but not the green lantern one id like. Then all 3 of my nearest toys r us removed last hobbit wave (only one of them has 1 lake town attack, the small dol guldor with beorn and an orc forge oddly) and also they have no new superhero or bionicle. Post -christmas deal lego seems poor near me and it looks as though middle earth is indeed ending.

Lets just hope lego makes minas tirith as a swan song for lotr, but judging by their handling of lego middle earth from summer 2013 (cough, bain, useless, cough), minas tirith seems a long shot, but of course no less desired

[BrickSev]

Just got back from my nearest lego store; all hobbit botfa gone (even though lonely mountain and attack on lake town still on display). Now all thats left of middle earth set wise is orthanc. tbh it was all a let down; bionicle tucked away in a tiny space, all marvel gone, new dc but not the green lantern one id like. Then all 3 of my nearest toys r us removed last hobbit wave (only one of them has 1 lake town attack, the small dol guldor with beorn and an orc forge oddly) and also they have no new superhero or bionicle. Post -christmas deal lego seems poor near me and it looks as though middle earth is indeed ending.

Lets just hope lego makes minas tirith as a swan song for lotr, but judging by their handling of lego middle earth from summer 2013 (cough, bain, useless, cough), minas tirith seems a long shot, but of course no less desired

I know it's disheartening. Orthanc (which is an amazing set) is the only LORT set still "officially" available from Lego and I fear The Hobbit will follow the same path.

I keep seeing the DC sets "suggested" on Lego shop but when I click on them I got "product unavailable" page. I want the Super Girl sets because I want to make a little diorama/scene for a special person and she is a Super Girl fan. But that's another story

Regarding LOTR/The Hobbit, I'm afraid they will be gone soon, which is indeed sad. Currently there is no other Fantasy/Historic theme. The "Castle" theme (which honestly was not as great as LOTR and The Hobbit themes) is going out of production soon (well it's de facto out of production as I write this words)

I hope Lego will release LOTR/ The Hobbit sets soon or at least another interesting Fantasy theme

EDIT:

Typos corrected.

Edited January 5, 2015 by BrickSev

[Zilcho]

I know it's disheartening. Orthanc (which is an amazing set) is the only LORT set still "officially" available from Lego and I fear The Hobbit will follow the same path.

I keep seeing the DC sets "suggested" on Lego shop but when I click on them I got "product unavailable" page. I want the Super Girl sets because I want to make a little diorama/scene for a special person and she is a Super Girl fan. But that's another story

Regarding LOTR/The Hobbit, I'm afraid they will be gone soon, which is indeed sad. Currently there is no other Fantasy/Historic theme. The "Castle" theme (which honestly was not as great as LOTR and The Hobbit themes) is going out of production soon (well it's de facto out of production as I write this words)

I hope Lego will release LOTR/ The Hobbit sets soon or at least another interesting Fantasy theme

EDIT:

Typos corrected.

(OT: If you switch to the USA Lego store, add the DC sets to your basket then return to the UK store, they will still be in your basket and you can buy. )

I think our only hope is Lego Ideas, if you haven't already made an account and supported the main LotR ideas, shame on you!!

[BrickSev]

(OT: If you switch to the USA Lego store, add the DC sets to your basket then return to the UK store, they will still be in your basket and you can buy. )

I think our only hope is Lego Ideas, if you haven't already made an account and supported the main LotR ideas, shame on you!!

Interesting. I guess it works with other countries as well (I live in Italy) I just saw the sets are officially available even to us on the other side of the pond now. Anyway Thanks very much for the info

Like I said in an above post, if it may help I can try to make some support/promotion (not the right word but you know what I mean ) of those ideas on my little blog. It's a new one so it doesn't have as many views as those famous blogs but, using Han Solo words "A short help is better than no help at all".

What do you think?

[Dustin Boyd]

Assuming it is done and we have seen the last of Middle Earth in Lego format, what would you guys grade the effort? While I think it has been a real mixed bag, when I compare it to other lines it seems pretty consistant.

[Risgrynsgrot]

I'll grade it an F, more bad sets than good ones but really just the fact that we haven't gotten any Gondor sets and still lack some crucial characters is enough for a big fat F imo.

[bungeshea]

I'll grade it an F, more bad sets than good ones but really just the fact that we haven't gotten any Gondor sets and still lack some crucial characters is enough for a big fat F imo.

So you regret buying any of the sets, then?

[LegoFish]

Tbh i'd grade what we got A imo; the figures are amazing and the sets have been good considering it's very hard to make enourmous structures into sets sized things and still be enjoyable. It's so much easier to make vehicles as lego sets (most of star wars and chima for example), than rock features like weathertop so id say taking this difficulty into account, lotr/hobbit themes deserve praise concerning whats been released/acheived. Battle of 5 armies set however would be my execption, legolas over elf soldier, 2 more orcs over bolg, bats etc and another ballista (150 odd pieces that couldve been more dale); besides thorin, bard and dain, id grade that one an F. If the theme does indeed end, ill still be very happy with what we have gotten (26 sets for middle earth), love bag end and moria so much :D

For me, the themes problem was what wasn't produced, rather than issues with what was made (but there were some odd decisions granted). Id give what we have an A, but yeah, big old F for ball dropping and apparent lack of effort, paticularly towards the end.

As for spreading word on blogs, sounds good, might aswell do what we can while orthanc still has a foothold. Makes me happy knowing others out there feel so strongly about keeping this going.

[Zilcho]

You know what, while I am dissapointed, I appreciate TLG's effort to bring us niche characters, like the Mouth of Sauron, Gandalf the White, Saruman, army of the dead, Arwen etc.

While I am dissapointed that we did not get any Gondor sets, I see that it is easy to recreate Minas Tirith, Gondor soldiers, Eowyn and Faramir while sets like the pirate ship/black gate/certain figures might be harder to make.

[Elrond]

Assuming it is done and we have seen the last of Middle Earth in Lego format, what would you guys grade the effort? While I think it has been a real mixed bag, when I compare it to other lines it seems pretty consistant.

Tough one... I'd say 7.5/10 for the Hobbit.

On the + side

- The sets pretty much covered all important scenes from the movies

- The minifigs we got looked pretty good and had a lot of new pieces

- Smaug. The set he's in is way too expensive though.

On the - side

- Still disappointing in the figure department (no Bolg, no armoured Azog, no Elven soldiers, no Dwarven soldiers, no Orc soldiers... pretty annoying considering the 3rd film is basically a >2 hours battle scene)

- Some of the sets felt a little unnecessary or repetitive (3 Dol Guldur sets was a little too much).

5.5/10 for LotR

On the + side

- Some truly brilliant sets (Mines of Moria, Helm's Deep, Orthanc)

- Great minifigs

On the - side

- No battle packs. A completely missed opportunity, LotR was just perfect for army-building sets

- Some very poor decisions were made regarding the set selection. Almost half of the sets are either redundant or superfluous.

- Most factions are underrepresented or even completely ignored (we have 1 Rohirrim, 1 Elven soldier, 1 Mordor Orc print and most importantly, nothing for Gondor!!!).

It kinda feels like The Hobbit got too many waves while LotR didn't get enough. What we got ranged from ok to excellent though but we just could have gotten so much more... looking back at these themes, everyone will probably have the same thought: "wasted opportunities".

Edited January 6, 2015 by Elrond

[Black Numenorean]

I don't agree with you Elrond. I think lotr wave is better than hobbit wave. The both wave of lotr are amazing : ucs orthanc, helm deep, pirate ship ambush are more detailed than any other hobbit set. In my mind, i love just bilbo ´s house . Moreover, with lotr sets, we could have created three armies: Rohan, isengard and mordor + féllowship of the ring. In the hobbit, we can only create dol guldur army and a little bit elf army ( without armor).

[BrickSev]

I don't agree with you Elrond. I think lotr wave is better than hobbit wave. The both wave of lotr are amazing : ucs orthanc, helm deep, pirate ship ambush are more detailed than any other hobbit set. In my mind, i love just bilbo ´s house . Moreover, with lotr sets, we could have created three armies: Rohan, isengard and mordor + féllowship of the ring. In the hobbit, we can only create dol guldur army and a little bit elf army ( without armor).

The elves coming "without armor" was one of the reasons I always postponed the purchase of 79012 in "army size". They are nice Minifigures but I like armors a lot, perhaps because of all the hours spent playing Skyrim and Dragon Age where my characters were wearing armor most of the time

[Elrond]

I don't agree with you Elrond. I think lotr wave is better than hobbit wave. The both wave of lotr are amazing : ucs orthanc, helm deep, pirate ship ambush are more detailed than any other hobbit set. In my mind, i love just bilbo ´s house . Moreover, with lotr sets, we could have created three armies: Rohan, isengard and mordor + féllowship of the ring. In the hobbit, we can only create dol guldur army and a little bit elf army ( without armor).

Well the LotR sets are more appealing to me too but only because LotR is a better trilogy than the Hobbit and had more memorable scenes. However, I was evaluating how TLG handled both licenses and it's pretty obvious they did a better job with the Hobbit. Minifigs were a source of disappointment in both cases but the Hobbit sets covered most of the significant scenes. That was definitely not the case for LotR.

Like I said, almost half of the LotR sets are superfluous. Stuff like the orc forge, the pirate ship or Gandalf Arrives never should have been released before the Balrog, Osgiliath or Minas Tirith sets.

As for the armies, the only one you can really build somewhat easily is Isengard (maybe Mordor too, if you don't mind having an orc clone army). There is no easy or cheap way to build a Rohan army considering you only get 1 soldier in a medium size set... not to mention all your Rohirrims would look the same too if you chose to do it nonetheless. Oh and the Fellowship isn't really an army.

[Dustin Boyd]

Agree with what most of you guys are saying. The minifigs were great across both series and some of the sets (Helms Deep, Hobbiton) however it's really the sets that we missed out on that hurts.

Again though thats pretty consistent with other series as well. With the exception of Star Wars and maybe Indiana, all series suffer from what ifs.

[Black Numenorean]

Tlc could covered the Hobbit because there is not much action than lotr movie. 2 sets for lake Town, 3 sets in dol guldur + polybag

[Blakstone]

I would give the entire Lord of the Rings line (excluding the Hobbit) a B. I enjoyed everything that we got. The minifigures were really detailed and the exclusive molds for Sting, Gimli, Uruh Hais, and the One Ring were particularly nice.

Yes, I would have liked more. But I am glad that I bought all the sets.

Most license do not get as good of a turn as LotR. When I first heard that there had been a Last Airbender line, I checked them out. There were only two sets and the detail on the minifigs are terrible in my opinion. Indiana Jones is a line of a similar size as both Hobbit and LotR but it only has one protagonist instead of tons like Middle Earth.

[bachamn]

Amazing to me that the Pirate Ambush set is still full price at my local TRU...and they have five of them on the shelf. Otherwise a few Council of Elrond sets are the only other remaining LotR sets I've seen on the shelves around here in a while.

[MAB]

I would give the entire Lord of the Rings line (excluding the Hobbit) a B. I enjoyed everything that we got. The minifigures were really detailed and the exclusive molds for Sting, Gimli, Uruh Hais, and the One Ring were particularly nice.

Yes, I would have liked more. But I am glad that I bought all the sets.

Me too, I'd give it a B. Started out well, pretty decent sets at a range of price points, the minifigures produced were excellent. But as a range it is a bit like a student running out of time in an exam, or a company running out of money in product development and just releasing what they have done so far. What they did was pretty fine quality, maybe they got a little side tracked and concentrated on a tangent for a while, and then didn't get it finished.

[Blakstone]

Agreed. However, I think LEGO was banking on The Hobbit being as big of a culture phenomena as the Lord of the Rings was when it was released. Since it wasn't, LEGO concluded the line early and focused on other things instead. It is a shame but it doesn't diminish my enjoyment of what we got.

[Ardelon]

I guess I would give it a C - docking one level (A) for incompleteness, and another (B) for lack of battle packs / army builder sets. Alright, but not what I was hoping for. What we did get was good, though.

Edited January 7, 2015 by Ardelon

[Captain Braunsfeld]

I'd give it a B.

Minifigs were all fine but important aspects (Gondorian Troops) missing.

Most of the buildings need some addition (how many "Elrond's council" sets to you need to match the film sequence?) to be fun to play with (or if you want them to look decent).

On the other hand Orthanc is superb. And I loved all of the Helm's Deep sets.

[Balbo]

I'd give a B, too

The first wave was nearly perfect - it featured accurate & awesome sets (Helms Deep, Shelob attacks,....) and a nice selection of minifigures (the whole Fellowship, Rohan, Uruk-Hais,...).

Anyhow, the second wave was just disappointing.

All in all I'm still happy that we got some LotR sets at all but the lack of Gondor soldiers, Faramir, Eowyn and the Witch King is very frustrating and leaves a huge cap in our collection...

Edited January 7, 2015 by Balbo

[Robert_88]

I'd give a B, too

The first wave was nearly perfect - it featured accurate & awesome sets (Helms Deep, Shelob attacks,....) and a nice selection of minifigures (the whole Fellowship, Rohan, Uruk-Hais,...).

Anyhow, the second wave was just disappointing.

All in all I'm still happy that we got some LotR sets at all but the lack of Gondor soldiers, Faramir, Eowyn and the Witch King is very frustrating and leaves a huge cap in our collection...

Couldn't agree more. But for me it's only a C+.

[Elrond]

Tlc could covered the Hobbit because there is not much action than lotr movie. 2 sets for lake Town, 3 sets in dol guldur + polybag

That's true and I mentioned it in my post but the fact they chose to produce sets based on irrelevant scenes whereas the more important ones were being ignored makes it even more frustrating to me.

[BrickSev]

I jump into the conversation to say the BoFA set could have been a chance to actually make a great "army" set but it appears that chance was lost.

Just my brief opinion on the "lacking army building sets" matter