LEGO LotR - general discussion

[Deathleech]

True, but Jabba's Palace just sat on top of the Rancor Pit. There weren't any walls being attached to the side or multiple pieces being stacked.

[MonkeyCrumb]

If LOTR is done, then I'm done collecting Lego. I currently buy three themes, 2 for my daughter, and 3 for my son. It was LOTR that influenced me to start buying them in the first place, and stopping before giving us a Witch King, Fell Beast, Faramir, and Sauron is downright insulting! I will have NO problem giving it up.

Ungrateful much? Do you need to get everything you want in life to be happy with what you already have? I'll be sad to see a lot of LOTR unmade in Lego, but I'm not about to whine like a child and threaten to give up when I can't get what I want. Are you going to ban your children from playing with Lego too when you can't get your way? Sorry that you take it so unbelievably personally that you feel Lego is insulting you by not creating specific toys for your grown self to play with. Get a grip. It's one thing to vote with your wallet, but it's another to publicly cry if you don't get your way. If LOTR is over, I'm happy to at least have the Fellowship in Lego form. Everything else is just gravy.

Lego has done great so far giving us a ton of LOTR awesomeness. There's no definite answer that the line has ended. When it does end, there will surely be figures that are unmade. It's ridiculous to disregard what we have in favor of what we don't have. It would have been worse to have only gotten 8 or less of the Fellowship and been forever incomplete. We should be thanking Lego for what we have so far, not throwing tantrums.

[Nobrux]

Ungrateful much? Do you need to get everything you want in life to be happy with what you already have? I'll be sad to see a lot of LOTR unmade in Lego, but I'm not about to whine like a child and threaten to give up when I can't get what I want. Are you going to ban your children from playing with Lego too when you can't get your way? Sorry that you take it so unbelievably personally that you feel Lego is insulting you by not creating specific toys for your grown self to play with. Get a grip. It's one thing to vote with your wallet, but it's another to publicly cry if you don't get your way. If LOTR is over, I'm happy to at least have the Fellowship in Lego form. Everything else is just gravy.

Lego has done great so far giving us a ton of LOTR awesomeness. There's no definite answer that the line has ended. When it does end, there will surely be figures that are unmade. It's ridiculous to disregard what we have in favor of what we don't have. It would have been worse to have only gotten 8 or less of the Fellowship and been forever incomplete. We should be thanking Lego for what we have so far, not throwing tantrums.

Come on, lets's not be naive. TLG does business, not favors. If there's a demand, they will dive in. If there is not, they won't launch or create something just in order to please you. Besides, everyone has the right to be disappointed with the choices TLG make. And also to stop buying their sets, if that's the case. You shouldn't judge them.

[naf]

If LOTR is done, then I'm done collecting Lego. I currently buy three themes, 2 for my daughter, and 3 for my son. It was LOTR that influenced me to start buying them in the first place, and stopping before giving us a Witch King, Fell Beast, Faramir, and Sauron is downright insulting! I will have NO problem giving it up.

I'm assuming you buy Lego because you love the hobby, so I don't know why a simple decision to end a line would cause so much hearburn for you. Lego surely has a lot of great stuff to offer us in the future, it just might not be in Middle-Earth. Honestly, I think we should be grateful that we have the sets we did get. I was very surprised that Lego would produce sets from a movie that has been out for over a decade. I know they are in the business to make money, but I feel like this was a response to the fans asking for these sets to be made. Will I be disappointed if we don't get more LotR sets? Of course, but I'm still going to be grateful for what we did get.

[Deathleech]

I can understand some people's frustration though. It's almost like Lego is taunting us. How could they make the pirate ship and yet not make a single Gondor set? Literally no one was asking for a pirate ship and yet EVERYONE wanted something Gondor. Why did Lego give us two prints for the Undead Soldiers and Goblin Town goblins, which are only in one set each, but then give us a single print for the Mordor Orcs which are in 4+ sets? Why did we get Arwen before Eowyn, and the Mouth of Sauron before the Witch King?

Like I said, it just seems like Lego is messing with us. It's one thing if they did a limited one wave run and only had a few select spots they could fill. Obviously they would of gave us the absolute most important characters (the Fellowship). I could understand leaving out important secondary characters and even factions then. That's not what happened though. Sure we only got two waves (so far), but a TON of important things were left out in favor of stuff much less important. The first wave really wasn't bad (probably could of done without the Orc Forge and had Lurtz in Orthanc or something), but the second wave was a pretty big disappointment. Even just switching out the Pirate Ship Ambush for a section of Minas Tirith would of made it significantly better. We could of got the Witch King on Fel Beast, Gothmog, Faramir, Eowyn, Merry in Rohan Gear, Pippin in Gondor gear, some Gondor Soldiers, and Orcs in a set like that. That would of literally covered everything important still missing in ONE set! Throw in a $30 Gondor Soldier/Mordor Orc army builder and I think fans would of been more than satisfied with just two waves. As is it just feels like there is a HUGE gap in the line. It would be like Star Wars without Darth Vader and Storm Troopers.

Of course I don't hate Lego for doing what they do and I am sure they had their reasons. Maybe their testing with kids showed that is what would sell best. Who knows? I wouldn't stop buying Lego just out of spite since I seriously doubt they left out certain characters or factions just to spite us. They probably just had trouble fitting them in sets or making sets that hit all their check boxes. If I stop buying Lego after the LotR/Hobbit themes end it will be because nothing else currently interests me. I will be pretty disappointed if we don't get one more wave covering the remaining few important characters and Gondor, but I will be happy we got LotR at all. Most of the sets were amazing and to get the line in the first place really was a treat.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Deathleech

[Mr. Cube]

If it will ends without the 3rd wave, I hope there will be at least one huge UCS set, including important characters and Gondor faction.

[MKJoshA]

We've already been over the whole UCS thing. Let's not start that again.

[naf]

...

Of course I don't hate Lego for doing what they do and I am sure they had their reasons. Maybe their testing with kids showed that is what would sell best. Who knows?

...

This is most definitely what happened. I'm sure they are trying to strike a balance between what appeals to kids, and covering the material. There is already a castle set in the LotR theme (Helm's Deep), they probably saw a 2nd castle set (Minas Tirith) redundant, even though they are two very different and distinct locations. I'm sure if you sat a kid down in front of the pirate ship and Helm's Deep, they'd probably play with the ship more. What I don't understand is why they must focus on kids with this line. Yes, Lego is a toy, but there are plenty of Lego sets targeted at adults. I doubt many small children are putting the modular buildings, tower bridge, or architecture studio on their wish lists. The LotR movies are not kid friendly, they are PG-13, and have a lot of violence, so I don't see why they couldn't have focused these sets with teens and adults as the target audience.

[deskp]

If any set was redundant it would be the wizard duel. It gave us a cheap Saruman yes, but it could of had 2 new unique characters.. Faramir vs orc, or Eowyn vs witch king could of been that set.

[The_Chosen_1]

^ That's true, but Lego would have been in quite a predicament if Saruman was exclusive to a $200 set. I do agree with everything Deathleech mentioned, though. It's just puzzling to me why Lego decided to make certain characters, but leave others out. If the theme ends without Faramir, Eowyn and the Witchking (which seem like the 3 most important remaining characters by consensus), I will be extremely disappointed.

[Alcarin]

^ That's true, but Lego would have been in quite a predicament if Saruman was exclusive to a $200 set. I do agree with everything Deathleech mentioned, though. It's just puzzling to me why Lego decided to make certain characters, but leave others out. If the theme ends without Faramir, Eowyn and the Witchking (which seem like the 3 most important remaining characters by consensus), I will be extremely disappointed.

Gondorian Soldier..... rest I can easily skip... afterall you can make Eowyn from Eomer Torso you can also make Faramir from Gondorian soldier torso (when he assaults Osgilliath and fails) so pretty much only Witch king is not MOCable without Gondor soldier.

[Admiral Khan]

I can understand some people's frustration though. It's almost like Lego is taunting us. How could they make the pirate ship and yet not make a single Gondor set? Literally no one was asking for a pirate ship and yet EVERYONE wanted something Gondor. Why did Lego give us two prints for the Undead Soldiers and Goblin Town goblins, which are only in one set each, but then give us a single print for the Mordor Orcs which are in 4+ sets? Why did we get Arwen before Eowyn, and the Mouth of Sauron before the Witch King?

Like I said, it just seems like Lego is messing with us. It's one thing if they did a limited one wave run and only had a few select spots they could fill. Obviously they would of gave us the absolute most important characters (the Fellowship). I could understand leaving out important secondary characters and even factions then. That's not what happened though. Sure we only got two waves (so far), but a TON of important things were left out in favor of stuff much less important. The first wave really wasn't bad (probably could of done without the Orc Forge and had Lurtz in Orthanc or something), but the second wave was a pretty big disappointment. Even just switching out the Pirate Ship Ambush for a section of Minas Tirith would of made it significantly better. We could of got the Witch King on Fel Beast, Gothmog, Faramir, Eowyn, Merry in Rohan Gear, Pippin in Gondor gear, some Gondor Soldiers, and Orcs in a set like that. That would of literally covered everything important still missing in ONE set! Throw in a $30 Gondor Soldier/Mordor Orc army builder and I think fans would of been more than satisfied with just two waves. As is it just feels like there is a HUGE gap in the line. It would be like Star Wars without Darth Vader and Storm Troopers.

Of course I don't hate Lego for doing what they do and I am sure they had their reasons. Maybe their testing with kids showed that is what would sell best. Who knows? I wouldn't stop buying Lego just out of spite since I seriously doubt they left out certain characters or factions just to spite us. They probably just had trouble fitting them in sets or making sets that hit all their check boxes. If I stop buying Lego after the LotR/Hobbit themes end it will be because nothing else currently interests me. I will be pretty disappointed if we don't get one more wave covering the remaining few important characters and Gondor, but I will be happy we got LotR at all. Most of the sets were amazing and to get the line in the first place really was a treat.

I agree with you, Lego does seem to be teasing us. look at the wave 2 sets such as Pirate ship, Black gate, Wizard battle. I would trade all of those to get one or 2 good Gondor sets. The pirate ships scene is in like 1 minute of the movie anyway, when Gondor is in there for like 2 hrs. The Wizard battle is redundant since you get that in the Tower of Orthanc. The black gate was nice, with the mouth of Sauron and all, but it was just so small and a worthless build.

Gondor I think would be a better investment for Lego than these for AFOLS and for kids. It would seem like a kid would want a shiny armored gondor soldier more than another gandalf or another orc.

[deskp]

Lego would have been in quite a predicament if Saruman was exclusive to a $200 set.

Well, not really, they did it to Grima, obviously hes not as big a character, but I mean we got 0 Faramir in any sets for examle. wich is more of a predicament than Saruman in 200$ set would be..

[zylek]

I think they missed on two beasts that would have sold pretty well with kids and afols, the fell beast and Mumakil. Both could have been made is army builder-ish sets because I'm sure many people would have bought multiples of both. I know I would have!

[kevkipo]

I think they missed on two beasts that would have sold pretty well with kids and afols, the fell beast and Mumakil. Both could have been made is army builder-ish sets because I'm sure many people would have bought multiples of both. I know I would have!

We've all been discussing about the Fell beast and the Mumakil, Zylek

And yes they would be cool, but Smaug will also be cool :)

and we know for sure we will get him :D

(in case you didn't know January 29th we will see some picture of the new The Hobbit sets :)

[Alcarin]

that Mumakil from LEGO game would be amazing... imagine that Mumakil instead of Black Gates and in the set you put:

Mumakil leader, archer, Rohan Soldier on horse x2 Haradrim warrior on ground with shield and spear.....

Would buy it so many times!

[Haltiamieli]

Here's my contribution to the Whatever Happened To LEGO Gondor®:

My rather firm belief is that they originally planned Lego LotR to be three waves, with a Gondor-centered wave as the third and last one and the Summer 2013 wave sort of as a filler in-between, covering other random things that they thought would be cool for the fans to have (or maybe this wave wasn't even in the plan before The Hobbit was split into three parts, thus allowing one more additional wave which was filled with odds and ends). Anyway it was a great plan but it sort of backfired when, for whatever reasons*, they decided not to release (or, at least, postpone) that last intended wave. "Oops, on hindsight I suppose we should have released that Gondor wave and left out that filler wave instead...", they momentarily mulled before moving on to other things.

* I suspect there were just too many themes vying for production capacity and shelf space in the summer selection and, forced to drop something, they chose LotR which may or may not have been underperforming compared to expectations but definitely hasn't been one of the biggest and most important sellers.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Haltiamieli

[MonkeyCrumb]

Seriously???? You people really think Lego is purposefully teasing you??? So, Lego has risen to the #2 Toymaker in the world by intentionally tormenting it's fans? Get a grip, people! Did you ever in your life expect to even have the Fellowship in Lego? Do you really need to be so whiny if you don't get everything you want produced? There are a few reasonable voices here, but the overwhelming ones keep spouting negativity and childishness. No, Lego is not "teasing" you. Come to your senses.

[Alcarin]

Seriously???? You people really think Lego is purposefully teasing you??? So, Lego has risen to the #2 Toymaker in the world by intentionally tormenting it's fans? Get a grip, people! Did you ever in your life expect to even have the Fellowship in Lego? Do you really need to be so whiny if you don't get everything you want produced? There are a few reasonable voices here, but the overwhelming ones keep spouting negativity and childishness. No, Lego is not "teasing" you. Come to your senses.

Ofcourse we did not expect to have Fellowship in LEGO.....

But once you have it you do not think that way, but you think why is there LEGO Mouth of Sauron but not Gondorian Soldier... or Faramir.... who are 10 times more seen and more important things in LOTR universe than Mouth....

You also think why is the Corsair Ship and no Minas Tirith....

And so on and on....

[Robert_88]

^ That's true, but Lego would have been in quite a predicament if Saruman was exclusive to a $200 set.

Yes, but that's still better than leaving him out like the Witch King or Eowyn and I think Saruman would have been a great exclusive for the set. At least better than Grima.

I still hope they are concentrating on the Hobbit movies (and Lego Movie) at the moment and we will get the third LotR wave afterwards.

[Alcarin]

Yes, but that's still better than leaving him out like the Witch King or Eowyn and I think Saruman would have been a great exclusive for the set. At least better than Grima.

I still hope they are concentrating on the Hobbit movies (and Lego Movie) at the moment and we will get the third LotR wave afterwards.

most if not all of us here hope that :)

1 wave of 5 sets is imo enough.... just 5 more sets and we can have most of important stuff and even locations in those 5 sets.

[Durins Bane]

Seriously???? You people really think Lego is purposefully teasing you???

I am beyond upset with what sets, and figs lego has chosen for lotr. This is no different from how they treated us when Pirates of the caribbean came out. Sure the minifigs they produced were outstanding, but not entirely the figs we should have gotten. Some sets were a given, and some were just a waste of design. They did not produce 1 set from the 3rd potc film then they killed the line. This is NO different. I Love lotr and i love lego, but when they miss such crucial Sets and figs in a line it really pisses me off. I will not buy lego for a while if we do not get Gondor in lego. I have an unfathomable amount of bricks and armies and armies of figures, so your argument of " quit whining look at all the wonderful things lego is coming out with'' does not apply to me, or a lot of other people on here. I have nothing left to buy. This years castle sets were plum awfull and i hate chima and ninjago with a passion. I will buy all the new hobbit sets and multiples if they do any more army builders but after that without lotr, i will start a new dark age.

[Blakstone]

The Pirate Ship Ambush was a bit of a random set. Sure, it was designed to bring non Tolkien fans to table.

But LEGO does not make new molds for D2C. The molds needed for Orthanc had to be created for other cheaper sets. Sauramon's unique hair was created for The Wizard Battle. the Eagle was created for the Battle at the Black Gate, and the gothic arches were created for The Council of Elrond.

If LEGO replaced The Wizard Battle for anything Gondor related, then Sauramon would have had the same hair and beard (albiet in different colors) then Gandalf the White.

I agree that the second wave leaves so much undone that LEGO probably planned at least a third wave. However, that might have changed due to sales figures, another hot new license, or production schedule that has really hampered even the latest Star Wars wave.

If you want to hold onto a glimmer of hope that LotR is still coming back, remember that the retailers catalog said that The Hobbit was part of an "evergreen" IP. LEGO generally uses that term to mean that they will keep something around for a long time.

[naf]

I don't know why the Mouth of Sauron is getting so much hate around here. I know he's a minor character, but I think it's cool that Lego decided to not only include him, but made a new mold for him and everything. It gives me more hope that Lego will make a Gondor set, even if it's just a D2C set. If they were willing to mold a part for a one-off character in a smallish set, why wouldn't they do a mold for some Gondorian helmets for a larger set? I don't think there's a specific rule that Lego must follow where they can never include brand new molds in a D2C set.

Mouth of Sauron is one of my favorite minor characters in the story. I'm a sucker for humans who become corrupted and evil in my fantasy stories, plus he looks awesome in the movie. I'm glad I have him in minifig form.

[Robert_88]

People don't hate him but he is typical for the whole theme. They didn't give us some of the most important characters/locations but things like the Pirate Ship and Mouth of Sauron. It simply doesn't make sense.