Review: 79007 Battle at the Black Gate

[BrickBob Studpants]

And now for 79007 Battle at the Black Gate: I'm glad we're getting more sets based on ROTK, the only one we had before this one was Shelob Attacks Again, the boxart is vibrant and appealing to the eye (or shall I say Eye , man I'm getting really good at using bad puns ).

The minifig selection I appreciate a lot, especially the inclusion of the Mouth of Sauron, who's quite a minor character (that doesn't even appear outside of the ROTK special edition) The lack of Gondorian soldiers is quite bothersome, but we might get lucky next year in case there's a third wave. At least Aragorn sports his Gondorian outfit

The content, which consists of four numbered bags, two instruction booklets, a plate and the separately packaged Great Eagle:

First off, the Great Sparrow Eagle:

Usually, I don't join the bandwagon that easily, but it's true: the Eagle is way too small. The design looks great (apart from the claws), but the size is quite laughable as these pictures demonstrate:

It's still better to have a small Eagle than none at all though Let's get past the Oliphaunt in the room (that's another bad pun for my résumé, muahah ) and move on to bag 1...

Lots of dark bley, black (no surprise there given the name), reddish brown and tan parts... And, of course, our first minifigs this set has to offer: Aragorn and Gandalf the White.

Yay for more double-sided capes! Gandalf looks magnificent as well, the new hair/beard piece is fabulous as I've mentioned in my previous review of 79005. Too bad we still haven't gotten Anduril, but that was to be expected and the fig itself more than makes up for that

Prepare for another set of comparison pics:

Bag 2:

Colour-wise, nothing has changed Figure-wise, we get the Mouth of Sauron and a Ringwraith horse that apparently recovered from being drowned

Another great minifig, the helmet is rich in detail and hides a quite gruesome face:

Bags 3 & 4:

We also get one Orc per bag:

Nothing new here, so let's move on (The Uruk-hai helmet fits the Morder Orcs nicely though) The entire set in all its glory:

The colour scheme is appropriate and the reddish brown parts are a nice touch. The spikes give the set an appropriately menacing look and the door-(un)locking feature is nicely done I think. The fact that it can be expanded makes multiple purchases quite appealing, even though it's not much of an army builder (unless you want your Orc army to consist of clones). Nonetheless a great looking set with awesome minifigures and a nice variety of parts. Another clear recommendation I'd say

[Kez]

Great review, thanks, I certainly look forward to picking this up (when it comes out in the uk)

[Hive]

Great set and quite impressive minifigs. The mouth of Sauron fig is really amazing, and the structure itself is probably the best set I've ever seen in all-black. One of the best LOTR/Hobbit sets I've seen.

[Alcarin]

I dont understand why are they giving us old models of spears continuesly !!!

such an annoying stuff to have different looks of spears!

[Ki-Adi-Mundi]

Thanks for this wonderful review. One more piece of excellent photography.

I feel that some 'interior' for the inner side of the wall is missing. Even Orcs must have some taste for wine and meat every once in a while. And they need places to sit. This criticism aside, i like the general execution of the scenery and will certainly buy this set. The eagle is a nice mould albeit a small one. The mouth of Sauron, the print of face and torso and his brilliant helmet are the secret star of this set.

But as with all sets of this very upcoming wave, i will patiently wait until the unsettling prices in Europe (69,99 EUR, which makes for 92.53 USD) have been tamed by the market mechanism.

[Lynx]

Nice review, thanks!

One thing I utterly disliked about this set since I first saw pictures are the light grey 'door knobs' on the outer wall. I replaced them with two spare black cheese slopes which look MUCH better in my opinion.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Lego-Freak' for this review, impressive gate you have there and some cool minifigs.....though the eagle...yeah, only downside size wise.

I wasn't planning any LOTR purchases this year, but this might change my mind......Brick On Review On 'Lego-Freak' !

[Only Sinner]

Good review. This is an OK set. The design is just alright, but the figs are absolutely wonderful! Of course one would need two or three times the amount of pieces offered here to even begin to represent a proper black gate.

https://encrypted-tb...TAi6vwoesfGSeEA

The figs are generally ones you would not need doubles of, but they could be sold for extra pieces to make the gate even bigger.

I would personally use the extra black to make my Orthanc taller and forget about the rest of the gate.

[legofreak86]

Nice review! Definitely a must buy just for Gandalf, Aragorn and the mouth alone!! Strange though, you can't walk into mordor and yet it has silver fancy doorknobs! Moving on from that point can't wait til this is out in the United Kingdom it would already be on my order list if it was! Rest assured! I think I'll get the set with saruman first though as he is my favourite LOTR character next to Gandalf and sauron and is well overdue a minfigure! It'd be nice if we get a sauron figure at some point like in the opening of fellowship! Anyways nice review and keep building!

Good review. This is an OK set. The design is just alright, but the figs are absolutely wonderful! Of course one would need two or three times the amount of pieces offered here to even begin to represent a proper black gate.

https://encrypted-tb...TAi6vwoesfGSeEA

The figs are generally ones you would not need doubles of, but they could be sold for extra pieces to make the gate even bigger.

I would personally use the extra black to make my Orthanc taller and forget about the rest of the gate.

TALLER!!!!??? you can barely get the eagle up there with its current height if you added more it might just topple over when you walk out of the room! You'll come back and find something similar to what happened to barad dur in the final film bricks every where and many a Urukhai killed in the devastation!

Edited June 10, 2013 by legofreak86

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for the review. Very informative.

I was planning on getting this set anyway, so this didn't sway me. But it will be one of the first sets I order this summer. I think they did a great job representing the gate in LEGO form and added enough playability for the people interested in that.

The figures alone sell the set. Aragorn is superb. He may have taken the top spot out of LOTR LEGO figures. Gandalf looks great and the Mouth . I'm glad they are including things from the extended version. Having only seen them and not the regular non-extended versions, I can appreciate these extra bits.

[clouette]

I bought 2 of this set while a friend was in the US. And so far I have built 2 towers and 1 wall, for my son to play against Helm's Deep. While I appreciate that the bad guys finally have their own 'castle', I do think the price for this set is too high and generic orcs too little. It doesn't feel value for money when compared to 2x 9471.

My score for this set:

Unique minifigs (white Gandalf, Gondor Aragorn and Mouth): 4.5 [out of 5]

Generic minifigs: 2.0 - lousy fig, lousy accessories!

Price: 2.5 - should be USD50 or lower

Parts: 3.0 - many small parts; the spikes are not very applicable for other themes

Playability: 2.5 - when trying to lift up the set to play, the towers and the walls came off many times

Display: 4.0 - Looks quite impressive when put on the shelf; but I think a bigger orcs 'castle' would be nice

Overall: 18.5 out of 30.0

I hope this set would drop below USD50, so that I could buy a few more, for the Gondor uniform, eagle and some generic orcs. 2 each of Gandalf and Mouth is a lot already.