A question to Castle fans who don't care for LOTR movies/films/sto

[SheepEater]

A question to Castle fans who don't care for LOTR movies/books/storyline:

- Did you still buy some of the LOTR/Hobbit for the parts they provide?

- Do you prefer the LOTR/Hobbit sets' minifigs, or parts, or accessories?

- Which are in your Castle MOCer opinion, the best LOTR/Hobbit sets to use as parts pack for your own MOCs so far?

- Do you like some of the sets because they also work as a generic medieval fantasy Lego set? (I remember reading a guy saying he hated LOTR but bought Orthanc because he needed an evil wizard tower for his layout)

Edited January 4, 2014 by SheepEater

[Mark of Falworth]

I loathe LOTR. I don't find the theme interesting at all. I haven't bought a single set.The parts are nice, but I don't want LEGO to continue making LOTR in place of a better more realistic true castle theme.

I bet I'm the minority here, though.

[nivremis]

I like the LotR and Hobbit storylines books and movies well enough, but must say I'm not a die-hard fan.

I do buy from the theme though, not to collect as a separate range but to add to my castle/fantasy collection - Elves are elves, dwarfs are dwarfs, and I've no problems using lotr/hobbit characters are general army figs. The exception is the company of hobbit-dwarfs I have on display - the sets are largely broken down though. I actually have a poor opinion of the actual sets themselves as stand alone pieces, apart from Bag end the rest leave quite a bit to be desired as display pieces imho. Attack of the wargs, goblin town, barrel escape - nice if you're a huge fan but otherwise the sets aren't great aesthetically.

LotR wise, I broke up Mines of Moria and mirkwood for parts, but kept the pirate ship and weathertop intact, mostly as they work well as generic fantasy structures.

[gotoAndLego]

I loathe LOTR. I don't find the theme interesting at all. I haven't bought a single set.The parts are nice, but I don't want LEGO to continue making LOTR in place of a better more realistic true castle theme.

I bet I'm the minority here, though.

Based on the wall construction techniques, LOTR is more realistic.

[SirBlake]

I'm not exactly the target audience for your question, but you may find my answer interesting all the same:

I love the Middle Earth books/films/sets, but it exists as an entirely separate entity for me. I literally have 30 years worth of Lego castle on one side of the room (not every set, but all of my favorites from 1984-present), and most of the Hobbit/LOTR sets on the other side of the room.

Middle Earth makes for great Lego IMO, but it doesn't truly replace castle. I have bought multiples of some LOTR sets for castle MOC parts. This licensed theme also helps fill the void left by the dearly departed Kingdoms line. I haven't found anything to like about the current Castle line.

[Dr Leg O Brick]

Not a fan of LOTR or the Hobbit, however, if I see any of the sets on discount or for a deal or something, then I tend to buy them. Great parts overall, I'm more of the sort who embraces change but prefers a simpler approach, hence I prefer Classic Castle/Fantasy Era/Kingdoms/ 2013 stuff. To answer your questions,

1: I buy them yes, mainly to part out the minifigures, and then repurpose the set.

2: Do I prefer the minifigures? No, is the short answer. I'd take yellow for my Castle guys any day of the week, but I still appreciate them, and find uses for them in part form mainly in Super-Heroes. Do I prefer the parts/accessories? Hard Question. I like the fact that LOTR/Hobbit has introduced extremely useful parts to a Castle setting. New swords, new Horses, the new "Brick-Brick" parts, the Ring part, most of witch have been introduced into the 2013 Castle wave. I like them, but prefer them to be side by side with the standard stuff, than completely replacing them.

3: I'm not much of a MOCer, but Helm's Deep, Attack On Weather Top, Lake Town Chase, and Tower Of Orthanc look great for parts packs.

4: All the time! Lots of the sets, and parts, are fantastic for me, I'm more of a MODer than a MOCer. Almost all of the sets that are Castle/Tree based, and the Lake Town Case are extremely useful. This is my main use of the sets, if I buy them. Change the minifigures, and the flags, and you've got a Dragon Knight Castle!

Edited January 4, 2014 by Dr Leg O Brick

[Alfadas]

I love Castle themes, but the current one is crap. Fantasy Era and Kingdoms were the only themes I could collect, but I really much like the 1980's themes. Please bring those back! For LotR and the Hobbit, I have some sets, mainly for the orcs and uruk-hai. But I like them too, don't get me wrong. I just don't have money right now. Otherwise I would have bought all the sets.

[AncientDayz]

I don't care for the movies at all, but I definitely liked some of the sets for pieces. For instance, I bought two Helm's Deep for the techniques and pieces. I bought a few other smaller LOTR sets as well. I have no idea what to do with all the minifigures because I have never sold LEGO before so they are just sitting in a box right now.

[jimmynick]

I loathe LOTR. I don't find the theme interesting at all. I haven't bought a single set.The parts are nice, but I don't want LEGO to continue making LOTR in place of a better more realistic true castle theme.

I bet I'm the minority here, though.

I'd prefer yellow-faced minifigs and hairpieces that don't have ears, too. I'd welcome a return to something like Black Falcons.

[kabel]

I actually love the books as well the films but I hate TLG for making the line as it juniorizes the normal castle sets and jams up prices. I sometimes buy the sets though, but only when on sale as I like the parts and figs. I hate fleshies though and I have no clue what to do with all those heads and hands ...

[SirBlake]

I'd welcome a return to something like Black Falcons.

I think that's something we can all agree on. A revitalization of Black Falcons and Forestmen in the Kingdoms aesthetic would be a guaranteed success for AFOLs and kids alike after the Hobbit/LOTR and current crummy castle theme are done.

[Brinstar]

I'm much more of a Lego castle fan than a LOTR fan. I've only purchased two LOTR sets: 9474 Battle of Helms Deep and 9471 Uruk-Hai Army. I may purchase the Pirate Ship and Unexpected Gathering sets at some point. To answer each of your questions..

1. The excellent part selection in Helm's Deep was certainly enticing. Despite this it was the model as a whole, rather than the individual parts, that encouraged me to purchase the set. This links with question 4.

2. No. I prefer generic castle figures. It is admittedly nice to have the LOTR characters in mini-figure form but I would not use them with my lego caste sets.

3. Clearly Helms Deep and Uruk-Hair army are great parts packs for MOC'ers as is Attack on Weathertop. An Unexpected Gathering contains some great pieces for forest men MOCs.

4. This was the main reason I bought Helm's Deep and its expansion set. Not only is it a great LOTR set, it is a great castle set. I'd go even further and say it is probably the best castle structure Lego has produced. It can be integrated into the Lego Castle universe with very little modification. Mine serves as the headquarters of my contingent of Kingdoms Dragon Knights, who never got a proper fortress in the official sets.

[gedren_y]

I keep no Lego sets as designed. Occasionally I'll use an element of a particular design, if it fits with my current build theme. I purchase sets for parts, so I will buy all themes.

[kinggregus]

Interesting to see the views from everyone.

I have never read the LOTR books nor did see the movies. However, I really liked the first waves of the sets TLG had released.I had bought them all as the pieces offered were amazing. I also started to like the minifigures, especially after buying an unexpected gathering.

However, the last 2 waves really did not appeal me, except the council of Eldron. The pieces we start toget seems to be a lot in black and Dark Grey, two colors I do not use often.

To me, Helms Deep is the best castle ever designed by TLG. It is unfortunate that the trend did not continue.

[Dubbadgrim]

As a castle fan but not really LOTR, I only bought the urak-hai army to get a little bit of variety in my castle minifigs. Here in Australia, buying licensed themes is pretty expensive combined with our country specfic markup. The problem I have isnt really the price as such, but rather the fact that I can get a whole lot more Lego through bricklink, ebay etc, so there is barely any incentive for me to buy LOTR or star wars sets. Im only really interested in making my own stuff, as opposed to collecting sets/figs.

[Hive]

I actually love the movies, but doesn't care for licensed LEGO. I'm a traditional yellowist! That said: yes, I do buy a lot of the LOTR/Hobbit sets. They often have much better design, parts, colours and accessories than what LEGO passes off as a Castle theme these days. In fact, they blow that theme away completely.

While generally preferring generic Castle figures (with the exception of the current Castle line, where pretty much all generic figures are crap), I keep some of the figures; ones that has no skin showing on them and can easily be "yellow-ified" while also fitting in a fantasy Castle setting, such as Gandalf or Gimli. Most of the figures though, I sell through Bricklink. It's an excellent way to get some of the money back for these extra spicy-priced licensed sets. If only the poor figures from the current Castle theme were as easy to get rid of...

I buy some sets because I think the structure is amazing and fits into my Castle collection, like the already mentioned excellent Helm's Deep - and some sets because they have great parts (often tree-parts, which I always desire), like Council of Elrond, Attack of the Wargs and Mirkwood Spiders. Both as a parts pack or set as a whole, I will, as many others, emphasize Helm's Deep as not just one of the best LOTR/Hobbit sets, but probably also one of the best LEGO sets in general in recent times.

As a whole, the LOTR/Hobbit line is actually my favourite LEGO theme at the moment, mostly due to LEGO not having a proper Castle or Pirates offering.

[Legonardo]

I totally love middle earth lego, its brought out some great new parts and colours, aswell as the best lego minifigs of all time. Ive aquired mirkwood spiders, bagend and helms deep, helms deep is an amazing parts pack for a castle builder, especially one wanting to dabble mostly in stone structures, while bagend was what enables me to build tudors in tan, a few others look nice for landscape parts mostly. At the moment i prefer lotrhobbit lego to typical castle, then again this/last years castle line was pretty lame IMO, some past lines have been excellent, and i would easily give up lotr for a return on forestmen or black falcons

[Dragonfire]

I actually love the movies, but doesn't care for licensed LEGO. I'm a traditional yellowist! That said: yes, I do buy a lot of the LOTR/Hobbit sets. They often have much better design, parts, colours and accessories than what LEGO passes off as a Castle theme these days. In fact, they blow that theme away completely.

I agree with this. I buy LOTR/Hobbit sets, change the minifigs' heads and hands to yellow and use them alongside Castle/Kingdoms. I only have 3 LOTR/Hobbit sets- Uruk-Hai Army, Bag End and Dol Guldur Ambush. I plan to buy Mirkwood Elf Army as well. Since the orcs/Uruk-Hai aren't flesh-skinned, they work fine. I have parted out all the LOTR sets I own (save Bag End) and use the parts for MOCs. I agree that the Kingdoms line was much better than the current Castle one. Sadly, I was only able to buy the chess set (having missed the others). I have two of the current Castle sets and have demolished them all for parts. The new faces are pretty cool, but I'm not so keen on the emphasis on bright blue for the heroic faction.

[Jorrith]

Well, i'm not much of a castle fan either, but i did buy some LOTR sets for parts to use for a big Monster Fighters Vampire castle. (ok, maybe i do like castles) The LOTR sets do provide lots of usefull parts, but i really don't care for fleshies either. Lego minifigs were yellow in my youth, and these pink ones are just not the same. Liked the movies, but that is as much of a LOTR fan i'll ever be.

Anyway, this is what i thought about these sets i own:

Riddles for the ring (79000) - Nice for bley rockscaping bricks, but you are better off bricklinking.

Attack of the Wargs (79002) - Some brown, two cool wargs, but other than that not special.

Attack on weathertop (9472) - Lots of hinged plates, two cool horses (red eyed) some bley bricks for rockscaping, this set has some nice usefull parts.

Mines of Moria (9473) - Lots of bley bricks, the cave troll could be used, and it has some nice items.

Battle for helm's deep (9474) - This set actually has alot of grey bricks, ideal for wall building.

If you can grab 9472 and 9474 at a discount, get them. The last 9474 i bought was for €80, and unfortunatly had to sell for €100... Well atleast i made a profit.

[Rogue Angel]

I LOVE LotR, but I don't see it as a world I would ever really want to MOC in. I feel like the locations have been very well created in the movies, and I see no real need to recreate them myself. Plus, I don't have any interest in creating any scenes outside the movies/books. This is completely different from Castle (and Star Wars), where I can MoC and MoC and MoC, and really like creating entirely new locations and characters (and ships/vehicles for Star Wars). That being said, I love LotR for minifigs, which I use for Castle Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and Goblins. There also a couple of sets from LotR that I have bought specifically to keep intact - Unexpected Gathering, Helm's Deep, Orthanc, and possibly Lake Town. I also like having the fellowship in Lego form, but I am less concerned about having Thorin and Company.

[B Rick]

Well, i'm not much of a castle fan either, but i did buy some LOTR sets for parts to use for a big Monster Fighters Vampire castle. (ok, maybe i do like castles) The LOTR sets do provide lots of usefull parts, but i really don't care for fleshies either. Lego minifigs were yellow in my youth, and these pink ones are just not the same. Liked the movies, but that is as much of a LOTR fan i'll ever be.

Jorrith, we think much alike...

I used to don't care about licensed products at all. I find LOTR movies utterly boring, and haven't seen or read The Hobbit... I'm sort of a Starwars-fan, but that's more or less out of nostalgic reasons. That said, I wasn't too fond of the Starwars license either when it started, cause I've been building Starwars stuff from regular bricks when I was a kid. But I've grown to like the licensed SW-products now... In the end: If a set is beautiful, it's just that: Beautiful.

I don't understand fans of castlethemes not buying LOTR sets only because they don't particularly like the LOTR-theme... When bricks are not put together they are ...just thát: Bricks. Single elements to build stuff from your own imagination. You don't HAVE to use the minifig-characters from the movie you know... Heck, as I said, I dislike the LOTR-movies but I also have considdered many a time buying some sets because of the parts...

I'm not a castlefan but I think I will buy a large castle-set because I need alot of grey bricks to extend my haunted house with a basement. It will probably be a regular castle-set rather than a LOTR-set. Not because of the fact that I don't like LOTR, but because of it being much cheaper, without having to pay any movie-license.

[SheepEater]

It will probably be a regular castle-set rather than a LOTR-set. Not because of the fact that I don't like LOTR, but because of it being much cheaper, without having to pay any movie-license.

Helm's Deep actually has a similar price-per-piece ratio than the preceding and succeeding generic castles.

[Laphroag]

Helm's Deep actually has a similar price-per-piece ratio than the preceding and succeeding generic castles.

Helm's deep is about 1 cent cheaper per brick compared to 2013 King's Castle.

[B Rick]

Helm's Deep actually has a similar price-per-piece ratio than the preceding and succeeding generic castles.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out. However, I'm on a very limited budget and I can get a big castle (with all the bricks I need (for now...)) for a very good price. I even think for an unbeatable price... Helms Deep really has some usable bricks but for now, it's just too big and expensive for my wallet.

Edited January 5, 2014 by B Rick

[ShaydDeGrai]

While I own all but the most recent wave of Hobbit sets in the Middle Earth themes but haven't really bought much Castle stuff recently, I think is is a mistake for people (both within TLG and elsewhere) to see Castle as "competing" LOTR - they do, but they shouldn't. Personally, I bought the LOTR because of the LOTR tie-in, and I've avoided the recent castle offerings because, frankly, I didn't find them very compelling.

I, for one, have been a big fan of Tolkien's works since I first read them back in 1970. I enjoyed (and own and re-watch) the films _AS_ films, but Peter Jackson's vision of things, while epic and visually stunning, isn't really _MY_ vision of MIddle Earth. I've been doing MIddle Earth MOCs in Lego for decades and when Lego Star Wars came out, I _hoped_ some day there'd be a Lego LOTR as well. When TLG finally announced it had gotten a LOTR license I was very excited.

That said, other than Orthanc and Helm's Deep, I've been rather disappointed with what they've done with the line. It isn't a suitable substitute for the classic castle theme and, as a big fan of the books, the offering to date aren't really that memorable. I bought them anyway because I am a LOTR fan and hoped that they'd get better with later waves which, marginally, came true. Still, I think they're too fixated on the minifigures and most of the kits are built around some tiny context build rather than capturing the real scope of the saga. The Harry potter theme had the same problem too many mini-figures packaged with vignettes, not enough complete builds. My usual litmus test is to build a set, skip the stickers, and take away the minifigures and all their accessories. If what's left doesn't immediately and uniquely bring to mind the source material, I think there's a problem. There were a lot of problems with the first wave of LOTR sets.

Of course, recent non-LOTR castle offerings haven't had me rushing out to buy them either. I really liked MMV; Kingdon's Joust was okay, but the most recent waves really haven't been that compelling. The builds are either too small or, for the larger sets, the parts are too big, too bland, and (yes I realize LEGO is supposed to the be a kids toy but) too juvenile.

I like the new parts and color palette that have come from the LOTR sets, but as "castle" themes go give me Black Falcons or Forestmen any day. I'm a fan of the new posable horses and LOTR is one of the few themes of minifigures I actually collect but I spent nearly a quarter of a century populating my castles with classic yellow dudes and I'd be perfectly happy to go on doing that for another 25 years.

In an ideal world, I like to see Castle get more sets like MMV or the old Blacksmith's Shop. At the high end, I'd like to see the theme get a true Modular Building treatment: big buildings made from small parts with lots of details not big wall panels with stickers. At the low end, they could borrow a page from the Urukai Army pack and offer battle packs with modular (detailed) battlements designed to snap together to build massive castle walls $20 at a time while also offering a good, generic parts part for MOCer's