LEGO Hobbit 2014

[Alfadas]

As said, the more I look at the sets, the more I want them. Definitely going to buy them all, maybe two of lake town (to make the tower more towery, now it looks like it is hardly going to stick out above the other lake town set), but I will wait for smaug till he goes on sale. 120 or 130 or whatever is just too expansive.

Man, I wish the official pics came out, in HD. Just to see them in their full glory.

[kevkipo]

Im thrilled about these sets, for the most for Thorin and Dain + Erebor dwarves

But the main thing im thrilled for is putting the burned Bard head from 79016 on top of the new SDCC Bard's Body

It will look awesome and battle damaged:

[Pulp Detective]

^ Yea that's sounds a smart combination btw was that picture taken from the teaser?I don't remember seing it.

Edited August 15, 2014 by LOTR343

[legofreak86]

I have a strong feeling that the elf wall set is from the BO5A movie. Maybe Sauron's forces also attack the woodland realm as well as erebor/dale. I mean thranduil must have some cause for heading to erebor as when we last saw him he sealed off his kingdom and forbade anyone to enter or leave it. Plus he ordered reconnaissance of the area and that he be notified if anyone moved. If Sauron's forces enter mirkwood then maybe that shot of Azog from the first Desolation trailer was the Orcs trying to breach one of the outer walls of the elven kingdom. Maybe the orcs try to pass through thranduil's kingdom and he and his men attack the orcs and Azog but they get away and journey onward to the mountain. Thranduil still wants the stuff he said in desolation was rightfully his in the mountain which maybe causes him to Marshall his army to go and take erebor by force and maybe get there before Azog. That would explain 1. why the Lego set with thranduil and the wall exists and 2. why thranduil left his barricaded kingdom. It would also explain why there is no shot like the Azog one in the entire desolation and not even one with a different character that bears any resemblance. Just a thought. That would give last year's set a bit more meaning. Just a guess there.

[kevkipo]

^ Yea that's sounds a smart combination btw was that picture taken from the teaser?I don't remember seing it.

yes it was :)

Another smart thing to do, as Dain's Dwalin beard is slightly lighter you can use the darker version of Dwalin's beard for Iron Hill soldiers (together with Dain's helmet of course) just so you can see the difference between Dain and his soldiers

Also for the soldiers it would be smart to use Armoured Kili's torso, it looks like good battle armour

Edited August 15, 2014 by kevkipo

[Dr.Cogg]

From what I can see ,of the BoFA set, there is a tan ,2 story building ,built on rocks with a window and the bridge attached to it.

The play features for the Witch King Battle set are: A catapult that lauches fire pieces out from behind the little wall piece and a part on the wall for the Witch King to stand on and spin, the set also splits in half and looks like it attaches to DGB.

The Laketown set play Features are: A Crossbow missle launcher, a building with a door, that when you turn the lanter on the side of the building it drops fire pieces on the inside of the building,a wall that pops of the side when you push on a lever and a little crane that spins and goes up and down.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Dr.Cogg

[Lord Vladivus]

Witch King battle looks cool- will probably pick up a few, for parts, mainly the Witch king. Can probably make Elrond more of a generic elf.

[Blazej_Holen]

Does anyone knows when there will be official pictures of the new Hobnit sets?

[Blakstone]

By contract LEGO cannot release images of the sets before October 15. After that, they will likely stagger the release of the images a set at a time.

[BrickBob Studpants]

@Blakstone: I don't think so, they'll most likely be released on that day Well, at least 79018 is going to according to the product page

BTW, does anyone else find it likely that Bolg might be released as a s@h promo in October? If I was TLG, I'd definitely do that to drive up the sales (you know, release the final wave of sets and offer the only missing important character as a promo minifig at the exact same time in order to make sure you buy the sets then and there ). There certainly won't be any more Hobbit sets, so this would be the only chance to get Bolg

Edited August 15, 2014 by Lego-Freak

[Blazej_Holen]

So images will be available at the same.time as sets?

Btw is there any idea why Lego didnt make Bolg at least in the same form as he is in the videogame? New mold will be only those metal thinks on his head smaller piece than whitch king crown...

[Alfadas]

Lego-freak, I like your thinking! Certainly hope so. Only way to get Bolg, or he might be in a polybag.

[BrickBob Studpants]

@Blazej_Holen: I think so 79018 is definitely going to be released that day, so why shouldn't the others too?

Btw is there any idea why Lego didnt make Bolg at least in the same form as he is in the videogame? New mold will be only those metal thinks on his head smaller piece than whitch king crown...

I guess they couldn't do that due to time constraints. TT Games didn't have a lot of time either to change Bolgs design, but as I've pointed out a couple of pages ago it's much easier to change a videogame character rather than a real minifig. Of course TLG could have simply ditched Bolg and be done with it, but I don't think that's the case. If they really didn't care about him, they wouldn't have removed him in 79014. It's merely an assumption, but I think it's not implausible it went something like this: Bolg's design gets changed by PJ and crew -> TLG decide to replace him by a regular orc and give the latter the armor piece that originally belonged to the former -> The last wave was already planned out (remember that Brotherhood Workshop received the final version of 79018 back in February) so they couldn't fit him in -> TT Games had to hurry and made their own version. Now it would make sense to release him as a s@h promo minifig as bait

[Blazej_Holen]

But TLC had Bolg's design from DoS movie so one year before sets was planned to release...so i dont understand why they decide to ecvlude him from Lake town add on or Bofa set...

[BrickBob Studpants]

@Blazej_Holen: Yeah, the time framing is a bit confusing What we know for sure is this: 1) the change happened sometime in 2013, 2) Bolg was shown on the prelim pictures of 79014, 3) they repurposed the armor piece originally intended for Bolg thus implying it was already in production by the time the change occurred, 4) the new sets were finalized sometime before February. There are quite a few holes in the timeline since we don't know when exactly the change happened and how quickly TLG can adapt to these circumstances

Furthermore, if my assumption turns out to be wrong and Bolg won't be released, there might be three reasons:

1) He wasn't deemed important enough to warrant the extra effort. This can be ruled out however since he was initially planned to make an appearance.

2) It would've required a new mold. This one can be ignored as well. The change actually made it a lot easier since Bolg doesn't require a new mold any more, just reuse the Azog mold with different printing as deskp has suggested in January/February. In hindsight, the videogame version really seems to be something TT cooked up

3) Time constraints. This seems to be the reason why he's not included in any of the sets. This can be dodged however by releasing him as a s@h promo

[Blakstone]

This is the quote from Meiko on Brickset when they pulled the images. I bolded where they directly quoted the LEGO request..

@Evil Pixie Works: It's not LEGO's call. It's for the safety of the license LEGO holds for The Hobbit. The owners of the Hobbit IP wouldn't allow LEGO to share details of the sets for the upcoming movie until October 15, and having them leak earlier than that date puts the future of the license in jeopardy. The excerpt from the email LEGO sent out reads: "Please note that these sets are under embargo and not to be shared until October 15th as per agreement with the license owner." ... "This is not something that we like to ask, but this is one of those business crucial moments where we ask you to help us do what is possible to contain this leak."

It's not that LEGO doesn't want them to be shared-- it's just that the license owners won't allow LEGO to share them earlier than agreed upon.

I don't have any special knowledge but remember the license holder had requested the embargo until then. LEGO normally promotes their stuff well in advance and even does not mind if images are shared provided that they are not stamped confidential.

But I did not guess the Oct 15 date. That is the date that LEGO is bound to in their contract. They could always wait longer than that. Obviously they got WB's permission when they shared Smaug's Lair early.

[LegoLOTR]

Is there a way I can see preliminary pictures of 79014? I like The Lonely Mountain and Witch-King Battle...Laketown kind of looks incomplete, and tBotFA i can not judge, because image is not full...

And PS. Do you think those pictures are just test print for package? What if someone build something stupid, with original minifigures, and then tested it? I mean, its 0.01% possible, but it is.

[Brickdiction]

I'll buy all the sets just like I've bought every other set and polybag that TLG has thrown at us but this last wave is easily the most disappointed I've been for sets since coming out of my dark age in 2012. Yes at least we got this rather then nothing, count my blessings etc. etc. but really there have been so many missed opportunities. I'm still holding out hope that we'll see more things middle earth but realistically this is it. No more polys, no more LotR, just a fizzle. It makes sense with how the waves have declined in quality with each release. Maybe TLG will bring back dwarves and something Gondor-esque for Castle as a nod to what was missed. Then we could truly army build and we'd just need fleshy heads. I can dream can't I?

[atreyu2112]

I will get all the sets day of release. But the only set I'm really disappointed in is the Battle of the Five Armies. This set NEEDS army figures. If this is truly the set, then like I've said before, there should be an add-on army set. Another WTF moment like the many that riddle the Lord of the Rings line.

[Ql97]

I'd like to point out some apparently good news: the version of Bard we get in the BoFA set looks like the Comic-Con version.

Take a look at the Bard we already have. His coat is the same color as his legs. If you look closely at him in the new mini fig lineup, his coat looks to be a different color, possibly dark blue.

[Blakstone]

Atreyu, there is still a little hope. The other two Hobbit sets had polybags in the US at least. None of them had any unique prints, but they did move around pieces on the Mirkwood Elf Guard at least.

I believe we can see one main character rehash and one army builder. The main character might be Thorin or Bard. (Wave 1 was Gandalf and Wave 2 was Legolas).

In those waves, the army builder would not have been friendly to the Company though. The Mirkwood Elf Guards were in opposition as were the Laketown Guard. While I hope for an Iron Hills dwarf using the new dwarf helm (minus the mohawk) we might get an orc instead.

Store exclusives are also possible though unlikely. Wave 1 of LotR had the Orc Forge, the LEGO Movie had three different store exclusives, and I believe that Star Wars has different store exclusives as well. Such exclusives do contain new prints.

However, the leaked photos came from a factory. Those are the actual sets were are getting. There will be no changes to them.

[Trunkbass]

^ When do we know if there is a store exclusive? Weren't there any leaks of the orc forge beforehand? I can remember that they orginally planned to have one more minifig in that set before it came out.

Isn't it a bit too optimistic to hope for a store exclusive? Wouldn't we've heard something about it by now?

[Blakstone]

It is extremely optimistic hoping for a store exclusive. I guess that optimism in the LotR thread is wearing off on me.

My ball park guess is there is a 75% chance of those polybags and maybe a 20% chance of a store exclusive.

[Lancethecat]

Does LEGO normally announce store exclusives at the same time they announce wide-release sets?

[just2good]

Does LEGO normally announce store exclusives at the same time they announce wide-release sets?

Sometimes they do (Orc Forge, Barrels), sometimes they don't (Shredder's Lair Rescue, Funhouse).

I don't think we're getting any this wave.