LEGO Hobbit 2014

[TheWorldAhead]

@TheWorldAhead: The article says Fall, the press release says October and so does the Australian catalogue according to brickset user Albus

Okay, thanks! I just wondered why Huw at Brickset had "November/December" listed as the release date on his frontpage news. But October is very good news. At least two months sooner!

[kevkipo]

Also are those fabric wings?!

[deskp]

Also are those fabric wings?!

I believe its rubber. all 1 mold, but the diferent thickness makes the skin flexible while the 'bones' are harder. 1 big bold that you bend and connect to itself to make that joint

Smaug in all: 8 new molds. except for the head, and tail the other 5 can be reused by other lego dragons in the future.

Edited July 24, 2014 by deskp

[Dharkan]

Waste of money.

I can understand 100 or 110 bucks but 130 is overpriced. Way overpriced.

[ZCerberus]

Smaug is the main reason I will buy this set. If TLG had made a brick built Smaug, I would not even consider buying the set as I hated the Ninjago dragons. The folding wings is an unexpected bonus and the new head in my opinion is spot on for the movie. So all in all the set turned out a bit higher than my expectations.

But at least the ninjago dragons could be customized more. My issue is how little Smaug's body looks like Smaug. In the film he was more slender and snake like. Here is mostly looks like the castle dragon with a little facelift.

[HawkLord]

I feel like Lego is not confident that this will earn back the production costs, so they made the price really high. Granted Smaug is a big figure with lots of big new molds, but I'm betting Lego only thinks it'll be on the shelves a short time so they have to make their money back quick. Given the Hobbit stuff may only be out till then end of 2015 and Lego has to make a Smaug, this makes total sense.

Unfortunately, this means I won't be picking up the set unless the final movie really, really wows me or I can find this super cheap. Otherwise, the price for what you get is too rich for me.

[Floundie]

Are you freaking kidding me??

If that's the whole set it doesn't sound like the toy fair description at all. "Lots of sand green" "Huge" Nope nope. Smaug's wings are cool but otherwise he's just too small! And that fire is just pathetic!

The throne looks so bad too. A mish mash of colors instead of solid green. Why does Dwalin have a green axe??? Why are there FIVE minifigures??? Why is EVERYTHING SO SMALL???

If the picture just cuts off the rest of the set then it may still be saved. But only if the whole set is double what's in the picture!!!

Edited July 24, 2014 by Floundie

[Lyichir]

Personally, I think this set looks great. Yes, a little pricy, and I'm sure Smaug adds a lot to that. But he looks great, with folding wings (that pivot with a ball joint) and great detailing all around. I never really expected him to be brick-built, since for better or for worse licensed themes tend to strive for greater detail, but the molded version still ended up exceeding my expectations. The scenery and action features also look amazing, and based on the picture there might be even more that we can't see!

HOWEVER...

Is anyone else disappointed that none of the characters use multicolored legs? When I first saw the new molds for Bart and Lisa Simpson that allowed for multiple colors on the legs, I felt sure that they would be used in the Hobbit sets to give the dwarves boots or more importantly, to give Bilbo bare feet. I guess I can see how they might not want to make the figs inconsistent with earlier ones, but it's still a darn shame.

[dranguish]

I dont think the whole set could possibly be DOUBLE what is in the picture. I think its POSSIBLE that there may be something cool to the left of the pic, but I also think it may be as simple as that the only thing thats there is a support column and the rest of the conveyor belt. People say it doesn't look like 800 pieces? How many were in Moria? Wasnt it similar and Moria was much smaller....

[Darth Punk]

The price makes me wonder if the license is soon to expire. Thus the need to quickly recoup costs.

[deskp]

The price makes me wonder if the license is soon to expire. Thus the need to quickly recoup costs.

Nah, lots of lego sets are overpried. this is jst another one of those. most of the dino 2012 sets were more expenvie than normal aswell, due to the molds.

this has 8 new molds in a large creature. it is a lisence. and on top of that it is also an expensive set. it just happens.

The cost is so high that smaug pays for himself in this set. thus the other sets can still have new molds, instead of being cheap to make up for smaug.

[SMC]

Dino sets were not too bad £80 800 parts 3 dinos

[coolguy2323]

This further proves why I buy these sets for the figures only. They all look great. Smaug will be my first Dragon. But I don't want to spend that much on the set and you know Smaug will go for a fortune alone.

Lol, that's funny, I buy them (at least the Middle-Earth ones) for the builds lol.

As for the set, I love it, Smaug looks fantastic and the mine and throne look really cool. I just wish we could have gotten the gates of Erebor as well, as that's what I think of when the Lonely Mountain is brought up - Peter Jackson's rendtition of the gates of Erebor and those statues next to them.

Anyway, I am really excited, can't wait to get my hands on this set, well done Lego

Edited July 24, 2014 by coolguy2323

[mostholycerebus]

Looks terrible. No way i'll buy this for $130 MSRP. $100 MSRP, maybe, that means I can get it on the street for $65-$75. More and more of these LotR sets make me think " I shoulda just bought another Helms Deep and expanded it."

I seriously dislike the layout, like all of us AFOLs, but I have learned from my 5yo son: sets I hate because they are 'incomplete' looking just mean its easier for him to play from all angles. His favorite set is Goblin King Battle, which I almost threw in the garbage because its such an ugly hodge-podge.

[Deathleech]

Kevin Ulrich from Brotherhood Workshop confirms that the set only includes five minifigs: https://www.facebook...herhoodWorkshop I guess we can pretty much kiss the generic Dwarf/Elf soldiers goodbye then since there's still Thorin, Gandalf and Bard that probably need to be in 79016 and 79017

Did anyone notice at 0:09 in his video he list the minifigures, but he list Thorin instead of Kili? Of course he just list the piece count as 800+ so who knows... we have gotten three different minifigure list now It definetly looks like Kili and not Thorin.

And the 15 cents per piece and low fig count were the exact same numbers and same complaints we had with the Rancor set last year. It seems to go hand in hand with the big complex multi mold figs.

Yup, and I really have no problem with that. It's understandable. Smaug probably is only counted as what, 6 or 8 pieces in the total piece count? But he uses the same amount of plastic as dozens, if not hundreds of smaller pieces would. The problem I have is they skimped on minifigures too. You can't skip on piece count AND minifigures just for Smaug! And that brings me to my next point...

I really don't understand the complaints about getting reskinned dwarves in this set. Aside from Bilbo and Smaug, who else were you expecting to see?

Honestly, I feel like Lego could of structured this wave SO much better. Instead of a $130 Erebor with Smaug, why not make this set focus around the Bo5A (or the flashback at the beginning of AUJ as others have said)? Then it would have room to fit all the characters we want, or at least new ones that wouldn't fit anywhere else. Lego should of done this instead of trying to get all the main Bo5A characters in a $60 set and using the 130 dollar one just to give us dwarf reskins. Imagine a $130 set with bear form Beorn, Thorin, Fili, Kili, (all in battle gear), Bolg, Dain, Thranduil in armor, an armored Elf Soldier, an Iron Hill Dwarves, and a few Orcs. Then they could of made the $60 Bo5A set into another Lake-town instead but have it include Bard, Bain, Alrid, Braga and whoever else with Smaug. Heck, if they included Smaug that means they could of even took the current $30 set they have and left everything the same and just added a minifigure and Smaug and that would of justified a $60 price tag (or cut the set down a little if Smaugs price alone is over $30)! It also would of made the set more affordable to kids because you KNOW kids are gonna drool over that dragon but only being in a $130 set makes him really hard to get for them. Finally that would leave the $30 set open which could be made into an army builder.. since you know, a BATTLE of FIVE ARMIES should have an ARMY builder. It could have some named character, an Iron Hill Dwarf, an armored Elf Soldier, a Lake-town Militia, and then two new armored Orcs with an Eagle or Bat or some other creature we havn't gotten a lot of yet. The only issie would be cutting the build down from a $60 set to a $30 one but I am not expecting much from this build anyways so I see no issues. Make it an add-on to Erebor like the Uruk-hai Army set was to Helm's Deep!

My issue is how little Smaug's body looks like Smaug. In the film he was more slender and snake like. Here is mostly looks like the castle dragon with a little facelift.

Ya, he has a fat belly and HUGE legs unlike in the films, but I am sure that is just for support so he can stand up easily when kids are playing with him. Lego does it all the time with their molded creatures. They give them ginormous feet and large bellies so they have a good center of gravity and don't tip over easily.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Deathleech

[ZCerberus]

I don't think there is a big consipiracy here. Big molded pieces drive up the cost. I had the exact same feeling about Jaba's Palace. 717 pieces, big molded Jabba, $120, This set 866 pieces, big molded Smaug $130. Seems to be pretty much in line. No conspiracy on when the line will end or anything.

[CM4Sci]

New images.

-Sci

Edited July 24, 2014 by CM4Sci

[deskp]

Dino sets were not too bad £80 800 parts 3 dinos

but that set was 100 u.s dollars for 800 parts

do we know the £ price for smaug set yet?

[Mike S]

But at least the ninjago dragons could be customized more. My issue is how little Smaug's body looks like Smaug. In the film he was more slender and snake like. Here is mostly looks like the castle dragon with a little facelift.

Smaug's body looks fine to me. The only thing that could have been really improved would be the hind legs, but I don't begrudge TLG for saving money on new molds for them as they already made quite a few new molds for him.

[ZCerberus]

Smaug's body looks fine to me. The only thing that could have been really improved would be the hind legs, but I don't begrudge TLG for saving money on new molds for them as they already made quite a few new molds for him.

The legs might not be a new mold, but the body is. If the film didn't exist, I wouldn't care, but I just don't find it a good representation. If I am paying 130, I would prefer more pieces, less big molding, especially if the molding doesn't look like the subject.

[Fives]

For some reason, that image makes the set look a lot better. While it may seem incomplete to some people, it is still a kids toy. It effectively represents the two most significant locations within Erebor that we've seen in the movies, as well as gives us a very impressive Smaug fig.

Another reason that people may be thinking Smaug looks weird is because this is the first moveable Wyvern LEGO has released (the Horntail from Goblet of Fire was also a Wyvern, but for the most part it was all one solid piece, with no moving neck or legs). The lack of arms makes the overall torso area seem smaller than that of other dragons we've had recently.

[SMC]

but that set was 100 u.s dollars for 800 parts

do we know the £ price for smaug set yet?

I can see it being anything other than £99.99

[AFOLguy1970]

Well, the new photos indicate that there is not really anything to the left of the photo from yesterday.

The good news is the October release date. If they do triple VIP points around Thanksgiving again, that would be the day to get this. At least, I recover some of the cost of the set to use on something else.

[The Real Walkers]

On a completely random note- if we get that Thranduil armour mini figure, it'll make a lovely Glorfindel figure!

[Captain Nemo]

Even though I love the set, I have to say it's disappointing that there's not a huge chunk that was "missing" from the previous pictures. Although I have to say it looks a lot better on a large picture of gold! In a report I read, from the Hollywood Reporter, it described a furnace with a light brick--I'm not sure what part of this set they were looking at--and I hoped it was the "missing" section. At least we can see the secret door now, and Smaug still looks great, I just want to see his wings folded now!