Lord of the Rings Legos.

[bobalego]

This has been discussed for many years (most recently): here and here (where I comment with a link to photos under my alias 'brickscout') at FBTB, I am surprised none of the other veterans have mentioned this yet: Intelli-blox Crappy LOTR LEGO rip off liscense that failed miserably...I am a huge LOTR fan and wouldn't have bought these but I admit that official LOTR LEGO would have been much better but I agree with the problems mentioned by several other members...the photos are no longer available and near impossible to find anywhere but EBAY. Check it out on EBAY if you are desperate enough to see them...

[CoR3Bu]

A UCS Balrog would be great, or a UCS Treebeard , but
I would only buy Treebeard if I were building a forest
ambush MOC or something. Maybe a UCS Eagle or
Fell Beast! Battle of Pelenor fields playset with Witch King
and Fell Beast!! We could also have a death of sauron set with
Sauron, Isildur, Gil-Galad, Elendil, and some orcs and elves!

Colonel Reaginal Bulstrode, to attention men!

[Puddleglum]

This seems to come up about once a week over at Classic-Castle.com, and the consenus is always in line with what others here have already pointed out:

a) Licenses make the sets cost more .
b) We already have a very nice fantasy castle line, with everything you could ask for except elves. (but many of us are expecting these to come eventually)
c) To have any coherence with the movies, the sets would almost be entirely battle packs, or huge playsets that even at $100 could not do justice to the actual locations.
d) It would replace the current Castle line, and for better or worse, leave us with only fleshie castle figs for any number of years. (Most castleheads seem to despise fleshies)

I'm a huge LOTR fan and would probably empty my wallet if on the stuff if they ever made it, but at this point LEGO has given any mildly motivated FOL all the tools they need to create fantastic LOTR MOCs, so let's just be happy with that.

[chiron]

Besides the fact that one of the main character's name screams out to Lego(Lego_los). Only one person has raised the issue of whether the actual sets could make it both in marketability and quality. what makes Lego wonderful for a five year oldis making new things and then showing your creation (usually brimming with guns lazers and a guy named Gerald) to your parents. for ten year olds its regretting taking parts off that really expensive set two Christmases ago but never the less using those pieces to make other creations that you show to your friends how it has the same firepower of the death star. What vehicles are going to make for a Rohan army? OK, a chariot but what else? locations would be what you would build but half the fun is the arms race and the arguing whether the machine would be able to knock down the castle in one fell swoop.
Well you could build catapults and battering rams fueled buy orc heads. ("Scotty i mean Gimli we need more power." "but gandalf we need more orcs. where's legolos can he find another mumakil?" Ok, i've got myself half convinced that lotr lego is the best thing since sliced white bantha. but you can do that with the knight castle Lego. you can also make a mines of moria drop bridge if you put your mind to it, just as long as you wear a diaper . and if you want to reenact massive battles you should buy figurines.

as oil prices go up Lego's trying to keep prices down and making sure what they do make will sell. As someone else pointed out by calling them knight castle Lego's they get their knights and any lotr geek will notice the similarities. I know this is like discussing the merits of battle droids at a clone convention a tactic Playmobile uses not paying for the grant but it still looks like it. take their new pirates they bear an astonishing resemblance to pirates of the carribean Davy Jone's crew.

[gfxguy]

There's always the upcoming "The Hobbit" film(s). More kid-friendly, but even so I can't see LEGO taking it. It might be fun though...

I know I'm jumping in on an old thread, but since the LOTR is one of my favorite movies/books, I'd love to see something happen here, too... I agree, the castle line is LOTR without the license, and it's come to be my favorite line (yes, even above Star Wars).

The problem with licensing the Hobbit is that it's a single movie (even if they do make it in two parts); it's not a "franchise" that they can milk for a long time. They'd have gotten at least three years (plus... probably as much as five) with the LOTR. Batman just keeps going; HP they figured they'd have 7 movies for 7 books (yes, I know it'll be 8, but they didn't know that at the time).

Anyway, I can't think of any "single" movie (that didn't have planned sequels) that LEGO would do.

[meeotch]

Speed Racer?

[gfxguy]

Speed Racer?

Oh yeah... that worked out well, didn't it ? It was so memorable, I'd forgotten.

I don't think they'll make the same mistake again. I wish they did do LOTR and the Hobbit, though.

[legodeathstrike]

I've seen some very impressive MOC LOTR pictures... this would be indeed a big money maker if Lego decides to do something with the movie. This theme reminds me of those old robinhood woodsmen sets discontinued years ago....man, would I love to get my hands on one of those.

[CoR3Bu]

Well anyways, the new Elf from series 3 minifigs look great. I'll probably try to pick up a few of em'.
They nailed the chest printing and the shield. Getting these and numbers and customizing them
with some custom weapons (such as Brickforge) would look great as LOTR elves.

Colonel Bulstrode

[metalface13]

I agree, the Elf is awesome and only fuels my hunger for a LOTR LEGO set. Who knows, if we all keep our fingers crossed we could see something for the Hobbit movies?

The complications of course come from getting the license to make stuff based on the movies vs. based on the books or both.

[onions]

tangent rant: i think the elf is one of the worst figures from s3. no quiver? what archer do you know not carry a quiver? don't say it's because of the cape, because they could always get rid of the cape or move it to the side, or create a new quiver piece that's slung lower, like around the hip. and why a shield? why would an archer need a shield? "ARCHERS READY!" "one sec, i need to put my shield down and find some arrows....." i would much rather have a quiver than a shield. also, if you're not going to include a quiver, DON'T PRINT A STRAP ON THE TORSO. the only brilliant thing about the elf figure is the hair and solution for the ears. i only hope they create a bowl cut hairpiece with prosthetic ears so i can finally make a spock figure. but even that, the hairpiece, isn't enough to make the figure not be a fail. i'll be posting my extras in b/s/t in the next few days. elf = fail.

[cas]

I suspect the reason the elf didn't get a quiver was the limit on accessories the minifigures have. He was already a highly accessorized figure with two new molds. I suppose a quiver would have made more sense than a shield, since they aren't ideal for archers. Did Legolas carry and use a shield?

Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if the elf was a remnant of the lost elf sub-theme from a year or two ago.

[Robzula]

High fantasy elves are most often depicted with shields, sometimes with a shortsword or dagger. Tolkien-esque elves are always depicted with bows and arrows. I'm guessing LEGO was just mixing the two things since they've been introduced in about equal parts into pop culture ideals of fantasy elves.

[metalface13]

Archers would often stick shields into the ground in front of them to help protect them from return fire from any other archers. So grab a quiver off a Castle lego figure and put it on him. I think his printing his excellent on torso, legs and shield. His molded head piece with ears is great and I love the new bow as well. I'll take all the extra elves you have!

[onions]

seeing as to how the archer didn't come with a quiver, he wouldn't be in any danger of return fire.

i forgot to mention the longbow. i, too, like it, but i wish they would stop molding the arrow into the bow element.

[Robzula]

i forgot to mention the longbow. i, too, like it, but i wish they would stop molding the arrow into the bow element.

Agreed