LEGO's Next Precious: LEGO Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit

[MShiels]

And just to set things straight for anyone expecting more castle/kingdoms for 2012 - there is nothing/absolutely nothing in the dealer price list/catalog for 2012, so they seem to have run to an end/allowing LOTR/Hobbit to take over that theme area.

[Blacknight]

Meh, I know this is huge news for some, but aside from some nice minifigs I'm not sure how great the sets will be. Lego doesn't lend itself that well to organic things, which constitutes all of the LoTR besides a few fortresses. Not sure how awesome a bionicle jointed spider or walking tree will be. Lego has already made dwarves and elves and knights and orcs that could easily stand in for LoTR. All we're really getting out of the LoTR license is the brand name. Maybe an oliphaunt if we're really lucky.

In some ways, Narnia would've been a better choice - more appropriate subject matter for children, and some better mythological creatures like centaurs, minotaurs fauns and griffons (thankfully Brickforge makes some of those now).

[ImpendingDoom]

I'm not fond of brick forgery or modified pieces. This is a great line especially if it is a multiyear deal. Judging by the direction LEGO is headed you probably are going to see most if not all new molded creatures. Sure you could substitute those things with older molds, but I feel the newer molds are far supreme with realism and attention to detail. There is so much concept besides just castles and forests too. Plus any earth tone addition to sets is a bonus for me. I cant wait for orc battle packs!

[Tyrant]

And just to set things straight for anyone expecting more castle/kingdoms for 2012 - there is nothing/absolutely nothing in the dealer price list/catalog for 2012, so they seem to have run to an end/allowing LOTR/Hobbit to take over that theme area.

So, what is in the second half of the year where Castle/Kingdoms usually releases? Aside from LotR. I think it quite likely that LotR is taking it's place, to be clear, but I haven't heard anyone that has seen the second half of the year and I've seen the last 3 years of people saying the sky is falling in Castle threads because there was nothing in the first half of the year.

As for LotR, I believe there are serious issues with the license that others are totally ignoring. The big two being scale and the fact that a lot of the story is a group of people walking through the wilderness and occasionally getting attacked. The latter of those is great if they are going to release a ton of $10-20 sets with nothing but figures and a token tree (unlikely), but not great for much else. The "let's sit around and talk" scenes are mostly a non starter. Unless they give us a scene with Marry with singing action and Denethor with gross, close up food shot action set to accompany the Faramir throwing his life away because his father is insane set. I think the scale issue will be an issue. I know nothing will be to actual scale, that's not what I mean. I mean what will at least look kind of right. The Black Gate and Grond are big enough to pretty expensive sets if done right, much less something like Helm's Deep. I think things are going to have to take a major scale/accuracy hit to fill in the price points above "guys in the wilderness" and below "any building made to look right". With SW this is less of an issue. The ships are the bulk of the line and they only need to be kind of close to each other. The SW movies aren't filled with scene after scene making you know just how huge and epic everything is, so they can wing it a little. On the other hand, showing things off is like 15% of the LotR movies. I think some people will be disappointed.

As for myself, if Castle dies I won't be too happy because I wanted a dragon fortress with an actual ruler for them. But, I will likely buy LotR sets because I can use the non fleshie figs and any new weapons/creatures. Here's hoping for decent Mumakil and Wargs.

[onions]

i think scale's always going to be an issue no matter what theme you look at. and most licensed theme sets always suffer from not having more pieces.

i'm of the 'let's wait and see' camp before i pass judgement.

[Flynn]

newer molds are far supreme with realism and attention to detail.

'Cause the LEGO minifigure is just so realistic.

[Starsonthars]

Oh, I cannot wait for Elves/Goblin/Rohirim battle packs.

[Walter Boy]

From Balrog to Bombadil

Yes, yes, yes!

[madLEGOman]

Well between Lord of the Rings, Marvel and DC Super Heroes, and Starwars alone, it looks like 2012 is gonna be huge for lego's licensed themes, Honestly tho, I'm still surprised lego hasn't gone after disney princesses more to try to bridge their gender gap. definitely looking forward to the lotr and hobbit, and more than anything i'm really hoping they make a good witch king minifig with a new helmet element

[JD4M]

agree with you completely on the bolded part. the real question is how many waves of sets can we expect, how many sets per wave, and how many years is the license good for. if they plan on covering major scenes from the trilogy and at the same time release sets based the hobbit movies, there's a lot of ground to cover.

There might be a touch of wishful thinking on my part but I'd bet on it lasting longer than the recent HP line of two waves and an exclusive. I'm sure how long it lasts will be based on it's success.

[lowlead]

What about From Bricks To Balrogs?

That would be MY choice, but I lack that Admin title. Alas.

[blasphemy]Besides, Bilbo is a silly name anyway.[/blasphemy] Ya, let's wait and see...big news, but can TLG follow through? We're yours to WOW, LEGO!

[Tyrant]

i think scale's always going to be an issue no matter what theme you look at. and most licensed theme sets always suffer from not having more pieces.

i'm of the 'let's wait and see' camp before i pass judgement.

I'll wait and pass judgement. Honestly, even if scale is an issue I will still likely buy the sets for parts and figures. I was just saying that compared to current themes, it will likely be more obvious in this theme due to the amount of time the movies spend making sure you know just how huge and grand everything is in comparison to "people", which Star Wars does not.

[Darth Jokar]

Wow this is fantastic news. Sad part is my wallet just walked out on me said it can't take this anymore...

[ImpendingDoom]

newer molds are far supreme with realism and attention to detail.

'Cause the LEGO minifigure is just so realistic.

Ca'mon, it wouldn't be LEGO without the minifigs. I meant other non-human creatures when i referred to "newer molds".

[AbstractedIdeal]

newer molds are far supreme with realism and attention to detail.

'Cause the LEGO minifigure is just so realistic.

Ca'mon, it wouldn't be LEGO without the minifigs. I meant other non-human creatures when i referred to "newer molds".

That explains the new Ladyfigs in the Friends theme -- they're actually new molds for Elves! LEGOlass indeed!

[darth_fett]

Ok this is pretty exciting. Not Final Fantasy exciting, but still pretty good. (kidding! Just like to Troll LOTR fans) i could use a Gandalf the gray & Gandalf the white, Saruman, hundreds of orcs & Boromir the nerfherder. Not to mention the Nazghul.
On the case of screen accuracy, one just needs to look at Prince of Persia to see that lego goes for playability over accuracy. Which is cool too. I like my castle thingy that in no way resembles the movier ver.

[darth_fett]

Hey is anyone else suspicious that the One Ring is going to be the new gold, round tile with printing on it? Like Two Face's coin, but uhm gold. And maybe the Balrog will be like the power miners monster king - brick built with sculpted head and those ramp things with orange instead of green. I'd be down with that if it makes it larger than say, a totally new sculpt in line with the wampa. I can't wait to toss Gimley legofig =D

[onions]

maybe. maybe one of those 1x1 round studs with a hole in it.

if it's as big as the one in the promo pic, it's going to end up being the the one bracelet.

there's a collectible minifig coming out with a medal around it's neck, maybe we'll get that one instead for frodo since he wears it round his neck most of the time.

[Chief]

For all you dorks complaining about the ring possibly being the size of a minifig-scale bracelet: how else should they do it? At the size pictured it's already small enough to get easily lost, but at least a minifig can hold it like every other accessory. Any smaller and you've got a piece that minifigs can't even handle and a giant headache for Lego customer service taking endless calls for missing pieces.

[ImpendingDoom]

I doubt they will use the friends bodies for anything other than the girls line. It has no business in LOTR, unless they want the characters to look more like Bratz dolls. Besides legolas isn't that curvy. I believe branching out from the minifig style would be a mistake. I still think they will go with standard minifigs for most characters like dwarfs, orcs, elves, hobbits, etc with slight modifications.

The ring looks fine to me. I see it being more useful in mocs anyways. Scaling is fine too. I mean is a banana bigger than your arm or an apple as big as your head?