Lego Hobbit 79017-Battle of the Five Armies

kez

Here you can find plenty of images for this set: http://s1011.photobucket.com/user/carlos_santiago3/library/The battle of five armies?sort=3&page=1

CircleK

New figs look excellent. I'm even ok with the structure. If ever there was time for an add-on battle pack though... I wish they would have went with the same plan used for helms and the uruk-hai army add on. A $30 set with a small rune, two generic elves, two generic dwarfs, and a couple of orcs would have made an excellent companion.

dannyrww

Yeah see I want more generic army builder type sets...a lot of the characters in here were available before...is Dain the only exclusive character in this set? I know others are unique versions but still characters that have been released before.

dannyrww

hmmm...looks like the Eagle is a specific character (Gwaihir Lord of the Eagles)

legomatt

Those images have confirmed this set a complete pass for me.
Not a single army builder for the good guys, which means a battle of five armies failing to feature even one 'good' army, and the build offers little by way of middle earth majesty. I feel no compulsion to pick it up just for a crown headpiece and the lonesome Dain with nobody to lead. If EVER a theme was crying out for a battle pack builder this (and lotr) was it. I just do not understand TLG's strategy on this. It's like they have NO CLUE whatsoever how to cross pollinate two sets to add value to, and increase, all sets desirability.

Example: if there was just one dwarf warrior in one set alone, that one dwarf would immediately increase the value of wanting/owning Dain and vice versa. But with no dwarf warrior for him to be king of, I feel no personal desire to then bother including a Dain fig in my collection. Interest gone, the fig then becomes utterly impotent as the set's key draw.

Completionist collectors will buy the set/figs regardless, but they aren't the mass market. And this is where TLG is failing with these licenses. The mass market looks at playability, and will wonder what to do about soldiers... if kids can't identify any cannon-fodder soldier material, and can't find a builder set to supply it either, then they'll just bail on the idea altogether as it won't offer the mass-battle experience promised by the title. The vast majority of Kids aren't nearly as bothered about hero-in-new-hat syndrome that collectors drool over, they'll want soldiers and lots of them.

This wave should have had at least one set featuring at least one Iron Hills Dwarf Warrior and Mirkwood Elf Soldier (helmeted), either cheap enough to purchase in multiple, or included across several sets. Furthermore, a helmeted elf warrior would also have been snapped up by a LotR crowd desperately trying to find ways to populate the battlements of helms deep.

They screwed up LotR by not making any battlepack sets (Gondor, anyone?) and now they're repeating that mistake. I really wish I could interview the design team/lead strategists for the tolkien themes, just to find out HOW they came to these decisions.

Mind = Boggled.

:oS

Shib

^ Completely agree on this one, this set is just a minifigure collection, badly done. It's such a shame that a theme TLG has relied on minifigures to sell they didn't have the foresight to do it well and include any battle pack type sets. Shame really the LOTR/Hobbit theme had such potential, wasted opportunity.

CapnRex101

The only reason I can imagine would be that LEGO Star Wars have some kind of exclusivity on Battle Pack sets at the standard price point, hence releases like #79012 Mirkwood Elf Army and #9471 Uruk-Hai Army. I have no idea whether there is any truth in that, but producing Battle Packs for LOTR seems so obvious I feel like there must be something which keeps TLC from producing them.

theLEGOman

The first wave of sets had some really good models and showed lots of promise for those to come.

Then it's like they gave the design job to the cleaners 5 year old. I'm sure they have cost restraints to work to but how could the company who made the amazing Hobbit House in the Unexpected Gathering set come up with such dull sets. £70 gets you a box of dark grey parts, a few figures and a sprinkle of colour, like all they had left was dark grey plastic, then they got a bit of black and bronze last minute.

They are disappointing because the first wave was so good and the 2nd was so bad they had to get major retailers to sell it at half price.

Real shame.

dannyrww

I don't know. I have mixed feeling over the whole Lord of the Rings/Hobbit thing. Obviously the minifigures were a big draw. I liked the whole first wave of Lord of the Rings and actuallythe second wave too...sure the Black Gate was not as large as we'd want, likewise for the Rivendell set, but they were not bad representations. The Pirate ship was a bit out of nowhere though when I can think of so many nicer scenes to make. For the Hobbit I started to see the decline. Unexpected Gathering was amazing, but did we really need a tree (yes I know the scene was important, but more Rivendell would be nice). I never bought the Goblin King set, because as nice as the minifigures were it never really interested me as a set. I loved the Barrel escape, but not the spider set so much. The second series was worse. The small set seemed odd and its only real attraction was Beorn. I liked the Elf Army set as an army builder but the building itself was out of place. Gul Gudur is a nice set...but was it really necessary. Again so many other things I'd rather see....like a Rivendell set the size of Gul Gudur. I liked Laketown. Minifigures have continued to be nice, and there is no shortage of Orcs if your into Army building. This last wave I will buy the smalls et for the minifigures and maybe the laketown set.

knoose

I found more images here: http://imgur.com/a/sPRuu#17

binaryeye

^ A silver cape for Galadriel is a bit odd.

SimesHimself

I like the new Thorin minifigure, and the structure is good. Personally I'm looking forward to the "Attack on Lake-town" set, as it will compliment last year's Lake-town offering which was also supported by a polybag.

graphite

binaryeye said:

^ A silver cape for Galadriel is a bit odd.

It is white underneath but I think they were going for the kind of sparkly look that she has when she has the like over wrap thing on. In most images she has a pure white cloak that goes with the dress but in some like the below image there is what appears to be an extra layer of silvery/transparent material on top of it.

icey117

Complaining aside... we do get a few more nice MF's such as Galadriel, Bard and... ehm... well, and we get a dragon!