Need one Final Wave of Lord of the Rings then it can be finshed

bycougars

I don't know how many others out there were hoping for one final wave of Lord of the Rings so that we could get a Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, Balrog and maybe even a Mumukil. I would at least like to see Lego finish some of the main characters such as the Witch King, Faramir, Eowyn, and Gondor Soldiers. If you are like me and want one last wave of LOTR sets I think that as a Lego community and fan base we should go vote for some of the best LOTR projects on lego Ideas such as this Minas Tirith: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/36275. I think that if we can get just a couple projects to hit 10000 we might be able to get Lego to produce one more wave or even just the Minas Tirith set would be great.

I also know that there has been a Lego LOTR petition floating around out there: http://www.change.org/p/save-lego-the-lord-of-the-rings but I don't know how much good this will do. I think that for LOTR fans the best chance we have at a few more sets is by voting on Lego Ideas for them so that we can show them that there is still a fan base for these sets.

CCC

The petition won't do any good. Nor will the ideas route. If there was a business case for another lotr wave, it would be done.

madforLEGO

^- This.
People often vote and sign petitions with their hearts rather than with their head.
Unless LoTR shows up back in the theaters, or there is another video game, then no more sets are likely.
Nothing wrong per se with the sets, just hard to match the scale of the scenes in the book/movies in LEGO and keeping it cheap for bigger sales, without losing detail anyway.
Just like I'm sure people want Indy, Potter, PoTC back, but again, there is not enough publicity of these lines to warrant it.
It goes back to the Legends debate and if old lines of other thing should be redone.
LEGO has to think about the costs and have to think big in terms of sets sold. Obviously 'Ideas' is a bit of an exception to the rule (at least with 2 specific sets that have been released under Cuusoo/ideas) but LEGO is in it to really hit a homer, not a single (sorry for the baseball terms anyone not in the US :-) )

CapnRex101

I think LOTR is a theme which does not really work in practice. Battle Packs would be ideal but to recreate some of the gargantuan fortresses and towers from the films would require several sets at very high price points like the Tower of Orthanc.

dougts

how many times are we going to seem this type of post repeated? move on people, it's over....

andhe

I think the problem is that most of the ideas left, the things you suggest, would have to be BIG sets to do them justice, or suffer fan-boy outrage. Imagine if they released a section of wall and labelled it Minas Tirith? People would feel short-changed.

Who knows, maybe TLG will surprise us and realise a couple of last gasps for the theme. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

bycougars

I'm not saying that we need tons more sets or anything large. I would just like to see them finish the series with some of the main characters and maybe a Minas Tirith the size of the one on lego ideas or similar to the size of the Helm's Deep that was made.

CCC

The main characters (the Fellowship) have been done. It is the secondary characters - Witch King, Eowyn, Faramir - and army builders - Gondor soldiers - that are missing.

If they did a Balrog they'd probably do it Jabba or Smaug style.

Bumblepants

dougts said:

how many times are we going to seem this type of post repeated? move on people, it's over....

I am going to wait a day or two and make another one. THEN things will change.

bycougars

dougts said:

how many times are we going to seem this type of post repeated? move on people, it's over....

Until Lego makes a Minas Tirith set haha:) If you don't want to see this post repeated don't click on it. You chose to click on the discussion.

Pitfall69

^^This is a "pet peeve" of mine. I make sure and do the necessary searches to make sure that I don't post a subject that has been posted before; especially a subject that has been discussed ad nauseam in other threads. We don't have to click the post, but show some respect to other members who are actively involved in the "community" by making sure that there isn't a current discussion about the exact same subject matter going on.

CCC

I don't really see how it could be finished in one wave.

It wasn't long ago everyone wanted a Prancing Pony, but that seems to have quietened down.

bycougars

Pitfall69 said:

^^This is a "pet peeve" of mine. I make sure and do the necessary searches to make sure that I don't post a subject that has been posted before; especially a subject that has been discussed ad nauseam in other threads. We don't have to click the post, but show some respect to other members who are actively involved in the "community" by making sure that there isn't a current discussion about the exact same subject matter going on.

Actually I did look for a similar article to this one by typing in "Lord of the Rings" in the search bar and I didn't see any that had been posted in the last year so I posted it.

bycougars

CCC said:

I don't really see how it could be finished in one wave.

It wasn't long ago everyone wanted a Prancing Pony, but that seems to have quietened down.

I think that they could finish it in one wave:

Minas Tirith - Tan Cave Troll, Gondor Soldiers

Battle of Phelenor Fields - Witch King, Nazgul, Eowyn

Osgiliath - Faramir, Gondor Rangers

Balrog

Those four sets pretty much cover everything that is missing.

dougts

bycougars said:

dougts said:

how many times are we going to seem this type of post repeated? move on people, it's over....

Until Lego makes a Minas Tirith set haha:) If you don't want to see this post repeated don't click on it. You chose to click on the discussion.

Or you could add to the existing threads on the topic instead of creating yet another new one. Proper forum etiquette and all...

CCC

No, they don't. There are plenty more missing scenes / characters / variants. For example, as noted above, The Prancing Pony, more of Hobbiton / Green Dragon, generic Hobbits, Treebeard, ... All the way through to crowning of Aragorn.

GIR3691

How many of these threads do we need? Honestly.

TheBigGuy

Each day when I've checked the forums recently I think to myself "I wonder if there is a new thread about another wave of LoTR being needed".

matticus_bricks

madforLEGO said:

Unless LoTR shows up back in the theaters, or there is another video game, then no more sets are likely.
/blockquote>

Well, there is Shadow of Mordor coming out at the end of the month, but being M-rated and not really related to the main events of LotR doesn't really help the chances of more Lego sets being made. :)

I would personally like to see more LotR sets, but I'm content with what we've had so far. It probably wouldn't be very economical for TLG to make more sets, as others have said. It's just a shame that they didn't make Balrog with the first wave.

matticus_bricks

^ Please forgive my massive fail with the quotes. HTML is not my strong suit. :P

madforLEGO

matticus_bricks said:

^ Please forgive my massive fail with the quotes. HTML is not my strong suit. :P

Sorry, another LEGO video game.

tamamahm

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/16248/petition-save-lego-the-lord-of-the-rings#latest

piratemania7

matticus_bricks said:

^ Please forgive my massive fail with the quotes. HTML is not my strong suit. :P

Change it up with an Exo Suit.

Sethro3

I agree. I'd love another wave (or more!) but I know it won't happen. It takes months-years to actually do a wave of sets. It would have been out already had they had it planned.

It was a poor seller with the target audience, unfortunately.

The best thing for this theme was Battle Packs and for whatever reason it wasn't in the license. Which seems foolish.

bycougars

Sethro3 said:

I agree. I'd love another wave (or more!) but I know it won't happen. It takes months-years to actually do a wave of sets. It would have been out already had they had it planned.

It was a poor seller with the target audience, unfortunately.

The best thing for this theme was Battle Packs and for whatever reason it wasn't in the license. Which seems foolish.

I agree battle packs would have been perfect for LOTR!

Venunder

Battle packs would have been a good filler for the series and future series of LOTR.
It could still happen....

dougts

^ no, it really couldn't. the license is done. LEGO moved on from LOTR a long time ago

TheBigGuy

Seriously LEGO LOTR is over, people just need to accept that.

prevere

At least we got something. We spent years on this forum crying for LEGO to do LOTR. They did.

dannyrww

I really am content with what Lego did. It is one of my favorite (and perhaps even my most favorite) themes of all, and yes there are a few characters that I wish they made. The thing is I don't think what we got was all that bad. We have the fellowship and many of the support characters, and we even got a video game. Would I e happy if they did one more wave, sure. Do I feel its needed, not really. I think we are more likely to see something approved through Lego ideas though than another wave. I really am I happy that we got what we did though.

bycougars

dannyrww said:

I really am content with what Lego did. It is one of my favorite (and perhaps even my most favorite) themes of all, and yes there are a few characters that I wish they made. The thing is I don't think what we got was all that bad. We have the fellowship and many of the support characters, and we even got a video game. Would I e happy if they did one more wave, sure. Do I feel its needed, not really. I think we are more likely to see something approved through Lego ideas though than another wave. I really am I happy that we got what we did though.

Completely agree with you that we are more likely to see another set through lego ideas than from lego. Yes, I also agree that I am very happy with the sets that lego has made, and if they don't make any more I wouldn't be completey disappointed, but I just think that there are 3-4 sets and half a dozen minifigures that would finish off the theme with a nice touch.

dougts

dannyrww said:

I think we are more likely to see something approved through Lego ideas though than another wave.

If by more likely you mean 0.1% chance compared to 0.0% chance, I agree I suppose. But really, the chance of either happening is very very remote.

LoTR was one of my favorite all time themes. There are a lot of things I wish they would have done differently, but in the end I am very glad we got it.

CCC

I don't get the reasoning behind why an ideas set is more likely. If Lego want to do a Minas Tirith, they will do one. Why pay royalties to someone, when they can do one in an existing license.

Also, it may breach the terms of their current license, as they would be involving payment to a third party.

bycougars

CCC said:

I don't get the reasoning behind why an ideas set is more likely. If Lego want to do a Minas Tirith, they will do one. Why pay royalties to someone, when they can do one in an existing license.

Also, it may breach the terms of their current license, as they would be involving payment to a third party.

Yeah, the current license is almost up so they could put together a deal to make just the one set. Not sure if they will, but they could.

BooTheMightyHamster

Desist from your beatings, put the crop down, and step away from this particular equine creature, for it has ceased to be...

Xefan

A new LotR would definitely be economically feasible if, and this is a big if, they did something other than produce a few sets that are basically just half a wall with a couple of Orcs and a few hobbits or elves as they have done with both LotR and The Hobbit sets.

Worse, some of them were even grossly over-priced walls.

Things like Orthanc and Unexpected Gathering were the stand out sets for me. Others like Council of Elrond were nice, but were too small to matter- rather than building large expensive uninspiring wall sets like black gate, and helms deep they'd used their large sets for the Balron scene, for Minas Tirith, or for a larger fully fledged Elrond scene then this series would easily have sold better to justify a third wave.

This is one of the few times where a theme has really been let down IMO by poor product planning and complete lack of inspiration at TLG. Give kids Balrons, Oliphants, and so forth and you'd have seen a much wider appeal. Things like the Pirate Ship Ambush would've been fine to keep if they'd been done in conjunction with the likes of an Oliphant, the Witch King and his Fell Beast as it would've allowed kids to pull off that final grand battle in all it's detail, but on it's own it was just a ship that you can't really play into anything else.

They could still pull off a 3rd wave if they bothered to put some effort and inspiration into it, but obviously they're not going to because presumably they don't have confidence in their ability to produce anything other than a few more overpriced walls which absolutely just would continue not to sell well.

CCC

Xefan said:

Things like Orthanc and Unexpected Gathering were the stand out sets for me. Others like Council of Elrond were nice, but were too small to matter- rather than building large expensive uninspiring wall sets like black gate, and helms deep they'd used their large sets for the Balron scene, for Minas Tirith, or for a larger fully fledged Elrond scene then this series would easily have sold better to justify a third wave.

I doubt it would really be any different if they had dropped Helm's Deep and done Minas Tirith instead. Instead of a grey wall set, it would have been a white wall set. We would probably then be missing Theoden and Haldir (the latter wouldn't matter too much to me) and got Denethor or Faramir instead and probably a Gondor Soldier. But otherwise, I don't really see any difference. Of course Theoden could have been done with a Fell Beast set, if they had also done that instead of say the Helm's Deep add-on Uruk-Hai army set. But then we'd be missing Eomer and the Rohan warrior....

Xefan

I suppose to be fair even Helms Deep wasn't a bad idea in itself, it just seemed a crappy execution. If they'd made it a £150 set and made it bigger and thrown in seige towers and such it'd have probably worked, but as it was it just seemed half-arsed and boring. In a film as epic as LotR you need three waves with a big Orthanc like set in each wave, I just don't think you can pull off the epic scales of LotR which is part of the impressiveness of it with nothing more than a few piddly little walls and some bits of shrapnel thrown in for the sake of it.

I think rather than going all out they probably just played it way too cautiously and it was their caution that made it a flop in the first place. To have been bolder and produced three waves, each with a £150 - £200 set they could've really made it stand out as good as any other franchise has ever done.

You could've done Orthanc as the wave 1 £170 set, with the Balron scene as a £79.99 set and then kept some of the others they made under that. Make Helms Deep bigger, and sell it for £170 in the second year and an equally priced Minas Tirith in the 3rd year.

It just all felt very half-arsed, and that half-arsedness was responsible for it's failure to take off above all else.

CCC

Xefan said:

I suppose to be fair even Helms Deep wasn't a bad idea in itself, it just seemed a crappy execution.

It just all felt very half-arsed, and that half-arsedness was responsible for it's failure to take off above all else.

Yes, I agree. If Minas Tirith was done instead, I think it would have been done in the same way.

It's sad but probably true, but I reckon most fans would be happy with a whole range of crappy little wall sections, if the minifigs were there. Faramir and Eowyn in front of a nondescript wall? I'd buy it. Denethor and a Gondor soldier in front of grey wall, same again. Witch King having a rest on a brown tree stump? Yes please.

Xefan

But then wouldn't they be better off just doing a LotR CMF set basically :) ?

Shib

Depends on terms of licensing agreement.

bycougars

Xefan said:

Worse, some of them were even grossly over-priced walls.

Things like Orthanc and Unexpected Gathering were the stand out sets for me. Others like Council of Elrond were nice, but were too small to matter- rather than building large expensive uninspiring wall sets like black gate, and helms deep they'd used their large sets for the Balron scene, for Minas Tirith, or for a larger fully fledged Elrond scene then this series would easily have sold better to justify a third wave.

I agree they would have done better to step away from doing sets that seemed like just walls. The Balrog and the Witch King on fell beast. I think that those two sets would have been appealing to a wider range of collectors.

Venunder

If Lego do not do this third wave, I think a Fan could probably make some money by putting together some decent MOC's to sell as a Virtual Lego Return of the King Series
and without a licence, it would have to be called something different.

Of course the real problem will be lack of the right Minifigs.
But maybe some of the Fans who do 3D ABS printing could come up with something?

klatu003

On reflection, I am satisfied with the LoTR sets. Without making twenty USC level sets, LEGO was never going to reach the grandeur of the scenes. We got MOST of the major characters. Eowyn being the most egregious missing person. The characters that were made are excellent (excluding Beorn and the inflated PJ baddies.)

#79006 --Council of Elrond is a lovely vignette, and we get the new arches for a unique elven look.
#9472 Weathertop was a clever compact representation of this central event.
#9473 Mines of Moria – Dwarven realm represented with runes had a good feel for this group
#9469 - Gandalf Arrives has the nod to the playful lighthearted beginning of the story.
#9470 Shelob Attacks – gives us a big brick built spider
#9474 – Helm’s Deep – This was a great build with lots of detail in the walls (Earling bricks and cheese slopes), curved walls and sand green accents.
#9476 – Orc Forge – my least favorite, but the light-up forge was fun and more orcs for the battle.
#79005 – Wizard Battle – small but gets the job done, and we get the eye of Sauron.
#79007 – Black Gate – get two and it looks pretty good.
#79008 – Pirate Ship Ambush. Meh. But love the Deadmen of Dunharrow.
#10237 - Orthanc – awesome.

Some complain about lack of battle packs – weren’t 9471 Uruk-hai Army and Mirkwood Elf Army really that, plus a wall? The walls were modular and could be combined to make a larger build.

The Hobbit sets' major flaw is that they are based on Peter Jackson's tortured version of the lovely tale about a Hobbit going on an adventure. Think about LEGO making the Hobbit in more of a Chima vibe. More imagination, less conflict, made up baddies and superelves.

#79000 Riddles for the Ring – the hiding place for the ring made it interesting for its size.
#79001 – Escape from Mirkwood Spiders – ok here we start falling apart, because WTF are elves doing in this scene. Drop the elves and give us a better tree.
#79002 – Attack of the Wargs – the tree is pretty fun build. Again we have PJ Yaznez taking up real estate. The wargs are great.
#79003 – Bagend! A major triumph in parts, technique, display value and figures.
#79004 – Barrel Escape – good build and fun action. Points for drunken elf.
#79010 – Goblin King - hot mess another fail on PJs back for making this rollercoaster ride scene.
#79011 – Dol Guldur Ambush – another PJ WTF moment. Although on rebuilding this the other day, it isn’t a bad build with some nice features. It just doesn’t have anything to do with Tolkien’s story. Beorn is a miss. He should have been Hagrid sized and with the combo head-hair, he is perpetually angry.
#79012 - Mirkwood Elf Army – Thranduil is awesome, more elves and I like the wall-tree build.
#79013 Lake Town Chase – Great figures and the town buildings are a success.
#79014 – Dol Buldur Battle – Worst use of a set slot for the theme. Again PJ’s fault since he made it (made it up) as a large element of the movie. As a build, it is pretty meh, we get a stupid Azog and a weird Necromancer that no one wants.
Instead of this we could have gotten Beorn’s farm. Animals serving dinner, bears circling the house at night. Bees. Beorn in man form transforming into bear form.

bycougars

Venunder said:

If Lego do not do this third wave, I think a Fan could probably make some money by putting together some decent MOC's to sell as a Virtual Lego Return of the King Series
and without a licence, it would have to be called something different.

Of course the real problem will be lack of the right Minifigs.
But maybe some of the Fans who do 3D ABS printing could come up with something?

Yeah, I would hope that someone would make some customs for us to buy. I wouldn't even mind seeing the counterfeiters from China jump in and make some of the missing minifigs. I am not a fan of the counterfeiters, they actually make me kind of mad, but if Lego isn't willing to make them I don't mind.

Pitfall69

"Let it gooooooooo. Let it goooooooooo."

CCC

The counterfeiters don't do new parts or designs though, they mainly copy existing parts or do direct or variations on designs. I somehow doubt they will see the need for a very delicate piece such as a witch king helmet and produce a quality product just to sell maybe 1000 of them.

Brick warriors or brickforge, maybe. But not a Chinese one. That is not their way of working.