LOTR in 2013

CCC

I haven't played it - not a gamer - but I can imagine I'd be the same.

kez

Here's the best place to find new news about the lotr 2013 sets, there's also another thread on this forum about 2013 lotr sets.
http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=75636&st=0

Redbullgivesuwind

The battle with the wargs and goblins would make a very nice ending. Its action pact enough to be the climax and keep people hanging on.

I think lego have seen the stills at least of both hobbit films as we have two Mirkwood sets which come way down the line story wise and are way after Beorn.

Anyway on to the point. I know its not the OPs list but this to me just sounds like someones wish list of sets. To me these just don't have the appeal that would get people buying them. By all accounts the other LOTR sets haven't done that well and I would be surprised if they offered these as the years items. According to this thread we are getting 8 sets. http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/7437. I am starting to wonder how many of these sets are actually going to be made. As we are getting Treebeard, Isengard, A balrog, the council, battle at the blackgate, eagle nest, the pirate ship ambush, Frodo and a ringwraith, Gandalf the white in something along with the witch king as well as the other Hobbit sets including I assume misty mountains and the battle of the five armies, more mirkwood stuff. Its more than superheroes and friends lines which are selling a lot better than LOTR. I think at most we will see six small sets in may and then some of the bigger sets and hobbit stuff at the end of the year. Im thinking at most 12 for the whole year with a mixture of hobbit and LOTR.

icey117

Council of Eldron... Seriously after I just spend way too much money getting hold of Eldron exclusive figure... Why wasn't I more patient?

y2josh

^To be fair, that awful Elrond figure from GameStop is Second Age Elrond, whereas this one would most certainly be Third Age.

As to these sets that keep popping up... I find it odd that there's nothing more concrete leaking from retailer catalogs, as we have more-or-less solid details for every other theme. Though I also can't imagine LotR is doing so poorly that they drop it after one wave... and it would be a real shame if they did, given what a massive leap in quality there was from the first LotR wave to the first Hobbit wave. This setlist leaves me skeptical, however, as there's no real standout piece here... at least not one recognizable by name.

binaryeye

None of the information surrounding the second LoTR wave seems very solid, to me. There have basically been three sources:

Someone posted on EB that there would be eight new sets in March. They then deleted their post, saying the shouldn't have posted because it could get them in trouble, but not before someone copied it. Three of the sets were detailed: The Betrayal of Isengard ($100, 1034 pcs, Gandalf, Saruman, and five orc minifigs), Treebeard Encounter ($60, 583 pcs, Merry, Pippin, and orc minifigs), and Bridge of Khazad-Dum ($40, 241 pcs, Gandalf minifig).

An online shop listed four sets, to be available by June: "79005 Frodo and Ringwraith", "79006 ???", "79007 Eagles Nest", and "79008 Pirate Ship". The products are no longer listed on the website.

Someone posted on a forum about seeing two new sets in a forthcoming retailer catalog: Battle of the Black Gate (Gandalf the White, Witch King, and three other minifigs) and a Ghost/Pirate Ship (10-12 minifigs).

Considering all of that, I find the information listed here at Brickset a bit strange. Lower numbers seem to indicate smaller sets, yet we've got "79005 The Wizard Battle" where the only information regarding something similar is a $100 Isengard. "79007 Battle at the Black Gate" uses a set number otherwise rumored to be for what sounds like a Hobbit set (Eagle's Nest). "79008 Pirate Ship" seems to be the only set multiple sources agree on. However, I find it strange that a likely large set would be dedicated to a scene that, if I recall correctly, was only in the extended edition of the movie.

Redbullgivesuwind said:

I think lego have seen the stills at least of both hobbit films as we have two Mirkwood sets which come way down the line story wise and are way after Beorn.

I would hope LEGO has seen more than stills from the movie(s).

I don't know how the movie follows, but in the book, the events in Mirkwood take place immediately after the meeting with Beorn. I believe the original movie was to have ended with the escape in barrels, which is basically the end of the company's adventures in Mirkwood. The two Mirkwood sets are "previews" because they were moved to the second movie after the shift to a trilogy.

Redbullgivesuwind

^Ah if that was where the original movie was to have ended it makes sense to have these sets.

Lego won't have seen the entire movie as it won't be relevant to them. What happens with star wars at least and as far as I know other films. Is lego get sent the spec files and clips of scenes, so for example the barrel escape scene. They will have seen the clip where they escape but not much more than that. They will then get sent a load of pictures showing measurements, the set design, close ups of it etc etc. They then build the models off of that.

That's why I don't believe the Black gate set at least as the witch king is dead by then. He gets killed by ewoyn on pelinor fields. These all just read as someones wish list. The fact they deleted it claiming they shouldnt have told us just doesnt seem right, why only leak three?

mathew

I think a lot depends on how well The Hobbit movie does. If it's not as big as they are hoping then I think potential LotR sets will be scrapped. They may already be designed but may not ever see the light of day.

emilewski

I don't know about that. People are buying them after all and there are more movies planned. Even though it is not as successful as TLG hoped, as long as they are not losing money I see the theme continuing while the movies are being released, and then disappearing after that.

Brick_Obsession

Can we for see these coming to the LOTR line up?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I have only known them to Star Wars and I think that the LOTR line up offers a great chance for Battle Packs to be included.

If this topic belongs else where or there is an existing thread for it please move / merge.

dougts

#9471 is pretty much a battle pack from the first wave. #79001 could be used as an army builder (2 elves, 2 spiders, 2 dwarves) I suppose, albeit an expensive one. too bad the warg set is a $50 RRP, otherwise that could be as well.

Doesn't look like there are any army builders in the small summer LOTR wave, though the sets themselves all look quite good IMHO

SapmiSatan

Can we discuss any leaked images we might have seen? Like for instance, saying that the sets listed at Brickset were correct? And could I say that I was right in many of my predictions?

Redbullgivesuwind

I think we can talk about them amd what sets are coming. But you cant link to them or show them. But I could be wrong.

Redbullgivesuwind

And you can say you were right but need proof that you were :-).

SapmiSatan

All right, then: The pictures show the smallest set to be "The Wizard Battle". It's the same size as "The Captain's Cabin" featuring Saruman, Gandalf and the palantir.

The second smallest set is "Elrond's Council" which is the same size as "The Barrel Escape" (around 40£, as I predicted), featuring Arwen, Elrond, Frodo, and I think the last minifig is Gimli. The set consists of the platform were the council was held, a tree, and some structure behind the platform.

I was wrong about what set would be the largest, though, as the second biggest set is "Battle at the Black Gate". It's hard to tell excactly what it contains, the only thing I'm sure of is that it features most of The Black Gate, Gandalf the White, and an eagle. In addition to this, I think it contains king Elessar (Aragorn), the Mouth of Sauron (this might be the minifig many people thought was the Witch King, who should not be in this set, as he was dead at this point) and a Ring Wraith on a horse. I could very well be wrong about the minifigures here...

The biggest set is the "Pirate Ship Ambush", it's very big indeed, like "The Black Pearl". It contains at least ten minifigures: Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, three of the dead, including the king, at least one orc, and probably two pirates... There should be pirates on a pirate ship!

I wonder if there will be more LotR sets next year than these, and what the next wave of "The Hobbit" sets will feature...

SapmiSatan

"The Black Gate" will have one more figure than I listed, it could be anything, another orc, for instance.

y2josh

I'll have to wait and see these sets, but outside of the Black Gate, I don't think these would have been my personal selections for a second wave. And the absence of Eowyn (and the general lack of minifigs with the Black Gate) is very odd.

HELLRAZR_28

I'm still depressed over the lack of Orthanc tower.

y2josh

^That's what I'm saying. You have Orthanc, Mount Doom, the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, Amon Hen and Parth Galen, Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, etc., etc. and they go with tiny pieces of Orthanc, Rivendell and, most disappointingly, the Army of the Dead's ship? And, presumably, still no Eowyn or Witch-king.

Again, I'll wait to see them, but these aren't the sets I'd have chosen to bolster sales for what is apparently a struggling theme. Then again, pirate ships always seem to sell really well, so maybe that was their goal there.

dougts

Well they have to hit 4 different price points according to their typical strategy so that limits them quite a bit right there. We are only going to get one big set from any wave and they disappointingly went with the ship - presumably because they usually sell well. That really only left the medium large and medium slots left. Black gate seems as good a choice as any fir that once you realize you can't do justice at that piece count to any of the above mentioned main settings. It's the final big set piece of the trilogy and has some important figures

The council set is disappointing in scope but not surprising. There can't be much play value there at all, or anywhere in riven dell really. Anything at all is kind of a bone to afols as is

y2josh

I mostly agree with all that, only I think the Bridge of Khazad-dûm or Amon Hen would have been achievable at the $40-50 price point. Additionally, if Rivendell is kind of a bone to AFOLs, I say go ahead and make it a nice $150 set, since it doesn't seem to be a set that would appeal to kids anyway.

At the end of the day, though, I suppose anything can be MOC'd... so long as I get my Eowyn and Witch-king. :D

nkx1

y2josh said:

...Then again, pirate ships always seem to sell really well, so maybe that was their goal there.

I think aiming for what sells well is always the goal, given that for-profit businesses (such as Lego) are in the business of, well, making money. I'm not all that interested in Lord of the Rings (watched a movie or two, but didn't really do much for me). However, I will definitely be buying the Pirate Ship Ambush and Battle at the Black Gate sets, simply because they look cool.

I've not purchased any other of the LOTR sets because they weren't visually appealing to me. If Lego can make LOTR sets that are visually appealing to the masses such as me, then they might just have a winner on their hands... Non-LOTR fans will buy them because they look cool, and LOTR fans will buy them because they are LOTR fans. Win-win, all the way around.

VaderX

The biggest let down for me in LOTR Lego is the fleshie colored mini's. As much as I try I just can't grow to like these as much as the old school yellows :/.

Hey Lego please release more yellow elf ears! lol.

icey117

Should fact that they only release 4 new sets be read as "lotr don't sell as well as we expected"? Anyone got any solid info on how that is?

I think last time a second wave with 4 was released was Atlantis, which I guess they neither though would sell well... Though second wave was way better than first, designwise.

plasmodium

^While I know that this could be true, I am hoping it's not, as I was really hoping that LotR would be the next Star Wars, going on forever and ever and releasing tons of interesting sets. There's certainly enough subject matter...

y2josh

^I think the best case scenario is that they release two or three more waves to carry them through The Hobbit films. Given this wave, I'm hoping for AT LEAST two more waves, as there are A LOT of important locations and characters they've passed on to this point.

SapmiSatan

A lot of the sets we have gotten so far will make nice additions to a big Minas Tirith set, which we'll hopefully get between the second and the third wave of "The Hobbit". The army of Rohan, and now the army of the dead, and every orc and Ring Wraith we've gotten so far will be needed to take part in the Siege of Minas Tirith.

My hopes for a third wave of LotR is: A BIG Minas Tirith set, with Gandalf the White, Pippin, Denethor, Ring Wraith on fell beast, Gondorian soldiers, orcs and troll. An Oliphant set (this could be set in Ithilien, featuring Faramir and a ranger, or on Pelennor Fields with Legolas), a set with the Witch King on his fell beast, with Eowyn and Munti, and some set not connected with Minas Tirith, like Treebeard or the Balrog.

icey117

@Y2josh When rethinking, another option is that 8 tolkien sets (4lotr+4hobbit) is saturating their quote on shelf space and our consumer ability...

plasmodium

^Good point. I hadn't thought of the Hobbit and LotR being the 'same' theme...

Crownie

y2josh said:

I mostly agree with all that, only I think the Bridge of Khazad-dûm or Amon Hen would have been achievable at the $40-50 price point. Additionally, if Rivendell is kind of a bone to AFOLs, I say go ahead and make it a nice $150 set, since it doesn't seem to be a set that would appeal to kids anyway.

I'm not sure if we should rule out a retailer exclusive at this point. It obviously wouldn't be in the retailer catalog that we saw, and the price point would be the usual $39.99... Something about the number 5 just sounds better to me than 4. (But then maybe I just prefer odd numbered waves.)

Your Bridge could still be a reality. ;-)

Crownie

icey117 said:

@Y2josh When rethinking, another option is that 8 tolkien sets (4lotr+4hobbit) is saturating their quote on shelf space and our consumer ability...

I wonder about this as well. Between LOTR, The Hobbit and the 5 new Castle sets coming in August, that's an awful lot of 'castle' stuff. (Of course as a Castle fanatic, I'll be in heaven [not so much if we get more poorly-designed Hobbit Sets, however], but from a business perspective it seems like putting all your eggs in one basket.)

Of course maybe 2013 will be an exceptionally good year for Medieval eggs...

;-)

Redbullgivesuwind

^Dont forget they havent confirmed the castle sets. They said it was coming back. But if they won`t make the western moduler because of lone ranger. Are they going to shoot themselves by releasing Castle stuff?

dougts

We've seen leaked pictures of the Castle sets from retailer catalogs - they are real

Legoboy

Redbullgivesuwind said:

Are they going to shoot themselves by releasing Castle stuff?

Which rock have you been hiding under? :o)

nkx1

@Redbullgivesuwind The five available Castle set pictures (widely available on the internet) appear to have been taken out of a wholesale catalogue of some sort. If Lego went through the trouble of designing the sets/box art and making the catalogue, that seems like a pretty solid confirmation that the sets are going to be released. Not really sure how much stronger of a confirmation you could ask for at the moment.

andhe

By the looks of things the new castle stuff is vastly different to the Tolkien sets. A lot lighter and brighter in theme, and probably aimed at the younger end as opposed to the 'darker' and more complex builds we've currently seen with the LotR/hobbit stuff.

brendan

I would wait to see how Christmas sales effected LOTR before saying that its not selling well. My local stores have no LOTR on the shelves and they have plenty of city fire. Do we need more fire?? I believe a nice Balrog would be a good set.

icey117

andhe said:

By the looks of things the new castle stuff is vastly different to the Tolkien sets. A lot lighter and brighter in theme, and probably aimed at the younger end as opposed to the 'darker' and more complex builds we've currently seen with the LotR/hobbit stuff.

Having a dragon in one of the sets... they are in the fantacy genre and not "vastly" different to the Tolkien set, I would say. IMO - Kingdoms was more different.

But - I'm the last to complain about historic sets. Bring 'em on, :-)

brendan

I feel like Kingdoms and quite frankly a lot of themes over the last few years have been proving points For licensed sets. Kingdoms had trolls, orcs, skeletons, wizards. Then the minifigs had minataurs, dwarves, elves. Put it all together and it's LOTR. I feel like they have been using themes to test market ideas to sell to movie companies. Now that's not to say all themes but several. The agents theme in my opinion was a precursor to Avengers. Not saying it represented Avengers directly but more of a "here's what we can do Marvel"

fy222

^ that was fantasy era, not kingdom.

y2josh

brendan said:

I would wait to see how Christmas sales effected LOTR before saying that its not selling well. My local stores have no LOTR on the shelves and they have plenty of city fire. Do we need more fire?? I believe a nice Balrog would be a good set.

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but my local Wal-Mart and Target clearance out the LotR sets and don't appear to have any plans of restocking them.

richo

From a uk perspective, I get the feeling lotr, with perhaps the exception of helms deep, are hardly moving. Heavily discounted all over, especially mines of Moria, yet doesn't seem to be shifting. I think helms deep will be the big win on the after market, with the other sets not doing much at all. My girlfriend's little boy really wants the bag end set from the hobbit, so maybe that's a sign of a general theme in terms of appeal?

binaryeye

y2josh said:

I don't know how it is elsewhere, but my local Wal-Mart and Target clearance out the LotR sets and don't appear to have any plans of restocking them.

Interesting. My local Target sold out of most LoTR sets before Christmas but never had any on clearance. They still have a few Shelob Attacks, but they aren't marked down.

icey117

They have gone 20-30% down in price here in DK - but there can be several reasons for this:
1) Lego produced too many, or distributed wrong...
2) A special discount at one place could pull the rug away under the market. That happened in Denmark when BILKA sold all any LEGO set with 40% discount. "All" their shops and web was sold out and had to reorder a few times.

Redbullgivesuwind

@Legoboy et al. Well its a very comfy rock :-). I didnt realise the pictures have been released. I assumed it was still a rumour. Thanks for the correction.

CapnRex101

I would have to agree with @richo, in the UK the sets just don't seem to be moving. At Tesco near me they have a plethora of shipping boxes of the LOTR sets sitting on the top shelves. Gandalf Arrives in particular is heaped on the shelves with no sign of them being sold.

Redbullgivesuwind

^Which does surprise me. I think Gandalf Arrives is a really nice little set.

monkeyhanger

I know that when these were brand new out there was very little interest in the LOTR minifigs when I ebayed a few from parted out sets.

y2josh

^I agree about the general lack of interest in the sets, but when they first came out, I was able to sell off the minifigs in Weathertop, Moria and Shelob which resulted in the bricks essentially being free. Demand has, of course, fallen off sharply since June, but they were selling for quite a bit early on. At least in the US.

dougts

Yeah the us got them all well before Europe so I made out like gangbusters selling the figures overseas. That was a long time ago though