Now, before I try to write this up, I’m going to qualify this post by saying I’ve only seen the first hour of the first LOTR film! I got bored, so stopped watching the rest. Yes yes … I am a heathen … get over it. With that in mind, forgive me if I miss any important bits out.
However, despite this lack of knowledge, I was bowled over by these sets. Fans of this licence are going to LOVE these sets. It’s another line where the minifigs are the star, but even so, I found some of the supporting buildings to be very cool too, the Helm’s Deep castle being a particular stand out. They’re well constructed and detailed.
You’ll need to buy all 7 sets if you want to get the complete Fellowship and the prices start at 11.99 to 99.99.
9469 Gandalf Arrives … a scene I recognised!! ;-) You get Frodo and Gandalf with cart and fireworks. A pretty cool opener of a set and a way to get the two most obvious (at least to a noob like me) from this range, all for a measly £11.99.
9470 Shelob Attacks … Gollum! Now, even with watching only a hour of the first film, I know what Gollum looks like … the fig is a custom mould, with Gollum in crouched position with articulated arms, smilar in connection to the main body as skeleton / battle droid arms. Printed face and “clothes” (i.e. bit of cloth round his nether regions!!). The big spider (Shelob) is also pretty cool, with a winch being used for her spider silk, meaning she can be hung up if you want. You also get Frodo, with ring (which is a gold chromed ring, sized perfectly to fit on a minifig hand) and Samwise Gamgee. Priced at £19.99
9471 Uruk-Hai Army … Comes with Eomer, Rohan soldier and 4 Urak-Hai and a small section of wall, siege machine and one of the new horses, which features articulated back legs (which is an excellent new feature for the horses). It’s designed to be joined to the Helm’s Deep castle, via technic pins. The minifig printing was beautifully detailed, especially on Eomer. Priced at £29.99
9472 Attack on Weathertop … Most of my time looking at this was marvelling over the new horses and moving them from stood normally to being on their hind legs only. Even in that position, they were very sturdy. This is a great inovation. You get Frodo, Merry, Aragorn and two Ringwaiths on horseback. There’s a small section of Weathertop, which includes a spiral staircase and ruins at the top. Priced at 49.99.
9473 The Mines of Moria … Comes with a great selection of minifigs, such as Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, a cave troll and two Moria orcs. The troll is pretty awesome and detailed … great printing on the rest of the figs. Priced at £69.99.
9474 The Battle of Helm’s Deep … The castle here was really cool … pretty large and well constructed with curved walls. There were new modified 2 x 2 bricks to simulate bricks, mixed in with the walls, which was pretty cool to see. I can see people wanting these bricks on their own for added detail in building MOCs. The castle comes with the “side door” feature, which I was reliable told is important to the story?! ;-) It comes with 8 minifigs – Gimli, King Theoden, Haldir, Aragorn and 4 Urak-Hai warriors. Priced at £99.99
9476 The Orc Forge … reminded me a little of the Dwarf Mine set from a few years back … comes with 5 orcs and a various forge related stuff and has a light brick, which was a nice feature. Priced at £39.99.
All sets are due to be released in August. There was mention of Hobbit sets coming later in the year, perhaps January although that might be a little late with the films release in December … who knows, they might land early.
Anyone want to lend me the films? ;-)
I'm back! It was excellent!
Although photography was not allowed on the stand, there was nothing stopping photos being taken of the stand: the sides and, for that matter, from the balcony above. This picture was decorating the side of the stand and as you can see it shows the whole Fellowship of the Ring.
So, what was on display inside the stand? Everything. Or at least everything that LEGO will let normal retailers sell. Of particular interest to us was the Marvel Super Heroes; LOTR; Summer Star Wars, Technic, and Ningago; Monster Fighters and Friends.
In this article I'll tell you about LOTR and will discuss other themes in later articles.
First, to answer a quesion I can see has been asked in the comments of the article below, the ring IS a real gold-chromed ring with a hole big enough for Frodo to grip it in his hand. All seven sets were on display and I'll tell you what I remember of them. Actually, before I do that THERE IS A NEW HORSE! Yes, the minifig horse has been redesigned and its hind legs now swivel so it can be made to rear! I'm not sure if all the horses in all the LOTR sets were like this but the ones in Attack on Weathertop certainly were.
9469, Gandalf Arrives: 2 minifigs: Gandalf and Frodo, Gandalf on horse and cart with fireworks and snake in the back. I think the price was £9.99.
9470, Shelob Attacks: 3 minifigs: Frodo, Samwise and Gollom! Gollum looked great, hunched over with movable arms, a bit like skeleton arms but different. Shelob the spider looks fantastic and scary!
9471, Uruk-Hai Army: 6 minifigs: Eomer, Rohan soldier and 4 Urak-Hai. The set consists of a small section of wall, a horse with moving legs and a small siege machine. The wall can be joined to the Helms Deep castle, apparently, so this will make a great battle pack to extend the castle and build your armies.
9472, Attack on Weathertop: 5 minifigs: Frodo, Merry, Aragorn and two Ringwaiths on horseback. The set builds a small section of Weathertop with spiral staircase and ruins at the top.
9473, The Mines of Moria: 7 minifigs: Pippin, Gimli, Legolas, Boromir, a cave troll and two Moria orcs. The set builds a selection of sub-assemblies for mine walls, doors, pedestals etc.
9474, The Battle of Helm's Deep: 8 minifigs: Gimli, King Theoden, Haldir, Aragorn and 4 Urak-Hai warriors. The castle itself is fairly substantial, complete with the 'side door' used to gain entry
9476, The Orc Forge: 5 orcs with a forge, various metalworking tools and weapons.
Overall I was VERY impressed with these sets. Legolas' ears were attached to his head like the elf in the collectable minifigs but looked to be slightly bigger and better quality. The sets were well designed and highly desirable. As was pointed out to me by the stand guide dressed as Gandalf, you need to buy every set to get the whole Fellowship but I suspect many of us can't wait for the day when we can! They are to be released in August.
