9470 - Shelob Attacks

Okay, I'm finally finishing my look at the upcoming Lord of the Rings sets. Our last selection is 9470 - Shelob Attacks. Oh, sometime along the way we finally got high resolution pictures of all of the upcoming sets. I think they first appeared in this Eurobricks post, but they've been other places as well, like Lord of the Brick.

This set brings us to the very end of the Two Towers, with the betrayal of Frodo by Gollum and Sam's big hero moment.


The Ring is also included in the Weathertop set, since it's an important component of the action there (and, come to think of it, the only other set including Frodo depicts a time before Bilbo gave him the Ring). Here's a good close-up from Toy Fair so you can see just how cool it looks.


Also note that Frodo has a double-sided head, with one side depicting him paralyzed by Shelob.


I've seen a lot of debate on the Gollum fig. Personally I wish they'd made him as a normal fig so you could use him in different scenes (sneaking through Moria, climbing a tree in Lorien, swimming the Anduin, etc). I suppose this solution is okay.


Shelob is definitely the creepiest spider we've ever seen from LEGO. She makes the Aragog set look like, um, a child's toy.


Here's a nice feature. It looks like her web can be wound up. Also, the construction is strong enough that she can hang from her web.


Don't you think we're going to have almost this exact same set again for the Cracks of Doom? I mean, take away Shelob and add a bunch of flame pieces, and you've got the climax of the book here (again, though, a poseable Gollum would be needed for that scene).

Ent the earthborn, old as mountains

Brucey-wan presents Treebeard.

Uruk-hai Army MOCs

I hadn't done any MOC versions of set 9471, Uruk-hai Army, because that set really combines with the larger Helm's Deep set. When looking for MOC versions of the Battle of Helm's Deep I happened across Saber Scorpion's Uruk-Hai Siege Ballista, which is pretty much a MOC version of that set.

Battle of Helm's Deep MOCs

Okay, back to my examination of the upcoming sets, and MOCs on the same themes. Helm's Deep is probably the most MOC'd thing in all of Tolkien (aside from someone simply pulling out their Majisto and saying "Gandalf!"). There's no way I could hope to put them all in this post, but here are a bunch of them. Technically these are all of the Hornburg and the Deeping Wall, not so much of the canyon behind them.

MasterSamwise:



JonFett:



Heiland:



YU:



Thomas Grosskurth:



The Deathly Halliwell:



Jon Furman:



Micro versions by YU,



JonFett,



Appius95,



and Joshua Nichols:



Patriotic (US) versions in red (by RockSokka),



white (by Maartinio Wrigglypuffdoodle),



and blue (by Richard).



NIK444 focuses on the wall prior to it's being breached.



Popcorn focuses on the breach in the wall.



As does Jackson Williams:



TMM focuses on the Hornburg.



Last of all, here is mine. If you follow the link, it's the whole story illustrated.

9 block buddy walkers to oppose the 9 riders

The German ad agency Jung von Matt recently released a minimalist ad campaign that has set off a new block buddies building meme. Here we see the fellowship of the Ring.

Missing person - HeatherLEGOGirl

If you're a regular reader of the variety of major LEGO blogs out there, you've already seen this, but I'm passing it along on the theory that at least some of my readers come from outside the hobbyist community. Heather Braaten, who you may know on various online forums as HeatherLEGOGirl, has been missing for the past week. She was last seen in Seattle, Washington. If you see Heather, or know anything of her whereabouts, please contact Lino Martins at linotopia AT hotmail DOT com , as he is in close touch with Heather's family, or directly contact the Seattle police department. Or use any of the contact information on the flyer below.

Amon Rudh

Is this my first Silmarillion scene? TheBricks made a hypothetical set of Amon Rudh, showing Turin and his companions being betrayed by Mim.

The Grey Havens

Infomaniac built this amazing rendition of the Grey Havens as a 'forced perspective' entry in the 2012 MOCathalon.

MOCathalon

The 2012 MOCathalon has a category devoted to the Lord of the Rings, which has inspired MOCs including Jade Wisniewski's Bag End and Rory Simpson's Balin's Tomb.

9474, The Battle of Helm's Deep

By far the best set in the upcoming Tolkien line is 9474, The Battle of Helm's Deep. This will run you US$130, but for 1368 pieces and 8 figs, that's not too bad. Plus, and most excitingly IMO for builders, this is not dependent on large single-use pieces, but instead is a big box of bricks and plates.



I know some castle builders are unhappy that the upcoming Tolkien line seems to be putting a more traditional non-licensed Castle theme on hold for a while (as the Star Wars theme displaced the non-licensed Space theme for a time, or, for that matter, as the Harry Potter theme displaced Castle for a couple of years), but I think this set shows that licensed themes are nothing to fear (okay, I know some will not get over the use of fleshy-figs). Even if you're not a Tolkien fan, this rocks as a basic castle. For instance, look at the detail in the wall construction.



There is a little bit of interior detail, so this isn't all facade.



Here we see some nice detail, like how the hoarding has shutters and machicolations. The merlons should maybe be a brick taller, but that's easily modified.



Here we see the sally port that Aragorn and Gimli used, and a little catapult that you can use to (sigh) toss a dwarf. Why, Peter Jackson?



This is supposed to be Haldir. I'll pretend that it's Legolas and he just got a new outfit at Meduseld.



Theoden looks pretty darn awesome.



As does Gimli.



Here we see some Uruk detail (meh, IMO).



You know, I would have expected there to be an 'action feature' with the wall blowing up, but it wasn't mentioned in the Toy Fair video. If those are tiles atop the arch, maybe the wall comes apart into three pieces here. Or maybe that's just an artifact of how it is constructed (if so, I'd probably modify this bit, as that vertical crack is noticable).



With four figs on each side of the battle, a rearing horse, and some detail like this siege ladder, this set has a ton of play value.



All in all, this is an amazing set, both for the Tolkien fan and also for the general Castle builder. If you were only planning on getting a couple of sets from this line, I'd go with this one, and also Gandalf's cart (since it's cheap and you get two key figs).

9471 Uruk-hai army

Our next set for examination is 9471, Uruk-hai army. This set is a great army builder, at US$30 you get a section of wall, a ballista, one of the new horses, and six figs - Eomer, random Rohirrim soldier, and four Uruk-hai.



Here we see that the wall has detail on both sides. The pins allow you to connect multiple of these modules together to create a longer wall (and a larger army) or to connect it with the larger Helm's Deep set (review to follow). I really like the rough look of the wall, incorporating different colors and some of those new 'brick bricks'.



Stairs to reach the top of the wall is a nice realistic detail. And (sigh) I suppose kids will want to have Legolas surf down the stairs atop a shield (grumble grumble grumble).



I'm pretty sure the ballista fires when you push that red piece forward (this based on the box art - is it in one of those videos from Toy Fair?).



I'm not sure if this is Eomer or the other Rohirrim soldier. I really love the new helm with the hint of a horse head along the crest. The printing is also really nice.



Four Uruks. Three of those new helms, one with long black hair. It looks like they all have identical torsos and printed legs, not sure about faces. Two with plate armor, two old halberds, two of the new orc-swords, two of the new orc-shields. BTW for the Rohirrim we get one of those new spears from the Collectible line, bow (hmm, I can't tell if it's the old style or the one from the Collectible elf), and a great printed round shield.