Thursday, June 28, 2012
Caras Galadhon
Elander, who was featured a couple of days ago, has other great Tolkien MOCs, like this Caras Galadhon.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Moria
Elander made this great West Gate of Moria. Note the use of the pieces from the Moria set. Via Lord of the Brick.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
What might have been - the MOCs (Two Towers version)
I previously blogged Nuju Metru's (aka John Lennon's) series of Fellowship of the Rings sets. Now he's completed his series of Two Towers sets (these can be seen on Flickr and Brickshelf). BTW, he notes that he started this project back before LEGO even announced the license.
First up we see the Dead Marshes. With Frodo, Sam, Gollum, the Ring and some modular marsh bits, he imagines this at a $12 price point.
A cute feature of this set is the pop-up corpse from the Last Alliance.
Next up is Treebeard Encounter with Merry, Pippin and a brick-built Ent, all for $20. I have to agree that this is the huge missed opportunity in the actual sets that have been released so far. I still hope that we'll see a Treebeard in a future wave of sets, but it may be that they're done with sets from the Two Towers.
Note that hinges and ball joints give Treebeard great poseability.
Edoras as the 'big' set at $70. This includes the still-missing figs of Eowyn, Wormtounge and Gandalf the White.
With removable roof and modular construction, this Meduseld has great playability.
Warg Skirmish at $12. While I'm unhappy with Peter Jackson for creating this scene, Nuju Metru's LEGO rendition is superb. The Wargs are at a good scale and seem like something that could really appear in a set. Perhaps Legolas should be in this set, since he is nowhere else in this wave of sets from Nuju Metru.
Ruin of Osgiliath at $50. Another great rendition of a Peter Jackson fabrication. I really like the version of Faramir here, and that fell beast is amazing.
I assume there will be a fell beast in the Return of the King wave - surely in a set with Eowyn confronting the Witch King. I hope LEGO's version is brick-built (rather than being a single-use mold) and is as cool as this one.
Looking at this series as a whole, I do think there are a couple of obvious holes here if this were to be the actual run of Two Towers sets, in that Nuju Metru does not include either Helm's Deep, which was the focus of the official line, or Shelob (though a quick double check on Wikipedia reminds me that the movie version actually ended just before Shelob, which makes this version true to the movies). On the other hand, Nuju Metru includes Treebeard and Edoras, which don't seem to be part of LEGO's plans (again, I'm assuming that a fell beast will be in an upcoming wave of sets). I think a combination of Nuju Metru's sets and the official sets would be the ideal release. Again, LEGO, hire this guy as a set designer.
Here's looking forward to a Return of the King series from Nuju Metru!
First up we see the Dead Marshes. With Frodo, Sam, Gollum, the Ring and some modular marsh bits, he imagines this at a $12 price point.
A cute feature of this set is the pop-up corpse from the Last Alliance.
Next up is Treebeard Encounter with Merry, Pippin and a brick-built Ent, all for $20. I have to agree that this is the huge missed opportunity in the actual sets that have been released so far. I still hope that we'll see a Treebeard in a future wave of sets, but it may be that they're done with sets from the Two Towers.
Note that hinges and ball joints give Treebeard great poseability.
Edoras as the 'big' set at $70. This includes the still-missing figs of Eowyn, Wormtounge and Gandalf the White.
With removable roof and modular construction, this Meduseld has great playability.
Warg Skirmish at $12. While I'm unhappy with Peter Jackson for creating this scene, Nuju Metru's LEGO rendition is superb. The Wargs are at a good scale and seem like something that could really appear in a set. Perhaps Legolas should be in this set, since he is nowhere else in this wave of sets from Nuju Metru.
Ruin of Osgiliath at $50. Another great rendition of a Peter Jackson fabrication. I really like the version of Faramir here, and that fell beast is amazing.
I assume there will be a fell beast in the Return of the King wave - surely in a set with Eowyn confronting the Witch King. I hope LEGO's version is brick-built (rather than being a single-use mold) and is as cool as this one.
Looking at this series as a whole, I do think there are a couple of obvious holes here if this were to be the actual run of Two Towers sets, in that Nuju Metru does not include either Helm's Deep, which was the focus of the official line, or Shelob (though a quick double check on Wikipedia reminds me that the movie version actually ended just before Shelob, which makes this version true to the movies). On the other hand, Nuju Metru includes Treebeard and Edoras, which don't seem to be part of LEGO's plans (again, I'm assuming that a fell beast will be in an upcoming wave of sets). I think a combination of Nuju Metru's sets and the official sets would be the ideal release. Again, LEGO, hire this guy as a set designer.
Here's looking forward to a Return of the King series from Nuju Metru!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Friday, June 8, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Battle in the Gap of Rohan
TMM illustrates a scene that takes place 'off-screen' in the book, the battle in the Gap of Rohan. Theoden's son Theodred was killed in combat at the Fords of Isen.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
More video game
Okay, on the heels of that prior article, the trailer video is now on YouTube:
Here's a still of the glimpse of the Balrog (sorry, you really can't see much):
They've also released this teaser image. That article also has the official press release.
Here's a still of the glimpse of the Balrog (sorry, you really can't see much):
They've also released this teaser image. That article also has the official press release.
Video game
Some details are coming out about the upcoming LEGO: Lord of the Rings video game. A recent screening for members of the press showed scenes from Moria. As with the other LEGO games, you can play different characters, each with special abilities. One interesting note is that they will use dialogue taken from the movies - they specifically noted Ian McKellen's voice declaring 'You shall not pass!' to the Balrog. I'm interested to see how they depict the Balrog, as I still think they should create a set around that passage.
New polybag sets
Via Brickset, LEGO is going to release two polybag sets: 30210, Frodo with Cooking Corner and 30211, Uruk Hai with Ballista. No word on when these will be released. The Frodo one seems a bit of a throw-away to me, since Frodo is already in the cheapest set, but I do appreciate that they put a Hobbit in his most natural setting. The Uruk Hai one, on the other hand, will be quite popular with army builders.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Massive Helm's Deep
Via Lord of the Brick and Eurobricks, you simply have to check out this amazing Helm's Deep by a South Korean builder, I think named Tommy. Be sure to follow the link to his page for lots of close-ups, action shots, WIP shots, features, etc.
See this picture for scale:
See this picture for scale:
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Why I didn't want an official line
I've hinted at this before, but I wanted to put down a few thoughts on a heretical topic: why I never wanted an official Tolkien line. For many years in various forums, people would always call for LEGO to release an official Tolkien theme. I always argued against it. Some reasons:
Fleshies - Okay, this is probably minor, but I'm not a fan of the flesh-toned figs. I realize that this is a losing battle, but some years ago LEGO decided that all figs from licensed themes would be flesh-toned. I'm old school and prefer yellow figs.
Price point - Licensed themes are always more expensive.
Castle - As we've seen, the introduction of the Lord of the Rings theme seems to have killed for a time the unlicensed Castle line, in much the same way that for many years there was no Space line because of the Star Wars license.
Those are less important, though. The two most important reason are ...
Licenses kill creativity - As soon as LEGO comes up with an official version of a figure or location, everyone seems to fall into line. Back in the day, LEGO was about 'Just imagine ...' Now it is more and more about 'Here, recreate this 30 second scene from a movie.' When there's no official line, kids are encouraged to come up with their own ideas. Back in 2000 I started making my own Lord of the Rings story. After the first movie came out in 2001, you know what the most common comment I got was? 'You messed up, Legolas has long hair.' or 'Aragorn doesn't wear a hat.' The visuals of the movie made it impossible for some people to come up with their own ideas from the book descriptions (heck, I should admit that my own visual images of the characters are very dependent on the 1978 Bakshi animated movie). At least, though, since there were no 'official' fig versions of these characters, people still used their imaginations to come up with their own based on the existing LEGO elements. Just look on Brickshelf and you can find many different versions of these. Now that will all be swept aside.
No need This is closely related. IMO, a licensed theme should give us something that non-licensed themes do not. The Star Wars line, for instance, has introduced many new elements that did not exist before. It was certainly possible to make Star Wars MOCs before this line (for instance, see the masterful work by S. Fujita), but much harder. Super heroes are tough to do if you're not a master customizer, since they are so focused on specific looks for the figures. Tolkien, on the other hand, does not depend on specific new elements. Yes, they have come up with some very nice new figures, but as long as you're not convinced that Legolas has to be equal to Orlando Bloom, you could have already come up with your own Legolas or whoever very easily. Also, we've got some new elements like the orc weaponry, but there were already many different weapon elements, and these did not necessitate a new license. The new horse is awesome, but again not requiring a licensed theme (it's not like the new articulate bear is tied to a license). Otherwise, these sets are all about basic bricks. So why not just continue the fantasy era of Castle sets? That already had castles and orcs and wizards and dwarves, and they could have included the elf that was in the Collectible figs.
Just look through all of the MOCs that I've posted on this blog. Not a single one of them has been based on the licensed sets, which are only just now starting to appear. I think those are proof enough that we had no need of a Tolkien license. Yes, LEGO has done a good job with the license for the most part, and I will continue to cover it and MOCs based on it, but I hope that it doesn't affect the ability of AFOLs to continue to create great work independent of the official line.
BTW, I still have to write something about why I'm not a huge fan of Peter Jackson, but I've got to sit down and watch those movies again first.
Fleshies - Okay, this is probably minor, but I'm not a fan of the flesh-toned figs. I realize that this is a losing battle, but some years ago LEGO decided that all figs from licensed themes would be flesh-toned. I'm old school and prefer yellow figs.
Price point - Licensed themes are always more expensive.
Castle - As we've seen, the introduction of the Lord of the Rings theme seems to have killed for a time the unlicensed Castle line, in much the same way that for many years there was no Space line because of the Star Wars license.
Those are less important, though. The two most important reason are ...
Licenses kill creativity - As soon as LEGO comes up with an official version of a figure or location, everyone seems to fall into line. Back in the day, LEGO was about 'Just imagine ...' Now it is more and more about 'Here, recreate this 30 second scene from a movie.' When there's no official line, kids are encouraged to come up with their own ideas. Back in 2000 I started making my own Lord of the Rings story. After the first movie came out in 2001, you know what the most common comment I got was? 'You messed up, Legolas has long hair.' or 'Aragorn doesn't wear a hat.' The visuals of the movie made it impossible for some people to come up with their own ideas from the book descriptions (heck, I should admit that my own visual images of the characters are very dependent on the 1978 Bakshi animated movie). At least, though, since there were no 'official' fig versions of these characters, people still used their imaginations to come up with their own based on the existing LEGO elements. Just look on Brickshelf and you can find many different versions of these. Now that will all be swept aside.
No need This is closely related. IMO, a licensed theme should give us something that non-licensed themes do not. The Star Wars line, for instance, has introduced many new elements that did not exist before. It was certainly possible to make Star Wars MOCs before this line (for instance, see the masterful work by S. Fujita), but much harder. Super heroes are tough to do if you're not a master customizer, since they are so focused on specific looks for the figures. Tolkien, on the other hand, does not depend on specific new elements. Yes, they have come up with some very nice new figures, but as long as you're not convinced that Legolas has to be equal to Orlando Bloom, you could have already come up with your own Legolas or whoever very easily. Also, we've got some new elements like the orc weaponry, but there were already many different weapon elements, and these did not necessitate a new license. The new horse is awesome, but again not requiring a licensed theme (it's not like the new articulate bear is tied to a license). Otherwise, these sets are all about basic bricks. So why not just continue the fantasy era of Castle sets? That already had castles and orcs and wizards and dwarves, and they could have included the elf that was in the Collectible figs.
Just look through all of the MOCs that I've posted on this blog. Not a single one of them has been based on the licensed sets, which are only just now starting to appear. I think those are proof enough that we had no need of a Tolkien license. Yes, LEGO has done a good job with the license for the most part, and I will continue to cover it and MOCs based on it, but I hope that it doesn't affect the ability of AFOLs to continue to create great work independent of the official line.
BTW, I still have to write something about why I'm not a huge fan of Peter Jackson, but I've got to sit down and watch those movies again first.
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