Release the River!

Julius No made this great Orthanc scene.

Harlond Shake

Harlem Shake enters Middle Earth, by Brotherhood Workshop.



And another by Kevin Du.

Emblems

The members of OneLUG just displayed their amazing Orthanc at an event in Los Angeles. They also brought along some new work, a series of emblems of Gondor, Rohan, and Saruman, by Brandon Griffith, Remi Gagné, and Bruce Lowell, respectively. I was particularly blown away by the detail on Remi's horse. Via FBTB.

Micro (hah!) Minas Tirith

Thomas Reyes had this massive Minas Tirith on display at the recent Brick Roundup gathering in Calgary.

Glamdring

I've previously noted Cole Edmonson's awesome full scale replica of Sting. Now he's gone even further and made Glamdring, complete with scabbard. He can even wield it.

Smeagol, the cover model

Klimography has started project | The Lord Of The Rings, with only two photos so far, but these are so cool I hope this project continues.

Fell Beasts

Over in the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics builders LukeClarenceVan and Toa Infernum were paired up and challenged to build Fell Beasts. Both turned in awesome MOCs, but there could be only one winner, and Luke advanced.

Elvish Valentine

Elvish Valentine by Brotherhood Workshop

2013 sets posted

I know that some of these have been available online previously, but I avoid linking to images leaked from dealer catalogs. Now, however, LEGO has publicly displayed (and allowed photography) at the New York Toy Fair. Toy News International has photos and there are also videos going up at Brick Show. FBTB has a correspondent there, so expect a full report from them in due course.

79005 – The Wizard Battle - Great way to get the two wizards for cheap. Love the Palantir with the Eye - obvious MOC is to put that Eye at the top of a microscale Barad Dur


79006 – The Council of Elrond - Yes, as a Tolkien fan I appreciate the inclusion of Elrond and Arwen. I'm a little annoyed that they chose to highlight one of the points in the movie where Gimli is treated as comic relief. Most exciting to me, though, is the inclusion of a new gothic arch piece. As a castle builder I really appreciate this more than anything else. Orange leaves, new printed tiles, and great torsos make this (IMO) generally useful set for castle builders.


79007 – Battle at the Black Gate - While I haven't linked them, of course I'd already seen the leaked pictures of the Black Gate, and knew it would look cool. I'm pleasantly surprised with how good the Eagle looks here. I think the previously leaked image included an unfinished prototype.


79008 – Pirate Ship Ambush - Again, I'd seen the leaked image, and this looks even better. I was most excited to see good pictures of the ghost warriors, and they look great. Those six shields on the ship will make for a nice army faction as well. My main complaint here is that they dumbed down the name of the set.

Witch king

There have been so many wonderful MOCs built for the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics that there's no way I can feature them all, but I'll try to put up some of my favorites. Martin Geistefeldt made a great version of the Witch King of Angmar riding on a warg.

Balin & Dwalin

Pate-keetongu made Balin & Dwalin.

Helm's Deep

StevePoulsen made this amazing Helm's Deep.

Storming the gates

DecoJim made this great version of the gates of Minas Tirith during the Battle of the Pelannor Fields. It's currently on display in Troy, Michigan.

Caradhras

Nice combination of LEGO, real life, and Photoshop in General Magma's Fellowship of the Ring.

Fell Beast

∆TMM∆ made this amazing Fell Beast.

Death of Boromir

LukeClarenceVan built the Death of Boromir, which was his round 1 entry in the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics.

Prancing Pony

Thorskegga's Prancing Pony is on display at a LEGO store in Watford, England. I actually think the lighting is better in this pic by Gary Davis.

Forth, Eorlingas!

Majkol87 built the ride of Theoden, the final sortie of the Battle of Helm's Deep. Via Lord of the Brick.

MELO

I have been remiss in not highlighting the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics. Round 1 is now in, and the top 32 builders are entering a single elimination tournament. The top builder in Round 1 was Büürli Burri with his rendition of Edoras.

Helm's Deep

George G made this amazing rendition of Helm's Deep.