The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - A Non-Believer Converted

As many of you know, I have been a LEGO Star Wars believer, through and through. Though I have added on some new beliefs such as SpongeBob and Hero Factory, I never was convinced by the Lord of the Rings LEGO theme. Sure, I did realize that there would be some winners such as the Battle of Helm's Deep or Orc Forge, but this was partially because this was the common concensus with other investors. To further explain why, let's bring you back a couple of years.

My older brother and I had just walked out of a book store, he with a Foxtrot comic book, and myself with a Sherman's Lagoon comic book. Back then, we were huge comics fans. Not the Marvel and DC comics. Nope, we were fans of the comics you saw in the newspaper, in particular, the Chicago Tribune. While flipping through the Foxtrot comic book, we came across a series of comics about none other than Lord of the Rings:

Now as you might have read, these comics were quite ridiculous for a person who had never seen nor read the Lord of the Rings. Never the less, it had me curious, but this curiosity never too me over until years later... Exactly 3 days ago.

I had put off watching as well as reading the Lord of the Rings because just by reading the comics, it had scared me into becoming a nerd who ate onion rings to save Middle Earth. I was also slightly creeped out by this "Orlando Bloom" figure (weird at this point, after I have figured out who Orlando Bloom is), because Paige Fox was absolutely obsessed with every single boy at her school, and sometimes, here judgement was...clouded.

However, after turning to LEGO investing, my interest was rekindled after learning about words that meant nothing to me, like "Helm's Deep" or "Moria". 3 days ago, while looking for a movie to watch from RedBox, I came across the Hobbit. As you know, the Hobbit is not in one of the LoTR trilogy movies, but it was the beginning of a 2 hour epic journey, searching public library after public library, and finally assembling none other than all the of the LoTR movies. Finally, we accumulated all of the movies in the LoTR trilogy as well as the Hobbit and sat down and began.

I was thoroughly prepared to be bored beyond comparison by the Hobbit as well as all 3 of the LoTR movies, as they were all nearly 3 hours. Rather fortunately, I was incorrect, and enjoyed the Hobbit. Slowly, everything began to fall into place, starting with the 79003 An Unexpected Gathering and 79010 The Goblin King Battle.

By the end of the movie, I was positively exhilerated by the action that had gone on in the movie, as well as the mysteries that were not yet fully unravelled.

At this point, you must be wondering what the point of this article is. For starters, I am providing you with a different perspective of how your targeted consumer might think: how and why they might try to steer clear of LoTR.

It is my theory that the potential behind LEGO Lord of the Rings as well as the Hobbit are somewhat stunted because of the common misconception that they are "nerd's movies". Perhaps these people may eventually watch it for the stunning amount of Academy awards it has taken, many of the "cool kids" of pop culture disregard the movies because of their sterotype.

Please don't get me wrong, I do think that the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit LEGO themes will succeed much more than the current Star Wars sets, but the maximum potential in the theme has not yet been acheived, and is still growing. With every new movie on Tolkien's books that is made, hundreds or perhaps thousands are converted to the LEGO theme and movie, and further boost its investment potential, both in individual sets as well as as a theme as a whole. Now by converted, I do not mean into a cult or a new religion believing that there is a magical ring that can only be harnessed by Sauron, and only by him, and not even a legendary onion ring that can be consumed and destroyed for good. What I mean is that I am now convinced that the LEGO theme, books and movies have been, are, and will be successes.

Sure there will be some mediocre sets and maybe a loser or two, but it is nothing that we haven't seen and nothing that should take a seasoned investor by surprise.

Thanks for reading!