LOTR / Hobbit Sets that Need to Happen

[akohns]

You make a valid point. However on the International scale I think LoTR as a franchise is more popular than SW.... because LoTR was written in the 40's, and was accepted by many countries as the greatest fantasy ever written. (Which it is) LoTR is still one of the most read books in the world. It's up there with The Bible, Atlas Shrugged, and Harry Potter, as far as sales of the book go. The Hobbit was greatly recieved in foreign countries as well, and with two movies coming in the next two years, I feel that Tolkein popularity will skyrocket. LoTR as a theme has just reached wave 2, and Lego has barely scratched the surface of all the characters, designs, and locations shown in the films. I believe that at least one more wave of sets is in order, not to mention the next two waves of Hobbit sets.

I agree. I think we will see lots more. Obviously they've been selling really well.

[IrishGuy66]

You make a valid point. However on the International scale I think LoTR as a franchise is more popular than SW.... because LoTR was written in the 40's, and was accepted by many countries as the greatest fantasy ever written. (Which it is) LoTR is still one of the most read books in the world. It's up there with The Bible, Atlas Shrugged, and Harry Potter, as far as sales of the book go. The Hobbit was greatly recieved in foreign countries as well, and with two movies coming in the next two years, I feel that Tolkein popularity will skyrocket. LoTR as a theme has just reached wave 2, and Lego has barely scratched the surface of all the characters, designs, and locations shown in the films. I believe that at least one more wave of sets is in order, not to mention the next two waves of Hobbit sets.

I agree. I think we will see lots more. Obviously they've been selling really well.

Lets all face it, Lego's gonna drag this theme out, whether we like it or not. Lego wouldn't just get the rights to use a franchise of that size for only two waves! "Where there's a whip there's a way!"

[Quacs]

You make a valid point. However on the International scale I think LoTR as a franchise is more popular than SW.... because LoTR was written in the 40's, and was accepted by many countries as the greatest fantasy ever written. (Which it is) LoTR is still one of the most read books in the world. It's up there with The Bible, Atlas Shrugged, and Harry Potter, as far as sales of the book go. The Hobbit was greatly recieved in foreign countries as well, and with two movies coming in the next two years, I feel that Tolkein popularity will skyrocket. LoTR as a theme has just reached wave 2, and Lego has barely scratched the surface of all the characters, designs, and locations shown in the films. I believe that at least one more wave of sets is in order, not to mention the next two waves of Hobbit sets.

I agree. I think we will see lots more. Obviously they've been selling really well.

Lets all face it, Lego's gonna drag this theme out, whether we like it or not. Lego wouldn't just get the rights to use a franchise of that stature, for only two waves!

I agree LOTR probably has more fans overseas than SW. That doesn't mean the market is ready or willing to buy a lot of LOTR themed sets. SW has been pumping out toys, collectibles, movies, etc. for 25 years - not so much for LOTR. It's almost like SW was made to sell movies and toys, whereas LOTR was written as a book and has been consumed accordingly for 70+ years. Will LOTR sell Lego sets? Sure. Has the LOTR franchise conditioned their fans to buy millions in collectible mugs, toys, DVDs, video games, and most importantly, Lego sets? Not to the extent of SW, regardless of whether these LOTR fans are in the US or overseas.

[IrishGuy66]

There have never been many LoTR toys or merchandise, with that you are correct. However Lego has started something that could lead to great sales and success. Do you think people back in the day were confident enough to spend all their money on toys and merchandise from a movie made by some no-name director?

[Blackjack]

I'm just doubting the numbers are the same. I think that both the adult and kid fans of this theme are less than Star Wars: I would guess somewhere above 50% (but not much more) of star wars levels. Star Wars also has a big advantage in that it has a greater number of unique characters and vehicles (big time) while still having at least as many locations to recreate. LOTR can still go on for a while because it has not even come close to exhausting the possibilities, but I think that the best case scenerio is that it lasts for several years and then goes away like Harry Potter: 10-plus years isn't going to happen -- I will take 3 or 4 years if they will give them to me.

I do agree with this.

[akohns]

I know there was a lull somewhere in there but the Harry Potter theme ran from 2001-2011. If they had more content they would definitely be making more HP sets.

[Alcarin]

While I've seen the movies, I'm not a total LotR geek, so bare with me on some of the names. As far as how many waves we will have, it depends on sales somewhat, but once the Hobbit movies are over, what is there to motivate for more LotR sets? We will probably see 2 more waves after this summer. For once, I'm with Alcarin, I don't think we'll see battle packs in the sense that we get them for Star Wars, or we would have seen them already with Rohan soldiers to go with Helm's Deep. Uruk-Hai Army is as close as we'll probably get. However, I don't agree with him that a Minas Tirith is impossible. Is it going to be to scale? Obviously not, and only a fool would expect one. They didn't make the Death Star to scale did they? It turned out just fine. I would like(or expect) to see:

Small sets:($10-25)

Arwen/Nazgul chase(good way to get more ringwraiths)

Treebeard(or more plain Ents, but there's already one in Orthanc)

Amon Hen(I believe this is where Boromir dies)

Maybe some small stuff to put around Orthanc to create Isengaard

Frodo and the Elf Queen that gives him that light thing

Medium sets($30-60)

Prancing Pony(same as chase scene, get more wraiths, and a pub)

Osgiliath(Gondor troops)

Balrog

Witch King/Eowyn(necessary figures)

Oliphant(either Pelennor fields or Faramir ambush in TT, but forget it ever being to scale)

Big Sets($80+)

Edoras

Minas Tirith

Rivendell

Sauron's eye tower(I never remember the name of that thing, but it would be cool to have both that and Orthanc)

That's what I can think of off top of my head. I really doubt Minas Morgul because of it's lack of screen time, but we got the Corsair ship and it's in the movies for about 5 seconds if you don't have the extended version, which I don't. Same with the Elf ship to go to the undying lands. Lego will want to make it because it's a ship, but nobody outside of diehards will know what the heck it is.

Well lets be honest, a full Minas Tirith even in small size and adjusted is still gonna eat an AMAZING amount of bricks or a really weird molded SLOPE baseplate design to build upon, which will make box XXXXXXL compared to other boxes...

And it just has to be larger than Orthanc .... if Orthanc ends larger than Minas Tirith that would be 1 hell of disappointment....

While I am no expert on height of horn tower in Helm's Deep I am fairly certain Orthanc was higher (maybe I am wrong)

I can see us getting The courtyard with white tower and Hall of Kings (where Denethor resides) as I can see them doing Grond + gates + wall extension (similar to Uruk-hai army)

there is just no reasonable price tag and box art available for Minas Tirith to be put inside.... Remember city is built/made on/out a MOUNTAIN,

I know I would be disappointed on anything below 10.000 bricks count and 3 lvls of wall a couple of catapults and a cool looking White Tower...

[akohns]

Looking at the new Rivendell set I would say getting a courtyard and white tower rather than the whole city is much more likely,

[IrishGuy66]

Looking at the new Rivendell set I would say getting a courtyard and white tower rather than the whole city is much more likely,

Sadly, I must agree with you.

[Huskers1236]

[quote author="Alcarin" date="1369252394"

Well lets be honest, a full Minas Tirith even in small size and adjusted is still gonna eat an AMAZING amount of bricks or a really weird molded SLOPE baseplate design to build upon, which will make box XXXXXXL compared to other boxes...

And it just has to be larger than Orthanc .... if Orthanc ends larger than Minas Tirith that would be 1 hell of disappointment....

While I am no expert on height of horn tower in Helm's Deep I am fairly certain Orthanc was higher (maybe I am wrong)

I can see us getting The courtyard with white tower and Hall of Kings (where Denethor resides) as I can see them doing Grond + gates + wall extension (similar to Uruk-hai army)

there is just no reasonable price tag and box art available for Minas Tirith to be put inside.... Remember city is built/made on/out a MOUNTAIN,

I know I would be disappointed on anything below 10.000 bricks count and 3 lvls of wall a couple of catapults and a cool looking White Tower... quote]

I would also be disappointed with a Minas Tirith that was under 5,000 - 6,000 pieces, but we know that we'll never get one that size unless Lego sees it as a moneymaker like the Death Star. If LotR does well over the next couple years, you never know. What I don't want is just the upper area where the tree is, or just some lame wall section, that would be terrible. I would be more ok with a scaled down full city kind of like Helm's Deep. It's built up against a mountain as well, but you don't see it in the set.

[Quacs]

There have never been many LoTR toys or merchandise, with that you are correct. However Lego has started something that could lead to great sales and success. Do you think people back in the day were confident enough to spend all their money on toys and merchandise from a movie made by some no-name director?

I'm not sure I follow...people don't look at toy and buy it because it's based on a movie from a well known director. If that were the case, kids today would still be buying E.T. dolls instead of Star Wars toys.

After a 12+ year run, Lego Star Wars is one of the top three selling themes among all Lego themes and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. The other two best selling themes are Ninjago, a new kid-centric theme that's only one year older than LOTR/Hobbit, and City. I agree with those who say Lego SW (and Ninjago for that matter) sell better because they're marketed to children. An evergreen theme must be targeted to children since they buy the vast majority of toys, whether collecitble or not.

The HP franchise was also geared toward children, and much more than LOTR. That's why the HP theme sold well for 10+ years. Had their been more movies, we would still be seeing HP Lego.

Again, I'm not saying LOTR will not succeed, but for any theme to last longer than 5 years, 6-12 yo children need to be a key part of the target demographic. I don't see that with LOTR.

[Blackjack]

With all of the buzz about MT, I would like to through a new idea out there: An Architecture like set, built not to scale, but to accuracy. It could have either an exclusive Denathor or Gondorian Soldier.

[Grolim]

Great thread. I've enjoyed reading all the ideas and I have pretty much agreed with all of the possible sets put forward. Nothing much to add that hasn't been already tabled. I'm always of the opinion that sets need to be bigger. If I had my way everything would be UCS sized :-) But I realise that TLG needs to release waves of sets that have options at different price points. This means we will always have smaller sets come out that we feel should or could have been better. I just hope that the theme lasts a long time and that we get as many of the really important buildings or structures in sizes that do them justice. Not to mention a good variety of all the minifigures (which I think have been the real highlight of the themes so far). If it lives long enough we may even see some remakes like with the Star Wars theme, giving an opportunity to make bigger better versions of older smaller releases.

[IrishGuy66]

With all of the buzz about MT, I would like to through a new idea out there: An Architecture like set, built not to scale, but to accuracy. It could have either an exclusive Denathor or Gondorian Soldier.

Is this what you mean? It's a Cuusoo project.

[Blackjack]

Is this what you mean? It's a Cuusoo project.

Maybe a little smaller, but yes.

[IrishGuy66]

This is a Cuusoo project also. I think it would make for a reasonable set at $70.

[whiteboy02]

They need to make the Prancing Pony.