Classic-Castle.com

Check them out here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/125956731 ... 238863012/

I found them through brickset.

Steve

Not supper excited about this wave seems like they didn't put as much work into it as the last two. However the figs in the sets a pretty good pickings and that may lean me to get some. I am still disappointing with the Battle of Five Armies it seems like they could of done much better.

Purple Wolf

Hey all,

First up, just to confirm, once sets have been put on the shelves in an actual store these are no longer leaks (even if the store was not supposed to put the sets out until October).

Second up - looking cool, IMO.

79015 Witch-king battle

Good cheap way to get some key characters. I'm happy they didn't put Galadriel in the most expensive set.

79016 Attack on Lake-town

A good add-on to the Lake-town set, IMO. I would have it put it on top of a blue baseplate, but that's an easy fix.

79017 The Battle of the missing superfluous The

IMO this is the 'meh' of the bunch. Sure, lots of key characters, but the structure and siege weapon are (IMO) uninspiring.

Of course we've seen 79018 The Lonely Mountain before in Comic-Con coverage.


Bruce

The Witch-king battle looks great, I actually like the Dale set as it has some pieces I'd find quite useful, and I love the Lonely Mountain. Twice now I've been disappointed by Lake Town's lack of detail.

It'll probably be witch king and lake town for me. What I find funny is that even though the Bain minifig has short legs, I read that the actor for him is actually taller than the actor for Bard, who's minifig uses normal legs!

I think I have to join my voice to those saying the sets look uninspired.

Maybe I'm too focused on what I'm not getting in these sets: cool scenes that involve good numbers of generic good guy figs. I mean, the movie is called The Battle of Five Armies, and if I recall from the book correctly, at least three of those armies were good guys (elf, dwarf, human). Well, we have the set, but where are the soldiers? We've got plenty of Bebops and Rocksteadies, I want some Footclan. I suppose we could piece these armies together with the Lake Town guards and the Elves from the Mirkwood Forest sets, but I think that still leaves generic dwarf warriors (I'd especially like to see the armored dwarves from the opening scenes of An Unexpected Journey, though that might not be the same look as those involved in the later battle). And there's still the fact that we don't get a good number of these types of figs in one set.

I guess I just want my army builder

To be fair, what I'm probably more upset about is that we haven't gotten a Lord of the Rings wave in what, 2 years? There was so much unused material left for sets--all of Gondor for one--and I really wanted some generic free peoples of Middle Earth figs other than Rohirrim. I'm worried we'll never get them. Honestly, it feels like the LOTR license is dying out much the same way that Harry Potter did--quietly, with a few sets a year until the license runs out.

Not that these sets are all bad--Galadriel is a most welcome addition, as is dwarf dude with weird mohawk helm. I'm not that inspired by the designs, except maybe the Lonely Mountain, but even in that set I feel like there's something missing that I just can't put my finger on.

You know, after seeing pictures of the Battle of the Five Armies Set, I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. Still disappointing with all the main characters and no soldiers, but it is actually a fairly nice set. I doubt I'll be able to get it, but I wouldn't mind if I did.

Well, guys, think of it this way- pretty much every one on this site is a MOCer, so we should see that these sets have some great parts. If you don't like the set, don't keep it together, scrap it for parts, which is what most of us, including me, do anyway.

Brickninja wrote:so we should see that these sets have some great parts. If you don't like the set, don't keep it together, scrap it for parts, which is what most of us, including me, do anyway.

I am looking at the parts and they don't seem to be doing much for me. Though that will change when I see them in person.

Steve

I like that Galadriel's alternate face printing is her Ring-temptation face from "Fellowship" - it's a nice touch.

The witch king battle and lake town sets look pretty good. The lake town one looks like it could be modular with the other one so you can connect them together to make a larger lake-town. Both lake-town sets seemed to be priced a little on the high side for what you got, but I think you can usually find decent deals on Amazon around Christmas, so I'm not super worried about that. The other two sets don't do much for me, especially at that price point. I will probably still get them, because I have all the other Hobbit/LotR sets, but again, I'll wait to find a decent deal on them.

Anybody know how well Hobbit/LotR did as a theme for LEGO? I kind of get the feeling that they've already paid for the license and are just making a few more "obligatory" (not sure if that's the right word) sets to finish out the theme. I have to imagine they've made some kind of profit off of the license, otherwise they would have killed it completely. But, as many others have mentioned, there is a lot of LotR material left on the table that could be explored. I wonder if A) their license for Hobbit and LotR are separate, and LotR ran out, or B) LotR didn't pan out like they expected and is why we haven't seen any new sets in a while. Either way, I expect these will probably be the last sets we see of Middle Earth.

Hey,

LEGO Toy Story has purchased the three new sets and posted some good pics, particularly of the figs, and also set reviews on YouTube. In the video reviews they show how all of the play features work (firing ballista, exploding walls, etc).

Witch King set - video review


Lake-Town set - video review


Battle of the Five Armies set - video review

Since I've pretty much always been a big fan of the minifigs & seemingly 'lesser' parts, I don't really mind whether or not the sets look amazing. Overall I think they even each other out fairly well. I like the new black hair piece on the orcs, I think it gives the wearer more room if they have a quiver on, so that's really good. The other torso/leg combos look useful for someone, especially one with a good eye & creative mind.

A shame that the Witch King Battle isn't available in Germany. Its a fun looking lower-price set. Especially minifig-wise

Well, I hope its just "yet" not available!

Those figures look awesome. Very tempted by that Witch King Battle set. That Elrond is easily one of the years best figures.