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Save LEGO Lord of the Rings – a petition

by Thita (admin) on September 9, 2014

LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit sets have been a dream come true for many LEGO fans who are also enthusiasts of Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s films. However after giving LEGO fans some nice sets and minifigures for a couple of years, it looks like the LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit series is soon going to come to an end. However there is one last hope…

There is a petition to “Save LEGO the Lord of the Rings!” by the “LEGO the Lord of the Rings Rescue Team” posted on change.org. At this point they are basically just collecting signatures to be able to prove to LEGO that there is indeed enough interest to continue the theme. Below is the actual petition, and if you would like to add your signature and your comment on why you feel the theme should continue you can visit the petition here: Save LEGO Lord of the Rings! and you can also follow the petition on Facebook and share it with your friends.

LEGO the Lord of the Rings is a licensed theme of the popular toy company. It appealed to both LEGO and the Lord of the Rings fans over the past two years. Unfortunately it looks like there will be no more LEGO Lord of the Rings construction sets, while there is still so much left to explore. Please help us raise awareness to save LEGO Lord of the Rings.

The Golden Deal

Back in 2011 the LEGO Group (TLG) announced the multi-year agreement with Warner Bros. Consumer Products to turn the characters and locations of the Lord of the Rings into the plastic toy we all know and love. Finally this popular franchise would be made into LEGO construction sets. This was, according to LEGO.com: “…not only because we know they will foster collectability and creative play, but also because these are two properties that our fans have been asking us to create for years.”

These fans have been getting fantastic LEGO Lord of the Rings sets from the summer of 2012 until June 2013, depicting scenes from all three movies: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King. Aside from being popular among children, the introduction of this theme has also drawn many AFOL’s (Adult-Fan-of-LEGO) back to their favorite childhood toy, commonly referred to as “returning from their Dark Ages”.

An Incomplete Theme…

But now the future of LEGO Lord of the Rings looks rather dark itself. With no new sets for over a year and the LEGO The Hobbit theme ending in October 2014, closely followed by the last Hobbit movie (The Battle of the Five Armies) this December, chances for LEGO Lord of the Rings sets are close to non-existent.

To many of us the LEGO Lord of the Rings theme feels incomplete. This is due to the lack of several major characters, creatures, buildings and locations. Some of the most striking oversights are LEGO versions of the complete Gondor faction, the city of Minas Tirith, the Balrog of Moria, the Witch King with his iconic helmet and several important characters like Éowyn and Faramir. Even Sauron, the main villain of the story, doesn’t have his own depiction in LEGO form.

One Last Wave?

Many fans would love this theme to continue forever, but a lot of us feel that most of the gaps could be filled with just one last wave. Only one last batch of sets could deal with the most important characters, settings and stories that are now left out. In this manner TLG could complete this theme in a proper way to honor the Lord of the Rings franchise and satisfy fans of both LEGO and the Lord of the Rings.

If you love LEGO and if you like the Lord of the Rings, please take your time to sign this petition. It only takes a minute. Let the world now what LEGO Lord of the Rings meant for you and why you want it to continue. Which crucial sets are still missing? Let your voices be heard!

To be honest, I’m not sure if this campaign will work. There is no harm in adding our signatures, but most likely LEGO has already made up their mind about the future of the theme. Like any business, LEGO looks at facts and numbers to decide which theme to continue. They listen to what we say with our wallets not our words. My understanding is that the LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit lines aren’t doing that well. I believe this has to do with the books mostly appealing to older kids than LEGO’s general clientele, and also, most of the sets being disappointingly small.

One of the most memorable aspect of the books and the movies are the scenes of huge battles, great forts, amazing cities and sweeping vistas. Then you look at the LEGO sets for some of those scenes, and the first thing that comes to mind is that they are puny compared to what they supposed to represent. Sure, the LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit lines gave us a lot of the important characters – so we can definitely be grateful for that. If someone really wants to, they could now build up some of the iconic scenes, and in fact many people have done so (see: The Best LEGO Lord of the Rings Dioramas Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

However I do find it a bit odd that LEGO decided to introduce intricate brick-built castles with these lines. You may or may not know this, but LEGO fans have been complaining for some time about the use of large pre-made pieces like castle and rock walls that you can often see in official LEGO Castle sets. These pieces basically allow to build much bigger structures with less parts and time involved to build them, and they also cost less. The downside is that they can make the structure a bit boring and repetitive. But most buildings do have repetitive sections, don’t they? 😕

While I agree that some LEGO sets could benefit from using smaller pieces and interesting building techniques, I don’t thing that should have been the LEGO Lord of the Rings or LEGO The Hobbit lines where size is really important. Some well-placed large pieces would have made the structures so much more impressive without having to raise the price. LEGO can make very impressive castles and forts – it is unfortunate that the LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit lines are not going to be known for that. And while LEGO gave us many of the important characters in minifigure form, there are so many more missing – like it is mentioned in the petition.

So while it may be true that we are not be buying enough of the sets for LEGO to feel inspired to continue the line, I also feel that LEGO didn’t give us enough to be inspired about either. I’m a huge Lord of the Rings fan who grew up with the books and love the movies, and I was one of those people who couldn’t wait for the sets to come out – it was a dream come true. However I ended up buying just the minifigures on the secondary market and a couple of the smaller sets. The so-called large sets simply do not inspire me. They are nothing like what I remember from the books and movies, and this mainly has to do with their small size. The only sets I feel LEGO did a great job with are the #79003 LEGO The Hobbit The Unexpected Gathering (nice size, reasonable price, great details), and the #10237 LEGO Lord of the Rings The Tower of Orthanc (but this set is out of a lot of people’s price-range).

Perhaps if thousands of us sign the petition and we stock up on LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit sets before the end of the year, the company would consider continuing to offer more. If you are interested to check out all the currently available sets you can find them at the LEGO Lord of the Rings and LEGO The Hobbit section of the Online LEGO Shop.

What do you think? Should LEGO continue the LEGO Lord of the Rings line? Do you like what they have offered so far or feel disappointed? What sets and minifigs would you like LEGO to make? And do you think signing the petition would help? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! Would love to hear your opinion on this! 😉

And you might also like to check out the LEGO Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit section for more news, reviews and discussions, or select from these posts:

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LEGO Mixels Series 3 available now!

by Thita (admin) on September 8, 2014

in Other LEGO Sets & Themes

At the beginning of this month Series 3 of the LEGO Mixels characters were officially released. I got them immediately as I really enjoy LEGO Mixels; funny characters, great colors, excellent parts-selection – what is there not to like? So let’s talk about these little buggers! 🙂

As you probably know already, the characters are actually connected with a TV show on Cartoon Network, but the show is so mind-numbingly lame (like most things on Cartoon Network these days – poor kids!) I won’t talk about it here, however here is a picture of how the Series 3 LEGO Mixels actually look like in the show.

Just like in the previous two series, LEGO Mixels Series 3 includes three tribes. The first of all there is the Glorp Corp. These are the lime-green/green LEGO Mixels. Here is their official description: “The green, gooey Glorp Corp is a swamp-dwelling tribe of outrageous thrill-seekers.”

The tribe includes Glomp, who is “always hatching crazy schemes, but the real thing to look out for is his runny nose”, Glurt who is “a slobbering slime hound is an avid garbage collector, gobbling up all the trash he can find”, and Torts – “everything sticks to this slow-moving guy because his hands are covered with gloopy slime”. And of course like with previous series, you can combine the three characters into one, called a LEGO Mixels Max. Below is the LEGO Mixels Glorp Corp Max. You can download instructions to build it at the official LEGO Mixels website.

The second tribe in Series 3 of LEGO Mixels is the Spikels. These are the tan/brown LEGO Mixels. Here is their official description: “The fun-loving Spikels think of themselves as cute and cuddly, often forgetting they’re covered with dangerous spikes.”

The tribe includes Footi, “a lanky livewire who lives to skip, jump and dance with huge spiky feet”, then there is Scorpi, “a bug-eyed guy who loves to snuggle, which is difficult with that pointy tail”, and Hoogi who “loves to give hugs, even though that can be tricky with his spiky claw hands”. (I don’t know who comes up with these goofy descriptions, but nonetheless the characters are cute.) And there is the LEGO Mixels Spikels combined character called LEGO Mixels Spikels Max. You can download instructions to build it at the official LEGO Mixels website.

The third tribe in Series 3 of LEGO Mixels is the Wiztastics – an interesting name. These are the purple/black LEGO Mixels. Here is their official description: “The Wiztastics are a traveling troupe of magicians known for putting on the most spectacular shows in the land.”

The tribe includes Mesmo an assistant magician, “who makes up for his lack of showmanship with a magic tail that drops spells”, Magnifo, “who may be cheesy, but this super-confident magician puts loads of energy into every show”, and Wizwuz – “whether burping magic spells or hanging around, this goofy assistant loves to perform”. And there is the LEGO Mixels Wiztastics combined character called LEGO Mixels Wiztastics Max. You can download instructions to build it at the official LEGO Mixels website.

As I have mentioned, as an adult LEGO fan I really don’t care for all these descriptions and the TV show (although little kids may enjoy those too), however the characters themselves are greatly enjoyable for teen and adult builders as well. The parts-selection is fantastic with lots of those new small ball-joints, printed eyes and more, and also the building techniques are very interesting. Below you can watch the review on each of the LEGO Mixels Series 3 sets by JANGBRiCKS:

Also, remember when we talked about the pastime of building LEGO sets inside their original packaging? (See: The LEGO Build-In-The-Bag Challenge…) LEGO Mixels are perfect for this! Next time you get a LEGO Mixels package give it a try! Open the outside packet, but do not tear open the inside clear packaging – try to build the character inside the bag!

LEGO Build In The Bag Challenge by Tony Sava

In addition, LEGO Mixels inspired many fun competitions at LEGO club meetings, conventions and online. The crazy contraptions people have been building with these little sets are quite amazing and very creative. For example check out these LEGO Mixels Mega Mix characters Andrew Lee, who actually combine into one giant character that was built for the LEGO Iron Builder Mixel Party competition.

If you haven’t gotten yourself any LEGO Mixels yet, I encourage you to try them out. They are cheap little sets (only $5) each, but with so much potential both individually and mixed up. They should be available at LEGO retailers by now, and you can also find them at the Online LEGO Shop.

As far as the future of LEGO Mixels, interesting piece of news that came out of the recent San Diego Comic Con is that LEGO is in fact planning to continue LEGO Mixels with at least one other series. Only three characters were shown from Series 4 of LEGO Mixels at the event: the fiery Burnard (either another member of the Infernites or perhaps from a new fiery tribe), Globert who looks like a bat, and Nurp-Naut who appears to be from an astronaut tribe. LEGO Mixels Series 4 should be available next February.

So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Mixels characters? Do you own some of them or collect them all? And what do you think of Series 3? What about Series 4? Are you looking forward to more sets in the future? Feel free to share and discuss in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the following related posts:

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Save LEGO Lord of the Rings – a petition

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