Tag Archives: Lord of the Rings

LEGO began releasing official Lord of the Rings sets in 2012, followed quickly by LEGO Hobbit sets, but LEGO builders have been recreating the people and places of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth for just as long as there have been books and bricks. Relax in the Shire or battle Saruman and his Uruk-hai army at Helm’s Deep and the Tower of Orthanc, but wherever your LEGO journey takes you, beware the watchful eye of Sauron!

Who will take the ring to Mustafar?

As evil armies spread across the land, a young boy from a farming town journeys to strange places on a quest to defeat the mighty villain. Accompanied by a group of friends and gifted a glowing blue sword, he soon finds himself in the company of a weird little creature speaking in odd sentences, before ultimately defeating evil by casting it into a giant pit. That’s the backdrop for this mighty tower, which LEGO builder CRCT Productions calls The Emperor’s Eye or Vader’s Barad-Dûr.

The Emperor's Eye, Vader's Barad-Dûr

The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars share a lot of similarities, but perhaps none so visually striking as the resemblance of Darth Vader’s Castle to the architecture of Sauron, and this nifty little microscale diorama shows the resulting mashup. The best part is the Force-blue glowing eye between the spires. The squared-off base works well to counterpoint the jumbled lava rocks around the foot of the tower, and there are some great parts hidden if you look closely, such as chain links and robot arms.

Epic tale, epic microscale

I love The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. Like, really, really love it. I have more than a whole shelf in my library (yes, I have a library, filled with many leather-bound books) devoted just to the book and its ancillary volumes (The Hobbit, Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc.). Tolkien is my favorite author, by far, and I’ve read his major work at least twelve times. So when I see really well done LEGO builds based on the stories, like this one by Simon Hundsbichler, it gets the warm fuzzies going inside. Even if it is based on the movies, I still love it; after all, for whatever butcheries they did to the characters (e.g. Faramir), Peter Jackson et al. did a phenomenal job of representing the material cultures of Middle Earth. This particular build is inspired by the second volume of the work, The Two Towers, and features many towers, from the horn tower of Helm’s Deep to Orthanc to Minas Morgul to Cirith Ungol.

The Two Towers

Microscale is notoriously tricky to pull off, but Simon is a master among masters at it. Some features that need to be pointed out include using the tiny hole in the bar holder with clip as the window at the top of Cirith Ungol. Genius. But it is all amazing. Helm’s Deep bears repeated looks, with the absurd number of unconventional pieces in the rockwork, from grey hawks and frogs to saddles. But then there’s my favorite stair technique with a grille brick leading up to Meduseld. And a stud shooter in Cirith Ungol. And rockets in the towers of both Minas Morgul and Helm’s Deep. And a spider as Shelob, a giant spider. Brilliant. And there’s a Treebeard, too! Add in the book base, and the water flowing through it, and you have one of my favorite LEGO creations ever.

If you missed Simon’s masterful representation of the first volume of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, check it out here. I can’t wait to see the third installment!

Ugly never looked so cute

Orcs are probably one of the ugliest creature in all of fantasy fiction. But this little guy created by Jme Wheeler is stinkin’ adorable as all heck. How can you not smile when you look at that face? I’d like to think of him as an innocent baby, who does not yet know evil. But I guess there is just something about the Brickheadz style that lends to the “cute” factor. Whatever the case, my favorite part of this particular build is definitely the loincloth.

Orc

Have an afinity for BrickHeadz? We’ve got lots of them in our archives!

Lord of the Bricks: Masterpiece Edition

Microscales are fun and always leave me in awe with great parts usage and clever techniques, but this masterpiece by Simon Hundsbichler is jaw-dropping in every way. His build consists of six locations from the Fellowship of the Ring, recreated in awe-inspiring microscale — You don’t have to build big to make a big impact. What makes this literally pop out is the open brick-built book acting as an elegant base, complete with subtle detailing to form the curvature of the spine. I could stare at this for hours and find new things to wonder about. I did manage to spot a hidden Easter egg, with the one ring built into the hobbit-hole. Can you spot Gandalf? (Yes, he’s there alright)

The Fellowship of the Ring

A stunning Lord of the Rings advent calendar

You may have seen our ongoing advent calendar features where we reveal the contents of official LEGO advent calendars day-by-day and chime in with our witty commentary. Traditionally with advent calendars, you can expect to reveal a small nominal gift in the twenty-four days before Christmas. However, Simon Hundsbichler had something different in mind. Every day in December, Simon is unveiling a new intricate Lord of the Rings diorama that takes inspiration from the books and not the movies. On December first, he showcased this stunning scene depicting Gandalf arriving in Hobbiton. The quality of the work doesn’t waver, in fact it gets better from here.

01 A Long Expected Party

Click here to unveil more.

Winter in the Shire

“In a hole in the snow there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell… No, this hole was warm and snug, a cozy place in which Bilbo could thaw his toes after a wintery walk.” Patrick B. has created the perfect little winter scene from the Shire, with a hobbit hole covered in snow. The sledge is nice little creation, as is the snow-clad tree atop the mound, but be sure to zoom in on the hobbit dwelling’s frontage — the windows are lovely, and I particularly like the reversed plates used for the door, a surprising but effective choice.

Winter in the Shire

Behold the Argonath, the Pillars of the Kings

Gondor is the greatest kingdom of Men during the Third Age of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. Its northern borders are marked by The Argonath, a pair of huge statues standing on the banks of the River Anduin. Jason Pyett has taken on the challenge of building a LEGO version of this dramatic location from The Lord Of The Rings, and the result is an impressive piece of microscale building.

LEGO Lord Of The Rings Middle-Earth Argonath

The statues tower above the river, their left hands raised in warning to the enemies of Gondor. The choice of colours and level of detailing manage to evoke the idea of weathered stonework, and the proportions of both figures are nicely done. Fun fact: Jason has built the movie version of this monumental pair — depicting Isildur on the left, and Elendil on the right, armed with the sword Narsil. In the original description from the books, the statues depicted Isildur and his brother Anarion, and both were armed with axes.

LEGO Lord Of The Rings Middle-Earth Argonath

Ride now! Ride to Gondor!

The city of Minas Tirith in the realm of Gondor is one of the most iconic locations from Tolkien’s beloved The Lord of the Rings books, and was brought to life perfectly in the film adaptations. Builder Nicola Bozzolan has crafted the capital stronghold in LEGO, and it looks amazing. Using over 7,000 pieces, Nicola spent more than 60 hours making the White Tower nestle just perfectly among the mountains, with its seven-tiered system of defensive walls.

Spreading out on the Pelennor Fields, the curved city is rendered excellently in microscale. High at the top of the central spire of rock is the palace of the kings of Gondor. The emblematic white tree of Gondor is in the central courtyard, with its ancient sweeping branches represented by a LEGO feather.

The elusive wingless Balrog recently sighted

If this hellish looking monster built by Marcin Otreba reminds you of the fire demon who faced off against everyone’s favorite wizard Gandalf in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, that would be for good reason. Featured in the video game Middle Earth: Shadow of War, Tar Goroth is one of the minions of darkness in Middle Earth. Unlike its better-known cousin, this Balrog has to walk. Maybe that explains why he looks so mad.

Tar Goroth

The use of several transparent orange elements peeking out between the cracks in its ebony skin makes this monstrosity instantly recognizable, along with those downward-pointing horns. Also, it strikes me as very fitting that so many of these 1×4 wing with pin hole elements from the official Lord of the Rings theme were used throughout the model.

Sauron looks pleased with his creation

Sauron, the evil creator of the One Ring at the center of the Lord of the Rings books and movies spends the majority of his screen time as nothing more than a giant flaming eye at the top of his dark tower of Barad-dûr, he does make a brief appearance at the beginning of the film version of The Fellowship of the Ring, in the physical form of a towering spike-armored figure with a mighty mace, which he uses to lay waste to countless enemies. Aaron Newman has built an amazing model of Sauron poised at the edge of a lava flow, holding up his creation, perhaps just after pouring his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life into the One Ring.

Sauron, Dark Lord of Mordor

The distinct helmet and armor feature some of the new blades found in many of the Ninjago sets released last year, as well as a very nice ragged cape made from a couple of large capes. I am especially glad that Aaron chose to build his model in gray rather than black, as it would have been much more difficult to see all those great details.

The Black Breath

If you are like me, you’re probably thinking the world could use more LEGO creations inspired by The Lord of the Rings. Am I right? Who is with me on this? As it turns out, Cole Blood (who, in my opinion, has the coolest name in the history of the world) has answered all our prayers with this stunning piece he calls “First Appearance of the Ringwraiths”. Having no physical form, the wraiths are cleverly depicted as hellish black apparitions that seem to seep into the landscape. The orc heads on pikes, the toadstools, and the small flowing stream create excellent visual cues throughout. Stay tuned, because this is merely one piece of a larger Second Age collaborative series we’ve been covering that Cole is participating in with his equally talented friends. I will eagerly wait, right after heading over to the registry to change my name to Rex Awesome or something.

First appearance of the Ringwraiths

Lond Daer, the Númenorean shipyard in Middle Earth

There have been many great LEGO creations from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchise over the years, including a recent epic collaboration which we were proud to feature here on TBB. The other ages mentioned in the book, however, tend to be overlooked. Well, there is a new collaborative project underway and Barthezz Brick has built an amazing model of the Númenórean ship-building port of Lond Daer.

Lond Daer - by Barthezz Brick

This model has so many details worth mentioning, including some very nicely built arrow slits in the tall tower in the back, which starts with a fairly common technique using cheese slopes but repeats the pattern in an interesting way. The buildings on the right also show a neat architectural design for the arched windows made from loosely connected plates, and this minifig neck bracket to attach tiles on top. Click to see more of Lond Daer