Cole Edmonson has rocked my world again. He has recently posted pictures of his full-scale Glamdring, the sword carried by Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. It is a beautiful sword and Cole has out-done himself. I hope he continues recreating LOTR weapons in LEGO form. I’m loving it.
As part of OSCAR weekend, TheOneRing.net and Premiere Events presents An Unexpected Art Show to be held in Los Angeles, California on Friday, February 22, from 7 PM to 1 AM. Celebrating The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth, An Unexpected Art Show will feature inspired and influenced art pieces from paintings, drawings, and illustrations to prints from a variety of artists including LEGO brick built creations from OneLUG, Tommy Williamson, and Norbert Labuguen. The OneLUG will be displaying The Last March of the Ents and also unveiling their newest LOTR creation!!! If you live near Los Angeles, come and enjoy An Unexpected Art Show!!!
It wouldn’t be a holiday without a stop-motion LEGO Lord of the Rings video from BrotherhoodWorkshop. Check out “An Elvish Valentine.”
We’ll get to the annual Toy Fair trade show in New York at some point, but in the meantime, FBTB continues to provide great coverage of all the upcoming LEGO sets we can expect in 2013.
Show highlights include new LEGO Lord of the Rings sets, the usual Star Wars assortment, and the first official unveiling of the Lone Ranger sets based on the upcoming movie.
Before you dive into the pictures, one important note: LEGO sets and packaging displayed at toy industry trade shows are often (but not always) prototypes. This can be particularly noticeable on the minifigs, which may have stickers on their torsos instead of printing, and accessories may even be milled or 3D-printed rather than injection-molded. Enjoy the preview, but save your “quality” commentary until official photos or the sets themselves have been released later.
It looks like there will be six sets to accompany the new Disney version of The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp as Tonto. LEGO designer Marcos Bessa has shared one official photo of 79111 Constitution Train Chase, so I’ll include that here alongside FBTB’s pictures.
Here’s the full list of LEGO Lone Ranger sets (revealing movie spoilers, in case you care):
After a holiday season full of new LEGO Hobbit sets, Lord of the Rings returns with a fresh batch of four sets due out in June, including 79006 The Council Of Elrond:
The full list (spoilers only if you’ve been living in a cave for the past 50 years):
Ace and his crew have also posted a few videos, starting with a preview of Battle at the Black Gate:
Here’s Pirate Ship Ambush:
Tatooine has always been my favorite planet in the Star Wars universe, so I’ve been enjoying the recent focus on that planet for sets from the Classic Trilogy, such as the updated 75020 Jabba’s Sail Barge, complete with Max Rebo:
New 2013 LEGO Star Wars sets unveiled at Toy Fair this year include:
Other lines with new sets unveiled at Toy Fair this past weekend include more Galaxy Squad, Technic, board games, and a new LEGO Castle theme due out in August:
Dwalin and Balin are probably my two favorite dwarves from The Hobbit and Eero Okkonen recreated them perfectly. There is a plethora of cool details in both figures but the pattern on Balin’s shirt is incredible.
The latest video from BrotherhoodWorkshop is short, so there’s not a whole lot to say about it. Just watch it. And laugh.
After what seems like an eternity, I am finally getting to my review of 79010 The Goblin King Battle. I don’t like picture-heavy reviews so don’t expect any of my own. I will be talking about three aspects of this set: part selection, minifigs and set design.
To begin with, the part selection in this set is very good. I’m a castle builder at heart and this set is chock full of castle/fantasy goodness, as you would expect from a Lord of The Rings set (yes, it’s the Hobbit, but you know what I mean). There are tons of dark grey slopes and such, lots of brown bits and loads of decorative bits such as bones, books, weapons, jewels, etc. There were around twenty pieces that used stickers. The majority of those were tiles with various wood grains. I would have preferred that those were printed, but I know that LEGO is mostly going with stickers these days. The only piece that really suffers from the sticker use is the 2×2 tile/scroll that the Goblin Scribe is supposed to hold. If you actually have him hold it, his hand messes up the edge of the sticker. Printing would have been a much better choice for this piece. However, overall I was mostly very happy with the parts selection.
Secondly, the minifigs are a fun assortment. Naturally LEGO dispersed the 13 dwarves throughout all the sets. In this one you get Ori, Dori and Nori. You also get Gandalf, the Goblin King and three goblins. The three dwarves all very decent figs. I really like their torsos. Ori’s hairpiece is a bit boring since it simply Ron’s hair from the Harry Potter line in brown. The other two are unique to these figs. Gandalf is the same as the one in the small cart set. LEGO lists it as different figure but the only difference is that this one has a sword. The three goblins are each unique. This surprised me. I was expecting all three to have the same torso. They have the same heads, headpiece and two have the same legs. The goblin scribe has stubby legs. That just leaves the Goblin King. He is obviously supposed to be the highlight of the set. I was rather under-whelmed by him. I am a fan of the giant trolls and such but the Goblin King leaves something to be desired. He is going to be hard to use for anything else. I hope someone does (and I have some plans myself) but there are some design elements that are really going to get in the way. The main issue is his crown. It doesn’t come off. You can remove the three spikes but the base of the crown is part of the figure and seriously limits the versatility. The snarling expression and printed hair down the back are also issues but they are easier to work around.
Read the rest of the review after the jump!
I’ve always thought that the majestic locations of Middle-earth would make for a great set of microscale dioramas. Last week, we featured George G’s Helm’s Deep, and today I’m pleased to highlight this beautiful Minas Tirith by diegoboy. I love the angling on the great stone outcropping in the center of the city, and parts like minifig ski poles and steering wheel bases add wonderful detail.
diegoboy recently used his micro Minas Tirith as part of a forced-perspective backdrop for a scene titled “The Ride of the Rohirrim.”
This miniature Helm’s Deep from Tolkien’s The Two Towers is impressive in its level of detail. George G has captured the towering might of this mountain stronghold, and it looks ready to be defended until dawn. All it needs now is a retinue of Rohirrim to guard its walls, and a few ten-thousands of miniature orcs to assault it. Hmm, now it makes me want to go watch the films again…
J.R.R. Tolkein’s own artwork for The Hobbit
You can see more photos (including interior shots) on Imperium der Steine.
BrotherhoodWorkshop presents another amusing installment of their LEGO Lord of the Rings videos, this time featuring the Ent Treebeard — along with the usual orcs.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas, full of boxes under the tree that rattle in that very special way.
One of the additions I enjoyed about the first new Hobbit movie is that Peter Jackson fleshed out Gandalf’s fellow wizard Radagast the Brown. (There were certainly other additions or differences I appreciated less…)
K.Kreations saw The Hobbit as well, and was inspired by Radagast’s very unique abode.
