Things have been a little quiet on the Star Wars and Super Heros helmet cowl and bust collection lately. With 14 Star wars helmets released between 2020 and 2025; six marvel masks released between 2020 and 2025 and two Batman Cowls released in 2021, it has been a bit of a drip feed: a couple a year, with a small name plaque. Limited enough to be able to collect them all, and all imminently displayable.
Today, we get our first Helmet from The Lord Of The Rings – the Sauron’s Helmet. The set will released on March 1 and have 538 pieces, and unlike any Helmet series set before, it also comes with a Sauron minfigure. the set is priced at 129.99AUD / 69,99 USD / 74,99 EUR / 64,99 GBP .
As much as I like the Bag End build incorporated in 10354 The Shire (I keep wanting to call it ‘Bag End and a Long Awaited Party’), many people might want some kind of sweetener to go ahead and pick it up on opening week. I understand this. At $AUD399.99, it is an expensive set. So, will the LEGO Store Exclusive 40761 Sméagol and Déagol be enough to make you pull the trigger? The LEGO Group were kind enough to send a copy of the set over to look at, but it has probably been available for a few hours before we are able to publish our reviews.
Last week, we took a look at the minifigures included in 10354 The Shire. Today, we will take a look at the better part of the construction of set. Be sure to take a closer look at the figures from this set in my previous review here.
Quick Spoiler: On the whole, I really enjoyed building putting this set together: the details included in Bag End are just wonderful. But is it worth the price? Read on. This set was provided by the LEGO Group for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
While not as extravagant as 10316: Rivendell, the upcoming 10354 The Shire still has a lot to cover. While I am finishing the complete review, I thought we might look at the nine minifigures that come with this upcoming set. The Shire brings us nine minifigures: six old characters, and three new. Let’s take a look at how these figures compare with those found in 10316 Rivendell, and the previous wave of LEGO The Lord of the Rings sets, released in 2012-2013.
The LEGO Group provided this set for review purposes. All opinions are my own.
Rumors have been floating around for months, and even an own goal scored by the LEGO Events team announcing a set-signing event in early April on the LEGO website a few weeks ago. Finally, we can show you 10354 The Shire.
This set brings us to Bag End and the location of Bilbo’s Party, as seen in the first part of the Fellowship of the Ring. With nine minifigures, including Bilbo, Frodo, Gandalf the Grey, Merry and Pippin, we also have a couple of new characters, including Rosie Cotton and the Proudfoots. The set has 2017 pieces and has a recommended retail price of $AUD399.99; €269.99 £229.99 $USD269.99. It will be released on April 2dn to LEGO Insiders, and available to all on April the 5th.
In this post, We’ll take a quick look at the set. Then I’ll bring some of my history with the Shire: from Discovering the Lord of the Rings, visiting the Hobbiton sets and building my version of Bag End a year or so before the official set was released in 2012. Then we’ll take a look at some photos of the set from the Fan Media Days in Billund last year, and hear some words from Kenyon Brady, one of the LEGO Designers who worked on the set. Finally, we will get to the official Press release, as well as details of the Gift with Purchase, available when the set will be released in early April.
In which the latest LEGO® Lord of the Rings set is revealed, some minifigures are updated (while others are not) and I try not to feel too bad about the cost.
JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings is a timeless classic of epic fantasy and world building. I was introduced to the work back in 1981, when the BBC’s radio drama was broadcast over 26 half hour episodes on a Sunday Morning. I probably only ever discovered it because the NPR dramatisation of Star Wars finished the previous week. That version of the story missed some of the same bits as Peter Jackson’s cinematic adaptation from the early days of the century. While the action of the narrative swirled across middle earth, there is one location that might be considered core to the drama, but never visited by the story tellers Point of View: The Darks Lord’s Tower, Barad-dûr.
And while MOCs have been produced over the years in a variety of scales, from the tabletop to the major installation, the LEGO Group have never produced a model kit of the Dark Tower of Mordor. Until now.
This 5471 piece set will be available from June 1st 2024, priced at €459.99 / £399.99/ $USD459.99/$AUD699.99 /$CAD599.99 /10999 MXN. On release it will be a LEGO exclusive – only through LEGO and LEGO Certified stores. I will come and revisit that price later in this post, and explain why I don’t think it is totally outrageous.
We recently looked at the building experience for 10316 Rivendell – the upcoming LEGO Icons set. It is big, with over 6000 pieces and 15 minifigures (+6 statues)! I thought I would take a closer look at the new minifigures, and compare them with the original Lord of the Rings figures from 2012-13.
The Latest LEGO ICON set 10361 Rivendell, realises one of the most iconic locations in JRR Tolkien’s tales of Middle Earth. This set brings us a model in three main sections: the Tower; River, Armory and Gazebo, and finally, the main Hall and Council Circle. With 15 minifigures and 6167 elements, this set captures the beauty of both the Architecture and Landscape of the Last Homely House, East of the Sea.
When I first saw this set, revealed at the LEGO Fan Media Days in Billund, last September, I started to get excited about the set, and what kind of build it might be. And just a bit daunted by the appearance of all of the 1×1 tiles on the roof.
When I was offered a set for early review, I have to admit,I felt a little giddy with excitement. I have been a fan of The Lord of the Rings since the early ’80s. Perhaps not a dedicated consumer of everything related to Middle Earth. But a fan nonetheless. I could see past the changes made, where the movies deviated from the primary text, without being too upset.
I am grateful to the LEGO Group for sending me this set to review. All opinions are my own,
This review will include comprehensive coverage of the building experience. If you are merely curious as to whether or not the set is for you, and wish to avoid having the experience spoiled… click here to go straight to the conclusion and further images of the completed model.
When I present a review, the sets are typically photographed in a cold, sterile lightbox, with perhaps a cardboard cutout for good measure. I have been writing up my review of 10316 Rivendell. But it is not quite finished. In short, it is an epic build, full of techniques I had not thought about and tricks that might be applicable at some point. To say nothing of a gorgeous interpretation of the subject matter. It does not pretend to be all of Rivendell but rather incorporates some key scenes from the Peter Jackson Movies.
I took a break from writing up my Rambling Review, so I could enjoy the warm diffuse light of a summer evening, set and camera in hand. Read on to see what happened…
I might be finding aspects of my LEGO® life a little chaotic at present. Some of this is of recent doing. Some of it relates to things I did over a decade ago.
I am quite excited by the new LEGO of The Rings: Rivendell set. I can’t wait to share my review with you. It will probably be the highest part count set I have ever put together. Before I do that, however, of course, I will have to build it. and I thought I might like to compare the minifigures with those from the initial release, a decade or so ago. And then one thing drove out another, as it were.
As I mentioned in the announcement of the set, Middle Earth has a special place in my LEGO MOC history. I came out of my Dark Ages and started exhibiting at back in 2010, but that was just a simple, somewhat quaint and primitive modular terrace house, built without enough time to get all the right Bricklink orders in before the due date. As such, it is decorated in the style of a student share house, somewhere in the 1970s or early ‘80s, complete with a poor choice in decor.
