Is the souffle slowly falling back? After the official announcements of the upcoming launch of a LEGO LOTR range, the publication of ultra-preliminary visuals that do not put this range to its advantage and a first idea of ​​the price range of these sets, it seems that the excitement give way to a certain weariness.

Fans of the Kingdoms range have already understood that they will have to pay a high price to get sets on their favorite theme and will have to accept the switch to light flesh, and the others have understood that this new range will cost them a lot of money ... More generally, 2012 is a year during which you will have to have the financial means to satisfy your passion. All licensed ranges are sold at a high price and patience will be required to find a promotion that will save some money.

Obviously, the publication of the preliminary visuals probably does not pay homage to the final result that LEGO will present for sale during the official release of the sets of this range, scheduled for mid 2012. But fans always react quickly to these blurry images, populated with provisional minifigs, hastily designed scenes and rough edits made by LEGO to get a dealer catalog out on time. Before the publication of these images, speculation was reaching its height, with some already believing in a Battle of Helm's Deep in UCS format ... The reality is quite different: A few sets vaguely reproducing key scenes from the LOTR trilogy that will not be left without doubt that a series of collectible minifigs.

This observation is not exclusive to this LEGO LOTR range, it also applies to many sets of other licensed ranges which prove to be disappointing or in any case far removed from the surreal expectations of the community. From the release of this first wave of sets, we will of course be ecstatic over the various minifigs offered by LEGO, which will be difficult to compare with the custom versions designed by AFOLs. LOTR has not benefited from as many successful customs as the Star Wars, DC or Marvel universe to name a few. The creations seen here and there have often been the result of assembling existing medieval pieces and the resemblance to any of the characters in the film is often very limited.

More and more often, AFOLs seem to ignore official sets in order to obtain only the minifigs concerned via the parallel market, thus saving money, but also space ... This second market, on Bricklink or eBay for example, takes on a larger scale each year and makes it possible to obtain in a few clicks all the characters of a range, which fit in an envelope neatly stored at the bottom of a drawer while waiting to come populate a MOC possible. Lovers of loose parts will also look to Bricklink, where the cost per unit is often lower than that of an official licensed set.

Will this new LOTR range be a commercial success? No doubt yes, even if I am still more reserved about the public touched by this universe. LOTR is not an easy world to understand for the youngest. The chronology is complex, the characters numerous, the history of events long and sometimes tedious ... The release of the first part of the adaptation of The Hobbit by Peter Jackson at the end of 2012 will undoubtedly influence the young customers of LEGO who do not has not read and will not read Tolkien's books. But when choosing a gift for their child, parents will probably prefer a police car or a crane to a box with Gandalf on a cart ... Only the set 9474 The Battle of Helm's Deep could possibly be likened to a playset. medieval battlefield by all those who do not or little know the universe of LOTR. The other sets are too precise references to Peter Jackson's films to interest a regular kid who hasn't spent half a dozen hours watching them.

Which ultimately makes me say that LEGO falls into the category Collector's Goodies with this range whose gameplay should not be the first selling point, and whose lifespan will not be that of the Star Wars license, no offense to the most fundamentalist fans of the universe of Tolkien.

Another interesting MOC with this Octuptarra Magna Tri-Droid designed by Iceman792 and which turns out to be really faithful to the model (on the left in the image). This battle droid, used by the Confederation of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars, makes an appearance in theEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith and in the animated series The Clone Wars.

The level of detail is impressive, the color scheme adhered to the letter and the overall structure retains the apparent lightness of the reference model. 

To get a close-up of this battle droid, go to the topic dedicated to this MOC at Eurobricks. Many photos will allow you to appreciate the finesse of the construction, and to discover the often ingenious use of certain parts to achieve this convincing result.

A nice MOC to start the week, and even if the MOCeur, yoshix, announces that it is only 95% complete, this Republic Frigate is already well advanced. 

The result is convincing for most of the machine, except for the rendering of theEscape Pod whose round shape struggles to be rendered with the technique used. the engines are more successful, with less vacuum between the assemblies of flat.

For the rest, nothing to say, it is a beautiful achievement that will be exhibited during the next BrickFair in Alabama (USA).

Like me, you will probably not be able to go there, so you have to contemplate the photos of this MOC on the MOCpages page of yoshix to form your opinion.

2MuchCaffeine offers us a MOC that could have been sufficient on its own: A reproduction of an old television with the image of Superman flying above a Metropolis while Micro-Scale.

But he added an amazing feature which I let you check out in the video above.

To see more, it's on 2MuchCaffeine's flickr gallery that it happens.

You're going to say I'm really bad omen, but here's one more problem that buyers of one of the sets from the 2012 LEGO Super Heroes line-up may face: Indeed, an EB forumer is already complaining that the slopes (61409 - Dark Bluish Gray Slope 18 2 x 1 x 2/3 with 4 Slots) of Batman's jetpack and the Catcycle all crack in one place after just a few days of use. 

However, this is not a novelty, this piece shows a certain fragility and the set 6858 Catwoman Catcycle City Chase is not the only one affected by this problem. However, we can regret that this type of detail has gone through quality control at LEGO while the launch of this highly anticipated range should have been exempt. problems encountered so far.