LEGO Lord of the Rings: my opinion on the 2012 range

If you are a fanboy absolute ready to go into raptures permanently and without restraint on what LEGO offers us, do not read on, there are other sites which serve soup better than me and which have made the use of laudatory superlatives their business.

For others, here is what I think of this LEGO Lord of the Rings range, after having seen what is undoubtedly the almost final rendering of the sets that will be marketed. First of all, I would like to point out that I am not an unconditional and fundamentalist fan of the Lord of the Rings universe. I really like the Peter Jackson movies, but I've always considered Tolkien's books to be boring and off-putting, and I'm not alone ... Obviously LEGO has a range based on the film version of this work, as will be the case for The Hobbit elsewhere.

Upon reflection, I think there is nothing to cry genius with this range as some do. Of Castle mixed with kingdoms, and sold with a bunch of characters carefully distributed to get you to buy the bundle, that's great marketing. The minifigs are successful, the animals too. I have never been a fan of ends of wall, wagons, rocks, etc ...

Only the MOCeurs will find their account in these varied inventories, the others will have to be satisfied with rickety reconstructions which make me think of movie sets: pretty on the front, but without depth. How LEGO could have titled the set 9474: The Battle Of Helm's Deep ? Haven't they seen the movie? What credible battle can we reconstitute with this set, the price of which will probably exceed 100 € ???

The problem with Lord of the Rings is that it is an epic epic populated by thousands of characters, and LEGO, which clings to its minifigs as if they were gold nuggets that you should not distribute too much under penalty of seeing the price drop, has a hard time restoring this grandiose side in these sets.

There are still beautiful minifigs, to line up in a display case or to stage in a diorama as desired. No one is going to play with these sets, they're not even designed for that. In the best case, they will please collectors, happy to be able to combine two of their passions, to speculators who already know that this range will be of the same ilk as a Pirates of the Caribbean or a Prince of Persia and will quickly become sought after by all. those who waited for the ultimate promo in vain, and to the MOCeurs who will give it their all to stage the emblematic characters of a cinematographic saga which some do not even know is taken from a literary epic.

For my part, this once again confirms the current trend for licenses that do not integrate any vessel, or rolling or floating devices: LEGO sells minifigs with parts around, to fill the box. This is not necessarily a criticism, but it is an important marketing turning point and it will take some getting used to.

If you don't agree with anything written above, feel free to say so in your comments, but be polite. Everyone may have a different opinion depending on their relationship with LEGOs. The debate remains preferable to unconditional ecstasy on the pretext that it is fashionable to bow down and open your wallet indiscriminately as soon as we talk about LEGO.