Lego Lord of the Rings: Shelob Attacks

I got the Lego Lord of the Rings Shelob Attacks set last weekend.  I have been wanting this set since it has both Gollum, and Samwise who are not in any of the other Lord of the Rings Sets (Gollum also shows up in one of the new Hobbit sets).  This is a 20 dollar set that is mainly Shelob.

 Here are the mini figures.  The hobbits have short fixed legs like kids in the city sets.  Gollum is a custom figure with 2 adjustable arms.  He has a single stud in the center of his back which is sort of weird.  

Frodo and Sam have 2 faces.

 

You also get this tiny cave opening which has a Gollum flick launcher.  Pretty minimal.  Hardly even worth putting together.

Here is Shelob who is most of the pieces in the set.  I was originally afraid that the legs would have problems holding it up but they work well.  In additional to the articulated legs, the back is also flexible allowing for good positioning.

The back also hides a hook and string which you can use to wrap up Frodo or even better:

The mechanism is sturdy enough to hold the weight of the model at different lengths allowing for Shelob to hang from things.

I really liked this set.  I think Shelob is about as good of a lego spider toy as I have seen them make.  It looks far better than the Aragog in the Hagrid's Hut set or the smaller spiders in the Mirkwood Forest Hobbit set.  My daughter also really like the spider model.  The one issue is that this set makes Shelob, and that is really all.  The parts are pretty specialized and are not going to be very useful in general.  But if you have in interest in a giant spider, it is great.

New Lego B-Wing

So Lego has a new Ultimate Collector Series (UCS) B-Wing Starfighter out and it looks pretty cool in pictures.  So I was at the nearest lego store and checked it out.  My is it big.  Site lists it at 26 by 17 inches on the display stand  Probably bigger than minifigure true scale.  Ofcourse you would want something impressive for 199.99 but I think it might be too big for me.   UCS kits are supposed to be for display so I cannot really blame them if the model seems to big to let the kids play with at some point.  Like my Tantive IV, model might be tough to even handle and move without shedding pieces.

Most of my Star Wars stuff is down in the basement in a storage tub with some on display at the top of a bookcase in our bedroom but their does not appear to be room for this bad boy.  I have gotten at least 1 copy of most of the original trilogy star fighters: A-wing, B-wing, X-wing, Y-Wing, Falcon, Slave I, Tie Fighter, Tie Advanced, and Tie Interceptor.  Just need the Tie Bomber now plus a Shuttle if I really want to have everything that is not really large.

New Space Marine Mega Army Box

So I was looking at the new Space Marine Army deal on the GW site.  I did the math and the retail for the components is ~360 so the 250 price is not bad vs that.  It looks to be in a retail box so might evem be available from your favorite internet retailer for like 200.  The question I have is whether this set is really interesting.  Not exactly sure how people are running marines right now but this set could probably stretch out to like 1200 points of lack of excitement.  It looks very much like the armies in the back of the marine book or their battle reports. But I guess if you sell a good 1250 point army for cheap what would people need to buy other than the starter set to get up to 1500.

Reaper Bones Kaladrax

Reaper has a prototype for their new Kaladrax Reborn on their webpage.  It looks pretty awesome.  We all had to make tough decisions about what extras to get from the kickstarter.  I passed on the some that look to be pretty good now but I did select this one so I am stoked that it looks this cool and big.

X-Wing Game on Sale at Target this Week

I saw in my local target ad that they have the Fantasy Flight X-Wing game on sale at Target this week for 30 dollars.  This is similar to the price of many online gaming stores.  Still to expensive for 3 ships for me but Frontline Gamer suggested buying 2 sets to really be able to play the game with X-wings and Tie Fighters then add more of the different ships.  I have not seen any of the expansion packs there so I think you will still need to get those online or at a specialist shop.

Lego Star Wars Hoth Echo Base

Today we are showing off the Lego Star Wars Hoth Echo Base set.  In the states, this set is a Toys R Us exclusive so you can only really get it from them or lego stores.  This certainly limits the options for getting it on sale down from the 89.99 MSRP.  Lego has had a series of Hoth related releases as it is the original trilogies biggest ground battle.  This one is mainly an interior play set as opposed to walls, turrets or hanger doors found in some other recent Hoth sets.

The set comes with 8 minifigures, 2-1B Medical Droid, Bacta Tank Luke, Chewy, R-3PO (Red Protocol Droid), Hoth Han, Hoth Leia plus 2 Snowtroopers and a Tauntaun.  A previous Hoth Base set which was mainly a snow speeder and big hanger door had a white protocol droid K-3P0 who appears in the control center of the base both working and as part of the wreckage during the movie.  I did not remember a red one but I did recently rewatch the movie and saw R-3PO in the background of the hanger as the pilots discussed protecting the transports.  I really like both the injured Luke and Medical Droid.  Chewy, Han, and Leia are pretty similar to those in the previous X-Wing set release.

Here we have the bacta tank and medical bay.   The tank flips down to allow Luke to be placed inside.  I wanted to build one of these for our Home One set as we had made a little medical room with a big window (think medical frigate at the end of empire strikes back).  Now I have just the right parts for it without having to go to bricklink.

Here we have the control room.  This would have actually been a great place to put some different characters instead of Han and Leia like General Rieekan (Officer who tells Han that it is tough to have a price on your head) or the female tracking stuff on the screen who would probably only need a hair swap.  This area actually looks pretty good with 2 small comm stations and the large interface screen.

They then have a tauntaun area and the tauntaun which appeared a few years ago in a different small Hoth set also called like Echo Base.

They also have a little hanger and fueling station.  Not sure what you would fuel here as the area is small for the snowspeeder that was available in the Wampa cave a few years ago.

This is outside of the side with the medical bay and control center.  Hidden blaster storage.  The ladders on top go to this height adjustable platform cargo mover but this should probably be on the other side as it makes more sense in the hanger.

The other side outside has a turret and some flick fire missiles but I think this whole side would be better if the parts had been used either for a power plant or ion cannon .

Overall the set is Ok at best.  Half is pretty neat options for scenes but the more battle side does not really match anything in the movies and seems to be designed specifically to be different from other recent Hoth sets.  I got this set as part of a buy 1 get 1 50% off deal last year which had some problems with stock levels which ended with me just getting this set at a good price.  Adding it to our other white/grey bricks I do hope to put together a better Hoth base for the play room in the future.

Happy Election Day

Everyone in the states have a nice election day.  Go out and vote even if the races are already decided either by general demographics or gerrymandering like my US congressional seat which was the most median seat in the country in 2008 but has since been redraw so far to one side that I do not even know the candidates name for the side that I usually lean.

I am off to vote right now.  Got my history of Math book and bundled up for a wait in line.

Lego Lord of the Rings: Attack at Weathertop

Here we have the first of the Lego Lord of the Rings sets that I have picked up, Attack at Weathertop.  It is one of the middle sized sets priced at about 60 dollars.  Lego has priced these sets very high, similar to Star Wars sets so you pretty much have to be getting them on sale to even get close to what the unlicensed set would be.   I have been waiting for a good sale on some of the smaller sets at some local stores.  Weathertop is really a huge ruin so this is really just a tiny representation.

 

 

 You get 3 members of the fellowship, Frodo with sting and the one ring (my set had 3 of these in it), Merry (only set he is in), and Aragorn.

You also get 2 Ring Wraiths with 2 of the new horses in black which will go nicely with any evil knights is your collection.  The horses have a new pose shown in the picture.  The wraiths are almost all black with a worn clock and no faces.   Put a normal cape on them and a face and you have a nice Return of the Jedi Luke figure.

One of the scenes you have set up is the hobbits cooking with fire on the side of the old fortress while Frodo sleeps.

This ofcourse draws the ring wraiths to them.  Stabbed Frodo has a different face while he waits to be rescued by Aragon on the upper level.

 There is a trap door which sort of drops minifigures down.

Here is the other side bottom.  The set has some nice details.  I like the microfigures as statues but where does that door lead.

These stairs are also pretty cool from the lower to upper level.

Here is the inside that the door leads to.  You have a weapon rack on the left which the model going down the trap door hits.  I have no idea what the back hooks on the right side are supposed to be that think that the inclusion of flick fires on the right is just stupid.  The torch mounts and again microfigures statues are cool.

The set has cool figures and tons of weapons but the size is just a small.  It is a set for are very important set of scenes but it is just to small for such a large place.  You cannot really fit the figures properly on top for battles.  The curved structure makes it pretty hard to expand out of your existing collections.