Lego Hobbit: Escape from Mirkwood Spider

Today we look at a Lego Hobbit set from the last Christmas releases, Escape from Mirkwood Spiders.  This set is 30 dollars and was called a special preview set since it involved a scene not in the first movie.  The first movie ends with the company being dropped off a the edge of the Mirkwood forest so they still need to go in and get captured by the spiders for the elves to come and recapture them.  The set comes with 4 minifigures, 2 spiders, a stump, and a twisted tree.

The four minifigures are 2 Dwarves Kili, and Fili then 2 elves being Legolas and Tauriel.  Everyone knows Legolas from the Lord of the Rings books and the elves in Mirkwood are his people so making him one of the elves they encounter makes sense that way.  Tauriel is a specific new character which I think was added due the total lack of female roles in the Hobbit book.  She is the first female minifigure in the Hobbit/Lord of the Rings lines.  There was some uproar last year after the Lord of the Rings sets came out and there were no female minifigures while Lego was launching a line of Legos for girls.  There are not a ton of female characters in the Lord of the Rings movies but the three major ones do have significant roles and major scenes that could have made a good set.

All the models have 2 sided heads.  Tauriel comes with 2 elven knives or blades but a sharp Lego fan will note that these are actually Prince of Persia time daggers.  All the minifigures are unique to this set with Kili, Fili, and Tauriel only appearing in this set and the Legolas having totally different body art from the Lord of the Ring versions.

The set comes with 2 spiders.  They are pretty basic but do have glow in the dark eyes.  The back and legs have some articulation but nothing really fancy.  Much closer to the Hagrid's Hutts Aragog to the excellent Shelob from the Lord of the Rings line that I reviewed a little while ago.

The tree and stump are mainly black with some dark brown and red.  The leave pieces are red which I have never seen before.  The set allows you to place the dwarves in two little webbing bags. The trees also include some glow in the dark parts including the printing on the mushroom tops if I remember correctly.

There is a pin in the tree that you can use to simulate chopping down the tree to rescue the dwarves.  This set is not a really great set.  There is very little here for 30 dollars other than the two Dwarves and Female Elf for minifigures for collectors of those and some interesting colored pieces.  If you are trying to get the figures look for a significant sale.