These great Lego sets transport you straight to Middle-earth
Maybe J.R.R. Tolkien wouldn’t have approved of having his intricate universe turned into Lego bricks. But maybe he would! After all, the folks at Lego have created some very beautiful sets out of those little bricks.
If you want to build scenes from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and put them on your shelves, look no further. These are the best Legos, and they feature all your favorite locations and characters. Get ready to hoard them all and say, “my precioussssss…”
Riddles for the Ring
Let’s start off with one of the smaller, simpler Hobbit Lego sets. This is the famous “riddles” scene between Gollum and Bilbo, you remember it, right? It consists of only 98 parts, so it’s a great set for those just starting out in the Lego world, and you can easily display it just about anywhere when you’re done. You get a tiny little One Ring in this set, Bilbo’s sword Sting, and a fish for Gollum as well!
Shelob Attacks
Have a giant monster spider in kid-friendly Lego form! Shelob menaces Frodo and Sam in this set, just as she did in The Return of the King, while Gollum watches on. Oh, he’s got another fish! How nice for him. Frodo on the other hand just gets tied up with web, poor little Hobbit. The white web string that comes out of Shelob is a fantastic addition to this set. Watch out, though, I had some Lego string when I was a kid and I cannot overstate the amount of damage clumsy kids can do to a neat little feature like that.
The Mines of Moria
Many people count the Mines of Moria as their favorite scene in The Fellowship of the Ring. The whole Fellowship fights a cave troll in the mines, and Frodo is stabbed, but he pulls through thanks to his Mithril armor. This fun set comes with Frodo, Boromir, Legolas, Gimli, two Orcs and of course the Cave Troll himself. You can turn the heads around on some of the minifigures to reveal different faces, and the Cave Troll can hold a minifig in his mighty hands.
Escape From Mirkwood Spiders
No one, including Evangeline Lilly, was very impressed with the character Tauriel being forced into an awkward love triangle. But you can forget all those worries with this action-packed The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey set, which features Legolas, Tauriel, Fili, and Kili going up against some huge spiders. (What is it with Tolkien and spiders, huh?) Two little white bags represent the spider webs that Fili and Kili end up wrapped in, and you also get a few minifig skulls just to hammer home how horrible those spiders are.
The Goblin King Battle
Remember the Goblin King from the first Hobbit movie? Here he is in minifigure form, looking delightfully ugly but still somewhat cute. And he comes with three goblins, three Dwarves (Nori, Dori and Ori), and Gandalf. There’s some fun features in this set, like a pop-out treasure chest, a collapsible bridge and a crane. Definitely a great set for Middle Earth-loving kids who like to make their toys move.
Barrel Escape
It says “An Unexpected Journey” on the box, but the scene this set represents actually comes from the second movie, The Desolation of Smaug. Ah well! The minifigures in this set are Bilbo, Oin, Gloin, and two Mirkwood Elves (one of whom is revealed to be drunk when you flip his face around.) There’s a lot of fun to be had with the moving parts—you can open a door with a lever and flip another ever to roll the Dwarves in their barrels.
Battle of Helm’s Deep
Relive one of the best battles in cinema with this magnificent set. Helm’s Deep itself is surprisingly colorful and easily displayable, and it’s lots of fun to build. There’s even a throne room in the inside where the flag of Rohan hangs. You get no less than eight minifigures here: Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Theoden, a Berserker Uruk-Hai and three extra Uruk-Hai, two with armor and one without. And don’t forget the horses! Now you can replay a bloodless Battle of Helm’s Deep to your heart’s content.
Tower of Orthanc
This incredibly impressive Lego set comes in at 2359 pieces, making it a fun challenge for the experienced Lego builder. But it’s not just Orthanc, you get an attacking Ent as well, an Eagle, and one exclusive minifigure in the form of Grima Wormtongue. (Alright, probably not very people bought this set just for Wormtongue, but there ya go.) Every room in the tower is something new and exciting to build, and there’s even a Palantir that lights up when you press into a chandelier. This was without a doubt the daddy of all evil tower Lord of the Rings Lego sets—until …
Barad-dûr
Man, do the folks at Lego know how to give Lord of the Rings fans what they want. This is a whopping 5471 piece set for ages 18 and up and it’s gorgeous. It’ll eat up hours of your time putting it together, but what better way to spend them? Sauron’s stronghold has multiple rooms that stack on top of each other- there’s a throne room, an armory, and more – and at the top glows the magnificent Eye of Sauron. Yep, it lights up! Put this set in a dark room and marvel at it forevermore.
Rivendell
It was a toss-up between this and Barad-dûr for most impressive set, and it was an EXTREMELY difficult decision to make. But eventually, Rivendell had to take the crown because it’s slightly bigger (6167 pieces!), more colorful, and contains more minifigures. It comes with a glorious fifteen of them—all nine members of the Fellowship of the Ring plus Arwen, Elrond, Bilbo, Gloin, and two Elven smiths. And you can position them among beautiful Lego scenery when you’re done building the complete set. You know what? I bet Tolkien would have loved Lego Rivendell.
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