Posted by I grew up with Lego, and I also grew up with The Lord of the Rings, so it’s no surprise that my favorite Lego themes were The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. However, I was incredibly disappointed when both themes ended after a mere two waves each. While I admit that the majority of The Hobbit sets had already been made, The Lord of the Rings still left quite a few out that I would’ve loved to see: Minas Tirith, Osgiliath, Mount Doom/the destruction of the ring, Minas Morgul, Edoras, the door to Moria with the Watcher, the Bridge of Khazad-dûm with a Balrog (and no the Brickheadz Balrog doesn’t count), Oliphaunts, Grond, Amon Hen, Bree, and so on. When the massive Rivendell set released a few years ago and I heard about it, my interest was piqued and I knew I would have to get it eventually to complete my collection. Then I heard the rumors about Barad-dûr and knew I needed to pick up the pace. I am not exaggerating when I say I have been waiting for over ten years for the Eye of Sauron and a Sauron minifigure, so the reveal of this set got me very excited. As a result, I picked up Rivendell last month and figured that would be good for now and I could snag Barad-dûr sometime in the future after my bank account recovered. Unfortunately, that was not to be.
The “free” promotional Fell Beast gift with purchase is what broke me and forced me to pick up the new Lego Barad-dûr set day one. I have never done this before, nor did I anticipate needing to, but it happened. And seeing as the Fell Beast is sold out online already (at least that seems to be the case for my region), I think I made the right call. The Fell Beast is currently retailing for just shy of $200 on sites like eBay, which means it’s going for about half of how much Barad-dûr is. I’m a collector. I HAD to get the Fell Beast or I knew I was gonna regret it (and so would my wallet in the long run). So was it worth it?
First, some context. Barad-dûr and the Fell Beast both released yesterday for Lego Insiders. While I figured I could probably place an order online, I wanted to go to the local Lego store and get my hands on the sets in person so I didn’t have to worry about the mail. I arrived to the Lego store thirty minutes before it opened and was surprised at just how many other people had the same idea. My heart sank, but I got in line and waited. I chatted with some of the guys near me, even learning that one had traveled from over two hours away to get Barad-dûr and the Fell Beast. Eventually, an employee came around and took inventory of who wanted what, which indicated I was in the clear and guaranteed my two new sets. It took another thirty minutes after the store opened to actually get inside, but before I knew it I was driving home with Barad-dûr, and most importantly my new Fell Beast. After the fact I felt great, but the entire wait beforehand was surprisingly stressful because I didn’t want to be locked out of getting these two cool sets just because I didn’t get to the store early enough.
The Fell Beast falls under the classification of creatures from The Lord of the Rings that I always wanted included in a Lego set, though I always assumed they would be like the Smaug figure that released and not actually made of bricks. The Fell Beast set was a pleasant surprise, and enjoyable to build. Now before I get into the set itself, I want to first preface my review by saying I am not a quality control guy. I already saw some complaints online about plates on Barad-dûr with chipped corners, and when I looked at the pictures the person posted, I sighed to myself because the chips were so small that you barely notice them (assuming the corners don’t get covered up by other bricks anyway). That being said, don’t expect me to be nitpicky over the quality of the actual Lego pieces.
The Fell Beast looks awesome and is pretty poseable. The tail and neck are both composed of multiple jointed sections, so you can twist them in almost any direction which makes for some really cool dynamic display options. While the Fell Beast is poseable, it is first and foremost a display piece meant for collectors. This fact is most evident in how the Fell Beast box places it in the Lego Icons theme, it’s technically an 18+ set, and it came free with a $460 set. The Fell Beast wasn’t designed with kids in mind. It was made for adults, and as a display piece, I think it succeeds. However, the model isn’t perfect and I do have some complaints. First and foremost, the wings are awkward. The Fell Beast’s various body parts all use ball joints except for the wings. The wings use bricks with vertical forks and stubs, so the only directions the wings can go are up and down. The wings are also solid parts with rigid skeletons covered by a brand new wing covering piece. While the wing covering piece is really cool, it’s held awkwardly in place by ball joints on sticks. As a display it’s fine, but the wing construction is a little annoying because it doesn’t allow for much posing, let alone playing (though again this set was very much not made for playing). My other major complaint is that the Fell Beast model doesn’t have eyes. I don’t understand why they couldn’t have included special tiles with eyes or even stickers. Fell Beasts in the movies, and Lego video games, have eyes, so it really confuses me that the official brick model doesn’t, and it makes the model almost look more like a MOC that has to take creative liberties rather than an official Lego release. Other than that, it does still look really cool. Finally, my last nitpick with the Fell Beast itself is that the first part of the tail uses two ball joints so it can only move horizontally and not omnidirectionally like the other tail components. This last one is definitely a nitpick, and it doesn’t take away much from the model unlike the other two complaints I have.
The Fell Beast set includes a single minifigure: a Nazgûl rider. While I was really hoping for a Witch-King minifigure (now that we finally have a Sauron minifigure the Witch-King is my next most desired), the Nazgûl one isn’t bad. I’m still disappointed it isn’t the Witch-King though since he has such a cool and unique helmet and they could have given him a sweet morning star. In spite of my disappointment, the Nazgûl rider is cool because of some minor design updates. The only other Nazgûl figures appeared in the Attack on Weathertop set, so a third Ringwraith isn’t a bad inclusion, especially because this one has a new hood piece. The body printing is also slightly different than the previous ones. Overall, the minifigure is a nice and fitting addition, even if it’s not the one I was hoping for the most.
Finally, the set includes a small piece of rubble from Osgiliath for the Fell Beast to perch on and use as a stand. This little stand cements the model as a display piece, though of course using it is optional. The stand is fine. It’s so small and simple that I don’t have much to say about it, other than that if you use it, it does force the Fell Beast to stand in a specific way, which can take away from the creativity of displaying it in interesting and unique ways. But again, you could always take the Fell Beast off the stand because while the two can connect, they don’t have it.
Overall, I do like the Fell Beast set. Most of my complaints about the set itself are rather minor nitpicks all things considered. That being said, I don’t like the availability of the set. Making such a cool and long-awaited set locked behind a limited time gift with purchase of a brand new, utterly massive, and very expensive Lego set feels really bad. The fact that it’s retailing on eBay for almost $200 is proof of that. As a collector of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Lego sets, I felt like I had no choice but to buy Barad-dûr not for the set itself, but for the little “free” set that came with it. I would say that the Fell Beast both is and isn’t worth it. It’s a cool little set that’s awesome as a free gift, but the FOMO involved in getting it made it annoying (even for someone that got it), which in my opinion doesn’t make the set worth it for anyone except the most diehard fans and collectors.
Broad Scope Entertainment 