Some of the coolest things you’ll see at Comic-Con are the Lego built characters either at their booth, other booths, and even outside of the convention center itself.
This year if you happen to make it to the Warner Bros. booth (#4545) you will get to see a Lego Smaug standing over six feet tall and weighing 411 pounds. Smaug took 625 hours to complete and includes 83,433 pieces. The folks at Lego also have some surprises for fans showing off new sets for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies as well as an exclusive Bard figure. Continue reading “Lego Smaug coming to Comic-Con 2014”
Following on from our posts earlier this week, we now have information from official press releases from Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Hungary and Germany. Here are the details:
You might recall that we’ve previously profiled the incredible Middle-earth LEGO dioramas of Blake Baer here on TheOneRing.net.
Now he’s back with his biggest piece yet — a 56-inch-tall model of Erebor made from 80,000 pieces of LEGO that weighs close to 200 pounds! This time he’s working with fellow LEGO aficionado Jack Bittner.
When we saw the first movie last year, we loved it too much not to build a scene from it. Of course, we couldn’t build any thing less than the iconic dwarf city. So here it is, our third and latest collaboration (our first was Amon Hen, our second was Rivendell). We chose Erebor for many reasons, not the least of which was that we love building mountains [sarcasm]. This build was a ton of fun, and we hope you enjoy it. And now, it is our pleasure to present Erebor, the dwarven hall of kings.
We had the chance to ask Blake a few questions about his and Jack’s Erebor diorama. Here’s what he had to say:
TORn: How big is it? Is it your biggest yet?
Blake: It most certainly is our biggest yet at 56″ tall, and close to 80,000 pieces totaling close to 200 pounds of LEGO.
TORn: How long did it take?
Blake: It took my friend Jack Bittner and I close to 400 combined hours to get the model designed, built, photographed, edited, and uploaded.
TORn: How difficult was conceptualizing the design?
Blake: We had the movie to rely upon for reference, so a lot of the design stages was just us watching the movie, haha. It obviously isn’t an exact replica, but it captures the essence of Erebor. We had the general layout of where we wanted Dale, the rivers, the mountains, etc. to be, but much of that changed as we built. We didn’t work off of any blueprints, so we were converting directly from imaginations to bricks, so many changes occurred.
TORn: What inspired the concept?
Blake: Large amounts were drawn from the movie portrayal of the Hobbit. The style of the facade of the gates of Erebor, for example, were drawn from the movie. In addition, representing Dale as a Sicilian-style city with terracotta roofs was drawn from the movie.
TORn: Will you be showcasing it anywhere?
Blake: We currently don’t have any plans to put it on display, but we hope to keep it together for a while so that we can possibly take advantage of any possibilities that may arise. The public unveiling was at Brickfair, VA, earlier this summer, but Erebor hasn’t seen any action To get an idea of the scale, check out the photo below that Blake supplied us. Amazing!
You can see even more photos of Erebor by Blake and Jack on their Flickr account.
It is an exciting day for fans of LEGO® and The Lord of the Rings! As of right now, you can download the iOS game ‘LEGO® The Lord of the Rings’ from the Apple App Store! Check out the full release below as well as some screen caps. The game is only $4.99 and available for both iPhone and iPad. [Download]
One wonders how much Middle-earth’s Hobbits, wizards, elves and dwarves have contributed to the success and growth of the Lego company over recent years. It has now grown bigger than Hasbro, and become the second-largest toy company in the world.
The boss of Lego Group carries two business cards – one the usual kind and the other a Lego mini-figure in his likeness, complete with beard and glasses, with contact details on the back.
That kind of playful thinking has helped the Danish company become the world’s second-biggest toy maker as it clicks with fast-growing Asia and builds on its popular plastic bricks with video games and theme parks.
“We are seeing a society where the wealthier it becomes, the more room there is for what I call the business of play,” Chief Executive Jørgen Vig Knudstorp told Reuters in Singapore.
“In that I will include the role of play in education, the role of play in theme parks and family entertainment, the role of play in adult age.”
Video games are big business and Lego Group has “a major role through licensing arrangements” but the digital realm is a complement, not a replacement, for physical play, he said.
Lego MOC Helm’s Deep by Rich-K & Big J . This huge Lego My Own Creation of Helm’s Deep is simply enormous. Created by Rich-K & Big J, it’s only 90% complete right now and uses some 150,000 bricks and features 1,700 mini-figures.
Some of the coolest things you’ll see at Comic-Con are the Lego built characters either at their booth, other booths, and even outside of the convention center itself. 
One wonders how much Middle-earth’s Hobbits, wizards, elves and dwarves have contributed to the success and growth of the Lego company over recent years. It has now grown bigger than Hasbro, and become the second-largest toy company in the world.