Guide: Construction Systems
Collection: Toys
Since Lego introduced their Hobbit Lego series I have wanted a complete set of all 13 dwarves. I had already managed to get all the Hobbit sets boxed, but I didn’t want to open them as they were part of my Tolkien collection and, being Lego were prone to pieces going missing. I already had all the Lord of the Fellowship (in a shop display), so wanted the dwarves loose so I could make a Hobbit display to go with it.
However, Lego is expensive, particularly since the sets were no longer available from shops, and I didn’t have a big budget. I couldn’t afford new boxed sets, so I had 2 options either a; purchase individual figures or b; purchase used sets.
I investigated the sets option and determined that the Lego sets needed were as follows:
Thorin: Wargs or Laketown or Battle 5 armies
Dori: Goblin king
Nori: Goblin king
Ori: Goblin king
Fili: Spiders or Lonely mountain
Kili: Spiders or Lonely mountain
Bifur: Wargs
Balin: Unexpected gather or Lonely mountain
Dwalin: Unexpected gather or Lonely mountain
Bofur: Unexpected gather
Bombur: Unexpected gather
Gloin: Barrels
Oin: Barrels
I therefore decided that I needed the following sets:
Unexpected Gathering
Wargs
Spiders
Barrels
Goblin king
I liked the idea of getting the sets as this meant I would also have some of the other figures and also some dioramas to 'play' with.
My plan was to try to get the sets required for the same price as the buying individual figures (they were going for approx. £10 each).
I wasn’t fully committed to the project but started to look around for the sets, particularly the Unexpected Gathering set, which I really liked as a diorama, and it also had 4 of the dwarves.
After quite a while looking I finally managed to get one for £50. I was off and running and now committed to the project.
I was in a good position, I didn’t mind if the sets were not 100% complete, so long as it had all the minifigure pieces, and the diorama was generally intact, I would consider it.
By constantly hunting around, after a few months, I managed to get all the sets I needed, some were also very cheap.
Opening the packages was quite exciting as there was no guarantee that all the mini-figure pieces would be there. Sometimes they were put together and easy to locate but other times I had to hunt for the pieces. I struggled to find the quivers for Filli and Killi, but they were in an unopened pack. I also spent an age locating Gandalf’s staff which had ended up under the box when I had opened it.
After I had completed the set, I took a photo of them arranged as in the following film promo picture (see top of the page):
I posted this on my twitter with the usual #CollectTolkien tag.
This was very popular and was liked by a 100 people, the most I had ever had.
Overnight however it got a comment by none other than Jed Brophy who played Nori in the Movie and caused it to be retweeted and liked by another load of people.
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