"Oh, it's just a pile of old grey boring bricks" many say. Well, I'm here to tell you otherwise.

Box/Instructions

The box sports a dramatic action scene with our two Istari (Wizards) separated from each other and surrounded by orcs (well, 3 actually, plus the Necromancer). The back shows off the main features in similar fashion to previous Middle-earth sets. The new blue-gold color scheme is very pleasing to the eye.

The two instruction booklets came slightly folded, but this didn't really affect the building process. If you're really picky about such things a night under some dictionaries or textbooks would smooth out the situation.

Parts

OK, I won't deny that there are a lot of dark grey building blocks. Some of the most common are the 38 1x2 bricks, the 16 2x3, and the 34 3-studded corner bricks. There are also a considerable number of slopes, inverted and 'normal'. These obviously wouldn't be great for people parting-out the set (selling the individual pieces on Bricklink or something), but they are an invaluable resource to any MOCer constructing landscapes, castles, or ruins. There are a few other, slightly more "interesting" pieces worth mentioning though, most notably the 8 dark grey mason bricks and the 2 small dark red foliage elements.

Minifigures

Gandalf: I'll just get this one out of the way now because I'm sure the vast majority of the people reading this already have some form of him. Mithrandir is undeniably the most common minifig in the Middle-earth themes (Hobbit + LotR). The only elements that are sometimes "re-arranged" are his hat/hairpiece, his sword and/or staff, cape, and (in 2013) a double-sided head. In this particular set Incanus includes a common grey staff, grey cape, double-sided head, and grey hair piece. Just because Tharkun may be a common minifig doesn't mean he's a bad one though, it just means he's not as rare. (And, in my view, I think think he's been depicted in LEGO form extremely well.)

Radagast: Unlike his companion, Radagast the Brown is exclusive to this set. His torso features some relatively simple printing on the front and back that contains some gold-dotted leaf designs, obviously inspired for his love of nature. (If there's any example of modern environmentalism in Middle-earth it's most likely him.) (If you're looking for extra hobbit torsos BTW this one would probably work for you.) His legs are unfortunately plain brown (a little printing would've been nice). His head is marvelously done with big bushy eyebrows and a good deal of thick, scruffy hair that is mostly covered up by his beard/hat piece. The head itself would be quite suitable for an older man of Rohan (or a similar medieval character). The hat/beard piece is slightly rubbery and includes a dark tan feather piece that it snuggly tucked in the front. Fans of movie Radagast and of class Aves will be pleased to know that some bird droppings have been printed on the side of the hair. The staff would be identical to that of Gandalf's except for the fact that a translucent 1x1 light-blue cylinder has been stuck on top.

Gundabad Orcs: First of all, the torso, leg, and head pieces on both orcs are identical. For those who are newer to Middle-earth lore, Gundabad Orcs come from Mount Gundabad (which is essentially considered a sacred location by the dwarves) in the north of the Misty Mountains. In the Hobbit films it appears they have been recruited by the Necromancer (and Azog). Their skin is more of an orange color compared to Mordor orcs. Their torsos, legs, and heads are extremely detailed and really bring out the fierceness and cruelty in them. The new shoulder armor worn by one orc here looks stunning and makes for a great silhouette (but arm movement is limited). Nearly identical orcs are found in two other Hobbit sets this year (DG Ambush & Mirkwood Elf Army).

Azog: I do not own the ridiculously rare fig "given out" at the 2013 San Diego Comic Con, but from what I can tell by pictures they appear to be the same. The leg printing is some of the best out there and the bottom 1/3 of the torso lines up quite nicely (there is a tiny bit of printing on the top half of the torso, but nothing really worth mentioning). If I could liken the head piece to an existing element it would be Chewbacca's. A specially molded head piece is attached to a longer covering that slides onto the torso. The molding on this one is amazing. The lines from the chest, shoulders, nose, ears, cheekbones, etc. Not to mention the printing. Kudos to LEGO! The lower portion of his left arm has been cut off and a metal prosthetic is in place, accurate to the film. His right arm includes a brown hand piece and a reasonably large mace.

The Necromancer: As far as minifigs themselves go, he's doesn't have much to talk about, just a leg, torso, and head piece with minimal printing. For Middle-earth fans though he's a real treat. If you're underwhelmed by his minifig appearance compare it to the source material and you'll find that he really couldn't be any more accurate. The only color on his black form is a sickly pale green that forms the upper part of a chest and a hideous face with large black eyes and a dark, gaping mouth leering forward to consume you. Even if he might be a "boring" minifig he's certainly one of the most terrifying (if minifigs can be such a thing ;-) ).

The build

The build itself is mostly modular. The angles and irregularity of the structure keeps it fresh and enjoyable. The instructions break down the segments to such small increments it's not a hard build at all. There are a fair number of stickers that are somewhat necessary to the finished model. If you mess up a little it's easy to be optimistic, it's supposed to look a little bit ruined and crooked, right?! :-) Speaking of stickers, a spider on one appears to have The Eye printed on it which is quite interesting considering what takes place there in the story. Throughout the process I definitely enjoyed the build. It would be so easy for this to become a boring piece of wall but the weird angles and "spookiness" helps change things up.

The completed model

The finished model hideously captures the look and feel of Dol Guldur (I mean that it a good way). This is mostly accomplished through the rough edges of incomplete structures, dead plants, "weird" angles, slopes, some stickers, and 5 bronze-colored spikes. This is one of the scariest places in Middle-earth and the people at 3Foot7, Weta, and LEGO have truly succeeded depicting the fortress on film and in LEGO. You have to remember that this is only a small part of Dol Guldur though. In the film the place is absolutely massive with so many levels, stairways, corridors, and such. If I could complain about one thing it would be the lack of vertical height. On screen Dol Guldur is also very tall and has a distinct profile, a crucial element that help gives such a scary feeling. However, at this price point I don't think LEGO could have done much differently.

Starting from the front left we see the main gate as it were. The two gate pieces open out towards the back. Speaking of the back, the whole other side looks quite bland and ugly to me, nothing at all like the front. Keep this in mind if you're planning on displaying it. Above the gate is a bucket that dumps skulls out on unsuspecting guests. It is activated by turning the brown thorns on the fart left side of the structure. Moving right, we come to the "main" portion of the model. On either side, coming down at odd angles, are staircases. They look awfully "cool" but are actually quite simply to construct. Definitely a highlight for me. Between them is a large single wall piece covered in a sticker, but twist the torch above and the Necromancer can be revealed. This turntable it situated toward the back of of the wall, underneath a ceiling so in normal play situations (when most of the light comes from above) the whole area is covered in shadow. Combine that with the dark pieces (grays and blacks) that make up the walls along with the scary Necromancer minifig and this simple feature becomes one that is very well executed. Moving right there is a doorway that leads through the wall and into a spider's web. Also in the hall is a hidden sword that slices out. It is turned by a nob on the back. Along all of the segments discussed thus far there is a connecting walkway along the top. Finally, at the end of the "wall" as it were is a short, three-storied tower. The interior isn't that exciting to be honest. At the top you are basically given 3 options for the pinnacle. 1. Have nothing besides a few small ruins. 2. A small catapult. 3. Have the remains of an unfortunate prisoner dangle in a cage from a rod. If any one element added to most to the atmosphere of the set it would be this. Something about the cruel barbarity of such a practice is horrifying. Cages like this are seen numerous times in the film. Often the prisoners had been impaled by dozens of spikes too so it's certainly not a G or PG thing (thankfully in the LEGO set they didn't go quite as far). By pulling a technic pin out of the large rock/stone piece (which acts as a counterweight) the cage and prisoner will rapidly fall several inches and, in many cases, throw the skeleton right out of its imprisonment. Last but not least, in the center of the courtyard is a female statue standing on a stone base. I don't know who the statue is supposed to represent, nothing is said of he/it in the books and there isn't a clear reference in the film. She has no face, just a plain head, but a nicely printed torso and sloped piece that serves as a dress. She holds some sort of crystal or jewel in her out-stretched right arm (a 1x1 clear stud). The base beneath her opens up (horizontally) to reveal a Ring of Power. This is not The One Ring as falsely stated in a Club magazine, but instead is most likely one of the 7 rings given to the dwarves. No rings of power besides the One were seen in the film but based upon Tolkien's writings and even from phrases and clips in the movies it is clear that it could only be one of the 7.

Overall opinion

So this is the part where I, the wordy author, get to summarize my thoughts of the set for those who stuck it out through every paragraph and for the people who skimmed down to the bottom. The best thing I can say about this set is that it beautifully captures the essence and feel of Dol Guldur while providing wonderful play opportunities for kids and AFOLs alike. As a display piece I would like to see more vertical height in the model though. Price-wise it's about right. Don't worry about being trapped. ;-) Many of the pieces are considered "ordinary" by some, which, as time goes on, seems to be opposite of reality. (How many themes do we actually see real bricks in large quantities these days?). But there are a lot of them for $70 (8.8 cents a piece). Combine that with the 3 (or 4 if you count the statue) exclusive minifigs and you've got a 5/5 set. I didn't mind paying retail price at all, but if you're not in a hurry waiting for it to go on sale wouldn't be a bad option.

Agoreg vae LEGO!

Set #79014 Dol Guldur Battle: One of the largest Hobbit sets based on a Fortress made for the movies, and it does look nice, but is a set that is fun? Read on with this review to find out my thoughts on the entire package.

Box/Instructions

Box: Desolation of Smaug box design is very nice looking. If nothing else LEGO The Hobbit has a great box design from film to film. The box does a decent job of showcasing everything from the set look to the features of the set and makes it appear to be very exciting. It also does a great job showing off the Minifigures. Overall a good box design that attracts the eye, it would seem that not many people cared much for the set though as even now it’s not hard to find at certain retailers like TRU.

Instructions: The manuals here are great, they split the build up between six numbered bags and two manuals for three bags. This works out great because you get to follow along very easily the steps for each build, and the split in the book happens naturally unlike other sets with two numbered manuals where the build breaks off at a bad time resulting in one bag being between two books.

You’ll also get some cross promotional images in the back for the other sets, the LEGO Hobbit video game and of course the Minifigure checklist which looks great. Very good manual design for this set.

Parts

You’ll find a load of grey parts in this set, which stands to reason as it is a grey fortress in the film. The real issue here is that none of these pieces feature printed detailing, instead you’ll be using loads of stickers to add the detailing. The best parts in the set are the mason bricks as they are always welcome and quite useful for MOCs.

Minifigures

Gandalf the Grey: The same Minifigure you’ve come to expect from LotR/Hobbit sets, Gandalf is differentiated here by having hair instead of his pointed wizard’s hat. The print and pieces other than that are all the same, including his sword and staff.

Radagast the Brown: Sylvester McCoy makes his Minifigure debut with Radagast who has a new hat with hair and beard head piece, he has detailed torso printing on the back and front and a double-sided facial print, one side happy/neutral the other prepared for action. His wizard’s staff is basically the same as Gandalfs with an added clear blue cylinder piece on top to represent the fancy jewel he has.

Necromancer of Dol Guldur: Sauron’s one and only Minifigure form, The Necromancer is mostly black with very limited torso printing for visible chest muscles and a single-sided facial print of a ghostly screaming wispy face. He has no accessories and looks almost generic, a far cry from the excellent looking Sauron design from LotR that has yet to receive a release.

Azog: The Pale Orc himself Azog uses the parts first seen with the SDCC exclusive variant, here we have a lighter tone compared to the exclusive. The printing on the torso, legs and unique head piece is very impressive. His accessory is a nice looking club brick-built of course, and Azog also has a nice looking ‘hook’ arm which is designed well to fit into the arm socket and duplicate the appearance of the replacement limb from the films. Overall a nice looking minifig.

Gundabad Orc: This is pretty much the same we’ve come to see in many Hobbit sets, same double-sided torso print, same facial markings, same leg printing of a spiky loincloth thing. His weapon of choice is the Uruk-Hai blade.

Gundabad Orc with Shoulder Armour: This is the same Orc as the other one, the only difference is that he gets a piece of shoulder armour similar to Yazneg. His accessory is a large scimitar for a weapon.

Skeleton: Standard floppy armed skeleton used for set decoration of the fortress, not much more than that. By now you must own quite a few of these if you enjoy collecting medieval themes.

Statue: Not counted officially this is a Minifigure build that creates a nice faceless stone statue. It has a small jewel stud for an accessory and some nice printing, useful for other builds such as cemeteries or parks.

The build

Bag 1: Starting the build of this fortress is the small stone statue model and what presumably is considered the central section of the Fortress with the Necromancer revealed gimmick. This section of the build isn’t too difficult, I find the smaller model to be nicely handled even if a Minifigure is used for the statue instead of a brick-built statue. The most difficult element of this build will more than likely be sticker placement, as you’ll have to fit three larger stickers on to relatively large pieces.

Bag 2: Doesn’t have much to talk about, you have a fairly repetitive pair of side-walls that are used to connect the sections of the fortress to the central build. Radagast and Gandalf are also found in this bag. There isn’t much to it honestly, and as I said it is a mirror build so you’re repeating the same steps twice.

Bag 3: This is where you build the main gate entrance with the skull dropping gimmick and of course Azog the Defiler. This build isn’t too troublesome, you’ll find some more sticker placement steps for detailing of the fortress, I will note however that it can be tricky to place the spike details just right so that either side of the archway spikes look right. It’s difficult to explain in words, but the gist of it is that getting the two clips holding spikes which are used to decorate the arches need to look a certain way, asymmetrically speaking, so if you’re OCD you’ll probably have a fit trying to make them evenly spaced.

Bag 4: Two Orcs and a small archway with a spider web and a swinging scimitar trap is built during this step of the build. This is more of a connector piece to lengthen the fortress and flesh it out more. There really isn’t much to say about these builds, they are relatively easy to follow along with and each section is asymmetrical in nature, meaning they are designed to be similar aesthetically, though certain elements are not shared by every model.

Bag 5: This is the only bag without a Minifigure, so you are only building the tower section of the fortress, a short tower it’s a two-storey tower with a crumbling rounded upper battlement section. This build is the most unique and interesting part of the overall build aside from the small statue model. Mostly because it involves more pieces, or at least what feels like more pieces. And the design of the crumbling ruins element is really captured nicely here. More stickers are used here for detailing.

Bag 6: The final bag is another repetitive model, with a pair of stone stairs to attach to the central build, a small section of tower with a cage and a skeleton Minifigure and two final add-ons for the sides of the wall, more decorative elements honestly. Very simple and easy to follow, no stickers here either, but again repetitive as you’re building the same thing twice over. The cage is a nice little build, and trapping the skeleton inside of it is handled well too, I’m a fan of this model too.

The completed model

Dol Guldur as a model is rather uninspired, mostly due to the lack of true iconic status. This is not Weathertop or Helm’s Deep, it’s a purely fictional edifice and the model reflects this as a generic ruined castle/fortress build which sadly is mostly a façade.

There are very few options for playability on the interior of the model. From the back the model is very bare, you have a gate on one side that can open and close which leads into a small archway, there’s a very small, barely able to fit a Minifigure inside area on the far right, in the upper tower is another small area with a barrel and a sword.

Then you’ve got your final inside area with a spider web on the back wall and a play feature with a swinging scimitar sword to hit the heroes of The Hobbit. Honestly the model is more designed to be played with as an outdoors structure, with no internal detail work, it is most unfortunate.

While the back of the model is very limited the front looks a bit more impressive, you’ve got two stone staircases for the Orcs to climb and stand guard on, an open central area for revealing the Necromancer, the far wall has a sticker on it with stone details and other ruins staples such as creeping vines. Turn the torch up top and reveal the Necromancer.

Where the gate leads you can turn brick with technic axle gimmick to drop a skeleton head on one of the wizards. The upper tower on the right of the model has a modular design, you can fit a small catapult there or a large section of stone with a prison hanging off of a pole, pull a technic pin out and the cage can drop down to hit somebody.

This model can be expanded with technic pins to include Dol Guldur Ambush’s model and the small model from Attack of the Witch-King. This is nowhere near as impressive as the modular combination with Helm’s Deep and the Uruk-Hai Army set from The Lord of the Rings.

Honestly, with the numerous stickers for details instead of printing and the awkward design of this model the real draw of this set is the Minifigures. I do enjoy The Hobbit sets for the most part, however this is definitely one of the weaker ones. It relies too much on gimmicks and lacks the modular nature a set of this type should have included, for example you can only attach one portion of the Attack of the Witch-King set, not the full model, for another they can only be attached on the one side where the tower is located.

The biggest element of this model I find enjoyable is the small statue, which isn’t even attached to the main model, it’s a separate mini-model with great detailing due to the printed Minifigure statue on top. This model can also open up with hinges revealing one of the Dwarves’ seven rings of power, which the Necromancer has stolen from Thorin’s father.

Overall opinion

This is a mixed bag for me, on the one hand I find the Minifigures in this set to be a great addition to any Hobbit fan’s collection. On the other, the entire model doesn’t have the recognisability that Helm’s Deep or Orthanc have, lacks enough modular elements to make for a decent looking fortress, or in fact any interior elements. What is there is a hodge podge mess and features very little room to actively play with the set. The LEGO Designers shoehorned in a few play features, but honestly this is more of a build it and display it model rather than a play with it kind of set and it shows.

And for the asking price of this rather expensive set the fact that the entire model is unfortunately lacking in good play value I’m afraid I can only recommend this for hard core fans looking to get Radagast in their collection, or fans of fortresses who enjoy MOCing better and more detailed looking medieval structures. There are a lot of grey parts here and many of the molded mason bricks, which in the end are great for MOC fans.

I finally bought this at a small discount and now, that I hold the set in my hands I think it is better than when I just saw it on the pictures. The way the set is displayed and shown on all the pictures and the box does not really do it justice because it is more than just a mere wall and a courtyard. I think it looks better if one detaches the tower and bends the walls inside so that they form a sort of semicircle. Then, if you turn the building around and look at it from the backside or "outside" it actually qualifies as a fortress, even more so if you position the disconnected tower in the middle behind the walls. The outside could be more detailed but at least it has got some texture. The small statue also adds some significance to the completed model. Put the soldiers on the parapets and some good Castle memories will return.

Building the set was a lot of fun because - similar to the Mines of Moria - it contains many basic bricks (mostly 1x3 and 1x1) and it is nice to see the different sections assuming shape.The fig selection is moderate but Radagast and the statue are some highlights.

To sum up, I can say that I do not think it is the best set of this year's Hobbit line and it does not really shine as a solitary piece. However, it has it's qualities as a ruinous fortress and looks pretty cool with it's sinister exterior. I had mixed feelings when I bought it, but now am glad that I have it.