Lego Lord of the Rings at Toy Fair 2012

This weekend Toy Fair 2012 was held in New Year, revealing the toys that will be coming out over the next year. That includes the Lord of the Rings sets that Lego is prepping. The plan is two waves over the next year with first wave sometime in Fall 2012 and another wave in February 2013. Right now the revealed sets focus on the LOTR movies but there are plans for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey inspired sets. A video of the sets on display at Toy Fair are here. Images are here, here and here.

Wave 1 Set Details:

Theories on Film Split Point for The Hobbit

As you are aware, The Hobbit is really two films - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (out 12/14/2012) and the other is The Hobbit: There and Back Again (out 12/13/2013). A question that remains unknown is exactly will the break occur as the books themselves are not written with a break. Any theories are also is complicated by the fact that book was not split into separate books like the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Over at Movies.com, a TOR editor provides his own theories on where the break will occur. To me any consideration will have to factor in two things. One is it has to happen after a climactic or emotional moment and two is it has to easily lead to a climatic opening. My thinking is along the lines of the end of the Fellowship with the battle with the Orcs and the Fellowship fracturing but Two Towers opening with that awesome fight between Gandalf and Balrog. Below is summary of their very plausible theories with my opinion in italics.

1) Bilbo finding the One Ring
In the novel, Bilbo finding the ring after Gollum lost it seems like a good ending point. With the additional material being added to show Gandalf's battle against the Necromancer, it seems a natural ending point while allow more time to get to know the 13 Dwarves.

Billy Connolly Joins The Hobbit Cast

New Line Cinema and Peter Jackson released a press release announcing that Sir Billy Connolly has joined the cast of The Hobbit. He will play Dain II Ironfoot, cousin of Thorin Oakenshield. The characters leads the Dwarf army that is part of the Battle of Five Armies that is likely the climatic final battle of the two films. The character later becomes King under the Mountain (King of Erebor) and helps defend northern Middle-Earth from Sauron. The final part of filming that goes from now to July is rumored to be heavily focused on filming the Five Armies battle. As a result I doubt Connolly will have much, if any, role in the first film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The press release is below.