LEGO The Lord of the Rings Helm’s Deep Review

I have been so busy building new sets that I have forgot I should write in the blog about them. So let me show the new model I bought recently: Lord of the Rings Helm’s Deep.

I am a huge fan of Tolkien since I read The Lord of the Rings book when I was younger. It is a hard, complex book but very rewarding, after that I read the Hobbit and I tried to read The Silmarillion. It wasn’t until lots of years later that I rediscovered The Silmarillion and read and delighted with it. Tolkien did an awesome work setting up a great environment for his novels.

On this second book for The Lord of the Rings, called The Two Towers, King Theoden takes what was left of the Rohirrim and take refuge at the fortress in Helm’s Deep for defending his people against the attack of Saruman’s forces in one of the most exciting parts of the movie if you ask me. I am still crying when I listened “The horn of Helm Hammerhand will sound in the deep, one last time!” and then they all charge in a last ride against the attacking army! Oh man! I can’t continue writing…

Let’s review the set.

Model data

Name LEGO The Lord of Rings Helm’s Deep
Ref. Code 9474
Theme Lord of the Rings
Year 2012
Parts 1368
Price £99
Price per part 0.07
Minifigs 8
Parts inventory http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=9474-1#ui-tabs-4

Model Box

It is a big box. This LEGO Set has lots of parts and in fact it is one of the few LEGO boxes that I have seen that has a proper size for its contents.

Manuals

The model is supplied with four booklets that details the construction of the full structure. The three first books build the main wall structure and the last one is used to build the main building of the fortress that contains the throne’s room.

Building experience

It is a really interesting model to build with lots of parts but with some short cuts towards the end of the construction. Personally I love the way the full wall is built and the way LEGO designers created a curved wall. It isn’t completely mandatory but two large grey baseplate are really helpful to maintain the structure in place.

Here you have a short timelapse video of the building process.

Complete model

This is how the complete model looks over two 48×48 studs baseplates. Let’s see each of the details.

This is the main door of Helm’s Deep with King Theoden charging with his horse against an army of Uruk-hai. On the left you can see Haldir guarding the walls and the stupid naked Uruk-hai that blow-up the whole fortress…

This is the backside of the model with the throne room on your left and the part of the wall that is destined to collapse on the right. On the middle you have the tall tower that has the horn that Gimli will blow later when all hope is lost.

Detail of the Throne room with the plates and glasses as well as the small armoury.

Time for the minifigs.

From left to right, Aragorn, Haldir, Theoden, Gimly and the horse :P

From left to right, very bad ass naked Uruk-Hai and three armored Uruk-Hai foes.

Aragorn and Gimli fighting face to face with the dark forces of Saruman. Haldir is covering them from the wall while the pesky naked Uruk-hai walks towards the wall with a torch.

Oh! No! Everything is lost! The wall collapsed!

Overview

Pros

* It is absolutely delightful to build and play.
* It will keep you building for around four hours.
* My children loved to play with the castle for days.
* Lots of parts.

Cons

* It is quite expensive
* It is quite big. Yes, it is a cons. I live in a small flat and you really need lots of space for this castle. I have had to take it apart so I can make room for the Goblin King Battle.

Do you have any set from LEGO Lord of the Rings? Which one is your favourite?