Attack of the Wargs – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

• 15th Mar 2013

Attack of the Wargs – The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Pieces: 400

Ages: 8-14

Mini Figures: 5

Thorin Oakenshield,

Bifur the Dwarf,

Yazneg,

Hunter Orc,

Hunter Orc with Quiver.

Price: £49.99

What’s Inside:

1 instruction booklet

5 Mini-figures (see names above)

3 numbered bags of Lego

Background

Franchise: The Hobbit

This is from the action climax of the first instalment of the Hobbit franchise: An Unexpected Journey, where our band of heroes are cornered by a cliff edge by a rather nasty band of undesirables. Naturally battle commences and our Dwarf heroes are forced into the trees to defend themselves from the Orcs and their blood thirsty pets, the Wargs.

Building

Now this is one is a great fun built.  You get your five mini-figs, each with various weapons, head sets and added attributes to keep them interesting. The fact that the orcs use bones as part of their weapon handling is a nice touch. The Wargs don’t qualify as mini-figs, but they are going to be a real draw for this set as they won’t feature heavily elsewhere.

The first part of the main model build is focussed mainly on a large rock section that our villains use as a point of attack. It’s a fairly simply two-part piece that acts as a nice addition to the main set itself.

The last two bags are focussed on the tree. You build it up in layers. In the centreo f each section are pieces that will allow you to twist and rotate the three different sections of the tree to help you mould and shape the best looking tree you want.  This is a great piece of design that will raise playability, and perhaps even see eager buyers get themselves more than one set as you can vary the look of the tree.

As you can see from the images this build is not going to have anything in the way of repetition which makes it all the more addictive when building. The build for this can be done in one sitting without it being too bothersome on your fingertips. This is a key factor to the enjoyment of any LEGO build. The outside look of the model is wonderful, and still leaves plenty of room to insert your mini-figs.

Finished Product

Attack of the Wargs is a mid-size set. Again, designers have outdone themselves in terms of features, look and playability.  And it’s for this reason that you pay that little bit extra for licenced movie LEGO.

Yes that’s right the money value isn’t the best news: Its 400 pieces for £50.  Normally for this price you’d be looking for an extra 100 pieces, but to be fair there are quite a few larger items. Many of the pieces are not commonly found – especially relating to the greenery on this piece. Also there are some very nice mini-figs – and the Wargs themselves are going to be collector items.

A lot of time and effort has gone into the design of the tree here to make it unpredictable, functional and looking great. For anyone just generally passing past LEGO may want to consider first before buying. But for Hobbit LEGO fans this is a very enjoyable set both in design and in build.

http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Attack-of-the-Wargs-79002

Steven Hurst