Lego - The Hobbit: Riddles For The Ring Review

The Lego Hobbit sets are starting to trickle out, and I was able to pick up the $9.99 entry-level set, Riddles of the Ring at Walmart. It wouldn't actually ring up (not sure if it was even in their system yet), but luckily the cashier was willing to manually enter the price so we could go on our merry Hobbity way.

This set includes Bilbo Baggins, Gollum, a boat filled with bones, and a rock structure holding the ring. It's one of the most memorable scenes in the book, and one that I can't wait to see on film. But is it one of the most memorable Lego sets?

Click through the jump to find out.



The set itself is a small piece of cave. It's one of those things that looks really simple, but it's actually fairly complicated. Not difficult by any means, but way more involved than it should be. Because after you spent 10 minutes assembling the little tiny slangy pieces, you just have a lego rock. Very anti-climactic.

It does have some moving parts, and holds the ring, but it's definitely a piece of background for the stars of the show.

The set also comes with a boat. It's a very simple build, with just a few small parts, but a very welcome addition to the set. The fact that it's covered in bones makes it just that much cooler.

But I'll admit it in a second, and so would Lego I'm sure, this set is all about Bilbo and Gollum. Two awesome minifigures (although Gollum's arms like to fall off a little too often). Bilbo has the standard Hobbit fro and little Hobbit legs, and fits in (visually, not chronologically) with the previous LEGO LOTR folk.



Lego sometimes throws in duplicates of small pieces, usually pieces that don't make a huge difference to your collection, like little car lights or 1x1 tiles… but this one came with the one ring… and another one too! Not only were there two rings, but there were also two Stings. I don't know if this was intentional, but it definitely makes for a fun display.

And it's hard not to mention the instruction booklet. At the tail end, there are images of all of the minifigures from the Hobbot sets (I told you Lego was onto this obsession of ours). The minifigures are posed just enough that its hard to tell at a glance if they were real minifigures or renderings, but after looking closely, I can confirm they are renderings. There are a few arms in positions that we couldn't do on our own without snapping some limbs. But man… they look so good. Thorin throwing an axe is the best thing ever.

Heading back to Walmart today for more. I'm hooked on Hobbit.