How did I miss these hitting the shelves???
- (9469) Gandalf Arrives – $12.99
- (9473) The Mines of Moria – $79.99
- (9472) Attack on Weathertop – $59.99
- (9471) Uruk-hai Army – $29.99
- (9470) Shelob Attacks – $19.99
- (9474) The Battle of Helm’s Deep – $129.99
- (9476) The Orc Forge – $39.99
I don’t know – I guess I just assumed that these would be waiting until the first part of The Hobbit comes out later this year, although it would probably make sense to push some of the LotR sets out now so that they can focus more on The Hobbit around Christmastime. Up until today, I had only seen the promo art that I posted about back in January, so this is pretty cool – I can honestly see myself collecting pretty much this whole series … now if only I could find some more shelves to put all of this stuff on… 😯
And while we’re at it, I couldn’t help but notice on the Theme Page over at Lego’s website that they’ve really got some neat themes going on at the moment. Apparently they’re just finishing up on the Alien Conquest series, which I really got a kick out of and in fact have several of the sets still sitting here at my feet that I got at Christmastime and just haven’t put together yet. I suppose I’d better hurry up and pick up the rest before they get discontinued now! I also like that the Marvel Superheroes are also getting some love, as I was never really a fan of the DC ones … too bad there’s no way for me to get some of the Marvel minifigs without actually buying the entire sets. I also kind of thought that this new series featuring monster movies was kind of neat – random, but a neat idea nonetheless.
2012 is a fun, albeit also somewhat expensive, time to be a Lego fan! 
Your wife will probably hate me for pointing you to this, but there is a way you can buy the minifigs without buying the sets. http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?v=2&pg=1&catType=M&catID=768. I will warn you. Once you visit the site, many, many hours will be wasted…(it’s nickname is cracklink)