LEGO Icons Lord Of The Rings Barad-dûr (10333) Review By Brick_Shed

Following on from the Rivendell set last year, we get our second D2C set, this time focusing on the villainous side of Lord of the Rings and the base of Sauron himself, Barad-Dûr.

At the time of writing this review it is the largest 2024 set coming in with 5,471 pieces, it will be interesting to see if this ends up being the largest set of 2024, looking at the rumours there is nothing on the horizon to dislodge it from top spot. The build is spread over 40 bags, which I was surprised to see were all paper. There are three sticker sheets and three instructions manuals.

The Build

The build is split into three sections, so you could easily build this with friends as each section slots into the one below it. I had a blast building this, the build didn’t feel monotonous at all. Although dark grey and black features very heavily, there are plenty of parts to break this up with the lava on the ground through to the various colours used to make the mountain the side that snakes around the tower. The designers of the set have done a great job showing off the menacing nature of the nature, and not one you’d want to visit on your holidays (unless you wanted to visit somewhere really warm).

The first two bags build a rocky ledge for Frodo, Sam and Gollum.

After that you move quickly onto the base of the tower, which although is a little tedious with the various coloured tiles to show the lava around the base, it didn’t really bother me. The outer walls for the tower are effectively mirror images of each other but because of the way they’re built doesn’t feel repetitive. The base has a great design feature that is hidden away to allow the gates to open, just like in the movies, which again look menacing. There is a cage used to trap prisoners dangling over the lava that can be lowered and raised. There is a small area for the blacksmith to make the weapons and armour for the armies of Mordor.

With the rest of the tower the designers have had to take liberties as the interior is never shown in the films or described in the books. The middle section, features the canteen and kitchen for the orcs and it looks like meat is definitely back on the menu! Most of the middle section is taken up by a large table that looks like a great spread is being put on. Off to the side is a small to cook the food and kegs of whatever Orcs drink. The middle section is probably the quickest section to build.

The top section has a throne for Sauron, with a clever play feature where the throne opens up to reveal a hidden room behind a Palantiri that he uses to keep to keep in touch with Sauron and twist the mind of the Stewart of Gondor. The office for the Mouth of Sauron is above this and has Frodo’s Mithril armour on display. The last section is a library with a ladder to get to the top sections.

Finally the pièce de resistance and the thing that brings it together is the Eye of Sauron at the top of the tower, which looks just it does in the movies, it even has a light brick hidden behind that lights up the eye. The eye is all brick built and features no stickers.

The Minifigures

The minifigures are in the main excellent but I do have a few criticisms. Firstly, Frodo and Sam are not accurate as they are using the same parts from Rivendell and at this stage of their journey to destroy the ring they were in their orc outfits.

The baddies so to speak are all excellent but I do wish with Sauron they had used the long leg and arm pieces so he towers over the other minifigures.

Also, considering the price and how many we got with Rivendell, it does feel a bit tight and that a few more orcs should have included.

Other than that nitpicking, they are awesome without a doubt the best one is Sauron who looks awesome with the torso and leg printing. The headpiece and body armour is moulded and looks excellent. As we don’t ever see his face in the movies they’ve used a black head with printed flames for the eyes to great affect.

The next best minifigure in my opinion is the Mouth of Sauron who again hasn’t been used since the Battle of the Black Gate and has slightly different printing to that set on the arms and legs. The face looks menacing with the mouth printed on the head.

Gollum hasn’t been included in sets since 2015, so it’s nice to see that we get an updated version with a new face print and mould.

The orcs are all excusive this to the set are there are two varieties with Green and Orange versions. Each Minifigure has different printing to make them all stand out.

The final orc is Gothmog who leads the Orc army attack on Minis Tirith. This is the first he’s been included and again he looks excellent with the leg and torso printing. The deformed face looks just like movies and he’s finished off perfectly with his own printed armour piece.

The Price

This is a tricky one because compared to other sets. Given the size and piece count, £399.99 feels fair but will be out of the price range for a lot of people who would like to add this to their collection. However, compared to other themes at the moment Lord of the Rings is sticking to one main D2C set and then the smaller Brickheadz packs. This does give LOTR fans time to save up or wait for promos like double points.

The Display

This is one of the best sets I have on display in my collection and although it is primarily all black the eye of Sauron looks incredible. When building it you don’t really get a scope of the size of it until you start joining the different sections together and then realise just how big it will all end up.

I am really interested to see what they do next. I bought this set on release day and it seemed to be really popular. Personally I’d loved to see either a larger Bag End or Minis Tirith next.

Scoring

• The Build – 10
• Minifigures – 9.5
• Display – 10
• Price – 9.5
• Score – 9.8